The Boyfriend Experience (The Boyfriend Experience 1)

“Oh my God. I’m in heaven,” she admitted, and smiled impishly at him when she realized how euphoric she’d just been. “It tastes even better because I’m absolutely famished.”

Between the two of them, they finished the pizza in no time at all.

Evie wiped her fingers on a napkin, took a drink of her water, then eagerly eyed the sack he’d put aside. “I’m ready for whatever is in that bag.”

He chuckled as he closed the lid on the box. “You’re so impatient. Are you one of those people who’d eat dessert first if they could?”

She grinned. “Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I have to say, the guys I’ve dated have never bought me dessert just for the heck of it, so thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” And those other men were idiots. If a little chocolate made a woman happy, then why not indulge her?

After opening the bag, he withdrew a see-through plastic container and set it on top of the closed pizza box between them. She laughed, her eyes sparkling with pure pleasure at seeing the half-dozen brownies he’d bought from the pizza place’s dessert menu.

“You are so bad,” she said with a shake of her head, even as she reached for one of the treats. “First my favorite pizza, now brownies.”

He picked up one of the squares, too, watching as she took a bite of hers and licked away a crumb from the corner of her mouth. “It’s all part of my plan to seduce you,” he said, winking at her.

Her gaze met his, and there was no mistaking the glimmer of desire in her pretty blue eyes. “It might be working,” she replied boldly.

He stared right back at her, making sure she knew he definitely wanted the same thing. “I fucking hope so,” he said, his tone low and husky with a hunger that had nothing to do with the dessert and was directly related to her.

The moment between them teemed with promises and expectations, and when she absently scraped her teeth along her bottom lip, it took every ounce of control Eric possessed not to taste that generous mouth for himself. Oh, he certainly intended to, and soon . . . after she enjoyed her brownie.

She finally continued to eat her treat. “These are really good,” she said, the casual comment doing nothing to cut through the thick sexual tension between them.

He ate one of them, and she had two. When they were done, he closed the lid and pushed them toward her. “Take them home so you can enjoy them later.”

“Thank you.” She leaned back in her chair, her expression turning serious. “We still have something important to discuss,” she reminded him.

He relaxed in his seat, too, knowing what that conversation was. “My fee for the weekend?”

She nodded. “Yes. I’d like to get that out of the way before we leave on Friday.”

He seriously debated telling her the whole truth, about how he’d been set up on the Boyfriend Experience app by a friend and had been dared to accept her request. That’s truly how it all started, and he’d had no intention of actually agreeing to be her boyfriend. But then he’d met her, and between the attraction and her story about her asshole ex and just genuinely liking her, Eric let the misunderstanding slide.

And now, taking monetary payment from her felt wrong, not that he’d ever considered it. However, coming clean at this point had its drawbacks, as well—most notably the possibility that she’d conclude that she’d misread the whole situation and think he was a dickhead for misleading her. He didn’t want her to think he’d agreed to be her fake boyfriend because he felt sorry for her when that was the furthest thing from the truth. This woman in front of him had so much pride, and no way did he want to do anything to damage that self-esteem.

The way Eric saw the situation, he was giving her the boyfriend treatment, which was exactly what she wanted, and in return, he was going to enjoy playing the part, so what was the harm?

“That much, huh?” she asked with a disappointed sigh.

Her soft voice pulled him out of his thoughts, making him realize he’d spent way too much time in his head trying to rationalize his actions, to the point that he had no idea how she’d come to any conclusion about his payment.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

A small smile touched the corner of her mouth. “It’s taking you forever to answer, so I’m assuming your fee for the weekend is pretty astronomical.”

She sounded completely bummed, and he decided to go forward with his idea, which would really benefit them both. Was it risky? Hell yeah, but nothing ventured was nothing gained. “Actually, my fee is pretty reasonable. I want payment for the weekend in kisses.”