EVERY TIME MY HEART BREAKS (Forbidden Men Spin-Off)

3. Chloe-1

3 CHLOE

“Wha-what’re you doing here?” I demanded, frowning and shaking my head in confusion as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. Because Luke in a girls’ bathroom was just all out of place.

“What?” He lifted his hands as if my question was the craziest part in all of this. “I had to take a piss.” Then he rolled his eyes and dropped his arms as he strolled toward me, not at all intimidated by his surroundings. “I’m looking for you; what do you think?”

“But…” I shook my head. “You can’t just walk into a girls’ bathroom.”

“Really?” he countered with raised eyebrows. “Because it looks like I just did.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Luke could be so aggravating. I swear, he had to argue with just about everything a person said.

“But why did you come?” I pressed.

Bella or Bentley, I would’ve expected. Maybe even Gracen, and less likely Beau. But Luke? Never. He wasn’t the type to care about a person’s feelings enough to seek them out and check on them.

At least, I didn’t think he was.

“Because apparently,” he answered, sounding put out that he had to be here as he paused in front of me and sternly set his hands on his hips. “I’m the only one left who can. All the other members in your little band of misfits got into a fight in the middle of the f*****g dance floor—go figure—so I had to wade in and save the damn day. Only to find out it all started because of you, except you were nowhere to be found. So they all freaked out, worried as hell about you, although none of them can actually look for you, since they’re currently banned from the dance and are right now prowling the parking lot in concern. Which left it up to me to leave my date and come find you.”

I snorted and wiped my eyes the rest of the way dry. “Well, I’m so sorry I’m such a troublemaker that made you leave your date at the dance. You can go back now and tell everyone I’m fine; I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Yeah, f**k that.” His grumpy scowl turned into a grin as he plopped down next to me so he could press his back to the wall. Then he sighed in relief. “I’m going to hide in here with you for a minute. I’ve been praying for a good reason to shed Malia all damn night.” Rolling his head along the wall to glance my way, he whispered, “She smells like body odor, and it’s so rank… I can’t breathe around her. I’m not even lying.”

I snorted out a laugh, trying to imagine what Gracen’s expression would’ve looked like if he’d gotten to dance with Malia, after all, only to take a big whiff of her and wrinkle his nose in disgust.

Luke leaned toward me, sniffing noisily. “At least you don’t stink,” he added, only to pause as he started to pull away again. His brow furrowed, and he leaned back in. “Actually, you smell really good. Damn, what the hell is that?”

“Japanese Cherry Blossom,” I answered, holding my wrist up for him to smell more, even though he could obviously smell me just fine already. “Your brother bought it for me, actually.”

When Luke paused from taking my arm and lifting it to his nose so he could send me a curious glance, I added, “He drew my name for the Christmas exchange last year.”

“Ah.” He nodded at the explanation, then closed his eyes as he inhaled, keeping my wrist firmly in place under his nose. “Yes. God bless Big J. He’s always had a nose for the finer things.”

“It’s my favorite scent,” I said, watching the way his long, dark lashes rested on the tops of his cheeks and his wide shoulders lifted as he inhaled some more.

“I can see why,” he murmured, his voice going a notch deeper. Then he opened his eyes, and piercing blue captured me completely. “And that’s why I’m just going to sit here for a quick break and fill my nose with this heaven before I have to go back out there to the stink queen.”

I grinned, despite the fact that he wasn’t saying very nice stuff about poor Malia. It was all to my benefit, at least, so a very vain and smug pride filled me like a soothing balm for my bruised ego.

“Help yourself,” I told him, my gaze straying to his dark hair as he bent his face over my arm again, making a ridiculous production of sniffing me.

“Thank you,” he said, looking up to grin.

He had such an open, magnetic smile, all rascally and mischievous as if he were sharing a dirty secret with me. But as he gazed around my face, his lips settled, and his brows drew together in concern.

Jerking up his chin in my direction, he finally said, “So what gives with the sob fest you got going on?”

I deflated, remembering that again.

For a moment there, with Luke smelling my arm and looking up at me with that smile and those eyes, I’d completely forgotten why I was sitting here alone with him in the first place.

And then I had to wonder if I’d ever been alone with him before.

I’d known this boy my entire life, and I don’t think we’d ever once shared a one-on-one conversation together, where no one else was around to butt in or participate.

It was…strange.

Almost like I was sitting next to a stranger.

A very handsome, thrilling stranger.

Multiple shivers raced over my skin, up the back of my neck, between my toes, around my chest, and up the insides of my thighs.

I studied him a bit harder, wondering if he’d always had that speck of gold in the irises of his eyes before. It was captivating as hell.

Luke squinted at me. “Chlo?” he prompted, reminding me that we were in the middle of a conversation, and it was my turn to talk.

“What? Sorry.” I blinked and glanced away, hugging myself. “Right, so we overheard Caine Spinnaker and his friends making fun of me, calling me the Pillsbury Doughboy who needed to be rolled in butter and stuff like that.”

Luke’s mouth gaped, and he stared blankly at me for a moment as if he couldn’t decide if he believed me or not. Then he demanded in a hard voice, “Are you f*****g serious?”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Why would I lie about that?”

