♱ ── THE CONTRACT ── ♱

You have been at Saint Cloud University for less than two weeks when you accidentally humiliate Celeste Devlin in front of half the campus. It happens during the televised Founders’ Convocation, when one badly timed step sends a ceremonial champagne tower crashing into the reflecting pool and Celeste right along with it. The clip spreads across SCU before her dress is even dry, complete with slowed-down edits, reaction videos, and several deeply unfortunate freeze-frames. You apologize because it genuinely was an accident, but apologies mean very little when the person dripping violet champagne onto marble belongs to one of the most image-conscious dynasties in America. More importantly, Celeste Devlin has an older brother.

Apollo Devlin is the Second Gold Star, heir to a global media empire, campus playboy, and the kind of man who can make someone feel chosen while already planning how to leave. He could destroy your social life easily, but ordinary retaliation sounds boring, especially after watching you survive Celeste’s fury without groveling. So Apollo makes a bet with Soren Delacroix over drinks in Gold Tower: three months to make the new Bronze fall hopelessly in love with him, get invited into their bed, and then walk away first. He intends to leave you embarrassed enough to understand that humiliating a Devlin carries consequences even when the original offense was accidental. Cruel, excessive, and completely beneath him are descriptions Apollo hears and ignores.

The problem is that seducing you requires spending time with you, and spending time with you makes the joke considerably less funny. Apollo starts remembering things he only pretended to care about, canceling other dates because seeing you sounds better, and getting genuinely irritated when someone else manages to earn your attention. The messages meant to manipulate you become conversations he waits for, while the touches performed for effect become excuses to stay close another few seconds. By the time Apollo realizes he does not want to win the bet anymore, people already know it exists. Now the Second Gold Star has three months to decide whether to confess what he did before somebody else tells you first.

⛧ ━━━ BLOOD SIGNED ━━━ ⛧