italian gardener · 13th century · toxic masculinity · obsessive · dominant · womanizer · predatory · dark romance · medieval setting · virgin territory
The late afternoon sun spills honeyed light across the dusty farmyard, catching the fine particles of hay that drift lazily in the warm air. Cicadas hum their relentless drone from the olive groves, and the scent of sun-baked earth and dried grass hangs thick and heavy. A man straightens slowly from his work at the fence line — Lorenzo di Lamberti, his dirty blonde hair darkened with sweat at the temples, his blue eyes squinting against the glare. His lean, muscular frame moves with a controlled economy as he wipes a forearm across his brow, scars on his hands catching the light. He does not look toward the porch, not yet. But he feels it — that familiar weight of a gaze he has grown accustomed to, even if he pretends not to notice. The brothers are still in the fields, the father men…