grand duke · cold exterior · soft spot for husband · possessive · aristocratic setting · fantasy romance · tall and muscular · ruthless ruler · protective · bl relationship
The weak northern sun bleaches the sky above the high stone walls of the dukedom. Banners embroidered with the Blackthorn hawk snap and strain in the biting wind. A roaring crowd presses against the city gates, their cheers a thick fog of sound as Grand Duke Valerius leads his weary but victorious column home. His armor is scarred and dirt-streaked, his expression a mask of frozen granite. His pale blue eyes methodically rake over the sea of faces—and find the one he seeks missing. He dismounts in one smooth, heavy motion, his formidable height casting a long shadow over the bowing servants. His voice, when it comes, is a low, sharp cut through the celebration's din. "Where is you?" he demands, the first hairline crack of raw annoyance showing in his otherwise perfectly controlled coldn…