Broken Empire A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance - Callie Rose Page 0,61
he tugged me closer to his side, letting the heat of his body permeate mine.
When we arrived at Clarendon Hall, the dorm was already beginning to fill up. I didn’t see Adena or any of her minions there, which didn’t surprise me. Once upon a time, she’d been at every damn party the Princes threw, but now lines had been drawn in the sand, and the two factions never mingled.
Leah, Maggie, and Dan were there though, as were a bunch of kids who hadn’t picked a side in the battle between Adena and the Princes—those still hoping to ingratiate themselves with the four boys to take advantage of their family connections.
I waved at Leah, who caught my gesture and lifted her red Solo cup in a mock salute. I expected Cole’s footsteps to veer toward the back room the Princes always escaped to during these parties, but instead, he led me over toward my three friends. When we reached them, he threaded his fingers through my hair and leaned close to speak over the music.
“I’ll be back. We have some things we need to take care of.”
My brows drew together as a familiar zing of unease traveled through me. Fuck. Would I ever stop bracing for the other shoe to fall? Stop wondering if this was it—the end of the illusion?
“What are—?”
“Trust us, Tal.”
I forced the ants crawling around in my stomach to stop.
They had trusted me. I could trust them.
He stepped away from me with reluctance, but when he threaded his way through the crowd, he still didn’t head toward the back. And as he moved, I caught sight of the other Princes too.
None of them were in the back room. They were all out on the main floor, and they were… mingling.
I blinked stupidly at the sight, and when Leah reached out to tug my hand, I sank into the seat next to her, still watching the Princes with confusion.
“It’s weird, right?” she said loudly, her voice rising over the heavy bass. “Like seeing a pack of tigers host a tea party.”
I snorted a laugh at that, turning to face my three friends. “That’s one way to put it. Have they been doing that since you got here?”
Dan snorted. “You mean shaking everyone’s hand and laughing at everyone’s jokes like they’re running for public office? Yup.”
“What the fuck…?” I muttered, turning to stare at the four boys again.
They were all close together on the far side of the room, but they’d broken apart from their usual tight group as if they were trying to cover more ground—to reach more people. And Dan was right. They were working the crowd with practiced ease. Even Cole, who was normally so stoic and standoffish, was using his own version of cool charm on a group of sophomores who were clustered near a drink table.
“What are they doing?” Maggie asked, tapping her fingers against the side of her cup. “You think they’re trying to undo some of the damage from what Adena did? It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?
“Yeah.” I shook my head. “It is. And I don’t think that’s what this is about.”
Leah nudged me. “Your boyfriends are so fucking weird.”
A flush warmed my cheeks, and I dug my elbow into her ribs. She wriggled out of the way with a yelp as Maggie and Dan shared a look, smirking at each other.
Jesus. If that’s what my friends think, who even knows what other random students think of whatever’s going on between me and the Princes?
Not that it was anybody’s business but ours.
Nothing about our relationship was average or had followed a conventional path. None of it had been normal. A psychologist would probably have a lot to say about the fact that we were still so deeply in each other’s lives after everything in our shared pasts.
But they were under my skin now, in a way that I didn’t think would ever go away. Even if we went our separate ways after graduation and I never saw them again, they had altered me so irrevocably that it felt like all four of them were a part of my DNA now.
My heart clenched at the thought of graduation. It was starting to loom on the horizon, and although the guys hadn’t talked about it much, I knew they’d started getting their acceptance letters like everyone else at school.
Thinking about it made my chest feel tight, as if my ribs were squeezing against my lungs.