With Every Heartbeat (Forbidden Men 4)

I hadn’t done anything on that level to help Noel. In fact, now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if I’d done anything for him at all.

The whole idea still had me bummed when I went to pick Cora up later that evening. It was my one night this week I had off work to be with her, and of course there was a frat party she wanted to attend. So I planned on having a miserable evening, watching her drink and dance with her friends while I listened to all the jocks around me brag about how amazing they were. I wouldn’t even have Ten there to keep me any company because he had to work, and Noel had stopped attending parties when he’d hooked up with Aspen and taken in his younger siblings. None of the other guys I worked with had ever done the frat-party thing. So yeah, I planned on being bored and abandoned most of the evening.

When I arrived at Cora’s apartment, I was already antsy and uncomfortable about spending an evening surrounded by...people. But then Zoey opened the door for me, and my anxiety level went through the roof.

She had her hair up in another perky ponytail, and she was wearing glasses. She looked freaking adorable in glasses.

I swallowed, unable to say a single thing.

Then she smiled, and suddenly, I couldn’t blink either.

“Hi.” She sounded so happy to see me, my chest expanded with pressure. It felt as if someone was blowing up a balloon inside my ribcage. “Come on in. Cora’s in her room....” She paused and cocked her ear as if she wanted me to finish the sentence.

A grin broke across my lips. “Changing?” I guessed.

“Exactly.” Leaving the door open for me to make myself at home, Zoey turned away. As she did, her ponytail breezed past me, stirring up that mysterious smell. I started to step over the threshold when it hit me that the smell came from her hair.

“What kind of shampoo do you use?” I blurted out the question before my brain could tell me not to.

Zoey stopped walking and turned back slowly. “I’m sorry?”

Oh, crap. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, letting me know good and well she realized I’d been smelling her.

I gulped, and motioned wildly with my hand to her ponytail. All the while, my face kept getting hotter and hotter. “I... you...when your hair whooshed past as you turned away...I didn’t mean to—sorry.”

She must’ve realized I wasn’t trying to make a pass at her or anything because her shoulders relaxed and her lips loosened into a smile. “Oh, well, it’s, um...wild cherry and jewel orchid, or something like that. I can’t really remember. It’s supposed to be for curlier hair...” Plucking at her ponytail to show me just how curly her hair wasn’t, she shrugged with a rueful grin. “But it’s my favorite scent, so I use it anyway.”

“I don’t blame you. I love that smell.” I realized what I’d just said the moment the words left my lips. “I mean...” Mortified, I gaped at her with no idea how I was going to talk my way out of this faux pas, when a commotion on the television caught my attention.

“Are you watching Pysch?” I shut the door behind me and wandered into the living room, remembering the episode she currently had on.

“Yeah. You have me officially addicted. I started watching it last night when Cora was out and almost finished the entire first season in one sitting.”

I began to smile until it struck me what else she’d said.

Cora had been out last night? She hadn’t told me she was goi

ng anywhere. I knew she probably didn’t sit at home alone on the nights I worked, but...

I shook my head. My girlfriend certainly didn’t have to tell me every little move she made. Besides, I hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to her since then. She’d probably tell me all about what she’d done as I drove us to the frat party tonight.

“It’s helping me gag my way through my homework,” Zoey was saying as she settled onto a bare spot of couch that was covered in open textbooks. Sending me a brief accusing glance, she added, “You forgot to warn me how tough Gilcrest was. I mean...” She held up a stapled stack of papers and shook it at me. “This syllabus is insane.”

“You’re studying biology?”

Oh, man. Soaking in bio and watching Psych? I wondered if I could talk her into trading places with me for the evening.

“Yes. So I’m really hoping you were serious about those notes you were offering to share.”

With a chuckle, I reached back and pulled out the sheets I’d rolled into a tube and shoved into my back pocket. Waving them at her, I stepped in to hand them over. “I was.”

“Oh, thank God. You’re amazing.” She snagged them from my outstretched hand. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She hugged the roll to her cheek and then kissed it.

My skin heated as I watched her press her lips to the paper I’d just had in my back pocket. She seemed to realize the intimacy of the moment a second later, because she froze, then glanced at me with a guilty cringe before she blushed and slowly moved my notes away from her mouth.

“Sorry. That was...really weird, wasn’t it?”

Actually, it made me feel better for all the mortifying things I’d done and said since she’d opened the door. I sniffed and waved an unconcerned hand. “Not at all. I kiss my homework all the time.”