> "To survive in business, you need two things: a killer instinct and a heart made of ice. I have both." —Elena Voss
They called her The Ice Queen, and Elena Voss wore the title like a crown.
Her empire, Voss Global Holdings, stretched across continents, swallowing weaker companies and leaving nothing but dust behind. She didn't rise to the top by being kind. She rose because she was brilliant, calculating, and unapologetically lethal. No scandals, no lovers, no vulnerabilities. She was everything the business world feared in a woman.
But there was one man she couldn't bury.
Knox Wilder.
Wilder Industries.
He was her opposite. Bold, ruthless, and reckless, but with charm the media devoured. He smiled for cameras, flirted with reporters, and landed billion-dollar contracts with a wink and a handshake. Where Elena used silence and precision, Knox used charisma and chaos.
Their rivalry had become legendary.
Oil fields in Dubai. Shipping lines in Singapore. Tech mergers in California. Wherever Elena moved, Knox was already there—competing, countering, or worse, winning.
So when she stepped into the boardroom of the latest merger acquisition in Manhattan and saw him leaning casually against the glass window, coffee in one hand, smirk on his lips, Elena's blood iced over.
"You're late," he said without looking at her, his voice smooth, like sin in silk.
She dropped her coat on the nearest chair, heels clicking like a warning shot. "And you're still breathing. Shame."
Knox turned, his sharp green eyes meeting hers with the ease of someone who'd danced with danger and never tripped. "Elena Voss. I was wondering when the snowstorm would roll in."
"I don't have time for your games, Wilder."
"Then you'll hate this," he said, pulling out a leather file and sliding it across the table. "I just bought out your partners' shares. I now own 51% of the merger you came here to control."
Her fingers tightened on the chair. "You're bluffing."
"Cross-reference the numbers if you like." He winked. "But by the time you're done, I'll be sipping scotch from your executive bar."
She hated how calm he was. How devastatingly handsome he looked in his charcoal suit and that cocky tilt of his mouth. But worse—she hated that he wasn't lying.
Elena stepped closer, her voice a threat disguised in velvet. "I don't lose."
Knox leaned in too, so close she could smell the faint scent of his cologne—dark, woodsy, infuriating. "Then I guess I'm your first."
A beat of silence.
She'd clawed her way up from nothing, crushed men twice as powerful. And now this man, her rival, her equal, was breathing down her neck and stripping away her empire piece by piece.
But Elena Voss didn't shatter. She adapted.
Straightening her spine, she met his gaze with a cold smile. "Enjoy the feeling while it lasts. I'll have your company, your clients, and your name in ruin before the quarter ends."
He chuckled, slow and dangerous. "God, I love when you threaten me."
"You should pray I don't follow through."
"I'm hoping you do."
Her pulse betrayed her for a split second. The air between them wasn't just sharp—it crackled. They were fire and frost in the same breath, and even though she'd built her life on never trusting men, Elena felt the one thing she hated more than weakness.
Curiosity.
She turned on her heel and walked out, refusing to let him see her crack.
But Knox Wilder had just declared war.
And Elena Voss?
She was going to burn him to the ground—or melt in his fire trying.
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