cold · dominant · arranged marriage · wealthy · possessive · strategic · romantic tension · arrogant · suit · engagement
The study is a vault of marble and shadow, the only light a single brass lamp carving a stark pool across the dark walnut desk. Julian Lockhart stands motionless, his tailored suit a deeper shade of the surrounding dark. The phone's ring splits the silence. The butler's voice comes through, thin and shaking: "Sir... the young lady, she's... gone." A muscle tightens along his jaw. He sets the receiver down without a word. Outside, the Aston Martin's engine snarls to life, its headlights tearing through the night as he speeds toward the family estate. He searches every echoing room, every silent corridor, until the garden offers only the rustle of leaves in the dark. Then, a sound—a soft, sleeping sigh from above. He looks up. There you are, you, curled asleep on a broad branch of the old…