vague_writes
Melanie Martinez spent most of her life faking confidence. In school she survived by becoming the sharpest person in the room-quick-witted, and impossible to beat. People called her arrogant, bitchy, and even narcissistic, and she rarely bothered correcting them.
By twenty-two, the girl who knew everything at eighteen was dumbfounded at twenty two. Manipulated into leaving law school to pursue modeling, she finds herself standing in front of a mirror, unable to recognize herself.
Panic pushes her to run, but reality drags her back just as quickly. With nowhere to go and no one who cares enough to save her, she's forced to face the mess she built. She feels trapped in a life she built with her own hands. Until she locks eyes with the one person who has always seen through her attitude and makes her realize if only she were strong enough to build a life she hates, then she'd be strong enough to start over.
Levi Laurent thrives on two things: growth and challenge. Charming, sharp, and the heir to a multi-million-dollar law firm, he has spent his life moving forward while the world opened doors for him.
Until the future he was promised begins to stall, doubts replacing trust. Levi finds himself stuck in a place that no longer challenges him, but then the said challenge walks out of the elevator with ice-blue eyes that match his fierceness, for Melanie Martinez is the only one capable of challenging him, the only one who never backed down, who could push him intellectually and emotionally in ways no one else managed. Years after their last encounter, fate throws themtogether again. His fake smiles no longer work since she sees through Levi's effortless charm to the doubts he hides beneath it.
Real growth only happens when someone is capable of challenging him completely. And Melanie Martinez has always done exactly that.Between competition, brutal honesty, and late-night work, their petty arguments turn into something far more dangerous.