A Perfect Ten (Forbidden Men #5)(43)

Caroline jumped and whirled around to gape up at me. “What? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Our phone conversation just now.” When her eyes flickered, I wondered which conversation she was thinking about. I blinked innocently and added, “I believe you issued me a challenge to impress you. And I’ve accepted it. I am going to amaze you...probably before you even get to sleep tonight.”

“Oh.” She rolled her eyes. “I thought you were talking in your usual, uncouth sexual innuendo speak.”

I winked at her. “Wow, you have a dirty mind today.” I watched her face as I uttered those carefully chosen words. No memory of our other phone conversation flickered across her expression, though. She merely blinked at me.

Unfazed by her refusal to react, I unzipped my bag and instead of pulling out textbooks to study from, I found a banana and bottle of Powerade. The appetite Gamble had killed minutes ago suddenly roared back to life. Not surprising; I always felt vividly alert around Caroline.

“You know, not everything I do or say revolves around sex,” I told her, picking our conversation back up.

Her gaze tracked the banana’s progress as I unpeeled it and stuck the end into my mouth. Her eyebrows lifted as she watched. “Really?”

I almost choked as I chewed. “Jesus, are you sure everything’s not a sexual innuendo with you? Wow, I was just eating a snack, not giving some imaginary guy head. And FYI, I only get, not give blow jobs.”

Grinding her teeth, she slapped her book closed and glared. “Why the hell are you here, bothering us?”

I turned to Zwinn for the first time since arriving. They were staring at me quite openly, probably wondering why I was being even more annoying than usual. “Am I bothering you two?”

Blondie instantly nodded. “A little bit, yeah.”

“Big time,” Quinn answered right behind her.

I turned away from them. They were no help. But Caroline had already eased her book open again and had her head tipped down as she studied the text. Her pale tresses had a slight wave today that flowed over her shoulder to obstruct her face. I had to shift in my seat to readjust the pinching constraints of my jeans because I was growing so aroused. But staring at that hair only reminded me of how much she liked having it pulled.

Had my fingers really been buried in all that gorgeous blonde as I’d pounded into her?

A moan tried to crawl up my throat. I quickly covered it with a cough. She continued to ignore me. So I openly stared. She picked up a pen and jotted down some notes on the notebook beside her text. My gaze fell to her slim fingers. Had they been wrapped around the base of me last night, tugging until I’d come in her mouth? They could’ve been. And thinking they had been only shot a throb of pure longing through me.

I couldn’t wait until tonight. Tonight, both her life and mine would change forever.

Finishing my banana, I played with the peel as I glanced around for a nearby trash can. My fingers came across the produce label sticker on it. After peeling the sticker away from the yellow skin, I leaned in and pressed it to the back of Caroline’s hand where she was still busy writing.

It totally messed up whatever word she was trying to spell. “What the hell?” She jerked her hand away. “I’m writing here.”

I winked. “Now you can’t say I never gave you anything.”

“Oh, gee. Thank you. I’ll treasure it always.” The dry sarcasm in her voice and plastered across her face told me I hadn’t managed to impress her yet. But the day was still young.

“Really?” I arched an eyebrow. “Twenty bucks says you won’t even be wearing it tomorrow.”

“Oh my God. You really are bored, aren’t you?”

Not even a little bit. I merely smiled at my fly as I finished weaving the web I was going to use to trap her. “What? Twenty bucks, Caroline. Sounds like an easy bet to me. Or does my gift just not mean that much to you?” I pressed a hand to my heart and pretended to look hurt.

She rolled her eyes.

One of these days I was going to count how many times I could make her roll her eyes in a single conversation. There had to be a world record for that shit, didn’t there?

“Fine,” she muttered. “But you better pay up.”

“Oh, I will.”





As Oren slid out of his chair and strolled away, I stared after him, wondering what had just happened. His cheerful whistle echoed back to me before he turned a corner and disappeared out of sight.

I spun toward Zwinn as I pointed after him. “What was that about?”

While Zoey shrugged, Quinn said, “He must know.”

I flashed my teeth. “He doesn’t know.”

He couldn’t know, though it probably wouldn’t take a genius to figure out who I was. All he’d have to do was flip on a light. Maybe he’d followed me last night after I’d left. Maybe he’d finally recognized my voice. Or maybe Quinn was putting thoughts into my head.

Oren hadn’t let on to Midnight Visitor that he knew anything when he’d just texted her. And what was up with that, anyway, texting and coming to see me right after he’d texted her? Unless...no, I don’t think he knew.

Unless he did.

Crap, I didn’t know what to think anymore. I hated being this confused.

I hated how easily I’d let Midnight Visitor accept that invitation from him too. But that probably had something more to do with the dirty, dark, sinful way he promised to take me. God, I was way too easy for letting sex get in the way of my common sense. But it wasn’t just my hormones moaning for him; my silly, stupid heart was also pro-Oren. Denying him was frankly impossible, no matter how much I tried to encourage myself that a good, healthy no was the way to go.