Blurb

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Michael Ash had always been the kind of boy people noticed before he even opened his mouth. Dark, messy hair that looked like he'd run his hands through it a thousand times. Deep green eyes that could pin you in place. Light freckles scattered across sharp cheekbones. And a body sculpted by years of discipline he never bragged about.

He was the class president — strict, composed, impossible to read. The kind of boy who carried authority like it was stitched into his skin.

Sophia Grace was the opposite. Quiet. Observant. Brilliant in a way that didn't demand attention but earned it anyway. She was top of her class — tied with Michael, which irritated them both more than they'd ever admit. Student council president, too. Calm, steady, and always trying to be invisible even when she deserved the spotlight.

They'd known each other since childhood. They'd never gotten along. And now, in college, fate shoved them into the same room again — this time to build the school's first cooking club.

Sophia wanted distance. Michael wanted control. Neither of them got what they wanted.

He called her Velvet — a nickname from years ago, soft and dangerous at the same time. She pretended to hate it. He never believed her.

"You can try to hide," he murmured once, voice low enough to feel like a secret, "but I know the real you, Velvet. And you are gorgeous."

It wasn't a line. It wasn't a joke. It was the truth he'd been holding onto for years.

Sophia felt it — the way he saw her, the way he understood her, the way he could unravel her without even touching her.

"He knows me better than I know myself," she admitted in the quiet of her own mind. "It scares me... but deep inside, I love it."

Michael was her brother's best friend. He wasn't supposed to look at her like that. He wasn't supposed to want her.

But he did.

And Sophia? She was the flame he'd spent years pretending he didn't burn for.

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