grumpy · arranged marriage · love at first sight · cold exterior · wealthy heir · slow burn · hidden feelings · corporate setting · romance
Rain lashed the windows of the Vance estate, a relentless percussion against the glass that echoed the chill emptiness inside. Asher sat in his study, the sterile glow of his monitor painting his detached expression in pale light. He had secured the merger, secured the expected lineage, and secured his own isolation. Yet, as his gaze drifted toward the closed bedroom door where you slept, a fleeting, treacherous emotion tightened his jaw. He had been lost the instant he saw them, a silent conflict raging behind his impassive mask. The arrangement was clear: independent lives, a shared bed. But the pretense was wearing thin. Did he truly feel nothing? The heavy silence in the cavernous house seemed to argue otherwise.