Prologue
Nathan Blackwood didn’t believe in second chances.
In his world, there were only winners and losers—people who could keep up, and those who were left behind. Emotions were a weakness. Loyalty was a liability. And love? That was a fairytale he hadn’t bothered to read since his mother died when he was a boy.
The day Emily Rivers entered his life, he didn’t know what hit him.
She was nothing like the women who chased him with glossy smiles and empty words, or the board members who bowed before his empire. Emily was… real. Genuine. The kind of woman who spoke her mind, unafraid of his status, his power, or the temper that had made grown men quake in their shoes.
Their first meeting hadn’t gone as he expected. In fact, it had gone horribly.
“You don’t own this school, Mr. Blackwood,” she’d said, standing tall in front of him, her arms crossed over her chest. “And you certainly don’t own me.”
It was a challenge—and Nathan had never backed down from one. He had every intention of tearing down the walls she’d built around herself, of showing her just how far his wealth and influence could go.
But Emily didn’t crumble. Instead, she pushed back. Her fire matched his, her sharp wit cutting through his arrogance, her passion for teaching and her students something he couldn’t easily dismiss.
There was something about her that made him… angry. Furious, even. Furious that someone so unassuming could make him feel so much.
But it was also something else. Something that gnawed at him long after the words had been spoken and the door slammed shut between them.
Something that terrified him.
As weeks passed, Nathan found himself thinking of Emily more often than he liked to admit. She was everything he wasn’t: kind, patient, genuine. She wasn’t impressed by his wealth, nor was she swayed by his reputation. In fact, she seemed almost immune to him.
And that made him want her even more.
But Nathan didn’t do relationships. He didn’t do vulnerability. And Emily… she was a teacher. She had a life, a purpose, a world outside of him.
She wasn’t someone he could have.
Except now, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was the one person who could break through the armor he’d spent years constructing. She was the one person who could make him question everything he thought he knew about himself.
And for the first time in his life, Nathan Blackwood was afraid.
Afraid of the way his pulse quickened every time she entered a room.
Afraid of the way his thoughts wandered back to her, even when he was alone.
Afraid that Emily Rivers might be the one person who could tame his wrath—and make him feel something he hadn’t felt in years.
But there was one thing he knew for sure.
If he let her in, it wouldn’t be without a fight.
