Zurich was quiet. Too quiet.
Adrian Vale sat alone in his hotel suite, lights dimmed just enough to make the city below look like a chessboard. His laptop lay closed. Documents stacked neatly. Everything in place. Except his mind.
Nyra.
The thought hit him uninvited. Nyra K. defiant, brilliant, chaotic in all the wrong ways. Every answer she gave today, every precise counter to his plans, every smirk as she slid past his rules it kept looping in his head.
He hated that.
He hated it because it was true.
She's not my type, he muttered aloud, voice low in the empty room. Red flags. Chaos. Smoking. Rebellious. Disrespectful.
Yet the image of her stood in his mind anyway. Her locs falling perfectly around her shoulders after a long day, the way her body moved like she owned the room without trying, the faint curve of a smile that made him forget all the rules he lived by.
His chest tightened. Men had weaknesses. He'd always prided himself on not having any.
Until her.
He leaned back in the chair, hands clasped, jaw tight.
"It's just rebellion," he told himself. "She's testing boundaries. I can leash it. I can control it. Keep it professional."
But he knew he couldn't.
Not entirely.
Adrian's eyes flicked to the city lights again, thinking about her in the conference room, the way she handled the client presentation without flinching. The way she laughed at his quiet critiques, subtly mocking him without losing respect.
It was maddening.
Why does she pull me in like this?
He leaned forward, elbows on knees, hands rubbing his face. She's infuriating. She's brilliant. She's… dangerous. And I hate that I can't stop thinking about her.
Adrian Vale, CEO, master of control, strategist, king of calculated moves reduced to restless pacing, plotting how to manage her without losing his mind.
Meanwhile, a few floors down, Nyra leaned on her balcony, cigarette in hand, eyes on the sparkling city below.
She didn't know.
She had no idea that every move she made, every defiant smirk, every perfectly timed argument was already getting under the skin of the most meticulous man she had ever met.
And she didn't care.
Because for Nyra, surviving Adrian Vale's rules was just part of the game.
A game she was already winning in ways he couldn't predict.