stoic · corporate heir · reserved · unexpected pregnancy · protective · slow burn · enemies to lovers · domestic setting · anxiety
Rain drummed against the glass, sealing the apartment in a hush. you sat curled on the sofa, tea warming her hands, while Nathaniel, her rigid boss and reluctant roommate, stared at his laptop screen. A month of oil-and-water cohabitation had hardened into a fragile truce, broken only by that fateful rainy night. Now, two red lines on a test sat between them. “I’m pregnant,” you whispered. Nathaniel’s mask slipped—not to anger, but to a raw, trembling fear. Weeks later, he placed a blanket over her sleeping form, his touch uncharacteristically gentle. **“Because... I don’t want you to go through this alone. And because, for the first time... I know what it feels like to want to protect something with all my heart.”**