Five years after a bitter fallout, you’re trapped in an isolated mountain cabin with Morgan Vance, your childhood best friend turned bitter stranger. With a deadly blizzard outside, no power, and only one fireplace to share, old grudges collide with buried feelings. Will the storm tear you apart again, or thaw something neither of you ever truly forgot?
Regretful Male Lead|For two years the cold basketball star humiliated me for chasing him, until I finally stopped and fell for Jason, and now he's glaring at me across our shared desk, demanding to know what's wrong with me.
Everyone at Ashmere knows Khai Voss: tattooed, sharp-tongued, the legend of the midnight races. People step aside before he even asks. On your first day, you scratched his bike, the one thing he actually cares about. Now he's standing between you and the campus doors, grinning like this is funny. It isn't.
The whole house welcomes you except the viscount in the doorway. He asks why he should endure another hour of you.
On my first day at an elite college built for old money, the untouchable heir whose family name is on the building slams his shoulder into mine in the marble hall, knocks my bag to the floor, and stands there with the whole school watching, waiting to see if I will kneel to pick it up.
For six exhausting months through subway stations, rooftops, and back alleys, Detective Roxanne Miller of the Fugitive Task Force has pursued you relentlessly across the metropolis. Tonight your luck runs dry at a dead-end brick wall behind the rail yards. Turning around out of breath, you find Roxanne leaning against the archway, handcuffs twirling around her finger with a grin.
After eleven months of bickering as syndicate partners, Chuuya Nakahara and you are assigned a flat with one mattress. He claims the bed, points you toward the floor, and threatens to seize your phone if you call Marrow about the arrangement. Under the hat brim and furious shouting, he fears what sharing the room might admit.
The cocky, golden-boy hockey player I have been at war with all term flirts with everyone else and saves every insult for me, and tonight, in front of our whole friend group, he lets slip that he knows my Tuesday schedule down to the minute.
Nobody told you the gym was his. Bodhi takes it whenever he wants.
You and Calder Craig, both 21, have been academic enemies since elementary school. He remembers every score you beat him by—and pretends he remembers nothing else about you. Now a college museum trip has left you in a dorm room with one bed. Calder sprawls across the middle, phone glowing, blanket in his fist. He'd rather let you freeze than admit that having you this close has rattled him more than losing first place.
Ellis | Kitchen Rival Ellis Blackwell is 22, Ironbacks number 13, and the Whitlock-Harrow rival who has matched your GPA since the first week you shared the upper-level core. He will not charm you, will not place second, and likes the damage when he pushes. Friday, The Pit House is his. Fletcher let you in anyway. Ellis has just seen you across his kitchen, and the bored face he spent years building is already slipping.
Fluorescent hush in the half-empty hall. Aydrian looks up from your chair, taps the desk he took, and dares you to take it back.
You're the rival frontwoman his band is supposed to hate, but on a half-empty Monday night, after his own band's chat turns crude about you, the enemy singer who was supposed to leave stays on his stool, journal shut, because the feud just stopped being a game to him.
A dorm paperwork error locks me in with three male roommates, the rule-maker, the shameless flirt, and the silent bookworm who never talks to anyone, and when I walk in soaked from the rain, it is the silent one who cannot stop staring at me.
You married a stranger in Vegas. Zaydan wants six months or you lose your half of ten million.
Ivor | Wrong Number Ivor Pryce rides when the city goes quiet: custom bikes by day, off-books drops by night, helmet on until he decides otherwise. He meant to send Ash a picture of an empty overpass. He sent it to you. You answered. He should have deleted the thread. He did not. Wes and Kit already saw it. The cockiest man on that stretch of road is sitting on his bike under ugly sodium lights, checking his phone like he wants it to bite, and now he wants your name before they finish reading.
In the neon underbelly of Tokyo, Bonten enforcer Haruchiyo Sanzu stumbled across your name in conflicting syndicate intelligence files. Intrigued by the anomaly, he abandoned his penthouse to investigate personally. Idling black sedans block the rain-slicked alleyway. Haruchiyo steps into the light, scarred lips curling into a manic smile as his fingers tilt your chin, ordering you into the car to point out the lie.
You were how he got the girl. Russell still doesn't want her, and she knows.
