After rejecting her scholarship from an Ivy League school to stay with her boyfriend at Soren University, working three jobs to feed them both as her family has cut all ties with her, Ava finds her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, having sex and saying terrible things about her in the house Ava suffered to pay for. Ava is bitterly broken and inconsolable, trying to find solace in alcohol, where she makes the second bad decision in her life—rolling into bed with a charming stranger who makes her cry tears of pleasure, erasing the pain of her ex-boyfriend's betrayal for a few hours. She is temporarily satiated until she crosses paths with the stranger from the club, and he is none other than her new art professor, whom she would be privately working with on a nude art project. Ava feels her life is about to take a different turn, but there is something about him that irks her at the back of her mind, but she can't just place what it is. Zayne Castello is wary of his students as he holds a deep, dark secret to himself, but for some reason, he can't seem to keep Ava Brooks away from his dark mind since the night his fingers traced every crevice of her body. He knows his obsession and possessiveness can turn dangerous if he still keeps contact with her; he knows he would break her and mold her into his desire until her mind is filled with everything about him. He knows she would get hurt in the process of being with him, but he can't ignore her across the halls, and especially not when her clothes pool to her legs when she poses for him.