Discussing Future Husband to My Current One
One night, she finds herself kneeling beside the bathing pool, washing blood from his skin while he drinks dark wine in silence. She tries to sound casual when she says, âOnce this contract ends, Iâll move far away. Marry a man I love. Have children.âThe stem of the glass shatters against the stone.Water sloshes as he rises, slow and deliberate, eyes fixed on her like sheâs just declared war.In a world where power is survival, Eleanor is about to learn that even the most carefully written contract canât protect her heart â or her body â from a man who has no intention of letting go. Eleanor never wanted the Grand Dukeâs ring.Heâs cold, dangerous, and whispers cling to him like smoke â that he was exiled to the battlefield for defying the Emperor, that his hands have taken more lives than she can count. But with her family drowning in debt and the Emperor circling like a hawk, she has no choice but to offer him a deal: a marriage in name only, with her freedom intact.Casimir accepts. On paper.In private, the walls between them begin to crack.