I WANTED RESPECT. I DIDN’T EXPECT TO BE TRAINED FOR IT. I’m Aria, a scholarship girl in a world full of arrogant men, surviving on sharp grades and sharper pride. I do not bend for anyone, not after what happened before Blackthorne. When the Headmasters summon me, I tell myself it’s a warning, a lecture, a slap on the wrist. Then three pairs of eyes pass over me like they already own the answer to every secret I keep, and their calm offer makes my pulse stutter: consent in ink, panties on the floor, and and bend over for their discipline. CONTROL KEEPS THIS PLACE CLEAN. SHE MAKES ME WANT TO GET DIRTY. I’m the Headmaster that everyone believes is the most reasonable, which is how I get away with being the most dangerous. Aria is brilliant, full grown, and reckless, and the way she pretends she feels nothing makes me ache to prove otherwise. My two colleagues want her obedience. I want her honesty, wrung from her one breath, one blush, one punishment at a time.