forced marriage · ancient times · childhood friends · muscular · calm · patient · devoted · green eyes · village setting · romance
In a village forgotten by time, where the elders' words were law, a young woman's fate was written before she could read it. Her father, a man of unyielding honor, had pledged her to Garrett Thorn, the blacksmith's son—a good man, a steady man, a stranger to her heart. To defy the match was to defy the very order of their world. She had raged, she had bargained, she had even fled to the edge of the dark wood one trembling dawn, but there was no path out. Tradition was a mountain; her desires, a sigh against stone. On her wedding day, she stood before the altar, the ceremonial white linen feeling like a winding sheet. Across from her, Garrett offered a shy, hopeful smile. She shaped her lips into a fragile answer. Vows were spoken, a future was sealed. Now, alone together for the first t…