
Hating the CEO
Faith Ihelewere sampson · Completed · 148.8k Words
Introduction
I refuse to flinch. “Power doesn’t impress me, Laurent. Admit it you’re as obsessed with me as I am with hating you.”
He leans closer, the scent of cedar and coffee surrounding me, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Obsessed? Maybe. But you’re not here just to save your team… you’re here because every fight between us burns hotter than the idea of losing control.”
Aurora Hale is brilliant, disciplined, and fiercely independent. As one of the most talented researchers at Laurent Dynamics, she refuses to bow to corporate pressure even when it comes from the company’s powerful and dangerously composed CEO, Kael Laurent.
When Kael threatens to cut funding to Aurora’s department, she does the unthinkable she challenges him publicly in the boardroom. Instead of silencing her, Kael assigns her as his direct liaison, forcing them to work side by side.
What begins as rivalry quickly becomes something far more dangerous.
Late-night strategy sessions, heated arguments, and moments of unexpected vulnerability blur the line between hate and desire. But in a world ruled by ambition and power, attraction can be a liability.
As rumors spread through the company, ambitious rivals including the calculating Elena Morozov begin to exploit their growing connection. With only her loyal friend Lila standing by her side, Aurora must protect her career while navigating the dangerous pull between her and the man she once despised.
When betrayal threatens everything she has built, Kael must choose between protecting his empire or fighting for the woman who has completely upended his world.
Chapter 1
I hated him before I ever met him.
Not because I knew him.
But because of what he represented.
His name echoed through the polished halls of Laurent Dynamics like something untouchable spoken with reverence, fear, and careful respect. Executives straightened when they heard it. Assistants lowered their voices. Entire departments shifted direction based on a single decision he made.
Kael Laurent.
The man who controlled everything.
I hated the framed magazine covers outside the executive wing Forbes, Global Power, Business Elite. His face was always the same: composed, unreadable, distant.
A man who didn’t need to try.
A man who didn’t care to.
And now
My future depended on him.
“Don’t forget,” Lila whispered beside me, her voice tight with nerves, “he fired three department heads last quarter. Just like that.”
I adjusted the file in my hands, forcing my shoulders back.
“Good,” I said calmly. “Then he won’t waste time listening.”
Lila stared at me. “You’re about to challenge him.”
“I’m about to save my department.”
The elevator doors slid open.
We stepped inside.
The ride up felt longer than it should have.
Each passing floor tightened something in my chest but I ignored it. Fear had never helped anyone win.
And I didn’t lose.
The boardroom was already prepared when we arrived.
Glass walls. Polished table. A view that made the entire city look small.
Power lived here.
He wasn’t there yet.
I exhaled slowly, reviewing my notes one last time.
Numbers. Data. Projections.
Everything precise.
Everything controlled.
Then
The door opened.
Conversation died instantly.
Kael Laurent walked in like silence belonged to him.
He didn’t rush.
Didn’t announce himself.
He didn’t need to.
He was taller than I expected, dressed in a dark suit that fit like it had been designed specifically for him. His presence wasn’t loud but it was absolute.
Controlled.
Focused.
Dangerous.
His gaze moved across the room
Then stopped on me.
And for a moment
It felt like he already knew exactly who I was.
“Let’s begin,” he said.
When it was my turn, I stood.
No hesitation.
No fear.
“This proposal outlines the long-term value of maintaining the research division,” I began. “Contrary to current projections, cutting funding would not reduce risk it would create it.”
I spoke with certainty.
With clarity.
With purpose.
Because this wasn’t just data.
It was people.
It was years of work.
And I wasn’t going to let him destroy it.
When I finished
Silence filled the room.
Kael leaned back slightly, his gaze fixed on me.
“You’re passionate,” he said.
I held his gaze.
“I’m informed.”
A flicker of something crossed his expression.
Amusement.
“Passion without discipline is reckless,” he said calmly. “Convince me you have both.”
Something in me sharpened.
“With all due respect,” I replied, “discipline isn’t cutting resources because numbers look inconvenient. It’s understanding what those numbers represent.”
The room went still.
Kael didn’t look angry.
He looked interested.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Aurora Hale.”
He repeated it slowly.
As if committing it to memory.
“You don’t seem to like me very much, Ms. Hale.”
I didn’t hesitate.
“I don’t like people who threaten what I’ve built.”
Silence.
Then
He laughed.
Not cold.
