With Every Heartbeat Read online

  Even though I’d ordered Ten not to compare her with Cora, I did in my head, too. A lot. She always came out the victor. In looks, temperament, compatibility, likeability, even in the bedroom. When it came to sex…wow, there was no contest at all. Zoey lit up in my arms like a wildfire every time I touched her. Her eagerness for me was genuine, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

  With Cora, I’d been clueless, and she’d been the one with all the experience. When we’d dated, I didn’t think I had a problem with that. She taught me what she liked, and I was willing and ready to learn everything I could to please her. But she’d always led. I didn’t think I had a problem with that, either.

  Until Zoey.

  Now, I was the teacher. And I was the one giving her her first experience with every new thing we did. There was something so hot and bonding about that, about knowing I was the only man who’d ever touched her there, or kissed her here. I wanted all her firsts, and I craved each one I took.

  I felt closer to her because I knew every detail about her sexual past. That was probably wrong of me, but I still liked it. And I didn’t just know all her secrets; I was her secret. It made me trust her implicitly. I told myself I should have some reservations. After the way Cora had lied and betrayed me and so absolutely hoodwinked me, I should’ve been wizened and hardened to the next girl who came along. But Zoey was so sweet and innocent I couldn’t summon an iota of doubt over anything she said to me.

  Six days after we started our secret relationship—secret because we didn’t want Cora finding out and making a big deal about it—I went to school anxious and jittery. The last time I’d gotten a chance to see Zoey was yesterday morning in Art Appreciation. I’d had to work last night and I had to again tonight, which meant I wouldn’t get to see her again until tomorrow, Wednesday morning

  I walked to my next class, unable to concentrate on school or think about practice I would be attending later in the afternoon. Coach was finally going to officially label me as a second-string quarterback. I’d been working for this spot for a year now. I should be excited that today was finally the day. Instead, I was tempted to pull out my cell phone and fire off a text to Zoey, even though I’d had a ten-minute conversation with her earlier when I called to say good morning.

  This constant craving for her was driving me nuts.

  But even as my hand went to my back pocket while I strolled along the sidewalk, I spotted her up ahead, walking with Cora in my direction. Neither of them noticed my approach. Soon they would, though. It was inevitable; I was going to walk right by them. I frowned slightly, wondering why they looked so buddy, buddy. I didn’t get a sense from Zoey that she and Cora were even remotely friendly any more.

  But then I heard Cora saying, “You won’t forget, right? This Saturday? It can’t be rescheduled,” and I figured it had to be something about their apartment.

  “I won’t forget.” Zoey sounded a little irritated by the reminder.

  She was the first to see me. My insides fired to life, and great...I instantly went hard. Remembering every single thing we’d done together, I stared at her a little too intently, and way too obviously. She began to look away, but did a double take before her eyes widened.

  I couldn’t help it. I smiled. When she blushed, I mouthed the word, “Library,” without really thinking what I was doing. I was that desperate for her.

  She darted a quick look at Cora, who was checking something on her phone and didn’t notice me for another half a second.

  “Oh,” Cora said with genuine surprise when she finally looked up. She pushed her chest out and then tossed her hair over her shoulder. It was pathetic how hard she tried to preen in front of me. “Hey there, Quinn.”

  I sniffed, making a face at her, wondering why she thought there was anything friendly, or even civil between us.

  Then my gaze returned to Zoey and my internal organs started burning. I held her stare until they passed and she was gone. I hoped she’d understood my message because I was already veering toward the library, and my mouth was watering to taste her.

  “Umm...is that all you needed from me?” Heart racing, I glanced at Cora and bit my lip, hoping she didn’t notice my eagerness.

  Quinn probably hadn’t even said library. It’d just looked like the word his lips were forming. And heck, even if he had said it, that probably hadn’t meant he wanted me to meet him there. But that’s where I was going anyway.

  Cora snapped her phone shut and sent me a bored glance. “Why would I need anything else from you?” She’d gone over doctors’ appointments with me, and that was pretty much the only thing left between us.

