The Love Experiment (Stubborn Hearts 1)

“Her name and number. She wasn’t dangerous. I vaguely know her from the radio station. She was a straight up proposition.”

“But you chose me.”

“Over a woman hitting on me in the meat section? I’d choose you every day. That’s not even a question, Derelie.”

She leaned into him. “I’ll come upstairs.”

He leaned back. “We can watch a movie if you want.”

“Can we not watch it and neck?”

“You know, all those things I said about you, I forgot to mention that I love how generous you are.”

“You’re the one who cooked, cleaned and provided for us.”

“That generosity is inside you. It’s the way you are, the way you give yourself to others.” He turned her face to his. “I think it’s the sexiest thing. I’m going to have a smoke while you think about what you want to do.” He handed her Martha’s lead and went outside. He stood in the pool of light from a street lamp and rolled a cigarette, lit it and took a drag.

Derelie watched his chest expand on the inhale and his head tip back as the hit of the smoke filled his lungs. What would Jack look like beneath her in bed? Would his body arch, would his chin tip up as their bodies came together? So what if they only had the weekend, so what if he’d been a player and they were just an experiment-fueled fling? That was the most obvious outcome anyway. She was annoyed with herself for these second thoughts.

She was standing with Martha in her arms when Jack came back inside. He picked up her bag and they went upstairs to his apartment. It should’ve been awkward, the mood all messed up, but Jack made coffee, and he smelled so sweet from the cigarette and by the time they sat together on his couch Derelie was as turned on as she’d ever been.

“I don’t want to watch a movie.”

He shuffled closer, mug in one hand, the other arm going over her shoulder. “What do you want to do?”

Bathe in his tolerance for her last-minute nerves. “I want to do you.”

He closed his eyes and smiled. She used the moment to take his glasses off, urge him to put the mug down, and the next moment to kiss him, and the next to slide up on his chest and lean into him, and then all the moments bled together into a bliss of kisses.

It’d been like this with the salesman. Forbidden, unexpected and thrilling, and Derelie had known wild physical pleasure that left her aching for more. She had that feeling now with Jack, but unlike her probably married salesman with whom she never exchanged names and had no illusions about, she knew so much about Jack and none of it dimmed the head rush.

The man kissing her, holding her, and wrapping her tight against him had integrity and honor and a way with his tongue that was making it hard to keep still. “Please, Jack.”

“Whatever you want.”

“I want to sweat in your clean sheets.”

He disentangled them and stood, gave her his hand and led her through to the bedroom. When Martha followed he looked at the cat and said, “You have to stay outside tonight.”

Martha scooted straight under the bed.

He looked at Derelie. “I can coax her out, but she’ll throw herself against the door until I let her in again. Can you handle me making love to you with my cat under the bed?”

The way Jack looked at her, the near pleading in his voice made her shiver. “It’s a sacrifice, but I think I can manage.”

He took his shirt off.

The sacrifice was making her overheated and dizzy. But oh, that bruise went on and on. She’d seen it in the

park, but now she realized it went down below the waistband of his jeans. The jeans he unbuttoned, unzipped and eased off his hips as he toed off his shoes.

Already shoeless, she stood on the bare boards of his bedroom floor in a haze of lust and concern. “Are you sure we should?”

He stood in his stretchy boxer briefs, unbearably sexy and clearly aroused, and tapped a finger against the purple horror on his hip. “As long as you don’t knee me there it’ll be fine. You’re overdressed.”

She looked down at herself. She was overexcited and her hands shook.

“I’d like to help with that.” She looked up and he must have seen the whirl of emotion rolling through her. He put a hand to her face. “Who gave you those eyes, Derelie Honeywell?”