Savage Royals (Boys of Oak Park Prep #1) - Callie Rose Page 0,76
the floor, and I scooted back on the couch quickly, desperate to try to hide my reaction—even though it was probably at least nine minutes too late for that.
“Fuuuck,” Finn groaned. “Well, I need a cold goddamn shower.”
When I glanced over at him, he was adjusting his shorts, and I looked away quickly, trying to ignore the way my peaked nipples stood out against the light fabric of my t-shirt.
“Um, we can play something else. This game is stupid,” I said quickly.
“Nuh uh, Legs.” Mason slapped my knee lightly as he rose to his feet, and I noticed a definite bulge in his pants too. I glanced down, feeling a rush of both pride and embarrassment that our little battle of wills had affected him too. “You don’t get to bail just when it’s getting fun. You dared me. Now I get to dare you.”
“I thought I got to pick,” I insisted, reaching for my cup and downing the last few swallows.
“All right. Fine. Truth or dare?”
Motherfucker. If I picked truth, I’d be letting him win. But if I picked dare… could I really handle the consequences?
I licked my lips, mustering up my courage before I finally said, “Dare.”
“Good girl.” His broad grin was beautiful and dangerous. “I dare you to dance for us.”
I froze, startled. That was not what I’d been expecting him to say. “What?”
“You heard me. Finn’s apparently gotten to see you dance a lot. The rest of us never have. And what you did out there on the lake was fucking beautiful. I want to see you dance.”
“I don’t—” I laughed nervously. “I don’t have any music. There’s hardly enough space.”
“There’s enough.” Cole jumped up suddenly, tugging the coffee table out of the way. Then he crossed to the corner where the stack of guitars rested and picked one up. He handed it to Elijah before he sat back down. “There you go. Music.”
Elijah was looking at the guitar with a mixture of reverence and disgust.
“You play?” I asked, surprised.
“Are you kidding?” Finn grinned. “It used to be all he did. Before…” His faced darkened, and he trailed off. Then he brightened again, nudging Elijah. “But he still fucking knows how, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” Elijah muttered, already fiddling with the knobs on the neck, plucking strings as he tuned it. “Although this guitar is a piece of shit.”
“Not in your hands, it won’t be.”
Finn leaned back, grinning happily, and I glanced around at the rest of the guys, surprised. This hadn’t come out when we’d spilled our secrets earlier, and it just served to remind me how much I still didn’t know about each of them.
“Elijah hasn’t played in a while, Legs,” Mason said softly, his voice drawing my focus. “But if he’ll play, will you dance?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say no. I loved dancing, but I hadn’t done it in front of an audience—well, not counting Finn—in a long time. And my body was still so wound up from my dare to Mason that I wasn’t sure I trusted myself to stand.
But then Elijah began to strum the strings of the guitar, and my heart skipped a beat.
It was fucking amazing. Haunting, wistful, and perfect. He sang while he played, not in recognizable words, just sounds. But they were so infused with emotion, with meaning, that I could’ve sworn I knew exactly what he was saying.
The sound filled the large basement room, filled my ears, filled my entire soul, until there wasn’t even a question.
Wordlessly, I stood and walked to the middle of the space. And then I began to move. Just like Elijah, I was making it up as I went along—but he played with me and I danced with him until we synced up perfectly. I didn’t push too hard, just let the simple movements, the arcs and curved lines that had drawn me to ballet in the first place, guide me.
I wasn’t sure how long he played, but unlike the exquisitely torturous ten minutes when Mason had knelt before me, I didn’t ever want this to end.
Finally, Elijah strummed a sequence I recognized from earlier, repeated it twice, and then let the last note fade.
I floated to a stop and dropped my arms, a little breathless. I felt lighter than I had in years, happy and proud.
Mason, Cole, and Finn all stared at the two of us, but I knew they wouldn’t clap. On the lake the other day, my ballet pose had drawn raucous