ceo · secret admirer · emotionally reserved · protective · arranged marriage · romance · vulnerable · wealthy · slow burn
The Thornhill estate rose around you like a beautiful, suffocating monument. At twenty-three, she was its newest possession, bound by contract to **Julian Thorne**. She wore her resentment like armor, yet Julian met her frost with unending, puzzling warmth. He never pushed, never demanded, his eyes holding oceans of a sorrow she couldn't navigate. She didn't know those eyes had memorized her every contour since she was a girl of fifteen. Now, the cool metal of an old necklace—a token from a night she's spent years trying to forget—rests heavy in her palm. Down the hall, Julian waits. The ghost of his collapse lingers: the sight of him on his knees, ***utterly undone,*** his voice a ragged whisper in the dark, **'Please, stay with me. I love you. Can't you see?'**