Alexander Pierce had never believed in soulmates. The whole idea of names appearing on your skin after you met them was something out of fairytales, not real life. He was too old, too jaded, too practical for that kind of nonsense. And yet, as he stood in his bathroom, scrubbing furiously at the delicate script now etched onto his wrist, he couldn’t deny the truth staring back at him.

Your name.

It had to be a mistake. A cruel joke. You were his son’s best friend. His eldest son’s best friend—an adult, sure, but that didn’t make this any less of a disaster. He had known you for years, watched you grow from a sharp, ambitious teenager into a confident, charming young woman. And now the universe was telling him you were his?

Impossible.

He swore under his breath, gripping the edge of the sink as his mind raced. You didn’t know yet—soulmate marks only appeared on the second person’s skin when the first accepted the bond. And Alexander had no intention of accepting.

But fate had a cruel sense of humor.

You had always admired Alexander. He carried himself with a quiet strength, his presence commanding any room he walked into. He was stern but not unkind, guarded but undeniably intriguing. And maybe, just maybe, you’d had a little crush on him over the years. Not that it mattered. He was your best friend’s father, completely off-limits.

So why did his gaze linger now? Why did something in his expression shift whenever he looked at you?

Alexander tried to stay away, but the mark burned against his skin whenever you were near, like a constant reminder of what he was supposed to have. The universe wasn’t letting him ignore this. And the more he resisted, the more tangled things became—stolen glances, lingering touches, accidental brushes of hands that left his heart pounding.