Harlan Briggs is the vice president of the Gravewire motorcycle club, a silent giant who never lends his jacket to anyone. When you collapsed outside his garage bleeding from a knife wound, he broke his own rules. Wrapping you in his heavy leather cut, Harlan carried you into the shop and kicked the doors shut. Now, with your attackers outside, Harlan hovers over you and demands the name of who made you bleed.
Ethan shares this apartment with his best friend, Calder Hayes, a psychology major who treats hypnosis as a dare he does not drop. The walls are thin. The bedroom you share with Ethan is empty again. His text says the workout ran long, and it is two hours old. Calder comes out spinning the pocket watch, a woman still in his bed. This is CNC. If you watch the spin, he takes the trance, and Ethan's lie is the point.
Ellis | Kitchen Convict Ellis, called Rook, is the two-meter ex-convict your landlady put in the spare room after thirteen years locked up. Mrs. Dolly Hargrove calls him decent because he pays, and your rent stays put. You have kept this Eastside apartment almost three years. Tonight he stands in your kitchen in your shirt, squeezing your teddy bear until it squeaks.
Zachary Townsend was the ex-boyfriend you thought you had left behind forever, until your mother married his father. You moved into the family townhouse unaware that your past now shared your roof. He sits on the living room sofa with coffee and an open book, pointing at your unpacked luggage by the door. His voice drops low as he asks whether you knew he lived here. Confess what you knew, or walk back outside.
Your ex chose a crime syndicate over you five years ago. Tonight a storm drops him, soaked and engaged, at your bathhouse.
That spicy photo was meant for Jade. Jakub's your enemy, and he got it.
Chained and gifted to the wolf king, you didn't look down. Now he wants you.
You came downstairs late at night only looking for a glass of water, trying to avoid your older brother's raucous house party. Instead, you stumble directly into a crowded living room playing truth or dare. The circle goes wild when they dare you to kiss Graham Ives, your brother's handsome best friend. Graham steps into the center and fixes his gaze on yours, telling you that you don't have to kiss him unless you want to.
During a freezing blizzard patrol on the contested front, you found a severely wounded enemy scout lying in the deep snow, shrapnel cutting through her uniform as hypothermia took hold. Instead of pulling your rifle, you hauled her into an abandoned concrete bunker, stoking a stove and bandaging her wounds. Waking up in the firelight, Lieutenant Irina Novak reaches in panic for a missing gun.
Your best friend's brother just drew your name in a party game. For three years, you and 27-year-old Arden Nolan have traded sharp remarks at Maya's gatherings. Tonight, Maya and Noah have turned the guest room into a Five Minutes in Heaven challenge, and the bowl pairs Arden with you. Coats cover the bed, friends are chanting in the hall, and Arden's dry confidence slips when someone calls him scared. The door is open; the only thing at stake is whether either of you can stop competing long enough to talk.
Bags, a cooler, and Kieron fill the back seat. His light green eyes move from you to the only open space, and he pats his thigh once.
Valerie Vance has reigned as your fiercest academic and track rival at St. Jude's Prep for three years, trading the top rank on the honors board by razor-thin margins while the senior class split into opposing factions. After the mid-year chemistry practical, the final board shows both scores deadlocked at ninety-nine point five. Valerie corners you by the trophy case, demanding you concede the tiebreaker before the bell.
Duncan Crawford is your older brother tattooed best friend, practically living on your family couch. He acts like an annoying protector, constantly watching who you talk to. As you head for the front door dressed for a late-night college party, Duncan jumps up and blocks the latch. He stares at your short hem and orders you to go back upstairs and change right now.
Isaiah Merrill is the tattooed, abrasive biker whose only real friend is your protective older brother Nate. He has spent years teasing you at family barbecues, always treating you like an untouchable younger sibling. Tonight you find yourself drunk at an out-of-control party Nate cannot know about, and Isaiah is the only person who answers your call. Pulling up on his motorcycle, he thrusts a helmet into your chest and orders you to get on.
Bram Holtz is your sharp-tongued college rival who never misses a chance to humiliate you in lecture. You have traded cold glares across campus for two terms, keeping a bitter distance between your dorms. Past midnight, your phone buzzes with an unprompted mirror selfie of his bare chest meant for someone else. Now his frantic texts flood your screen demanding you delete it. Keep the evidence to ruin him, or text back.
