The Boyfriend Experience (The Boyfriend Experience 1)

She cleared her throat one last time. “Thank you for the offer, but I think I’m good now.”

“Too bad,” he murmured, his voice low and teasing. “What are you doing? Other than eating what must have been a very thick, sticky brownie.”

The way he said thick and sticky made her thighs clench. “I’m sitting on my favorite chair in my living room reading a book.”

“What kind of book?” he asked curiously.

“A romance novel.”

She expected a snarky remark about reading porn, as her ex had referred to her genre preference, and was pleasantly surprised with Eric’s reply.

“Ahhh, that’s where the guy always gets the girl in the end, right?”

She grinned and switched it up. “Or the girl gets the guy.”

“I do love an aggressive woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it.”

“I’ll be sure to remember that.” Grinning to herself, she curled her legs beneath her and picked off a very small, safe piece of her brownie and popped it into her mouth. “I’ll have you know I’m super aggressive when it comes to the canoe race we always have at the reunion. You’ll be my partner, by the way.”

“I’ll try my best not to disappoint you, but don’t get upset if you get wet from all my vigorous . . . rowing.”

She laughed, marveling at how comfortable they already were with each other. How easy it was to talk and tease. “What are you up to?” she asked, turning the question around on him.

“You do realize, don’t you, that question is a loaded one?” His voice was low and husky in her ear. “Do you want the clean answer or the dirty one?”

Evie bit her bottom lip. She was so damn tempted to go the dirty route. “Are you flirting with me, Mr. Miller?”

“Yes, just like any good boyfriend would,” he said, his tone amused, though he didn’t push on the dirty/clean answer. “So, you mentioned something about your parents being a little over-the-top and I’m going to have to roll with the punches when it comes to them. Care to elaborate on that?”

She groaned, not looking forward to this conversation because she just knew that Eric was going to have a field day with what he learned. But he deserved to know what he was getting himself into so he was prepared when her parents said or did something outlandish. And there was every chance that they would.

“So, yeah, my parents are very open and accepting about just about anything, as long as it doesn’t break the law,” she said, pinching off another brownie morsel and eating it. “They’re also very unconventional, and all about free love and sexual freedom.”

He chuckled. “They sound like cool parents to me.”

“And extremely embarrassing at times,” she added, thinking about the time her father had given her prom date a strip of condoms, “just in case.” It had been her senior year and she’d just turned eighteen, as had the guy she’d been with, but at that moment she would have done anything for the floor to open up and swallow her whole.

“My mother is a tantric yoga instructor and my father is a sexologist.” How was that for ridiculously crazy occupations?

“Sexologist?” Eric asked curiously. “What is that?”

“It’s a fancy word for sex therapist, but my dad likes to be called a sexologist because he’s a specialist in the field. So if my father starts talking to you about erectile dysfunction, or that it’s perfectly healthy to fulfill kinky sexual fantasies as long as they’re consensual, or my mother takes you aside to let you know what position is the best for a woman to achieve a vaginal orgasm, I’m apologizing right now.”

By the time she was done with those warnings, he was laughing so hard it made her giggle, too. When she’d given her ex the same spiel about her parents, he’d been appalled and made her feel as though her parents were freaks.

“Oh my God, I love them already,” Eric said once they’d both stopped laughing.

“Honestly, they’re fantastic parents and I had a great childhood because they were so open about communicating with me and my brother, who came out as gay a few years ago. I always felt like I could talk to them about anything, and my friends were jealous of that.”

“Me, too,” he said, startling her with that admission. “You’re very lucky.”

She heard the melancholy in his voice, and a bit of sadness. Before she could ask him about his family and parents, he smoothly changed the subject. And truthfully, this exchange didn’t require her to know about his family situation, so she let it slide, though she was extremely curious.

“So, I now know that you like brownies and romance novels, but there are other basic things I should know about you if we’ve been dating a few months, like what is your favorite food?”