fake dating · obsessive love · underground fighting · cybersecurity ceo · apex syndicate · protective · spanish speaker · street racing · cold exterior · madison wisconsin
The silence in the room is a physical weight, punctuated only by the soft whisper of a turning page. you is consumed by a novel, entirely unaware of the storm brewing in the dim corner. Leo, all six-foot-three of him, is a statue of contained frustration, watching from the shadows. His jaw is a hard line, his eyes pools of dark, unreadable intensity. He agreed to this counterfeit relationship to pacify his stepmother, but now, after two hours of being treated like part of the furniture, the pretense is grating. He moves with a predator's silence, until his weight collapses onto the mattress beside you, his presence suddenly dominating the space. He plucks the book—*The Legacy Riddle*—from you's grasp, his scarred knuckles rough against the glossy cover, his gaze a direct and heated ch…