LOGIN"I'm not asking you to be." Theo pulled back just enough to look at him, thumb sweeping across Kieran's cheekbone. "But I need you to trust me. Not just that I won't go back to him — that was never in question — but that I can handle this. That we can handle this. Without you spiraling into some protective frenzy where you try to control every interaction I have.""I don't control—""You fired a vendor last month because he flirted with me at a lunch meeting.""He was inappropriate.""He complimented my tie." Theo's tone was fond despite the words. "Kieran. I love that you're protective. I love that you care. But if every man who looks at me becomes a threat in your mind, we're going to spend our relationship fighting ghosts instead of building something."Kieran closed his eyes. Theo was right — of course he was right. Theo was always right, in that infuriating, luminous way that made Kieran want to argue and agree simultaneously."I'll try.""That's all I ask."The trying lasted app
The ex arrived on a Wednesday.Kieran knew he was an ex before anyone said a word — knew it the way you know a storm is coming when the air goes silver and still. It was in the way Theo's whole body locked up at the reception desk, in the way his easy smile flickered and died, in the way his hand — resting on the counter — went white-knuckled before he deliberately, visibly forced it to relax.Kieran was walking past the lobby when he saw them: Theo and a stranger, framed by the glass doors, the afternoon light catching the stranger's ash-blond hair and turning it into a halo that seemed designed by nature to make people look twice.He was beautiful. That was the first thing Kieran registered, and he hated himself for noticing — hated the way his chest tightened, hated the instantaneous, irrational certainty that this man had seen Theo in ways Kieran hadn't, had touched him in places Kieran hadn't found yet, had known him when he was younger and softer and less guarded.The stranger w
"Feel it anyway." Theo understood — of course he understood. He understood everything about Kieran, even the parts Kieran didn't understand himself. "Because you've never had something you couldn't bear to lose before. And it's terrifying.""It's unbearable.""It's love." Theo said it simply, without drama, like it was a fact of physics — gravity, thermodynamics, the inevitability of falling. "And it doesn't go away. It only gets bigger. You just have to let it."Kieran stopped dancing. The music continued around them, couples swaying, but Kieran stood still with Theo in his arms and felt the word land — love — and for once, he didn't flinch from it."Say it again."Theo's eyes glistened. "It's love.""Again.""Love." Theo kissed him — right there, on the dance floor, in front of three hundred of New York's most powerful people — and the room erupted in whispers and champagne-glass-raises and at least one audible finally that sounded suspiciously like Margot.Kieran didn't care. He ki
The company gala was Margot's idea."Annual fundraiser," she said, sliding the invitation across Kieran's desk with the casual menace of a woman who tolerated no refusal. "You've skipped it three years running. This year, you're going.""I don't do galas.""You do now." Her smile was sharp enough to cut glass. "Consider it the cost of survival. After the board drama, people need to see you relaxed. Human. Preferably with a handsome date on your arm, smiling like the world isn't ending."Kieran looked at the invitation — heavy cardstock, embossed lettering, the Voss Technologies logo rendered in gold foil. The Twelfth Annual Voss Technologies Foundation Gala. The Plaza. Black Tie. A night of champagne, small talk, and performative generosity, where the city's elite would gather to bid on overpriced art and congratulate themselves on caring."You want me to bring Theo.""I want you to bring Theo, and I want you to look happy about it. The rumor mill has been churning for weeks. Let them
The vote was eight to four.Eight votes to retain Kieran as CEO. Four votes — Bennett and his three loyalists — to remove. Not even close. Not even contested.Bennett left the boardroom without a word, Castor snapping her folder shut and following in his wake like a shadow. The remaining directors exchanged glances, some approving, some still processing, but the verdict was clear: Kieran Voss was staying, and his relationship with Theo Park was now a matter of public record — acknowledged, addressed, and insufficient grounds for removal.The board chair, a white-haired woman named Constance, leaned over as the room cleared. "For what it's worth — the relationship itself was never the issue. It was the secrecy. Don't make that mistake again.""I won't.""And Kieran?" Constance's eyes — sharp, shrewd, sixty years of boardroom survival behind them — softened by a fraction. "The boy's good. Don't let Bennett's poison make you doubt that."She left. Margot appeared, champagne already in ha
Kieran had sat in this chair a hundred times — at the head of the obsidian table, floor-to-ceiling windows at his back, twelve directors arrayed before him like jurors. He'd navigated hostile takeovers, survived proxy wars, closed deals that other CEOs only dreamed of. This room was his kingdom, and he its undisputed ruler.But today, the atmosphere was different. Today, the air hummed with the electricity of a coup.Marcus Bennett sat at the far end, silver-haired and immaculate, a wolf in a Brioni suit. His lawyer — a sharp-eyed woman named Castor — had a folder open in front of her, and the smile on her face was the kind that preceded bloodshed.Beside Kieran, Margot placed a glass of water with steady hands. Her loyalty was absolute, but even she looked nervous."Theo," Kieran said quietly, before the meeting could be called to order. "Is he—""Conference room B. Waiting." Margot squeezed his shoulder once — a rare gesture of affection — and withdrew.Theo shouldn't be here. That







