The Quiet Between Us

Ivy Raines is a contradiction wrapped in smoke and velvet - witchcraft in her veins, heartbreak on her tongue. She's spent years trying to rebuild herself after burning her past to the ground... but one ghost keeps crawling back through the cracks.

Nathaniel Cole.
The boy she loved, destroyed, and made into a man who still trembles at her name.

He was her first believer - her confession, her temptation, her undoing. She took his virginity, his faith, and his peace of mind, leaving him with nothing but guilt and memory of her touch. Now, years later, they talk like friends. They smoke, they laugh, they pretend. But the air between them still hums with electricity - an unspoken promise neither of them can stop breaking.

Ivy wants redemption. She wants to be more than the sin he hides in the dark. Nathaniel wants her body, her defiance, her chaos - everything but her heart.

Their connection is a slow burn of obsession, guilt, and hunger - a love that feels like worship and punishment all at once. Each cigarette, each stolen glance, each whispered word threatens to pull them back into the fire they swore they'd never touch again.

But desire is a religion. And they've always been devout.