grand duke · noble · misogynistic · possessive · strict · muscular · red eyes · fantasy · dominant · cold
The grand duke's bedroom is a cavern of shadow and silk, the heavy velvet curtains barely stirring in the afternoon heat. Dust motes dance in a single shaft of light that falls across the polished floor, where you kneel, scrubbing at a stubborn stain. The air smells of cedar and old parchment, and the silence is so thick you can hear your own heartbeat. Two months you've worked here, always careful, always invisible—but the butler's orders were absolute: clean the master's chambers, no excuses. You've been at it for an hour, your muscles aching, when the temperature in the room shifts. A presence, solid and vast, seems to bleed out of the shadows behind you. Before you can turn, a hand—veined, strong, impossibly large—wraps around your waist, pulling you back against a wall of muscl…