What the...

Through the camera, it looked almost perfect and even though my knowledge as well as enthusiasm for cars was very much limited to just these photos, I held my breath and pulled the trigger.

Just intime, because shortly after all four doors went up and in the front two men in fancy suits got out.

The passenger, a handsome man in his mid-thirties with short brown hair and a neat three-day beard, looked around scrutinizingly. He radiated coolness but, at the same time, something elegant through his black three-piece suit.

The athletic-looking driver on the other side wore the same tailored suit, but this time with sunglasses. He took them off and put them in his chest pocket. He had to be in his late 30s, and somehow, with his dark blond hair and three-day beard, he reminded me of Chris Pine.

I took a photo. To my surprise, the men immediately turned his head toward me. Jerkily, I lowered the camera, but they were already looking somewhere else again.

Had they noticed that I had taken a picture? From that distance? Impossible.

“Oh my God!” I heard Grace murmur darkly beside me.

Her words made me look around. Of course. Absolutely everyone had stopped what they were doing a second ago and was now looking at the sports car. Even the topless guys under the biggest oak tree. They looked like they were facing a comet flying toward them. 

I took a picture. Simply because I found it amusing.

“What are they doing here?” This time, it wasn’t one of us but the voice of that dark-haired Amber, who had apparently just shown up with the other goats and was now sitting down on a bench nearby.

Vivienna took off her white sunglasses, and her jaw dropped. “What the...”

I quickly looked back to the source of all the confusion, who was walking straight toward us. There were three young men who had apparently gotten out of the back of the sports car, each one prettier than the other, followed by the two older men who were looking around scrutinizingly as if someone had planned an attack on them.

The guys just seemed to like how they were the center of attention on campus. Even my attention they had stolen shamelessly.

One of the three young men had short platinum blond hair, which was slicked back. His mine was expressionless, his walking pace smooth.

Another of the three had dark brown hair, which reached his chin and balanced his handsome, angular face. He wore a white shirt, had thrown his suit jacket over his right shoulder and was looking around, obviously self-satisfied. Although he was wearing sunglasses, I couldn’t help but notice how he turned his head to the speechless Copelands and a grin flitted across his lips.

There was something about the guy in the middle, wearing black chinos like all three guys, that made him hot as hell. 

Not that they didn’t all look like they’d been flown straight here from a James Bond movie....

His black shirt was open at the first two buttons and tucked into his pants. The suit jacket sat as damn neat as his raven black hair.

The sight of him literally took my breath away. His very dark eyes, with his equally dark hair, contrasted sharply with his pale skin. If there was one thing he was, it was hot – forbidden hot.

Our eyes met and I froze. I didn’t know whether to look away or hold his gaze. His intense, scrutinizing eyes took the decision away from me. I just couldn’t look away.

If this was his way of flirting, then he had invited me into his bedroom at that very moment.

The five of them walked past us, with the Chris Pine guy and then the rest staring in our direction again. Then they disappeared into the main building, and I sadly had to take my eyes off them....

“Who are they?” I immediately asked Grace, while whispers broke out around us. Grace’s whole face had lost color.

“The DeLoughreys...”

Bayla looked at Grace in confusion. 

“Who are the DeLoughreys?” I asked. 

It sounded like they were important.

“The downfall of this university,” Shockingly, it came from Vivienna next to us.

“Let me put it this way. You don’t want to get in their way.” 

Now, there was more concern in Grace’s gaze.

I didn’t inquire further because it was clear to me what she meant. Those good-looking guys had stunk of money. And money meant influence and power.

That was exactly the problem. Men who were influential and knew what they wanted were damn attractive. But that wasn’t the only problem. One of those men had caught my interest. And somehow his intense gaze had branded me. The memory alone caused my skin to tingle.

No, it was impossible that this young man had looked at me, even though I was used to exactly such encounters. But this time it had been different... more intense, more exciting. Just one look had been enough to make me....

The ringing of a bell jerked me back to the present and told us that the first mandatory lecture was starting in five minutes, so I grabbed my things and followed the other girls into the university building.

Chapter 17

Bayla

For the first lecture, we sat in a kind of gothic but very modern seminar room, which was built like a staircase and had room for about thirty students. They also appeared and gradually spread out at the tables.

I sat down at the window that overlooked a pretty courtyard with a fountain, and Larissa followed me. 

Once again, I was glad to have her here. I still couldn’t believe that she had just shown up without telling me first. She was here. For me. I gave her a hell lot of credit for that.

We sat in the second row, not right in the front, but in a place that you could still see enough of the seminar. Behind us were the Blair girls and behind them the three other girls from our accommodation. 

It was clear that there was no peace from them anywhere. Even on campus, they had sat down near us and gathered a bunch of other girls around them.

Behind the three of them came a few people I didn’t know, and in the very back, sat Julian. Alone.

He had walked behind us earlier, and I had already feared that he wanted something from me. The probability that Julian Bardot, of all people, would end up in a course with me was so small that one could really speak of strange coincidences here.

In thought, I continued to look around.

On the other side of the seminar room, there were only six-person benches. At the very front sat Emely and a few of the guys she spent her time with. Strange people.

Just behind them in the row sat some more of them. In the middle of them was this Nash Copeland, who was Mady’s ex as well as Emely’s brother, as far as I understood.

He had immediately struck me as unsympathetic. Not because he was ugly, for heaven’s sake. Whoever was blessed with such a body probably couldn’t save himself from girls – although there weren’t exactly a few of these examples here.

Nash was just arrogant and kept making jokes with his buddies about everything and everyone who didn’t belong to their little gang. 

When Mady had entered the room, he and his friends had gone quiet for a moment. He had visibly frozen, and Mady...the look on her face had ripped my heart apart. But she had quickly sat down next to Julian, who had then earned a devastating look from Nash.