Indecent Experiment (3 page)

Matt ducked his head for second, but then looked at her with those decidedly non-blue eyes. Greenish-brown. Hazel, really. “Yeah, really. I mean…it’s crazy, huh? That this is supposed to lead to….”

They both looked over at the bed in the corner. Then they looked everywhere but at each other. Their palms clung and stuck, moist.

But after that, the conversation didn’t tangle as much as Melissa thought it would. Matt turned out to have some good stories, ones that made her giggle quite a lot. He had a nice voice, low and deep, and a really nice laugh.

By the time the buzzer sounded, alerting them to the end of their time, Melissa had forgotten she was holding Matt’s hand. Well, not forgotten exactly, since every time they shifted position or got up to use the restroom or grab a snack or a drink from the stocked minifridge, they had to make the conscious effort to rejoin hands. But she’d forgotten that it should feel strange to link their fingers together, press palm to palm.

“Have you ever heard of bundling?” she asked just before they left, when they’d both released their hands and stretched, heading for the door.

“Sounds familiar.” Matt held the door open for her so she could step through.

“It’s something they used to do with courting couples. It would be cold, so they’d allow the couple to be in bed together, under the blankets, to keep warm, but they’d put a bundling board between them to keep them from doing anything inappropriate.”

He laughed as they entered the lab’s quiet, dim hallway, every other light turned off in honor of it being after hours. The only sound other than their footsteps was the
shush-shush
of the janitor’s mop on the floor ahead of them. She noticed they’d fallen into step naturally, him shortening his stride to match hers.

“Sounds…sexy,” Matt said. “And that reminded you of tonight?”

“Sort of,” Melissa admitted. “Because those young couples didn’t necessarily know each other when they started, but the long-term goal was getting them together in the end. For marriage, of course, not just…you know. But still.”

Matt was silent as they reached the end of the hall and the doors to the psychology building. Once they passed through them, they were no longer supposed to have any contact. He paused, hand on the metal bar that would push the door open.

He looked at her. “So…what do you think’s going to happen here?”

“I don’t know,” Melissa said. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

Well, she wasn’t blond. Not blue eyed. And she definitely didn’t have a D-size rack, not even a single D. Her hands had been small and soft, though her grip was firm and strong when she shook hands and sweeter, more relaxed later, after they’d spent the four hours talking.

Actually, it wasn’t a bad first “date,” Matt thought as he showered and shaved, brushed his teeth and picked out clothes for the next night’s session. He’d been on worse, and even though Melissa might not’ve turned his head at the bar, spending those four hours with her had been pretty nice.

He was looking forward to tonight, if for no other reason than it meant he had a reason to blow off Damian and the other bros, who were all hanging out at the frat house with the underclassmen. They were having something called a “poker party” with one of the sororities, where everyone was given half a playing card, and the goal of the night was to find the person with the other half of your card, then spend the rest of the night hooking up. Matt wasn’t really interested in spending the night trying to get into the pants of some sophomore or junior…or worse, a freshman.

Anyway, tonight on the list was holding hands, with the addition of hugging. Matt had no idea how this was going to go, but he was up for it. It beat the hell out of some other ways he’d spent his nights lately, namely up to his ass in unpaid bills or in schoolwork.

She smelled good. Like, really good. He noticed that right away as soon as they both got in the room and Melissa stepped up to him without any more than a second’s hesitation. She fit right up against him, too, her breasts pressing against his chest in a way that meant he had absolutely no issue with the fact she was less than a DD.

Too soon, she’d stepped away with a nervous little laugh. “Hey.”

“Hey.” On impulse, he snaked an arm out to grab her around the waist to pull her in for another hug. That’s what they were there for, after all.

Melissa let him hold her close. They lingered that way for a moment, before she pulled away. “How’re you?”

“Good. Good. You?” He wasn’t sure where they were supposed to go from here, since you couldn’t really keep up a four-hour hug. Then again, he hadn’t thought he’d be able to maintain holding hands for the full time, either, and they’d managed that with only a little awkwardness.

