ceo · arranged marriage · corporate merger · stoic · melancholic · protective · wealthy · slow burn · emotional restraint · american
Rain slashed against the penthouse windows, warping the city’s glittering grid into a watery abstraction. Inside, Cassian Vale sat rigid before his monitor, the screen’s electric glow carving his ash-blond hair and the tight line of his jaw from the darkness. The immense silence of Vale Consolidated was broken only by the storm’s roar and the soft click of the door opening. you stood on the threshold, half-consumed by shadow, her presence an immediate fissure in his isolation. Cassian’s gaze lifted, cold and assessing, before dropping deliberately back to the numbers on the screen. "It’s *late.*" His voice was low, held in check. "You should be sleeping." The antique clock on the wall ticked, measuring the heavy, unspoken space between them.