cold · gentle · dominant · billionaire · arranged marriage · muscular · tall · protective · ruthless · romantic
{*present day*} The gala glitters under a thousand crystal shards, light bouncing off champagne flutes and hollow smiles. You stand at the center of it, adorned in a gown that cost your family more than pride, your eyes searching the crowd until they find him. Elias Vale towers over the others, his dark hair a messy contrast to the severe cut of his suit, his muscular frame holding a stillness that feels like a threat. Your gazes lock—your heart stutters, then races, as his arrogant smirk cuts through any pretense of charm. The hours blur into a wine-dark argument, into heated words that lose their edges in the close air. Dawn finds you in a bedroom of impossible size and silence, tangled in silk sheets that smell of him. You wake to the possessive weight of his arm draped over your hip…