Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
The Devil...being him.
She suddenly started to speak, and it took a moment for Rathe to realize that she was asking him about Saffi's babies.
"You know Saffi then?" he questioned.
"I w-was told t-to give you something..."
She disappeared into her room in a blink, and he was disconcerted to feel an irrational sense of emptiness.
What the hell?
She came back out, and Rathe could actually feel the tension easing out of his form.
What the fucking hell?
She held out a key to him, but Rathe only glanced at it before asking, "What's your name?"
Her expression turned frustrated, but Rathe persisted in asking this again until she finally stammered in reply.
Mary.
He indicated the door behind her. "And that's your room?"
She nodded, her gaze turning confused...and then stunned as Rathe slowly moved forward.
Her eyes widened as he kept moving forward...and she was forced to walk backward into her room.
Rathe followed her inside and locked the door behind her before turning to face her again.
Mary was shaking with visible fear, but the nipples under the sheer fabric of her top were also delightfully puckered.
He closed the distance between them, took the key in her hand to pocket it, and afterwards he finally cupped her chin and did what he had wanted to do from the very start.
Fuck.
Her mouth was pure, sweet fire. It was the most deliciously hot kiss...but it didn't even last more than a second, with Mary gasping against his lips before taking him by surprise as she shoved him away and ran out of her own room without looking back.
Chapter One
Present time
"Can you just say yes, please?"
Mary could only nod even though she had no idea what her friend had just asked of her. Her attention at that moment was completely focused on her piranhas, which Saffi had gifted her over a month ago.
Mary had always wanted to have one as a pet, but she had also known as a child that she could never have any kind of pet. Anything she loved, her stepfather was usually quick to get rid of as such things only made her cling to the world of flesh.
"W-W-What——wait!"
Mary suddenly found herself dragged out of her room, and she ended up tripping a few times as Camille urged her to hurry and follow her downstairs.
The lobby of their dorm was packed. The last time she saw their lobby like this, it had been the day that Saffi was being wooed by her rockstar husband, and while Mary was genuinely happy that her friend was now honest-to-goodness living happily ever after with Sweden's Sex God—-
The introvert in her was also just a little relieved that Saffi had moved out to live off-campus. The less Mary had to be exposed to crowds, the better, and—-huh?
All the other girls suddenly started shrieking, and Camille started pushing Mary towards the crowd.
"Go, talk to him!"
Mary gaped at her friend. "What?"
"You promised, remember? You said you'd talk to him for me!"
Oh, so that was what she had promised.
But—-
"I don't get it," Mary blurted out. Camille was the extrovert between them, and the stunningly attractive brunette was always surrounded by guys who would do anything and everything to have her date one of them. "You know how shy I am—-"
"You're the only one who can help me out with this guy," Camille insisted.
Huh?
Her friend rolled her eyes. "I've seen it happen countless times. You just have to start talking about dumb scientific stuff—-"
"How can scientific stuff be dumb?" Mary was genuinely interested to know the answer to this, but her friend only rolled her eyes again.
"See? See? That's why all of the hot nerds on campus want you!"
Mary was finally starting to understand what Camille needed from her.
"This guy everyone's freaking out about...he's a nerd like me?"
Her friend grinned. "He looked totally bored when Krizia tried hitting on him earlier. So yeah, I definitely think he's like you."
Mary sighed. "Fine." A deal was a deal, and so she started jumping and jumping so she could try stealing a look at this "nerd" that had Camille and all the other girls so excited.
Jump! Jump! Jump!
But Mary was simply too lacking in height to catch even the smallest of glimpses.
Jump! Jump! Jump!
After a few more attempts, Mary saw someone tall with dark hair and remarkably broad shoulders. Pin-striped suit if she wasn't mistaken. But...he looked too wealthy and too sophisticated to be either a student or a professor.
Jump, jump—-aaah!
Mary's last jump had the worst possible timing, with the girl in front of her suddenly moving away, and it was Murphy's Law in action after that, with Mary somehow ending on top of a pile of students and with a twisted ankle to boot.
Mary could only cry out as those under her shoved her off as they got back to their feet.
"Let me pass..."
The voice was strangely familiar, and her lips parted in shock when she saw who it was staring down at her.