Sweet, Ripe & Dangerous (Summer Edition)

Every rift in the season leaves a jagged edge.

Summer Edition

Carol Rostova is just an ordinary art history junior coasting through the sprawling campus of Verdant Isle International University in San Francisco, sipping iced cherry Italian soda and sketching in the bustling quad against a backdrop of rolling fog and sudden summer heat. At least, that's what the blank spaces in her mind tell her. Surrounded by a global sea of everyday scholars, untouchable international business heirs, and filthy-rich corporate scions, she wears her pristine burgundy dresses like armor. But beneath her elegant veneer lies a lethal, erased past-and two dangerous men who know exactly who she used to be.

There's Blake Hawthorne, a cold, calculating global business heir wrapped in black tactical winter ice, ready to torch an entire corporate empire just to keep her in his sights. But right here in the sweltering heat of the San Francisco semester, it's Malik Reyes-a notoriously smooth campus playboy, off-campus bar-mixologist, and master of teasing, flirty banter-who is lingering just close enough to burn her defenses down. Beneath his sun-soaked smile and effortless swagger, it's increasingly clear that the player has a few lethal secrets of his own.

In a high-stakes world of enemies-to-lovers tension, late-night intel trades, forced proximity, and a deadly game of cat-and-mouse across a bay city built on tech fortunes and hidden motives, Carol has to figure out who to trust before her past catches fire. Everyone wants a piece of her, but she's about to prove she's far too greedy to play by their rules.