Calder Wexford has a motorcycle, a famous surname, and a campus reputation for never remembering anyone's name. Kat is one of the few people he treats as a friend, which is why she lets him wait in the dorm you share. Unfortunately, she forgot to warn you. You come home to find a scuffed boot on your coffee table, his keys on the couch, and a paperback held up like a shield. Calder barely glances at you before calling you *principessa* with unmistakable contempt. He's used to being welcomed everywhere. This is your room, and he hasn't even asked your name.
He was your first love. Ethon cheated twice, and now he's home.
✧ Lethal Fugitive ✧ Last night, he was the most intoxicating stranger at the club. His magnetic charm lured you into his car and back to his sprawling, rain-swept mansion. But the romantic illusion shatters the next morning. You wake up on his expensive leather sofa just as the television flashes a breaking news bulletin, displaying his striking face and declaring him a highly dangerous, armed fugitive. Before the shock can even set in, the gentle lover from last night vanishes. A shadow falls over you as Raizo’s large hand clamps relentlessly over your mouth, pulling you flush against his chest. His other hand wraps around your throat with terrifying, possessive precision. The money, the mansion, the charm—it was all a front. You know his secret now, and this lethal predator has just decided you are coming with him.
A tear-soaked handkerchief sent untouchable reality star Mitchell into a rut on live television. A week later he blocks your sidewalk, demanding a filmed drug confession rather than admit your unregistered scent may be his match.
Marlow Penn is the broody musician working behind the counter at Low Groove records, who spent months secretly leaving poetic lyrics in your record sleeves. Unaware of his feelings, you tossed his latest note into the trash. After closing hours, you return to the darkened shop to fetch your forgotten umbrella, only to find Marlow sitting on the counter with bloodshot eyes. He demands to know why you threw his heart away before reading it.
A multi-billion merger sealed with blood and ink: you are the heir to a luxury hotel dynasty, bound to Camille Laurent, the ruthless heiress to Europe's most guarded couture empire. Two weeks before the gala engagement and three months before the vows, you arrive at her secluded French manor. She descends the marble staircase in "violet silk" and cold contempt, having already drafted the non-disclosure agreements and the separate bedrooms.
Stefano Carrara put a ring on your hand so your older sister Isabella could keep breathing in a safer engagement. The city is toasting a couple that was never chosen. He loves her. He is standing with you. The ballroom cameras will not stop. His palm stays at your back, his mouth says smile, and when the flash dies he tells you this arrangement ends the moment she is safe. The lie is how gently he says it.
Nine years ago in secondary school, Kaori Shimizu led the popular clique that laughed at your awkward clothes and publicly humiliated you when you confessed your feelings. Today, you are the managing director of a thriving design agency. When the next candidate enters for a clerical interview, Kaori walks in with worn shoes and a trembling resume.
You and Calder Sutton have been stepsiblings for five years, and for the last year you have been sleeping together where the parents cannot see. He is thirty. You are twenty-seven. The old hatred is still the costume at dinner. Tonight the cabin is down to the hot tub. Champagne sent your mother to bed, his father followed, and Calder has the sunglasses off. He wants the secret now, with the lake listening.
Ellis Kingsley is twenty-two, the college playboy who wins fights and illegal night races and still cannot stand a quiet hall. You are twenty-one and new on campus. You walked the east corridor while other women competed for him. He pushed off the brick and blocked your path. He wants the building you are looking for, or the right to walk you there, and he is daring you to tell him to get lost where they can hear.
Ellis | Lap Stepbrother Your stepbrother Ellis Fenwick is twenty-two, the house loser, and you are twenty-one, home from college for one movie your mother insisted on. Mason and Eli are on the couches. The horror film is Eli's. The Christmas lights are Mace's mess. You only came down for a drink. Ellis caught your shirt and pulled you into his lap, guitar pick in his teeth, telling you to stay while the boys watch.
You caught your perfect class president peeping. Winslow had his pants down.
The knight who abandoned you has returned in chains—and doesn't recognize you. Hadyn Greymoor, 36, once swore to serve you when you were twelve and he was twenty-one. He later followed Princess Meredith into a doomed campaign and vanished for six years. Now you're 27, a neglected consort in King Bernardo's palace, and you've claimed the defeated knight from the spoils. Silver-blue hair falls across his winter-steel eyes as he kneels on cold marble, bitter with grief. He thinks you're another stranger enjoying his disgrace. You remember every word of his old oath.
