MARKED BY SAINT

"𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑛... 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒."

Ava Bennett swore she'd never come back to Smoke Bay-not after her broken engagement, not after everything she left behind. But five years later, she's back in the sleepy coastal town she once called home, trying to piece herself together. What she didn't count on was running straight into Luca Saint.

Once her best friend, Luca is no longer the lanky boy who held her during her parents' fights and kissed her under the stars when they thought no one was watching. He's grown into a sinfully tattooed artist with rough hands, a gravel-voiced laugh, and a gaze that still undoes her. Time and silence may have changed them, but the chemistry between them is anything but quiet.

They were everything to each other once-until life pulled them apart.

Now, every look lingers too long. Every touch threatens to cross the line. And the more Ava tries to protect her heart, the more Luca tempts her to surrender-to the past they ran from, and the future that still burns between them.

But some second chances come with scars. And if she lets him in again, she'll have to face the truth she's been avoiding all along: Luca Saint never really left her. Not in her memories. Not in her heart. And maybe, just maybe, the love they inked into each other was meant to last.