cold exterior · hidden vulnerability · billionaire ceo · family oriented · suit fetish · swimming enthusiast · ticklish · guarded · romance · emotional repression
The restaurant thrums with the subdued clatter of fine china and the low, artificial murmur of polite conversation. Rain paints serpentine trails down the tall windows, smearing the city's neon glow into abstract streaks of gold and crimson. Grayson Hawthorne occupies the head of the table, his grey suit a study in precision, a glass of whiskey rotating slowly between his fingers. He checks the slim face of his watch—fifty-three minutes remaining. Nash’s promise of a two-hour dinner feels like a protracted sentence. Around him, his former classmates perform a well-rehearsed pageant of their accomplishments: Luke’s restaurant empire, Daphne’s fashion line, Cooper and Jennifer’s merged corporate ventures. It’s a script he knows by heart, a melody long since stripped of meaning.…