Chasing his
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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?"
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Chasing His Substitute Wife
"Even if you are engaged to another man, even if you have his child, I don't care because you are mine baby girl, you would always be mine" he said his eyes blazing with anger, the kind i had never seen before. **** Lyra would give everything up to be with Adrian Sterling, to be noticed by him, to
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CHASING HIS CONTRACT WIFE
"Marry me and save your family's reputation or stand the chance of loosing everything." He said, his face stoic. She stood there watching him, the same man she had hated and wished death on for most of her adult life. "I'll marry you." She answered, defeated. Sophia Tyler never thought she would mee
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CHASING HIS RUNAWAY LUNA.
Lyra pays her alpha mate a surprise visit only to see him cheating on her with his female Omega's of his pack. She was humiliated and treated like a slave then she decided to run away with her unborned child. Life was really cruel towards her as she strived to take care of yourself and her baby. She
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Chasing His Divorced Wife
Elara spent three years invisible in her marriage to billionaire Damien Cross. When he hands her divorce papers, she disappears without a fight. Six months later, an accident steals Damien's memory of the past five years. He doesn't remember his ex-wife, but he can't stop searching for the woman wi
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Chasing His Ex-Wife
"I will give you an interest of one million dollars once we regain our lost glory," Nelly promised. "Really? Are you the only one who doesn't know my net worth?" Ivan questioned. "Fine. What do you want, Ivan?" "Marry me." Nelly Stratford was forced to approach her sworn enemy, the proud Ivan Lande
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Chasing His Muse
"You need to be on top Nikki, or I will go ape on you, with your pleads." Sexy, so damn sexy. My hands were all over his tattooed body. His hands were grabbing my thigh, squeezing it indulging my foreplay to his groin. "Damn it, babe, take off my boxers, I need you." ***** She was admitted by
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Chasing His Betrayed Ex-wife
Following her divorce from Dominic, Clarissa was involved in an accident that erased all her memories. A year later, during her wedding, a stranger interrupts the ceremony and claims to be her husband. However, she has fallen for her ex-husband's fiercest competitor. Dominic Romano, the Mafia
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MY CEO REGRETS: CHASING HIS HEIRESS WIFE.
She lost everything that day; Her three years of marriage, Her best friend's trust, And her two weeks old baby. ... "I want a divorce. I'm not in this marriage anymore." His voice dropped, as he moved closer. 'Divorce?' My world tilted. "Yes, my lawyer will send you the papers to sign." "No,"
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The Captain's Regret: Chasing His Runaway Wife
Five years ago, I stared at the pregnancy termination and divorce papers pushed toward me on the cold hospital bed. My husband, NHL superstar Brock Griffin, didn't even have the guts to face me himself. Instead, he sent his fake PR fiancée to force me out before his championship game. "Sign the pa
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Chasing His Ex-Wife Back
Isabelle Everett's perfect life crumbles when her billionaire husband, Damion Ryder, serves her divorce papers on their anniversary. Betrayal, heartbreak, and deceit propel her into a six-year journey of self-discovery. Now, with secrets exposed and old flames rekindled, Isabelle must choose betwee
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Chasing his ex-wife back
She loved him fiercely, masking her wealth to prove her devotion, willing to sacrifice anything to make him happy. But her loyalty was met with coldness and a stack of divorce papers tossed her way. Heartbroken and betrayed, she walked away, vowing to let him believe she was defeated. Yet, when he c
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Chasing His Ex-Mate
"I reject you as my mate and Luna of the pack!" Alpha Alvaro announced, causing the once silent market square to explode with gasps of shock. Ximena felt her world go still for a moment as the words echoed in her head. It felt unreal and she heard her heart shattering into a billion pieces. Her f
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The Billionaire's Regret: Chasing His Ex-Wife
I was the canary in the gilded cage, the clean face of the O'Neill Syndicate. My husband, Cameron, was the Don, and I was supposed to be his cherished trophy. But at my own art exhibition, the facade cracked. A notification lit up my phone: 'Watch your husband touch the woman he actually loves.' I
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The Alpha's Regret: Chasing His Runaway Mate
"Put it on," my stepbrother Brendan commanded, his eyes cold. He was forcing me to wear the silver bracelet his fiancée, Chloie, had bought to mock me. "It will burn me," I pleaded, clutching my wrist. "Stop acting like a fragile human," he snapped, his Alpha tone vibrating through the room. "Do
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The Alpha Chasing his Ex-Luna again
After being the Alpha's mate for three years, they referred to her as barren Luna. However, one day she discovered that she was pregnant. She was filled with excitement to share this news with her Alpha mate. Unfortunately, before she could do so, he unveiled a shocking secret and expressed his desi
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Billionaire's Regret: Chasing His Ex Wife Back
"Why? Just why?!" Her lips quivered, as she clenched her chest, "Why can't you reciprocate my feelings? I loved you Riccardo, or was my sincerity a crime?!" She concluded, her gaze casted on the man standing before her, whose face bore no emotion. Vanessa Rodriguez had always loved Riccardo Gonzale
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The Alpha's Betrayal: Chasing His Mate And Secret Heir
"It's Alpha from now on." Amelia was an Omega , Alpha Colton's maid daughter, but the moon goddess had other plans and made them fated mates. For three years, they had been trying for an heir that would finally lead the pack one day. But the very day she held the positive pregnancy test in her hand
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A Chance At Forever: Chasing His Divorced Love
When Charlotte’s fairytale marriage turns into a nightmare, she tries to fight to stay with her husband and build a home like the one her parents had; filled with love and happiness, but the reverse was the case. Her marriage was filled with heartbreak, neglect, and old flames, which drove them apa
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Chasing his Amnesiac mate: The lycan king's true Luna.
He promised to return for her. Ten years later, he found her and she couldn't remember his name. Winora made one mistake as she fell into the arms of a king who had lost everything. Draven Blackthorn, the ruthless Lycan King, had been betrayed by his own brother, stripped of his throne, and left t
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Chasing Back His Rejected Mate
Nixie Haysen's life falls apart on the day of their mating ceremony when she finds out that her partner, Alpha Zane Lucian, has betrayed her along with her sister in the shadows of Whitby, England, a city brimming with paranormal secrets. Nixie runs away after receiving a heartbreaking rejection f
