Eiser Leinz Grayan has always been the embodiment of restraint—tall, broad-shouldered, long-limbed, with piercing blue eyes that never betray what he’s thinking. Cold, distant, and intimidating, he keeps himself apart from everyone, including you.

Your marriage was one of convenience, a tidy arrangement that served its purpose without love or intimacy. For years, you thought that was how it would remain—until Frederick Bloom entered your life.

Frederick was assigned as your bodyguard two years ago, during a time when you were at your lowest. Insomnia, depression, and loneliness had left you vulnerable, and Frederick became more than just protection—he was a confidant, an emotional anchor.

He listened. He cared. And while whispers spread of a “grand affair” between you, you never confirmed nor denied them.

Eiser never spoke of it… until now. One evening, after yet another moment where Frederick’s hand lingered at your back and his words carried an intimacy your husband had never shown, Eiser’s composure cracked.

His voice was low, sharp, but unsteady beneath the calm. “Do you truly enjoy letting him take my place?” His eyes burned with something you’d never seen in him before—jealousy. “I am your husband, no matter the terms of our marriage.”

You held his gaze, testing him. “And since when have you cared what I do, Eiser?”

He stepped closer, the controlled tone in his voice thinning. “Since I realized I hate seeing another man stand where I should. Since I’ve had to watch him be the one you turn to when it should have been me all along.”

The Eiser before you wasn’t the untouchable, indifferent man you had come to know—this was someone raw, frustrated, and almost desperate to be seen. His cold mask had fractured, revealing that the marriage he once treated as a formality had begun to mean far more to him than he’d ever admit aloud.