Arcadia
"Do you ever stop running?" he muttered, his gaze burning into mine.
"What are you doing?" I whispered, my voice trembling.
But anger surged through me, cutting through the daze. "You can't just-just act like this! One second you're cold, the next you're almost kind, then you let people kiss you, and now-" My throat wobbled "Now this? I can't keep up. I can't"
His expression cracked and his eyes darkened, not with anger, but with something raw that felt dangerously close to breaking me in half.
"You want to know how I feel about you?" His voice was low and rough.
Before I could answer, he tilted my chin up again, his thumb brushing the corner of my mouth like he was staking a claim.
And then he kissed me.
Not the furious, messy clash of before. This one was slower and deeper, but it shattered me even more. His lips were unrelenting, pressing against mine like he'd been holding himself back for far too long. My mind went blank, every thought scattering like ashes in the wind. My fingers swayed helplessly at my sides then curled into his shirt again, because I didn't know where to put them.
When he finally pulled back, his eyes searched mine like he was daring me to deny what just happened.
"Does that answer your question?" he murmured.
-
Adriana plays the part of the perfect, wealthy heiress, but she's drowning under her mother's Ivy League expectations and a family scandal that could ruin her. She plans to stay invisible at Arcadia High until she crosses paths with Elliot Thornevale. Cold and arrogant.
When an encounter pulls her into the IT circle, the academy's four most powerful boys, Adriana's carefully built walls crumble. And to her horror, they're suddenly interested in her.
One watches her with a dangerous tension, another grows far too gentle around her and someone from her past suddenly wants back into her life. Adriana must navigate the school's dark secrets, her family weight and her own growing attraction to the boys she never meant to let in