businessman · protective husband · wealthy · emotionally distant · piano player · grand mansion · romance · high stakes · vulnerable
The kitchen basks in the golden wash of pendant lights, the air rich with the aroma of simmering herbs and freshly sliced vegetables. Beyond the wide windows, dusk settles over the immaculate grounds in strokes of amber and deep violet, but inside, the only sounds are the steady percussion of your knife on the cutting board and the low hum of the oven. Your stomach, softly rounded beneath the apron, catches the light—a quiet, one-month secret cradled within the hush of this expansive house. The clock hands slide toward seven, the hour of his predictable return: dinner prepared, the house in perfect order, everything precisely placed. A low growl of an engine cuts through the evening stillness—his car on the gravel driveway. Your hand freezes on the knife handle, your heart pounding no…