by Emma Hart
He leaned back over me, practically stalking me, and slid his hand down my side. He hooked his thumb in the side of my panties and pulled them down, straightening to get the other side down, too.
Discarded on the floor, he parted my legs and settled himself between them. This time, there was no delay in me wrapping my legs around his toned waist. The only thing that stopped him kissing me straight away was the unhooking of my bra.
He didn’t even pull it off. He simply undid the clasp between my breasts and let the cups fall to the side before his lips recaptured mine.
One hand slid between us slightly awkwardly. His fingers glided through the wetness of my pussy, rubbing over my clit a few times before he apparently decided I was wet enough to take him.
Slow.
That was how he entered me. The polar opposite from the way he’d kissed me just minutes ago. Slow and easy, he allowed me to adjust and take him as I wanted to.
Heat sparked through me. There was nothing like the way he felt as he slowly moved inside me. Nothing felt as good as the slow, easy strokes of his cock inside me and the slow, gentle way his lips played with mine.
My fingers wound in his hair. His dug into my ass cheek, holding me in place, and his other hand was flat on the bed and holding him steady over me.
Slowly, the heat built in me.
Slowly, he moved faster, thrusting his hips with a wild pace that was scarily comfortable for me.
I was getting lost. Lost in his kiss, his scent, his touch. Lost in how it felt to be so close to him, to be so intimate with someone.
I didn’t know how it happened. I didn’t know how I went from coherence to nothing, from the easy build of pleasure to the fireworks of an orgasm that flooded through every little bit of my body.
I went limp as he gripped my ass and little tighter. The tell-tale stillness and tensing accompanied by a low groan told me he’d joined me in ecstasy. He relaxed over me pretty quickly, somehow managing to not suffocate me, and kissed the side of my neck.
“Told you I could create the mood,” he murmured against my skin.
“Shhh,” I whispered, tapping him with one finger. “Catching my breath.”
He laughed and pulled out of me, rolling to the side to remove the condom. I pointed in the vague area of the plastic trashcan I kept next to my vanity before my arm flopped back down onto the bed.
I didn’t know how he was able to move.
I was ready to curl up for a nap.
“I’m hungry,” he said. “Can you reheat jambalaya?”
I forced my eyes open and half-glared at him. “How can you think of food in a time like this?”
“In a time like what? You’re post-orgasm, spitfire. You’re not post-apocalypse.”
“Speak for yourself,” I muttered. Groaning, I forced myself to roll and sit up. “I was hoping for a nap.”
He took my hands in his and pulled me up onto my wobbly legs, skin glistening with sweat. “Food, nap, more sex?” He didn’t wait for me to answer before he said, “Yeah. Food, nap, more sex.”
He let go of my hands, and unfortunately for me, my legs were still like jelly, and I wasn’t prepared for having to stand up with my own strength.
I fell back onto the bed with an “oomph.” “That’s not how this—” I tried to call after him, but one very naked Jacob Creed had already left my room and was on his way down the stairs.
I stared at his peachy ass as it disappeared before shrugging and lying back down.
He could get the food.
I’d take the nap…
Until later, apparently.
Epilogue
Two weeks later.
Upside #23: Don’t ask me. I’m not single. I ran out of ideas.
“This is bullshit.” Peyton paced back and forth across her office.
“The fact I’m here and not having a nice lunch with my girlfriend? I agree,” Jake said, sitting back on the bright-purple sofa.
She glared at him.
I kicked him. “Peyt, you walked into the challenge. You know Dom’s the romantic of the two of you.”
Yeah, I didn’t really understand that, either.
“That’s not the point. The point is that my brother challenged me to be the one to prove him wrong. Why can’t he do it himself?” she ranted, still going back and forth. “It’s his stupid argument, not mine. I already know you can screw a person three times and not fall in love.”
Jake opened his mouth to say something, and I elbowed him.
We weren’t there yet. Even though we’d definitely done it more than three times, and I was pretty sure I was in love with him. Almost. Pretty much. Was there a scale for that?
“I don’t want to sleep with someone three times!” Peyton shouted.
“Is once your limit?” Jake asked.
Peyton pointed at me. “Control your human.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. She needed her own human. For more than one night…
I rested my hand on Jake’s thigh. “Why don’t you grab lunch and take it back to the office? Chloe will be back in a couple minutes. No offense, but you being here isn’t helping.”
That, and those two were struggling to find a common ground to forge a friendship. Not that it was hard. Peyton struggled with that in general, because she struggled with a little thing called being nice.
