The Unwanted Pact With My Enemy

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Synopsis

To keep her art scholarship, Vesper had to complete a life-size woodcarving for her final project. But her randomly assigned model was Slade Forrester, the arrogant basketball captain who had shattered her grandfather's priceless antique carving tools freshman year without a single apology. When Vesper blackmailed him with a ten-thousand-dollar property damage claim to force him into the studio, Slade mercilessly turned the tables. "I'll be your model, but you're going to do something for me in return." He demanded she carve a custom piece to help him woo a girl who hated his guts, and forced Vesper to act as his personal spy. The target turned out to be Vesper's own roommate. To make matters worse, Slade caught onto Vesper's terrifyingly deep, secret crush on his polite roommate, Julian. He ruthlessly weaponized her anxiety, mocking her stuttering panic and trapping her in a twisted mutual-blackmail deal that left her completely suffocated. Exhausted, humiliated, and desperate to escape this nightmare, Vesper logged onto the university portal at 2 AM to register for a quiet online elective where she wouldn't have to see anyone. But the system lagged, locking her out of every normal class and leaving only one open seat in a brutal varsity physical conditioning course. With her required credits and scholarship on the line, she had absolutely no choice but to hit register. Then the syllabus loaded on her screen. The Teaching Assistant for the class was Slade Forrester.