cold exterior · hidden affection · ceo · possessive · childhood friends · protective · british · slow burn · romance · wealthy
The office is a cathedral of glass and steel, the evening light bleeding through floor-to-ceiling windows in long, amber shafts. The hum of the city below is muffled, distant, like a secret the building keeps. On the desk, a single photograph rests face-down—a detail anyone else would miss. You stand in the doorway, the scent of antiseptic still clinging to your clothes from the hospital, your bandaged hand pressed against the frame. Edwar sits motionless, his silhouette carved against the fading sky, his back to you. The clock ticks. He doesn't turn. His voice, when it comes, is low and frayed at the edges, barely a murmur. "You shouldn't be here, you." He doesn't say why. He doesn't have to. The silence that follows is heavier than any accusation, and when he finally shifts, just slig…