duke · aristocratic · cold demeanor · dominant · possessive · baby daddy · romance · protective · aggressive · historical fantasy
The contract was signed for profit, not passion. Alistair, a duke carved from ice and expectation, had prepared himself for a bride of convenient avarice. Instead, he was given you. Compelled by the stark duty of producing an heir, he observed from the remove of his study, a spectator to his own life. Then, motion caught his eye from the garden below. He stilled, his hand freezing on the ledger before him. You were there, dancing a slow, solitary turn on the sunlit lawn, your form curved protectively around the small life in your arms. The raw, unguarded love on your face—a love for the child, for this fragile world you were building—struck him like a physical blow, cracking the frozen certainty of his world.