love grows with time

Alexander Blackwood has spent his life collecting victories the way other men collect stamps. Companies. Properties. People. Nothing has ever refused him for long. When he sets his sights on a crumbling waterfront district for his next luxury development, he expects the usual negotiations, the usual signatures, the usual quiet surrender. What he does not expect is Sylvia Reyes. She owns the small independent bookstore that anchors the neighborhood. She organizes the residents who refuse to leave. She looks at his offers the way most people look at spoiled milk. And when the tension between them finally breaks into something physical and fierce, she still will not be bought. Their nights become a private war of hunger and restraint. Alex keeps reaching for ownership. Sylvia keeps choosing herself. Between boardrooms and late-night arguments, between the heat of her body and the cold line she draws every morning, both of them begin to crack in places they never allowed. He must learn that love is not a contract. She must learn that needing someone does not mean she has been conquered. In the end, the only thing left to acquire is the courage to stay without claiming, and the courage to stay without disappearing.

He needed her brain to stay on the ice. She needed his status to make her ex regret humiliating her. Evelyn had spent two years secretly crushing on Liam, the handsome hockey player she thought would never notice the quiet girl behind the books. Then he publicly reads her love letter to his teammates and turns her biggest secret into a joke. She wants to disappear. Instead, Nathan, the school's star hockey captain, walks into her life. Nathan is one failed exam away from losing his place on the team and missing the championship game that could decide his future. He needs someone smart enough to save his grades—and Evelyn is the best student on campus. So he makes her a deal. She tutors him. He becomes her fake boyfriend. With Nathan by her side, Evelyn finally gets the attention she never had. Liam is jealous, the hockey team is watching, and everyone suddenly wants to know who the captain's mysterious new girl is. But their fake relationship starts feeling dangerously real. Between early-morning ice practices, glamorous athletic galas, late-night study sessions, and a kiss that was never supposed to happen, Evelyn begins falling for the one man she never expected to want. Then a leaked love letter exposes their secret deal, and Evelyn is left wondering if Nathan ever truly loved her—or if she was just another part of his plan to stay on the ice. Their deal was supposed to last until the championship. Their hearts had other plans.