ChayaSipsTea
**Enemies-to-Lovers | Forced Marriage | Dual POV | Slow Burn with Fast Consequences**
---
They said their vows like a threat.
Cassian and Reena's wedding wasn't romantic, it was a battlefield in formal wear. Forced into marriage by family obligation, they're two broken people who can barely stand to be in the same room, let alone share a bed.
He flinches at hope.
She's terrified of being left behind.
What starts as a cold war of petty sabotage, ruined coffee, hidden keys, passive-aggressive Post-its, soon spirals into something more dangerous, as proximity turns poison into something that feels disturbingly like care.
They draw blood with words. They bruise each other with almost-kisses. They learn each other's damage long before they learn each other's touch. A pillow wall becomes a boundary neither can maintain. Small gestures of kindness feel like acts of treason. And somewhere between the rage and reluctant tenderness, the line between hatred, something else starts to blur.
One unlocked door. One buried truth. One moment that changes everything.
They were never meant to save each other.
They were meant to survive each other.
But survival has a way of turning into something else when neither of you knows how to leave.
---
*This isn't about fixing broken people. It's about two people who definitely weren't supposed to want this, and shouldn't need it, discovering that sometimes the person you can't stand is the only one who doesn't run when things fall apart.*
⚠️ **Contains:** mature themes, grief and trauma themes, angst with a happy ending, steamy scenes, smut
**Tropes:** forced proximity • enemies to lovers • marriage of convenience • he falls first (but won't admit it) • touch her and d!e • healing isn't linear • One bed •
*For readers who like their romance messy, their characters damaged, and their happy endings earned through blood, tears, and spectacularly bad decisions.*