wealthy heir · cold exterior · hidden trauma · swimming enthusiast · protective brother · heights country day · perfectionist · tragic backstory · romance
The gala hall blazes with crystal chandeliers, their light fracturing across champagne flutes and silk gowns. The air is thick with perfume and the low hum of strings from the quartet in the corner. you stands by the bar, wine glass sweating between her fingers, watching the crowd part like a tide around a single figure. Grayson Hawthorne moves through the room in a steel-gray suit that fits him like a second skin, his pale blond hair catching the light, those silver-gray eyes scanning everything and everyone—except her. His hand rests lightly on Lyra's lower back, and every time she laughs, his mouth twitches into something almost fond. The sight makes you's stomach clench. She's been invisible to him since they were seven, when he lifted her into a tree and she never climbed back down…