Page 42 of Broken Romeo

Her phone buzzed on my bedside table.

Oh, thank God, I thought as I lunged for it. I’d tried to open that damn phone a few times to text her friend, Jill, with no luck. But now that texts were coming through on the home screen, maybe I could respond easier that way.

An alert was on the screen—a new text message from Jill. Yes! I just needed to respond to her and tell her that Kate was okay, safe, and with me. I’d bring her home as soon as she was awake and could tell me which dorm she lived in.

I hit the button to bring up the text message. It beeped and the screen wiggled with the error message.

Please type in your Passcode or use your fingerprint.

Son of a bitch.

I glanced over at where Kate was curled into a ball. Her hand was gently splayed, fingers relaxed and palm side up.

I could just use her fingertip to open the phone. It was for her own good. For all I knew, Jill may even be here at the party, looking for her friend.

Or worse. What if Jill was so worried, she called the cops and told them Kate was here? They’d find her in my bed damn near comatose.

With a gulp, I brought the phone to her finger and gently pressed it to the sensor.

Another message popped up.

Please use facial recognition software to continue.

Facial recognition and fingerprint technology? Jesus. All right. One more try.

I turned the phone around and held it up to her face.

Success! With a buzz and a beep, the phone unlocked. I quickly brought up Jill’s text message, careful to avoid seeing anything else that was none of my business.

Unfortunately, that was abruptly shattered as all of Jill’s texts from the night illuminated the screen.

Jill:

Holy fuck. You weren’t kidding when you said Holden was hot. You have to kiss him tonight. I can’t imagine a more perfect first kiss than that guy!

Jill:

Well? How was it? Are you no longer a kiss virgin?

Jill:

Okay, either you’ve gone from the world’s biggest virgin to cherry poppin’ or you’re just having a good time. I hope it’s the latter. Text me and let me know you’re okay.

Jill:

Seriously… Kate. Are you okay?

Holy fuck. Kate had never been kissed?

Kate’s raspy voice made me jump. “What happened?”

I was so startled that her phone went flying out of my hands and landed face down on my hardwood floor.

Shit! I scrambled to pick it up. “Kate, are you okay?”

“Where am I?” she asked, pressing her palm to her forehead.

“You’re in my apartment. At my party, remember? You were working with the catering company and had a bad reaction on your arms…” The rash was all but gone. Her dark blonde hair was messy in the sexiest way, almost all parted to one side, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell she’d look like after I tangled my fingers into that hair of hers, tilted her head back, and took her mouth in mine for her first kiss.