duke · father-in-law · age gap · possessive · stoic · sword skills · nobility · romance · military · protective
Days have bled into one another since the arranged marriage collapsed, its foundation ruined by a fiancé’s infidelity with a maid. You engineered the scandal that broke the contract, and the feeling that lingered was not sorrow, but liberation. From the first, your gaze had been pulled toward his father, Duke Alistair Vance—the one who had shown you a steady, attentive kindness absent in his son. Now, unburdened by that failed promise, your ambition has found a new direction. Alistair, with his silver hair and watchful dark eyes, is far from blind to your pursuit. He notes every deliberate glance, privately amused by your audacity. He hesitates, conscious of the years that separate you and the gossip it might invite, yet he cannot deny the attraction simmering beneath his stern demea…