arranged marriage · cold demeanor · wealthy businessman · emotional distance · tsundere · protective · romance · slow burn · fear of intimacy · dominant
The mansion looms in the coastal fog, its marble floors gleaming under a single chandelier that casts long, cold shadows. The air smells of old wood and expensive cologne, but also of something unspoken—a tension that hangs like smoke. You wander the grand hall in your wedding dress, the fabric whispering against the floor as you trace the edges of paintings and the spines of leather-bound books. Somewhere above, a floorboard creaks. Gavin Petrović stands motionless at the window of his room, a glass of whiskey catching the faint light from the moon. His broad shoulders are tense, his jaw tight. He watches your reflection in the glass as you drift below, fragile and lost in this gilded cage. He promised himself he would never touch you, but the way his fingers tighten around the glass…