Bitter Marriage The Missing Gleam in Their Eyes
/1/129726/coverbig.jpg?v=d952b45e9b05aae9f5803a8b2c8d4fc6)
The Hockey Prince's Secret Ice Queen
All I wanted was to find a computer genius to process the non-linear dynamic equations for my ecological model. Instead, I found myself cornered by Julian Andrews, the university's hockey prince, trading a public, staged kiss for his academic support. To finalize our "deal," I was dragged to the campus ice rink. The cheerleaders and puck bunnies immediately swarmed him, mocking my plain clothes and treating me like a pathetic joke. Brooke, the head cheerleader, even set up a figure skating competition with a date with Julian as the grand prize. She performed a basic spin, blew him a kiss, and smugly waited for me to fall flat on my face and humiliate myself. His hockey teammates laughed from the sidelines, watching me try to support Julian as he stumbled around the ice like a newborn giraffe. But as I held his warm hand to keep him from falling, I couldn't help but feel something was terribly wrong. Why was a top-tier athlete faking such awful balance? And why did his ice-blue eyes stare at me with such knowing anticipation, as if he already knew about the professional figure skating past I had spent years trying to bury? "Just let go and skate." He whispered, slowly releasing my hand. I took a deep breath, glided to the center of the rink, and landed a flawless double Axel. As the entire rink fell into a dead, shocked silence, I realized I had just exposed not only my own hidden past, but also the biggest secret of the campus god.
Chapter 1 No.1
Sage POV:
"Let me kiss you."
The request was a low, hurried murmur—warm, quiet, and laced with the faintest edge of mortification.
Stunned, I snapped my head up toward the sound.
Julian Andrews filled my vision. He easily towered a head over me, his lean, athletic frame silhouetted against the bright morning glare, casting a long shadow across the cobblestones. Briar University's star forward. Team captain. The athletic department's untouchable golden boy.
Campus rumor had it that Julian was notoriously indifferent, never sparing anyone a second glance.
Behind him, a solid wall of navy-and-gold varsity jackets blocked the brick path. His teammates were whistling, shoving each other, and effectively cutting off my only exit.
The sudden commotion immediately bottlenecked the morning foot traffic. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and within seconds, a dozen students reached into their pockets out of sheer muscle memory, black camera lenses catching the light as they aimed squarely at us.
Julian's sharp eyes tracked the movement, his jaw tightening into a hard, irritated line.
Before I could take a single defensive step back, he closed the distance between us. Leaning down into my space, his broad shoulders shifted in a subtle, fluid maneuver—throwing up an impenetrable physical wall that completely shielded my face from the intrusive glare of the cameras.
His sharp, striking face hovered breathtakingly close. His deep baritone brushed against my ear, lost to the autumn wind, meant for me alone:
"Sorry to drop this on you," he whispered, his pale blue eyes disarmingly earnest, holding a quiet heat that sent a tremor straight down my spine. "The guys backed me into a locker-room dare... but I'm not here to use you as a joke. We can fake it. Angle it so it looks real—whatever you're comfortable with. Just help me get them off my back, and I owe you one."
It was only then that my brain finally rebooted.
What on earth? He's actually trying to kiss me?
A sharp flare of pure absurdity hit me, and my gaze dropped to my reflection in the dark glass door of the adjacent building: an oversized, faded gray hoodie that swallowed my frame whole, soft, thin jeans worn at the knees, bare-faced dark circles carved beneath my eyes from forty-eight hours of non-stop coding, my dark hair hastily twisted into a cheap plastic claw clip, and a pair of oversized, thick black-rimmed glasses sitting heavy on the bridge of my nose, completely hiding my face.
I looked like a refugee from an all-night disaster. How had Briar's golden prince ended up in front of me?
When I looked back up, my breath trapped in my throat anyway. He was too close, his clean scent of winter mint and cedar wrapping around my senses. Having those pale blue eyes staring straight down at me made my chest tighten in a way I really didn't want to acknowledge.
"Clock's ticking, Cap!" Landon howled from the sidelines, hands cupped around his mouth as the rest of the players lost their minds laughing. "Plant one on her, or enjoy the five-AM bag skate!"
A raucous chorus of barks and chest-thumping went up from the team.
A few yards away, two girls heading toward the dining hall froze in their tracks, pointing their phones.
"Wait, who the hell is that?" one of them laughed loudly, zooming her camera in on my face. "She looks like she just crawled out of a dumpster. There's no way Julian's actually kissing her. Post it on Sidechat right now—this is going straight to number one."
