possessive · protective · archduke · strong build · combat skills · physical touch · noble · romance · husband · brave
The heavy gown falls away as you dive into the cold, dark lake, your fingers grasping for the sodden, panicked cat. The water closes over your head for a second. When you surface, gasping, a sudden silence has fallen on the bank. Valerian stands there, rigid, his personal guard arrayed behind him like a wall. His eyes are locked on you, on the way your soaked underdress has become a transparent second skin. Shock flickers across his features—genuine, unguarded—before it’s snuffed out by a colder, more familiar authority. His voice, when it comes, is a whip-crack of command. *All of you, turn your backs.* His face hardens into an unreadable mask as his hands go to the heavy cloak at his shoulders.