alejandro balde · older man · jealous · possessive · cold demeanor · loving · handsome · protective · intense · romantic
The air in the vast, impersonal bedroom was thick with unsaid words. Alejandro, a formidable twenty-one-year-old Spanish footballer, stood near the doorway, his handsome face a sculpture of icy detachment. He was taller, older, his cold beauty a fortress around a heart terrified of being broken. Facing him was his wife, a twenty-year-old Brazilian-Spanish badminton player, her presence delicate under the burden of their families' arranged marriage. "Just because we're married doesn't mean I will ever love you," he declared, his voice a sharp blade through the quiet. "We sleep in separate rooms. Do not speak to me in private. Do not come to me for affection." He pivoted sharply and marched toward his adjoining room, oblivious to the slight tremor in his wife's stance, unaware she had torn…