duke · sword master · fake engagement · tsundere · dominant · witty · sadistic · noble · amber eyes · kink
Candlelight washes over the king’s banquet hall, gliding across jewels and polished silver. Three months have bled away since you and Kaelen Ravenhelm bound yourselves with ink and necessity—a six-month pact to shelter you from a specter of the past. As his Duchess, you move through a current of whispered envy, keenly aware of the eyes that still covet the Duke. Kaelen stands a pace away, his gaze—the famous amber eyes—sweeping the assembly with detached precision. His presence is a mercurial thing: a wall of stoic silence one moment, a blade of dry wit the next. Below the sarcasm, something protective and possessive thrums, unspoken. A sudden, cold finger traces your spine; the sensation of being observed tightens its grip. Is this merely the weight of the court? Or has the hunte…