A Perfect Ten (Forbidden Men 5)

He laughed. “Sorry, but I’m already taken.” And thank God he was. His love for Zoey was the only thing ensuring his silence right now. “Let me talk to her again,” he demanded.

“Sure.” I happily handed the phone over.

I watched Zoey spew out apology after apology before she gushed on about her love for him. I was beginning to think it was unnatural how quickly those two forgave and made up by the time she finally finished the call. But whatever. I liked seeing them make up probably more than I’d like to see them fight…if they ever did fight.

It was also unnatural how they never fought.

“Don’t forget to erase his call from the phone’s history,” I cautioned.

She did and then handed it over. I had to take my own from my pocket to retrieve the new number I’d given myself, and then I plugged the details into Oren’s. A thrill raced through me as I saved my new information.

I was about to click out of his address book when I noticed the name Marci Bennett. My fingers froze as I stared at the name of the bitch who’d ratted Aspen and Noel out to Aspen’s boss and gotten her fired. I didn’t like seeing her name in Oren’s phone. And I liked even less knowing what it meant by being in there.

Sick nausea swamped me. Had he been with Marci Fucking Bennett? I suddenly wanted to cut his penis off. But then I loved his penis. I loved how it had felt in me, how it had moved and—damn it! Why did he have to go and share it with every fucking woman he met?

Before I could stop them, my fingers started to delete the number. But Zoey caught my wrist. “What’re you doing?”

“He has Marci Bennett’s name in here. Marci...Bennett.”

Zoey blinked blankly. “Who?”

“The bitch who wanted Noel for herself, so she took pictures of him and Aspen together to get my sister-in-law fired from her job.”

“Oh.” Zoey’s mouth fell open. “Her. Well...” She bit her lip and looked down at Marci’s name in Oren’s address book, wincing.

“This is his little black book, isn’t it? All the women he’s ever slept with have their digits in here. I can’t believe I was so stupid to think...I don’t know. I don’t know what I was even thinking to accomplish by coming here tonight and breaking into his phone.”

“You can’t blame him for women he had in the past, Caroline. I mean, Cora is the last person on the planet I want to have carnal knowledge of Quinn, but she’s probably the one who taught him half of the stuff we do together. And yes, that does bother me. But if I let it consume me, it would. If you can’t get over what Ten did before he ever met you, then—”

“But what if he does it tonight? Or tomorrow or...hell, Zoey. I was just another Friday-night hookup to him. Nothing—absolutely nothing is keeping him from moving on to his next score.”

“I thought that was why you put your new number into his phone.” Zoey motioned to it, looking suddenly uncertain. “You were going to keep his attention on you so he wouldn’t...” But her words drifted off as if she too realized that probably wouldn’t work.

Oren wouldn’t just out-of-the-blue decide to become monogamous to some stranger in the dark who refused to show him her face or tell him her name.

“I can’t text him, saying, ‘Your dick is now mine. Get it near any other woman, and I’ll physically remove it from you and keep it in a jar by my bedside.’ That would sound a bit creepy.”

“Actually, I was thinking it sounded a lot creepy.”

I huffed out a breath and shoved at her shoulder. “Whatever. I can’t...I just can’t...”

But then I glanced toward the bar. No one had started up on karaoke since the last person had finished singing, so a regular song was playing through the speakers and Ten was bobbing his head to the beat as he filled a pitcher with beer at the tap.

After he handed it over to the waiting customer and accepted the payment, he danced his way toward the cash register where Noel was counting out change. Oren said something to my brother before he turned his back to Noel, pooched out his ass and pretended to booty grind against Noel’s leg.

I couldn’t help it; I laughed while Noel shoved him away before letting out a reluctant grin and shaking his head.

That right there was what always drew me back to Oren: his lighthearted, carefree, potty-mouth ways that made him uniquely him. It didn’t seem to matter what anyone thought of him; he just went his own way, did his own thing, and managed to build up loyalties for those he called friends that were unbreakable.

“Okay, maybe I can handle his...filthy past,” I told Zoey.

I glanced at her, feeling bolstered. I’d been waffling all day, knowing what I’d done was wrong and wanting to do it again anyway. But now...now I felt totally certain. I had to see him again.

“We need to get this phone back where you found it.”

Zoey nodded and began to reach for it, but I shook my head. It had been beyond lucky she hadn’t gotten caught the first time she’d gone to the bar. A second trip would be too risky.

Skimming my gaze over the bar to make sure Noel or Oren hadn’t spotted us yet, I froze when I made eye contact with the third bartender. Asher smiled and started to wave, but I shook my head frantically and slashed my hand across my throat, asking him to stop.