The 4th Floor

Sophomore year of college was supposed to be Nirah Saint's quiet season-keep her head down, rack up credits, and leave messy boys in the past where they belong. But the universe had other plans, and they all start with a man named Auren Vale.

She knew of him. Everyone did. The ex-best friend of her ex-boyfriend, a campus ghost with Grecian bone structure and silence like a loaded weapon. Auren is buzzcut and broad shoulders, dark green eyes with a lazy heat that never quite looks away. He moves like he's always five seconds from violence or something worse, desire.

At first, it's coincidence. Passing in the quad. An elevator ride so quiet she hears her own heartbeat. A shadow across the stacks in the library. But the more she sees him, the more she feels him-like gravity, like trouble. And the worst part? He feels it too.

They don't speak. Not at first. But something is unraveling-inside her, between them, in the spaces where old loyalties rot and new sins bloom. Nirah knows touching him would start a war. But some wars? Some wars you need to lose.