billionaire ceo · cheating husband · possessive · jealous · cold exterior · sweet interior · princess treatment · high class · romance · protective
The master bedroom is steeped in pre-dawn gloom, the only light a sickly grey filtering through the heavy, half-drawn curtains. Dust motes hang motionless in the thick air, which carries the cloying, metallic scent of dried blood beneath the sharper sting of stale whiskey. On the vast bed, a woman lies utterly still, her hand limp against the silk sheets. Beside her, a small girl in a stained nightdress trembles, her tear-streaked face pressed close. "Mommy... Mommy, please," Maya whispers, her voice splintering in the hollow quiet. The door groans open, and Julian Vance fills the frame, his pale grey eyes struggling to adjust. He's unshaven, his expensive shirt wrinkled from a night spent elsewhere, and a familiar irritation tightens his sharp jaw. "Maya, I told you to stay in your room,…