Tag
first love
Young Adult RomanceMy Tutor Is My Childhood Enemy
Seven years ago, June Marlowe froze on live television. Theo Ashby laughed. At least, that is what June remembers. The humiliating clip turned her worst moment into a town joke, destroyed the friendship she once had with Theo, and made mathematics something she could barely face without remembering that stage. Now seventeen, June has built a new life around art. She has even earned a conditional place at the Calloway Institute of Art and Design in New York. There is just one problem. She needs a B or better in AP Calculus to keep it. And she is failing. Then her mother announces that she has hired the best student tutor in Port Calder. Theo Ashby. The boy June has hated for seven years. Their tutoring sessions begin with insults, rules written on graph paper, and a contract designed to keep everything painfully simple. No talking about Brain Bowl. No touching her sketchbook. Sessions are strictly math. And absolutely no feelings. But the more time June spends across the kitchen table from Theo, the harder it becomes to fit him into the villain she remembers. He notices when she is about to panic. He teaches her mathematics through animation instead of making her feel stupid. He protects her when no one is supposed to notice. And every honest answer between them creates another crack in the story June has believed since she was ten. Because Theo has secrets. He volunteered to become her tutor. He has spent years carrying the truth about what really happened on that television stage. And the anonymous reader who has faithfully supported June's secret webcomic for three years may be much closer to her than she ever imagined. As old footage resurfaces, buried family guilt comes to light, and someone begins manipulating their past for personal gain, June must decide whether she is brave enough to confront the moment that changed her life. Not only to save her future. But to discover whether the boy she spent seven years hating was ever really her enemy at all.
New story · 0 savedRomanceWe Were Never Just Friends
Nora Vale has spent years believing there is one rule that can keep the most important person in her life from ever becoming another person she loses. Never date your best friend. Cal Hayes agreed to that rule when they were children. He also broke it in his heart almost immediately. For years, Nora and Cal remain inseparable, hiding behind friendship, inside jokes, birthday floor plans, rooftop debriefs, and a Pact neither of them is brave enough to question. Nora believes Cal is the one person who has never left her. What she does not know is that he has also been keeping the secret that could destroy them. Letters from the mother Nora believes abandoned her. A mother who never stopped writing. A father who made choices Nora was never allowed to know about. And Cal, caught between love and loyalty, convinced that protecting Nora means deciding which truths she can survive. When the secrets finally come apart, friendship is no longer enough to save them. College separates what childhood kept tangled. New relationships begin. Trust fractures. Family lies surface. Ambition turns dangerous. And just when Nora and Cal finally learn that loving someone does not give you the right to control their choices, injury threatens the future Cal has spent his entire life building. They have loved each other for years. But loving each other was never their hardest problem. The hardest part is learning how to stay without holding too tightly, tell the truth before fear edits it, and choose each other without demanding a guarantee that neither of them will ever leave. Because the rule was always a lie. They were never just friends.
New story · 0 savedYoung Adult RomanceThe Boy I Was Never Supposed to Notice
Hazel Adeyemi has spent most of her life knowing exactly how to survive around the Ashfords. See nothing. Hear nothing. And never, ever notice the boy. Theo Ashford is everything Hazel has been taught to avoid. He is rich, reckless, infamous, and suspected of pushing his own mother from the balcony of Ashford House. Hazel knows the story everyone at Ashgrove Academy believes. She also knows it is not the whole truth. Nine months ago, hidden inside the servants’ staircase, Hazel witnessed the moment before Celeste Ashford fell. She saw a man’s hand gripping Celeste’s arm. And on that hand was the Ashford signet ring. Now Theo has returned for senior year, and Hazel has been chosen as the peer mentor responsible for keeping him out of trouble. The closer she gets to the boy everyone calls guilty, the harder it becomes to believe he is the monster they say he is. But Theo is searching for the truth too. And Hazel is hiding the one thing that could change everything. Because in the Ashford family, secrets do not stay buried without a price. And falling for the boy she was never supposed to notice may cost Hazel everything she has spent her whole life trying to protect.
New story · 0 savedContemporary RomanceThe Billionaire Who Wouldn't Say My Name
Damian Vale has never been in love. At thirty-two, the billionaire is still a virgin. Not because women haven't wanted him. They have. But Damian has spent his entire adult life building an empire, and intimacy has never been something he wanted to give anyone. No girlfriends. No casual relationships. No secret women. Not even a first kiss he considers meaningful. His reputation isn't that of a playboy. It's worse. He's known as the billionaire nobody can get close to. Then Amelia Hawthorne walks into his company. And Damian dislikes her before she finishes introducing herself. Not because she's beautiful. Not because they've met before. Because of one thing. Her name. Amelia. Damian's grandmother—the woman who raised him—had hated that name with almost comical intensity. Years ago, when Damian was a child, an arrogant woman named Amelia repeatedly made his grandmother's small catering business miserable. She complained about everything, looked down on their family, and once publicly humiliated his grandmother during one of the hardest periods of their lives. His grandmother eventually turned it into a family joke. “If you ever meet an Amelia, Damian, run.” Damian never forgot it. After his grandmother died, the joke became one of the strange little things he kept from her. So when his newest employee smiles across the conference table and says— “Amelia Hart.” Damian's expression changes immediately. “No.” Amelia frowns. “No?” “I don't like your name.” She stares at him. Then laughs. Nobody laughs at Damian Vale. And that's where their war begins. Amelia refuses to let an arrogant billionaire judge her because of something as ridiculous as her first name. Damian refuses to admit that she's getting under his skin. She starts deliberately making him say her name. “Who prepared the report?” “Ms. Hart.” “My name is Amelia.” “I'm aware.” “Then use it.” He doesn't. Until one day, he does. And Amelia notices. Their relationship develops slowly through work, arguments, accidental tenderness and increasing attraction. Damian has never dated, so money doesn't make him romantically experienced. He can negotiate a billion-dollar acquisition without blinking but has absolutely no idea what to do when Amelia flirts with him. Their first hand-holding matters. Their first hug matters. His first real date matters. His first kiss matters. And when their relationship eventually becomes intimate, that matters too. Amelia slowly realizes that the intimidating billionaire everyone assumes can have any woman he wants has actually never given himself to anyone. Damian doesn't immediately become smooth just because he falls in love. He is awkward in ways nobody expects. Protective without understanding jealousy. Possessive feelings frighten him because he's never experienced them. He researches restaurants before asking her on a date because he has no idea where people actually go. He can buy Amelia almost anything but struggles to tell her that he misses her. And Amelia refuses to let his wealth become a substitute for emotional effort. Their central conflict isn't a mystery. It is two stubborn people learning how to love each other while working together, dealing with workplace boundaries, family expectations, public attention, jealousy, differences in power and Damian experiencing romantic love for the first time. Eventually, the name Damian once refused to say becomes his favorite word. Because Amelia becomes his first girlfriend. His first kiss. His first lover. His first real relationship. And, if he has anything to say about it— his last.
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