The Experiment

by Holly Hart

  The little oboe line signals the end of the song as he draws my hand to his lips and kisses it.

  “Thanks for the dance,” he whispers.

  This is crazy. I shouldn’t do this. Quentin will fire my ass if he finds out. I need that money.

  “One more,” I whisper back as The Cars start to wonder who’s going to drive someone home tonight.

  The world comes to a standstill for the duration of the song. Our hips move as one, in perfect synch, just like they used to when we were young. It’s as if our bodies remembered things our brains forgot.

  I want to stay in this moment for a month, then collect my check from Quentin and…

  And what, Sara?

  Chance pulls away slightly as the song ends. “One more?” he asks.

  “No, thanks,” I say. “How about you show me your bedroom instead?”

  Chapter One Hundred Fifteen

  22. SARA

  “This is bigger than my apartment,” I marvel as he leads me through the frosted glass door into his room.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous,” he says, tapping a switch on the wall that ignites indirect lighting under panels along the ceiling. “I mean, a family could live in here. But it came with the house.”

  There’s a living room suite in one corner near the huge window that looks out onto North Wayne Avenue. In the other corner is a grouping of high-end exercise equipment.

  And, of course, there’s the oversized bed on the solid walnut platform frame.

  What are you doing here? This is insane.

  Shut up, brain! Don’t make me go back to killing you with vodka at the Toad & Turtle pub!

  Chance pulls me gently to him, and I follow willingly. Whatever tonight is about, it’s going to happen. I’m not going to spend my life regretting what-ifs anymore – whatever happens, happens.

  “You’re sure?” he asks again.

  “I’ve never been so sure of anything in fifteen years,” I whisper, closing the distance between our lips until they finally touch again, for the first time as adults.

  The soft heat is so familiar and yet totally new at the same time. My heart flutters as his tongue gently parts my lips and touches my own, tentatively at first, then with more passion. I melt into his arms as he holds me tighter, wrapping himself around me.

  My arms grip his neck for dear life, feeling the coiled muscle under the skin as I press into him even more. His chest is like rock against my breasts, prompting a wave of heat down below. My hips respond independent of my mind, pressing forward against him.

  Our lips part for a moment as Chance catches his breath.

  “This is… this is good,” he pants. “Right?”

  “So good,” I whisper as I cover his mouth with mine again. I’m hungry now, for everything he’ll give me.

  My fingers fumble with the buttons of his shirt as he shuffles me backwards toward the bed. I yank his shirt free and pull it off, exposing his rippling torso to me for the first time since we were teens.

  My breath stops in my chest as the low light delineates a relief of scar tissue along his pectoral muscles and down the ribs on one side.

  “Oh my God, Chance.” I run my fingers gingerly over the old wounds. “What happened?”

  “War,” he says simply. “This was from an ambush attack. Sully was actually there that night. It was when we…”

  Suddenly, there’s a stricken look in his eyes, but it fades just as quickly.

  “Do you really want to talk about my scars?” he asks, taking the hand that’s been touching them in his own and pulling it to his lips. He kisses the inside of my wrist and my knees almost buckle.

  “No,” I say, pulling him down with me onto the bed. “I can think of a lot of things I’d rather do.”

  Chapter One Hundred Sixteen

  23. CHANCE

  She probes my mouth with hers again as I lean over her on the bed. Still cherry, after all these years.

  God, I can’t believe I almost told her about that night with Sully. I came this close to giving away the secret I’ve been working so fucking hard to keep from her.

  Sure, says my conscience. Like this is hard work.

  The bed is three times as wide as the old cot in the rec center storeroom, but my body still knows what to do with Sara’s. I reach under her and wrap her in my arms, lowering myself onto the mattress next to her. She responds by lifting her leg on top of mine and pressing in even closer.

  So many nights we spent like this in those days. But we were kids back then.

  Tonight we’re both grown-ups. And I want to act like the adults we are.

