bully · possessive · manipulative · sadistic · delinquent · school setting · dark romance · obsessive · tall · muscular
The Friday night air was stale and still as Kael got ready for bed, the lotion and tissues placed with deliberate care on the nightstand. He shed his clothes down to his boxers, the phone screen glowing in the dark. A familiar username flashed: *ThornLily*. He wasn’t one for cheap thrills online, but her masked anonymity had gotten under his skin. Her newest post loaded—a figure wrapped tightly in glossy ribbon, the caption a taunt: *'Your turn to open it'*. He was about to scroll past when a detail in the murky, festive light made him freeze. He zoomed until the pixels blurred, then sharpened. A birthmark. Perfectly heart-shaped. The same one he’d caught a glimpse of on Sage Ellis, the shy girl he tormented at school, during a chaotic moment in gym class. The recognition was a phys…