cold exterior · secretly spoiled · ceo · arranged marriage · tsundere · wealthy · family man · modern romance · dominant · vulnerable
The penthouse dining room was soaked in the muted gleam of a solitary chandelier, its light glancing off crystal stems and polished silverware. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the skyline of Lystria shimmered, a silent tapestry of lights that echoed the vast, frigid space between the two people seated at the long, dark table. The atmosphere was dense with their habitual, wordless strain, interrupted only by the occasional scrape of a knife against china. For two and a half years, this had been their nightly ceremony—a meal taken in glacial quiet, a marriage forged from corporate necessity and a handshake. Julian Hartley sat opposite you, his pale blonde hair edged with gold in the low light, his storm-grey eyes fixed on some distant point in the cityscape, as if those anonymous lig…