Hating Miss Popular by Kenzhie A. (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📕

Chace Crawford as Cole

 I woke up feeling slightly disoriented. I blinked my eyes a couple of times trying to shake off my blurry vision.

Where the hell am I? I looked around the large room. It's dimly lit, but I can see that I'm not in my room. The room is very spacious with modern furniture, expensive-looking dark curtains draped over big glass windows, it exudes luxury and... Very manly! I sat up aggressively by the thought of a man and flinched when I felt a sudden dizziness.

Why am I here? I'm confused and a bit dizzy. I'm supposed to be at the HS building in Midtown. My thoughts were interrupted by a male's voice outside the room talking to someone on the phone, I presumed, since I can only hear a one sided conversation. I tiptoed toward the door, alarmed and ready to kick some ass. I'd learned kick boxing two years ago not for self-defense, but for fitness and boredom. Who would've thought that I might need it now. I positioned myself behind the door and when the door opened and a tall guy entered, I kicked and aimed for his throat but to my dismay and astonishment, the guy has a Spider-man reflex. He instinctively dodged my leg, moved backwards, and grabbed my ankle.

"Such a lovely leg you have here, Miss terror. You wouldn't want to have a scrape on here, do you?" A husky and annoyingly familiar voice said and ran his forefinger on my ankle up to my bared knee. I gasped furiously and wiggled my leg.

"What the hell! Let it go, you perverted jerk!" I hissed and smacked my left fist on his right arm. He winced by my surprise attack, but he didn't budge a tiny bit. Shit! He's strong. I'm utterly infuriated at the thought of being defenseless against this plague of a guy. "What the frigging hell am I doing here?!" I charged at him fiercely.

“Hey! That hurts you know." He grabbed my right wrist and feinted a hurt expression. "We're in my condo in Tribeca, by the way." He said coolly. It pretty much got me irritated. Why the frigging hell did he bring me here?! I was about to throw my left fist at him, but the bastard is very quick. He backed off a little and surprised me by swiftly letting my hand and leg go and grabbed me by my waist, swung me up, threw me on the bed again and smirked at me like the devil he is. I'm really at my limit. I furiously got up again and throw punches at him.

"You bastard! What the hell did you do to me?! I'm gonna---" He grabbed both of my wrists easily and twisted them on my back, stilling me. "Aw!"

"Hey hey! Quit it little tigress. You'll only hurt yourself. Calm down, I didn't do anything to you... Well.. Not what you think it is." He smiled shyly, remembering something.

"You!--" I was cut off when he pushed me back on the bed with his weight on me, pinning me on the bed.

"Hey--I'm sorry. I was just kidding around. Never thought you'd give me a hell of a fight. Aren't you a vixen, I'm amazed, Sydney Wood." He stared at me with his gray eyes intensely. I became tense all of a sudden. His face is very close to mine and his minty breath is distracting me senselessly. My eyes widen in alarm when he lowered his face not letting go of my gaze. I can't move because the gap of our faces are an inch apart and if I move, our lips will brush no doubt about that. I bit my lower lip nervously, thinking that he'll kiss me. He smiled genuinely for the first time since we met this morning and pinched my cheek fondly surprising me again.

"You're pretty cute all tousled and flushed on my bed, Sydney." He whispered and made my cheeks beet red. I have to admit, it's kinda sexy hearing him call my name.

"S-shut up. D-don't call me by my first name. I don't like it. We're not even friends." I stuttered, my voice sounding gruff. I really want to slap myself from acting like a scared kid. He chuckled and I'm stunned that I find it fascinating hearing his hearty laugh and it bothered me. I pushed him, but my strength wasn't enough to make him budge the slightest.

"Are you finding this uncomfortable, Sydney?" He uttered my name teasingly, ignoring what I've said. "Cause I'd like to stay in this position the whole day staring at your unguarded but cute reactions. This is quite fun." He gave me a wicked smile. This will not do. I gathered all my wits and stared at his dilated gray eyes, looking as calm as I could.

"Get off me, jerk." I pushed him again and I don't know if I'll be glad or disappointed that he sat up and let me go.

"OK, now enough with the fun. Before you think the worse of me, I didn't do anything bad even if I was tempted. He grinned at me boyishly. "I guess you're wondering why you're here." I gave him a Duh-it's-obvious-look. "You fainted after you got out of my car and I brought you here because I don't know where I should bring you---

"You should have brought me to the hospital." I accused and sat up straight.

"Well, It was on the spur of the moment. I didn't think about that." He grinned and scratched his beautiful chiseled jaw, looking like a lost boy and it somewhat distracted me. "I called a doctor though, she came here half an hour ago and got you checked. She said you need to eat properly. The reason why you fainted was because your stomach is empty." He said, a hint of disapproval is obvious in his voice. "C'mon, I made something for you. You should eat." He stood up and offered his hand to me. I just stared at it, frowning.

