The Valen-Maddox Clause
In Brooklyn's most prestigious law school, love is illegal—especially when your last names are war.

Sky Valen is the daughter of a corporate shark—lethal in the courtroom, feared in the boardroom. She's got jet-black hair down to her knees, a mouth that could make devils flinch, and a plan to rip apart the Maddox empire piece by piece.

Ray Maddox is the golden boy of law school. Biker. Football captain. Heir to the rival firm that made her father’s life hell. He’s clean-cut on the outside, chaos underneath, and trained since birth to never lose a case—or his heart.

When Sky and Ray are forced into a high-profile mock trial together, sparks fly—and not the good kind. They’re enemies. Rivals. Forbidden. But behind every sarcastic insult is a dare, every stolen glance a risk they’re both dying to take.

Their fathers have blood on their contracts and secrets in their vaults. There’s one clause written between the lines neither of them expected:

Fall for each other—and lose everything.

That hand brushing his arm. That laugh. That lip bite.


So I did what any unbothered girl does: I got even.


I show up the next day late, skirt way too short, vanilla gloss like sin on my mouth, lashes curled to the gods, and that black hair I usually hide tied in a low, messy knot to show off every curve of my neck he's ever marked.


And I laugh. At Rain's stupid jokes. Lean in close. Smile like he's actually funny.


Gripping my wrist the second class ends.


He steps in so close I can feel heat radiating off him.


I smile, sickly sweet. "Please do something about it."


I don't care about the lecture. Or the professor. Or the crowd outside the dorm.


Straight through the halls, up the stairs, past her roommate (who bolts the second she sees me), and into that tiny little dorm where everything smells like vanilla, lip gloss, and rage.


She doesn't flinch when I slam the door.


She's already sitting on her desk chair, one leg crossed over the other, shorts swallowed under that massive black tee she always sleeps in.


The second I step toward her, she says—


"You looked like a damn idiot letting her touch you."


"I was watching you the entire time, Sky."


She snorts. "Right. While you let her stroke your ego."


I reach for her but she leans back, smirking.


"Nuh-uh," she says, voice all velvet and danger. "You don't get to touch me unless you ask."


She stands. Walks over. Brushes her fingers up my chest until her mouth is just below my ear.


"I'm begging," I whisper against her mouth. "Please, Sky. I've been losing my mind all fucking day."


The next thing I know her back's slammed against her closet door, my hoodie's off, her gloss is all over my jaw, and she's moaning my name in that breathless, reckless way that undoes me.


Later, tangled in sheets, her lips kiss the angry marks she left across my chest.


And when she whispers, "Don't ever let a girl touch you again,"


"She wasn't even a threat. But you? You'll be the death of me."


Chapter 27 - Say It.