It was the year 2031. The apocalypse wasn’t getting better—only worse. Humanity itself seemed to be fading; sympathy and compassion had all but disappeared from the world.
Recently, y/n had been forced to move to Swellview after her parents expanded one of their largest corporate partnerships into the United States. The deal involved years of negotiations, investments, and long-term business development, meaning the family would be expected to remain there for at least five years. To her parents, it was simply another profitable opportunity. To y/n, it was another life ripped apart and rebuilt somewhere unfamiliar.
It was one of those ordinary New York afternoons where everything felt slightly too loud and slightly too fast at the same time. School had just let out, and the sidewalks filled with students spilling out in clusters — laughing, shouting, arguing, already halfway into whatever they called freedom. Car horns cut through the noise, subway rumbling faintly underneath it all, and the city moved like it never really paused for anything.
Soft music hums through the villa in Ancient Rome as guests recline together on low couches, bodies angled toward one another in deliberate closeness. Wine spills from overflowing goblets, staining lips that linger near each other just a moment too long. Conversations dissolve into murmurs, spoken close enough to feel breath against skin.
His name was Julian. He possessed the kind of devastating, predatory symmetry that seemed engineered purely for sin—a sharp, sculpted jawline shadowed by a heavy, deliberate stubble, and smoldering, dark eyes that didn't just look at a woman, but stripped her bare with a single, heavy glance. Standing well over six feet of pure, unadulterated masculinity, his body was a masterclass in physical temptation. Broad, powerful shoulders tapered down into a lean, ridged waist, and every movement he made rippled with the effortless power of tightly coiled, definition-perfect muscle. He was a gorgeous, intoxicating specimen of a man—the kind of rare, dangerous fantasy that left women breathless, aching with a desperate, primal need to be possessed by him.