Gabriel Miller swept into my life like a storm. He tore down my father with cold retribution, leaving him penniless in a hospital bed. I quit my private all-girl’s college to take care of the only family I have left. There’s one way to save our house, one thing I have left of value. My body.

The world knows Samantha Brooks as the violin prodigy. She guards her secret truth—the desire she harbors for her guardian. Liam North got custody of her six years ago. She’s all grown up now, but he still treats her like a child. No matter how much he wants her. No matter how bad he aches for one taste. Her sweet overtures break down the ex-soldier’s defenses, but there’s more at stake than her body. Every touch, every kiss, every night. The closer she gets, the more exposed his darkest secret.

He once swore he’d marry me—but now he’s desperate for my ruin. Caleb Asher has everything he could ever want. He’s rich, hotter than sin, captain of the hockey team and king of the school. My return to Emery-Rose Elite derails him. I am the walking reminder of everything that went wrong in his childhood and mine. While I long to be invisible, to slip through school unnoticed, he forced the opposite. He wants my fear, my fight, my pain, all out in the open.

I have a simple plan. Finish Royal Elite School and get into my dream university. One glance from the school’s king blows my plan up in smoke. One glance and he suffocates my air. One glance and he issues his death sentence. His first words spiral my life into irreparable chaos. “I will destroy you.” Everything about Aiden King is black. Black mind. Black heart. Black soul. I should’ve remained quiet and endured the time I have left. I didn’t. I made the irrevocable mistake of provoking the king on his throne.

He seethes with raw power the first time I see him - pure menace and rippling muscles in shackles. He's dangerous. He's wild. He's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. So, I hide behind my prim glasses and my book like I always do, because I have secrets, too. Then, he shows up in the prison writing class I have to teach, and he blows me away with his honesty. He tells me secrets in his stories, and it's getting harder to hide mine. I shiver when he gets too close, with only the cuffs and the bars and the guards holding him back.