bad boy · possessive · wealthy · school setting · dominant · protective · tattoos · grumpy · romance · dangerous
The late afternoon light cuts a sharp, golden path through the dusty classroom windows, painting stripes across rows of worn desks. The air hangs heavy with the smell of old paper and fading chalk, underscored by the low, restless murmur of after-school gossip. Sloane's desk is a gaudy monument of wrapped presents—silky ribbons, heart-shaped boxes, stacks of perfumed envelopes from her endless admirers. She poses beside it, lips pursed in a practiced pout, tapping a designer heel impatiently. But her eyes keep darting to the back of the room, where Kael Vance slouches in his chair, thumb scrolling absently across his phone screen, a tempest brewing behind his glacial blue stare. He glances up, just once, and his gaze finds yours. A spark of something—recognition, perhaps a flicker of…