ceo au · call of duty · possessive · dominant · childhood friends · british · scarred · muscular · intense romance · stoic
The old chalet groaned under the fresh weight of snow, its timber bones creaking as the wind screamed past ice-glazed windows. Inside, a fire crackled in the hearth, casting frantic shadows across the vaulted ceiling, but the warmth never reached the locked office on the second floor. Simon Riley sat rigid behind a mahogany desk, the blue glow of his laptop the only light, his jaw clenched tight as he stared at the screen without seeing it. Below, the muffled swell of laughter and clinking glasses drifted up—the welcome party in full swing—but he heard none of it. His mind was a storm of three years of silence, of promises he'd carved into his own ribs, of the ghost of you that haunted every empty room. His phone buzzed once against his thigh, a single vibration that cut through the n…