Heat slid down my spine and spread everywhere as the pressure cooker I was apparently in reached boiling point. The three guys before me eyed me like I was a sacrifice being offered up at their altar. And it sure as shit felt like that as I approached.
I lifted my chin, masking my expression so they couldn’t get a read on my fear. My dad had taken me out to the woods in northern Virginia every summer since I was thirteen. He’d leave me in a cabin for three days with no food or water and I had to fend for myself. Last year, a black bear had come up behind me while I’d been out foraging for berries. I could still remember the icy cold clutch of fear the moment I’d first seen it. But Dad had taught me how to react in just that situation. I had to harness my fear, conceal it, make sure the animal didn’t get any scent of it on the wind. Contrary to popular belief, unless a bear attacks, you aren’t supposed to play dead. When encountering them in the woods, the key is being calm, collected and totally in control. So I employed that tactic now as I approached the table. Sure, I wouldn’t have approached a bear in the wild, I would have been backing the hell away. But these boys were a different breed. A dangerous breed. The kind you had to make see you as an equal if you wanted to walk away alive.
I switched my focus to Blake as I reached the table and relaxed a little at the grin on his face.
I rested one hand on the back of the chair opposite him, giving him my undivided attention.
“Hey golden boy, you called?” I took a stick of spearmint gum from my pocket, unfolding it from the wrapper and placing it into my mouth. His eyes watched the movement with undisguised heat in his gaze.
“Hey, Tate.” He threw a glance at Saint and my gaze travelled with his, landing on Lord Cold Eyes and assessing his reaction.
My heart was pounding a mile a minute and I wasn’t even sure why. They were just boys. Beautiful boys, but so what? I’d seen their kind before. I’d even had them moaning my name and begging me to date them. So why were these guys any different?
The answer was instinctual. I just knew in the pit of my soul that they weren’t your average assholes. From the way every student in the dining hall seemed to be holding their breath and straining their ears to listen in on our interaction. And from the way power rolled from them in waves. In another life, they would have been princes and lords. But here, they were just rich boys with big heads and bigger balls. And that, I could handle.
“We’re throwing a party tonight,” Blake said and my eyes snapped back to him.
I nodded, acting casual as hell and trying to ignore my pulse as it skipped and thumped in the base of my skull.
He stretched his muscular arms and placed his hands behind his head. I wasn’t woman enough not to check out his broad chest as it pressed against his shirt.
“We’ve decided to give you an invite,” Saint said and my throat constricted as I turned to him.
“So should I expect it to arrive via trained eagle or something?” I taunted, taking in the shiny cufflinks on his shirt. Despite the fact that they were all sitting down, I somehow felt as tall as Thumbelina standing on a toadstool beneath them.
Blake chuckled and I swear Kyan’s mouth twitched. Saint didn’t laugh. Didn’t even smile. He gave me a stone cold wall of an expression and I mentally slapped the wild part of me as she imagined sliding her panties off for him. I wondered what it would take to crack that wall…to make that emperor moan my name and crave me like heroin. Trouble always seemed to find me, but at Everlake, I couldn’t run away from it. So I needed to play this just right.
If winning these guys over was what it took to have an enjoyable time here, then challenge accepted. But I wasn’t gonna bow at their feet to earn their approval. I could do better than that.
“The eagle is on its way.” Blake winked at me. “You can skip the invite though if you come as my date. And I promise you will come.”
I released a derisive breath, screwing up the gum wrapper in my hand. “Are you sure you know how to make a girl come, golden boy? I’m sure there’s a lot of great actresses in this school,” I teased.
“I don’t just make girls come, I make them fucking arrive,” he said with a smirk that set my blood pounding, but I rolled my eyes so he couldn’t tell.
My gaze skipped back to Saint who was still glaring at me like he was hoping my knees would bend for him if he stared hard enough.
Kyan sat up straighter in his chair, resting his inked arms on the table as he assessed me. My eyes slipped to his busted knuckles and he flexed his fingers in reaction to my stare. “Something you wanna say, baby?”
He was obviously a fighter. Those wounds were layered on scars. Those cuts didn’t come from throwing his fists into the faces of other students who pissed him off. From the bruises peeking out beneath his collar, I could tell his opponents fought back hard.
“If you wrapped your hands for fights, you could avoid making a mess of them,” I pointed out with a shrug. Dad had taught me how to strap my knuckles when I was ten.
Kyan’s chestnut eyes shone as he leaned a little closer. “Maybe I like to leave a fight bloody.”
A shiver ran down my spine as this dark creature surveyed me. My mouth dried out and I automatically wet my lips, drawing his gaze to them.
“I leave my fights clean and victorious,” I breathed.
He locked his jaw tight. “So what? Did you take a self-defence class once or something?” He sneered and I straightened my spine under his belittling expression.
“Or something,” I said, turning back to Blake, wanting to be done with this conversation. “See you at the party then.” I tossed him a flirtatious smile that made him grin darkly then dropped the gum wrapper onto Saint’s empty plate.
I turned my back on them, but a fist suddenly snatched hold of my hair and fear crashed through me. I yelped as I was dragged backwards over the table, my skirt riding up over my thighs as Saint’s hot breath brushed my ear. “Take your shit with you. And if you ever insult me again, I’ll do more than pull your hair, Barbie doll.” He shoved the gum wrapper down my shirt, pushing it between my breasts with his thumb and I gasped as hot, burning embarrassment rushed through my veins, colliding with a heated ache between my thighs.
He released me with a shove and I staggered forward, taking in the crowd of students who were staring at me in a mixture of horror and amusement. I tried not to run back to my seat as Kyan’s cold laugh fell over me like icy rain.
I didn’t know if I was turned on or humiliated by the time I dropped back into my seat and Mila stared at me like I’d lost my damn mind.
“Holy shit, girl,” she breathed then a smile split her cheeks apart as she slammed her hand down on the table. “That was legit the best thing I’ve seen in like, a week.”
“You’re one crazy motherfucker,” Gerald said from beside me then leaned in and patted my arm. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” I shook him off, but knew my cheeks were still bright red and the back of my neck felt hot enough to set fire to my hair.
As subtly as I could, I tugged the gum wrapper out from between my cleavage while everyone around the table unsubtly watched. I cleared my throat as I tossed it onto my plate and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. Pearl was giggling with the girl beside her, muttering words I couldn’t hear which made each of them shriek with more laughter. My cheeks continued to burn, but I fixed on an expression of indifference and blocked out their mocking.