Page 52 of Kings & Corruption

What the actual fuck? Was I daydreaming about fucking not one of my douchey roommates, but two of them?

At the same time?

Ugh.

“There’s our tiger,” Oscar said, getting to his feet. He stood to scoot his chair away from Rock’s and my gaze stalled on his back, or more specifically, on the massive tattoo inked on his skin.

It was amorphous and dark, like a shadow come to life, a featureless angel promising doom. I wondered why I’d never noticed it before, then realized this was the first time I’d seen his naked back. I swallowed the lump in my throat, wondering why I felt sad.

I tried to recover my composure as he maneuvered another lounger between his and Rock’s. “It’s fine.” I waved at the extra lounge chair. “I can just sit somewhere else.”

Rock looked seriously offended by the possibility. “And let all these thirsty bastards flirt with you all day? No way.”

I stood over him. “You do know I’m not your girlfriend right?”

I don’t even like you.

The words got stuck at the back of my throat. As much as I wanted them to be true, they weren’t. Worse, I knew they would hurt Rock’s feelings and I didn’t want to do that.

I was glad my sunglasses hid my eyes. It was embarrassing enough to know I was starting to like these two. The only thing that would be worse was letting them know it.

“Yet,” Rock said. “You’re not my girlfriend yet. Wait until you taste my beef bourguignon.”

Oscar handed me a black towel almost as thick as my comforter back home. Being in the Kings’ house was like living in a five-star hotel, and I had to admit, I was enjoying that part of it.

“Thanks,” I said, spreading the towel out on the lounge chair.

I got settled, leaned back, and closed my eyes. I had to stifle the sigh of pleasure on my lips. It was childish, but I didn’t want them to know how nice it felt to lay poolside next to the two of them.

“Still mad?” Oscar asked next to me.

“Don’t touch that!” Rock’s urgent voice made me open my eyes just in time to see him leap from the lounge chair and hurry toward Neo, who had emerged from the house carrying a platter of raw chicken and steak.

And unless Rock had a tattoo on his ass, my instinct had been right — other than the crown tattoo on his forearm, his skin was unmarked by ink.

Neo scowled. “I know how to grill.”

Unlike everyone else around the pool, Neo wasn’t wearing a swimsuit, but that didn’t stop him from looking like a thirst trap in slouchy jeans that hung low enough on his hips that I was practically rooting for them to drop an inch lower. His sculpted chest glistened like a model who’d been oiled up for the camera, the angel tattoo on full display, her hair seeming to float in waves around her face, and fuck me if his bare feet only added to the whole “casual god” look he had going on.

“Uh, right,” Rock said, taking the platter out of Neo’s hands. “I know. I just enjoy doing it.”

It was clear from the nervous way he moved away from Neo that he didn’t trust Neo to cook the meat.

Neo’s gaze slid over the scene around the pool and came to rest on me. For a split second, I almost thought he looked happy to see me. But I must have imagined it, because his eyes immediately hardened as he took in my bikini-clad body stretched out on the lounge chair.

Still, he couldn’t hide the lust in his eyes, which made me feel a bit better about my own. When you got right down to it, humans were just high-functioning animals.

We wanted to eat. We wanted to sleep. We wanted to mate.

It was pure biology. If I’d been a leopard in the wild, it wouldn’t have mattered at all that I wanted to fuck a big-dick douchebag. My brain was just trained by society to feel guilty for things that were natural.

It was all true, but I was still annoyed as fuck at myself.

“So?” Oscar said next to me. “Are you? Still mad?”

“Just because I live here doesn’t mean I’m part of the Kings’ house,” I said, turning to look at him. “I don’t want to play your game, so you can tell Neo to fuck right off.”

Oscar exhaled a breath that sounded a lot like frustration. He swung his legs over the side of the lounge chair and took off his sunglasses to stare at me. I almost fell into his dark bottomless eyes in the few seconds it took him to speak.

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