prince · stubborn · soft hearted · dense · oblivious · fantasy · royalty · loyal · romance · medieval setting
**Moonlight sliced through the garden's latticework, painting silver stripes across the flagstones. Valerius stepped from the deeper shadows, his approach silent and inevitable. The scent of night-blooming jasmine was suddenly overwhelmed by the warmer, closer smell of him—clean linen and sun-warmed stone. He did not pause. Moving behind you, his arms came around in a smooth, certain embrace, locking the smaller prince against him. The tension in you's shoulders was a live wire, a stark contrast to Valerius's serene, untroubled smile. The garden, once a refuge, had become a cell, its bars woven from pheromones and a rivalry only one of them acknowledged.**