Page 32 of Cruel Elite (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 3)

She narrows her green eyes at me, a suspicious smile on her lips, but she doesn’t press.

We both know I forgot about her, but that doesn’t seem to matter now.

Instantly, it’s like no time has passed at all.

I grab Penny a drink—a beer can from a mini fridge under the kitchen island—and we wander around the party together.

We talk about nothing in particular, but it feels important. Momentous.

“It’s too early to start pairing off,” J.C. whispers in my ear as we pass by the pool table where he is trying to teach three freshman girls how to chalk a pool stick as graphically as possible.

I elbow him in the stomach and keep moving.

Eventually, we wander into the downstairs living room. The furniture has been pushed to the edges of the room and a group of people are sitting cross legged in a circle like they are about to perform a séance.

Finn waves me over and nudges people so they make room for me and Penny.

She has on a tight pair of jeans with a white crop top that slips up to reveal most of her stomach as she sits down. I try not to obviously stare at the indent next to her hip bone and the way her body curves gracefully up to a trim waist, but God, it’s hard.

She’s worth devouring.

“Welcome, welcome,” Finn says, addressing the whole circle.

Everyone quiets so all I can hear is the bass of the music from upstairs. Then, Finn throws his arms into the air like the ringleader of a circus. “To Truth or Dare!”

Penny covers her mouth with her hand and laughs. “Oh no. What are we getting into?”

“It’s just an excuse for everyone to make out,” I scowl, rolling my eyes.

The air is thick with a tension I can’t quite explain, and I think it has a lot to do with the curves visible under Penny’s crop top.

My hand is itching at my side, desperate to reach out and touch her, any part of her. To claim it as my own so everyone at this party knows who she belongs to.

For a time.

Finn spins a bottle in the middle of the circle to determine who gets to go first.

A sophomore girl dares a junior boy to kiss her. Someone else gets groped over their jeans. A top comes off, a shot of tequila gets poured and thrown back, and before I know it, more and more of our inhibitions are falling to the wayside with every spin of the bottle.

“Are these parties always like this?” Penny asks, chewing on her full, pink lower lip. “You’ve been hanging out with these people all summer, right?”

I turn to her, eyebrow raised. “How do you know that?”

“Okay, so maybe I asked around about you,” she admits, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. “You disappeared, and I wanted to know where to. Now I know.”

We’re still looking at one another when Finn gives a shout. “My turn!”

So far, everyone else has used their turn on themselves, but Finn turns to me with a wide grin. “I dare Noah Boone to take a body shot. Off of her.”

His finger jabs in Penny’s direction.

I reach out and swat his hand out of the air without thinking. “You didn’t even ask Truth or Dare first.”

“That’s because I assumed you weren’t a coward,” Finn says, wagging his eyebrows.

This is the giddiest I’ve ever seen him. I’m guessing he’s more than a little drunk.

“I’m not.”

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