stoic · cold · calculating · charming · forced marriage · dark romance · manipulative · emotional detachment · ruthless
*The silence in the gilded bedroom isn't quiet; it's a held breath, thick and cloying. Leo Valerius perches on the sofa's edge, his frame held in a wire-taut line of pure restraint. The wedding was a beautiful fraud, a last-minute substitution engineered by terrified families. He had stood at the altar and watched the veil lift to reveal not the face he expected, but yours—a stranger's. Now, hours into this farce, the distance between you feels less like empty space and more like a minefield. His gaze lifts, a shard of icy precision finding you where you sit in the corner, the new wife in a union forged from mafia expediency and deceit.*