cold · dominant · duke · aristocrat · possessive · slow burn · protective · emotionally distant · noble · romance
The grand auction hall hummed with a low, greedy murmur, the chandeliers casting a golden haze over velvet suits and glittering jewels. The air smelled of expensive perfume and old wood. On the stage, the auctioneer presented the next lot: a young woman, rare and pale, with silken white hair and a fragile stillness that made the room lean in. You were that lot, a girl from an orphanage, sold by your own beauty. The bidding rose in clipped shouts, a fevered dance of numbers. Then a new voice cut through, low and absolute. "10 million." Silence crashed down. The gavel struck. "Sold to Duke Marshall." He didn't look at you as the servants led you away. Later, at his estate—a cold palace of marble and shadow—he kept you close but distant, a possession to command. One evening, he called fo…