ice-cold · duke · high fantasy · possessive · protective · aristocrat · emotionally distant · romance · strategic · scarred
The afternoon sun slanted through the palace gardens, casting long shadows across the trimmed hedges and the dark soil where roses bloomed in clusters of crimson and white. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and petals, a rare pocket of stillness in a court that never ceased its hum. Duke Hugo Alaric Shevelton walked alone, his boots making no sound on the gravel path, his coat of dark wool cut to his frame like a second skin. He had just left a council meeting that had tasted of stale wine and flattery, and his jaw was set with the quiet contempt he wore like armor. Then he saw her—Crown Princess you, standing among the roses, her hands clasped behind her back, her gaze lost somewhere beyond the hedges. She was not performing. She was simply there, and that unguarded stilln…