The Dating Experiment (The Experiment, #2)(28)

I pushed her back against the wall, breaking the kiss only for a second to make sure I didn’t push her against the door. The second her ass hit the wall, I kissed her again. She tilted her head back, her nails digging into my skin.

My pulse thumped, sending blood rocketing through my veins and straight down to my cock. The more I kissed her, the harder I got, and the more I wanted her.

I’d spent years wondering what it’d be like to kiss her, and now I was doing it, it was fucking beyond anything I’d ever cooked up in my imagination.

I wanted to kiss her until I couldn’t breathe. Until I could hear nothing but my pulse thundering in my ears. Until there was nothing but Chloe consuming every inch of my body.

I could kiss her for-fucking-ever.

She slowly broke her lips away from mine, dipping her chin so that her nose grazed across my jaw. Her breaths were unsteady, and they fanned across my collarbone.

She didn’t move, and neither did I.

I’d just kissed her.

And she’d kissed me back.

That wasn’t how it was supposed to happen—she’d been supposed to push me away, hell, she could have even hit me, and I wouldn’t have cared.

“You just kissed me,” she whispered, lifting her head and meeting my eyes.

I took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. I did.”

“Oh, my God.” She pulled her hands from me and covered her mouth with them. Her eyes were wide, shining with confusion and—fuck, want.

The same desire that coursed through my body as I tried to calm my own breathing was the same one I saw reflected back at me in her gaze.

“I can’t—I have to—go.” She slid away from me, walking briskly to the desk. She snatched up her phone and keys and all but ran out of the office without looking at me again.

The door clicked shut, leaving me in silence.

“Fuck,” I whispered, resting my forehead against the wall.

Fuck.





Chapter Eleven – Chloe


My mom always told me to expect the unexpected. I’ve always thought she meant expect your period at random times of the day.

Not for your best friend’s brother to kiss the shit out of you.

I ambled out of the main door of the building and onto the sidewalk, almost walking into a man in a suit. He shot me a dirty look, and I babbled an apology.

Dom kissed me.

Dom. Kissed. Me.

My lips still tingled from where he’d moved his across mine, and the lingering taste of coffee still overwhelmed my senses.

Oh, God.

What did I do now? Where was I supposed to go? How did I begin to think about what had just happened?

I was at the office. Mellie’s hotel was two blocks away. I’d go there.

She had alcohol there.

And I needed something to calm my nerves.

I walked, swerving in and out of the happy, laughing people on the sidewalk. My heart was thumping so hard I couldn’t hear a damn thing as it echoed in my ears. All I could do was focus on putting one foot in front of the other to get to the hotel.

Why had he kissed me?

There was no way I was the person he was talking about. The one who was his standard for any other woman. It didn’t make sense—we were oil and water. How could I possibly be the one who nobody else measured up to in his eyes?

Was it possible we were both harboring feelings for one another? Had he allowed me to set him up originally for the same reason I’d had him set me up?

To move on? To get over him?

Was he trying to get over me?

He couldn’t do that. I didn’t even know he was under me.

This was too much information to process. I was still running on a high of the feeling of his lips against mine, of our bodies being pressed to each other, of how it felt that moment when it clicked that he was kissing me.

Euphoria.

It was a flash of pure euphoria.

I pushed open the hotel door and stepped into the cool lobby. The cold air felt good as it prickled against my skin. The hairs on my arms stood on end as I moved through the lobby to where a new girl was manning the reception desk.

“Hi,” I said, leaning on the desk. “Is Mellie around?”

She peered over from her computer with a bright smile. “Can I ask why you need to see her?”

That was new.

“I just need to speak with her,” I said in my own best customer service voice.

“I’m not sure she’s available.”

A shadow fell over the desk. “Did you see a ghost?”

I looked over and up at Jake. “No, but I may as well have.”

“You look like death,” he noted.

“I feel like I might be on the brink of it,” I admitted.

He nodded his head. “Come on. Mel’s on the phone, but you can go back. Do you need anything?”

“Something alcoholic.”

“I never assumed otherwise.” His eyes twinkled with laughter. “Go on. I’ll bring you a drink. Erica, a moment?” he directed the last note at the girl behind the reception.

She went deathly white. “Yes, sir.”

“Just a note,” Jake said, lips twitching. He winked at me.

I smiled and skirted out to the staff door. I punched in the code in the newly-added lock system, and it beeped, clicking to let me through. I pushed it open and walked down the hall to where I heard Mellie’s voice before I saw her.