Reid Dawson of The Dawson’s The Man In Black
/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?"
/0/1432/coverbig.jpg?v=8648577a660a26cf4949e92d43ae261f)
The Black Experience in America
Resilience and triumph in the face of a tragic past has marked the trajectory of African Americans over time. Marginalized and relegated to slave status, early African Americans encountered endless obstacles in trying to secure freedom and basic human rights. The remarkable achievements of African A
/0/4959/coverbig.jpg?v=b3d512f063472a056aa941ede0c91910)
/0/40487/coverbig.jpg?v=859161f6f6fdfeb2b30636e7585fb979)
The Dawson Clan (English)
Cliff always felt his life was different from others. He was always locked up in a dark room with barely any light by his mother. He also can't eat the food that other people usually eat, just smelling the food, he will be nauseous and vomits. Only blood can be his food. He was surprised because his
/0/4958/coverbig.jpg?v=8a8e547e0c4f88055f18973d384be808)
The Man in Lonely Land
Mr. Winthrop Laine threw his gloves on the table, his overcoat on a chair, put his hat on the desk, and then looked down at his shoes."Soaking wet," he said, as if to them. "I swear this weather would ruin a Tapley temper! For two weeks rain and sleet and snow and steam heat to come home to. Hello,
/0/2543/coverbig.jpg?v=a9765eb5ca3f6e93dbe638368de3cfc4)
The Man of the Forest
This eBook edition of "The Man of the Forest" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. "At sunset hour the forest was still, lonely, sweet with tang of fir and spruce, blazing in gold and red and green; and the man who glided on under the great
/1/121848/coverbig.jpg?v=6ae17ffb6c7b1058541e93c06e5f4d48)
THE QUEEN OF THE BLACK RAVENS
I trusted them with my heart. They shattered it without hesitation. Aria Hayes grew up surrounded by the Black Ravens Motorcycle Club and the five boys she considered family. They were her protectors, her best friends, and her entire world. Most importantly, one of them was the love of her life. B
/0/1610/coverbig.jpg?v=b2e546498fa3e9dcd58b9e510ea85327)
The Souls of Black Folk
"The Souls of Black Folk" is a cornerstone of African-American literary history. Published in 1903, this seminal book of essays incited many white supremacists who discredited it as "dangerous" and "imaginative." Drawing upon his own personal experiences of racism, Du Bois argued that African Americ
/0/1538/coverbig.jpg?v=8ae0b81cad320ff8d1f37be9301b38cc)
The Man in Lower Ten
The Man in Lower Ten (serialized in magazines in 1906) was published as a novel in 1910, and immediately rose to number four on the best-seller list. Combining murder, mystery, and romance, Rinehart's celebrated novel is sure to keep readers in delightful suspense. In order to pick up legal paper
/0/38724/coverbig.jpg?v=80ada9a74f72b0ab2fd3d2157550c29e)
Curse of the Black Moon
Overnight, natalin found herself in the black world, it is said that it is the bottom of hell, she lives in the city of death, there is where the smell of murder spreads and blood is shed, she lives with werewolves and vampires, all those myths that her mind has denied have shockingly become in fron
/0/1025/coverbig.jpg?v=20171116200849)
The Man in the Iron Mask
In the months of March-July in 1844, in the magazine Le Siecle, the first portion of a story appeared, penned by the celebrated playwright Alexandre Dumas. It was based, he claimed, on some manuscripts he had found a year earlier in the Bibliotheque Nationale while researching a history he planned t
/0/5022/coverbig.jpg?v=326c013cea510b0c6bcf4f51c4c9fac6)
The Old Man in the Corner
A classic collection of mysteries by the author of The Scarlet PimpernelMysteries! There is no such thing as a mystery in connection with any crime, provided intelligence is brought to bear upon its investigation.So says a rather down-at-heel elderly gentleman to young Polly Burton of the Evening Ob
/0/6585/coverbig.jpg?v=b16e4ff944129a8ace375823553f8fef)
In the Days of Chivalry: A Tale of the Times of the Black Prince
In the Days of Chivalry: A Tale of the Times of the Black Prince by Evelyn Everett-Green
/0/21730/coverbig.jpg?v=35e29c927111f1f8cce78f4b40427239)
THE MYSTERY OF THE BLACK SCARF
SHE JUST WANTED PROTECTION, RESPECT AND RECOGNITION, AND THE DESIRE TO BE A SOCIALITE, AT ANY COST.
/0/50652/coverbig.jpg?v=20240407234144)
Resurrection Of The Oppressed Man
It turns out that having a handsome face does not guarantee that a person will be appreciated and loved. That was experienced by Aland Laureus, a poor man who only worked as a parking lot attendant and had to accept the infidelity committed by Clarissa, his wife. Not to mention the scorn he receiv
/0/69616/coverbig.jpg?v=fdfa9c0348c4a88da4419f1297b853ea)
Clarity Of The Other Man
Lena thought she had it all-a loving husband and a picture-perfect life. Devoting herself to their marriage, she put her heart into being the ideal partner. But when Jackson betrays her in the most unforgivable way, her perfect world shatters. With her trust broken and her heart hardened, Lena vows
/0/12090/coverbig.jpg?v=95741533943a99d16fa424a19840aa8f)
Airplane Boys in the Black Woods
Airplane Boys in the Black Woods by E. J. (Edith Janice) Craine
/0/3108/coverbig.jpg?v=ec307a36fb9a176a20b82806a02f2d66)
Black Beetles in Amber
Though he is today best remembered for his acerbic satire, American writer Ambrose Bierce had a surprisingly broad range as a writer. Black Beetles in Amber is a collection of Bierce's poetry, which ranges from humorous verse to hauntingly tender lyrics.
/0/99323/coverbig.jpg?v=fae072a0a22ea87a0527940588943e29)
The Curse Of Black Hollow Pack
In the mist-shrouded town of Black Hollow, the line between man and beast has long been cursed. When a series of brutal murders shakes the town, Detective Aiden Cross-a fearless but haunted police officer is sent to uncover the truth. But what he finds is more than a killer; it's a pack of ruthless
/0/8492/coverbig.jpg?v=d5674be0431eaa01d98d807fb3123130)
The Shadow of a Man
E.W. Hornung was an English author best known for writing the A.J. Raffles series about an English gentleman thief in the late 19th century.
