The Player Next Door

The Player Next Door

Tyna Williams · Completed · 119.5k Words

218
Hot
422
Views
3
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

He was my new neighbor and I hated him instantly. Some fall in love at first sight but for us, it was pure hatred at first sight. We should have stayed enemies forever but life was unpredictable. In the end, one kiss was it all it took to turn us into something more.

It was unclear what we were but I could tell that something had changed; the player next door had become something more to me...


Rylie Myers never thought it would be possible to hate someone with every fibre of your body but meeting Blake Weston changed that.

Blake was Rylie's new next door neighbor and Rylie couldn't help but dislike him from the moment she saw him and the series of disastrous encounters that followed didn't help.

Their enmity was mutual and should've stayed that way... but one accidental kiss changes everything.

And before they realized it, they were stuck with each other, forced to keep up a charade that involved them being something more than enemies.

The only question now is what happens when fake feelings start getting a little too real?

Chapter 1

RYLIE

My eyes peeled open as a full blast of sunshine hit me in the face. I groaned as I turned over, trying to get some sleep when my brother sauntered into the room.

"Rylie! Wake up!"

I ignored him, keeping my eyes closed so he thought I was still sleeping. He called me a few more times but eventually left when I didn't budge only to return a few moments later. Before I knew what was going on, he was pouring a bucket of icy cold water all over me.

"Myles!!!" I yelled, shooting up off the bed.

With a maniacal smile, he said, "Good morning to you, sis."

"I am so going to kill you," I yelled, running after him.

"Guys! Guys! What is it now?" my mom asked. Myles had ducked behind her and was now sticking his tongue at me from behind her shoulder.

"Myles poured cold water all over my bed!"

"Only because she wouldn't wake up," Myles yelled back and I growled.

"Rylie, go get ready for school. Myles, go up to Rylie's room and clean up the mess you made."

"But Mom…" He tried arguing but swallowed his words on seeing the look on Mom's face.

Instead he sighed and groaned, "Yes Ma'am."

As he passed by me, I stuck out my tongue.

"You're such a child."

"And you're such a jerk," I replied, heading to the bathroom.

I had a nice, hot shower which was a relief after being doused in ice, and came out to find my room all cleaned up and Myles lugging my mattress out of the room. He was struggling to get it out and I watched him do it all alone with a smile. Once he was out, I headed to my closet and picked out clothes to wear.

Once I was done dressing, I packed all my necessities into my backpack and headed downstairs for breakfast.

"Morning Mom. Morning Dad. Morning butthead brother of mine."

"Morning to you too, fish face," Myles retorted but before I could reply, my mom jumped in and said "That's enough you two. Eat your breakfast."

"Yes mom," we replied in unison, still giving each other the stink eye.

"So Mom, what's with the noise next door?" I asked, halfway through devouring my plate or waffles.

"We have new neighbors."

"Really? Who are they?" I tried to ask as casually as I could manage.

"I haven't had time to meet them yet because they got here late yesterday. You were already asleep."

"Oh, right," I replied going back to my food as I took an unwanted trip down memory lane.

The house next door had belonged to my boyfriend, or rather ex boyfriend. He and his family had to move away during the summer and despite all my hopes that we could do it long distance, it didn't work out.

A few weeks after they moved, he uploaded a picture of himself and a girl kissing. I tried calling him to talk it out but he didn't pick my calls and basically ruined my summer.

I told myself I was over it but it was kinda hard to get over something like that.

"Thanks for the excellent food, Mom. Now I gotta go," I said standing up from my chair and heading to the kitchen sink where I dumped my plate.

"Bye Mom. Bye Dad. Bye butthead," I said as I headed out of the house, not waiting to hear my brother's response.

I made my way to my car, got in and then started making my way to school.

Okay, a little intro. I'm Rylie, 18 and a resident of a sleepy town in New Jersey called Willow Creek where I live with my mom, dad and my dumb twin brother, Myles. We live a pretty comfortable life and I'm mostly happy with it. I also have two best friends, Olivia and Mason who I'll be meeting at school.

That's about all there is to know about me. Oh, and I'm never going to fall in love again.


"Hey Liv."

"Hey Ry. What's up?" Olivia asked as we both stepped out of our cars.

"Nothing much... I have a new neighbor," I added in what I hoped sounded like an offhanded comment.

"Someone moved into Asher's apartment? Who?"

"No clue. Haven't met them yet but I'm guessing I will soon enough. Knowing my mom, she's gonna have them over for dinner or something."

"I hope they're nice," Olivia said, squeezing my shoulder.

"Yeah, I hope they're nice too," I mumbled.

We continued talking as we made our way to our lockers where Mason caught up with us.

"Hey girls."

"Hi Mace," I responded while Olivia waved at him. "How was your summer holiday?" I asked.

