Savage Royals (Boys of Oak Park Prep 1)

His gaze jerked to me, blue eyes burning.

Slowly, he reached up and tugged both my hands away from his face, pinning them to his chest. The gauze fell from my fingers as my palms splayed across his skin, and I could feel his heart beating hard beneath them, like it was trying to tell me something he couldn’t.

“I know you think I’m a fucking monster, Legs,” he murmured. “But I fight for the people I care about. And I always will.”

There was a hint of challenge in his voice, as if daring me to agree with his first statement, to disavow him as a brutal beast. Savage. Irredeemable.

But in that moment, I couldn’t.

In that moment, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much different my life might’ve been if I’d had someone who would fight like that for me.

Someone who would do anything to protect me.

And maybe it was that thought, or maybe it was the feel of his heart thudding beneath my hand, reminding me he wasn’t a machine but a very real, very human boy—but before I could stop myself, I leaned forward.

He leaned in too, pressing his lips against mine, darting his tongue out to taste my skin.

It started gentle, but it didn’t stay that way.

With a rough groan, he released my hands and wrapped his arms around me, hauling me into his lap. My knees ended up on either side of his hips, bracing against the couch as he pulled me flush to him, his tongue delving into my mouth as his hands palmed my ass.

I could feel him between my legs, growing hard and straining against the confines of his pants, and the flood of desire as he ground that hardness against me made me dizzy. My fingers delved into his hair, sliding through the short strands on the sides and grabbing fistfuls of the longer locks on top, as if I were trying to hold him in place so I could devour him.

I’d never kissed like this before—never been kissed like this—with the kind of angry, urgent need that was almost painful. I gasped into his mouth, unable to pull in a full breath, as his large hands moved over my body, stoking the flame inside me higher and higher.

His fingertips slipped under the hem of my shirt, and the second they came into contact with my bare skin, I whimpered, moving my hips against him.

He deepened the kiss, sucking my tongue into his mouth before breaking away and trailing kisses over my jaw and neck.

The musical chime of my phone ringing made me jerk, and we both froze.

My heart thundered, and for a second, Cole and I stared at each other in silence, both seeming as shocked as the other at what we’d just been doing.

Then my phone rang again, and I scrambled off his lap, diving for the other end of the couch to pick it up.

“Hello?” I sounded breathless and weird.

“Hey, Legs. Can you put Cole on? He’s not answering his phone. It must be on silent.”

Mason’s voice was clipped and cool, and without a word, I handed the cell to Cole, who was watching me with an unreadable expression. His chest was still rising and falling fast too though, like he was as out of breath as I was.

He narrowed his eyes as he accepted it, glancing down at the screen before putting it to his ear.

“Yeah?” The room was quiet as he listened for a minute, then he nodded. “Okay. Good. And you don’t think he’ll say anything?” He listened, then huffed a short laugh. “Right. Thanks, Mace.”

Swiping to end the call, he handed the phone back to me. I took it, and our fingertips brushed together as we both held still for a second. Then he released it and stood, picking up his discarded shirt from the end of the couch.

“I better go.”

He hesitated, staring at me with his lips slightly parted, like he wanted to say something else. Then he stepped forward and brushed his fingers through my hair, trailing them down the side of my face.

“Thanks for patching me up,” he murmured roughly, even though I hadn’t done anything. The cut by his eye was still seeping slowly.

I nodded, and he disappeared out the door.

Chapter 21

The next week was consumed by studying for tests and taking tests. Preston missed two days, but was back in class on Wednesday. Rumor around the school was that he’d gotten mugged in Roseland over the weekend, and no members of the fight club spoke up to correct that story.