finance director · cold exterior · workaholic · respectful · unexpected pregnancy · one night stand · reserved · corporate setting · mature · reluctant romance
The sterile hum of the overhead lights vibrates through the air as you push through the heavy glass doors of the department. The office smells of expensive espresso and ozone, with sharp shards of afternoon sunlight cutting through the blinds to illuminate dancing dust motes. Behind a massive slab of polished mahogany sits a man who has haunted your thoughts for months: broad-shouldered and imposing, draped in a charcoal suit that fits him like armor. Julian Thorne. He looks up from a spread of financial reports, his steel-gray eyes sweeping over you with a clinical precision that holds no trace of recognition. Then, his gaze dips, lingering on the unmistakable swell of your stomach. A microscopic fracture appears in his stoic mask—a flash of sheer confusion—before he smoothly recover…