Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men 9)

Finding him fully dressed, I immediately pouted. “You have clothes on.”

“I know, I know.” He expelled a dramatic sigh. “You want some really fun morning nookie, I get that. I mean, hello.” He waved a hand over his chest. “Why wouldn’t you? But I’m sorry, baby doll. I’m already running late. I need to get home and shower and change. My first class starts in half an hour.”

He pressed his lips to the base of my neck, kissing me noisily before he pulled away to hop off my bed. “When’s your next night off?” he asked as he tugged on his shoes.

I groaned because I had a pretty full schedule this week. “Thursday.” That was ladies’ night at Forbidden, and only guys worked on ladies’ night.

“So the countdown begins anew.” Pausing to check his phone and type something quickly, he grinned and winked at me before slipping it into his pocket.

My cell chimed a second later as he started for the door.

Frowning, I checked it to see that he’d texted me, saying:

My insides warmed, and my face split with a grin. But just to be contrary, I lifted up and called, “Fifty-eight.”

He laughed and volleyed back, “Fifty-seven and a half.”

And then he was gone, his footsteps echoing down the hall before I heard the front door open and close.

I lay there, depressed a moment, before I checked the time. Eyes shooting wide, I leaped up off my bed, screeching, “Holy shit.” I’d forgot to set my alarm. Like him, I also had half an hour to get up and around before class.

I yanked open my closet and automatically began to reach for something typical and appropriate, but then paused when Colton’s words from the night before echoed through me. Shoving the beige sweater back inside, I reached for the boisterous turquoise top with a huge dream catcher printed across it so that it appeared to be draped over my shoulder. And when I did my hair, I poufed it a little spikier in the back so it looked a bit more like a spirited mess. Then I put a little more color into my makeup, and when I was done, I stepped back and looked at the overall picture.

I liked it, I thought I looked cute, and that was all that mattered.

Unable to stop grinning, I began to leave the apartment until a phone call stopped me.

“Oh my God,” Sasha screeched into my ear. “I left my book bag at home and I have a paper in there to turn in to my English professor in an hour and twenty minutes. Please tell me you haven’t left the apartment yet.”

“You are so lucky,” I told her. “I was just about to walk out the door. Is it in your room?”

“Yes, right on my bed. Thank you, Juli. I owe you so big.”

“No problem,” I answered, backtracking to her room. I was actually honored to get her things for her. She’d called me for help, not Tyla. I was pathetically pleased by that until it struck me, she might’ve called Tyla first only to discover Ty wasn’t home.

My eagerness to please her deflated a little at realizing I was probably second choice, but I was still happy to help.

“Where do you want to meet?” I asked as I scooped her bag off her unmade bed and hurried from the apartment with both our things.

“How about by the Viking statue in the quad right before my eleven o’clock class.”

“Okay.” That meant I had to carry around both her and my things through first hour. “I’ll see you then.”

My nine thirty class lasted only an hour when it was supposed to run closer to an hour and a half, so I made it to the quad almost half an hour early. I sat on the bench next to the statue of Victor, ESU’s school mascot, and I tried to read a little from my Kindle, but Colton had ruined the story for me. When I got to the part where the hero said he could see heaven when he looked at her pussy, I snorted and put the book away. I was tempted to text him and call him a reading ruiner, but Sasha showed up, gushing her gratitude as she swiped up her bag and unzipped it to make sure she had her paper inside.

Then she hugged me, and we talked a few minutes until she decided she needed to go.

We’d just parted ways, Sasha heading one direction and me starting the other.

When I caught sight of Colton up ahead, I slowed to a stop.

He stood just off the sidewalk in the grass with one foot propped up against the seat of a nearby bench, while some tiny blonde bimbo preened in front of him, twining a piece of hair around her finger as she freaking flirted with him.

Flirted with my man.

Shading the sunlight with his hand, he nodded at something she said and then laughed.

The bastard laughed.