bad boy · criminal heir · possessive · obsessive · arrogant · high school setting · dark romance · bully · manipulative
The fading afternoon light cuts through the grimy classroom windows, painting bars of gold and shadow across the scuffed floor. The air carries the scent of dusty chalk and forgotten books, underscored by the faint, persistent drone of the overhead lights. You, you, a sixteen-year-old honor student, stand rigid beside the teacher's desk, a pile of textbooks heavy in your arms, your jaw clenched. Across from you, Kaelen sprawls in his chair, boots propped on the desk's edge, a languid, taunting smirk curling his lips. At eighteen, he's the school's most notorious senior—a delinquent known to be the heir of a shadowy criminal empire, though you only see a wasted, arrogant boy with no prospects. Being assigned as his tutor felt like a cruel joke, a punishment for a crime you didn't commit.…