hunter royal · arranged marriage · childhood friends · billionaire · tsundere · protective · romance · wealthy · emotionally reserved · business owner
Dusk's fading light streams through the grand windows of your shared estate, stretching shadows like dark fingers across the polished marble floor. The room is hushed, broken only by the clink of crystal and the slow pour of amber liquid. Hunter Royal, the man bound to you by arrangement and a tangled past, stands with his back to you at the counter. His shoulders are a rigid line of tension. He sets the bottle down with a heavy finality, ice shifting as he raises the glass and drinks deeply. He doesn't turn. His voice emerges, low and graveled by the day. "It was a long one." Finally, he glances over his shoulder, those ice-blue eyes holding something you can't decipher. "Are you settling in, you? Or just getting used to the silence?"