First Place Was Never the Prize
A dark academia enemies-to-lovers BL romance
Adrian Vale has spent his entire life being perfect.
Top-ranked in one of the most elite academic programs in the country, cold, disciplined, and impossible to read, Adrian doesn’t lose. He doesn’t get distracted. And he definitely doesn’t let people get close enough to matter.
Then Luca Luca Morello takes first place.
Brilliant, reckless, infuriatingly charming, Luca thrives on instinct where Adrian relies on control. After the two rivals are forced into a high-pressure research partnership, their competition turns into obsession—sharp arguments becoming dangerous tension, late nights in the lab turning into something far more personal.
But Adrian’s life is built on pressure, expectations, and a family that values achievement more than affection. And Luca has a habit of pushing until people break open.
What starts as rivalry becomes attraction. Attraction becomes dependence. And somewhere between ambition, anger, and sleepless nights together, both of them realize the most dangerous thing in the room was never the project.
It was each other.
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