Chapter Two

As the silence inside the room lengthened, Helios found his friends slowly turning to him in askance. Kellion’s eyes were gleaming with amusement. Yuri’s face was inscrutable. But it was obvious both were of the same mind. He was the president. It was up to him to decide what to do.

Helios reluctantly returned his attention to the girl, who was still on her knees. She was a small one, with dark hair that brushed against her shoulders and its tips going in all directions. Her large violet eyes dominated her triangular face, which was completely free from makeup.

She looked like a kitten. A confused and out of place kitten, and one to be escorted out without delay. Everything about her told Helios that she did not belong in his club. She didn’t even belong in his world, and she never would.

Her clothes were the least of her problems. Checkered polo, tank top, faded jeans, and worn-looking sneakers. Even the girls assigned to clean the club’s bathrooms still dressed themselves in Chanel and tottered around carrying buckets of water in stilettos. This girl might be the first one properly dressed for house cleaning, but that wasn’t the point at all.

Everything about her was the opposite of what his world represented. Money. Class. Bloodlines. She had none of those. In fact, the only thing she possessed of worth was the expensive camera slung around her neck.

None of those would normally matter to Helios. Although he always made it a point to bed only women who belonged in the same privileged circles he enjoyed, he could never be accused of being a snob. But there was something about this girl...something that rubbed him the wrong way.

Just looking at her made him...feel, too strongly for one who had trained himself never to feel.

Her hair was too unruly. He wanted to run his fingers through it to discover its texture.

Her eyes were too big, too trusting, too revealing. He wanted those eyes focused on him completely, and he hated every second those eyes did not linger on him.

Her body seemed too small and frail, even if she was dressed like a tomboy. He wanted to crush that body towards him, wanted to feel every inch of her trembling with passion and need as he possessed her with his cock.

That last thought stunned him, and he said abruptly, “I apologize, but you are too late. All the positions have been filled up.” Helios knew that the formality of his words would betray his emotions to his friends. But at that moment, he didn’t give a shit. All he knew was this girl, who was a mixture of odd and fascinating, had somehow gotten under his skin.

She was now a complication, and Helios never wasted time getting rid of complications.

I apologize...

MJ didn’t really hear the rest of what he had to say. All she could think about was how Helios Andreadis’ voice was even more beautiful in person. He spoke like a...like a god. Slow, quiet, authoritative, with each syllable spelled out with the faintest Greek accent. He spoke like he would never have to do anything in a hurry because he was powerful enough to do whatever he pleased, whenever and wherever.

Actually, he also looked more beautiful in person, too. MJ was already too nervous as she was, and she knew it would be better for her to ignore how good-looking he was. But it was impossible. That was like ignoring how bright the sun was.

Her senses fluttered like crazy every time she stole looks at him, which, embarrassing as it was to admit, were quite frequent. Enough for one of the other guys, the one with wicked green eyes, to smirk at her.

As he spoke, MJ couldn’t stop herself from staring. Tall, golden-haired, and lethally built, he looked more like someone who belonged behind a majestic chariot than a motorcycle. While he did not look older than his twenty-two years, he did feel more powerful than someone still in college had a right to be.

Looking at him was enough to have MJ tongue-tied. She had a bad feeling that if he made her speak right this very moment, she would do so in a weird mix of Yugoslavian and African that no one could ever translate.

When he stopped and looked like he expected her to speak, MJ turned red. “I...I’m sorry, come again?”

Was she a fucking idiot? What was so hard about what he had said? But when she only continued to gaze at him with genuine looking confusion, Helios bit out, “Auditions are over. You can leave now.”

The words were so unexpected it took MJ a couple of seconds to comprehend them. When she finally did, MJ immediately felt herself whitening. “Y-you’re joking, aren’t you?”

Yuri coughed. It was his first time to hear a girl – or anyone for that matter – contradict something the club’s mercurial and arrogant president said.

Kellion wasn’t as polite. He grinned, making him look even more devilishly handsome.

Unbelievable, Helios thought with growing anger. Why the hell was she still here? He was tempted to shake her but controlled the urge. He had a feeling something unwanted would happen if he ever touched any part of her.

Maybe his Greek had failed him, MJ thought hopefully when Helios only glared at her. Maybe all those English interviews of his that she had listened to were scripted and he wasn’t really fluent at all. Maybe what he meant was the opposite, that she was actually super early for the interview rather than super late.

