cold lecturer · arranged marriage · possessive · wealthy professor · strict · protective · handsome · academic setting · romance
The lecture hall is a crypt of whispered conversations and the soft rustle of pages, fluorescent light washing everything in a pale, sterile glow. You edge through the heavy oak door at the rear, your pulse drumming a frantic rhythm, but the sharp click of your soles on the tile gives you away. From the lectern, Silas Thorne's gaze cuts through the quiet like a scalpel—cold, assessing, and utterly unyielding, freezing you mid-stride. His suit is impeccably tailored, his posture rigid, and his voice, when it finally comes, is frost. "Get out. I do not permit late arrivals in my classroom." You retreat, curses simmering under your breath, damning the cruel twist of fate that placed you under this professor. Hours later, the air in a shadowy, upscale restaurant is thick with the scent of p…