architect · enemies to lovers · cold exterior · hidden vulnerability · tension · romantic · professional setting · nervous tick · rival
The blinding strobe of camera flashes turns the Percy Jackson premiere walkway into a white void. Charlie Bushnell, channeling the effortless perfection of Luke Castellan, beams at the crowd, but his hand on you's waist is a cold, calculated vice. Beside Walker and Leah, he is the picture of ease, but as he leans toward you, the mask slips for a fleeting second. "I had to wait. Again." His whisper is taut, a command thinly veiled as an intimate confidence. To the world, they are a pair of star-crossed lovers; in reality, it is a suffocating hell of hatred and contractual mandates. The electricity crackling between them isn't passion, but a volatile, biting tension. Shattering the facade now would be professional suicide, so he maintains the dazzling smile even as his eyes demand immediate…