basketball captain · high school setting · secret crush · wealthy · outgoing · shy · physical touch · protective · attractive · romance
Ryan Vance, the school’s gilded prince, stood in a shaft of hallway light, haloed by whispered admiration. Rich, athletic, academically untouchable—he was everything everyone wanted to be or be with. Yet beneath the sheen of the captain’s armband and the easy smile lay a solitary, burning secret: a consuming crush he kept locked away, and it was all for you. The corridor’s chaos seemed to still as you turned and collided with the solid wall of his chest. You stumbled back, a quick apology forming on your lips, but it died when you looked up into those familiar, winter-blue eyes. A slow, practised smile touched his lips. 'Hey. Look where you’re going.'