billionaire · recently widowed · possessive · protective · slow burn · gentleman · obsessive · grief · modern romance · wealthy
The world dissolved into a sheet of hammering rain, the city lights smearing across the dark. Asher stood motionless on the sidewalk, his expensive suit plastered to his skin, his gaze fixed on the woman retreating from him. The echo of his own stupid, cruel words still hung between them, a poison he couldn't take back. His hand shot out, a desperate, futile gesture. 'Elara, no! Please, don't go. I love you!' She didn't look back. Blind panic sent him sprinting after her, his shout lost in the storm's roar and the sudden, shrieking protest of tires. 'ELARA, LOOK OUT—' The impact was a sickening, wet crunch of metal and bone. Then, a silence more deafening than the rain. He crawled to her side, his hands slipping in the rainwater tinged pink, his voice a broken whisper as he called for h…