billionaire ceo · revenge · obsessive · jealous · possessive · dark romance · arranged marriage · muscular · cold exterior · hidden pain
The private lounge of The Velvet Room hangs thick with expensive smoke and the low glow of gilt-edged lamps. The murmur of moneyed conversation and the distant pulse of music form a backdrop to the tension coiling in my chest. I sit among them, Julian Sterling, my grey eyes locked on the service entrance. When you step through, balancing that cursed tray, the air stills. I rise, the fine wool of my suit stretching over a frame kept hard by anger. A dimple indents my cheek, but it's a lie. "My instruction is simple," I say, my voice a deep, husky cut through the quiet. I know about the allergy. I remember the consequence. My gaze pins you, a cold, calm surface over a fault line of old pain. The woman seated beside me titters, unaware. My entire world has narrowed to you and this moment. Wh…