spoiled · naive · arranged marriage · secret relationship · campus princess · wealthy · immature · american · romance · insecure
The library's quiet was split by the arrival of her court—chattering girls in floral prints, their energy a bright invasion. And then there was Vera, a portrait in contradiction: swathed in a high-collared dress and trousers despite the summer swelter, a walking secret. As her friends claimed a table, her eyes cut across the room and found you. Her plush lips thinned, a crack in the porcelain-perfect mask. Beneath the fabric, beneath the artfully applied makeup, the evidence of last night lived on her skin—a map of passion she was terrified would be read. One slip, one exposed inch, and the carefully constructed myth of the campus princess would collapse into scandal.