X HABIT
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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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Life and Habit
One more point deserves notice. Butler often refers in "Life and Habit" to Darwin's "Variations of Animals and Plants under Domestication." When he does so it is always under the name "Plants and Animals." More often still he refers to Darwin's "Origin of Species by means Natural Selection," terming
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The Habit ; Black and white.
*"The voice of an African teenage girl can be lost, and her character can be reshaped by her environment, which can either build or break her. This book tells the story of a young African girl who grew up in a Catholic home in Nigeria. She was sent to an all-girls Catholic boarding school which was
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Patient X
He's the last kind of man she wants to fall for... but the only one she can't resist. Lysander has spent her life building walls around her heart. As a dedicated young nurse, she has no time for heartbreak-not again. But when Nolan Castille, a reckless billionaire with a smoldering smile and a trou
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S*x Tape
Irane grew up in the hands of her relatives after the death of her parents, she meets Sonia her best friend who suffers from relationship violence from her boyfriend David. After Davids imprisonment, they both got married. Irane having married to a soldier hooked up with Richie. Having the full sex
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His S*x Slave.
HIS SEX SLAVE. *The devil's hostage* (She was the light not until when she was captured by the king of darkness) ~~~~~ Mithran Princess Adora Solen is on her way to be married when her kingdom's centuries old foe, the Thanatens, attack her carriage. Taken as a captive, she's swept up in an adventure
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Alpha's S*x Slave
A broken Omega. A powerful Alpha King. A dangerous obsession. Brianna, a beautiful and fragile Omega, is betrayed by the man she trusted and sold at a cruel slave auction. Bought by Sebastian, the Alpha King, she's thrust into a life of fear, pain, and confusion. At first, he treats her kindly, but
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Billionaire rough s*x
It all began with just one night together, but she never could have imagined it would lead her here - trapped, with nowhere left to run. He wasn't the first man she'd been with, but he would be the last. No matter which way she turned, every path circled back to him - the Mafia King who now held h
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Ruin Me, Mr X
She was supposed to be a one night transaction in the form of stripper-paid entertainment. He was supposed to be the devil the girls whispered about behind the curtains. Sable Zhen walked into that hotel suite with one goal. To survive the night, clear her debt, and disappear into a different li
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Stolen Souls (boy x boy)
They're out to get you. You, yes, you, skimming this summary in your MoboReader App. They want your flesh. And they want your soul. (Let's just call it Teen Vampire Slayer intuition.) Now, that might sound crazy. And I get it. Vampire stuff is pretty crazy stuff to begin with. But maybe you'
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CEO: S*x is You
[COMPLETED] What happens when your serene life, simple dream, single goal became something you never thought it would be? How can you handle it? Are you able to escape? What happens when love, life, and sex were combined in chaos? Can you keep your sane?
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No Second Chance, Dear X
Life in the Ember Pack seemed ordinary-until Annatoria, the Luna, was accused of infidelity by her husband, the Alpha. Infidelity was the last thing Anna would ever consider, even in a failing marriage. Yet there she stood, publicly shamed and branded a whore. A cruel setup led to her rejection and
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The Mafia's S*x Contract
His fingertips carefully moved around, gently making their way up to my chest. I looked at him. "We shouldn't be doing this..." His voice came in a soft whisper. "I know!" ************** In a city ruled by ruthless mafia empires, we meet an unlikely duo who should have never fallen in love wi
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Her Body (Girl X Girl)
Paris Carter was a freakishly tall, obese, pimple-faced girl who's also untouchable considering the fact that she is Bleu Ivy's best friend. That's the only reason people even knew her name. Stunning, popular, and rich, Bleu Ivy (NOT Beyoncé and Jay's daughter) had it all. She protected her best
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Endless Beauty
A girl named Callista used to be called ugly because of her scar in face. She is from a poor family and have a part time job to support her studies. She was bullied in school and try to kill herself because she was betray of someone. The woman save her life and help her to be a beautiful woman. She
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Omega Emperor And His S*x Slave
An omega that was rejected by his own father and people, only because of his rank. That heartless omega will turn against them and rule the entire empire. But will he fall in love with one of his true blood slaves?
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The Guardians' Child (Jack Frost x Reader)
(Y/N) and Jack were already chosen to be guardians before they died. They were even a young couple before the incident. They were expecting a baby soon as well. But one day as Jack was playing with his younger sister he fell in ice and died trying to save her. (Y/N) died as well, she saved a young c
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X-ray Vision: Amazing Womanizer Doctor
Like many medical students, Li Yong just succeeds finding an intern job in hospital with great efforts and yet still is going broke. He even has no money to pay the rent. However, by coincidence, he acquires a magic power of clairvoyant vision and rich experience from 80 medical experts, all because
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Experiment X The Path of Rememberance
Ryan Shepard goes on a journey of self discovery to find out who he was long ago. Bonded with a highly intelligent energy being he must overcome many dangers and obstacles and a ancient enemy out for revenge.....
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The Political History of England - Vol. X.
The Political History of England - Vol. X. by William Hunt
