Unspoken Heat — Prologue
They didn’t know they were playing with fire—until it burned them both.
Jenna Cross had never broken a rule in her life.
She was the kind of girl professors loved—quiet, punctual, brilliant. The kind of girl who color-coded her notes and sat in the front row. The kind of girl who didn’t drink, didn’t party, didn’t flirt.
Until Zack Maddox.
She met him during freshman orientation, in a crowded lecture hall where the air smelled like nerves and new beginnings. He was leaning against the back wall, arms crossed, eyes scanning the room like he was already bored. His jawline was sharp, his smile lazy, and when their eyes met, something inside her stuttered.
He didn’t look like someone she should talk to.
So of course, she did.
---
They started slow.
A shared table in the library. A late-night coffee run. A study session that turned into a whispered conversation about dreams and regrets. He was older—junior year, pre-law, with a reputation for being brilliant and emotionally unavailable. But with her, he was different.
He listened.
He teased.
He touched her like she was something fragile and forbidden.
And when he kissed her for the first time—behind the stacks, with her back pressed against a shelf of dusty anthologies—she didn’t stop him.
She kissed him back.
---
The sex was fire.
It wasn’t what she expected. It wasn’t soft or slow. It was desperate. Hungry. Like he’d been waiting years to taste her. He whispered her name like a secret. She moaned his like a confession.
They didn’t talk about what it meant.
They didn’t ask questions.
They just kept coming back to each other—dorm rooms, empty classrooms, his off-campus apartment where the sheets smelled like cedar and sin.
She was addicted.
And he was careful.
Until he wasn’t.
---
It unraveled on a Tuesday.
Her brother, Ethan, showed up unannounced. A surprise visit. A casual lunch. A walk across campus that ended with him spotting Zack outside the law building.
Jenna didn’t see it happen.
But she heard about it later.
He’d called her that night, voice tight with disbelief.
“Jenna. Do you know who that guy is?”
She froze. “What guy?”
“Zack Maddox.”
Her stomach dropped.
“He’s my best friend from high school.”
---
The fallout was instant.
Ethan confronted Zack. Zack confronted Jenna. And suddenly, the heat between them turned cold. Sharp. Dangerous.
“You knew?” Zack had asked, voice low.
“No,” she whispered. “I didn’t.”
He stared at her like she’d betrayed him. Like she was someone else entirely.
And then he walked away.
---
That was three weeks ago.
Now, Jenna sat in the back of the same lecture hall where they’d met, her fingers trembling around a pen she hadn’t used in ten minutes. Zack was three rows ahead, his shoulders tense, his head tilted just enough for her to see the edge of his jaw.
He hadn’t spoken to her since.
But he hadn’t left either.
And every time their eyes met, the air between them crackled.
She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t forget.
And she couldn’t stop wanting him.
Jenna didn’t know how long they stood there—her back pressed against the office door, Zack’s breath hot against her cheek, their bodies inches apart but worlds away.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he said, voice low.
“You already are.”
His hand slid to her waist, fingers curling into the fabric of her sweater like he was trying to anchor himself. “Your brother would kill me.”
“He doesn’t own me.”
“He thinks he does.”
She tilted her chin. “Do you?”
Zack’s jaw clenched. “I don’t know what I think anymore.”
She reached up, traced the scar on his brow. “Then stop thinking.”
He kissed her.
Hard.
---
It wasn’t gentle.
It was months of silence. Weeks of restraint. Days of pretending they didn’t still want each other.
He lifted her onto the desk, shoved papers aside, and pulled her sweater over her head. She gasped when his mouth found her neck, her collarbone, the curve of her breast. He unhooked her bra with practiced ease, then paused—just long enough to look her in the eyes.
“You sure?”
She nodded. “I’ve never been more.”
---
They moved like they were trying to erase the past.
Her legs wrapped around his waist. His hands gripped her thighs. She moaned his name when he slid inside her, slow and deep, filling her like he’d never left. He kissed her like he was starving. She bit his shoulder like she was claiming him.
It was messy. Desperate. Beautiful.
And when they came—together, trembling, breathless—she felt something break open inside her.
Not just lust.
Not just longing.
Something else.
Something dangerous.
---
After, they lay tangled on the desk, her head on his chest, his fingers tracing circles on her back.
“I missed you,” she whispered.
“I tried not to.”
She looked up. “Did it work?”
He shook his head. “Not even close.”
She smiled, then frowned. “What happens now?”
He exhaled. “We stop pretending.”
“To your friends?”
“To your brother.”
She stiffened. “He’ll lose it.”
“I know.”
“But I won’t lose you.”
He kissed her forehead. “Then we fight.”
---
Outside, the campus was quiet.
Inside, Jenna Cross had just crossed a line she couldn’t uncross.
And Zack Maddox had just decided he’d burn for her.
Because secrets don’t stay buried.
And some fires never die.
