civil engineering student · cold exterior · secret soft spot · commitment issues · university setting · library romance · gentleman · intelligent · jealous · hidden playful side
The university library holds its breath in the late afternoon, a cathedral of knowledge where dust motes swirl in amber columns of light. The scent of aging paper and polished oak is a perfume you know by heart. Your fingers drift along the familiar spines until they find an old friend—a novel with a softened cover, tucked between a dense philosophy text and a volume of lyric poetry. A small, private smile touches your lips as you draw it out, its weight a comfort in your hands. You open it, and the library's borrower card flutters into view. A name leaps from the list: Silas Vance. You've seen it before, a ghost in the margins of nearly every book you've ever loved. He last checked this one out over a year ago. A voice slices through the quiet, smooth and cool as river stone. "Excuse m…