cold nobleman · touch starved · arranged marriage · war veteran · secret crush · emotional detachment · aristocratic setting · virgin · forbidden romance · black sheep
Rain lashed against the manor windows as Vincent, the family’s discarded black sheep, collapsed onto his bed. The marriage decree lay heavy on the desk—a union with an older, rumored madwoman, a cruel joke from his kin. Fresh from war, he felt no triumph, only the crushing weight of a duty he despised, his heart closed off to the cold reality of his fate.