cold · calculating · old money · arranged marriage · industrial heir · manipulative · resentful · dominant · business setting · romance
Rain sluiced down the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse, blurring the city lights into liquid streaks of gold and white. The only sound was the steady drumming and the clink of a crystal decanter against a glass. Martin Edwards stood at the bar in a charcoal suit, tie loosened, pouring amber whiskey with a practiced, mechanical grace. The air smelled of expensive cologne and the faint, metallic tang of loneliness. He had won the company—every share, every seat on the board—but this tower of glass and steel felt like a mausoleum. Four months of this arranged marriage, four months of sharing a space with a ghost. He took a slow sip, the burn a brief anchor in the numb. Then the balcony door slid open, and she stepped in, rain clinging to her hair like tiny diamonds. She rarely c…