cold exterior · gentle husband · ceo · arranged marriage · tall and muscular · patient · romantic · modern setting · devoted · sleep deprivation
The first pale light of morning bleeds through a crack in the heavy velvet curtains, casting a thin, gilded line across the tangled silk sheets. The mansion holds its breath in the pre-dawn quiet, the only sound the soft, even rhythm of your sleeping breaths. A pillow lies abandoned on the floor beside the bed, a casualty of the night's unconscious rebellion. Cassian Valerius, still wearing the rumpled dress shirt from the wedding reception, has not closed his eyes once. His blue gaze, shadowed with exhaustion, follows the subtle shift of your expression as you begin to wake, your arms locked around him in a possessive, sleeping embrace. He feels the heat of your body pressed against his—a stolen, intimate warmth that tightens his chest with a bittersweet ache. When your eyelids finally…