Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,15

a test run before I took her for a ride. It didn’t make much difference to me. Point was, that girl belonged to me. She just didn’t know it yet.

I felt them before I saw them. Their stares burned, searing into my flesh like lasers.

“Holy shit, Tatum, the Night Keepers have noticed you,” Mila stage whispered loud enough for the whole table to hear. I’d hacked this mingling business already. Mila was connected. She knew everyone and everything about everyone. So long as I rode between her wings, I was going to sail my way right into the popular crowd. But there were three guys I supposedly needed to impress if I didn’t want to get outcasted and shirked from the community. The three guys who were currently assessing me like lions hiding in the long grass.

I let my gaze lift to the Night Keepers naturally, reacting slowly to Mila’s words and keeping my casual expression fixed in place. I sucked my lower lip in that way that drove guy’s crazy as I let my eyes meet Blake’s. Hunger, pure and simple, awaited me within them and sent a delicious warmth spreading out through the base of my belly. He looked like he was about to get out of his seat and come over so I flicked my gaze to the right of him, taking in the Night Keeper who sat in the centre of their trio. The obvious leader.

“That’s Saint Memphis,” Mila whispered in my ear, openly pointing him out like she didn’t care how clear it was that we were staring at him. I didn’t even need to hear his name to know who he was. Saint Memphis was the son of Troy Memphis, the Governor of Sequoia. His daddy was the most powerful man in the state. And it looked like the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Saint exuded power. His eyes were as cold and as impenetrable as iron, but a small smile twisted up his lips in a way that suggested he knew something I didn’t. His skin was heavenly dark and the perfect angles of his face looked like they’d been designed by an architect. His hair was well kept and his uniform immaculate. Every movement he made was controlled, refined. Like he’d practised each one a thousand times. My core liquefied as the intensity of him dripped through me like burning candle wax. He reminded me of an emperor watching a gladiator fight, a simple flick up or down of his thumb deciding whether I lived or died. And something told me that wasn’t too far from the truth.

I let my eyes slide away from him and felt him stiffen the moment I did, as if he was shocked that someone would dare break his gaze.

On his right, was a beast. That was the only way to describe him. Visually, he was everything Saint was not. Relaxed, brutish, unruly. But as his eyes scraped over me with the sharpness of a knife, I could tell he was just as deadly.

“And that’s Kyan Roscoe,” Mila supplied.

His hair was pulled into a topknot and stubble clung to his jaw like he gave no fucks. He continued to give no fucks throughout the rest of his appearance, his blazer abandoned, his sleeves rolled up to reveal an artwork of tattoos. His knuckles were bruised and split like he’d spent the night pounding them into someone’s face.

My heart stumbled as he rubbed his thumb against the corner of his mouth, a dark hunter shining behind his eyes. It felt like a target was painted on my forehead and he was about to loose an arrow that would carve a hole between my eyes. My breathing was getting heavy as I pictured this wild man’s hands on me. All three of their hands…

“They’ll want you to initiate at their party tonight,” Mila said, slicing through the red hot fantasy currently playing out in my mind.

I ripped my eyes away from them, turning to give her my full attention as I tried to quiet the rampant pounding of my heart. Down girl.

I blew out a laugh. “Initiate me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Everyone around the table exchanged worried glances and I looked to Mila for an explanation. She tossed her hair over her shoulder with an ominous laugh.

“You’ll see, babe.” Her eyes glittered darkly and I realised nearly everyone in the room was glancing my way like I had a glowing beacon on top of my head. The