Page 80 of The True Love Experiment

“What’s that?”

She turns her eyes to me. “You said enjoy. ‘You’denjoya man.’ Notwantorneedor evendeserve.” She turns her attention back to the ceiling and smiles. “You’re right. I’d really fucking enjoy a man like that. I just love that phrasing.”

“Why do you think you’re so complicated?”

“Because everyone else does.”

I shake my head, rolling to my side to face her and propping my head on a hand. “Not me. You’re a Rubik’s Cube with four blocks.”

She laughs, reaching across her body to smack my chest. “Hey.”

“A maze with a straight line through the middle. It’s just that most men are quite stupid.”

I can tell she wants to be mad but the delight in her eyes burns bright. She reaches up, brushing my hair off my forehead. “Careful,” she says.

“Careful what?” Her lips are soft and wet, her neck bare and stretching endlessly, soft for my mouth. I can see her pulse beating just beneath her jaw and want to press my face there and absorb the feeling of her fire thrumming under my touch. “You gonnarough me up for being straight with you that you’re just a big, messy softie?”

She drags her fingers along my temple and down my jaw. “Are you trying to make me want you?”

“I think that’s the problem,” I say, adjusting my head in my hand. “I don’t really have to try.”

Fizzy smiles distractedly. “Because you’re so sexy?”

“Obviously.”

She rolls back to her side, tracing her thumb along my bottom lip, and not even an oncoming train could get me to evade her touch. I can see in her eyes, too, that she understood my true meaning. I don’t have to try with her because everything between us is too easy. Too obvious. Too good. The idea that she’d end up with a Jude or even a Nick seems laughable now.

But so is the idea that she’d end up with me.

Trying to clear the fog of alcohol and desire, I pull away from her touch. Her eyes refocus and she blinks away from my lips.

“Uh-oh,” she whispers. “The spell is broken.”

“Nah, it’s late. I’m sure you’ve got more wedding celebrations early tomorrow. I should head home.”

Fizzy frowns. “Let’s put on a movie or something. You’ve been drinking.”

“I’ll cab it.” I move to climb from bed, but she cups a hand over my forearm, stilling me.

“Connor. You should stay here. I can behave myself. I promise.”

I laugh. “You’re not the only one who needs to behave, sweet. Historically I just have more self-control. I don’t think I do tonight.”

She sucks in a sharp breath and exhales it shakily. “I’ll have it for us, then. I know we can’t fool around.”

“For about a hundred reasons,” I say. “The most obvious one being the show. A second, equally important one being that for you it can be just sex, and for me it’s something more sincere. I don’t want one without the other, and unfortunately, sincerity seems to be off the table.”

“Does it?” she asks quietly.

I stare at her, at her thoughtful pout and lashes fanned on her cheeks as she closes her eyes and exhales again. “What does that mean?” I ask.

“I don’t think this is just about my sexual reawakening.”

“No?”

She shakes her head. “I think I have capitalFfeelings for you.”

My wine and champagne buzz comes slamming back into my skull, making my thoughts blur, my blood thicken. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

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