He released a harsh breath, then slowly shook his head. “Well, thank God Gamble and the Lowes already pounded on him for me because I would’ve put the douche nozzle in a coma. Gah…” He gritted his teeth and snarled, “I never did like that little dipshit.”

I flushed hotly and glanced away.

“What?” Luke asked.

I swung back and frowned at him, repeating, “What?”

His brow furrowed. “You blushed and looked away like…” One eyebrow arched in censure. Then he winced. “Ah, hell no. You didn’t actually have a crush on that dirtball, did you? Chloe!”

“What?” I cried defensively. “I’m sorry. I thought he was cute.”

“Cute?” He snorted in disgust. “Christ.” After ripping a hand through his hair, he shook his head and sighed. “We need to work on your taste in boys. Seriously.”

“And what’s worse,” I went on because I’d already humiliated myself this far. “I was hoping he’d ask me to dance tonight. I picked this dress, thinking I’d look sexy and would impress him. Ugh. I’m such an idiot.”

When I bumped my head back against the wall and frowned up at the ceiling, I could see Luke from the corner of my eye, still looking at me.

“Well…” he said a moment later. “An i***t, you are not. A little challenged in your taste in guys? Definitely. But you nailed the sexy part at least. Your boobs look, like, enormous in that thing. A dude would have to be dead not to notice them.”

I lifted my head from the wall to scowl at him. “All of me looks enormous in this thing,” I countered.

“Meh. Not really,” he argued. “The boobs stand out so much that the rest of you is just kind of like a nice, pleasant, and curvy backdrop.” Lifting his hands, he formed a rectangle so he could look at my chest through the makeshift frame. And then, with a nod, he murmured, “Yeah. You have a grade-A rack, Ryan. Very nice.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I scowled. “Can we not talk about my breasts, please?”

“Sure. I guess.” He dropped his hands. “But you brought them up.”

Snorting, I came away from the wall to glare even harder at him. “No, I didn’t!”

“You didn’t?” Scratching his head in confusion, he thought that through before lifting his brows and shrugging. “Well, okay, then. I’m still fine with talking about them if you are.”

“I’m not!” I nearly shouted.

“Jesus. Alright.” He pulled back defensively. “We don’t have to talk about how they’re right there, all up in my face, ready to spill out any moment, and it’d probably take me, like, five extra hands to catch everything so I could help you tuck them back away again if they did take a tumble.”

“Oh my God,” I groaned, slapping a hand to my forehead as my annoyance for him shriveled with amusement. “You are such a dork.” Then, because I couldn’t help it, I blurted out a laugh.

I’d just never had a conversation like this with anyone before.

Luke merely shrugged. “You sound surprised. Why’re you saying that with such shock as if the thought had never occurred to you before?”

“Because it hadn’t,” I admitted honestly and hissed out another laugh.

Tipping his head, Luke eyed me oddly. “Really?” he said with interest. “And here I thought I was a pretty obvious dork.”

“What?” My mouth fell open. “How can you say that? You’re like…the cool senior. The top dog. You swagger down the halls at school as if you don’t give a hoot what anyone else thinks about you.”

His brows lifted. “A hoot?” he repeated with his lips tightening as if he was trying to hold in a laugh at my expense. “Did you seriously just say a hoot?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “A s**t, then,” I said, revising my sentence to keep him from laughing. “Like you don’t give a s**t what anyone else thinks.”

“That’s because I don’t,” he reported, frowning in confusion. “I fail to see how that keeps me from being a dork.”

“Because…” I blustered, not sure how to answer. “I don’t know! It makes you look all self-confident and chill and just…and… God! How can you not care what anyone else thinks?” I demanded, only to roll my eyes and rage, “That’s just so… Ugh! Maybe if I had a perfect body as you do, I could just stop myself from caring, too.”

“Chloe!” he berated harshly as he gently touched my arm.

I whirled toward him to rail some more, just upset with the entire world. But he cupped my face in his hands, stunning me quiet before his thumbs came up and brushed away some tears from the corners of my eyes that I hadn’t even realized had fallen.

“Stop,” he said, shaking his head. “I still care what people think, okay? I’m just selective about who I give that right to. Only important people, like you, get my hoots. Got it?”

“But how do I keep from caring about the rest of them?” I asked, more tears flooding my eyes. Leaning forward, I pressed my forehead to his.

Luke released a breath as he pressed back “Well, for starters,” he said, finally pulling away to straighten the hair around my face with his fingers. “We gotta teach you not to form crushes on dipshits like Caine Spinnaker.” Sniffing bitterly, he shook his head as if he still needed a moment to adjust to that one. “I mean, Caine Spinnaker…”

The way he so ridiculously lifted his voice and stressed the Ns made me giggle.

“Don’t say it like that,” I ordered. “You make it sound stupid.”

“He is stupid,” Luke countered.

I laughed again, only to end it with a sob. Luke wiped more tears off my cheeks. I squeezed my eyes shut. “I feel stupid.”

“No,” he assured as he tugged me against him to enfold me in a hug. As we sat there and swayed slowly back and forth on the bench in the bathroom, he added, “You’re not stupid. Not at all. We all mess up every once in a while and give more importance to some people than we should. Hell, look at me. I thought Malia would make a good date for this damn dance. Now, I still have to take her home tonight. I’m going to have to air my car out for a f*****g week after this. But mistake learned, right?”