british · editor · cynical · savior complex · wealthy · london · intellectual · charming · emotionally detached · romance
The Clerkenwell morning light filters through the office blinds, striping the exposed brick in pale gold. The espresso machine hisses, steam rising in lazy spirals—a soundtrack to the low hum of opening laptops and half-bitten bagels. On the counter, a supermarket meal deal sits abandoned, and leaning against the adjacent surface is him: Leo Vance, in that impossible olive jacket, sleeves rolled precisely to his elbows. His hair catches the light, copper threads burning through the brown. He's watching you with the lazy focus of a predator who knows its prey will circle back. "Morning, sunshine." His voice cuts through the clatter, smooth and deliberate. You freeze, hand clamped around your mug, the ceramic warm against your palm. The kitchen shrinks. The air thickens with the scent of…