The cruel words hit like a splash of ice water, snapping me out of my daze and instantly killing the stupid flutter in my chest.
I hated the attention.
Four years ago, after my family and my former training partner framed me and destroyed my competitive skating career, I swore I would never be public entertainment again. I buried my name, switched majors, and hid behind oversized fleece and thick glasses just to live an invisible life. If I ended up on the campus forums with Julian Andrews, the internet vultures would dox me before noon—and drag up the toxic scandal I had bled to walk away from.
My research was already on the verge of falling apart. I didn't have time for this circus.
I locked my grip around my heavy binders, my knuckles straining white.
"Find someone else for your dare, Andrews," I said coldly, taking a step back to put distance between us, my voice tight with adrenaline. "I'm not interested in being part of your game. Move."
I kept my head down, attempting to brush past him.
"You're Sage Kelley, right?"
The sound of my name brought my boots to an immediate halt.
I blinked up at him, caught completely off guard.
"Professor Beaumont's senior research student," Julian straightened up slightly, his cadence measured and even, carrying an intellectual sharpness that seemed impossible beneath a varsity jacket. "I saw your Havenwood Creek senior capstone proposal sitting on his desk over Sunday dinner."
My heart gave a hard, hollow thud. Professor Beaumont was my academic advisor—and the guardian of the final research endowment my late father had left behind.
Julian leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a near-whisper against the whistle of the wind. "I spent an hour going over your codebase."
My lips parted. "You... read my proposal?"
"Your simulation keeps crashing because your core fluid algorithm strategy is flawed," Julian murmured, his pale blue eyes deadly sharp. "And Uncle Des mentioned that if you don't deliver a working version by this Friday, the department is pulling your grant—which means you don't clear your senior thesis, and you don't graduate in May."
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Friday was the deadline. If the funding was pulled, the project died, my senior capstone failed, and I would be forced to stay another semester without my degree. Worse, my father's final ecological legacy would be reduced to scrap paper.
I had been panicking over that exact deadline for two days straight, and Julian had just laid it out like it was nothing.
Worse, I couldn't even brush him off. I had heard the rumors about Beaumont's nephew—the CS prodigy everyone in the department talked about. I just had never realized it was him.
"I know how to fix your algorithm," Julian stated plainly, laying his cards on the table, his gaze locking onto mine with an unshakeable, quiet certainty. "Help me get through this bet. In return, I'll rewrite your boundary calculations tonight. Deal?"
/0/95034/coverbig.jpg?v=f0f7180804cd6f64aec81d336ee62dd6)
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His
Ruby grew up sad for most of her life. Born into a society where beauty standards were seen as slender and tall, she felt low self esteem her entire life. Her family even made matters worse by ridiculing her each day, and comparing her with her younger sister. Her wolf despised her, accusing Ruby of
/0/38299/coverbig.jpg?v=10d5f36b1d9948dd33d50536d9ff62c1)
Bitter Marriage, Lusty Husband
She thought he hated her, but it turned out to be... When she lost all her hope, the opportunity came.
/0/18299/coverbig.jpg?v=70039e4e1ce046c0538504f7861acbec)
Happy Together
“We'll be married for only a month. After that, we'll get divorced immediately.” Even though their marriage had been arranged by their great-grandfathers before they were born, he believed that such a rude and noisy woman like her didn’t deserve to be his wife. Little did they know then that t
/0/71257/coverbig.jpg?v=4922701a88aabee73244014be7231b83)
THE STARS IN HER EYES
Joanna never imagined that a desperate job interview would lead to a whirlwind of unexpected opportunities-and complications. Hired as a personal assistant to the enigmatic billionaire Zac Cross, she quickly learns that working for him means navigating not just high-stakes business but also undeniab
/0/42670/coverbig.jpg?v=e78a61a82b8763375821a1e63f5b4b11)
IN YOUR EYES
"In Your Eyes" is an enthralling werewolf story that delves into the realms of mystery, supernatural power, and self-discovery. Set in the enchanting village of Ravenwood, this tale explores the extraordinary life of Lily Evergreen, a young woman who embarks on a transformative journey into her true
