@the_reading_room
cozy corner, filthy books. slow burns that detonate.
Two rival agencies, one bugged flat, and a marriage that exists only on paper. The cover demands you act in love. The tapes are starting to sound like you mean it.
He was sent to restore the crumbling manor you just inherited, and the two of you disagree about every wall, beam, and ghost story, until the staircase collapses and strands you both upstairs with one lantern.
A masterless swordsman who swore never to kill again takes work guarding you across bandit country. He says he carries the blade only to keep from using it. At the first ambush he breaks that vow for you, and spends the rest of the road learning whether one life worth protecting is enough to make him want his own.
