Bent Against The Counter Of His Desk
/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?"
/0/40247/coverbig.jpg?v=401811d573103ed088a44322432c9036)
Bent Against The Counter Of His Desk
Introduction Scarlett O'Hara, that's her name, 26 years old, a single mother of two kids (twins). Poor and manages to earn a living to take care of her twins together with her her best friend. She finally gets a job at a very big company after years of struggling to get one only to find out the CE
/0/18369/coverbig.jpg?v=c55bde40276f7e92c25b477d56fbefbc)
Against His Will.
It's been two years since he has gone to study abroad. I still remember the day when I came to live in this house after my parent's death. I still remember the day when he suddenly bragged inside my room. I was in shocked because of his sudden appearance in my room. He locks the door and start
/0/22014/coverbig.jpg?v=f25ae72b776898a1f4d19d5053ccd350)
Against The Storm
Cassandra has no other option than to accept the offer of being a surrogate for the prince and princess of Andalusia, little does she know the prince is no knight in shining armor. ****** When Cassandra goes on a trip to Andalusia she does not expect
/0/73331/coverbig.jpg?v=0a68aba68d33f533cab4fddef262bf26)
AGAINST THE RULES
Ava Sinclair has one rule-stay away from jocks. They're arrogant, they're reckless, and they're nothing but distractions. As Brookdale University's top student, she has a strict schedule of study sessions, internships, and zero tolerance for football players, especially Logan Carter. Logan, on the o
/0/37849/coverbig.jpg?v=2948130a419dd4c343b588587cffde3f)
REINCARNATION: Against The Gods
This is my version of Fanfic of Against the Gods Novel. Qinglong is an otaku with a 238 IQ. He dies in a car accident and reincarnates after beating God 100 times in chess. "What? Do you have the Star God's Broken Shadow? You thought you were fast? I, your father have Shunshin." "You want to play
/0/23921/coverbig.jpg?v=a4e21675c936ccc28276cdf24a080e87)
Against The All Odds
Odds! Wouldn’t it be odd to not have something to fight against like suppose just some odds that we have to face? We can’t just escape them for sure. I mean numbers can’t be complete with just even series, right? Just the same way, having odds has been a normal part of anyone’s life. Yeah, sometimes
/0/38205/coverbig.jpg?v=31ff724e23e9ccce4bcd10fd84e3d8c9)
The Immortal Against the Gods
When a worthless young teenager worshiped ancestors, he found an old and mysterious ancestor statue by accident. While the statue’s round eyes made of stone unexpectedly fell down with two drops of tear, and the young teenager entered an amazing world--a world the Gods lives in--through one of the d
/0/7512/coverbig.jpg?v=c79aec3f1e4f327859c3cb663badb471)
Desk and Debit; or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk
"Desk and Debit" is the third of "The Upward and Onward Series," in which Phil Farringford appears as a clerk. The principal events of the story are located in Chicago and on Lake Michigan—the latter, perhaps, because the author finds it quite impossible to write a story without a boat, which also i
/0/31779/coverbig.jpg?v=b840b19a4f7e03ac24b9d947aaed7e25)
AGAINST THE WORLD FRO HER
"Maxwell, get this clear in your mind that you can't marry that woman, we are royal and our family will not allow you disgrace us, further more you are the next king, how will you marry a foolish, dump and deaf woman into our family? do you think the people will accept to have a queen that can't spe
/0/56384/coverbig.jpg?v=20260526084209)
REVENGE AGAINST THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE
Isabelle Martins Treble, a spirited blogger and daughter of a small-town farmer, believes she's about to hit the jackpot when she secures an exclusive interview with the notorious Russian billionaire, Nikolai Ivanov. However, Nikolai repeatedly stands her up, prompting Isabelle to retaliate by tarni
/0/59825/coverbig.jpg?v=f8e133af3fef436b62bf0490071a50d5)
To Love Against
The Richmonds are a wealthy family with a long ancestry of wealth flowing from generation to generation. Melanie inherited the Richmonds' estate alongside the conglomerate with her father's passing. Still young and not very experienced in handling such a great company and disposal to such an amoun
/0/72376/coverbig.jpg?v=8d519ff9c949aed36cc8f3c05c98ee67)
My Sweet Revenge Against The Mafia Boss
The Plan was simple "First I work my way into his empire, then I become one of his bodyguards-should be pretty easy considering I've been training for this moment my entire life. But to take him down, I'll need to access his hidden records. But the real question is how...?" ****************** Her
/0/59706/coverbig.jpg?v=3206c7707b66dee015a23d2eb1886e8b)
The Luna's Call: Against the Dark
In a world where loyalty and betrayal are intertwined, Mia, an orphan living under the oppressive care of her uncle David, faces a tragic twist of fate. After an unexpected encounter with Lance, the powerful son of the Alpha, Mia finds herself pregnant but was soon betrayed when Lance con
/0/43811/coverbig.jpg?v=17da5b4dc200ccd7028af707a1a70871)
AGAINST ALL ODDS!
Caught in a web of lies and deceit, Sybil Eagan is left at the altar by the only man she has ever loved. Moving on isn't as easy as she thought, but she perseveres, and when she finally decides to open her heart to love again, the man who left her down the aisle comes back into her life, and no, he
/0/44661/coverbig.jpg?v=bf50553e5753f649b231f3ced17ff36a)
Love Against All Expectations
Kaylee had high hopes for her future. After spending many years with her adopted family—the Hadleys, she was about to get married to the infamous son of the Stephen family instead of her sister. Elijah—the bridegroom was known to be a treacherous playboy. He was handsome and loaded, but he was far
/0/54942/coverbig.jpg?v=45534e54ad36109b6f207435dbe4052f)
Against All Odds.
A young woman, living in a small town, finds herself drawn to a mysterious stranger who keeps appearing around town. As she gets to know him, she realizes that he's not all he seems to be - he's actually a werewolf! Will she be able to accept his true nature, or will she run away?
/0/60006/coverbig.jpg?v=290ec49f44764372aadcf15d8f7b9d1a)
Against All Odds #1
The story "Against All Odds" is about, two lovers Ava and Caleb. Their relationship started as a boss to an employee. But as time goes on things change and they fell in love with each other, even though Victoria( Caleb's morther) was not in support. Little do they know that, there's more secrete to
/0/43102/coverbig.jpg?v=20230829092349)
Love Against All Odds
"A love Against all odds" is a captivating tale that takes readers on a journey of unexpected love amidst the odds. The story revolves around Amelia, a young and impoverished girl whose radiant beauty is concealed beneath the weight of her circumstances. Born into poverty and raised by a single moth
/0/21174/coverbig.jpg?v=451d051d3feab7ff5ff928c8c02f48f8)
Against All Odds
As a poor family struggling to get through the day, my parents chose to be sailors, a dangerous but quite generous job. Until one day, my life as a child tore down, when they sailed to a point of no return. I still recall all our memories together. Today I am marrying an independent girl who surviv
/0/32975/coverbig.jpg?v=b8171dcea06a3b6bc17f4f8548619810)
Held Against My Will
CEO Billionaire Boston Kincaid was walking home from the office one night on the streets of Chicago. He finds himself in an unexpectedly dangerous situation. He sees this beautiful girl he takes against her will. Or is it the other way around? You'll have to read it to find out! But this CEO has bec
