Kings of Linwood Academy - The Complete Box Set: A Dark High School Romance Series by Callie Rose (sight word books .TXT) 📕

Or more than friends.

I kick River’s foot under the table to get his attention, and when he turns to me, I quirk a grin at him. “Promise not to cheat?”

He smiles back, running a hand through his ash-brown hair. “I won’t if you won’t.”

I laugh. “Well… let’s just see how it goes.”

My heart feels lighter than it has in a long time, happiness and excitement creeping in to fill the spaces that’ve been occupied by nothing but fear and worry for weeks.

As we start to play, it feels like getting back on a bike. I’m not relearning the game, but I’m relearning the idiosyncrasies and tells of the four boys around me. We’ve only played together once before, but I learned their styles pretty well that night, and they haven’t changed drastically since then.

Chase still plays too aggressively, betting more than he should and calling when he shouldn’t just to liven things up—or maybe he really is that eager to get his pants off.

Dax is too easy to read, his poker face way too transparent to do him any good. When he has a bad hand, the whole fucking world knows it.

Lincoln and River were the two who gave me a real run for my money last time, and I have a feeling that’ll be the case again tonight. I watch Linc’s face sink into impassivity as he holds his cards, although there’s a gleam in his amber eyes that makes me feel warm all over. And since River and I didn’t actually agree not to cheat, I keep an extra close eye on him.

I win the first round. And Chase wasn’t kidding about the pants. He doesn’t even take off his fucking shoes first, just tugs his jeans off over them. He’s wearing a pair of dark blue boxers, and the muscles of his thighs flex as he sits back down, a languid smile on his face.

The other guys all took off something easy, and while Chase was wrestling with his clothes, Lincoln pulled out a little plastic baggie from his back pocket and rolled a joint—he must’ve grabbed it when he went to get the cards and chips.

We play our next hand as we pass the joint around, and the combination of the weed and the poker make me feel like I’m floating, happy and untouchable and in control of my goddamn life for once.

Another round in, River and Dax are barefoot, Linc is shirtless, and Chase is down to just his boxers, shoes, and socks. He was bluffing about taking the boxers off second, and it was probably his best bluff of the night—the rest have been atrocious.

Maybe River decides it’s unfair to let me keep all my clothes on, because he starts playing more aggressively. And whatever he’s doing to cheat—whatever he did last time too—I can’t quite figure it out. I’m counting cards, but River wins the hand, and the boys all grin widely at me as I make a show of deciding what to take off.

I go with shoes because maybe I’m a little bit of a coward, but when River wins again, I decide I could use a little help turning things around. So I tug my shirt over my head, and the way the oxygen seems to go out of the room lets me know I have the boys’ attention. My bra is dark purple satin and lace, but you’d think it was made out of spun gold the way it draws their gazes.

They’ve all seen me in less than this—Linc and River have seen me in way less—but there’s something about the slow reveal that makes me feel more exposed. And it sure as shit doesn’t help that the four of them are all down to their last few articles of clothing.

We all get sloppier, our play less cutthroat, as our attention shifts away from the game itself and toward the anticipation of what will be taken off next.

I win the next hand, and all four boys except River are down to just their underwear. He still has his shirt on, a long sleeved tee in a heather-gray, plus his boxer briefs.

The next hand goes to Linc, and suddenly, Dax and Chase are naked.

I’m sitting between them in the circle we formed around the table, and when my gaze darts toward them, my eyes tracking downward against my will, I see that they’re both a little hard.

“Don’t let us distract you,” Dax murmurs teasingly, though his voice is rough. He jerks his chin toward the two kings of Linwood who each still have something on. “Kick their asses.”

I try. I really do.

But it is distracting as fuck having two solidly built, completely naked guys on either side of me. It doesn’t help that I can feel a flush creeping up my chest, warming my cheeks—a visible signal to everyone here that I’m affected by this. By the sight of them like this.

River wins again, and my knees actually shake a little as I stand up, unbutton my jeans, and push them down my legs to kick them off. The room is so fucking quiet I can hear each of the boys breathing, and when I sit back down, I can feel wetness dampening my panties.

The next hand feels like a blur, and I honestly don’t know if I let River win or if he beats me fair and square, but the next thing I know, Lincoln’s gaze catches mine from across the table, and we don’t look away from each other as he tugs off his boxer briefs and I slowly unhook my bra and slide it down my arms.

My nipples are peaked, and my breasts feel full and swollen. It takes conscious effort not to let my chest heave as I try to suck in oxygen from an atmosphere that feels too thick.

I still have on my panties. River has his boxer briefs.

But that’s it.

Nobody speaks as we play the