"Totally amazing!" Mason answered giddily. It didn't escape my notice that his usually pale skin had gotten a bit tanned.

"Of course it was. Not everyone is lucky enough to win a lottery to go to The Bahamas," Olivia said with a playful roll of her eyes.

"Well I did ask you to come with me…"

"Yeah, but you only had one extra ticket and it was only right that you spend it with someone special."

"Yeah. My cousin and I did have fun on the trip..."

"Of course you did." Olivia ruffled his hair playfully and Mason smiled but I could see that it was forced and I could almost predict the words on the tip of his tongue. That she was someone special to him.

Mason had a secret only I was privy to. He'd had a crush on Olivia for years but Olivia saw him as a friend and nothing more. I've asked him to tell her how he feels countless times but his answer is always that he doesn't wanna ruin their friendship so he has to deal with stuff like this. It was really sad.

To help out Mason, I shifted the topic to a lighter one and soon we were all laughing together.

Suddenly, I heard someone screaming at the end of the hall. I was about to run over to see if someone was in trouble when several girls began to scream as well. I took in their expressions and the way they held each other's hands and knew that there was no trouble. There was simply a new guy in school and judging by their reactions, he either looked like a movie star or actually was one.

The screams continued to grow louder, there were giggles and some girls even began pretend fainting, all of which was comical to me as I waited with my back to the locker to see the cause of everyone's excitement.

When he finally appeared in my line of sight, I was taken back. He was hot. Like drop dead gorgeous. With his high cheekbones, perfect lips, skin that looked like glass and silky brown hair that stopped just above his shoulders, this guy was the embodiment of every teen heartthrob ever. He was quite possibly the most attractive guy I'd ever seen.

But at the same time, as I watched him walk by, there was something about him that I didn't quite sit right with me. Maybe it was the fact that he reminded me too of a certain someone or maybe it was the haughty smile on his face as he took in all the attention he was getting... Whatever it was, it stunk and I already wanted nothing to do with him.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

BROKEN TRUST

BROKEN TRUST

8.7k 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?
Dan Belinni: Pregnant by the Lethal Mafioso

Dan Belinni: Pregnant by the Lethal Mafioso

5.1k Views · Completed · Carmine Wilde
In Chicago, the Belinni name is not spoken—it is feared.

Dan Belinni was raised inside violence, trained in the blood-soaked discipline of the Outfit until he became its sharpest weapon. At nineteen, he is already known for illegal fights, brutal enforcement, and a temperament that turns any challenge into punishment. He doesn’t believe in mercy. He doesn’t believe in love. He believes in control.

Milena Lima has spent her life surviving, not living. An undocumented immigrant in Chicago, she works herself to exhaustion just to stay afloat and protect the only stability she has left—her friend María. But when she loses her job and her visa expires, Milena becomes invisible to the law and vulnerable in ways she never imagined.

Desperate, she steps into a Belinni-owned nightclub, hoping to earn enough to survive another week. One stage. One performance. One decision.

That is all it takes for her to cross paths with Dan Belinni.

He is not a man who lets go.
And she is not a woman who submits.

But beneath survival and violence lies a truth neither of them is ready for—Milena is tied to a mafia legacy she never chose, one that makes her both a target and a claim in a world where women are never just women.

When their worlds collide, obsession replaces restraint, and a single night changes everything.

Because in Dan’s world, love is not given.

It is taken.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

2.5k Views · Completed · Emma Mountford
Saints and Sinners- She was the light to my dark.
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.

I’m not even sure I want to.

Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.

She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.

The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.

I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.

I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.

3/ Rags and Ritches-
Where I End and She Begins

Where I End and She Begins

1.1k Views · Completed · Briana Wilson
Amelia is starting high school with her best friend Lola — confident, magnetic, fearless Lola — the girl who makes the world feel manageable. While Amelia juggles grief, an absent father, and the heavy responsibility of raising her younger brothers, Lola is her escape. Her courage. Her voice. The version of herself she wishes she could be.
But when a body lies at Amelia’s feet, and her hands are covered in blood that isn’t hers, one question echoes louder than the rest:
How did it come to this?
As the school year unfolds, cracks begin to show — in friendships, in family, and in Amelia’s own mind. The lines between loyalty and control blur. Between truth and perception. Between who she is… and who she thinks she needs to be.
Because some friendships don’t just shape you.
They consume you.
And when the illusion shatters, there’s always something left behind.
Bella and Her Beast

Bella and Her Beast

20k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
For all the little girls who grew up wondering what happens after the prince kisses the girl—this is the story they never told you.
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?

.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
The New Girl and the Broken Basketball Star

The New Girl and the Broken Basketball Star

1.9k Views · Completed · xinna
At sixteen, Clara Bennett lost the last place she could call home.

