A Perfect Ten (Forbidden Men #5)(77)

“Damn it.” I started the car and roared down the street. I was reaching for the radio controls to find some loud, pissed-off music when my cell phone rang.

Fuck. That was probably one of my buddies who’d already heard about my freakish junk. I almost didn’t check the screen, but curiosity got the best of me. When I saw Zoey’s name, I groaned.

My twin already knew? Wasn’t that just...great.

“What?” I muttered when I answered.

“Come get me,” she demanded on a sniff, obviously crying. “Now.”

“What’s wrong?” Completely forgetting about myself, I slammed on the brakes and did a U-turn to speed back toward her friend’s house where I knew she was staying the night with a couple other girls from school. “Who the f*ck do I have to kill?”

“No one. I just...I want to go home.”

“I’m four blocks away. Be right there.”

“Okay. Hurry.”

She came tearing out to the car, her overnight bag thrown over her shoulder and mascara streaked down her cheeks. I pushed open my door, pissed that anyone would make my sister cry. “Seriously.” I slid the bag off her shoulder and shoved it over the seat into the back of the car. “Who made you cry?”

She wiped at her black-streaked cheeks. “No one. She doesn’t even know what she did. It wasn’t her fault anyway. Just...let’s go. Please.”

I turned back to scowl up at her friend’s house, but the girls crowded in the doorway watching us looked worried and sympathetic, so I couldn’t rightly charge up there and cuss any of them out. When I came back around, Zoey had climbed into the driver’s seat.

“No,” I said, motioning with my thumb for her to get out. “You’re not driving. Not like this. Besides, it’s my night, remember?”

And I didn’t want to feel any more emasculated than I already felt. I’d already been told I was a freakish horror between the legs; I did not want my little sister to go driving me around. It didn’t even matter than she was only a minute and a half younger than me, I was still technically the big brother.

“Damn it, Oren.” She peered up at me from her tearstained eyes. “I need to...I just need to relieve some pressure right now. Please.”

I’d never really been able to say no to her, but especially not when she was crying, so I sighed, ground my teeth and muttered, “Fine. Whatever,” before I went around to the passenger side. I tugged on my seat belt as soon as I climbed in, and f*cking awful brother that I was, I didn’t even notice that she’d neglected to put hers on.

“So, what’s the deal?” I asked as she peeled out down the road and veered around a corner.

“Corey Garboni slept with Suzanne.”

I waited for her to go on, but when she didn’t, I lifted my eyebrows. “Okay. So?”

“So?” She sent me an incredulous scowl. “So, I liked Corey. I let him go up my shirt last weekend.”

“You did what?”

“And he was supposed to take me to the movies again tomorrow,” she ranted on without even hearing me. “I had no idea he was into Suzanne too, and she had no idea about what I’d done with him.”

“Bastard,” I muttered under my breath. “I can’t believe you even liked that guy. I’ve always thought he was a f*cking douche.”

“Oh, well I’m so sorry I couldn’t like someone you approved of.”

“You should be,” I said. “I could probably find you a better guy than you could. Someone who wouldn’t f*cking cheat on you, anyway.”

“Really?” She arched me an incredulous glance. “I would just love to hear what kind of guy you think I should end up with.”

“Fine.” I cleared my throat and resituated myself in the passenger seat, thinking it through. “He has to like football, or I wouldn’t have anything in common with him, and if he’s going to hang out with you, then I’ll probably be stuck hanging out with him more than I want.”

“Okay,” she said on the nod as she slowed the car to turn a corner. “I could handle a football player.”

“Right.” I drew in a breath before adding, “Loyal, faithful, quiet.”

“Quiet?” She sent me a mystified glance.

I nodded, sticking with my original decision. “Yeah. We’re both talkers, so you’d definitely need a listener, maybe someone a little reserved but totally willing to stand up for you if need be. He’d have to be bigger than me, because I just wouldn’t be able to respect him if he wasn’t. Oh, and smart, like into science so that he’ll end up a rich heart surgeon or something.”

“You haven’t described his looks yet.”

I shrugged and made a face. “Fuck, like I care how he looks.”

She grinned. “Then I want him to be hot. Preferably blue eyes and maybe even a dimple.”

I shook my head, boggled as to why those two things had made the cut and nothing else. Girls were so strange. “Fine,” I said. “Whatever.”

She snorted out a quick laugh. “You know, we just described a guy who couldn’t possibly exist. A sexy, shy, biology-loving athlete. Really, Oren. Never going to happen.”

“Well, then I guess we’ll just have to grow old together, single and hopeless.” Glancing out the passenger side window, I mumbled to myself, “Because I’m certainly never getting laid again.”