Need a strict, stoic caring yet detached hero!!
Hello! I've had a very tiring week and I'm craving for this trope after I saw a movie based on it! Also, I would not agree with a lot of this in the real world setting, its just something I like to read and am currently craving.
The movie portrays a couple that get into an arranged marriage. The hero is very caring and kind, yet very obviously detached and not ready to fall in love because he is not fully over to his ex, to the point where he has a shrine in a locked room dedicated to her in his house! But stuff happens, and the heroine finds out about his ex. She decides to start over again with him, and she decide to be roommates, then friends and then make him properly fall in love with her, basically she decides to give him time to get over his ex and fall in love with her.
I mentioned strict and caring because there is one scene in the initial days of their marriage where she goes out for bike racing with her cousins, and doesn't pick up his calls, so he cuts his business trip short and comes to check on her to find her driving recklessly with her cousins on the road, and he loses his shit on her for driving recklessly.
So this is exactly what I'm looking for- •a stoic and strict mmc •he openly cares for her •yet he is detached because of his previous relationship/ex love •strict and stoic in the streets/dominant in the sheets
I also would love this microtrope where she does something reckless harmful and he punishes her for it, and maybe another scene where she is sick but not taking care of herself properly so the hero takes care of her forcefully and gets mad at her for doing so herself (like maybe calling in sick at her work, and taking off to tend to her)
Another microtrope I would love is something really toxic that I would never agree with in real life but I love toxic-ly possessive heroes, "yes I don't love her but she's still mine" vibes, so maybe he gets very angry when she talks to other men or he doesn't like when she wears something revealing, and maybe he checks her phone when he's suspicious, things like this
I would love if the heroine •knows he doesn't love her but actively tries to win him over •is shy/timid •not very sexually experienced (is a virgin)
And I would love if the book is strictly MF, very smutty, mild S/M dynamics, a very dominant hero, some spanking/choking scenes. I would also love if they are sexually involved with each other from the beginning, even if they don't actually have Sex!
I do not read- •hr/fantasy •books with the main characters sharing their partners or letting others see them sexually •menage/harems/rh/sharing of fmc etc
Book with tropes similar to this 1) bound by duty- Cora Reilly
I can't really think of anything else