Chapter 1
I kept having the same weird dream.
Same man. Same desire. Same fire that burned all night long.
We never spoke. But our bodies did-pressed together in the dark, lost in heat and hunger.
I didn’t even know his name.
Just his lips. His scent. The way he made me forget everything but him.
Then one day, I reported a girl in my class for cheating on an exam. She almost couldn’t graduate because of it.
Enraged, she brought in her uncle. A man powerful enough to destroy my future with one word.
Everyone thought I was done for.
And when I looked up and saw that man. I thought, “Yep. I’m screwed.”
It was him.
The man from my dreams.
Standing there in a tailored suit, radiating power. Cold. Dangerous. Devastatingly familiar.
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My stomach dropped.
Because last night in my dream, I kissed him so hard, and bit his lip.
Hard.
And now, in broad daylight, that same bite mark was on his mouth.
Real. Red. Right where I left it.
What the hell was happening?
***
When Zachary Ramirez showed up, I seriously thought I was dreaming again. I pinched my thigh to check if it was real life.
Liora Ramirez stood next to him arrogantly. “Rosalyn Lawrence, my uncle, is here. You still have time to apologize.”
I barely listened to her. My eyes were locked on Zachary.
No way.
He looked exactly like the man from my dreams. His outstanding features, tailored suit, and his mouth…..
There was a faint red mark at the corner of his lips.
It was exactly where I bit him in my dream. Was that just a freaky coincidence?
“Rosalyn! Are you listening to me?” Liora snapped, clearly annoyed.
“I said you better apologize! Admit you lied about me hiring someone
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to take my exam-say it was all made up!”
I looked straight at her angry face. I said flatly, “No.”
“Have you lost it?! Do you even know who my uncle is? He’s a shareholder at PrimeCore Group! He just needs to issue an order to make your offer go away. If a few companies blacklist you, you’re
done!”
“So what?” I lifted my chin and stared at Zachary. “I’m not backing
down.”
When I walked out of the office, the students nearby avoided my gaze.
They had all lied earlier.
Everyone, including the instructors and some teachers, knew that Liora cheated. But they all looked the other way. Some even lied for her sake once I exposed her.
There was just one reason behind it-Liora was known as a privileged student on campus.
The Ramirez family was already loaded. After Zachary took charge of their business, they basically blew up.
He had his hands in everything in Los Angeles-schools, theme parks, even major company investments. Getting on Liora’s bad side was like directly crossing him.
Even though Zachary wasn’t even 30 yet, people already treated him like a legend. Nobody wanted to get on his bad side.
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Well, nobody but me.
If my report got accepted, Liora would probably be blocked from graduating. She freaked out and begged her uncle, who was overseas at that time, to step in for her.
My roommate followed me, trying to talk me out of it.
“Why go this far? You’re almost graduating. Just let it go.”
“You might be okay with letting things slide. I’m not.”
She sighed. “Come on, her uncle is untouchable. What can we even do?”
“Funny, you didn’t say that when she copied your thesis.”
My roommate was choked, unable to refute.
Liora shared a dorm with us, and she always acted like she was better than everyone else. But she gave me the hardest time.
I didn’t get it at first. Later on, I figured it out—it all went back to a
senior she liked. She had a crush on him.
One day, I accidentally wore the same jacket as him, and people joked we looked like a matching couple. That senior just laughed and said, “I’m honored.”
That tiny moment made Liora hate me.
Yes, she hated me for something that trivial. In truth, I didn’t even have that senior’s number.
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Over time, she crushed on other guys, but her dislike for me stuck.
I headed back to the dorm and kept sorting out the proof that someone else had taken Liora’s exam.
All around me, my roommates were chatting as usual.
“Did you see Zachary earlier?”
“Yes, he looks way younger than I imagined.”
“Someone said he’s only seven years older than Liora.”
“He’s so handsome. Does anyone know if he’s married? Got a girlfriend?”
“Liora says he’s seeing someone. Not that it matters-he’s way out of our league.”
“That’s right.”
As they talked, my mind wandered off. Those strange dreams I’d been having lately came rushing back.
In those dreams, Zachary would take off his flawless suit, and I’d drop all my defenses.
We couldn’t talk, so we gave in to our desires, letting our actions say everything.
The weird part? Before today, I’d never seen Zachary in real life.
So how on earth was I dreaming about him?
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There had to be just one explanation,
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