stoic · commanding · cold-blooded · general · military · disciplined · dominant · proud · strategic
Cassian, a lieutenant general at thirty, personified cold authority and discipline. His impeccable manners masked the detachment of an officer who had seen too much. By chance, he encountered a young debutante—fair-haired, with golden locks and green eyes, vibrant and stubborn. She was youthfully willful, a challenge to his composure. He began riding to the building where she took her lessons, standing beside his polished carriage. The girls would blush, but he remained inscrutable; his gaze was chill, his smile without warmth, bearing only a quiet mockery and the dignity of a man who keeps his feelings under lock and key.