Hate at first sight

Hate at first sight

littlegladys25 · Ongoing · 90.1k Words

1.1k
Hot
1.1k
Views
6
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Phoebe Lambert walked away from a marriage that nearly broke her, determined to rebuild her life in peace. But her fresh start takes an unexpected turn when a stranger shows up at her door, claiming the apartment she lives in is his.

Bruno Blackfield is cold, controlled, and hiding from a scandal that cost him everything. Forced to share a home due to a shocking mistake, the two clash instantly, their days filled with tension, sharp arguments, and undeniable chemistry.

When Phoebe’s past refuses to let her go, Bruno offers a solution, a fake relationship. But as the lines between pretense and reality blur, their growing connection becomes impossible to ignore.

With betrayal closing in and secrets unraveling, they must decide if what started as hate… could become the one thing worth risking everything for.

Chapter 1

Three days after leaving my husband, I opened my apartment door and found another man claiming half my home.

At first, I thought he had the wrong building.

He stood in the narrow passage as if it was his house, one hand tucked into the pocket of his black joggers, the other holding a brown envelope. Tall was too small a word for him. He was the sort of tall that made the corridor look cramped. Broad shoulders. Blue eyes too cold for a man dressed that casually. Hair that looked as though he had pushed his hand through it too many times on the way here.

And he was standing right in front of my door.

I tightened my grip on the bottle of water in my hand. “Can I help you?”

“I could ask you the same question.”

I frowned. “Sorry?”

He lifted the envelope a little. “This apartment. I rented it.”

For a second, I only stared at him.

Then I laughed.

Not because it was funny. Because it was absurd, and absurd things had been happening far too often in my life.

“No,” I said, reaching for my keys. “You didn’t.”

His expression did not change. “I did.”

“Well, I live here.”

“That makes two of us.”

I drew in a breath and slid my key into the lock, but before I could turn it, he held the envelope out to me. “You should probably look at this.”

Every part of me wanted to ignore him and walk inside. I was warm from my run, tired, and carrying the sort of headache that came from too many restless nights. But the look on his face that told me he was not joking, and I was tired of being blindsided.

So I took the envelope.

Inside was a copy of a tenancy agreement.

Same address. Same apartment number.

My apartment.

I looked up at him. “Where did you get this?”

“From the housing agent.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Apparently not.”

I went through the paper again, then checked the date. It was recent, signed, stamped and real.

My mouth went dry.

This had to be a mistake.

A stupid, irritating, impossible mistake.

I pulled out my phone and called the agent at once. It rang once, then cut off. I tried again. Switched off.

“Of course,” I said under my breath.

“What did he say?” the man asked.

“He’s not answering.”

He gave a small nod, as though that confirmed something for him. “Same here.”

I looked at him to the agreement in my hand and back again. “So what exactly do you expect me to do? Pack my things and disappear?”

“I want to know why I paid for an apartment that’s already occupied.”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“You’re being defensive.”

“And you’re standing at my door sounding like a landlord.”

“I’m not sounding like anything. I’m trying to solve a problem.”

I laughed again, “Good for you. I’m trying not to lose my mind.”.

But it had.

I had spent three days in that apartment trying to breathe without fear. Three days learning how to enjoy silence without waiting for a door to bang open. Three days reminding myself that leaving Richard had not been a mistake.

And now this stranger was standing in front of me with official papers and a composed face, telling me the only place that had begun to feel safe was no longer mine alone.

“No,” I said, more to myself than to him. “No. This is not happening.”

He watched me for a beat. “Look. I’m not interested in fighting with you.”

“Well, that makes one of us.”

“Do you fight with everyone this quickly?”

I folded the document and pushed it back into the envelope. “Only men who appear uninvited and announce they’ve rented my apartment.”

“I never said I owned it.”

“You said you rented it.”

“Which I did.”

I stepped closer before I could stop myself. “And I’m telling you I rented it first.”

His eyes came to my face. Not mocking. Not gentle either. Just steady.

“Do you have your own copy of the agreement?” he asked.

I hated that it was a fair question.

Still glaring at him, I unlocked the door, pushed it open, and walked inside. A second later, I heard his footsteps behind me.

I turned sharply. “Why are you following me?”

“To see the agreement.”

“You could have waited outside.”

“You could have shut the door.”

I stared at him. “That was the plan.”

My apartment was small, but neat. One couch. One rug. An open kitchen. One bedroom. Everything in it had been chosen because I needed peace. 

I went into the bedroom, took my file from the drawer, and came back with my own copy. I handed it to him.

He read it carefully.

Same reaction. Same silence.

Then he lifted his head. “It’s real.”

“I know it’s real.”

His gaze moved once around the apartment, taking in the single bedroom, the kitchen boxes I had not fully unpacked, the throw blanket over the couch, the pair of running shoes by the wall.

“You moved in recently,” he said.

“Three days ago.”

His eyes returned to mine. “I was supposed to move in yesterday.”

“Well, congratulations. Life disappointed both of us.”

He ignored that. “There’s only one bedroom.”

I folded my arms. “You noticed.”

