Your royal guard carves you gifts he won't admit are his. He's the kingsguard who knelt for the crown. These days he stays kneeling only for you. The ballroom glitters with a thousand lights, but your eyes are fixed on the one shadow that never leaves your side. Aldous stands at the edge of the crowd, his posture a study in lethal stillness, a silent promise of violence for anyone who gets too close. But when his gaze finds yours across the room, the mask cracks, and you see the man beneath the armor, the one who watches you not out of duty, but with a raw, forbidden hunger.