Not mocking.
Real.
“Good,” he said. “I don’t trust people who pretend.”
I sat down, my pulse steady but something unfamiliar settling beneath it.
Because I had expected resistance.
Not interest.
As the meeting ended, his gaze lingered on me just a moment longer.
Sharp.
Curious.
Like I had just become something worth watching.
And I realized
I still hated the CEO.
But now
He knew I existed.
And that changed everything.
Last Chapters
#160 Chapter 160 The Life We Choose
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#159 Chapter 159 After the Storm
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#158 Chapter 158 The Final Move
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#157 Chapter 157 Choosing Each Other
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#156 Chapter 156 Standing Alone
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#155 Chapter 155 Breaking Point
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#154 Chapter 154 Lines Are Drawn
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#153 Chapter 153 A New Threat
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#152 Chapter 152 Pressure and Power
Last Updated: 6/8/2026#151 Chapter 151 The Announcement
Last Updated: 6/8/2026
You Might Like 😍
Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate
He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.
The First Female Alpha
The man I was meant to marry—the rising Alpha, the pride of the Pack—thrusting into another girl like I didn't exist.
But I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I didn't even flinch.
Because the pain had carved me hollow long before he ever touched her.
He thinks I'm weak. That I'll stand by his side in two days, smile for the ceremony, and hand him my loyalty with the Alpha title.
But he's wrong.
I'm not the broken little Luna they think I am. I'm the storm they never saw coming.
The Pack worships him, but only I know the truth buried beneath his perfect lies. So I'll take everything he wants most—the throne, the title, the crown he was born to wear—and win it out from under him, in front of everyone who ever called me unworthy.
Screw the Pack. Screw the respect. Screw being tame.
I'm fury dressed in skin, madness wearing heels, and heartbreak turned into a goddamn weapon.
They wanted a loyal Luna??
Instead...
They created a monster.
And when the throne is finally mine...
The Pack won't remember the name of the Alpha who betrayed me.
They'll remember the woman who took his crown...
and became the First Female Alpha.
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
Falling for My Boyfriend's Uncle
My boyfriend skipped our anniversary for her—the girl who called me a whore.
He left me walking home in the dark. When my apartment caught fire, he ignored my calls.
But his uncle showed up.
The one with the scarred knuckles and the cop badge. The one who looked at me like he wanted to burn the world down for me—or maybe burn me down instead.
Now, we live under the same roof. Three people. One bed too close.
Every time my boyfriend touches me, I flinch. Every time his uncle looks at me, I burn.
He's dangerous. He's forbidden. He's everything I shouldn't want.
Is he saving me... or does he just want to own me?
Some fires don't just burn. They consume.
The Billoniare's Fake Husband
Quin is wealthy, controlling, and desperate to keep his inheritance, so he offers Tyler a deal: stay married until he clicks thirty and get paid. Tyler doesn’t trust him, but he needs the money Quin was offering, so he agrees.
What starts as a fake marriage soon turns into something messy and real. Feelings begin to get involved and walls start to crack. Suddenly Tyler is risking his heart for a man he swore to hate.
Now, with secrets coming out and time running out, they both have to decide—is this just a mistake… or something worth fighting for?
A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)
For centuries, she has been on the run, helping the supernatural community under the cloak of anonymity while she works to clear her name and save the very people after her from destruction.
Enemies are closing in, but an unexpected complication befalls her when she realises she’s been fated to someone who wants her species exterminated. After all, an evil chance seldom comes alone.
A Queen Among Darkness is the 4th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.
Books in the series in order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation Coming Soon)
Chosen By The Lycan King
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates
"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."
I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.
Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.
"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."
New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.
Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates
When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.
But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
Omega Bound
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
Dangerous Love with the Mafia
Driven out by her adoptive mother and sexually harassed by her boss, she stumbles into a seedy bar, desperate to drown her sorrows. There she meets Alex: sharp, devastatingly handsome, and impossibly charming.
What starts as a wild one-night stand blossoms into a tender, almost surreal romance—art galleries, riverside walks, and whispered promises that feel too perfect to be real. But when Alex vanishes without a word after a morning of gentle intimacy, Sarah is left with a hollow ache and a creeping doubt.
Their encounter was no accident. Behind Alex's blue eyes and skilled touch lies a darkness far deeper than she ever imagined—and the love that burned so bright may come with a price that could destroy her.











