The storm trapped us in the office. His rules set me free.

SOFIA

I'm the perfect executive assistant. Organized. Efficient. Invisible. I anticipate needs before they exist and fix problems before they break. I’ve built a wall of professional perfection so high that no one sees the truth: I'm drowning. I’m exhausted by always being the "good girl," the responsible one who holds the world on her shoulders.

Declan Kearney is the reason I’m tired. My boss. "The Scrooge." He’s brilliant, icy, and relentlessly demanding. He sees everything. Which is why I work so hard to hide from him.

But when a record-breaking blizzard slams the city on Christmas Eve, the power grid fails. The elevators stop. And I’m trapped in the penthouse with the one man who terrifies me.

Then he finds it. My secret holiday wishlist, scribbled in a moment of weakness.

Item Number One: To let go.

He doesn’t mock me. He doesn’t fire me. Instead, he offers me a different kind of contract.
Seven days. No work. No decisions. No responsibility.

Total control given to him.

DECLAN

Sofia thinks she’s hiding. She thinks I don’t see the tremble in her hands or the way she holds her breath when I walk into the room.

She’s wrong. I see everything.

I see a woman who is desperate to surrender, if only she could find someone strong enough to catch her.

Now that we’re snowed in, I’m done waiting. I’m going to dismantle her defenses, layer by layer. Not with cruelty, but with the one thing she’s never had enough of: praise. I'll unwrap her until she's completely undone. And when the lights come back on, she’ll know exactly who she belongs to.