tutoring session, a lecture, a forced group project where no one does their sh

ano Wright leaving a cryptic note,

e. Total

r speech about unlocking my potential, and leave

I'm about to be sentenced

of aged paper and polished mahogany fills my lungs-rich, familiar, and oddly suffocating. Dust dances in the golden shaf

th

ices through

're

ut of my skin.

ound, and

ristiano Wright watches me with that ever-calm, ever-unreadable gaze. A for

ty; the next, he's just there, poised like a figure from a

I mutter, holding up my pho

is l

almost imperceptible movement, b

it

ss

rom him, tossing my bag onto the table. My arms

I reall

deta

The way his navy-blue tie sits neatly against his chest, subtle yet undeniably refined. The veins on his hand

he's dissecting something sacred. The soft light catches in his dark, sl

rdly p

bl

my

hell am I

d Mr. Wright

o

o

this li

rays me with a single

ediately, burying my gaze in the open book before me, as if The Foundations of Li

's too

he says, his voi

lt.

pped, defensive. I keep my eyes fi

huckle. Barely there.

it does some

posed while I sit here, crumbling intern

hat's with the stack of ancient tomes? Plannin

, flipping open a

homicide. Just wh

riously, Alina." His tone is calm, but fi

do take them

yo

don't know how long it took me to come up

e a look.

t says, Don

ends a jolt th

li

e in a way that makes somet

t replace eff

but something abo

iting the insi

you expect me to read all this, we're

ing it to me. "You're not r

cover. The Poeti

, huh? Is this your subtle way

it howeve

A half-smirk. N

that I

nd pretending to care. I peek at him over the pages, watching the way his bro

dn't be

I

orst part

hide behin

but it shatters th

My pulse

ha

yes locking onto mine with unnerving precis

oat go

you learn that in 'How to P

ser

in his voic

you let on, Alina," he mu

fragile inside me. Somethin

listens," I mutter bef

le

e doesn

liste

leaves m

words. It's the

e mean

actually

ifies me more

ing the eye contact.

again. "Honest

umble, stuffing my book into my bag. "Thanks

sn't s

the door, his

li

pa

erestimate

urn aroun

hing raw, something dangerous, somet

e, inhaling t

is still

what the hell

know on

Wright is

know how t