A PERFECT TEN (Forbidden Men #5)

3. Caroline-2

As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized I’d messed up. The girl meeting him tonight had already been with him, meaning I should already know about such inclinations.

He didn’t call me on it, though, which made me frown in confusion after a second of petrified horror, waiting for him to figure it out. He merely leaned in to smell my hair. “Since you still showed up, I’m guessing that idea doesn’t totally disgust you.”

Unable to help myself, I jumped when he set his palm on my hip. The heat from his fingers scorched viciously through my dress until it had my already hard n*****s tightening into oversensitive nubs.

He paused. And I knew—just knew—he was going to figure me out, turn on the light and force Noel’s misbehaving little sister from his room. But an unimaginably long breath later, he shifted his hand, sliding it around to the front of my abdomen.

“What’re you so jumpy about, honey?” His chest pressed lightly into my back, urging me to bend over the table some more. Moving naturally with him, I shifted my legs farther apart and rested my elbows on the smooth wooden top. My palms were damp and slipped a little across the surface until I found a nice sturdy grip around the beveled edge.

“Not scared,” I answered. “Worried...just worried you’re not going to be able to get me off. I’m kind of a hard nut to crack.” Sander had only managed to make me come once, and that had been with tongue and fingers, never his c**k.

That was so not what I was worried about with Oren, though. But it made me sound a lot less unsure about this entire thing than I felt. Made me sound confident, sexy, in charge.

I was Caroline. Hear me roar.

“Oh, I’ll get you off, sweetness. You don’t need to worry about that.”

He gathered my skirt up to my waist. And ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod, this was really happening. A light breeze wafted between my bare thighs. My head went light from freaking myself into a dizzy mess!

Should I stop him?

I should totally stop him.

Oh God. I didn’t stop him.

Warm, slightly roughened hands gripped my legs and slid up, and yeah...we definitely wouldn’t have to worry about him not being able to get me off.

“Oren,” I moaned, bowing my head down and biting my lip. My eager thighs quivered in delight under his caress.

Until he stopped moving. Damn it! I really need to remember to check my voice.

But he didn’t mention that. Instead, he muttered, “It’s just Ten.”

“What?” I blinked my eyes open and lifted my face, even though I still couldn’t see a damn thing, and I wouldn’t have seen him even if a light had been on since he was behind me.

“Just call me Ten.”

Crinkling my brow, I said, “I like Oren better.”

His hands left me completely. “Well, tough s**t. I hate that f*****g name. Only family is allowed to call me that.”

Huh. Really? He didn’t seem to mind when Caroline called him Oren. Did that mean he considered me family? Because I’d never called him anything but that, and he’d never once corrected me.

I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe he only saw me as a sister figure. That was creepy. If he ever found out about tonight, he’d be disgusted, thinking he’d done his surrogate sister.

“Fine.” I straightened, refusing to voice my disappointment. “I guess I’ll go, then.” It’d been stupid to think we could be anything more anyway.

What the hell had I been trying to accomplish? Even if I’d been able to sleep with him, I’d still never have him, have him. Going through with this would’ve led to nothing but heartbreak.

I pushed away from him, and he fell back a step, letting me go. Angry at myself for being a complete i***t and angry at him for letting me leave so easily, I stumbled through the dark until I rammed my fingers into the door. With a pained curse, I fumbled for the knob, but when I couldn’t find it within two seconds I growled out more of my frustration and flopped onto the floor in defeat, sitting with my back to the door as I cradled my head in my hands.

“What’s such a big deal about saying Oren, anyway?” I felt sulky and yet heartbroken, realizing I still wasn’t going to get the one thing I wanted most. Him.

“Because,” he mumbled, sounding reluctant. “It’s the last word to leave my sister’s bloody lips before she died in my arms.”

“Oh.” I shuddered, my voice barely a whisper. “Oh, hell.”

“Yeah,” he murmured.

Gulping with unease and sorrow, and shame, I wondered what I was supposed to do now. I blew out a breath and tried to control the sudden shaking in my entire frame. But what the hell? Why did he have to go and confess something like that to me? I hadn’t even known he’d had a sister. s**t, I didn’t know he had family at all. As far as I was concerned, he could’ve sprouted fully horny out the side of some Zeus dude’s head.

I covered my mouth with a shaky hand. How could I not already know about this? I’d made it a point to know everything there was to know about him. I doubt Noel even knew, because my brother would’ve mentioned it at some point. Right?

Discovering it now, though, told me how much it had left him traumatized. He hadn’t told anyone in our group, or I’d know. That meant he still couldn’t talk about it, was repressing the pain. I wondered how long ago—

“So...” he said in a conversational tone that I swear was laced with worry. Did he regret telling me what he’d just told me? “I can’t help but notice you’re still here.”

I sniffed and wiped my face, even though I wasn’t crying. I just wanted to cry. A lot. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’ll go.”

