The Alpha Kings Secret Son novel · Chapter 4 of 6

Chapter 4: Degrees Below Zero

Roman’s forearm brushed Mira’s as he reached across the desk, and the room dropped into winter.

The spreadsheet blurred. Frost spread across the windows. Her skin tightened beneath her sweater, and the pressure in the office shifted until the chair behind her felt very far away.

Roman’s eyes turned silver.

Mira kept her hand on the trackpad.

Six minutes earlier, they had been discussing liability adjustments in the third-quarter report. He had asked clean questions. She had given clean answers. The figures were wrong in three places, and the people who approved them had been paid enough to know better.

Now his arm rested beside hers, close enough for his heat to reach through the wool.

The bond pulled toward him. It had no patience for pride, salary negotiations, or the practical matter of keeping Axel’s life separate from the most powerful man in the city.

The bond had terrible timing.

Roman looked at the line she had flagged, then at her face.

‘You found the liability adjustment before the audit team did.’

His voice was lower than before.

Mira followed the column with her cursor. ‘The adjustment was hidden in the forecast changes. Whoever prepared the report expected everyone to read from the summary.’

‘You read the supporting schedules.’

‘Numbers are less dramatic when they’re allowed to finish their sentences.’

His gaze stayed on her.

The cold pressed harder. Breath misted above the desk. Outside, a car horn sounded through the glass, thin and distant. The metal pen beside her hand had a rim of ice around it.

Roman’s fingers moved across the page. He stopped beside the line she had marked in red.

His sleeve touched hers again.

Mira did not move.

‘The adjustment is unapproved,’ she said. ‘It shifts the projected loss into the next quarter. That improves this quarter’s result and makes the next board meeting unpleasant.’

‘For whom?’

‘For the person who has to explain why the numbers were rearranged.’

‘That person is me.’

‘Then I recommend tea beforehand.’

A small change crossed his face and vanished.

Roman drew his arm back, but the cold remained.

He stood behind the desk and studied her. Silver showed through his grey-blue eyes. Frost gathered in the corners of the window. The pressure pushed against her shoulders, but she stayed in her chair.

Everyone else would have retreated by now. Mira had learned that this was what people noticed first. The pressure. The cold. The instinct to submit before he gave an order.

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