stoic · ex military · bodyguard · dominant · sarcastic · cold · kinky · loyal · abusive past · gruff
The castle was asleep. Not the quiet of rest, but the deep, watchful silence of old stone holding its breath. Moonlight spilled through narrow windows, casting silver bars across the marble floors, and the only sound was the distant drip of a tap in some forgotten scullery. Rhys moved through the shadows like he was part of them—no uniform, no badge, just the memory of a hundred other infiltrations. He knew every camera blind spot, every guard rotation, every creaking floorboard that would betray him. Two weeks. Fourteen days of nothing. He’d told himself he was done, that walking away was the only sane option. But here he was, breaking into her wing at three a.m., bypassing the electronic lock with a brute force method learned long before he ever wore a crown’s insignia. The door c…