He ran his thumb along the edge of the paper, thinking.

I did not like quiet men. Richard had taught me that silence could mean anything. Anger. Manipulation. 

The stranger noticed.

His gaze dropped, briefly, to my wrist.

I resisted the urge to cover it.

The bruise there had faded, mostly hidden under my sleeve unless someone was looking closely.

He looked away first.

“We can try the agent again,” he said.

I called, he called but nothing.

I sent a message. No reply.

He sent an email. No response.

By the time I dropped my phone on the counter, I was boiling with frustration.

“This is insane.”

“Yes.” I stared at him. “That’s all you have to say?”

“What would you like me to say?”

“I want you to leave.”

“I paid for the apartment.”

“And I live here.”

He placed both agreements on the counter. “Until we reach the agent, neither of us can prove the other should be the one to go.”

I already knew where this was heading, and I hated it before he said the words.

“So?” I asked.

“So we need a temporary solution.”

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I’m about to suggest.”

“I know enough.”

He held my gaze. “We share the apartment until this is sorted out.”

I gave a disbelieving laugh. “Absolutely not.”

“It’s temporary.”

“You’re a complete stranger.”

“And you think this arrangement is ideal for me?”

“I don’t care whether it’s ideal for you.”

“Clearly.” I opened my mouth, ready to throw him out, ready to say something sharp enough to end the conversation there and then, but my phone rang.

his and hated even more that he was noticing it.My heart dropped the moment I saw the number.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Mated To My Ruin: A Dragon's Debt

Mated To My Ruin: A Dragon's Debt

1.9k Views · Ongoing · ashlennox8
Nyx would risk anything to save her dying sister. Even steal from a dragon. Even trust a prince who promised her a crown in exchange for the impossible.

But the prince lied. The dragon she touched bound itself to her soul and now she is trapped in the vampire kingdom with a king who has waited centuries for her return. King Caelan remembers everything. The love she destroyed and the great war she started. The lives she burned to ash with the very dragon now living inside her.

She remembers nothing.

He wants her to suffer for crimes she cannot recall. She wants to survive long enough to save her sister. But the bond between them refuses to stay buried and the dragon has its own plans. When she turns twenty and her fae powers awaken, Nyx discovers the truth is far more twisted than centuries of hatred.

The prince who sent her was the one who destroyed her family. The king who hates her saved the only person she loves. And the past life she cannot remember might be the key to stopping another war.

This time she will not run. This time she will burn the world herself if that is what it takes.
The Spy Who Left

The Spy Who Left

1.5k Views · Completed · Orion Vale
"She's naive. A pretty little socialite who got lucky marrying above her station."
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
The Ice Between Us.

The Ice Between Us.

1.7k Views · Completed · Nora Obeche
In the world of elite hockey, discipline is the only currency that matters. For Julian Thorne, the perfectionist Captain of the Northwood Olympic Center, every stride is calculated, and every emotion is frozen solid. He is one season away from the pros, but the team is drowning under public scrutiny and a board of directors looking for any reason to cut the cord.

​Then comes Jax Miller.

​Jax is a hotheaded rookie with a lightning-fast puck and a reputation for burning bridges. He doesn't follow playbooks, he doesn't respect authority, and he’s determined to melt Julian’s icy composure. When a viral video of their on-ice collision threatens to bankrupt the program, Coach Clain delivers an ultimatum that feels like a death sentence: they must live together in a cramped, two-bed dorm for the duration of the season.

​Forced to navigate the high-stakes world of sports fame, "forbidden" locker-room tension, and the mysterious blackmailer who caught their first mistake on camera, Julian and Jax must decide what’s more dangerous: losing their careers, or losing themselves to the person they were supposed to hate.
Goddess Of The Underworld

Goddess Of The Underworld

951.6k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Left at a pack border with a name and a stubborn heartbeat, Envy grows into the sharpest kind of survivor, an orphaned warrior who knows how to hold a line and keep moving. Love isn’t in the plan…until four alpha wolves with playboy reputations and inconveniently soft hands decide the girl who won’t bow is the only queen they’ll ever take. Their mate. The one they have waited for. Xavier, Haiden, Levi, and Noah are gorgeous, lethal, and anything but perfect and Envy isn’t either. She’s changing. First into hell hound, Layah at her heels and fire in her veins. Then into what the realm has been waiting for, a Goddess of the Underworld, dragging her mates down to hell with her.

When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back

Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back

9.1k Views · Completed · Eleanor Sterling
In her past life, Arabella Oberon was the lowest-ranking member of the Oberon family.

She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.

Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.

Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.

Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,

"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"

When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.

Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.

No more soft-heartedness.

No more groveling.

Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.

Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.

And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.

Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.
First Taste in a Century​

First Taste in a Century​

1k Views · Ongoing · Sherry
Fresh out of college and fumbling through his first year in the real world, twenty-two-year-old Lysander wanders away from a friend’s party and into an isolated forest. There, he stumbles upon the high-tech laboratory hidden within the ancient castle of Vivienne—a vampire who has spent one century cultivating solitude. Disgusted by the intimacy required to hunt, she long ago withdrew from humanity, passing the endless decades perfecting homemade synthetic blood rather than sampling the countless varieties of plasma she grew tired of.

