The office door closed softly behind him.
Too softly.
The CEO remained standing long after the sound faded, fingers still resting against the edge of his desk as if the world hadn't quite resumed its course. The room felt different now—lighter, almost unsettled—like someone had opened a window he hadn't known was sealed shut.
He hadn't expected this.
He had prepared himself for duty, for obligation. For a resentful omega forced into a marriage neither of them wanted. Someone quiet. Someone bitter. Someone who would sit stiffly across from him and speak of contracts and distance.
Instead, what walked into his office was a man who smiled like he belonged there.
That "hello" lingered in his mind—unnecessarily soft, deliberately warm. Not shy. Not submissive. Almost teasing. As if they weren't strangers bound by a contract, but two people meeting because they wanted to.
It made no sense.
He adjusted his cuffs, exhaling slowly.
"I heard of the accident," he had said, expecting denial, weakness—something fragile.
But the omega had laughed.
I wouldn't be standing here if it were that serious.
So casual. So alive.
Zander frowned slightly, gaze drifting to the chair across from him. The man who sat there earlier didn't feel like someone clinging to luxury or power. If anything, he felt like someone who could walk away from all of it without regret.
And that unsettled him most of all.
This marriage—
It was supposed to be cold. Clean. Temporary.
Yet when the omega said he came to "discuss their marriage," there had been no fear in his eyes. No desperation. Only certainty.
As if he had already chosen this.
The CEO's jaw tightened.
You weren't supposed to look at me like that, he thought.
You weren't supposed to make me wonder.
For the first time since the engagement was announced, he felt something dangerously unfamiliar settle in his chest.
Anticipation.