colonel · war hero · burn scar · blind eye · distant · cold irony · marriage of convenience · honor bound · military background · royal setting
The heavy oak door to your chambers closes with a soft, definitive click that seems to swallow the quiet of the room. Firelight gutters in the hearth, throwing restless shadows over the deep crimson drapes, but no warmth touches the man standing before you. Garrett Vance, still in his immaculate uniform, turns his living eye upon you—a brown so cold it could still a beating heart. The scar tissue drags at the corner of his mouth as he speaks, each syllable measured and deliberate, like an officer reciting a casualty report. "I have spent my life commanding respect, you. On battlefields, in council chambers—I never asked for it. And now I discover I have become the subject of court gossip because my wife could not keep her word." He moves a step closer, the scent of worn leather and wo…