Page 70 of Perfect Score

Yes, please.

But my brain can’t stop the thoughts of what will happen if I do.

Will he want to touch me again?

Will I let him for a second time?

There’s only one way to find out, and the girl who used to crush on Brent all those years ago is begging me to let him in.

“The door is locked,” I tell him.

Am I creating a barrier to see how hard he’ll work to break it down to get to me? Maybe that’s what I want more than anything. I want someone to fight to be with me. I’m so tired of being the one wanting someone who clearly doesn’t think of me at all.

He tries the door first. The sound of the knob twisting sends a thrill through me, but the door doesn’t give.

Will he break down the door to get to me?

My center squeezes at the thought of it. I’ve seen Brent lay an opposing player out against the plexiglass. I know he could damage the bathroom door, bursting through it and breaking it off its hinges.

If Brent breaks down a door to gain access to me, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from asking him to take me.

“See,” I say.

I expect him to give up, plop on the bed, and flip on the sports channel instead.

“You have such little faith in me,” he says, and then I hear something plastic jamming into the door.

In barely a second, the door clicks open, but he doesn’t bust through the door. He keeps the door ajar and stays on the other side of it.

Did he just pick the lock with a plastic door key?

“Did you just…?”

“Nothing in this world would stop me from getting into this room right now. Except for you to telling me not to,” he says. “One last time, Zoe… can I come in?”

I hesitate for a second, but I already know the answer. I just need a second to prepare myself for being completely bare in front of him.

“Yes,” I say.

My voice doesn’t wobble in the least, and the clog of tears that used to be there has cleared completely.

Any thought of Liam and my engagement ring flew out the door the second Brent came through the bedroom door looking for me. Brent seeing me naked in this bath is the only thing I’m thinking about.

He pushes through the door slowly as if giving me another second to object, but I won’t, not anymore.

Brent steps around the door, and the moment I see him, our eyes lock. He reaches back and closes the door behind him. His eyes don’t dip down my body like I expect them to. They stay focused on mine as if he couldn’t take his eyes off them, even if he wanted.

Is my face blotchy from crying? Are my eyes bloodshot from the tears I cried earlier? I don’t know, but I wish I had never wasted a single tear over Liam just now because I wish I looked as desirable as Brent makes me feel.

He takes a couple of steps forward.

“Fuck,” he says, taking a full scan of my body under the bathwater. “Liam’s a goddamn idiot. You know that, right?”

I bite down on the inside of my lip while my toes curl against the acrylic white bathtub at the way he's looking at me.

“I’m not so sure about that,” I whisper.

Brent takes a couple of steps forward into the bathroom.

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