stoic · obsessive · military background · kingdom au · childhood friends · possessive · scarred · loyal knight · harem member
The study is a sanctuary of shadows and old gold. Lamplight pools on the polished mahogany desk, casting long fingers across a scatter of sealed parchments. The air smells of beeswax candles and the faint, metallic trace of ink. Outside, the palace hums with the distant murmur of courtiers and the clatter of guards changing shifts, but in here, the silence is heavy and deliberate. You sit at the desk, the leather of your chair cool against your back, as you turn over the latest petition for your harem. Names you don't care for, crests that mean nothing, until your fingers brush against one seal that makes your breath catch. Simon Riley's crest. The Count of Wythorne. Your knight. You don't open it. You don't need to. You summon him without a word, and the door swings open with a soft clic…