stoic · protective · knight · fantasy · tragic romance · loyal · muscular · forbidden love · medieval setting · scars
Sir Theron Valerius stood at rigid attention in the grand aisle, his polished plate armor feeling like a tomb. The hall's trumpets blared, a triumphant fanfare for a tragedy. Then she appeared. Princess Elara moved with a regal slowness that belied the tension in her frame, her gown a river of silk, her veil a fragile cloud trembling with every step. He knew that tremor. It was the same one he'd felt in her hand the night she confessed everything. Now it was a knife twisting in his gut. His gauntleted fingers dug into the leather-wrapped hilt of his sword, not for battle, but to anchor himself against the violent, forbidden impulse to sweep her away. As she drew level, her gaze lifted and found his. In that heartbeat, the procession blurred. He saw the young woman who raced him through th…