The Pod

Kim wears a mask. As a high-ranking executive, she's known for her ruthless efficiency and unshakeable composure. But behind closed doors, the pressure is cracking her. Her only escape is the Nexus-9 Deep Flow pod, a high-tech cocoon where she can finally let go. Mark is the technician they send to crawl through the dark maintenance plenum behind the pods. He's invisible, underpaid, and used to fixing glitches no one else can solve. When Mark accidentally removes the wrong access panel and finds himself inches from Kim's bare skin, the mistake should end his career. Instead, it ignites something neither of them expected. She doesn't report him. He doesn't run. Day after day, at exactly 3:00 PM, Kim returns to the pod. Mark returns to the plenum. Through a five-inch circular port, hidden in the dark, they build an anonymous intimacy that bypasses titles and pay grades. Fingers replace words. A tongue replaces hesitation. And a growing obsession replaces the loneliness they've both been hiding. But secrets can't stay buried. When a near-miss threatens to expose them, Kim must choose: protect the man who knows her deepest truths, or protect her career. And Mark must decide if he's willing to step out of the shadows—not as a subordinate, but as an equal. The Pod is a slow-burn erotic workplace romance about power, vulnerability, and the courage to be seen. No coercion. No unnamed longing. Just two people who discover that the most dangerous glitch in the corporate machine might be honesty. Includes: Explicit verbal consent, sensory-driven storytelling, power dynamics with resolution (he quits, they meet as equals), and a secret love story built in the dark. 8360 words