LOGIN"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
"It's eleven at night.""I know. I know it is. But I've been sitting in my car for twenty minutes and I can't— I can't do this, Theo. I can't—" His voice broke. He pressed his forehead against the intercom, eyes closed, and let the silence speak for him.The buzzer rang. The door unlocked.Theo opened his apartment door barefoot, in sweatpants and a faded t-shirt that read STANFORD ROWING. His hair was unstyled, falling in loose waves, and without the armor of his office wardrobe, he looked younger, softer, more breakable.He didn't invite Kieran in. He just leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, and waited.Kieran had prepared a speech. He'd rehearsed it in the car — logical, structured, a business proposition disguised as a romantic confession. It died on his tongue the moment he saw Theo's face."I was wrong."Theo said nothing."Bennett called a special board meeting for next Wednesday. He's going to present the HR complaint as evidence of 'leadership instability.' He's going
The rumors started on a Tuesday.Kieran heard them from Margot, who closed his office door with the grim efficiency of a field medic delivering casualties."HR got an anonymous complaint. Someone saw you and Theo in your office last Thursday. After hours."Kieran's blood went cold. "Saw what, exactly?""Doesn't say. Just 'inappropriate behavior between Mr. Voss and Mr. Park.' Vague enough to be nothing, specific enough to be a problem." Margot's jaw was tight. "Bennett is asking questions."Of course he was. Marcus Bennett — board member, seventeen percent shareholder, and a man who'd been circling Kieran's position like a shark smelling blood for the past two years. He'd wanted the CEO chair for himself, and when the board had chosen Kieran instead, he'd made it his mission to find a weakness. Any weakness.And now he had one."Who filed it?""Anonymous. But the timing—" Margot's expression said everything her words didn't. Only a handful of people knew Kieran had been in the office







