Se connecter"Do you hate me?" He asked, nibbling my ear with his teeth. I couldn't form words. I felt... I didn't know what I was feeling. A minute ago, I was sure I hated him but now that he's so close, so close that I could feel him breathing on my skin, I wasn't sure. "Do you hate me?" He asked again, his voice a low growl in my ear. "I...I..." I tried to form words but ahis lips left my ear and trailed kisses down my neck. “I need words,” he whispered. “Tell me you hate me.” My fingers tightened on his shirt as he continued. “Say you hate me, and I’ll stop right now and walk away.” What? There was a pause, I still hated him but I don't want him to stop.. “Don’t…and I won’t be responsible for what I do next.” Lena Hartwell is a girl who has been bullied all her life for being plus size. After the sudden death of her father, her family falls deep into debt, forcing her to accept the highest paying tutoring job she can find to support her Mom. The job turns out to be tutoring one of her bullies, the school’s hottest quarterback, Jace Dawson and despite hating him, she takes it the job because her family is at risk of losing everything they have left. What happens when the hatred they have for each other slowly turns into something darker, when forced proximity turns every argument into temptation? He is everything she is taught to fear. She is the weakness he was taught to crush. And when one forbidden moment shatters the boundary between hate and desire, will Lena be able to walk away from the boy who might ruin her life?
Voir plusYou know that feeling of staring longingly at something inches away from touching or reaching out to…. but can’t get..?
That’s how I felt watching the cheerleading team practice. You might wonder why I couldn’t join them or what was holding me back….well a lot.
For starters I obviously didn’t fit in or so I was told, I sighed as Alison’s shrill voice pierced the air as she yelled unfiltered insults to one of the girls who fell behind in step.
Alison was the queen bee of my school. She was the dream of most boys here. Not short, stunningly gorgeous, long sexy legs, and perfect shape and figure but she was mean as a stray cat.
She was one of the reasons I couldn’t join the cheerleading team. Alison had been a thorn in my side constantly reminding me of how quaint my background was compared to hers, she was the daughter of the most wealthy, renowned and dangerous billionaire in the city and she was someone you obviously didn’t want to mess with
Yeah, now she made sure to make my own life hell
Like how bad could things get?
I watched them practice for nearly an hour and managed to slip away before Alison could notice me staring like a mesmerized deer
Shit!
In my curiosity to watch them practice I forgot that Alison and her crew of mean girls just like her loved to find me and bully me. Now that I had the chance to flee I had waited and had been watching her practice
I ran for my locker and pulled out my bag and my things and stuffed them in as I closed my locker. Alison's face popped up and I screamed behind her was five of her mean-girl gang, glowering at me.
“Look at what we have here babes? Lady Lena of where again….oh you live in the slums” she said and behind her the other girls laughed.
I held in my breath and tried to step around her but she blocked my path and she grinned revealing dazzling white teeth
“Can I pass?” I said timidly which only seemed to make her amused.
“Why? There’s nothing at home for you, there’s no need to rush, we're having fun right?” She purred and I resisted the urge to push at her.
“I have homework to do Alison” I replied and she pouted.
“Awwww…..genius no you do not” she brushed a strand of hair from my face and I backed off
“What do you want with me Alison? What did I do to you?” I whined and she chuckled. She smiled like she was really concerned and if I didn’t know her well I would have thought she was
“What do I want sweetheart….just fun” she grinned “you know, I saw you watching me practice were you staring at my butt”
I closed my eyes and turned away “No”
She scowled “You don’t like my butt?”
“Alison I…..”
“You bitch” she shrieked and grabbed me by the collar and slammed me into the locker “You ugly piece of junk do you think you’re better than me?”
My head snapped back against the metal, a sharp pain rang through my skull.
Before I could respond, she yanked me forward and shoved me again. The girls behind her inched closer, blocking any escape route.
"Tracy, get your phone out," Alison commanded, not taking her eyes off me. "Record this. I want to remember every second."
My heart dropped into my stomach. "Please don't—"
"Please don't," she mimicked in a high-pitched voice. "Please don't what? Please don't show the world how pathetic you look? How you stuff your face every lunch while the rest of us actually watch what we eat?"
Tears burned behind my eyes but I refused to let them fall. I wouldn't give her that leverage. I'd learned that lesson a long time ago—crying only made Alisson even more of a mean person
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Alison grabbed my chin, her nails digging into my skin hard enough to leave marks. "What? Nothing to say? The great Lena Hartwell, top of every class, teacher's pet, thinks she's too good to even look at me?"
"That's not true," I whispered.
"Then look at me."
I forced my eyes to meet hers. Up close, she was even more beautiful which was ironic considering her evil nature.
The flawless skin, perfect teeth, not a single hair out of place and those cold blue eyes that showed how much she was enjoying making my life hell
"You know what I think?" She tilted her head, studying me like I was something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
"I think you need to learn your place. I think you need to understand that no matter how hard you study, no matter how many scholarships you get, you'll always be nothing. You'll always be the stupid girl from the wrong side of town who doesn't belong anywhere near people like us."
The locker room door suddenly swung open.
I felt a small shard of hope—maybe that was a teacher, maybe someone who could stop this—but any hope I had died the moment I saw who walked in.
The football team.
The freaking football team
All of them.
They were at least fifteen guys in their jerseys, fresh from practice, with sweat still
on their skin and leading them was none other than……
Jace Dawson.
Jace Dawson, the quarterback.
