Stronger With You

Chapter 11

Nicolás POV

I didn’t say anything to her when I first walked into the gym.

I just stood there and watched.

Something was bothering her. I told myself I’d handled it earlier. I told myself Blaire wouldn’t try anything again after our conversation at lunch. I told myself I had it under control.

But her image stayed with me.

The flinch wouldn’t leave my head. It replayed in a slow, cruel loop every time I blinked. The hesitation in her movements. The way her confidence wasn’t quite what it had been that morning. That pissed me off more than I wanted to admit.

I’d seen fear before.

Not loud, not dramatic. Not screaming or shaking or collapsing.

The quiet kind.

The kind that lives under the skin and only shows itself in half-second reactions no one else notices. A stiffening of shoulders. A pause before touch. A body bracing for something that hasn’t happened yet.

I hated that I recognized it.

I hated even more that I recognized it in her.

Why did I have to notice her at all? What was it about Emery that I couldn’t shake? I’d met hundreds of people at Rosenberg. Girls who were polished, strategic, socially perfect. I’d never lost sleep over any of them.

But her?

She was in my head constantly.

Earlier that afternoon—before Ryker got in my face about Blaire, before lunch turned into a quiet threat across a cafeteria table—I’d spotted her in the quad walking with Callie and Ryker.

I’d been halfway through checking messages, already thinking about the shelter schedule and how short-staffed we were, when something pulled my attention upward.

Her.

She wasn’t wearing the oversized hoodie she usually hid behind. No armor. No extra layer to dull her shape or soften her presence.

Just jeans and a simple T-shirt.

And for a second, I forgot how to breathe.

The jeans fit her like they were meant to. Not flashy or trying too hard. Just enough to outline the curve of her hips and the strength in her legs. The T-shirt skimmed her waist and shoulders in a way that should have been ordinary but wasn’t. There was something almost unfair about how effortless she looked.

I knew she wasn’t posing or performing.

She just existed, in that real authentic way.

The sunlight caught in her hair, light brown with threads of gold woven through it. It fell around her shoulders naturally, moving when she laughed at something Callie said. And her eyes—

God.

One green. One blue.

They weren’t subtle. They weren’t something you could ignore. The contrast was striking, sharp and soft all at once. When she turned her head, the light caught them differently, and I felt that same stupid hitch in my chest again.

Holy hell.

She was one of the most beautiful girls I’d ever seen.

And she had no idea.

That was the part that got me.

She didn’t tilt her head to maximize effect. She didn’t lean into people’s space or widen her eyes for attention. She didn’t weaponize what she had the way girls like Blaire did. There was no calculation in her posture, no awareness of how many people were looking at her.

She carried herself like someone who expected to be overlooked.

Which made the reality almost cruel.

Because she wasn’t just pretty.

She was stunning.

Unique in a way that didn’t feel curated or polished. Real. The kind of beauty that doesn’t need help, doesn’t need strategy. The kind that sneaks up on you and settles somewhere uncomfortable in your chest.

When I finally walked over to meet up with her, Callie, and Ryker, I forced my face into something neutral. I had to drag my gaze away faster than I wanted to, jaw tightening like that would erase the reaction completely.

Act normal.

Don’t stare.

Don’t let her see it.

Because if she caught even a hint of what ran through my head when I looked at her like that, I was in trouble.

And the worst part?

I wasn’t even sure whether I was more afraid that she might be after money… or that she wasn’t.

Because if she wasn’t playing a game, if she wasn’t calculating proximity to my family or our name—

Then whatever this was between us wasn’t strategy.

It was real.

And I wasn’t sure I was ready for how fast I could fall into something like that.

Ryker nudged my shoulder. “You staring or planning a thesis?”

“Shut up,” I muttered, dragging my eyes away too late to pretend I hadn’t been looking.

Emery laughed at something Callie said, and the sound caught me off guard.

Across the walkway, Blaire was watching too.

Of course she was. She had a radar for anything that threatened her control, and Emery standing there without her hoodie, laughing like she didn’t care who saw her, was exactly the kind of thing Blaire couldn’t ignore. If my mom truly knew who Blaire was behind the polished smile and perfect posture, she would not even let me stand in the same room with her.

Blaire crossed the quad like she owned it, heels clicking sharply against the concrete, her eyes locked on Emery long before she even bothered to look at me. She always moved with intention, like every step was part of a strategy. She was all talk when it came to appearances, though. She would never risk embarrassing her precious family in public. At least that was what I told myself.

I was wrong.

A couple of minutes after I forced myself to look away from Emery and act like I was not completely thrown off by the sight of her,

Ryker stepped closer and lowered his voice beside me.

“She shoved her,” he said quietly.

My head snapped toward him. “What?” The word came out sharper than I meant it to. There was no way Blaire would actually stoop that low.

“In the hallway,” Ryker continued. “She hit the wall pretty hard. Emery played it off like it was nothing, but yeah… Blaire crossed a line.”

For a second, everything inside me went still.

The noise of the quad faded, and all I could picture was Emery being pushed, her back hitting something solid, her pretending she was fine. Anger rose fast and hot, but I forced it down, locking my jaw instead.

“Relax,” I said quietly, even though I was the furthest thing from relaxed. I needed to handle this smart. I did not need another lecture from my mother about discretion and reputation.

Ryker stared at me like I had completely lost my mind. “Relax? She put her hands on her.”

“I said I’ll handle it,” I replied, keeping my voice even.

Ryker scoffed. “You need to get your girl in line.”

My head snapped toward him again. “She’s not my girl.”

We both knew exactly who he meant.

Blaire.

Yes, we had hooked up here and there. It had been easy. Familiar. No expectations. No emotion.

And I had not touched her like that since the first day I saw Emery at orientation, half hidden behind Callie but still somehow impossible to ignore. Even then, there had been something about her that stuck. Something that refused to leave my head.

“Just don’t call her that again,” I muttered.

Ryker studied me for a long second before nodding slowly.

My eyes drifted back to Emery.

She looked annoyed, slightly confused, and completely unaware that I was one thought away from walking across the quad and telling Blaire exactly where she could shove her opinions.

I did not move.

Not yet.

Lunch would be better. More controlled. More private.