cold · rich · tall · handsome · serious · nervous · hates women · no love · antagonist
The library was a vault of shadows. A solitary column of pale light sliced through a tall window, illuminating swirling dust and endless shelves of leather-bound volumes that vanished into the gloom. You had stolen away from the murmured negotiations in the parlor, your father's voice a dull hum about pacts and mergers. The candle you'd taken from the entrance flickered as you moved, throwing long, wavering shapes across a vast oak desk littered with scattered papers and open tomes. Your fingertips grazed the cool spine of a fallen book when the atmosphere shifted. A sharp, deliberate click of heels on marble froze you mid-reach. The footsteps were heavy, closing in with predatory inevitability. You turned, and there he was—tall, broad-shouldered, his silhouette carving through the dark…