The most handsome guy in school, whose posters hung in half the girls' lockers. Jace Dawson, who I'd stupidly and pathetically had a crush on freshman year before I learned better.
Before I learned that guys like him didn't even see girls like me as human.
He stopped when he saw what was happening, so did everyone
Oh the aura
For one foolish moment, I thought maybe, he'd do something.
Tell them to all back off and leave me alone, he was the team captain, they all listened to him.
Even Alison….because she was eyeing him like candy
Instead, he pulled out his phone.
"Make room," he said casually, not even looking at me. "Tracy, angle it better. We want to see her face."
Whatever stupid, foolish hope I had smashed into tiny pieces.
We all sat around the dining table in the most awkward silence.After Mrs. Dawson had gotten over her initial shock, she zipped over to the kitchen, somehow magically produced enough food for a dinner of 5, and had the dining room sparkling and presentable in no time.I pushed a piece of roasted chicken around my plate, wondering if I should even be here.I mean, the situation was definitely inappropriate, right?This was a rare Dawson family reunion—maybe the first one in what, 5, 6 years? Judging by Martin's reaction—and I was just the tutor. The help.It would've made a lot more sense to just disappear and let them have their privacy, but I was also here on a mission: to clear Jace's name.So I stayed, fork in hand, pretending to eat while my stomach churned with anxiety.Mrs. Dawson had changed into something more formal—a cream cashmere sweater and pearl earrings.She kept staring at her husband with this look of wonder, like she couldn't quite believe he was actually there in th
The premium taxi pulled up to the Dawson mansion—all sprawling lawns and pristine white columns—and Mr. Dawson was out before the car fully stopped. He wasted no time, marching straight up to the front door as soon as the chauffeur parked, his footsteps sharp against the stone pathway.Jace and I trailed slowly behind, the distance between us and him feeling more like a million miles than a few feet."Why are you doing this?" Jace's voice was low and tight with anger, clearly on edge. "You know he doesn't want to be here. You've seen how he is with me. I don't want him anywhere near Martin.""Keep your voice down," I hissed, glancing at Mr. Dawson's rigid back. "He'll hear us."I reached up to wipe away the blood still glistening at the corner of his lip. My thumb came away red. I frowned, checking his face for more damage, but it looked clean enough.Aside from the fact that I really didn't like seeing him hurt, I knew he also needed to look presentable to meet his mom again, especi
"Your home is the most expensive one in town," I said, my voice shaking but steady. "The biggest I've ever seen. So surely you have security cameras inside, right? To protect such a valuable asset?"Mr. Dawson didn't even look at me. He pulled out his phone, already putting it to his ear. "Yes, Norman, I'm still planning to make the eight o'clock to Singapore. Leave it in my calendar." He waved his free hand dismissively in my direction. "Give it up, Miss Hartwell. You already got your chance, and you wasted it. Now go collect your things from my house and return to whatever dump you came from."He strode toward the door, his phone pressed to his ear, stepping around me to leave as if I was just a piece of furniture.Something inside me snapped, and I moved into his path, blocking the doorway. By then my tears had stopped falling, and of all the conflicting feelings warring in my heart right then, righteous anger was the strongest.A dump? He called my family home a dump? The little
"I have no doubt that Noah and his father are plotting something against you and your corporation. I don't know the details, because I don't know the Dawson family history well enough to understand what they might be after, but—""Why?" Mr. Dawson asked."What?" I faltered."Why exactly would my protégé, the one I handpicked from the family heirs and bestowed the priceless opportunity to rise to limitless fortune and success after I am gone, be turning against me?"He continued, "Since you're so full of information, you should know that too? Shouldn't you?"I stared at him, blinking rapidly. "Yes, I mean no... I...""It might have something to do with the fact that you fucked his dad over on an investment, or that he thinks I killed his mom! Don't you think, pops?" Jace yelled, cursing at the officers holding him down."You what—" I gasped, shocked beyond belief at what I'd just heard.Mr. Dawson glared at Jace, hissing, "Be quiet. One more word out of you and it'll be the last word y
Jace's POVWe lost the fucking game.Now, Coach was screaming at me, the team captain who’d royally fucked up, and I stood there with my helmet under my arm and took every word with my mouth shut because what the fuck was I going to say.That I couldn’t see the field, because every time I’d lined u
"Miss Hartwell.”Nothing.“Miss Hartwell.”Still nothing.“Lena!”I opened my eyes.Coach Miller was peering down at me curiously.I fell asleep. In the middle of class. Impossible.In my defence, I had been awake until three. Cross-referencing Martin’s therapy notes with books on autism I download
ThreeThe days after I received the news of my father's death went by in a blur. I’d stopped counting how many times I woke up and forgot, only to remember and feel the loss all over again.Two weeks. That's how long it took for the reality of our situation to crash down on us completely.Mom had s
The girls laughed harder, while Alison beamed like she'd just won an award and the guys the whole school cheered for during games, the guys everyone worshipped just watched.Some of them smirked and some pulled out their own phones."Wait," one of them said, I think his name was Marcus. "Isn't that






Welcome to GoodNovel world of fiction. If you like this novel, or you are an idealist hoping to explore a perfect world, and also want to become an original novel author online to increase income, you can join our family to read or create various types of books, such as romance novel, epic reading, werewolf novel, fantasy novel, history novel and so on. If you are a reader, high quality novels can be selected here. If you are an author, you can obtain more inspiration from others to create more brilliant works, what's more, your works on our platform will catch more attention and win more admiration from readers.
commentairesPlus