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

They know.

They understand.

14

I swallow down the lump in my throat, grinning back at Chase. “Thanks.”

He waggles his eyebrows, loosening his tie before pulling it off entirely. When he starts unbuttoning his shirt, I glance at the other guys to see that they’re all doing the same.

“Um, what…?”

“You can’t really have a pool party without getting in the pool, Low,” Chase tells me, as if that should be perfectly fucking obvious.

He finishes unbuttoning his shirt and tugs the ends from his slacks. For a moment, all I can see of his torso is a line of sculpted, muscled skin in the space where his shirt hangs open. Then he slips his jacket and dress shirt off, draping them over the back of one of the lounge chairs.

The others are all doing the same, and when River’s hands move to unbuckle his belt and flick the button open on his pants, my heart rate kicks up into high gear.

I was right about them jumping in the pool—I was just wrong about how much they’d be wearing when they did.

He kicks off his shoes, leaving his pants unbuttoned and unzipped while he reaches down to tug off his socks. And then the pants go too, and he’s left in nothing but a pair of nice black boxer briefs that leave way too little to the imagination.

My teeth clamp down hard on my bottom lip as I watch, waiting to see if anything else is going to come off, torn between hope and panic at the thought that it might.

“Dude. I think your dick hypnotized her,” Chase says with a laugh, and my entire body jerks as I rip my gaze away from River’s crotch.

Motherfucker. I was full-on staring at his dick, like I was waiting for it to do a magic trick.

Or… something.

A heavy flush makes my face burn, and I shake my head, about to call Chase out for being an asshole—but when I glance over at him, there’s so much heat in his eyes alongside the humor that the words die on my lips. My flush grows deeper, but now the reason for it is entirely different.

All the guys stopped at their underwear, not taking off more than that. Which is good, because even though it’s unlikely any adults will wander away from the party and into the pool house, we’ll be less likely to get in trouble if we’re not completely naked.

Besides, this gives me a fighting chance of keeping my shit together.

Arms wrap around my waist from behind, and Lincoln’s breath teases my hair as his lips brush my ear. “What do you want, Low? Do you want to go swimming? With all of us?”

My body is pressed flush to him, and I can feel that he’s a little hard, his semi-erect cock pressing against my ass. The answering heat that flashes through my body is so intense it almost bowls me over, and I grab onto his muscled forearms for support.

I can’t help but think he’s remembering the conversation we had while he was inside me a couple weeks ago, when I asked him if the four of them had ever shared. That this is him offering me a chance to dip my toe into that water—literally, I guess.

Lincoln’s hands splay across my stomach, his touch both supportive and possessive, and I glance at the other three boys as I consider my answer. They’re all watching me too.

Clear gray eyes.

Green eyes and blue eyes.

And behind me, even though I can’t see them at the moment, Lincoln’s leonine amber ones.

My stomach clenches and relaxes, and I melt into Linc’s touch a little more.

“Yeah,” I murmur. “A swim sounds nice.”

Lincoln makes a noise low in his throat and kisses my ear once more before releasing me. The other three kings take my words as their cue, walking over to the water and leaping in. Linc follows them, and only once he resurfaces, pushing his dark hair back from his face, do all the boys turn to look at me.

Oh. Right. My turn to undress.

I can’t decide if it’s a good thing or bad thing that I changed into the little black dress before coming downstairs—because it means there’s really only one article of clothing that needs to come off to leave me in my bra and panties.

Kicking off my flats, I reach down and grab the hem of the stretchy black fabric. Then I pull it up and over my head in a single movement. I lose sight of the guys for a second as the dress obscures my vision, and when I find their faces again, their expressions have all shifted slightly.

They’ve intensified.

Heated.

Their gazes sweep over me with such deliberation that I swear I can feel each one of them individually, and the sensation makes me want to squirm with both pleasure and sheer overload.

My body is still flushed, and I can feel a slick ache building in my core, but I ignore it and step forward, slipping into the pool with a small splash.

Chase grins at me. “There. Now it’s a party.”

I grin back and splash him with water—and he, of course, retaliates quickly. I try to duck out of the way, but the other three boys fan out, trapping me in the middle of a rough circle as they all splash water at me.

“So—fucking—unfair!” I gasp as I spin back and forth in the clear blue pool, giving up entirely on evading their shots and focusing on just getting them all as wet as me.

They close ranks, coming closer and closer as we move toward the shallow end, until we’re hardly splashing each other at all and more just shoving water in each other’s direction.

Then they’re too close to do even that, and we stop the water fight entirely.

My feet can touch the bottom easily here, with the waterline several inches below my collarbone.

Lincoln’s hands find mine, and he tangles our fingers together, tugging me a little closer to him. The pool water is