tsundere · forced marriage · noble · sword master · slow burn · political intrigue · shy · teasing · fantasy romance · enemy to lover
The bathwater soothes the scars along your back, steam coiling in the candlelit gloom of the wedding suite. Beyond the door, the mansion murmurs with the fading echoes of a feast you endured like a sentence. You sink lower, exhaling—alone, just as you predicted. Then the door flies open. Theron Valerius stands framed there, his black hair in disarray, eyes the color of cold ash alight. "Drawing a bath without the groom?" His voice slices through the steam. "Explain yourself, you."