The Ruthless montero
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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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Ruthless Lady Series : The Ruthless Comeback
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Loving The Ruthless Billionaire
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The Ruthless Man's Obsession
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The Billionaire's Ruthless
I woke up when someone poured water on me "Wake up, how long do you plan to sleep?" Señora shouted at us. "F*ck" when Jin cursed we all poured water on our faces. "Tonight, we will attend the party, you must all be beautiful, and must be sexy to be attractive" "You can count on us Señora, we'll ma
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Taming The Ruthless Billionaire
"Taming the Ruthless Billionaire" unfolds as a modern romantic drama set against the high-stakes world of Manhattan's corporate elite. The story traces the journey of Maya Rivers, a young woman whose resolve and vulnerability are tested when she steps into the orbit of Adrian King, a billionaire CEO
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Warning: 18+ Dark Romance "Dont let me use the spare key Orlanda, or you are gonna be doomed," he uttered coldly and now, she could sense he was more than pissed. The air felt thick, charged with the tension between them, as if the walls themselves were holding their breath. She braced herself, kn
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The Ruthless Game
She stopped to admire the vineyard smiling sheepishly. She was enjoying her secret visit to Dante's den a little too much reminding herself that she had to leave immediately. She suddenly did not feel like seeing him anymore as his warning sounds rang in her ears. "I must be crazy to have come in h
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Healing the Ruthless Alpha
A ruthless alpha. A gifted omega. A burning passion. For taking her mother’s life during childbirth, Sihana is condemned to be hated all her life. Desperate to be loved, she works hard to please her pack and prove her worth but her pack only uses her as a servant. After years of working as a pse
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The Ruthless Billionaire Love
A loud bang echoed against the door. My heart pounded as I recognized the voice that followed-it was my husband who despised me more than anything. Is here to torment me again, forcing me to sign a divorce papers willingly which I refuse and becouse of this, he vows to torture me till death. -----
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After signing a contract of urgency, now she becomes his prey. He is Wyatt Dellucci, the CEO of Dellucci Company Ltd. And his devilish reign over the city has only just begun. But when a beautiful girl, Allyssa Herbert… the most beautiful and brave girl he had ever come across. All he wants is t
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The mistresses ruthless son
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The Ruthless CEO's Obsession
At Calloway Holdings, ambition is everything, and love is the one risk no one can afford. Sophie Matthew has spent years proving she belongs among the sharpest minds in Seattle's corporate world. Talented, driven, and determined to rise on her own merits, the last thing she needs is a new boss who
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The Heir's Ruthless Obsession
Isabelle Duval spent her life at Saint Brigitte learning to be invisible. To her, her vibrant red hair wasn't a gift, it was a target she hid to survive the coal dust and the relentless, physical cruelty of Claire. Claire's bullying was a violent daily reminder that orphans like Isabelle weren't mea
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THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE'S BRIDE
"Hmm." Luca lowered himself, his groin making contact with mine. He brought his nose to my hair and sniffed, letting out an appreciative moan. "Roses. I like it." "Luca..." his name came out as a moan when he nibbled my ear. "Don't hurt Matt, please." He looked at me with an indescribable look.
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Taming The Ruthless Alpha
"You got it all wrong redhead" Drake said in a deep husky voice, taking slow steps towards Raven until she was pinned between him and the wall. He leaned closer to her and placed his large palms on the wall, on both sides of her head, trapping her in his close proximity. His hazel eyes burned wit
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THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE'S OBSESSION
Nadia is a young woman who has been through a lot in her life. Her mother died when she was young, and her father is a gambler who has run up a lot of debt. When Nadia’s father can no longer pay his debts, he sells her to Stefan, a wealthy hotel owner. Nadia's life is turned upside down when her fa
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The Mafia’s Ruthless Lover
She’s brutal, but she’s sweet. He is insane, but he is so smitten with her. After all the struggles, can the mafias fall in love?
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SOLD TO THE RUTHLESS
A beautiful and empathetic woman, Isabelle Marino, unwillingly enters into the marriage with Liam Callahan, a manipulative and cold business magnate who had been involved in a terrible accident. As they must face many obstacles due to their forced arrangement, they struggle not only with themselves
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THE RUTHLESS CEO
"You were flirting with my client right in front of me, I knew you were trying to get back at me, well you won! Because I'm so mad that I'm going to punish you for it!" He pushed me inside, grabbed my lips and kissed me roughly. "There will be no time for foreplay…" ---------------------------------
