All Chapters of The College Bad Boy's Target : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Chapter 21: The Presence Ollie's Pov The knock came again, this time louder, sharper, echoing in the small space of my apartment like a gunshot. My body refused to move. My fingers dug into the edge of the table, my knuckles whitening, as I tried to convince myself it wasn’t real. Maybe it was my imagination. Maybe the sound was just… something else.But deep down, I knew. I didn’t have to look at the shadow stretching beneath the door to know who it belonged to. Ryder. Always Ryder.My chest tightened so violently I thought I might suffocate. I tried to calm myself, tried to tell myself to think rationally, but my thoughts scattered like leaves in a storm. Breathe, Ollie. Just breathe. I inhaled slowly, shallowly, but the panic inside me was like fire, refusing to be tamed.The knock came a third time. It was deliberate, slow, almost mocking, and it made my stomach twist into knots. I swallowed hard, my throat dry, as if I’d forgotten how to speak. I wanted to run, wanted to disapp

Chapter 23: No EscapeOllie's Pov.I couldn’t breathe. Not really. Not fully. Ryder was still there, still too close, still impossibly real. My chest felt trapped, my lungs too small, my heart thundering like a war drum. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to run, to disappear, to vanish into nothing. And yet… I couldn’t move.I could feel him. Always. Even when he wasn’t in the room, even when I tried to pretend he didn’t exist. But now, he was. He was here, and he wasn’t leaving.“Breathe,” he murmured softly, his voice low, almost a whisper, yet it cut through me like a blade. I could feel his hand still near mine, just a hair’s width away, radiating heat. I swallowed hard, trying to obey, but the panic clawing at me refused to be tamed.“I… I can’t…” My voice shook, breaking under the weight of everything. I shook my head, pressing my hands to my face, trying to shut him out, but the moment I did, I could feel him watching me, waiting, patient, dangerous.“You can,” he said. Ca

Chapter 25: The EdgeRyder's POV Ollie hadn’t moved for a long time.He stood across the small living room, his back nearly pressed to the farthest wall like it could swallow him whole, his chest rising and falling in sharp, uneven breaths, his fingers twitched against his sides, flexing, curling, as though his body couldn’t decide whether to fight me or surrender completely.I stayed exactly where I was, watching him, letting the silence stretch between us until it turned heavy and unbearable. The lamp in the corner cast everything in warm gold, throwing shadows that clung to his pale skin and wide eyes.My eyes moved over him slowly, deliberately, taking in every detail, the way his throat worked as he swallowed, the subtle tremor in his lower lip, the restless shift of his feet as though some part of him wanted to run. His shoulders were tense, locked into place, but his breathing gave him away. Shallow, quick, desperate.He wasn’t just afraid, he was unraveling.I drank it all in

Chapter 27: The ClaimRyder’s POVThe hallway outside Ollie’s apartment was silent, but my pulse wasn’t. I stood there after the door closed behind me, hands shoved in my pockets, breath slow, steady, but not calm. I had been inside his walls, inside his space, and I had touched him. More than that—I had felt him bend. Not break, not yet. But bend. The smallest crack, the smallest lean toward me. That was enough to keep me awake for days.I started walking, boots striking the floor with measured rhythm. Every step was deliberate, as if I was trying to shake the echo of his trembling voice from my ears. “I am afraid.” His confession replayed over and over, sweet as a song only I got to hear. Fear meant he couldn’t ignore me. Fear meant I had weight in his world. And weight could always become gravity.Outside, the night air was cool, brushing against my skin like a reminder that I’d left something important behind. Him. Part of me wanted to turn back, to knock again, to press harder un

Chapter 29: WatchingRyder’s POVThe night after I left Ollie’s apartment, I couldn’t sleep. My body was tired, my muscles heavy from the weight of everything, but my mind was sharp and restless. The moment I closed my eyes, I saw his face again—the way his eyes had softened, the way his breath had caught when I touched his jaw. The small, fragile tremor that ran through him when he leaned into me without meaning to. That tiny surrender. It replayed over and over like a film I couldn’t turn off.It wasn’t a kiss. It wasn’t a confession. But it was enough. Enough for me to know I had cracked the wall he tried so hard to keep between us. Enough for me to know I was inside his defenses now, and he could never undo that. He could scream at me, run from me, pretend to hate me all he wanted—but the truth was already written in the way his body answered mine. His heart raced not just from fear but from something he wouldn’t name. I would name it for him: need.I sat in the dark of my apartme