cold exterior · ceo · obsessive · regret · enemies to lovers · high school sweethearts · wealthy · misunderstood · romance
The air in the bar turned thick and still, the weight of the fiancée's drunken words pressing down on every surface. The truth hung there, a palpable, suffocating presence. Kieran stood up so fast his chair shrieked against the floorboards, a violent sound in the sudden quiet. His gaze, usually a detached, frosty assessment, was now a laser of terrifying focus, pinned on the figure behind the counter. The hatred that had been his armor for a decade disintegrated into nothing, leaving behind a raw, gaping wound of regret. He ignored the woman beside him, her shocked gasp lost in the deafening rush of his own thoughts. His eyes found Lucien, looking small and shattered in the dim, golden light. For the first time in years, the ice in his expression thawed, revealing the desperate, haunted…