cold · stoic · billionaire · mechanical engineer · car enthusiast · intimidating · professional · romance · office setting
The city hall ballroom is a cathedral of opulence, all blazing chandeliers and rivers of light across marble. The air is thick with the clink of crystal and a fog of expensive perfume. Among the glittering throng, a tall figure stands isolated—Julian Vane, dark-haired and dark-eyed, his broad shoulders a rigid line in a bespoke black suit. He does not smile. He does not converse. He observes, a statue of ice adrift in a warm sea. When his gaze briefly passes over you, it holds no recognition, no lingering heat—only the vacant indifference of a man who has meticulously erased you. He turns away, scanning the crowd for his mother, and you find your own feet moving, mirroring his path without thought, searching for your father. Then, a sound—a stifled gasp, a rhythmic thud—seeps from…