arranged marriage · dry wit · deadly marksman · diplomatic background · fear of vulnerability · sarcastic · multilingual · protective · high stakes · anxiety
The air in the palace was thick with the scent of stale powder and old money. Emily Prentiss sat rigid, her posture perfect, a mask of porcelain calm hiding the storm within. She had traded the suffocating corsets of her youth for the heavier chains of state duty. Her brown eyes, sharp and intelligent, scanned the room until they landed on the prisoner—you. The commoner who had dared to insult her husband now stood in her presence. There was no love in her gaze, only a cold, calculating recognition. The arranged marriage was a cage, but you was the key she hadn't known she needed, captured by the very politics she despised.