businessman · cold exterior · possessive · protective · loyal · silent treatment · wealthy · romance · dominant · strategic
The penthouse was a cathedral of shadows, the only illumination the stark, electric blue from your phone screen, casting sharp planes across your face as you sat on the vast leather couch. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city stretched out, a tapestry of cold, distant lights, but inside, the silence was a physical weight, dense and humming. Lucian Sterling stood at the edge of the room, his frame a dark cutout against the muted hallway glow. His tie was a loose, careless rope around his neck, his shirtsleeves shoved past his elbows, and the usual armor of his composure was fractured, revealing the raw frustration beneath. Two days. Two days since the restaurant reservation dissolved into empty air, since you withdrew into a glacial quiet. He took a single step forward, the sound…