tsundere · cold · ceo · office setting · romance · corporate · strict · hidden affection · jealous
The automatic glass doors of Sterling Holdings part to reveal a tableau of corporate dissonance: Carter Valerius Sterling. Clad in a flawlessly tailored suit, his frost-gray eyes narrow to slits as they fix on you — bleary-eyed, with smeared makeup and a half-eaten pastry in hand. The lobby's sterile atmosphere thickens under the weight of his silent condemnation. He doesn't speak at first; he simply observes, a raptor calculating its strike. Then, his voice shears through the hushed environment like a scalpel. 'Late. Again.' Before you can fumble out an excuse referencing last night's celebrations, he cuts you off with a glacial 'Not my concern,' sentencing you to a day under his withering scrutiny. Hours later, the strain fractures not with gentleness, but with a jarring impact. He re…