Savage Royals (Boys of Oak Park Prep 1)

“Miss Hildebrand.” Mr. Holmes stuck his head out of the classroom across the hall, pursing his lips. “You’re disturbing my entire class. If your locker is broken, speak to someone in the office. They’ll have maintenance come look at it.”

He nodded decisively and closed the door again, as if he’d just imparted some earth shattering pearl of wisdom.

Resting my head against the locker door, I closed my eyes, breathing deep and trying not to lose my last shred of sanity.

“Locker trouble?”

Mason’s soft tone met my ear from only a few feet away, but I was too tired, too pissed off and exhausted, to bother moving away from him.

“You know,” he continued thoughtfully, “maybe it’s just that poor girls from Idaho aren’t supposed to be all that well-read.”

Of course. He did this.

Well, probably not him. One of his fucking minions. But he was in my English Lit class. He knew how hard the test was supposed to be—knew how badly I needed those notes.

“What do you want, Mason?”

I refused to look at him, not even when he stepped closer, the warmth of his body seeping into mine. From the corner of my eye, I could see that he’d taken off his blazer and had the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up over his forearms.

He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the locker next to me. “It doesn’t have to be like this you know, Idaho. You could always just leave.”

Before I could stop myself, my head turned sharply, my gaze flicking to him. “Is that what you want?”

Our faces were close, and his striking green eyes were surprisingly open as he stared back at me.

“I want you to know,” he murmured under his breath, as if it were a secret only the two of us shared, “that as long as you’re here, it will always be like this.”

My cell rang again, and I jerked in surprise at the sound. Tearing my gaze away from Mason, I dug the phone out of my backpack and swiped the screen without even looking at it, then pressed it to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Talia. You’re out of breath. Have you been running?”

My grandmother’s polished voice filled my ears, the tone mildly disapproving, as if I’d better not dare answer “yes”.

It was the first time she’d called me since I’d started at Oak Park, and a twinge of nerves twisted my stomach. I’d gotten used to the radio silence, and hearing from her now made me feel like some terrible other shoe was about to drop.

I pressed away from the lockers, leaving Mason and my hostage notes behind. “Hey, Jacqueline. No, I was just… um… having a little trouble with my locker.”

“Well, tell one of the staff members. They have people there to take care of things like that. Whatever the problem is, they’ll fix it for you.”

Jesus. Adults.

Was life really that much easier when you got older, or did they just like to pretend it was?

“That’s a… good idea. I’ll do that.” I glanced over my shoulder surreptitiously to see Mason watching me with glittering eyes, not even bothering to hide the fact that he was eavesdropping on my conversation.

Jacqueline sighed. “The reason I called is to see what you’re doing this weekend. I—we—would like to invite you to come back to the house and spend it with us.”

I pursed my lips, stalling for a second as I considered her offer. Honestly, I didn’t want to go back to that cold, empty house. On the other hand, I didn’t have any good reason to say “no”. And I wouldn’t be able to start studying for my test until the maintenance guy fixed my locker anyway.

But what finally made my decision for me was the pair of icy green eyes that tracked my every movement. Eyes I needed an escape from, no matter how temporary.

“Sure, Jacqueline. That sounds great.”

“Are you sure you have to go?” Leah asked for the billionth time as she leaned on the hood of my car. “I was going to suggest a crazy, almost irresponsible level of shopping and then horror movies until we feel like puking.”

I laughed. “What is wrong with you? And you call me the weird one.”