So she said very slowly, “I. Am. Here. To. Audition. For. The. Club.”

Yuri slowly bowed his head. It was the best he could do to keep his amusement from showing. He had been raised to be the epitome of chivalry and courtesy, but this strange funny girl was pushing him to his limits.

Kellion, once again, wasn’t as polite. A bark of laughter escaped him, and he didn’t even bother to try containing his amusement when Helios threw him a dark look.

Helios’ scowling glance snapped back at the girl. Why the fuck was she talking to him like he was an idiot?

The look on Helios Andreadis’ face made MJ whiten even more. What had she done? Oh no. Maybe she had still spoken too fast and now the other men were laughing at Helios for his inability to understand her?

So she said again, more slowly, this time, “I....” She drawled the word out as long as she could. “Aaaaaaaam...Heeeeeeere...”

This time, even Yuri found himself defeated. He laughed with Kellion.

Helios snapped, “Shut up.”

She said automatically, “Yes, sir.”

Yuri and Kellion laughed harder.

Helios glared.

MJ’s heart sank.

“Why the hell are you talking to me like that?”

Deeeeeeym. He spoke the words so wonderfully fast that MJ knew right away she had been wrong. MJ admitted weakly, “I thought you didn’t speak English very well.”

Helios Andreadis looked like he wanted to kill her now, and her heart sank even more.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I do speak English perfectly.”

Confusion warred with misery. “Then I’m really late?”

“By about an hour,” Helios confirmed coldly.

“But I still had classes—-”

Yuri said gently, “The vacancies in our club are highly sought after. A lot of the girls simply chose to ditch their classes in order to be one of the first to apply.”

MJ’s shoulders slumped as all her hopes crashed down around her. She couldn’t believe everything would end just like this. After two long years of planning how she could be close to Helios, this had to happen.

Yuri’s gentleness sharpened Helios’ irritation. He did not want anyone to be kind to the girl, dammit. All he knew was the kinder Yuri was to her, the more he wanted to be cruel to the girl.

Kellion observed the unusually contemptuous expression that had fallen over Helios’ face. It was not that Helios never held anyone in contempt. Like any Greek male, Helios was damn good at carrying grudges. All of them were. It was the fact that Helios’ face revealed any emotion at all that made Kellion murmur, “Just out of curiosity, moro mou, which spot are you hoping to apply for?”

The girl stole a glance at Helios before answering, as if seeking his approval.

Helios’ face did not change, but Kellion knew his friend well enough to know that Helios did not disapprove of the girl’s actions.

“I...was hoping you’d have a need for a photographer.” There actually hadn’t been a list of vacancies on the club’s entry in the college paper. In fact, it was the only one that did not have any requirements, but MJ was banking on the fact that every club needed a photographer. Surely Helios’ org would be no different?

Even Kellion was taken aback by her answer. She did not really have a clue about their club at all, he realized with surprise.

Everyone in Christopoulos University knew that their club only had menial roles assigned to the girls, which ranged from cleaning their rooms, taking care of the laundry, and preparing their meals.

Cheerleaders to heiresses to part-time models to groupies – all of them would die for a chance to serve Afxisi. All of them would do it for the same reason, too. Afxisi was a club that consisted of the world’s most eligible and fuckable bikers. Serving them increased the chances of having sex with any one of them, and being taken by one of the club’s members would mean bragging rights not just any woman could flaunt.

Kellion smirked. “You truly do not have a clue about our rules, do you?”

Instead of answering the question directly, MJ said weakly, “I’m a fast learner?”

Yuri coughed again.

Helios disliked all the attention his friends were showering on the girl, and he demanded, “Why do you bother applying when you clearly have no understanding of what our club is about?”

Helios himself was the answer to his question, and the fact that he was the one asking it could only result in one thing.

MJ’s cheeks turned the deepest shade of red.

A flash of insight hit Kellion. “Well, fuck.”

Yuri came to the same understanding a second later. “I see.”

Helios frowned. “Can one of you explain what the hell’s going on?”

The impatient note in Helios’ voice only made Kellion want to laugh, but he successfully managed to rein in his amusement. He nodded towards the girl. “We know why she’s joined.”

Helios’ face became expressionless. “Is that so?” Something inside him intensely disliked the fact that Kellion and Yuri knew something about her that he did not know.

“She has a secret crush on one of our bikers, and that’s the only reason she wants to be a part of our club. She wants to be close to him.”