With Every Heartbeat (Forbidden Men 4)

But thinking thoughts like that made me uncomfortably warm. Quinn Hamilton really needed to stop being so nice and pleasant to me. It gave my poor, pathetic heart thoughts it shouldn’t be having.

From here on out, I decided, I was going to keep myself as distant from him as possible, because guys like that were just too potent for girls like me.

Cora was sleeping soundly on the other side of the mattress when I woke. She liked to sleep in a lot. I swear, she’d sleep till noon every day if she could.

I turned my head and watched her breathe, relieved she’d forgiven me last night.

I knew I’d messed up. I was awful at talking about myself or my friends. I was awful at talking, period. But she’d been so mad at me. Her accusing words still haunted my ears.

“You made me look like a clueless idiot, Quinn.”

“No,” I’d tried to tell her. “You didn’t look like an idiot. You—”

“Looked like an idiot,” she snapped.

So I attempted to explain why everything had to be kept a secret. Just because there were a few rumors floating around campus about the reason Aspen had been fired didn’t mean people actually knew the truth. But if the truth got out, her entire future could be compromised. She might never find another teaching job again. And Noel would be crushed.

But Cora hadn’t cared about any of that. She’d just cared that I hadn’t

felt the need to tell her such juicy gossip. It would’ve been bad of me to point out how much she and her friends like to spread rumors, whether they were true or not. Telling Cora anything confidential was usually too risky. So I just kept apologizing and promising I’d never keep anything from her again. And finally, she’d loosened up and given in.

After a quick kiss to her cheek while she continued to sleep, I crawled out of bed and pulled on my clothes from last night.

Foregoing my socks and shoes, I padded through the quiet apartment. After a quick freshening up in the bathroom, I headed toward the kitchen. I found the griddle under the sink where I’d cleaned and left it last Saturday. After plugging it in to heat, I hunted up some eggs, vegetable oil, and milk. The pancake mix was right where I’d last left it, too.

I had the batter whipped up and was about to pour my special happy faces when I heard someone enter the kitchen behind me. The startled gasp let me know it wasn’t Cora.

Every short hair on the back of my neck stood at immediate attention.

I whirled around. “Hi. Good morning,” I rushed out the greeting. “Hungry?”

Zoey jerked to a halt, gaping badly. She had her hair down. This was the first time I’d seen it down. It was still tousled and uncombed, fresh from bed. It made me uncomfortable, as did the rest of her outfit. Sure, her shirt was a lot looser than the one she’d worn last night to the car wash, but it was so large the sleeve on one side had slipped down and fallen off one smooth, creamy shoulder. Her shorts were once again short enough to expose plenty of her slim, toned legs.

Not good. I really had to stop looking at her legs.

So, I did, forcing my attention to her face. Except her green eyes were so bright and innocent today. They caused a catch in my throat.

She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as she took her attention away from me to study the mess I’d made of the counters.

“Don’t worry,” I said, motioning to everything. “I’ll clean all this up.”

It still seemed to take her a minute to soak in what I was actually doing, though. Her gaze finally slid back to me. “You’re cooking.”

“I...yeah.” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, feeling majorly awkward. “It’s kind of my Saturday morning thing. I...is this okay? I can stop if you want.”

Her eyes grew wide. She obviously wasn’t used to being asked for permission.

“No, it’s fine,” she said. Her gaze drifted over the griddle again before moving back to me. “Do...do you have a key to the apartment, then?”

“A key? No.” Where the heck had that question come from? Then it hit me.

Oh, no.

Cora hadn’t asked her if she minded if I stayed over on some nights, had she?

Since Ten had made it explicitly clear that Cora was not allowed to stay at our apartment, I’d been worried at first when Cora had told me she was going to get a roommate. What if her roommate didn’t want me sleeping in their apartment? We’d never get to stay together overnight again.

But Cora had assured me Zoey was cool with it. As I stared at Zoey, though, I knew Cora had never bothered to even ask her.