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

“Yeah. Sure.”

The guy scoffs, but his gaze shifts to me, and his eyes gleam with lecherous interest. Lincoln takes a step toward him as all three of the other boys tighten ranks around me, and the guy stumbles back in surprise. I don’t think he realized I was with one of these guys, let alone all of them, and their reaction has put him totally off balance. He glances from one to the other before finally backing down. His puffed-up chest deflates a little, and he huffs a breath.

“All right. Fine. Whatever. But don’t think you can just crash all our fucking parties.”

“Believe me, we don’t intend to,” Linc drawls, arching a brow as he glances around the room disdainfully, and I suppress a grin. I knew the dark-haired, hard-edged boy could be intimidating as fuck, but I never knew he could be so bitchy.

I kinda like it.

The guy wanders off, tail between his legs as he seems to realize he has no backup.

Although that could easily change.

I reach out and touch Linc’s elbow, drawing his attention. “We better hurry up so we can get out of here before he comes back with friends.”

“Yeah.” He nods toward the table laden with bottles and cups, where a large group has congregated. “Let’s go.”

We all turn to head in that direction. Dax and Chase’s nearly matching tattoos shift over the muscles of their back as they walk, sticking close to River protectively. No one here would know it, but I can tell that they’re keeping an eye out for him, making sure he doesn’t miss anything in this crowded environment.

I start to step after them, but before I can, Linc’s arms wrap around me from behind, his breath brushing my ear as his hands splay across the bare skin of my stomach.

“They call this a pool party,” he whispers with a chuckle. “But they have no fucking idea.”

A little ripple of desire and giddiness sweeps through me, and I turn in his arms to face him, tilting my head back to look into his eyes. He’s smiling, humor and heat reflecting in his amber eyes.

“Yeah,” I murmur, running my fingers over his back. “I liked ours way better. There are only four people in the world I want to go swimming with.”

“Good.”

The word is a possessive growl, and he presses one hard, demanding kiss to my lips before reluctantly drawing back.

He slips his hand into mine, and we join the others at the drink table, grabbing cups and filling them before jumping into the pool. The water is warm and smells strongly of chlorine, and we gather near one edge, slicking our wet hair back as we scan the crowd around us. The pool is in the middle of the room, so from here, we have the best vantage point to comb through the crowd looking for any kind of floral tattoo.

That is, assuming Savannah wasn’t just lying to get me off her back. Maybe she sent us here hoping the guys would get jumped by a bunch of Waverly jocks.

At first, I don’t see anything in the throng of bodies. Just a bunch of kids I don’t know moving around the space, the girls flirting and laughing, the guys puffing up their chests. Normally, I love people-watching, trying to figure out what people’s hidden subtext is, what floats beneath the surface of their words but goes unsaid. What makes them tick.

But I can’t enjoy any of that right now, and as my gaze returns to the same spot where I started my slow perusal of the room, agitation bubbles up inside me.

“Fuck. What if she’s not here?”

“We just got here,” Chase comments, craning his neck to see through the legs of a group of girls that stop a few feet in front of us to whisper among themselves.

Something warm fills my chest as I realize that despite the prominent display of legs, tits, and ass, Chase barely seems to register the girls themselves as anything other than obstacles to his search.

Nope. Not interested in any of them.

Linc’s words from earlier flash through my mind, and it suddenly hits me how true that is. Since this thing between all of us started, I haven’t seen any of the kings so much as look at another girl, and I know I haven’t looked at any other guys like that. Why would I, considering what I’ve got right in front of me?

I hope they know tha—

My thought is cut off when I catch a glimpse of pink and red through the throng of bodies. I stiffen, using the edge of the pool to haul myself farther up out of the water and craning my neck. “There. There!”

A couple who’re making out and giggling move out of the way, and I see it.

Large pink and red cherry blossoms bloom from a woody branch that crawls up the girl’s side, all the way from her hip to her shoulder blade. I can see why Iris was obsessed with it, it’s fucking gorgeous. The girl who it belongs to turns to scan the room. She doesn’t have a drink in her hand, and it looks like she just arrived.

Perfect.

“Come on.”

Before the words are even out of my mouth, all five of us are surging out of the water, clambering back onto the tiled floor. We abandon our drinks and make a beeline toward her, cutting her off before she can be surrounded by friends.

She jerks to a stop as I come to stand in front of her, her gaze darting from me to the guys. She has chestnut hair that falls over her shoulders in waves, and big blue eyes that make me think of Iris’s.

“Uh, yeah? Can I help you?”

Her gaze tracks over all of us, and although it lingers on Dax and Chase appreciatively—guess she’s got a twin thing—she still sounds annoyed.

“I like your tattoo,” I say, not quite sure how to broach the subject