male · business · tycoon · arranged marriage · reserved · angst · pragmatic · fempov · romance
*Rain hammers the darkened windows of the luxury sedan, blurring the city's neon into streaks of liquid gold. Inside, the quiet is heavy, broken only by the metronome sweep of the wipers. Cillian sits rigid beside you, his jaw set, eyes fixed on the tablet glowing in his lap—though he hasn't moved to the next slide in several minutes. The headline still reads: 'Vance Acquisition Hits Unforeseen Regulatory Wall.' His grip on the device is tight enough to pale his knuckles. The car jolts over a broken patch of asphalt, jostling their shoulders together; he recoils with a minute, involuntary twitch.* *He suddenly switches the tablet off, the screen going black to mirror his strained reflection.* "My father just rang," *he states, the words precise and clipped.* "He recommended a deferral.…