Savage Royals (Boys of Oak Park Prep #1) - Callie Rose Page 0,62

before I quickly exhaled, choking and hacking. It tightened my throat and made my head buzz and spin. I groaned, and as someone plucked the joint from my fingers, I realized I was doubled over with my head between my knees.

“Oh, shit. Cole, I thought you said you got the good stuff!” Finn sounded like he was trying not to laugh, and I reached back and swatted at him, still working to breathe.

A hand ran soothingly down the length of my spine, and my nerve endings crackled with awareness. I peered up, brushing aside the curtain of my hair. Elijah smiled crookedly at me before leaning toward Cole, his hand still stroking up and down my back.

“Give it here.”

Cole passed the joint he’d reclaimed from me, and Elijah took a long drag, holding his breath for several seconds before releasing it in a cloud. He made it look so fucking easy. When he was done, he passed it over my head to Finn. Each of them took a drag, and I sat up slowly, watching them visibly relax as they passed it on. When it reached Elijah again, he turned to me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Wanna try again?”

I nodded wordlessly.

“Like this.”

He brought the joint to his lips and took a deep inhale, closing his lips as he handed it off to Finn. Then he moved closer to me, tilting my face toward his with one hand. Gazing into my eyes, he gripped the back of my neck, and I stared at him wide-eyed, heat flooding my body.

“Open your mouth,” I heard Mason say.

I slowly parted my lips as my heart did a strange little dance between my ribs. Elijah’s lips pushed lightly against mine, only touching in a few places, before he exhaled into my mouth. I felt the smoke fill it slowly before his lips moved against mine.

“You have to inhale, Talia.”

I sucked in a sharp breath at my name on his lips. The smoke rushed into my lungs, but this time, it didn’t burn the same way it had before. It still had an earthy, pungent taste, but it went down easier. And when it hit my lungs, it felt like I’d breathed in helium, like my whole body was filling with something light that might carry me away.

At the same time, electric heat sparked through my body, and I had the most insane urge to wrap my hand around Elijah’s neck in a mirror of what he was doing to me, to push the connection between us further, to slip my tongue into his mouth and—

Elijah drew back, licking his lips as if he could still taste me on them. “Good girl.”

My gaze stayed locked on him, and I pressed my legs together. Holy fuck. Did he know what he’d just done to me?

If he did, he was gentleman enough not to mock me for it. He just ran his thumb over my lips once and smiled at me.

They passed the joint around until it was finished, and when it came back to me, Elijah repeated the action, inhaling first and then breathing the smoke into my mouth. The guys all laughed and assured me I was in good hands, that Elijah was an old pro at this, but I thought I caught a look almost like jealousy on Finn’s face as he watched us.

After a while, he disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a bottle of tequila. It burned more going down straight than when mixed with orange juice, but the happy buzz in my mind drowned out any discomfort.

I felt utterly relaxed and strangely safe as I rested my head back against the couch, hands laced over the patch of bare skin on my stomach.

Four distinct, deep voices surrounded me. Elijah’s was smooth, Cole’s gruff, Finn’s teasing, and Mason’s low and serious.

Together, they created a pleasant hum that faded into the distance as my eyelids dropped shut.

Chapter 19

A loud beeping sound pierced my blissfully quiet brain, and I groaned, rolling over and throwing an arm over my face. Light was coming from somewhere, and I hated it.

Kill light. Must… kill… light.

The beeping stopped for little bit, but a few minutes later, it started up again, and I groped blindly around me until my hand settled on my phone. Cracking my eyelids, I squinted at the screen as I turned off the alarm.

7:35. My first class was at eight. I could just make it in time… if I could