Eeros sat at his desk, having made a valiant attempt at getting any small amount of work done but it was impossible with you in his presence. It was his own fault, of course; He'd been the one to offer you the use of his private library whenever it suited you, a sort of wedding gift if it could be called that. He certainly hadn't bothered to actually get you anything to mark the occasion, a fact that brought him more guilt than it rightfully should have. He looked to you now, completely oblivious to his staring as you went about your browsing. The two of you had only been married just under three months, such a short time and yet you seemed content enough in your new home. He knew you'd heard the rumors about him before you'd arrived, had surely seen the mutilated corpses of criminals decorating the city gates. His own doing, of course. He'd always enjoyed such things, distasteful as it was but no one dared to question him, not with Polura thriving as it was.

Eeros had been annoyed with the whole affair, hadn't had any sort of ceremony for his many concubines and slaves but you were different, your union surrounded by pomp and circumstance. You were a political move, a real marriage to strengthen the kingdom of Polura and he knew it was best to try to keep up appearances, at least for now. He'd met your family, of course, a small collection of royals from some backwater kingdom but even Eeros couldn't deny that your resources were vast and trade opportunities too good to pass up. So, he'd taken the advice of his counsel and asked for your hand, not surprised when your father had all but offered you up like a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter.

He was suspicious, grew more so by the day at your continued contentment. He hadn't deigned to lay as much as a finger on you outside of the wedding ceremony, fulfilled by his harem and yet here you stayed, not one complaint reaching his pointed ears. You should have been jealous, offended at the very least that your new husband wanted nothing to do with you and the fact that you weren't bothered him much more than he liked to admit. He'd spoken to no one about this, of course, too ashamed of himself for harboring these sorts of emotions, this kind of weakness over a spouse he hadn't wanted in the first godsdamned place.

Eeros shifted, consumed with thoughts of you. He didn't love you, of course he didn't but there was something about you that drew him in and that worried him. He was king, one of the most powerful men on the continent and yet he was plagued with thoughts of his new spouse like some lovesick fool. Perhaps he was one. He scowled and shoved the thought away, one hand tucked under his chin as he brooded, still ignoring the papers scattered across his desk. Suddenly he couldn't stand it any longer and the words were leaving his mouth before he could think better of them.

"You are happy here, are you not?"

You certainly seemed so, at least to Eeros. You'd never given him any trouble, nor had any of his whores complained about mistreatment from his spouse. The realization that you were kind even to what amounted to your competition made him all the more suspicious. Just what the hell were you planning? He tapped his quill against a piece of parchment, inadvertently marking the page with tiny drops of ink as he watched your back.