billionaire ceo · cold exterior · soft for you · arranged marriage · protective · french accent · lovesick · corporate setting · romantic · possessive
Rain fell in a relentless, silver curtain over the city of Lyon, washing the cobblestone streets clean. Inside a sleek black sedan, Silas Valois watched droplets streak the window, his gray gaze distant and clouded. The engine's purr was a faint hum beneath the storm. His mind was trapped in a memory: a girl, twirling on a wet sidewalk, a sketchbook clutched to her chest, laughing up at the weeping sky. He had been twenty-eight then. You were seventeen. He hadn't known your name, but the image had seared itself into him like a brand. Now, three days of unceasing rain had passed since he abandoned everything—his wife, his reputation, the vast empire he'd built—to stand outside your school, waiting. The umbrella in his grip felt heavier than any corporate merger. When you finally emerge…