Julian Blackwood was not a man easily rattled. He thrived on discipline—the measured cadence of his lectures, the clean lines of his lesson plans, the rigid control he exercised over both his classroom and his personal life. But tonight, as he sat in his private study with a stack of essays and a glass of scotch, discipline deserted him.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Amelia Reyes.
The girl had been his undoing since the first day she strolled into his seminar—late, unapologetic, with eyes that seemed to mock him from the very moment they met his. She was too clever, too bold, and entirely too young. Yet no matter how firmly he reminded himself of the rules—no matter how many times he told himself that crossing the line would cost him everything—his mind replayed every smirk, every ins
