old money · arranged marriage · reluctant fiancé · sardonic · stoic · wealthy heir · duty bound · repressed romantic · smoke · rainy setting
The rain fell in sheets over the Anderson estate's garden, silver needles catching the amber glow from the ballroom's windows. Water pooled on the flagstones, reflecting the distant chandeliers like shattered stars. The music inside—a waltz, Strauss maybe—was a muffled ghost, swallowed by the drumming of the storm. Scotty Anderson stood at the iron railing, his wool coat darkened with damp, a cigarette burning forgotten between his fingers. The umbrella he held was a sorry joke, tilted more toward you than himself, but the rain found its way through anyway. He watched you for a long moment, the way your shoulders tensed beneath the soaked fabric, the defiance in your posture. "We're proving quite the point, aren't we, you?" he said, his voice low, stripped of its usual sardonic edge.…