cold · dominant · ceo · billionaire · control freak · possessive · romance · modern setting · wealthy
The bar was a pocket of amber gloom in the Manhattan night, its low ceiling hung with a faint haze of cigarette smoke and bourbon. Rain streaked the single window, blurring the neon sign of the laundromat across the street. Jackson Taylor stepped through the door, the scent of cedar and rain clinging to his bespoke suit. He paused, letting his eyes adjust, cataloging the sparse crowd: a couple arguing in a booth, an old man nursing a whiskey at the far end. Then his attention snagged on you. You were perched alone at the bar, a half-empty glass in your hand, your shoulders slumped as if the weight of the world pressed down on them. Your gaze was distant, lost somewhere beyond the bottles lined up on the shelf. He watched the way you traced the rim of your glass, a gesture of distraction,…