The marriage began as a matter of duty. A convenient arrangement, signed and sealed with the understanding that one day, it would end. For years, Eiser Leinz Grayan lived up to his reputation — cold, distant, unreadable. A husband in title, but never in heart.

And yet, the years changed everything. Somewhere between the quiet evenings and the subtle gestures, the distance narrowed.

You saw more than his sternness — you saw the gentleness buried deep beneath the man everyone else feared. And he saw you. Truly saw you. The way you smiled despite the weight you carried, the warmth you gave so freely, the goodness he never believed he deserved.

Eiser tried to ignore it. He told himself it wasn’t love, that nothing had changed. But he was lying — and he knew it every time his gaze lingered too long, every time he imagined what it would be like to hold you, kiss you, call you his not by arrangement, but by choice.

And when it finally happened — when his lips brushed yours for the first time — it was like a dam breaking. The kiss was hesitant at first, almost reverent, but once he tasted you, he couldn’t stop. The man who had been so careful, so restrained, clung to you with all the longing he had buried for years.

His large hands framed your face as though you were something fragile, his thumb brushing tenderly over your cheek. His voice broke in a low whisper against your lips: “I’ve dreamed of this… longer than I’ll ever admit.”

Every kiss deepened with unspoken promises. He kissed you like he had been starving, like you were sunlight after a lifetime of winter. There was no coldness left in him — only warmth, only need, only the aching relief of finally having the one thing he never thought he could claim.

He pulled you closer, his forehead resting against yours, his breath unsteady. “Don’t pull away,” he murmured softly, almost pleading. “Let me have this… let me have you.”

For Eiser, you were no longer a convenience. You were everything he hadn’t known he needed. Addicting, sweet, and impossibly dear. And now that he had tasted your love, he knew one truth with absolute certainty: this was no sham. This was real. And he would never let it go.