Kings of Linwood Academy - The Complete Box Set: A Dark High School Romance Series Callie Rose (i read a book TXT) 📖

sometimes it feels like we’re one person. Like we’re two halves of a whole. We know each other so well and are so much a part of each other’s lives…” He trails off and shrugs. “Without Dax, I wouldn’t be me.”

“I think it’s amazing you have that. I think you make each other better,” I say softly.

“Yeah.” He grins down at me, his smile bright as the sun. “Although sometimes”—he hauls me up so I’m fully draped over him, my legs straddling his hips, his cock sandwiched between us—“I want moments that are just mine.”

“Like this moment?”

Bracing one hand on his chest, I rise up onto my knees, adjusting my position as I use my other hand to guide his already hard cock to my entrance, lining him up and sinking down slowly.

“Yeah. Like this one.”

His words are a raspy groan, and when I begin to rock up and down, rolling my hips as I ride him, he reaches up to cup my breasts, letting me control the pace of our movements.

Our first fuck was hot and hard and fast, but this one is slow and deep as we torture and tease each other, pushing right to the edge but never quite past it.

And when we can’t hold back any longer, Chase sits up and wraps his arms around me, impaling me hard on his pulsing cock. I shudder around him as I come, and he follows me over the edge with a harsh sigh.

We drift off to sleep in each other’s arms, and as I fall into unconsciousness, breathing in the subtle scent of musk and bergamot, it occurs to me that tonight was one of the best and worst nights of my life.

That seems to be happening a lot lately.

So much good.

With so much bad.

16

The kings and I have settled on a plan, a strategy for facing Judge Hollowell. But before we put it into action, there’s one thing I have to do first.

On Saturday morning, I go to the Fox Hill Correctional Center to see my mom.

“Hey, sweetheart. I’ve missed you.”

Her wan smile breaks my heart as she presses her fingertips to the partition between us. She seems tired and… resigned. Like she’s getting used to the orange jumpsuit and the prison food and only seeing me through a goddamn plexiglass barrier.

I hate it.

And it tells me everything I need to know about how things are going before I even ask.

“How’s it been, Mom? Is your lawyer doing okay?”

“Scott is—” Mom breaks off, like even in prison, she won’t allow herself to say the things she wants to about this man. Then she sighs, rubbing a hand over her cheek. “He’s doing fine. He was doing what I asked, focusing on my character in his preparations, lining up witnesses. But now he’s saying it’s a bad idea. If we make it about the kind of person I am, it will allow the prosecution to go after the… other side of my character.”

“What?” My stomach drops out, and my chair scrapes loudly on the floor as I scoot closer to the partition. “What other side of your character?”

My mom is one of the best, kindest people in the whole world, and that’s who she is. There’s no hidden monster inside her, no evil flip side to the coin.

She shakes her head, looking a little haunted, and I realize how fucking hard this all must be on her. To have her name dragged through the mud, her character as a human being denigrated, just to prove she committed a crime she didn’t do. It’s awful.

“Scott says the prosecutors could claim I had motive to kill Iris because she bullied you.”

“What?” My voice is a loud screech, and the guard near the door looks up. I turn away from him, lowering my voice. “What? That’s insane.”

“Yeah. Well.” She shrugs, her gaze growing a little unfocused as she gets lost in her thoughts. “They talked to that doctor I threatened at Bayard Medical Center. I don’t know how on earth they dug him up.”

I stare at her, wide-eyed. “Mom. Doctor Soudek was incompetent. And he wasn’t listening to you. If you hadn’t yelled at him about changing my course of treatment, I might not be alive right now.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that I threatened to kill him.”

“In the heat of the moment! With your daughter in the middle of cancer treatments! Of course you would get worked up!”

“I know, Harlow.” She touches the glass again. “But that’s the exact point Scott says they’ll make. That I got ‘worked up’ about Iris going after you. That I’m an overprotective mother who would do anything to protect her daughter.”

“Fuck, Mom,” I whisper. “Fuck.”

She doesn’t give me a hard time for my language. She barely even seems to hear me.

Nausea roils my stomach. Did Hollowell know this would happen? Maybe his advice was intentionally bad, designed to set us up for a trap.

That fucking asshole.

“It’s okay, Low,” Mom says softly. “It’s not over till it’s over, right?”

She musters up a weak half-smile, so I try to do the same. She perks up a little as she straightens, and I can tell she’s deliberately changing the subject.

“How are you? How’re classes going?”

Ugh. Not great.

“They’re okay.” I shift a little in my seat. It’s not a lie, but I’m stretching the definition of the word “okay” to its limits.

“And you’re still staying with your friend River? Are you okay for money? Do you need anything?”

She asks the question as if she could provide it if I do, as if she’d do whatever it took to make sure I got whatever I need. But fortunately, without having to pay rent, my expenses are pretty minimal. If it gets desperate, I could always try to get back into a couple of those poker nights the kids from Linwood host, but so far I haven’t put too big a dent in the remainder of Mom’s savings.

“No, everything’s okay, Mom. I’m good. And I’m…” I pause, biting my lip