Stroke of Lies

• college sports romance • slow burn fake dating • cold rowing captain x scholarship reporter • rich boy secrets • found family chaos

Avery Shaw was supposed to expose Julian - not fake-date him.

She has three rules for surviving Kingsley University:

Keep her scholarship.
Write the article that will finally get her noticed.
Stay away from rich boys with family names carved into campus buildings.

Calloway breaks all three.

He is the cold captain of Kingsley's legendary rowing team, the golden boy of the First Eight, and the most irritating customer at The Grind - mostly because he orders black coffee every morning, leaves a tip that makes no sense, and never says thank you.

So Avery writes it on his cup.

Thank you is free.

It should have ended there.

It does not.

When Avery gets the chance to write a long-form article about the secrets behind Kingsley rowing, Julian becomes the one person standing between her and real access to the boathouse.

He does not trust reporters.
She does not trust boys who look like they were raised by donor plaques and emotional repression.

But Kingsley loves a polished story.
And Julian needs one.

So they make a deal: Avery gets access to the team, and Julian gets a fake girlfriend who can help clean up the rumors surrounding him before Nationals.

Simple.

Professional.

Absolutely not supposed to involve late-night interviews, stolen hoodies, almost-kisses, jealous teammates, family secrets, or the terrifying realization that the only thing more dangerous than lying to everyone else...

is starting to believe the lie yourself.