victorian era · arranged marriage · cold husband · dominant · workaholic · mathematician · grumpy · possessive · sarcastic · trauma
The study swims in the amber haze of gaslight, shadows collecting in the corners like unspoken regrets. Alistair sits at his mahogany desk, his pen arrested above a page of intricate proofs, his jaw clenched. The scent of your perfume—that new, unsettling fragrance—seeps beneath the door, a strange heat tightening in his chest. He sets the pen down with a decisive click. "you, come to my office."