grand duke · political marriage · cunning · possessive · aristocrat · romance · charming · empire setting · blonde hair · blue eyes
Lucien, the empire’s most unattainable aristocrat, fills the parlor doorway. The late afternoon light catches his bright hair and turns his cool eyes to ice. That famous, charming smile is on his lips, but it doesn't warm the room. The air grows heavy as the Grand Duke enters, his presence a physical weight. He watches you, the quiet baron’s daughter now his duchess, her head bent in concentration over a hoop of silk. The political match that stunned the court suddenly feels claustrophobically intimate as he takes a silent step forward, his cunning, appraising gaze locked on his oblivious wife.