“Great.” She grinned and took his hand to lead him to the couch, where she settled in at once, one leg curled beneath her as her fingers curled lightly around his. She didn’t let him go, either, but kept his hand. “I got a call from my future boss. They actually want me to start a month earlier. I was going to take some time off, but now I’ll be able to go right into work after I graduate. It’s going to be awesome.”

“Yeah? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going straight into a paid internship with Triple Smith and Brown. It’s an accounting firm,” she said, like he might not’ve heard of the biggest accounting firm in three states. “And after that, it’s pretty much guaranteed to lead me right into a full-time job. Which is great.”

“Yeah. Lucky you.” Matt twisted his fingers in hers, noting again how soft her hands were. He had nothing like that lined up, which sucked. He had a few leads on some engineering jobs, but so far nothing had opened up. “But don’t you want to take some time off before school?”

She shrugged. “No. Then again, I’d only planned on setting up my apartment and stuff like that. It’s no week in Cancun.”

“Right.” He thought about spending the week with sand, sun, babes and booze, just like Damian said. That’s what he was here for, to get the money for the trip.

“So. Hugging.” Melissa gave him a grin. “Not so bad. And I’m not sure why, but it felt easier than the hand-holding did at first. You?”

“Yeah. It did.” It helped that she’d been the one to make the first move. “Should we do it again?”

“We’re supposed to,” she said. “I guess so. I don’t know how many hugs we’re supposed to have in four hours.”

“I’d guess a lot.” Matt laughed, already leaning in. “We’d better get to it.”

They talked as they hugged, pressing their bodies close. They experimented. Standing. Sitting. They tried reverse hugs as they chatted, which might’ve been stretching the definition, but with Melissa’s back pressed up against his front, leaning against him as he stretched out on the couch, it felt okay. They both figured the purpose was having as much body contact as possible.

They hugged. They talked. And talked, and talked. Without the pressure of trying to get laid—that wouldn’t come until the end of the experiment. If then. Only two days into it, Matt knew he wouldn’t turn it down if the chance came up, but he wasn’t going to expect the same from Melissa.

“I can’t believe it’s ten o’clock already.” Melissa said this with her cheek pressed to his chest, her arms around his waist. She tipped her face back to look at him. “This was actually kind of fun, Matt. Thanks.”

He looked down into her face, noticing the spray of freckles over her nose and the pale, almost translucent brown of her eyes. “Sure. It was fun, just hanging out. You know? No pressure. I think I’m going to use that in my report.”

“Me too.” She smiled. “I’m not sure we’re supposed to tell each other what we’re going to write.”

“Right, right.” Matt let her go, reluctant to feel her body move from his. It was just a normal reaction, he told himself, to the loss of the soft feminine weight and pressure to which his body was programmed to react.

But it felt like a little more than that, he thought as they parted ways again at the outside door to the psych building. Crazy, he knew, but that’s how it felt. He’d make sure to write that down in the report, too.

He wondered what Melissa was writing in hers.

Kissing.

Tonight was kissing. Melissa had flossed, brushed and rinsed three times already and was considering heading to the restroom to do it a fourth time when the door opened and Matt came in. She finished crunching her mint and swallowed. Smiled.

“Hey,” she said.

Three days into this experiment, and all she could think about was whether or not she was going to go through with it and have sex with him. It had colored every perception about the entire experience. The hand-holding, the hugging. She’d written down all her thoughts and emotions, just as she’d been instructed, but that hadn’t helped. If anything, focusing on exactly how her mind leaped from a simple squeeze of fingers to imagining the size of Matt’s penis had only made it all the more impossible to stop thinking about what his erection might be like.

“Hi.” Matt’s smile got wider. “So. You ready for this?”

“I don’t know. I think so.” Melissa patted her belly. “I avoided garlic all day. I hope you did, too!”

“Of course.” Matt leaned in to say confidentially, “Brushed my teeth about ten times, too.”

She laughed. It seemed natural by this point to let him take her hand and to follow him to the couch, where they settled into a snuggly position, arms and legs tangled up. The idea was to progress further into intimacy every session, and Melissa was glad Matt was making it so easy. So not-weird. It easily could’ve been, with someone else.

