SimonaPearsely
He didn't choose her. But fate didn't care.
David never imagined marrying Nia - his quiet, soft-spoken cousin who barely looked him in the eye. Growing up, she was always the odd one out, the easy target of his teasing. Especially when Melissa - his other cousin, his best friend, the one who actually loved him - was by his side.
But when family duty forces David into an arranged marriage with Nia, he doesn't see a bride. He sees a burden. A mistake. A girl too fragile to touch.
Nia never asked for his love. She only wanted peace - a chance to exist beside him without flinching. But when cold silence turns into stolen glances and angry kisses give way to slow, burning touches, everything begins to change.
David starts to see her - not as the cousin he mocked, but as the woman he now aches to claim. And Nia, once too afraid to speak, finds her power in the heat of his hands and the warmth of his changing heart.
But some wounds cut deeper when they come from family. And Melissa... she doesn't let go easily.
This is a slow-burn, arranged marriage romance filled with emotional scars, jealousy, forbidden desire, and the kind of love that begins in ashes and ends in fire.
From hate to heat. From teasing to tenderness. From cousin to lover.