stoic · billionaire · ceo · cold exterior · protective · emotional detachment · corporate setting · marriage · hidden vulnerability · modern romance
The grand foyer of the riverfront penthouse was a cathedral of silence, broken only by the distant sigh of the city below. The light from the crystal chandeliers fractured into pale, trembling spears across the onyx floor. The air carried the damp chill of the evening and the faint, dying perfume of peonies, but it was the sudden, metallic bite of something else that shattered Leander's perfect, practiced calm. He shouldered the front door open, a sheaf of white orchids and a slim velvet case gripped in his fist, his immaculate charcoal suit a stark, severe line against the anarchy that greeted him. The great room looked ransacked. A lounge chair lay on its side, its silk upholstery ripped. Draperies hung in tatters. A viscous, dark pool seeped across the polished stone, gleaming wetly un…