Funny, too, how she’d first thought he wasn’t much to look at. After all this time getting up close and personal, it wasn’t that her idea of what was attractive had changed. It was her opinion of Matt that had. His smile, the way the corners of his eyes crinkled, his laugh—those more than made up for his hazel eyes and sandy hair.

He was smiling now, his fingers linked loosely with hers. “If I tell you something, will you promise not to laugh?”

Melissa laughed, anyway. “Um…oops.”

Matt shook his head a little. “I haven’t been this nervous about kissing someone since I was in eighth grade playing seven minutes in heaven in the closet.”

Melissa hadn’t played that game. “Spin the bottle, for me.”

He tilted his head, just a little. “You too?”

“I can honestly say I’ve never thought about kissing someone with as much trepidation and anxiety as I’ve been thinking about this all day long,” Melissa admitted.

Matt’s fingers squeezed. “You don’t want to?”

Did she imagine he sounded disappointed? Melissa shook her head. “No. I want to. I mean…do you want to?”

“Yeah. A thousand bucks, right?”

Melissa took a deep breath. “Right. It would be stupid to get all this way and then bail.”

They both nodded.

Neither of them moved.

“Maybe if we both went for it at the same time,” Matt suggested. Then, “God, you must think I’m such a pussy.”

“No!” Melissa laughed at that. “No, Matt. Wow. Not at all. Believe me, I’m nervous, too. This isn’t really the normal way anyone goes about kissing someone for the first time, you know. I’m trying to remember all the details to put in the report, first of all. Usually that first kiss is just…sensation, you know? Not logic. Not analysis.”

“Count to three,” Matt murmured, eyes gleaming. “Then we’ll go for it.”

“Deal.”

One. Two. Three….

It was spectacularly bad. Teeth mashed against gums in a hard, dry peck that had nothing resembling passion whatsoever. They both pulled away from each other, and Melissa touched her mouth to make sure she wasn’t bleeding. It sure felt like her mouth was at least bruised.

“Wow,” Matt said. “That sucked.”

Yet Melissa laughed again. “It sure did.”

Matt ran his tongue over his bottom lip and eased a tiny bit closer. “Let’s try it again. Slower this time? Maybe…you should go first.”

“Me? Why me?” Melissa heard a squeak in her voice and swallowed hard.

“I just…uh…” Matt looked embarrassed. “I think it would be better that way, that’s all.”

Melissa eyed him. “Why?”

He looked down to where their hands still linked. It had become such second nature she’d barely noticed. “Because you’re the woman, and I want to make sure you…um…you know. Really want to, and all.”

“A thousand bucks, remember?” she teased.

Matt looked at her. “Yeah, well…aside from that. I want to make sure you’re okay with it.”

This touched her, and Melissa nodded, even though the idea of being the one to move in first for the kiss made her stomach clench. “That’s very sweet, Matt.”

“Hey, I’m a sweet guy.”

“And so modest,” she said.

“So? You’ll do it?”

Melissa drew in a deep, long breath. “Sure. Okay. I’ll do it.”

Had she ever been the first to make the move? If she had, Melissa couldn’t remember it. Of all the first kisses she’d ever had with someone, this was certainly shaping up to be the most memorable. That’s when she decided she was going to make it memorable, not just because they were doing an experiment, but, well, just because.

Because she could.

Letting go of Matt’s hand, Melissa pushed up onto her knees. The couch cushions dipped underneath her as she moved in front of him. She took his face in her hands, cupping his jaw. His skin was bristly, just a little, though he looked fairly clean shaven. Her fingers brushed the bottom edges of his sideburns while her thumbs pressed the curve of his chin.

Matt’s mouth opened the tiniest bit, but he didn’t say anything. He looked deep into her eyes, and though they’d spend oodles of time hugging and holding hands and talking about everything that could be talked about in four-hour increments, this was the first time he’d ever looked so deeply into her gaze.

It rocked her, that look. Right down to the middle of her gut, and lower down, too. Yes, this was artificial, she thought as she studied his face. But that didn’t make it any less real.

And then, Matt closed his eyes. This touched her, too, the way his insistence that she be the one to start it had. This was not Matt the frat boy, bent on getting up to trouble in Cancun. This Matt seemed more vulnerable than that, and what could she say? Melissa was a sucker for vulnerable.