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)
It was a toss-up between Kellion and Yuri, with how they allowed MJ to fawn all over them. His teeth gnashed together. Just thinking about her was enough to make his mood worsen. She was the one he really wanted to kill. For days now, she had been ignoring him. She had the fucking gall to ignore him, and she had done it so subtly that Helios had thought he was going mad, wondering if it was all in his mind.
Yesterday, they had bumped into each other in the hallway and before he could say anything, she had been running away. “So late for school,” she had gasped over her shoulder without looking back.
Of course, he knew now that was a big fat fucking lie.
The other day, she had been trying to clean the top of the living room’s ceiling-high windows. He had asked her – he even had the generosity to ask her if she needed help, and what the fuck did she do? She packed her retractable ladder and duster out of the way and ran out of the room. “Vertigo,” she had gasped, also over her shoulder, and also without looking back.
That one was a fucking lie as well, but he had fallen for it, enough to order one of the rookies to buy pills for her vertigo.
There were so many similar instances, but only now – only now, when there was no way for her to escape his company, that everything was coming together.
It was his fucking birthday, and she hadn’t even come to greet him. When everyone sang him a birthday song, he had watched her. And he had seen her fucking mouth the song, like he wasn’t worth wasting her voice over.
Who the hell did she think she was, not singing ‘happy birthday’ to him?
And now...
Rage enveloped him as he watched MJ smile, chat, and trade jokes while she took snapshots of everyone but him. This was his damn birthday party, and she was taking everyone’s photos but him. Was she fucking for real?
“You should have a photo too, moro mou,” Kellion urged.
Helios’ gaze moved towards his dessert fork. Would Kellion survive if he poked his eye with the fork? Kellion should know better than to flirt with a woman who belonged to him. And what the fuck was up with Kellion, calling his girl ‘moro mou’? MJ was not his love. She was...
Fuck!
He didn’t like where his thoughts were straying.
“Give me that cam,” Kellion said. “I’ll take a photo of you and Yuri as a souvenir of the old man’s party.”
Old man? Kellion was referring to him as an old man? Helios was just one fucking year older than him. Did that make him fucking old?
“I don’t want to have my photo taken.”
“Just one, come on. Be a good sport and pose.”
“Pose?” MJ repeated blankly.
“Do anything except stand there like a zombie,” Kellion said, rolling his eyes.
Aware for some time now of the deadly glances directed his way, Yuri said solemnly, “How about sitting on my lap and pretending to be—”
Before MJ could answer, she was suddenly spun around, and she found herself facing Helios.
MJ gulped.
She gulped not because of the anger flashing in his golden eyes and not because the hard look on his face promised retribution. She gulped simply because it had been days since she had allowed herself to look at Helios – to really look at him and now that she did, it was like that first day all over again.
Helios’ long golden hair was tied back like usual, but for once, he wasn’t wearing his usual shirt and jeans. Instead, he wore a white blazer, a striped shirt underneath, and matching trousers. Most likely at Kellion’s insistence, since the vice president also happened to be the club’s unofficial fashion plate.
His sophisticated clothing drove home two essential facts: he was indeed the most gorgeous man in her eyes, and he would not be the kind – as Bobby put it – to “worry over” MJ.
She said a quick prayer in her mind.
Dear Lord, do not make me drool. Please Lord, do not!
Helios was still gazing at her, which made her restless. Did he know that looking at her so intensely like that caused everyone to stare at them?
Taking a deep breath, she said weakly, “Happy birthday.” She was guiltily aware of the fact that she had not greeted him the entire day. With so many people greeting him – it had not escaped her jealous heart the number of cards, flowers, and all sorts of gifts from his female admirers that had arrived since this morning – MJ knew that he probably wouldn’t have noticed that one of the volunteers in his club had failed to do so.
Instead of thanking her for the greeting then moving away, Helios said coldly, “I’d like to talk you in private.”