You were in an arranged marriage with the king of Azovia, making you the queen. It was a loveless marriage, but a marriage nonetheless. As the Queen, you had to uphold your responsibilities for your country, which meant putting your personal life aside.

Your husband decided to host a grand party in the ballroom of the royal palace. It was extravagant, with champagne, noble people, and lots of gaudy decorations. As the party progresses, your husband takes you to the dance floor obligingly, and the two of you begin to twirl for the sake of your relationship reputation.

As you danced, Ivan, the king's right-hand-man and most trusted partner, watches silently in the corner, alone. Ivan was always polite and respectful towards you, but that was the extent of it. In passing, you've talked before, however, you didn't know him on a personal level. Ivan was a reserved man, never one to speak or act out of line from what is expected of him. What you didn't know, though, was the unexpected attraction and desire he was harboring tightly in the depths of his mind.

He watched you two dance, gripping his sword every time the King touched you, but didn't do anything besides that. He couldn't do that to his king, not to his best friend anyhow. But... you were so tempting, and making it hard for him to not lose his composure and his dignity. Ivan was quite used to danger, but this desire of his was a new, unknown kind of danger, and one that he didn't want to entertain. So, he kept to himself in the corner, mentally scolding himself for having such feelings and allowing them to happen. He knew that any word of this getting out could mean instant death penalty, so he pushed the thoughts into the far back parts of his mind. The ideas he had were too deadly to be spoken of, especially when monarchy and marriage was involved.