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WHEN BOUNDARIES BLUR
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2025-12-11 17:03:51Morning sunlight spilled through Valerie’s windows like liquid gold, but she hardly noticed. She sat at the head of the long boardroom table, diamond-sharp gaze locked on her screen. The entire executive team was present, yet her attention drifted to only one presence.
Ethan Cole.
He sat at the far end of the table, where the junior staff usually sat, yet he commanded an invisible gravity that pulled her eyes again and again. His sleeves were rolled up today, revealing strong forearms marked lightly with faint scars. Marks that whispered stories she shouldn’t care about.
She did anyway.
The room buzzed with voices, ideas, charts flashing across the screen, but she heard nothing. Her brain rebelled. It would not focus. Not when he leaned forward like that. Not when he slowly twirled a pen between two fingers, lost in concentration.
She loathed that she noticed him. She hated that she felt heat coil low in her stomach when his tongue brushed briefly across his lower lip as he studied the financial projections.
She had a company to lead. A legacy to protect.
But her thoughts refused to obey.
He stands there like he belongs at the head of the table.
He looks like he could steal my crown… and I would let him.
She dragged in a breath.
Cold. Controlled, Focus.
“…and with the revised deadline, productivity rises fourteen percent.”
The voice sliced through her haze. Vivian. Her twin, polished and poised in her navy suit.
Vivian glanced knowingly at Valerie, the kind of look that saw too much.
Valerie masked every crack in her façade instantly.
Well done, she replied smoothly, her tone flawless. Continue.
She forced herself to stand, heels tapping a merciless beat on the polished floor. She addressed the room, but every syllable felt heavy, as if resistance itself clung to her tongue.
We will restructure the launch timeline effective immediately. Ethan, you’ll finalize the projections with Vivian.
A slight smirk ghosted across Ethan’s mouth. He knew.
He saw through the calm she clung to.
Yes, ma’am, he replied, voice low, confident.
The honorifics shouldn’t have affected her.
But it did. Far too much.
Her pulse stumbled.
When the meeting ended, she moved to leave, escape, before she slipped further into this dangerous spell. But Vivian stepped into her path, arms crossed.
What is this? Vivian asked quietly, eyes sharp like a knife coated in velvet.
Valerie’s glare was instant. What are you implying?
Vivian tilted her head toward the door where Ethan lingered, gathering papers. You don’t get rattled by anyone. Until now.
I am not rattled, Valerie hissed.
Vivian arched one perfectly shaped brow, the exact same shape as Valerie’s, though somehow more judgmental in the moment.
Whatever you think you’re starting, end it. Before it starts.
Valerie’s spine stiffened, authority rising. My personal life is not…
You don’t get a personal life when the world watches you, Vivian cut in.
We are the public face of King Group. Scandals destroy empires.
Valerie narrowed her eyes. Since when do you care about scandals?
Vivian’s stare softened just slightly. Since you have more to lose than anyone else.
That hit deeper than it should have.
Valerie turned away, ending the conversation without words. She stepped out of the boardroom, and collided with Ethan.
His hands shot out, steadying her by the waist.
Electricity, real or imagined, surged through her body.
He released her the moment her balance returned, but the ghost of his touch lingered like fire branded into her skin.
Sorry, he said, though his eyes conveyed zero regret.
She inhaled sharply. Take responsibility and don’t pretend you’re sorry.
His lips curved. And if I’m not sorry I touched you?
She froze, breath caught, heat rupturing like a storm inside her.
Vivian’s warning echoed.
Scandals destroy empires.
But Ethan’s voice was stronger.
Valerie leaned in, jaw tense. Keep your tongue on a leash if you want to stay employed.
His gaze lowered, slowly, to her lips.
Then rose again, hotter.
You don’t fire people who intrigue you.
She stepped back, too fast, because he was right.
Dangerously right.
He is a threat.
To your control. To your crown. To everything.
Go, she ordered. Now.
For the first time, he obeyed swiftly, but the defiant glint in his eyes promised he hadn’t retreated. He was advancing.
Valerie exhaled shakily when he disappeared down the hall.
But peace refused to return.
Hours later, her car rolled to a stop outside the penthouse. She didn’t remember the drive home. Her mind replayed too many forbidden moments:
His voice close to her ear
His hands on her waist
That near-smile when he knew he had shaken her
Her chest tightened. She strode to the elevator, eager to drown everything in silence and wine.
The penthouse greeted her with the usual extravagant calm, tall windows framing the glittering city skyline, expensive art and empty space, too empty.
She kicked off her heels, v and froze.
A small package rested on her glass coffee table. No label. No sender.
Security must have missed it. Impossible. Her home was a fortress.
Unease prickled down her spine.
She slit the paper open with a fingernail.
Inside, an old photograph.
Her breath vanished.
Two little girls in matching dresses. One smiling brightly.
The other, expression guarded, distant.
An adult behind them, blurred, Her father.
On the back, a sentence in neat handwriting:
“The truth you buried is coming to light.”
Her heart plummeted.
The shadows she spent years repressing clawed their way back into the present, merciless.
A soft chime from her phone snapped her attention.
A message. Unknown number.
“Do you trust him?”
Her pulse thundered. Her mouth went dry.
Another message followed immediately.
“Be careful with Ethan Cole.”
Valerie nearly dropped the phone.
How — why — who?
Her lungs struggled for air. For control. For anything that felt solid.
A third message appeared:
“He’s not who he says he is.”
The screen blurred. Her grip tightened.
Before she could answer, another message:
“And neither are you.”
Her knees weakened. The room tilted.
All the noise she kept sealed inside her head for years detonated at once, memory, fear, and fury erupting like wildfire.
She stumbled back, breath shaking.
Her family’s past.
Her own secrets.
Ethan.
