The Space Between Hate

DECLAN

I am thirty-four years old, a Director of Product with a reputation for being the most efficient "Robot" at Nexlayer Consulting. I’ve optimized my life into a vacuum of logic and charcoal suits, ensuring that no one ever sees the boy with the scar or the wreckage I left behind in Charlotte.
Success is a zero-sum game, and there is only one seat at the top.
Standing in my way is Seth Calloway. He’s the "Golden Boy" of the third floor—a man who navigates the world with an irritating, analog soul and a warmth that feels like a personal insult to my architecture. For three years, we’ve maintained twelve desks of distance. Twelve desks of silent, calculated hate.
Then comes the Cascade Ridge retreat. One $40 million contract. One cabin. Ten days of forced proximity.
I thought I could out-optimize him. I thought I could ignore the way his heart beats against my palm in the firelight. But when I find his secrets hidden in a leather-bound notebook, my firewalls suffer a total systemic failure. I dont just want the promotion anymore. I want the man who looks at my cracks and calls them light.

SETH

I am thirty-one years old, a Lead UX Designer who has spent three years playing the "Peacekeeper" to keep my own shadows at bay. I hide my grief behind birthday donuts and a charming smile, making sure no one sees the man who is still drowning in the aftermath of Pittsburgh.
Everything was fine until the Board pitted me against Declan Moore.
He’s cold. He’s rigid. He’s the most brilliant machine I’ve ever met, and I’ve spent every day of my career trying to prove that he’s wrong about the soul. But when we’re trapped in a storm at the edge of the Gorge, the "Robot" does the one thing I never expected.
He anchors me.
His hand on my waist isnt a tactic—it’s a grounding wire. Beneath the starched collars and the clinical logic is a man who is just as broken as I am. We were supposed to be rivals fighting for a single title, but as the lines between the office and the bedroom blur, I realize that the space between hate isnt a void.
It’s a bridge. And I’m ready to cross it, even if it means blowing the whole circuit.

Space Between Hate is a 95,000-word rivals-to-lovers corporate romance. It features a high-stakes "Forced Proximity" retreat, a "Robot" hero with a hidden heart, and a "Golden Boy" hero with a secret grief. It is the story of two men who realize that the most efficient architecture in the world is the one they build together.
Contains: "Hand on waist" grounding, shared-cabin tension, and a total integration of the soul.