A Perfect Ten

Damn, she was good.



But, oh, was it a relief to finally confide in someone.



“Umm...” Zoey wrapped both hands around the steering wheel as if she needed to hold on to something stable to brace herself. “If that’s code for something else, I don’t...I don’t understand.”



Glancing around to make sure no one was listening in, even though we were sitting alone in a closed car in the dark—hey, she might’ve stashed Quinn in the backseat—I leaned over the center console and confessed, “That wasn’t code. For anything. I truly, honestly had sex with him. Last night.”



“But that doesn’t...” She shook her head. “Wait. What?” Her eyes flew open wide and she slapped both hands over her mouth. “You mean, you’re Midnight Visitor?”



“Who?”



“Quinn told me... Oh good Lord, Caroline. Please don’t tell me you snuck into his room last night in the dark and...and...well, without him even knowing it was you. Did you?”



“I snuck into his dark room without him knowing it was me and had sex with him last night...twice. Well, twice for him. Four boom-booms for me.”



Zoey sucked in a breath and clutched her hands to her chest. “Holy shit,” she said, a girl who’d probably only spoken three curse words aloud in her entire life. “Oh God. Why did you tell me this?” she began in a chanting kind of voice as she spoke more to herself than to me. “You shouldn’t have told me this. I should not know this.”



“I had to tell someone,” I argued. “Because, wow, my mind is completely blown right now. It was good. Oh my God, it was sooo good, Zoey. Like...I want to build a room inside my panties and force him to live there permanently kind of good. No way in hell can I keep this to myself. And you’re my best friend. Who else could I tell?”



“But he’s my roommate,” she cried. “And Quinn’s—oh, no. Quinn. I can’t keep this from Quinn.”



“Uh, yes, you can. No way can Quinn know about this. He’ll tell Oren, or worse...Noel.”



“Noel,” Zoey gasped. “Holy shit. If Noel found out—”



“I know,” I hissed. “So you’re just going to have to keep this between the two of us.”



Zoey gulped, but backed us from the driveway. “Why?” she finally asked. “Why did you put me in this position? Really? What did I ever do to you?”



I patted her arm, suddenly feeling less stressed and more cheerful now that I’d gotten the secret off my chest. “Just a perk of being my best friend.”



When she sent me a dry glance across the car’s darkened interior, I grinned. Finally, she sighed and loosened her shoulders. “So...why did you do it? I mean, I know how much you like him, but this just seems...a bit extreme.”



A bit? Ha! I adored her understatements.



Not really sure how to explain it because it’d been one of those rash, didn’t-take-the-time-to-think-it-through ideas, I shrugged. “Once upon a time, you said he liked me back.”



“He does, Caroline, but I also told you why he stays away.”



I snorted and glanced out the side window. “And I told you if he really liked me as much as I like him, then I wasn’t going to let my brother come between us. And I didn’t, did I? By doing it this way, I can protect both Noel and Oren. Noel will never know, and Oren won’t either, so he never has to feel guilty about it. It’s basically the perfect solution.”



“Riiiight.”



I scowled at her for the sarcastic tone. I was supposed to be the witty, sarcastic one of the two of us. She was the sweet, supportive friend. Why was I not feeling the sweet support?



Oh, yeah. Because I’d finally gone off the deep end, and no way could anyone—even Zoey Blakeland—support this.



“You know, he already told both Quinn and Noel about you. They’re calling you the Midnight Visitor.”



I cringed as nausea churned in my stomach. “He did tell Noel, then? Damn. I was afraid of that.”



“Well, what did you expect? This is Ten we’re talking about. He’s not exactly the private type when it comes to sharing sex details.”



“I know.” I groaned. “But...I just couldn’t help it, Zoey. He’s...he’s so...he’s Oren. Everything inside me comes alive whenever he’s around. I’ve been crazy about him for so long, wanted him for months, it was starting to drive me batty. And he was never going to do anything about it. You know that.”



Zoey gave a thoughtful nod. “You’re right. He wouldn’t have. Despite all his flaws—”