After years of feeling unwanted by the father who should have protected her, Clara is finally forced to leave the only home she has ever known. Her stepmother’s pregnancy only makes it easier for her family to let her go.

With nothing but her mother’s old violin, she arrives in a small Pennsylvania town carrying the fear that she will never truly belong anywhere.

The last thing she expects is Adrian Cole.

Once the town’s basketball star, Adrian gave up his dreams after his father disappeared and left him with debts he never should have carried. Now he spends his days repairing cars, avoiding the court, and pretending he doesn’t want anything more from life.

Clara thinks she is too broken to be loved.

Adrian thinks his future is already over.

But somewhere between physics lessons, late nights at the repair shop, and a forgotten small-town high school, two lonely people begin to find something they both thought they had lost forever:

A reason to stay.

✦ ✦ ✦

A tough exterior with a soft heart x A soft exterior with a strong heart

✦ ✦ ✦

The first half is set in high school, and the second half is set during their college years. Hope you enjoy the journey!

This is a slow-paced story, focused more on emotions, healing, and the small moments in life rather than intense action or dramatic twists.

If you find any mistakes while reading, please feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be happy to correct them.

I hope ordinary Clara, ordinary Adrian, and all of us ordinary people can find the happiness we deserve.
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

959.8k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

2m Views · Ongoing · Jaylee
Soft hot lips find the shell of my ear and he whispers, "You think I don't want you?" He pushes his hips forward, grinding into the back of my ass and I groan. "Really?" He chuckles.

"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?
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha

Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha

16.6k Views · Completed · Christina
I woke up three years into a marriage I barely remembered—pregnant with twins that weren't my husband's.

Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because My husband Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.

Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?
My Benchwarmer Boyfriend's Secret

My Benchwarmer Boyfriend's Secret

1.8k Views · Completed · Marina Ellington
A wild party night leaves me with fuzzy memories and a mortifying encounter I can't quite piece together. Then I meet Marco—the quiet basketball player who just transferred for training—and there's an instant spark I can't explain.

As the team's benchwarmer, Marco practices harder than anyone, though few seems to notice. There's something about his quiet determination that draws me in, and I find myself falling for the underdog.

But when Marco's true story starts unraveling—about that first night, about who he really is, about the future he's destined for—I realize I might have gotten in way over my head.

And there's another problem: this was always meant to be temporary. His training program has an end date, and we're both fighting against a reality that seems determined to pull us apart.

When everything is on the line, how far are we willing to go for love?
Ignition And Ice; A Racer's Forbidden Blueprint

Ignition And Ice; A Racer's Forbidden Blueprint

2.4k Views · Ongoing · Awkward Pen
Merritt Lawson has spent years building two impossible dreams.

The first? Becoming an architect worthy of finally making her mark.

The second?

Convincing herself that one day, Hayes Gallagher–NHL superstar, lifelong best friend, and the man she’s secretly loved for years–will finally see her as more than the girl who’s always there when he needs her.

He doesn’t.

So when Hayes abandons her for yet another girl, Merritt decides she’s done waiting.

One reckless night later, she ends up in the arms of a stranger whose touch makes forgetting Hayes dangerously easy.

She never expects to see him again. Until that stranger turns out to be Stellan Mercer.

Formula One’s most infamous golden boy. And Hayes’s stepbrother who is the one man Hayes would rather destroy than share a room with.

When Stellan uses his influence to make Merritt lead designer on his luxury penthouse project, staying away from him becomes impossible.

Working behind closed doors quickly turns into a secret neither of them can afford. Because the more Merritt falls for the man she was never supposed to touch… the more Hayes realizes he may have lost the only girl who ever truly loved him.

And when jealousy, family rivalry, and the spotlight collide, Merritt will have to decide which dream she’s willing to lose.

Her career, her heart. Or both.
The Alpha Of The Shadow Pack And His Mute Luna

The Alpha Of The Shadow Pack And His Mute Luna

181.1k Views · Ongoing · Beatrice Putnam
She was born cursed and silenced. He was born cursed and destined to lose everything.

Vanessa, the mute runt of a cursed litter, has only ever known cruelty and abuse. Her voice stolen by a witch’s spell, her freedom crushed by a brutal father, she’s been promised to a monster she doesn’t want. But fate intervenes when she’s left for dead—bleeding, broken, and bound—only to be rescued by Alpha Alfred of the Shadow Pack.
Alfred, fighting against a generational curse that has doomed his brothers to remain wolves forever, never expected his fated mate to be a fragile girl on the brink of death. But the moment he breathes in her scent, everything changes.
Together, they must confront the past, survive betrayal, and uncover the true key to breaking the curses that bind them. Will their bond be strong enough to save them both?