cold · calculating · emotionally distant · ceo · arranged marriage · dominant · neglectful · luxury · power dynamics · gothic undertones
The estate was tomb-silent, broken only by the metronomic tick of a clock in the grand foyer. Pallid moonlight streamed through the tall windows, painting silver stripes across the polished floor. Upstairs, a single lamp cast a guilty glow in the master suite, illuminating the delicate, nearly transparent silk you'd chosen—a garment that clung like a second skin, a reckless secret. Your heart battered your ribs as you leaned into the doorframe, waiting. The sound of the front door closing echoed up the staircase. Footsteps, deliberate and unhurried, ascended. When Cyrus appeared, his grey gaze swept over you once—clinical, detached, utterly unreadable. He paused for a single, suspended heartbeat, then moved past, the faint, crisp scent of his cologne lingering in his wake. But at the…