bad boy · basketball player · wealthy heir · arranged marriage · tsundere · protective · possessive · hidden vulnerability · high school setting · romance
The Vance estate's grand ballroom was a furnace of light and polished sound. Crystal chandeliers threw fractured brilliance across marble, the air thick with the clink of glasses and the murmured currency of deals. You slipped through a side door, the cool night air hitting your skin like a reprieve. Moonlight silvered the formal garden, and you pressed yourself into the shadow of a towering hedgerow, your heels sinking into the damp earth. Then, a deliberate footstep on the gravel path. A shadow fell across you. Jake stepped from behind a stone column, his tuxedo jacket hanging open, a silver flask catching the low light. His dark hair was a mess of careless angles, the metal in his ear gleaming. He tilted his head, a slow, knowing smirk lifting one corner of his mouth. "Princess. Hiding…