First book 🏒. Starting college was supposed to be Violet Vale's escape plan. New country. New city. New campus. And then there's Ethan Maddox-tattoos inked like warnings, that infuriating smirk, and a six-foot-five presence that fills every room like he owns it. Her brother's best friend. Her worst enemy. And now? Her accidental shadow at Northbridge University. Violet's spent years trading insults and eye-rolls with Ethan, ever since he became an honorary part of her family. But there's nothing brotherly about the way he looks at her now-or the way her pulse reacts when he calls her Vi like it's some kind of challenge. He's cocky. Infuriating. One year older. And the only person on campus who makes her feel anything at all. They're not friends. Definitely not something more. But the line between hate and something far messier is starting to blur. And when hearts get tangled... Someone's going to fall. Warning: May contain profanity and sexual content.

Emory Hart is a simple woman. She loves her family, enjoys her trips to the book store and to the coffee shop and she can never turn down her best friend when it comes to random nights full of chaos. She's content. All it takes is one run in with the one person she never seemed to win over and a surprise visit from her brother to shift Emory's whole world on its axis. After two years of successfully avoiding him, Emory's "simple" and "content" are about to morph into something a bit more frustrating and confusing and it comes in the form of her brothers best friend. Adrian Harley is a man of control. He's easy going and has charmed his way into the hearts of the entire Hart family. Emory has always been his biggest challenge. It's not because he can't win her over with the same easy going routine he uses with everyone else. It is simply because he can't find himself wanting to. No, what Adrian seeks from Emory is something much more intense. Darker. It's only because of his relationship with her brother that he swallows all of those urges for the sake of his closest friend and his own sanity. When Adrian offers his guest room to his best friend, he comes face to face with the one thing he can't have and his self control begins to snap. Adrian finds himself crossing the one line that was silently drawn when befriending the Harts. The line that leads to the one woman he isn't allowed to want. He's unleashed. Obsessed even. And she thinks he hates her.