SEBASTIAN
Sebastian stood at the window staring at nothing.
His reflection looked back at him in the glass. Cold. Controlled. The man he'd become after Victoria destroyed him. The man who didn't feel anything anymore because feeling anything was dangerous.
He touched his chest.
His heart was still racing.
That shouldn't be happening. His heart didn't race. His pulse didn't quicken. He was made of ice and business strategy and the absolute certainty that no one could touch him ever again.
But Evangeline Winters had shaken his hand and for the first time in three years he'd felt warmth.
He turned away from the window.
The proposal folder sat on his desk like a bomb that hadn't exploded yet. He should refuse. Every rational part of his brain was screaming at him to refuse. He knew exactly what would happen if he said yes. He'd start to care. He'd start to believe that maybe this wasn't just business. He'd let his walls down just enough for someone to get inside and then they'd destroy him.
The way Victoria had destroyed him.
He thought about that day. The day his entire world shattered into pieces.
He'd been in his office, just like today, when his investigator called. Victoria had sold company secrets to Blackwell Corp. Confidential acquisition targets. Trade secrets. Everything that made Thornfield Industries dangerous and valuable. She'd been doing it for months.
And she hadn't acted alone.
His best friend Marcus had been in her bed. The same Marcus who'd known all the secrets. Who'd had access to everything. They'd destroyed him together and laughed about it.
Sebastian closed his eyes.
He could still remember walking into her apartment. Could still see them tangled together. Could still hear her laugh when he asked her why.
"You have everything," she'd said, fixing her dress like nothing had happened. "The money. The power. The control. I wanted something that was mine."
"I gave you everything."
"You gave me things. That's not the same as knowing me. You're incapable of actual connection, Sebastian. You're a machine with a wallet."
And the worst part was she'd been right.
He hadn't known her. Hadn't really cared about her beyond the surface. He'd been going through the motions of a relationship the same way he went through everything. Controlled. Tactical. Emotionless.
After that he'd built walls so high and so thick that nothing could break through.
He'd told himself he was fine with it.
Alone was safe.
Alone was predictable.
Alone was the only way to guarantee no one could ever hurt him again.
Then a desperate woman with emerald eyes walked into his office and proposed marriage and something in his chest that had been frozen solid for three years started to thaw.
He'd looked at her standing there in that designer suit with that straight spine and those eyes that had seen too much pain too fast and he'd seen something he recognized.
He'd seen himself.
The moment after Victoria. When his world had shattered. When he'd been broken but refusing to break completely. That's what he'd seen in Evangeline's face.
Except she was still in it. Still in the middle of falling apart. Still fighting with everything she had.
And something in him had reached toward that fight the way a dying man reaches toward light.
He should refuse.
But he was going to say yes.
Not because of the pharmaceutical assets. Not because of the reputation boost. Not because the business logic was sound.
But because for the first time since Victoria, he'd felt something other than ice.
He'd felt human.
And he was terrified of losing that feeling.
He'd walked back to his desk and extended his hand and made a deal that would either save him or destroy him completely.
When she shook his hand, her grip was firm. Her skin was warm. And he'd realized with absolute clarity that this wasn't business anymore.
This was the most dangerous thing he'd ever done.
His office door opened without a knock.
Oliver Kane stood in the doorway with his stupid knowing smile. Sebastian's best friend. The only person in the world he actually trusted. Oliver had been there the day Victoria destroyed him. Had watched him build the walls. Had waited for him to come back to the world.
And apparently Oliver could read him like a book because his smile widened into something almost smug.
"Let me guess," Oliver said, walking in and closing the door. "The desperate heiress convinced you to do something insane."
"I agreed to acquire Winters Pharmaceuticals."
"Right. And I'm a ballerina." Oliver sat in the chair Evangeline had just vacated. "You've turned down better deals. With less liability. From companies that weren't under federal investigation. So what changed?"
"Nothing changed. The business logic is sound."
"You're lying." Oliver leaned back in the chair like he had all day. "Your tell is always the same. You touch your chest when you're lying about something that affects your heart."
Sebastian's hand dropped to his side.
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine. You're the opposite of fine." Oliver stood and moved closer. "You're in trouble. And it has nothing to do with pharmaceuticals and everything to do with a woman with emerald eyes who just walked out of here."
"You didn't even see her."
"I don't have to. Your expression says everything. That's the same look you had before Victoria. That mix of terror and hope that always leads to disaster."
"This is different."
"How?"
Sebastian didn't answer. He couldn't. Because there wasn't an answer that made sense. Nothing about this made sense except that when Evangeline shook his hand, his heart had restarted after three years of not beating.
"Oh god," Oliver said softly. "You already like her. That's not a contract marriage. That's a disaster waiting to happen."
"I agreed to one year. Separate bedrooms. No emotional entanglement."
"You're delusional if you think you can live with someone for a year and not catch feelings. And you're catastrophically delusional if you think someone like Evangeline Winters can look at you without seeing something worth saving."
"She doesn't see anything in me worth saving."
"No. She sees a man who's been alone too long. She sees someone broken who's pretending to be made of ice. And she's going to spend a year trying to prove to you that you're capable of feeling something real."
Sebastian turned away.
He knew Oliver was right. That was the problem. Oliver was always right about these things. He'd watched Sebastian build walls after Victoria. Had warned him about becoming someone incapable of connection. Had told him that ice was just another word for lonely.
"What if I hurt her?" Sebastian asked quietly.
Oliver was quiet for a long moment.
"Then you deal with it. You apologize. You do the hard work of becoming someone better. But you don't hide in ice anymore, Sebastian. You've already decided that by saying yes to her."
"I said yes for business reasons."
"You said yes because the moment she walked into your office, she cracked something open in your chest that you've been trying to keep locked for three years." Oliver walked toward the door. "And now you're stuck. Because you can't un-feel this. You can't go back to being a machine."
He paused at the door.
"She has a week before the wedding, Sebastian. One week to realize that this man she's proposing a business deal to is already falling for her completely. And then you're going to have a year of pretending it's not happening while living in the same penthouse, seeing her every day, watching her sleep down the hallway."
"It's not like that."
"It's exactly like that." Oliver's expression softened. "And honestly. I think it's the best thing that could happen to you. I think Evangeline Winters might be exactly what you need to become human again."
He left before Sebastian could respond.
Sebastian stood in his office alone with the knowledge that Oliver was right.
He'd agreed to marry a woman he barely knew for reasons that had nothing to do with business and everything to do with the way she made him feel alive.
And he had one week to figure out how to protect his heart when his heart was already hers.