Page 82 of The Roommate Experiment

I let the love, the longing, the pure, unadulterated want shine through my eyes as I meet his, expressing everything I’ve kept locked away without holding back.

“Yes.” The word falls from my lips like a prayer, a promise, an inevitability. “I want you more now than I ever have before.”

Dylan holds my gaze, his blue-green eyes burning into mine with an intensity that would’ve made my knees buckle if I wasn’t sitting.

Our gazes hold, the truth we’ve admitted making it impossible to look away. Then slowly, deliberately, Dylan leans in closer. His nose brushes against mine, his breath warm on my lips as he whispers, “In that case, you wouldn’t mind if I do this…”

And then Dylan Thompson kisses me.

38

DYLAN

I kiss Hunter. After weeks of wanting, dreaming, craving, and it’s like coming home. Every moment, every interaction, every shared laugh and lingering glance has been leading up to this. Her lips are soft and pliant beneath mine, parting on a gasp as I deepen the kiss.

I slide one hand up her back and tangle it in her hair, pulling down, tilting her head to the perfect angle. She tastes like maple syrup and something I want to drown in.

Hunter’s hands come up to clutch at my shoulders, her fingers clawing at my hoodie. She arches into me, pressing our bodies together, and I groan into her mouth at the exquisite contact. Even with layers of clothing between us, her curves mold against the hard planes of my body like we were made to fit.

I nip at her bottom lip, soothing the sting with my tongue, and Hunter makes a needy sound in the back of her throat that shoots straight to my core. That little whimper, the way she’s clinging to me, ignites something primal inside me, a hunger I’ve never felt.

This is how kissing someone should feel: consuming, intoxicating, devouring and wanting to be devoured.

I grip her hips tighter, pulling her to the edge of the counter until she’s flush against me. I trail open-mouthed kisses along her jaw, down the slender column of her neck.

“Dylan,” Hunter gasps, and the sound of my name on her lips, breathy and pleading, it unravels me.

I find her pulse point, sucking lightly. Her fingers thread into my hair, nails scraping deliciously against my scalp. I want to undress her, to make her mine. And yet, I also want to savor every inch of her slowly, but the need to have her pulses in my veins and is too insistent to ignore. Weeks of pent-up desire, of imagining her in my arms, have me teetering on the knife’s edge of my control.

“Do you know how much it drives me crazy that you’re wearing my shirt,” I whisper against her throat.

“I’m—I’m getting a-an idea,” she pants back.

My fingers inch higher, teasing the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. I skim my hands up, and up, until my thumbs brush the edge of her shorts, dipping under the denim.

“Gosh, Hunter, these shorts,” I groan, my voice rough with want. “They’ve been testing my restraint all week.”

She lets out a shaky laugh that turns into a gasp when I nip at her collarbone. “That… that was kind of the point.”

I lift my head to look at her, a smirk tugging at my lips. “Is that so?”

Hunter nods. “I wanted you to notice me. To want me the way I’ve wanted you for so long.”

My heart gets rug-burned at her confession, at the uncertainty still shining in her eyes. That this woman, this gorgeous, smart, sassy goddess has wanted me for years seems unbelievable.

“Oh, Hunter.” I cup her face in my hands. “I noticed you. If the past years have been for you like the last month for me, I’m sorry. Because I wanted you, badly. Even when I shouldn’t have, even when I tried to deny it to myself.” I stroke my thumbs over her cheekbones. “I’ve imagined this, having you in my arms, being able to touch you, taste you, a million times.”

To punctuate my words, I claim her mouth in another searing kiss, pouring all my pent-up desire into the contact.

We kiss until we’re both breathless, until the need for oxygen forces us apart. Hunter rests her forehead on the crook of my neck. “What now?” she asks, not looking me in the eye.

I caress down her long hair. “Are you asking what are my plans for the weekend? Because those include getting you in bed and not letting you leave until you have to go to work on Monday.”

Her hands fist into the fabric of my hoodie. “S-solid plan, Thompson.”

I lift her chin with a finger because I’m not sure she’s clear on how serious this is for me. “But if you’re asking what happens after I do all the things that I plan to do to you, is that we do them again, and again. Ideally, you’d move into my room or I into yours, and we make this a permanent arrangement.”

Hunter’s eyes widen, her lips parting in surprise. “You… you want to keep living together? Like, officially, as a couple?”

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