Jake glanced at Peyton one last time before turning to me. “Okay. ‘Cause if I stay here any longer, I’m gonna climb onto the roof and take the outdoor elevator down to the sidewalk.”
I kissed him quickly and gave him a shove. He stopped to kiss me once more, ignoring Peyton’s vomiting sound, before leaving without saying goodbye to her.
If she could have, I swear she would have slammed the door behind him.
It was exhausting.
“What am I going to do?” she asked me, finally stopping her pacing.
“Tell Dom no,” I said, giving her the most obvious answer. “You don’t have to prove anything, Peyt.”
“Tell him no?” Her voice was getting higher and higher. “Let him win?
Oh, good. Their sibling rivalry was so fun.
“Hell no!”
The door swung open, and Chloe shuffled in. “Sorry, sorry! The traffic was awful. Here’s your…double shot hurricane you asked for,” she added warily, handing Chloe a huge cocktail cup.
Oh, good. She was day drinking. That was always fun when she needed a nap in the afternoon.
It also meant she was really, really distressed by this challenge her brother had issued her.
“Dom filled me in,” Chloe said, taking the seat next to me that Jake had just left. “I told him he was fucking dumb. We all know you can screw someone three times and not fall in love. I told him to stop sharing your mom’s Netflix account and watching her stupid emotional movies.”
“Thank you!” Peyton threw her arm in the air at him. “And he’ll pick the guy I get to screw based on who’s in my database? That’s bullshit!”
Chloe grimaced.
“It actually is.” I glanced at Peyton before looking at Chloe. “I mean, he’s the dater. He literally creates relationships. He’s not going to pick the guy she can screw, he’s going to pick the guy he thinks is most compatible for her.”
“I know that,” Chloe replied. “He’ll probably pull someone from our database over just to screw with her.”
“Noooooo!” she moaned, sitting in the armchair next to us. She literally sank into the cushions of the chair.
I loved her office. It was so plush and comfy.
“Why don’t we do it?” Chloe sat up straight. “I mean, think about it, Peyt. We’re on your side. We agree with you. We’ll pick a guy we know you’ll never fall for, and Dom can’t argue, because we’re impartial. We’re not involved in this stupid bet.”
“Yeah, well, you better make me win. I don’t want to lose five hundred bucks to that idiot,” Peyton huffed.
“You bet five hundred bucks?” I sputtered out. �
��Why?”
“Because! I need to be right, and if I win, he’ll go away.”
Chloe and I shared a look. “Sure,” she said slowly. “Come on, Peyt. You don’t have to prove him wrong, and you get to win. Let us do it for you.”
“You know we’re right,” I added.
Peyton rubbed her hand over her face, sighed, and looked at us. “You know what? Fine. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Well, there was something to be said for famous last words.
I hoped like hell she wouldn’t end up eating them…
THE END
THE HOOK-UP EXPERIMENT, Peyton’s story, is coming March 13th and is available for pre-order everywhere now.
Visit www.emmahart.org/the-hook-up-experiment for more.
Emma Hart is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty novels and has been translated into several different languages.
She is a mother, wife, lover of wine, Pink Goddess, and valiant rescuer of wild baby hedgehogs.
Emma prides herself on her realistic, snarky smut, with comebacks that would make a PMS-ing teenage girl proud.
Yes, really. She's that sarcastic.
You can find her online at:
www.emmahart.org
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Books by Emma Hart:
The Vegas Nights series:
Sin
Lust
Stripped series:
Stripped Bare
Stripped Down
The Burke Brothers:
Dirty Secret
Dirty Past
Dirty Lies
Dirty Tricks
Dirty Little Rendezvous
The Holly Woods Files:
Twisted Bond
Tangled Bond
Tethered Bond
Tied Bond
Twirled Bond
Burning Bond
Twined Bond
By His Game series:
Blindsided
Sidelined
Intercepted
Call series:
Late Call
Final Call
His Call
Wild series:
Wild Attraction
Wild Temptation
Wild Addiction
Wild: The Complete Series
The Game series:
The Love Game
Playing for Keeps
The Right Moves
Worth the Risk
Memories series:
Never Forget
Always Remember
Standalones:
Blind Date
Being Brooke
Catching Carly
Casanova
Mixed Up
Miss Fix-It
Miss Mechanic
The Upside to Being Single
The Hook-Up Experiment (coming March 13, 2018)
The Dating Experiment (coming May 18, 2018)
