Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,11

Every year we always had some new faces join the school, though they’d left it pretty late to transfer if they’d only be here for senior year.

“One.”

“Why do you look so pleased about that?” I asked, racking the weight and sitting up. “Is she hot?”

“Fucking volcanic, dude. Like magma hot. And I’m planning on getting burned real good,” he smirked at me and I stood, folding my arms.

“We’ll see,” I said in a tone aimed to piss him off and his gaze darkened predictably at the hint of a challenge.

He pushed his tongue into his cheek but refused to be baited beyond that, shrugging at me as he turned back to his deadlifts.

I left him to it and headed upstairs, chugging the bottle of water as I went. I grabbed another bottle from the fridge as I reached the living room and started on it as I headed back towards Kyan.

He was still sleeping with an ease that made my jaw tick. The bastard could literally fall asleep anywhere. Nothing haunted his dreams. Hell, nothing haunted him when he was awake either despite the fact that he’d witnessed and experienced plenty of messed up shit that should have.

Outwardly he was intense, dark, brutal, but I knew the truth of him. Inside, he didn’t feel any of it. Nothing. And every fucked up thing he did was with the aim of rectifying that. He was just trying to experience something, feel something on a real level.

I moved to stand over him and a dark smile pulled at my lips as I tipped the bottle up, pouring the contents straight over his head.

A bellow of rage burst from his lips as he leapt to his feet, tackling me before he’d even opened his damn eyes.

My back hit the carpet and I grunted as the air was driven from my lungs and all two hundred pounds of Kyan’s muscular body crushed me to the floor.

His fist drove into my side a moment later and I cursed as I punched him back, my knuckles slamming into his ribs several times in quick succession.

Kyan wasn’t as fast as me, but his blows fell like those of a sledgehammer as he reared over me and drove his fist into my gut. We had one golden rule when we fought like this. Not the face. We couldn’t exactly turn up to classes with busted lips and black eyes every other week. Besides, my face was a work of goddamn art, I didn’t need the canvas damaged.

“Next time just kick me, motherfucker,” Kyan snarled, his wet hair hanging down over his forehead and dripping all over me.

I started laughing and he cracked a smile too, moving to get off of me.

As he made it to his knees I kicked out, catching him in the gut and knocking back on his ass. “Suggestion noted.” I got to my feet and offered him a hand up.

He grunted a curse at me as he stood, pushing his hair out of his face as he turned to hunt for an elastic to tie it in a topknot.

I left him to destroy the couch in his hunt as he tossed cushions everywhere and headed back upstairs to my en-suite to have a shower.

The huge glass cubicle stood open for me and I moved inside, cranking the volume on some Beethoven, using the control panel on the wall so I could still hear it as I scalded myself clean in the hot water.

Steam billowed around me as I scrubbed the sweat from my skin and I felt my tension running away with the water down the drain as I completed my ritual. My demons never retreated fully, but I could cage them most of the time so long as I made it through my routine.

I headed to my closet when I was done, pulling out my dark green Everlake Prep uniform and dressing carefully. I knotted the tie perfectly, adjusting it at my collar before buttoning my blazer and smoothing out the creases. I tugged my shirt sleeves down so that they emerged from beneath the blazer, the platinum cufflinks I’d matched with the uniform catching the light as I made sure it all sat perfectly.

My tightly curling hair was cropped short enough to be low maintenance, but I still ran some product into it as I made sure it sat just right. Not a hair out of place.

Memphis men always turn out at their best.

By the time I re-emerged downstairs, Blake was waiting