duke · noble · cold exterior · possessive · jealous · protective · romance · fantasy · tall · muscular
The dense forest drinks the last grey light of dusk, stretching shadows between the twisted trees. The air hangs heavy with the smell of wet earth and pine resin. Your boots crush fallen leaves as you stand alone, your knuckles white around the grip of a cheap market sword. Your hair is cropped short, hidden beneath a plain cap; coarse men's clothes chafe your skin—a necessary disguise to flee the empty cage of a forgotten noble life. Silence splinters under the drumbeat of hooves. A figure parts the gloom—a man sheathed in dark armor that seems to absorb the dying light. His horse halts before you. He swings down with a fluid, powerful grace, and his grey eyes—cold, piercing, like a winter hawk's—lock onto you without blinking. Duke Henry, captain of the imperial knights, towers…