  “I’ll see you then.” I waved a half-hearted goodbye and darted back in the direction I’d just come from.

  I couldn’t get to the library fast enough. When I reached the front doors, I glanced behind me self-consciously just to make sure Cora hadn’t followed me for any reason.

  My heart leapt into my throat when I swear I saw the red top she was wearing and blond hair, but then whoever it was walked behind a building. I blew out a breath, telling myself I was paranoid.

  As I swept inside the front doors, I started grinning. Even the possibility of getting to see him had my blood pounding with excitement. I didn’t have to search; I went straight to our spot. But as I turned down the aisle of books that led there, I slowed to a stop. He wasn’t there.

  My shoulders slumped. But then a breath later, two arms slid around my waist, making me squeak in surprise. I was pulled back against a hard chest I’d recognize anywhere.

  “You came.” His voice was filled with wonder before he spun me around.

  His smile created a buzz that echoed through my entire body. I smiled back and touched his dimple; my lips hurt from stretching them so far. His own smile widened. And then he was pulling me up to his level and kissing me.

  “God, Zoey. I can’t resist you in a pair of jeans or even shorts. But a skirt—” He shook his head even as his palms caught my bare thighs and smoothed their way up the outsides, right under my skirt. “You want to kill me, don’t you?”

  I kissed him a little more desperately, my body coming alive as his heated touch branded my flesh. I climbed him and he pinned me to a wall of books. Then his fingers were skimming under my panties and cupping my bottom.

  “This is so wrong,” I panted out even as I wound my legs around his waist and pressed my forehead to his shoulder when he slid his longest finger over me to find out how wet I already was.

  He bit my neck, right below my ear. “I lose all sense of right and wrong when you’re in a skirt.” With a tortured groan, his finger pushed inside me.

  I choked on a gasp, and lifted my face to look over his shoulder. “What if someone catches us?”

  “What?” His teeth nipped at my throat and his fingers pumped me faster.

  “Quinn,” I tried to resist, but I was too busy moving with him. I didn’t want him to stop, so my warning came out sounding a little too much like a plea.

  “I wish this was my cock,” he whispered into my ear as he added another finger.

  It was embarrassing how easily he could make me come, but a couple strokes later I was biting his shoulder and squirming against him as my release crashed through me.

  “Shh,” he whispered into my ear, and then chuckled at his library pun.

  “I think…I think I need to pass out now.” I curled my arms around him and hid my face in his chest, embarrassed. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

  “Me neither, but it was really hot.”

  I lifted my face, and he sent me a shy yet mischievous smile, making his dimple dip like crazy. Unable to help myself, I kissed his cheek and then whispered into his ear. “I want to finish you, too.”

  His body rippled, letting me know just how much he liked that suggestion, but he shook his head. “I don’t have anything. It’d make a mess.”

  I took a breath and then said, “Not if I swallowed.”

  Quinn’s body fro
ze, his eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. “Y-y-you…” Then he glanced around, “It’d be way more obvious what was going on if someone caught us doing that.”

  The idea excited and scared the crap out of me at the same time. I kind of wanted him to turn me down, but I also kind of wanted him to go for the idea.

  I think he suffered from the same dilemma. Indecision warred across his face. So I said, “If you don’t want me to—”

  “No! I do,” he was quick to correct me. “I really, really do. I just—”

  “Then, I am,” I decided.

  So, I did!

  I was still in a daze three days later, unable to forget what Zoey and I had done in the library together. It was the dirtiest thing I’d ever done and yet, I grinned and my entire body heated every time I remembered it. Even as we sat through art class beside each other on Friday, she blushed every time I stole a glance at her. Then I’d start grinning, unable to stop.

  We were so obvious, Reese leaned toward us and winked, “It’s about time you two finally figured it out.”

  I looked at Zoey. She looked up at me. And we just started smiling all over again.

