The Tycoon
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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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The Tycoon Marriage Bargain
What if your first visit to Greece lands you into a marriage with the city most wealthiest man. _______ On the day Olivia Thompson got to Greece to visit her boyfriend, she found him getting married to someone else. Feeling hurt and shattered, Olivia decided then and there to get back at him, whic
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Falling For The Tycoon
After discovering her father's infidelity, Leena Jackson is sent to live with relatives she has never met. In a new city, she attends a new year's countdown party where a mysterious stranger's kiss ignites unexpected feelings within her. What happens when she crosses paths with the stranger again an
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THE HEIRESS AND THE TYCOON
In the glittering heart of a contemporary city fraught with power struggles and high society intrigue, Rome, a ruthless 27-year-old business tycoon, seeks vengeance for the brutal murder of his family. His target: Robert, the formidable patriarch of Davenge Enterprise. To execute his plan, Rome marr
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Tempting Fate With The Tycoon
One drunken night, Miranda boldly approached Leland, only to be met with his cold and unyielding gaze. He pinned her to the wall, cautioning, "Don't provoke me. I doubt you can handle it." Soon after, her engagement fell apart, leaving her destitute. With no other options, Miranda sought refuge
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Taken By The Tycoon
Grace Harrow was once the darling of New York's elite-until the man she loved left her humiliated at the altar. Five years later, she's back, not to rekindle her love but to ruin Lucas Stone, the billionaire who shattered her dreams. But when Lucas uncovers her plans, he takes matters into his own h
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Accidentally Married The Tycoon .
I didn't mean to marry a stranger. I meant to survive one disastrous night... and keep my name out of the headlines. But the man at the end of that rushed ceremony isn't just any man-he's the ruthless tycoon who owns half the city, and he wants our "marriage" to stay public. His rules are simple
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The Surgeon's Debt: Bound To The Tycoon
For three years, I served as Abraham Crane’s "Surgeon"—the secret fixer who managed his agonizing spinal injury and the even messier fallout of his billionaire empire. I thought the intimacy we shared behind closed doors meant I was the exception to his coldness, but I was just another line item in
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His Runaway Princess: Bound By The Tycoon
For five years, Audrey Hebert lived in a cramped, suffocating apartment, hiding after her cousin Tiffany stole their family's wealth and legacy. When her brother Julian finally returned to Los Angeles to plot their revenge, he brought his powerful new billionaire business partner to help them. But
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Betrayed By Ex, Married To The Tycoon
Elva used a spare key card to quietly enter the hotel penthouse, only to find her boyfriend of two years panting heavily on the king-sized bed with her own cousin. Instead of showing remorse, her cousin shamelessly mocked her background, while her ex aggressively lunged at her to destroy the photog
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Fake Marriage Ruined, She Married The Tycoon
Five years of a fake marriage to a billionaire. Christi thought she was a wealthy wife-until City Hall told her the truth. No marriage license. No legal rights. Nothing but a lie. Her husband cheated on her for four years. His entire family mocked her, used her, and planned to trap her with a ba
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Jacqueline's Dilemma: Chosen By The Tycoon
"My dear?" The priest called her softly. Jacqueline looked at him tearfully. She sniffed. Rex leant closer. "If you don't say yes within the next minute, you and that innocent priest will be force to go an unplanned trip to the netherworld. You wouldn't want that, would you?" He threatened, whisper
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The Secret of the Tycoon
Adrian Blackwell, a self-made billionaire and tech magnate, is the epitome of success. But behind his sprawling empire lies a labyrinth of secrets. Tied to an elite clandestine group known as The Concord, Adrian's rise to power came at a steep cost-one that demands absolute loyalty and unwavering
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The Tycoon's Unwanted Contract Wife
I married billionaire Gregorio Harrison to pay off my father's massive debt and keep my dying mother on life support. But his true love, Kiersten, drugged him with an aphrodisiac, and he used my body to survive the night. The next day, Kiersten threatened my mother's life with loan sharks, forcing m
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Divorcing The Tycoon: The Genius Designer
For three years, Aletha sold her soul to her adoptive family, enduring a toxic, loveless marriage to Wall Street tyrant Kristopher. But the illusion shattered when Kristopher brought his crying mistress into Aletha's ER. He violently shoved Aletha into a metal cart just because she applied standar
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Flash Marriage to the Tycoon, I'm Spoiled Rotten
Cast out by an "elite" family and mocked by high society, Elena shocked everyone by marrying the most powerful man in town. They assumed it was a temporary arrangement-after all, he had said, "The agreement is for two years. After that, we're done." Yet after the wedding, he refused to let her
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Divorcing The Tycoon: Rebirth Of A Queen
Felicity Soto spent six years believing she had built a perfect marriage with billionaire CEO Kayden Miller. She gave up her own career, devoted herself to his family, and raised their son with all the love she had. But on the day Kayden's first love, pianist Eden Ortiz, returned to the United State
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Rejected by the Tycoon
Beatrice Pagett has always deeply loved Edward Maddock, even though they married by contract. After a year of passionless marriage, she decides to seek a divorce, longing for a life away from the pain of unrequited love with Edward. Edward realizes too late the grave mistake he made and decides to
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Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
My name is Audrey, and I'm the adopted daughter of the Bailey family. Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis. Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage. Rumors swirled about this
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The Tycoon's Wrath: Protecting His Surgeon Queen
"You want a divorce? Fine. Complete an IVF cycle, give me an heir to unlock my trust fund, and I'll sign the papers." In the dim underground garage, my cheating husband gripped my wrist tightly, his face twisted in a mocking sneer. "Stop dreaming, Ellie. Your family is bankrupt! You think if you l
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Hiding The Tycoon's Secret Genius Twins
I woke up in a stranger's bed, drugged and broken, with no memory of the night before-except for the jagged scar across his back and the Carlisle family crest on the nightstand. That night cost me everything. My inheritance. My engagement. My grandmother's life. My family framed me as a whore, strip
