Riley didn't like that her heart still thudded hours after Zayden's warning.
She sat on her bed at the girls' dorm, legs crossed, staring blankly at the glow-in-the-dark stars she'd stuck on the ceiling. Her phone buzzed once—Aria. Another meme. Riley smiled faintly but didn't reply. Her mind kept circling the same thing:
"Everyone who gets close to me ends up burned."
Zayden wasn't just arrogant. He was dangerous… but not in the way people whispered. He wore his demons like a designer suit—well-fitted, expensive, and impossible to miss. But Riley wasn't scared of shadows. She'd lived in them her whole life.
And now she was tangled up in his.
The next morning, Crestwood buzzed with the usual gossip, but Riley could feel it—something had shifted. She noticed it in the way the whispers paused when she entered the hallway. In how Zayden's friends eyed her like she was a ticking bomb.
And in how Zayden himself leaned against his locker, watching her every move.
She walked past him without a word. She wasn't about to be one of his distractions. She had bigger goals. Her grades, her future, her mom back home—everything depended on her keeping her head down.
But that plan shattered during gym class.
They were paired for tennis drills—Zayden and Riley, of course—and from the moment they stepped on the court, the tension sizzled like a live wire.
"Try not to hit me in the face," he said, spinning the racket.
"No promises," Riley muttered.
The match was electric. Every serve, every return, became a silent war. Riley gave it everything, slamming the ball with grit and rage. Zayden grinned like the challenge excited him.
She hated that she noticed how good he looked when he was focused.
On her.
After her final serve sent the ball bouncing off the net, she dropped the racket, panting. Zayden stepped closer, eyes locked on hers.
"You've got fight, Morgan."
"Thanks," she snapped. "Now leave me alone."
But he didn't.
Instead, he leaned in close, his breath warm against her ear. "You might think you're untouchable, but you're already in deeper than you think."
Her stomach twisted.
"I'm not scared of you," she whispered.
"You should be."
And then he walked off the court like nothing had happened.
But something had happened.
And Riley knew—deep down—she couldn't outrun the fire he carried.
Because it was already reaching for her.