  I didn’t want to leave her after first hour. But she had biology and I had history. I took history class with Cora, except she hadn’t showed up to it since I’d broken up with her, which was a godsend. Her friend Rachel still showed up, though. She approached me before the professor arrived.

  I was completely suspicious.

  “Hi, Quinn.” She sat beside me, in the spot where Cora usually sat. When I sent her a guarded glance, she smiled and fluttered her lashes. “So, you and Cora are really over, huh?”

  I gave a single, stony nod. “Yep.”

  “That’s too bad. You were the best boyfriend she ever had.” She set her hand on my desk, inches away from where I was resting my elbow. Then her smile widened. “The cutest, too.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her.

  “I bet you’re getting pretty lonely without her.” When she leaned in, moving her hand to rest it on the back of my chair, I leaned away. “You know, I could help you with that,” she said into my ear. “I’ve heard I keep pretty good company.”

  The look I sent her told her just how insane I thought she was. “No, thanks.”

  Rachel wasn’t deterred. She flipped her hair and kept talking. “She said you were the biggest she’d ever seen. I’d like to find that out for myself.”

  “Well, you’re just going to have to keep wondering, because it’ll be a cold day in hell before I take on a carbon copy of her.”

  Shock ricocheted across her face before she sat back in her seat away from me. As a blush stole up her cheeks, I continued to stare dryly at her. Finally, she cleared her throat. “I guess you’re still bitter.”

  “I guess,” I said. “So you can go back to wherever you came from now and leave me alone.”

  She stood with a sniff and couldn’t seem to get away from me fast enough. I watched her go and let out a shudder of relief. Then I smiled to myself. It’d felt kind of good to stand up for myself and send her away like that.

  I reached behind me for my backpack to pull out my phone, so I could text Zoey. Feeling this good always made me want to talk to her. Plus, I wanted to wash my conversation with Rachel out of my head with a pure, sweet one with my girl. But I couldn’t find my phone anywhere in my bag’s front pocket where I usually kept it while I was in class.

  I was still frowning and searching for it when the professor started class. Damn. I hoped I hadn’t left it at home. I didn’t want to suffer through an entire day without even being able to text Zoey.

  After history, I had a free hour—an hour where I usually found Zoey in the library—so I hiked over there, hoping to catch her. I checked our spot first. My cock twitched when I stood in the place where she’d gone down on me between the book stacks. But Zoey wasn’t there.

  I had a couple papers to work on and tests to study for, so I found a table out in the front and pulled out my calculus book. I hadn’t even studied for five minutes when a shadow fell over the page I was writing on. My breath caught in my chest, thinking it was Zoey. But when I looked up, Cora smiled at me.

  “Hey, baby.” She pulled out the chair next to me and sat down. “I heard Rachel hit on you in history class. I’m sorry about her. She has no control over her ovaries.”

  I smirked at her. “Must be why you two are so close.”

  Her eyebrows lifted in surprise before she murmured, “Well, look who’s turned into a smart-ass,” as if impressed with my verve.

  I sighed and glanced away from her. “What’re you doing here, Cora? You have to know you’re not getting anything from me.”

  She slid her arm around the back of my seat, much the same way Rachel had last hour. I glared at her, but she just smiled back, refusing to move away. “I just want to make amends between us, Quinn. You’re the sweetest, most forgiving person I know. And I hate thinking you might hold a grudge.”

  A nasty flavor flooded my mouth. I shook my head. “You’re just going to have to learn to adjust, then, because I am still holding a grudge against you, and I don’t feel like getting over it any time soon.” I glanced distastefully at her proximity. “Do you mind leaving me alone now? I really, honestly want nothing to do with you.”

  She drew in a breath and slid her arm off my chair as she straightened. “Well, I’m sorry you feel that way.”

  I wasn’t. I kept giving her a hard stare until she stood up, lifted her chin and strode away. I blew out a breath, glad to be rid of her, even though I was pretty sure I wasn’t done with her for good. People like Cora didn’t just fade off into the woodwork. And her being Zoey’s roommate was going to make it real ugly in the future when she found out about us. With a sigh, I buried my face in my hands and tried not the think about what would happen when all that went down.

