Broken Petals
/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?"
/0/51444/coverbig.jpg?v=6ef4a04d23d9b2f639665add0928cf29)
SHATTERED PETALS
"In the shadow of towering affluence, Jake, a resilient gardener striving for a better life, finds himself entangled in a web of heartache and adversity. From the condescension of a wealthy employer to the heartbreak of a love gone awry, Jake's journey unfolds in the unforgiving streets of the cit
/0/86725/coverbig.jpg?v=edb6db1e92548186a3e65495b6ca8bf5)
Petals & power
She was trained to serve. But she plans to rule. In the empire of Elarith, girls are not born-they're crafted. Sculpted into obedient wives, loyal mistresses... or royal queens. Lily Everen radiant, and sharp as the thorns beneath her beauty, was raised with one purpose: to marry the king. But Lil
/1/113637/coverbig.jpg?v=cbac5cc0c5694326ee1f4205af0d108c)
BLOOD AND PETALS
She sells flowers. He spills blood. And he will stop at nothing to make her his. Elena Rossi has always lived quietly among roses and lilies, dreaming of love as gentle as the petals she arranges. She thought she found it in Daniel, the man she planned to marry. Until her wedding day when a dangerou
/0/14734/coverbig.jpg?v=a70cbb4c395b6677b9de8a114ce81e09)
/0/19411/coverbig.jpg?v=a43eb0b0fcd86bdf7171658b9cada131)
BROKEN
"I hate love"!!I screamed as tears streamed down my face and my voice echoed back. "I looked around me waiting to see if anyone was going to pass by. I looked back into the depths of the sea and I became so anxious as I held her out about to throw her in it....." "She had practically broken me, s
/0/20589/coverbig.jpg?v=9ed6ef4a39af21956745205283d27139)
Broken Nightmare
Have you ever had a nightmare you can't wake up from? Elana Suthard has an interesting ability to dream the future. When she dreams of her best friend, Claire, setting fire to the school, she can't believe herself. Having no idea what is going on, she stubbornly tries to find out what she can do
/0/32828/coverbig.jpg?v=0fadc1d7b6d7be102a27f60b000cefda)
Broken Tears
Warning:(18+) She had watched her mother being bullied, maltreated, and belittled all in the name of love, so she hated anything that has to do with relationships and love. When she thought she was finally free from the cruel hands of her father's ill-treatment, life happened and she became traumati
/0/18239/coverbig.jpg?v=660ad1b7f791c0290fcfd7e2d88c8086)
Broken Past
Haunted by the past and tormented with doubt about the future, a young troubled writer must overcome obstacles, question her beliefs and accept the cabalistic to discover her heritage.
/0/83107/coverbig.jpg?v=eade2f42cab900434b26f2cd8c5fec69)
The broken
They said Mason Carter was dying-and gave him a wife to keep him company until the end. Samantha Blake didn't expect love, just survival. But behind the mansion's polished walls, she discovers something chilling: no doctors, no nurses... and a man who might not be dying at all. The truth is buried d
/0/27583/coverbig.jpg?v=81734295f161bcbc3a9d2f5840ec4468)
Broken Hearts
Gabrielle Lot or Gabby as she loved to be called was one of the leading names in the Fashion industry, but she didn't do it in just one day she had to work and fight for it. Even if it meant disappointing her parent. Everything was going on well for her, with the success of her business waxing str
/0/52636/coverbig.jpg?v=e620203961ef33ca47b428b787194636)
BROKEN PRIDE
Bennie decided to remain a virgin until the day she married, she had an upbringing that one of a woman's pride is in her virginity so she opted to stay a virgin till her wedding night. The wedding night finally came and she was about to make love with her husband, Scott when armed robbers broke in
/0/44940/coverbig.jpg?v=4dcbf58297031c1b25f5f115b31e52dc)
BROKEN; REVENGE
Bella was haunted by her nightmares, but those nightmares are all bloody. She just wanted to live normal like everyone else but first she must get her revenge
/0/21896/coverbig.jpg?v=1125cf010ac50bcedddde60ee70e4d87)
Broken Angel
Gabriella Finn a young adult gets raped by three men and that horrible night her Angel Zurier rips out his own wings so that he can touch this world to save her. After recovering from her ordeal she ends up dating one of her rapists unkowningly. Will she realize that she is dating the wrong person o
/0/21284/coverbig.jpg?v=f8bd38e65cedc2c2ffdb1beb93daa271)
Broken souls
As Zoe rushed towards the class she collided with Spencer . They have been well-known sworn enemies since middle school . His towering body with piercing blue eyes beneath his glasses made him unique , his friendly nature helped him to have a good school life . People envied his life, beauty with br
/0/58875/coverbig.jpg?v=5f76632fa0fd01e88e5a08fbd54634c4)
BROKEN HOPES
Evelyn Stevenson, a sweet,beautiful young girl in high hopes of reuniting with her lover after 10 years. " you should go reunite with him". " i don't know,what if he doesn't recognize me anymore,you know it's been years since we had contact with each other." Sandy Mazano an arrogant,wealthy busi
/0/28912/coverbig.jpg?v=a1fd0ef438989e3a49e6011b80b67de4)
Broken Vow
Angela discovers that Eva is the true daughter of her son, but how come about this is what she intends to discover. Could it be that his son is the Missing culprit. Margaret discovers the truth but Eva asks her this question " is it my father that will go to jail or your husband that will go to j
/0/45099/coverbig.jpg?v=2568571a192db9a4a50809775c9447d8)
Broken Billionaire
(This book has sex scenes is rated 18+)In the elite world of New York City, 19-year-old Sophia Jack's life shatters when her father arranges her marriage to Billionaire Andrew Arthur, the son of a childhood friend. Sophia resists, setting the stage for a tumultuous relationship. Dark secrets surfac
/0/61297/coverbig.jpg?v=8c9f535213628ad49c608dd012cd1400)
BROKEN TRUST
Aurora Sterndale is heartbroken and heartbroken when her lover abandons her at the altar of her best friend. In a desperate attempt to save face and get revenge, he kills his worst enemy, Brandon Blackwood on the spot. Brandon, who has always hated Aurora and abandoned her in the past, has his own m
/0/74632/coverbig.jpg?v=577f3c30b5c194d3127a7068a5bf8a09)
BRoken Destiny
Jade, a young woman devastated by the betrayal of her loved ones, is forced to marry Liam, the fearsome local mafia boss, as part of a contract. Driven by a thirst for revenge, Jade is initially reluctant to bind herself to this powerful and ruthless man. However, through their interactions, she gra
/0/24383/coverbig.jpg?v=608e4d3e76c0b7501200109b74fef586)
Broken Ballerina
Being born out of an affair between a doctor-mother and a politician father, Ellery James has been seen as a scandalous mistake by both her parents. Despite this, she tries to do everything in perfection in hopes to please them both someday with her decorated career in ballet dancing. Not wanting
