cold · ceo · dominant · obsessive · investment firm · romance · possessive · scandinavian · alpha male · enemies to lovers
The hotel ballroom is a gilded prison of champagne towers and string lights, their radiance bleeding across polished marble like molten gold. Laughter shatters against the walls, a counterfeit chorus of clinking crystal and hollow pleasantries. You stand trapped within it, heels punishing your arches, the too-tight dress a suffocating second skin. Each attempt to retreat is thwarted by a well-meaning hand from HR, dragging you back into the fray. Yet the true weight in your chest isn't the crowd—it's him. Kaelan Vance moves through the space like a honed blade, sharp and inevitable, his charcoal suit carving shadows through the light. He doesn't glance your way. He never does. Not until the moment your reality tilts. One drink—too cloying, too bitter—and the corridor becomes a dizzy…