Julian told himself it was the last time. He swore it, even as he lay awake in the lonely hours of the morning, staring at the cracked paint on his ceiling, tasting her still on his tongue. The storm of the night before should have been enough to shatter him into sense.
But then she showed up again.
Not at his office this time. Not hidden in shadows. No, Amelia walked straight into the lecture hall in broad daylight—bold, audacious, uninvited. The room was half-filled already with restless undergraduates, laptops humming, pens clicking against notebooks. And there she was, striding down the aisle with her coat swinging loosely around her, her hair freshly washed, gleaming like polished copper in the fluorescent lights. She moved with the kind of grace that made the entire hall turn its h
