Behind that Innocent Smile
/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?"
/0/39324/coverbig.jpg?v=dc60d4e08ce3b4fc8a10479873084dc9)
Behind that Innocent Smile
Even the single past can change people's life. We didn't expect this to happen when we thought we could be fully happy and content. Our curiosity will always lead us to the truth. And past memories can make a person better or worse. It's up to them to take the path they want, the life they wanted to
/0/19022/coverbig.jpg?v=1139845bd81077abd76a258b4b5a211d)
All That Is Left Behind
Xander as been a single father for a few years with a young son who his still struggling with traumas from the past, and it’s only when they meet Mila, that everything shift, and the little boy makes a request a father cannot refuse that will lead them on a path filled with joy, fear and horror as t
/0/22042/coverbig.jpg?v=c93223845f02771b27c70e163bb51418)
Contagious Smile
Anvitha, Kumar and Naina only daughter who is their life. Her smile is everything they ask for. She has the capacity to lit up the entire room with her smile. She has a brother Karan who is very protective of her but never let a chance to annoy her. She is simple yet beautiful girl with confidence a
/0/60105/coverbig.jpg?v=2cf394650bc92e69ebdc951c9ab4dd57)
Bitter smile
Prologue: Dara's eyes fluttered open, her mind foggy from the haze of the previous night. The memories came flooding back - the desperation, the seduction, the surrender. She felt a wave of regret wash over her, mixed with a hint of shame. As she quickly dressed and made her escape, the cheque i
/0/37901/coverbig.jpg?v=31ec705b78fb5c2f247ff80d746410fa)
Clara's smile
A story based on the tale of two lives that intertwine by mere chance, a woman whose personality and feelings towards life give her the impulse to protect herself and be more astute and intelligent than others, but what characterizes her also makes her lose herself in her loneliness and darkness, th
/0/52878/coverbig.jpg?v=3bf66371f7917b5389fa0aca60880798)
CEO smile
Love is in small attitudes. Look, smile, understand and care. Davi Blanc's future position as CEO is threatened by his own father and the partners of Fábrica Blanc, because he is single. With no intention of getting married until he takes over the family business, as he couldn't bear the idea of
/0/34281/coverbig.jpg?v=4fef51b1f6b19d2e799aaef2f4c6eab6)
Her Secret Smile
"Having a hopeless crush on Siddharth for more than a year Roshini couldn't handle this unrequited love anymore, either she wanted to forget him or to get close to him. Ended up with only these two options Roshini believed that forgetting him will be easier but that's the wrong assumption she ever m
/0/41453/coverbig.jpg?v=65073d4b28d6da9c9f5ee6dd8ae415ca)
INNOCENT SURROGATE
He is a young billionaire and the CEO of his own company. Because of his repeated failures in love, he decided not to fall in love again. He often pays women expensively just to make him happy. His best friend advised him that if he didn't want to get married, he should at least have a child even th
/0/98374/coverbig.jpg?v=1dc18dbdcc757ca8c883782e66ddad3a)
Innocent Silesia
No!" My voice rang loudly. "Like I said, this is the first time I've even been in this city." "Ah, I see..." His voice shifted. "I was going to give you a different punishment. But since you claim you haven't slept with me..." He leaned forward, his smile cruel. "Why not refresh your memory?" When
/0/94008/coverbig.jpg?v=99adf4baf9d93b1f0fbff2481aceb2cc)
Innocent cravings
Alice Monroe has always lived quietly. Between the late nights diner shifts and early morning classes,her world is small, ordinary, and safe. She doesn't have time for distractions especially not the kind that comes wrapped in tailored suits and gray eyes. Brian carter is used to getting everything
/0/28642/coverbig.jpg?v=eba352a2174ce9aa3794dae6572addfe)
Innocent Love
Young Valentine Perez has just been enrolled in the most prestigious college in Greece with her father's savings of 18 years, so she thinks, where life slaps at her face; the Big Bad Boy, a bully and a Jerk, making her life miserable, who turns out to be the CEO of Bond Holdings needs to get married
/0/7681/coverbig.jpg?v=abde266aa5355681874bec7818d3821e)
It Pays to Smile
Over the course of an amazingly prolific literary career during which she penned hundreds of short stories, novels, essays, and screenplays, author Nina Wilcox Putnam developed a knack for creating indelibly unique characters. In the novel It Pays to Smile, patrician spinster Freedom Talbot is force
/0/21683/coverbig.jpg?v=955c1dde46fbfbce8c5bf05ad49f9a22)
Innocent Heart
Lucifer Kingston, The heartless cruel and dominant billionaire one of the richest man in whole world, CEO of Kingston Empire, he is in the midst of a very public and nasty divorce from his notoriously dreadful wife. Damaris lavender is the reporter her career is in verge of being coming down, but
/0/33883/coverbig.jpg?v=719c513134669839be9c8e40492df794)
Mafia's Innocent Love (babygirl)
Not everyone in this world lives the life of cruel world there are some people who want a normal life. There are people who live a innocent life. So here is our female lead an literal Angel . But , Our male lead a well known Mafia and owner of biggest company. What happens when for the first t
/0/86904/coverbig.jpg?v=7f356154ef57fd7f29b69699dd4b9bc6)
When Vengeance Wears a Smile
The police said Liam' s death was an accident, a car crash on an icy road. Simple. Final. But I knew better. Liam, the man I was going to marry, was murdered. And I knew who did it: his father, the tech titan Mr. Davis. Liam was a threat to his perfect legacy, so he erased him. My grief hardened i
/0/43359/coverbig.jpg?v=a9b3e9df8ec063a386ba41f39c0d6d9b)
Heartless Billionaire: The Stolen Smile
“Do you have a boyfriend?” Asher's voice resounded in Olivia's ear as she looked up at his face. Her lips parted and she gently nodded her head. “Yes, I do.” She said softly. “Now we will have to find him a new girlfriend.” His voice was deep and it made her blink. “Because I want you.” Betrayed
/0/46486/coverbig.jpg?v=8341fd0b7be83cf1b3b08900d32d9dbe)
A Glimpse OF Your Smile
"OCEANIC BLUE EYES FILLED WITH DARK BUT A GLIMPSE OF HER HAZEL EYES BROUGHT THE SPARK " Blue sky, huge sandy mountains, and a huge manor surrounded by mountains cold breeze entering the room touching their faces "Isn't it weird the man you never wanted to see again became your Husband just
/0/38122/coverbig.jpg?v=f64030d947de1fa798bf156c495775db)
Left Behind
❤️ Left 😘 Behind 😥 Amazing and Maxwell met in the stadium where they represented their each schools, they exchanged numbers ever since then they have been communicating. Amazing is from a poor background, where they hardly eat three meals a d
/0/74126/coverbig.jpg?v=46f5f947023f4e89b6c523e84ee5a878)
Behind Him
Ezra Slain Velleoti is a man that everyone wants to avoid. He's a tough enemy. A mafia boss who disapproves of almost everyone. Anyone who gets in his way will never make it out alive. Khione Louelita Silay is a woman who is socially awkward. A person who has socially anxiety and dislikes crowds an
/0/39300/coverbig.jpg?v=ff7df3d2a4e0cae12f752c5ded2184ba)
Mafia King Innocent Luna
{Warning: R-18} "No, please don't do this to me," she whispered, her voice trembling with fear. "Have I ever shown mercy to anyone, my dear Mate? Why should you be an exception?" he retorted, his voice oozing with malice. "Please, I beg you, don't do this to me," she pleaded, her words barely au