  A chime from my book bag had me lifting my face.

  What the…?

  I twisted and unzipped the pocket where I hadn’t been able to find my phone earlier. After digging my hand inside, I jolted when my fingers almost immediately wrapped around it.

  Pulling it free, I found a new text from Zoey. I can’t stop thinking about what we did in the library.

  All other thought flushed from my brain. My body responded immediately. I cursed the fact that I’d have to work tonight and couldn’t spend it with her. But maybe…

  I’m here now. Want a repeat?

  I bit my lip waiting for her answer, hoping she was willing to be as wild and abandoned as we’d been on Tuesday.

  I wish. But I’m stuck in the print lab waiting in the longest line ever to get a paper printed. Tonight?

  Disappointment had my shoulders sagging. I have to work, remember? Unless you want to come over after… I ended my pleading with an emoticon to show her just how much I wanted her to say yes.

  Sorry, my big man. I have a big paper to finish. I promise I’ll make it up to you after you win your game tomorrow. K?

  My stomach roiled. Her excuse sounded exactly like the million and one excuses Cora had always given me when we’d been together. A moment of fear clouded my brain. Was Zoey playing me, too? But then I reread the text, and something else odd triggered in my brain.

  Big man. That was what Cora had always called me. Surely, Zoey hadn’t been around her roommate enough to glean that nickname off her. But that could only mean…

  I swallowed and glanced behind me at my backpack. My phone had not been in that pocket after Rachel had talked to me—after she’d reached her arm around the back of my seat—and then it had miraculously reappeared after Cora had slunk by...and set her arm across the back of my seat.

  Realizing I hadn’t been texting Zoey just now, I stared in shock at the words Cora had written to me. I fisted my hand and set it against my mouth. She knew about what we’d done in the library…which meant she knew about us, period.

  This couldn’t be good. I started to text Ten to ask him for Zoey’s n
umber, since Cora had apparently cleared it from my phone and replaced it with her own, when I paused. What if she’d messed with more of my numbers? To test the waters, I typed: What’s the first thing you ever said to me?

  Ten answered almost immediately. Man, seriously. What the fuck are you smoking?

  I blew out a relieved breath because I already knew without a doubt that I was communicating with my roommate. But I went ahead and explained everything. Just answer the question. Cora hacked into my phone and changed numbers around. I need proof I’m actually talking to you. I’m ninety percent sure she knows about me and Zoey.

  Instead of texting back, he rang my number. “Shit,” he muttered as soon as I answered. “I never trusted that fucking bitch.”

  “Well, I wish you’d clued me into her months ago. Now, give me Zoey’s number. Cora cleared it off my phone. I need to warn her.”

  Ten obliged. But before he hung up, he said, “Oh, yeah, and the first thing I ever said to you was that steroids made your pecker shrink.”

  A grin lit my face as I hung up. That was exactly what he’d said to me on the first day of practice when he’d looked up at me and refused to believe I was just naturally this big.

  Before I could text Zoey, Ten texted a selfie of him flipping off the camera. It’s still me!

  What a goofball. I shook my head and glanced at the time, only to curse under my breath. I had less than two minutes to get to my noon class. I typed in a warning to Zoey, anyway, gathering my things as I told her to be careful around Cora, that she’d been in my phone, tried to pass herself off as Zoey, and that she knew everything.

  Zoey didn’t answer my text before I started calculus, and she hadn’t responded by the time I got out. I had two more classes before I headed straight to practice, and then I had to hustle to work after that. When I’d heard nothing by the time I got off work at two Saturday morning, I began to panic. I would’ve gone to her apartment when I woke, but I had a noon game and the coach had wanted us in early. I didn’t get another moment to check my phone until we’d been excused to the locker room where we were supposed to put on our game uniforms.