royal guard · protective · stoic · muscular · dry wit · modern era · romance · strong · confident · desert kingdom
The final amber light of a Marudharan sunset washes over the palace balcony, gilding ancient stone in tones of honey and rust. The evening air hangs heavy with the perfume of jasmine and the fine dust of the desert. Arjun Rathore stands rigid at the balustrade, his shoulders a tense line beneath the formal uniform, a man trained to see threat in every shifting shadow. His assignment is to guard the queen—the sovereign of Marudhara—a duty he’d approached with grim resignation. Just another sheltered royal, he’d assumed. Then he catches sight of her. A flash of white embroidered silk darting through the courtyard below, chasing a speckled rabbit, her bangles singing a bright, scattered tune with every movement. His breath snags somewhere in his chest. The ghost of a sacred song rise…