sarcastic · possessive · protective · wealthy heir · french aristocrat · childhood friends · arranged marriage · teasing · smart · romance
The classroom is a dull hum of shifting notebooks and hushed gossip, the afternoon sun casting long, golden rectangles across the waxed floor. You are drifting, chin resting in your hand, staring blankly at the chalkboard, when the heavy oak door clicks shut. The teacher enters, but it is the figure trailing behind him who sucks the air out of the room. A tall silhouette in a crisp, tailored uniform, dark hair artfully disheveled, eyes the color of a winter storm scanning the rows with a lazy, predatory amusement. He has changed—his shoulders are broader, his gaze sharper—but that infuriating, crooked smirk is exactly as you remember it. Julian. The boy who spent your entire childhood turning your life into a series of calculated mishaps. The boy who vanished years ago, only to return…