Chapter One
1050 Words
Damien
New York glittered outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, every snowflake catching the city lights like falling diamonds. From his corner penthouse, Damien Holt could see the entire city pulsing below — the taxis inching through slush, the ice skaters circling Rockefeller Center, the trees wrapped in silver light. People called it magical. To him, it looked like chaos pretending to be beauty.
Inside, the only glow came from the massive digital screen before him, its cold numbers and projections reflected in the amber of his whiskey.
Quarterly profits: up.
Market expansion: solid.
Mood: abysmal.
He hated December. The music, the lights, the forced cheer — all of it grated on him like static. Christmas was for people who hadn’t learned that joy was temporary and promises never lasted. He’d learned both lessons early and thoroughly.
He took a slow sip of whiskey, the burn grounding him, and turned away from the screen. His reflection in the glass — dark suit, darker eyes — stared back like a stranger he didn’t particularly care to know.
A soft knock broke his thoughts.
“Mr. Holt,” came Aaron’s voice, careful, measured — his assistant’s tone always one notch below nervous. “The designer is here.”
Damien didn’t look up. “Send her in.”
He expected the usual: sleek hair, high heels, and higher ego. Someone who’d charge a fortune to hang overpriced art and call it vision.
But the woman who stepped through the door wasn’t what he expected at all.
Dark curls framed her face, messy in a way that looked accidental but wasn’t. Her coat was dusted with snow, her cheeks pink from the cold, and her eyes — large, alive, the color of wet coffee — held none of the artificial polish he was used to. She carried a portfolio under one arm and a quiet kind of confidence under the other.
“Mr. Holt,” she said, offering her hand. “Elena Cruz. Thank you for letting me take on your project.”
Her voice was warm, lilting — touched with something faintly melodic that didn’t belong in this sterile room.
He took her hand briefly. Firm. Steady. Warm.
Her lips quirked. “You don’t like Christmas, do you?”
“Do I need to?”
“Only if you want your home to not look like an emotional crime scene.”
That earned her a flicker of a smirk before he could stop it. “Confident, aren’t you?”
“Necessary for survival,” she said easily, scanning the penthouse. “This place has potential. Gorgeous bones. Terrible mood.”
He arched a brow. “Mood?”
“Yes,” she said, dropping her bag and spreading sketches across the marble table like she owned the space. “You’ve got billionaire intensity and funeral chic. We’re going to fix that.”
He leaned back in his chair, watching her move — brisk, focused, completely unselfconscious. A faint scent trailed after her: citrus, maybe bergamot, clean and sharp. It clashed with the wood-and-whiskey air of his office, like sunlight piercing through fog.
“I don’t want *festive,*” he warned. “I want elegant. Minimal. No Santas, no reindeer, no—”
“No joy?” she interrupted lightly.
His gaze lifted to hers, sharp and unreadable.
“Joy,” he said slowly, “is overrated.”
She studied him for a long moment, something soft flickering in her expression — not pity, exactly, but curiosity. “Then it’s a good thing,” she said, rolling up her sleeves, “that I’m excellent at changing minds.”
He shouldn’t have found that amusing. Or intriguing. But somehow, he did.
She began unpacking her samples — textured fabrics, metallic accents, subtle palettes that actually caught his attention. As she explained her concept, her hands moved when she spoke, expressive and sure.
“I’m thinking deep emerald accents,” she said, her voice gathering momentum. “Brushed gold instead of silver. A few organic textures — stone, wood, maybe something tactile. You’ve built a fortress here, Mr. Holt. Beautiful, but cold. Let me soften the edges.”
He looked around. Black marble floors, steel fixtures, no trace of warmth or humanity. She wasn’t wrong.
“And what if I like the edges?” he asked quietly.
“Then I’ll make sure they shine,” she said without missing a beat.
That shouldn’t have impressed him, but it did.
She moved closer to the window, gazing out over the glowing skyline. Snowflakes gathered on the glass, tiny ghosts of winter. “This city’s something else,” she murmured. “Even the cold looks alive.”
He followed her gaze before catching himself. He didn’t like moments like this — too easy, too human.
“You’re not from here,” he said, half a statement.
She smiled. “No. I grew up in Miami. I still can’t get over the snow. It’s like watching a miracle that keeps falling.”
A miracle. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had used that word around him without irony.
“Miami?” he said. “So you traded sunshine for this?”
“Sometimes you have to leave warmth to appreciate it,” she said softly, then turned back to him. “Does Christmas mean something to you at all?”.
“Nothing.” The answer came too fast.
She didn’t flinch. “Okay. Then we’ll start from nothing.”
For a moment, silence filled the penthouse — not empty, but charged. The air between them hummed, unfamiliar and unwanted.
Damien exhaled, breaking it first. “Impress me.”
Her grin was quick, mischievous. “Oh, I plan to.”
He should’ve ended the meeting there. But instead, he found himself watching as she bent over her sketches, the sleeve of her sweater slipping down to reveal a slim wrist, ink stains on her fingers. Not polished — real.
And real was dangerous.
He turned away, pretending to read a message that wasn’t there. “Get in touch with Aaron.Coordinate with him for anything you need.”
“Got it,” she said, her tone light but sure.
Her laughter — low, unguarded — filled the cold
Outside, snow kept falling.
Inside, something thawed — slow, dangerous, and impossible to ignore.
- Writer
