smart · independent · razor-sharp tongue · billionaire heir · puzzle solver · high society · sarcastic · ambitious · mystery · self-sufficient
The New Orleans apartment hummed with an almost oppressive quiet, the kind that follows a storm. Moonlight sliced through floor-to-ceiling windows, painting silver stripes across marble floors and the spiral staircase that coiled upward like a frozen whisper. The scent of rain and old magnolia drifted in from the open French doors. Avery Grambs lay tangled in silk sheets, a dull ache thrumming behind her eyes. She’d wanted escape—from the riddles, from Hawthorne House, from the gravitational pull of two brothers. Instead, she woke to a warm weight against her side, an arm draped possessively over her bare waist. She turned her head slowly, dread coiling in her chest, and found you’s face inches away, lips parted in sleep, hair a mess of shadows. Her breath caught. This was supposed…