But as soon as I put my hands down on the floor to push myself up, he said, “I didn’t say you had to go.”

Shuffling in the dark told me he was coming closer. And then I swear he knelt in front of me. “s**t. You’re not crying, are you?”

“No.” My face heated with shame, horrified he even knew I wanted to. I felt so stupid...and small. “But I am sorry. About your sister. I didn’t know.”

“Well, no one knew, so...” He trailed off as if he was shrugging.

“Why didn’t you ever tell anyone about it?”

“Because I didn’t want to talk about it. Why are you still here, not-crying on my bedroom floor?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled. “Because I feel like a big, stupid failure, I guess. This was my one and only chance to be with you, and I...I royally f****d it up.”

I caught my breath, realizing I’d slipped again. This wasn’t the one and only chance Kelly—who I was still supposed to be—had gotten to be with him. Why did I keep butchering this?

And why wasn’t he catching any of my mistakes?

“I wouldn’t say royally.” His voice seemed to move closer, seemingly clueless about my failed impersonation. “I mean, I’m still here. You’re still here. And I’m not exactly hard to get.”

I snorted. Yeah, he was so easy. This was only my third failed attempt to get into his pants.

“Damn. You really wanted me tonight, didn’t you?” The idea seemed to amaze him.

With a roll of my eyes, I sighed. He seriously couldn’t be so oblivious about how much women wanted him, could he? “If you could feel how wet I am, you wouldn’t even have to ask that.”

“Well...okay.” He sounded as if he’d just accepted an invitation. When his hand landed on my ankle, I jumped out of my skin with a started yelp.

“What the hell? What’re you doing?”

His fingers stole up my calf. “You just told me to feel how wet you are. Invitation accepted.”

“No, I didn’t. You know what I meant. Oren!”

“Shh,” he warned, reminding me I wasn’t supposed to call him that. “You know you want this.”

“Oh, good Lord.” I groaned and slapped a hand to my forehead. “Of all the corny things to—”

I broke off with a gasp when Oren discovered just how wet I was.

“Holy f*****g s**t. You’re not wearing any panties.” His fingers were sure but gentle as they moved between my legs, swiping through the moisture before finding my clit.

“Wait. You can’t...” I grabbed his wrist but didn’t stop him. I didn’t want him to stop.

“I can’t what?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” I panted, my legs loosening as his thumb rolled over the most sensitive little muscle in my entire body with a merciless precision. “Was I talking?”

He chuckled. “You really are this wet just for me, aren’t you?”

“Who else?” I moaned and arched up my hips. That’s why I was here, why I was risking everything to be here. Learning about his sister only made me feel closer to him. I wanted to soothe his soul, tame the poor, wild, hurting boy, and experience every physical intimacy with him while I was at it.

Even if he was only here to get off in some random chick— Wait. Thinking of it that way didn’t help anything.

I squeezed my eyes closed. Could I be any more of an i***t than I was now?

“Damn,” he breathed. He pressed at least two fingers inside me and we both sucked in a breath. My eyes flew open as I panted through the pleasure and ground against his hand, needing more.

He groaned. “I want to smell it.” Abandoning my p***y to grip my hips, he tugged me away from the door and toward him. “Slide this way, will you, sweetness?”

Once he had me where he wanted me, he gathered my skirt up to my waist, split my legs open wider, and then gripped my ass cheeks to lift me a couple inches off the floor. A second later, his breath heated me there.

I damn near came. “Oh God. Oh God.”

“f**k,” he gasped. “You smell good. Makes me want to...taste.”

The mere word had my eyes rolling into the back of my head. But then a wet heat touched me. Knowing it was his tongue—him—I couldn’t take it. I came hard, gasping and grabbing his hair, quivering out of control.

What? It’d been a freaking year since a male had been anywhere near there. I couldn’t help it. And knowing it was Oren made it...yeah. No way was I holding that baby back.

So, I didn’t.

And Oren lapped it up until I was an exhausted, panting mess under him. “Christ, woman. You’re f*****g sensitive. Too sensitive. I was kind of hoping to feel you go off around me, let these sweet, tight walls here milk my c**k while I thrust inside you.”

When he lightly circled the opening of my p***y, I gritted my teeth and bowed up, taut and ready again.

The movement of his finger slowed. “Holy s**t. Are you...?” As if experimenting, he slid two fingers in me. I gasped and squeezed my thighs around his wrist. “Goddamn.” He sounded amazed. “You are ready again?”

“I... I...” I wasn’t sure. I was still riding the last orgasm he’d given me, but I also felt like a live wire. If his c**k wasn’t in me within thirty seconds—

His fingers jerked free, and I cried out from the loss. “No.”

“Just...hold on. I’m...damn. f**k. Where did I put the condom?”

“What?” I sobbed, nearly in tears. If he lost his condom, I was going to hurt him. No one had riled me up like this before. I was so turned on I felt like a hair trigger. Just one more touch and I could blow...again.