Everything collided.
Something was happening. Something calculated. Something ancient.
Something she thought she had escaped.
But the past never let go.
And somewhere across the city…
Ethan held a phone loosely in his hand, the same number that had just messaged her, eyes dark, unreadable.
A single photograph lay on his desk.
Valerie Kings, younger, terrified.
An arm gripping her too tightly.
A shadow covering them both.
Ethan traced the image with his fingers.
Soon, he whispered to the empty room.
Then he crushed the photograph in his fist, and smiled.
Bab terbaru
THE CEO'S FORBIDDEN FLAME BLOOD ON THE BALANCE SHEET
Valerie stared at the screen until the numbers began to blur.She blinked once. Then again.They did not change.The conference room was empty except for her and the quiet hum of the projector. Outside the glass walls, the city moved as if nothing inside this building had just fractured beyond repair.She leaned closer to the table, scrolling slowly, carefully, as though moving too fast might make the truth vanish.It did not.The shell companies were layered with precision. Clean. Elegant. Designed to look harmless. Consulting fees. Logistics partnerships. Quiet investments routed through three countries and two charitable foundations.All of them led back to the same names.Men who should have disappeared from her life decades ago.Men connected to her father.Valerie’s throat tightened.She remembered those names from whispers. From arguments that stopped when she entered the room. From court documents that had been sealed and re sealed until curiosity itself grew tired.Her father
THE CEO'S FORBIDDEN FLAME THE MAN HE BURIED
Ethan had not planned to come here.Some places lived beneath the skin, waiting patiently, certain they would be visited again whether invited or not. This was one of them.The building looked smaller than memory had made it. Two floors of peeling paint and cracked windows, wedged between a closed laundromat and a pawn shop that still flickered its sign like a dying pulse. The street smelled of old rain and stale regret.Ethan stood across the road, hands buried in his pockets, jaw tight.He had learned long ago how to control his breathing. How to still his hands. How to make fear look like calm.That discipline faltered now.The past had a way of undoing years of careful restraint with one simple invitation.Your board is not as loyal as you think.The message replayed in his mind.He had known this moment was coming.He crossed the street and pushed open the door.A bell rang overhead, sharp and familiar.Inside, the air was thick with cigarette smoke and cheap cologne. The place h
THE CEO'S FORBIDDEN FLAME POLISHED KNIVES
Valerie arrived at the boardroom five minutes early.She always did.The long table gleamed beneath the recessed lights, every surface polished to reflect control and order. Floor to ceiling windows framed the city like a painting she owned. This room had been her battlefield long before it became her throne.She took her seat at the head of the table and placed her tablet down carefully.Her pulse was steady.Her mind was not.Vivian had not answered her last call.That silence followed Valerie into the room like a shadow.One by one, the board members filed in. Familiar faces. Measured smiles. Carefully neutral expressions. Men and women who had watched Valerie grow into power and who had once underestimated how far she would go to protect it.Or what it had cost her.When the final seat was filled, Valerie clasped her hands together.Let us begin.The first twenty minutes passed smoothly. Financial reports. Projections. Updates on the gala. Applause followed her vision speech exact
THE CEO'S FORBIDDEN FLAME THE NIGHT THAT NEVER ENDS
Vivian did not know how long she had been sitting there.Time had loosened its grip, stretching and folding in on itself until minutes felt like hours and hours collapsed into moments. The room around her was dim, unfamiliar, lit only by a single lamp that cast more shadow than light. The air smelled faintly of dust and something metallic that made her stomach churn.Her hands were folded in her lap.She was not tied.That frightened her more than restraints ever could.Across from her, a wall clock ticked steadily. Each second landed like a small удар against her skull, rhythmic and merciless.Tick.Vivian closed her eyes.The sound changed.It was no longer a clock.It was the soft click of a recorder switching on.Her breath hitched sharply.No. Not now.She pressed her palms against her temples, but the memory did not obey.She was small again.Her feet did not reach the floor as she sat on the edge of her childhood bed, legs swinging slightly. The house smelled like her mother’s
THE CEO'S FORBIDDEN FLAME ALMOST
The city held its breath.Valerie felt it the moment she stepped into the night air outside the headquarters. The streetlights glowed too softly. The traffic moved too smoothly. It was the kind of calm that settled just before something shattered.She slid into the back seat of the car and closed the door with deliberate care.Home, she said.The driver nodded and pulled away.Her phone rested in her lap, dark and silent. She had not messaged Ethan since uncovering the files. Not since the image of him beside her father had lodged itself into her chest like a splinter she could not remove.Anger would have been easier.Instead, she felt something far more dangerous.Longing.She stared out the window, watching reflections stretch and warp across the glass. Memories surfaced uninvited. The way Ethan had stood his ground in her office. The way he watched her when he thought she was not looking. The restraint he carried like a second skin.Was it real.Or was it preparation.Her phone li
THE CEO'S FORBIDDEN FLAME THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE
Vivian sat on the edge of her bed long after the city outside had gone dark.The penthouse was quiet in a way that felt unnatural, like a held breath. Even the distant sounds of traffic seemed muted, as though the night itself was listening. The lamp beside her cast a soft circle of light that did little to chase away the shadows gathering in the corners of the room.Her hands rested in her lap.Between her palms lay the flash drive.It was smaller than she remembered. Lighter too. As if the weight she felt had never belonged to the object at all, but to the memories sealed inside it.Vivian stared at it until her eyes burned.She could still see it. The bedroom from years ago. The low hum of the recorder. Her mother’s face slack with sleep, unaware of what was coming. Her father’s voice low and urgent. The other woman’s laughter, sharp and careless.The pillow.Vivian’s breath shuddered. She pressed a hand to her mouth, forcing herself not to make a sound.She had lived half her life
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