With Every Heartbeat (Forbidden Men 4)

I smiled back, completely charmed. But, aww, he was a romantic. I loved that.

We kept watching, totally engrossed in the show. I asked question after question. Quinn was currently working his way through season four, but seemed happy to explain everything he knew and catch me up to speed.

We were both laughing over something Gus was saying to Shawn’s dad when Cora strolled into the room, wearing a tiny pair of shorts that were unbelievably shorter than my own, and no shirt over her skimpy bikini top. She looked suntanned and flawless—not at all like she was suffering from kidney failure—as she artfully tossed a beach towel over her shoulder.

“Everybody ready?” she asked before focusing on the television and making a face. “Oh God. Please don’t tell me you’re pushing that dumb show on Zoey now?”

Quinn just grinned at her. “She’s laughing,” he argued, still smiling up at Cora as she sauntered across the living room to crawl into his lap.

My face heated at her bold move, and I shifted, uncomfortable to watch such intimacy. Facing him and straddling his lap, Cora grabbed onto the back of the couch on either side of him, caging him in. Quinn set his hands on her hips and gazed into her eyes as she tsked and shook her head.

“If you weren’t so cute, I’d have to reevaluate our relationship. Because dating someone who actually likes this show...” She sighed as if he was hopeless.

Still grinning, Quinn framed her face in his hands. “You look really pretty today.”

Cora threw back her head and laughed, her gorgeous blonde hair spilling down her spine. “Of course, your being a total sweetheart helps your case considerably.” Then she leaned in to kiss him.

My skin buzzed with awareness as I quickly glanced away to give them a measure of privacy. But I’d already seen enough for my core temperature to skyrocket. The way Quinn had closed his eyes, his too long lashes resting against the tops of his cheeks, was like art. His hands continued to cup Cora

’s face as if he treasured her. And his mouth. The way it moved against hers compelled me to cop another peek.

I glanced over again just as he pulled away. But the adoration in his eyes as he simply gazed at Cora seemed just as, if not more, intimate than the kiss they’d shared. He really liked her. It was a shock to the system to see such affection between two people. My father had certainly never looked at any of the women he dated this way.

I was held captive as Quinn teasingly scolded, “You finally ready to go now?”

I loved the easy playfulness between them. They seemed to click together. And yet it made a painful regret clench deep in my stomach. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t dreamt of coming to Ellamore this year and finding someone to fall in love with and adore the same way Cora had blathered on about Quinn in all her emails to me. But sharing this kind of connection with another human being seemed out of my scope of reality. Someone as shy, reserved and closed off as I was could never manage to open herself to that kind of intimacy.

As if he could feel my jealousy over the bond they shared oozing out through my pores like a noxious gas, Quinn glanced over. He immediately shifted under Cora and set his hands on her hips to lift her off his lap. “We should get going before we’re late.”

Cora laughed as she climbed off the couch. “I hate to break it to you, baby, but we’re already late.”

Quinn glanced at me, his eyes crinkling in amusement as if to share an inside joke. It made everything inside me heat with glee. Then he took Cora’s hand and linked his fingers with hers. “Then I guess we don’t want to be any later than we already are.”

“Hold the motherfucking phone.” Ten stopped next to me and set a hand on my shoulder, squeezing to get my attention as he stared across the parking lot towards the girls’ side where they were getting almost as much business as we were.

The car wash was going good, automobiles were lined up to the street, and so far, the competition between the genders was neck and neck.

“Who is she?”

“Who?” I asked as Ten kept drooling.

He pointed, and I followed the direction of his finger with my gaze as he said, “The only one not in a bikini.”

I instantly scowled, not liking his attention as I took in the girl he was ogling. She was scrubbing a soapy sponge over a sleek black truck with her back to us.

When she bent over to dip the sponge into the bucket by her feet and soaped it up again, Ten groaned and set a hand over his chest.

“Damn, and the ass is just as sweet as those long, lean legs.”

I shrugged his hand off my shoulder and glared at him. “That’s Zoey,” I told him, my pointed glare demanding he back off.

He blinked, the name making him wrench away. “Who?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes toward the sky. Really? I’d only told him a dozen times that Cora’s friend from her hometown was moving in this weekend. “I introduced you two. You met her last night.”

He shook his head. “No, we most certainly did not. I would remember those legs.”

“She was wearing jeans,” I said dryly.