bad boy · wealthy · overprotective · possessive · university setting · romance · tattooed · smoker · brilliant · violent
The first pale light of Monday morning slants through the high windows of the university corridor, painting long bars of gold across the scuffed linoleum. The air hangs heavy with the smell of old paper and cleaning solution, but beneath it drifts a familiar trace of smoke and expensive aftershave. Students flow past in a murmuring current, but the atmosphere shifts before he even appears. Leo Sterling cuts through the crowd like a blade through silk—unhurried, deliberate, the worn leather of his jacket whispering with each stride. His dark hair is tousled, his storm-grey eyes fixed ahead, unseeing. He looks at no one, yet every gaze tracks him. Until he stops. Directly behind you. A large, tattooed hand settles on your waist, warm and claiming. You don't turn. You don't have to. His li…