Give Me Your Heart

POV Bella

The amber pill bottle trembled against my palm as I twisted the cap. Two white tablets, same as every night.

Camila pretended to check her makeup in the visor mirror, granting me the illusion of privacy I no longer needed.

"You know, one day someone's going to catch you," she said, reapplying her signature red lipstick. "Then what? Your perfect image goes up in smoke?"

"Let them wonder," I replied, swallowing the pills dry. "Everyone at Ashford has secrets. Mine just happens to come with a prescription."

The Curtis estate blazed against the night sky before us. Music pulsed through the manicured gardens where the young elite of Ashford Academy gathered for their monthly ritual of expensive liquor and cheaper gossip.

"Ready to play the ice princess?" Camila asked as we approached the entrance.

"I never stop," I said, arranging my features into practiced perfection.

The party swallowed us whole—a sea of designer clothes and inherited confidence. I moved through the crowd with rehearsed grace, accepting air kisses and empty compliments.

Then the motorcycles roared into the driveway, and my heart slammed against my ribs.

Four bikes. Four riders.

But I only saw one.

Ajax Spencer dismounted with the fluid arrogance that had tormented my dreams since I was seventeen. His leather jacket caught the landscape lights as he pulled off his helmet, dark hair falling perfectly disheveled.

Time had only sharpened his edges—turned the beautiful boy who'd once made me stutter into something more dangerous.

"Oh good…" Camila muttered beside me. "The barbarians have arrived."

I forced myself to look away, but the damage was done.

The memories crashed over me like a tide.