The Lie (Kings of Linwood Academy 2)

Accepting his unspoken invitation, I follow after him, tossing my wadded up napkin in a wastebasket as we walk by. He makes his way toward the west wing of the house, turning down the hallway that leads to the pool room.

When we step inside, Dax, Chase, and River are already gathered at one end of the pool, lounging on the padded chairs in their suits and tuxes. The sight of it is so incongruous that it makes me smile. They look like they’re here for some kind of edgy editorial photo shoot—and halfway through the shoot, they’ll end up jumping in the pool in their fancy formalwear, because the rich and famous just don’t give a fuck.

“What’s up?” I ask, quirking a brow as I glance from Lincoln to the other three.

“We ditched out on the cocktail party a little earlier than usual. Decided to make it a pool party instead,” Dax says with a shrug.

“Yeah. We thought it might be a shitty night for you, so we decided to make it better.” Chase grins.

His words hit me in the chest, harder than I was prepared for, and I gape at the four boys gathered in the pool house as a pleasurable ache squeezes my heart.

They did this for me.

Because of the party.

Because of what happened at the last party.

Because my mom’s still in jail, and sometimes just thinking about that makes me want to curl up into a little ball.

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.