Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
“Call me President.” He snapped out the words before he could stop himself.
MJ flinched at the harsh tone and mumbled, “I’m sorry, President.” He was mad at her again. Why was it that she always made him mad? She couldn’t even think of anything she had done wrong.
She sounded scared of him now, which only made him more irritated. “I came here to warn you.”
MJ blinked. Warn her?
“Volunteers are here for one reason. To take care of the club’s needs. If the university had allowed us to hire outside help, we would have and there would be no need for volunteers at all. But we can’t and that’s why you are here. But I’m warning you – if I hear even one instance where you’re causing trouble or being a distraction to any of the club’s members, you’re out of here.”
His golden eyes lanced hers. “Are we clear on that?”
Extremely clear, MJ thought miserably. Just as it was extremely clear that for some reason, Helios Andreadis hated her.
And so all she said quietly was, “Yes, sir.”
Helios didn’t answer, and for one long moment they only gazed at each other. Tension vibrated from him, and if she had only been a little more experienced, a little less innocent, she would have known that one hint from her was all it would take for Helios’ tension to turn into passion. One hint, and he would have pushed MJ inside her room, taken her into his arms the way he ached to, and kissed her until she could no longer breathe.
But she was not.
All she knew was that the tension in Helios Andreadis meant he was furious. When he didn’t say anything else, she mumbled, “Good night, sir,” and slowly closed the door.
A second later, she heard Helios curse explicitly in English and in Greek.
Then came the sound of a fist smashing against the concrete wall.
He truly hated her, MJ thought numbly. But why?
Chapter Four
TASK #1: GET EVERYONE up for breakfast.
As MJ headed upstairs, she pulled out her daily planner to check her schedule. Today was a Tuesday, which meant all four of them had morning classes. She started with the room nearest to the stairs, which belonged to Andreus Economou, the grumpiest of them all.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and said chirpily, “Good morning, Andreus!”
A pillow would have hit her smack in the face if MJ hadn’t been ready to catch it. Of course, the first few times, she had not been ready to catch it. Since even a groggy Andreus had perfect aim, MJ was grateful that the club’s treasurer only liked to throw pillows and not bricks.
Walking past the bed, she went directly to the windows and raised the blinds. “It’s time to wake up! You’ve got a class at eight!” She turned around and handily caught another pillow hurtling towards her.
Finally, she went to his private bathroom. Wetting one of the hand towels, MJ marched back to the room, pulled away the pillow Andreus had slammed over his head, and replaced it with the hand towel. Then she started rubbing his face, particularly his eyes.
“Fuck off, MJ.”
“You know I can’t do that. You’ve got classes today, and Hallie told me you have an exam first thing in the morning.”
Andreus, eyes still closed, muttered, “Hallie doesn’t know shit.”
She countered promptly, “Hallie knows a lot of shit because she taught me all the shit I know.”
It was enough to have Andreus smile. “You are too much of a nag. You know that, right?”
“It’s another kind of shit Hallie taught me.”
He threw another pillow at her. “Go on, I’m awake. I’ll just shower and head down.”
Next was Yuri, but as expected, Hallie’s older brother was already up and freshly showered. “I heard you and Andreus shouting,” Yuri said when she peeked inside his room.
She only smiled. “It’s nothing new. Do you need anything else before I go to Kellion’s room?”
There was a moment’s hesitation before Yuri said, “No. Nothing.”
That was odd. MJ puzzled over it as she went inside Kellion’s room next. His room was always the messiest, and the sight of what she had to clean up after class made her wince. “Good morning, Kellion.”
No answer.
That was also expected. Kellion hated attending his classes, more so than the rest of his friends. There was something about authority he despised, and he liked flouting it as often as he could. Whereas the trick to handling Andreus was making herself too nice for comfort, for Kellion it was the opposite.
After raising the blinds and letting sunlight blaze into the room, MJ headed back to the side of the bed. And then she started to sing. “Amazing Grace...” She sang as loudly as she could.
“Okay, I’m up, dammit,” Kellion growled when he couldn’t take any more of MJ’s God-awful voice. How a sweet-looking thing could have such a terrible voice was definitely one of the Devil’s greatest curses on mankind.