My Girlfriend from the Shadows Chapter 1

I’m the kind of girl who crawled out of the gutter, damp and shadowed, yet somehow I landed Kian Wilde, the king of campus.

Four months into our relationship, Kian’s beautiful first love, Sienna, transferred to our university just for him.

During gym class, they were at it again, openly flirting for everyone to see.

Sienna shot me a triumphant, challenging look from the corner of her eye.

Students from several classes were pointing at me, whispering, waiting for the punchline.

My face went pale. I shrank into a corner, head down, playing dead.

But as soon as class was over, I shoved Kian into an empty classroom, slammed him against the door, and kissed him with a desperate, frantic hunger.

“Next time you get that close to her,” I hissed against his lips, “I’ll kiss you senseless right out in the open.”

* * *

Kian’s lips were slightly swollen from where I’d bitten them. He frowned. “Maya, can you stop talking about kissing me senseless all the time?”

“Besides,” he added, his voice tight with frustration, “I’ve already explained this. Our families are old friends. If Sienna talks to me, am I supposed to just ignore her?”

That was his way of saying he wasn’t going to change.

My anger flared hotter.

I lunged at him again, my right hand snaking under his t-shirt, my fingers tracing the hard lines of his abs.

A laugh, half anger and half amusement, escaped him. “Damn it,” he swore, pushing me away. “You’re insane. I’ve seen people cash in on a favor, but never this desperately.”

—This relationship was me cashing in on a favor.

A little over four months ago, Kian was nearly hit by a modified street bike on his way back to Aurelia University. I happened to be walking behind him and shoved him out of the way at the last second.

Afterward, he thanked me and asked if there was anything he could do.

“Can you be my boyfriend for a year?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

Kian raised an eyebrow. He was the undisputed king of AU—tall, handsome, arrogant, and rich. Countless beautiful girls had thrown themselves at him, and not a single one had succeeded.

And me? I was just another ordinary girl, the kind you see everywhere on campus, the kind who always keeps her head down.

When he didn't answer, I quickly lowered my offer. “Six months is fine, too. If that bike had hit you, you might have been laid up for that long anyway, right?”

He finally let out a sharp sigh. “Fine. Six months it is, my life-saver.”

He had no idea.

The entire thing was a trap I had designed just for him.

The guy on the bike? I’d paid him with a year’s worth of my part-time job savings.

And as the anchoring effect suggests, people are more likely to accept a lesser offer after being presented with a higher one.

—All I ever wanted was six months.

Outside, his basketball teammates were yelling for him to come to practice.

I still held onto him, refusing to let go. “You and Sienna crossed a line. You have to make it up to me. Tonight, you have to do whatever I want, however I want to play.”

He looked utterly exasperated. “I know, I know,” he said, trying to pry my fingers off the door handle. “Tonight, you can play all you want. Happy now, you little psycho?”