/1/102055/coverbig.jpg?v=f528b7005b2f6139b8a15aadd3d0d325)
The Transactional Marriage: Her Bitter Ascent
The first time my husband, Gregory, chose a billion-dollar deal over my father' s funeral, I knew our marriage was a transaction. But when he started canceling meetings for an actress named Kennedy, I realized he was capable of love-just not for me. Then came the whispers of his devotion: buying he
/0/65015/coverbig.jpg?v=a7c657b6b620270d2e8e234789900d44)
Lost in Your Eyes
...one man with a a drowning past... In the heat of a family saga clouded in betrayal, power struggles, and the pursuit of vengeance, Save Me follows the story of Aaron Hades, a third-generation billionaire, shaped by his trauma and ambition, as he navigates the dangerous waters of familial duty an
/1/103282/coverbig.jpg?v=d26a684e7947ebc08d44cd0d896a760a)
My Stolen Life, Their Bitter Downfall
I was Aurora Sterling, a talented physician who, to protect my fragile stepsister Clara, took the fall for financial fraud and went to prison. I served one year. My family, my fiancé Julian Thorne, they all promised me it was temporary, that they would wait for me, that they would take care of ever
/0/8365/coverbig.jpg?v=758573c6f34eee2b5e64d3499a9316ca)
The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preservin
/0/27418/coverbig.jpg?v=7502172f74ecdd5349859668bb5c0217)
Secrets In The Marriage
The conspiracies brought Annie and Ronald together. They had the wrong notion about each other. While Ronald thought that his bride was Florrie, the first daughter of the White family, Annie thought that her groom was a poor man called Addy from the countryside. But that was very far from the truth
/0/48776/coverbig.jpg?v=977a107e71583175a2d33dd055cc6dd1)
The Missing CEO's Wife
Being a widower with one child for four years did not make Arion give up on finding his wife's whereabouts. Tania's body disappearing in a plane crash didn't convince the guy she was dead. He never missed a day to look for Tania's whereabouts. "If she's really dead, at least her body should be in fr
/0/81069/coverbig.jpg?v=c7377d4b8a88981b4eab5bf2eab2a859)
The Missing Wife's Return
We were the quintessential Chicago love story, high school sweethearts, married for five blissful years. My husband, Michael, a successful real estate developer, suddenly longed for a family, and our high-profile OB-GYN, Dr. Peterson, joyfully announced we were expecting twins. But eight months in
/0/72934/coverbig.jpg?v=bf25a176b00c418376355bc8252f0915)
The Missing Heirloom
A family gathers for a reunion, but the prized family heirloom goes missing.As the investigation unfolds, secrets and lies are revealed.
/0/16458/coverbig.jpg?v=72af77919198c91b3720cc5a82538f52)
/0/4985/coverbig.jpg?v=f3f45edea01b0cd9d644c9606110620e)
/0/25560/coverbig.jpg?v=88214d6b45570198e54c4a8206c1938e)
The Billionaire's Missing Wife
Heiress and artist Heather Presley-Hale is deeply in love with her ruthless but loving husband, Sebastian Hale, the newly appointed CEO of Hale Industries. But when tragedy caused them to be separated along with their kids, fate tries to find a way to bring them back. Will Sebastian and Heather be
/0/80804/coverbig.jpg?v=20250701190630)
Loving In The Disaster Marriage
Scarlet, who had been divorced one month before, being forced to take her sister's position. She had to accept arranged marriages with Sèbastian Davereux-a cold, untouchable, full of secrets, and the richest billionaire in America. When she thought her life would be a mess, Sèbastian offers her
/0/39392/coverbig.jpg?v=57c5358e63cb56be419ccced32028ad2)
Missing Heaven
"Celestine", it's the very first time of hearing my name in a husky tone. My heart skipped a beat, I can't deny. Searching for the voice, I regret I didn't pretend that I didn't hear anything. Walking towards me is Crimson Flores. I hear my heart beating louder. "In Spanish it means heaven or heaven
/0/81432/coverbig.jpg?v=d506d55264daa62b9b8a7b26aee37406)
The Monster in My Marriage
My mother was dying, and the transplant was her only hope, but it was "very expensive." I swore I'd find the money, somehow. But then, my fiancé broke off our engagement, choosing Sophia Bellweather instead. Desperate, I accepted my childhood friend Ethan Miller's shocking proposal: he'd cover all
/0/480/coverbig.jpg?v=20171123164638)
The Eyes of the World
To Benjamin H. Pearson`` Student, Artist, Gentleman in appreciation of the friendship that began on the "Pipe-Line Trail," at the camp in the sycamores back of the old orchard, and among the higher peaks of the San Bernardinos; and because this story will always mean more to him than to