But Lysander’s arrival spells disaster. In a clumsy accident, he doesn't just ruin dinner; he obliterates her state-of-the-art scientific instruments. With her life’s work destroyed and her synthetic supply cut off, the scent of his living blood overwhelms her engineered senses. Forced to break a century-long abstinence, she takes what she needs, only to find herself addicted not just to his taste, but to the man himself.

Using the equipment as a flimsy excuse to lure him back, Vivienne battles a terrifying new obsession. She craves his body despite believing he’s taken, despising her own weakness. Meanwhile, Lysander’s initial terror curdles into a forbidden fascination. Can a relationship survive when one person feels everything, and the other only hungers?
The Princess's Revenge

The Princess's Revenge

63.8k Views · Completed · Xena Kessler
Two nations are at war. Valencia's pack is massacred by Alpha Marcus, and she is enslaved by him. When he dies, she is to be buried alive with him as a sacrifice.

Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.

Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.

As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?
Omega Bound

Omega Bound

2.6m Views · Ongoing · Veronica White
Ayla Frost is a beautiful, rare omega. Kidnapped, tortured, and trafficked to rogue clans and corrupt alphas to do with as they pleased.  Kept alive in her cage, broken and abandoned by her wolf, she becomes mute and has given up on hope for a better life until one explosion changes everything. 

Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life. 

Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
Survival Island

Survival Island

3.7k Views · Ongoing · Jacky Westbury
Zara lived a steady life. She was a primary school teacher and loved her job. She was not a social butterfly and only had one person she considered a friend and that was her best friend, Ivy. She liked her quiet life after growing up in foster care, the quiet was nice.Until her best friend’s husband and his mistress decided to kill Ivy and frame Zara. Now she has been sent to Survival Island--a deadly prison where convicted criminals fight to the death for a chance at freedom and a $10 million prize.
Zane, a powerful vampire and the island's owner, has spent centuries unable to feel desire for any woman. But when he notices Zara's intelligence, resilience, and determination to survive, she awakens something in him that no one ever has. For the first time in his vampire life, he is interested in a female, and his member is also starting to come to life. Who is this woman and why does he suddenly crave her and not just for her blood?
Twin Prince Alphas Student Mate

Twin Prince Alphas Student Mate

4.7k Views · Completed · H.A Shah
Caught in a web of forbidden love, conflicting loyalties, and hidden truths, Lyla finds herself at the epicenter of a love story as complicated as it is intense. "Fate's Chosen Mate: Bloodmoon Chronicles" delves into the tumultuous life of Lyla, a young student at a prestigious academy for supernaturals. Lyla isn't just any student; she's linked by destiny to Cameron and Samuel, her warrior trainers who are also the enigmatic alpha princes of the werewolf race.
As her 18th birthday approaches, her brothers warn her about the powerful pull she might feel toward dominant wolves. But it's not just any wolves they need to worry about—it's her teachers. Cameron and Samuel are more than just older, wiser, and off-limits; they might just be her fated mates.
While navigating complex relationships, academic pressures, and the normal trials of young adult life, an unexpected threat jeopardizes the academy. Explosions rock their world, forcing Lyla and her love interests into a chaotic swirl of heroism, heartbreak, and hard choices.
Will Lyla follow her heart and let destiny lead the way, or will the very rules that bind their world tear them apart? Amidst turmoil and taboo, Lyla must make choices that could forever change the course of her life and the lives of those she holds dear.
Discover a story where love isn't just complicated—it's forbidden, ageless, and defies all rules. In a world of supernatural beings and extraordinary stakes, will Lyla's love life be another casualty, or her saving grace?
BROKEN TRUST

BROKEN TRUST

7.2k Views · Completed · O.J Thewriter
She broke their marriage. He walked away.

Neither of them knew she was carrying his child.

Emily’s affair didn’t just end her marriage—it erased the life she thought was guaranteed. Ryan left without looking back, carrying his anger like armor and leaving Emily alone with regret she would never outrun. Three years later, fate drags them back into each other’s world, along with a little girl who has Ryan’s eyes and a truth that shatters everything he thought he knew.

Old wounds reopen, grief masquerades as rage, and love refuses to stay buried. As parenthood binds them together and the past demands accountability, Emily and Ryan must face the question neither of them is ready to answer: is broken trust the end of their story… or the beginning of a love forged through loss, forgiveness, and brutal honesty?
Cursed Fates

Cursed Fates

1.6k Views · Ongoing · Taylor Ashcraft
Charlotte Sinclair was murdered at the hands of her abusive boyfriend. After dying, she wakes up in the body of another. She pieces together information from her first day as Aribella Voss, realizing that she's been reincarnated into a book she knew all too well. The only problem: She was fated to die in this story as well. She sets out on a mission to ensure that doesn't happen, but when she begins changing important parts of the story, she also changes the plot of the story she knew. Without the upper hand, Aribella no longer has idea what lies in her future.