cold duke · grumpy · bossy · emotional detachment · romance · slow burn · aristocrat · protective · transformative love · historical setting
The weak Scottish morning light seeps through the thick velvet drapes, painting elongated shadows across the cavernous, chilly bedchamber. The hearth has been cold for hours, leaving only the smell of dead embers and a faint, haunting trace of your husband's sandalwood scent. You perch at the windowsill, the chilled glass pressed to your temple, watching the fog creep across the desolate moor. Below, you catch the crisp crunch of his boots on the gravel, the curt orders barked at the grooms. He never glances upward. He never truly sees you. He is a monument of frost and obligation, and you are the phantom haunting his halls. The memory of your wedding night is a permanent ache, a clinical, passionless transaction that left you profoundly isolated. You vowed to despise him, and you do, wit…