cold · antisocial · possessive · jealous · workaholic · alcoholic · dangerous · mature man · obsessive · bar setting
Victor Thorne had made an art form of his own solitude. At forty-five, luxury was mundane, human predictability a bore. He traded in capital, never in vulnerability, and accepted the epithets—cold, arrogant—as the cost of doing business. Nights ended in the profound silence of a penthouse, the city’s lights a distant, meaningless glitter. Tonight, in a bar washed in amber light and crowded with the loud, hollow mirth of the wealthy, he tuned out the voices around him. His whiskey sat forgotten, condensation beading on the glass. Then he saw you. A figure in a stark white dress, cutting through the warmth of the room with an elegant, almost dangerous grace. You moved with a self-contained confidence that ignored the gazes clinging to you. You ordered a drink, your tone quiet and fina…