Married

I have two choices… get married within the year or lose billions. My main shareholder has been given a year to live. When he dies, his shares will go to his out-of-hand children, and the company my friends and I spent our lives building will burn to the ground. Unless we can convince him to sell to us. But he’s not interested in our money; he has a list of demands for us, hoping we’ll turn out better than his kids. All the demands seem fair, from seeing a personal trainer to taking a quarterly founders' retreat. Until we get to the last item on his list.

Someone I loved betrayed me. She committed fraud, nearly destroyed my company, and tried to pin the blame on me. Since then, trust has come hard. Connection has come harder. Which is why I’ve kept my distance from the gorgeous woman who cleans my office every day. She’s everything I’m not: warm where I’m guarded, quick to laugh where I’m calculating, able to make strangers feel like family with a single smile. Being around her feels dangerously close to peace… and I don’t do peace. Not anymore.