"I'm not hungry and I need to go--" My face reddened utterly from total embarrassment when my stomach grumbled loudly. Damn! Just what I needed! I silently cursed myself. He didn't laugh, but I can damn well see that he is just forcing himself to keep a straight face to stifle a laugh.

"Well, that's the cue. C'mon, don't tell me you're on some kind of a diet. You're thin enough already." He ran his eyes all over my body to examine me and it involuntarily sent shivers down to my spine. "The table is already set." He urged on. I sighed heavily.

"Fine. You don't know how to give up, do you?" I looked up at him feeling exasperated.

"Nah. Never-give-up is written all over my forehead, can't you see?" He jested. I rolled my eyes and stood up.

"Let's get it over, shall we?"

"Sure, oh and my shirt definitely looks hot on you." He said innocently. My eyes widen when I finally realized that I'm just wearing an oversize blue shirt under my undergarments.

"What the hell! You!--"

"You were soaking wet. I had no choice and I closed my eyes. Honest!" He burst out laughing after seeing my reaction and ran instinctively out of the room. I fiercely chased after him, but he was way too fast. I stopped midway when I felt dizzy again. I skipped breakfast and lunch today because of the photo shoot that's why I'm feeling dizzy right now---Shit! The photo shoot. Mom is definitely furious right now. Ugh! This is my lucky day. I thought ironically. I was almost on the top of the stairs when I swayed a bit. I instinctively grabbed the handrail to steady myself.

"Hey, are you OK?" He ran back to me with a worried look when he saw my unsteady stance. He didn't wait for me to answer and scooped me up in his arms.

"Damn it! Put me down!" I protested, but he just continued down the stairs ignoring my weak struggle. He only let me down when we've entered into the spacious dining area.

"Down you go." He grinned at me. I took that opportunity to kick him in the shin and to my delight, he knelt down in pain.

"Damn! I think you broke my leg." He complained, but I can see that he is amused.

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

"OK! OK! Got it, baby. Chill. You're so serious. What's your problem?" He grumbled raising his two arms in surrender.

"You're asking what's my problem?! Seriously?! I got a flat tire, got wet in the rain, fainted because I didn't eat so I'll look good for that stupid photo shoot! A photo shoot that I wasn't able to attend to since I got stuck in here instead! You frigging undressed me and God knows what else you did! And don't frigging call me baby!" I screamed at him, tears started to fall on my cheeks. All the exhaustion is wearing me out. He hugged me unceremoniously and I didn't have the strength to protest. My stupid tears just won't stop from flowing.

"Hush now.. Baby, don't cry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry." He cajoled while stroking my hair gently.

"D-don't c-call me B-aby." I croaked and sniffed in an unladylike manner. I felt rather than hear his chuckle on my face and oddly it made me calm down.

"OK, now you should eat before the food gets cold." He held my hand and ushered me to sit on the chair in front of a table full of different dishes. My mouth watered when I whiffed the delicious aroma of the dishes in front of me.

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"Did you cook all of this?" I asked, astonished. The dishes tasted all good.

"Yeah. Do you like the taste?" He is sitting in front of me looking amused at my strong appetite while having his own fill. I'm eating more than I'm used to. My mom is going to kill me if she only knew how many calories I had eaten today.

"Honestly, yeah. They tasted really great. You cook like a mom." I blurted out and made him laugh.

"What's this dish called?" I pointed at the food that I'm chewing at the moment.

"That's chicken stew with olive and lemon. It's my fave Italian made Western dish."

"Hmm.. now, mine too." I whispered inadvertently and it made him smile.

"I can always cook for you if come and visit anytime." He offered. I suddenly went back to my senses after my stomach have been filled.

"No way! Visiting a guy's home is not in my list. That's insane!" I hissed incredulously. I'm surprised that I'm even having this conversation with a guy, even more in his home.

"I see. So, this is your first time in a guy's place?" He asked, looking pleased with the information.

"And this will be the last." I stood up. "Although, I don't like accepting any help from any guy, thanks. I need to go now. Where are my things?" I said steely and saw him shaking his head looking skeptical.

"Alright, I think you should go. It's already late anyway." He said while glancing at his watch. I instinctively glanced at my Chanel Camelia watch. It's past nine o'clock.

"Shit! Where's my phone? I need to call my mom. She'll fret!" I panicked.

"Actually while you were asleep, she called." He said, scratching his jaw. It seemed like a habit, I noticed.

"What?! Don't tell me you answered it?" He nodded. "Damn it! What did you tell her?"

"Don't panic. I didn't say anything bad. I just informed her that you weren't feeling well and is resting in my place so you can't come--"

"What?! You told her I'm in your house?! Are you crazy?!" I'd gone hysterical. My mom has been dying to make me go on a date since she knew that I'm a man hater and now that she knew I'm with a guy,