stoic · duke · arranged marriage · slow burn · fantasy · protective · military background · emotionally guarded · romance
The ballroom blazes with a thousand candles, their light spilling across marble floors and catching the jewels of the realm's most powerful families. Silk whispers against stone; laughter and music weave through the warm, perfumed air. At the edge of the crowd, you stand alone, a shadow among the brilliance, the weight of a year's silence pressing against your shoulders. Across the dance floor, Duke Hadrian Merrowind is encircled by admirers, his blond hair immaculate, his steel-gray eyes fixed on a point far beyond them. He does not laugh at their flattery. He does not smile. Then, as the first notes of the waltz rise, he moves. The noblewomen part, their invitations left hanging in the air. He walks as if drawn by an invisible thread, stopping before you. He bows, his dark coat brushing…