Dynasty (Boys of Winter 1)

CHAPTER 5

I step through the door of my advanced math class and instantly glance around. It’s the last class of the day and I’m exhausted. I’m not usually so tired, but after the party last night and having Ember filling me in on every little detail of the school throughout the day, it’s been a lot to take in.

I start making my way deeper into the class when a voice cuts through the soft chatter of the room. “Hey, if it isn’t the local thief. Come to steal some hearts, or just cold, hard, cash?”

My head snaps up and I follow the voice across the room to find Knox sitting alone at a double table, indicating for me to come and join him. I give him a beaming smile and make my way across the class. “I don’t do hearts. I’ll take the cash,” I tell him, more than aware of every student in the room listening in on our conversation.

I drop my things on the table and plonk my ass down onto the chair before resting back and feeling the need to sleep rushing over me. “What’s going on?” he asks, glancing at me with a cocky grin. “I haven’t seen you around school today.”

“Then you’re as blind as a bat,” I tell him. “I’ve been the topic of conversation since I rocked up here first thing this morning. I’ve hardly had a chance to relax.”

“No shit,” he laughs. “But come on, you can’t act like you didn’t expect it, especially at a school like this. You stand out like dog’s balls.”

“I know,” I groan. “That’s the problem. For once it’d be nice just to fade into the background.”

Knox leans back into his chair, shaking his head. “I don’t believe that for one second,” he tells me, as charming as ever. “Look at yourself. You don’t strike me as a girl who wants to fade into the background.”

I roll my eyes and just as the teacher stands to take his class, the door opens and every eye in the room falls toward the two guys who step through it, demanding attention and oozing sex appeal.

I suck in a breath.

Grayson Beckett and Cruz Danforth.

Both of their gazes sweep through the room and as they fall on me, that’s exactly where they remain. I look between the two as they slowly move across the classroom, their stares full of an intensity that has me crippled to my seat.

How are two guys capable of making me feel this way?

Grayson and Cruz come straight up beside me, and I’m hit with a heavenly, manly scent that comes with them. Grayson walks past me, keeping as close as possible so that the hem of his shirt drags over my arm, making me squirm in my seat while Cruz doesn’t hold back. His fingers trail across the edge of the desk, over my hand, and right up my arm to my shoulder.

I can’t help but look up as he passes, and the wicked grin that lifts the corner of his lips has me drowning in a sea of green intoxication.

Excitement bubbles within me.

The second he passes, I let out a breath and force my stare to the front of the classroom, more than aware of the two guys who take up the seats behind me. The minutes tick by and the more time that passes, the more their whispered conversation that’s aimed at the back of my head begins to bother me.

I’m more than used to dickheads talking about me behind my back, but when it comes from these guys ... I don’t know, it just hits differently.

Without taking a second to think about what I’m doing, I raise my chin and stand from my seat before turning around and throwing my leg back over my chair so that I’m straddling it, just facing the back of the classroom and the two dickheads who sit back here.

A grin stretches across my face and I can’t help but take in their relaxed posture as they lean back in their seats, completely oblivious to the rest of the class around them.

Cruz meets my stare, a cocky grin of his own stretched wide across his face as though I just became the most interesting game he’s ever played. Grayson though, he stares at me with nothing but disdain. Clearly, he’s not a fan of mine.

My eyes dart between the two before settling on Cruz, because let’s face it, he’s given me a whole lot more to work with than the statue beside him. I raise a brow, my smug grin still stretching from ear to ear. “Can I help you?” I ask, watching the way Cruz’s eyes narrow, intrigued by the girl who dares call them out on their shit.

His eyes drop over my body, roaming over my chest and the long ponytail that sits over my shoulder. “Depends,” he murmurs, his chin raising in a slight nod. “Are you down to fuck around, because if you are, there’s a whole list of shit that you can help me with.”