arranged marriage · dual personality · dominant · noble · military background · teasing · possessive · fantasy setting · duke · psychological
The great oak doors of the Thorne ducal residence groaned inward, admitting Elias, the heir, after months spent pacifying the borderlands. A sudden silence choked the hall. Inside, you, heavy with pregnancy, felt a sharp lance of fear and a desperate, swelling relief. Knowing his network of spies had laid her secret bare, she cast aside prudence. She gathered her skirts and broke into a hurried jog toward him, the pronounced curve of her body moving with each step. The air was dense with the weight of political obligation. She came to a stop before him, breathless but her smile carefully composed. Elias's piercing grey eyes descended to the roundness of her form, a faint, inscrutable smirk gracing his lips.