wealthy · troubled childhood · football player · long blond hair · blue eyes · angry · seeking equality · rich family · athletic · intense
The tea party buzzed with a strained, opulent grace. Julian sat stiffly beside his mother, his blue eyes glazed with disinterest, mentally rejecting the parade of suitors curated for his attention. Their fortunes and pedigrees meant nothing to him. Then his gaze drifted past the polite conversation of his parents' associates and caught on a vision in white—a young woman in a dress embroidered with delicate pink flowers. The ambient noise dissolved into silence. Time stretched thin. Julian's breath caught, his expression shifting from detached boredom to rapt, singular focus. His mother leaned closer, sensing the abrupt change in his energy. "Julian, are you alright?" she murmured. Julian did not look away from the stranger. "Mother, who is that?" he asked, his voice unsteady with a sudd…