A Perfect Ten (Forbidden Men 5)

Her brow puckered in confusion. “Asher fucked with you? How?”

Feeling like a petulant child who was tattling on a bully, I rested my face on her shoulder and slipped my hand around her waist, only to let my palm wander down until I had it under her skirt and smoothing across her bare bottom. “He figured us out when you enlisted him to help break into my phone. So to give me a hard time tonight, he tried to start a contest with me to see who could get the most chicks’ phone numbers by the end of the night, knowing I couldn’t say no in front of your brother.”

When she tensed against me, I caught her elbow to keep her from going anywhere. “Don’t worry. I didn’t get a single number. I didn’t even try. The fucker just pissed me off for making the challenge in the first place.”

When I looked up, I saw relief on Caroline’s face. Beaming at me, she murmured, “My poor Oren. It’s tough being a reformed man-whore, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” I puckered out my bottom lip to make her laugh.

Actually, the reformed part wasn’t so tough at all; it was pretending to my best friend that I still was one that sucked ass.

“So you promise not to flirt with him ever again, right?” I pressed.

“Hmm?” She seemed too distracted with kissing her way across my jaw to answer. I scowled and snapped my fingers in front of her face.

“Focus, Caroline. Hart. The flirting. You’re done with that. Right?”

She blinked and looked up at me with raised eyebrows. “Wow. You’re really jealous of him.”

“I’m not jealous,” I muttered. But she seemed so happy about the idea that I let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “It’s just that you seem so...fucking close to him.”

She shrugged. “Well...I am. I guess. I mean, we’re friends.”

“Friends,” I repeated in a dry tone as I lifted my eyebrows to stare right back at her.

The damn woman laughed at my irritation. “Well, you’re awfully close to Zoey,” she reminded me.

“And you know exactly why,” I bit out, loathing this conversation the more it played out.

With a nod, she smiled. “I do. You think of her as a sister. Well...the same holds true for me and Asher, I guess.”

I couldn’t stop a snort of disbelief from blurting out. “You think of him as a brother?” When she nodded, I cocked her a look, totally not buying it. “So you don’t find him attractive at all.”

“Oh God, yes. Asher’s freaking gorgeous.”

“Gorgeous?” I wasn’t expecting her to use quite that strong of a word. “That pencil-thin stick of a musician?”

Her fingers trailed up my j

awline, distracting me. “Mmm. He has a very arresting face.”

I lowered my nose and rubbed it along hers. “But you like my face better.”

It was a question even though I worded it as a statement. Caroline’s grin spread. “What do you think? It was your room I snuck into so I could be with you, not his.”

Hearing her say that made me feel better. But I caught her hand to keep it from distracting me. “I think I’m fucking confused. He’s the one with the gorgeous body, the arresting face, the perfect voice and awesome attitude. I’m an asshole. So, why was it my room you chose?”

Her hand broke free of my grip to slide into my hair, and the other followed until she’d caged my face in her palms. “Because you’re the one I want.”

I loved hearing that. God, how I loved hearing that. But as she leaned up to kiss me, I caught her again, stopping her.

“But why?” She could do so much better than a fucked-up jackwad like me. “Why me?”

She paused when she realized I was serious. Her gaze softened and her lips tipped up into the most beautiful smile. “Do you remember the day we met?”

It was seared into my brain forever, so I nodded. “Yeah.”

“You went out and bought us all breakfast,” she started.