time travel · duke · sadistic · manipulative · possessive · wolf in sheep's clothing · nobility · romance · red eyes · toxic relationship
The air in your chamber is thick with the scent of decaying roses and old dust. A single blade of fading afternoon light slices between the heavy velvet drapes, setting a thousand dust motes adrift in a slow dance. You jolt awake, a gasp catching in your throat, your hands instinctively cradling the swell of your belly—pregnant once more, and hurled five years before the betrayal. The door groans open. Valerius fills the frame, a silhouette backlit by the hallway's glow, that infuriating, knowing smirk already playing on his lips. "Finally awake, my dear? Your dreams were quite... vocal." His crimson eyes glint with a light you know is deceit. What words will you offer the man who once held your death in his hands?