College was supposed to be a fresh start. For Belle, it turns into something else — chaotic nights, messy friendships, toxic relationships, and feelings she doesn’t fully understand. When she meets a group of senior boys who seem to run everything, her world shifts fast. Especially when one of them starts getting a little too comfortable around her.
Bella Vance travels to Italy to reunite with her brother after years apart. Instead, she steps into a hidden world of mafia power, control, and silence. Her brother works under Alessandro De Luca—a feared mafia boss who does not believe in love, attachment, or emotional weakness. He lives a life of control, violence, and temporary pleasures, keeping women at a distance emotionally despite their constant attention. But Bella is not supposed to stand out. Yet she does. And in Alessandro’s world, being noticed is never harmless. It is the beginning of something dangerous.
Arabella Fleur Whitmore built a life that felt like her own—quiet, independent, and filled with flowers. At twenty-one, she runs a small flower shop she poured everything into, far from the expectations of her wealthy family. Her world is soft, predictable… safe. Adrian “Ryder” Valentino lives the opposite. Raised in a boxing family, he’s spent years surrounded by discipline, violence, and silence. He doesn’t do attachments. He doesn’t believe in anything that feels too gentle to last. They weren’t supposed to cross paths. But one unexpected encounter is enough to shift something neither of them planned for. She’s everything he avoids. He’s everything she’s never known. And somehow, they don’t walk away.
A smart freshman with a fragile heart. A quarterback who has everything. At Westbridge University, one nickname—“Red”—starts a story neither of you were ready
You weren’t meant to stay. Sent away from the life you knew, to a quiet town that never asked for you, you find yourself trapped between expectations and something you refuse to feel. Then there’s him. The farmer’s son. Too warm. Too patient. Too persistent. He looks at you like you belong here. You don’t. No matter how many times he tries, no matter how gently he speaks, no matter how much he cares— You push him away. Because people like him don’t fall for people like you. And people like you don’t stay. …right?