  “Sara,” I groan as her lips move off mine and find their way down to the nape of my neck. Her tongue feels like a hot poker against my skin.

  I brazenly reach for the zipper of her dress and unzip her. Her reaction is to wriggle out of the shoulder straps and pull herself free, giving me full view of her lacy black bra and a tease of the luscious breasts concealed inside.

  My mouth closes on the swell of her cleavage as my tongue explores the delicate, salty skin there. This is as far as we ever went back in the day. And I don’t want to stop here.

  Sara must feel the same way, because the next thing I know her right hand is behind her back and suddenly the bra snaps open on her chest. I pull it off eagerly, until I’m staring at her full, naked breasts.

  “Touch me,” she whispers in my ear as her crotch grinds into my thigh. “I want to feel your hands all over me.”

  I can barely hold back. My hands reach down and massage her breasts, felling the hot, hard nipples against my palms. My hard cock is pressing desperately against my zipper, struggling to break free from its restraints like a hungry tiger on a chain.

  Sara responds to me with abandon, pulling her dress all the way off until her panties are grinding against the fabric of my slacks. This is the moment I fantasized about so many times as a teenager, lying awake at night in my cot and masturbating myself to sleep with thoughts of her.

  Her hands start tugging at my belt. As she frees it, she yanks down the zipper and pulls my pants down, past my erection, until they puddle onto the floor beside the bed.

  “God, Chance,” she hisses in my ear as she frees my cock from my boxers and grips it. “I waited so fucking long for this…”

  “It’s all yours,” I say before sliding my tongue down to her nipple. The heat and pressure of her crotch against my leg increases, and I feel a hint of moisture in the fabric of her panties.

  A moment later and I’ve managed to kick my shorts to the floor. I’m fully naked beside her for the first time in my life. All the other women I’ve ever slept with suddenly disappear from my memory; it’s as if I’m lying with a woman for the first time.

  Sara’s boldness is turning me on even more as she sits up and pushes me onto my back, hands against my shoulders. As I lie down, she straddles me and lowers herself so that her crotch is pressing against the underside of my steel-hard shaft.

  The heat against my sensitive skin almost makes me come instantly. I breathe deeply, trying to think of baseball.

  Who am I kidding? There is a goddess on top of me, her breasts staring me in the face as she grinds her pussy on my cock. How am I supposed to think of anything but her?

  My hands close around her breasts and massage gently. My fingers roll around the nipples, each light pinch resulting in another grind against me. Sara’s eyes are closed, her breath ragged.

  “So long,” she sighs. “Finally.”

  That’s when the inevitable starts to begin, and suddenly I’m doing everything I can to keep from coming.

  Chapter One Hundred Seventeen

  24. SARA

  God, this feels soooo incredible.

  I’m on fire down there as I feel Chance’s shaft between my legs for the first time. It’s so much better than I imagined it would be – the connection, the look of pleasure on his face, the delicious ache of desire all through me.

  I take his hands in mine
as they gently squeeze my breasts. As soon as I do, he pulls me down to him and engulfs my mouth with his again. His cock jerks and flexes against my lower lips through the thin satin of my panties while his hands slide down and under the fabric to grab my ass.

  What have I been missing all this time? Why have I waited so long for this?

  “Chance,” I moan. “I want you so much…”

  My hips are moving with a mind of their own now, grinding my wet crotch harder against his shaft. Beneath me I can feel his body start to tremble as he lets go of my ass and grabs my arms.

  “Oh, Sara,” he grunts. “I can’t… I can’t hold back…”

  It feels so right… so right…

  I gasp at the sudden hot wetness against my panties and lower belly. My eyes snap open and see Chance’s twisted face and the droplets running down his abdomen.

  And suddenly I’m hit with a wave of vertigo that threatens to drown me.

  You touched his thing, Sara.Smack. I told you what would happen if you touched his thing. Smack.And now look what’s happened.It’s spurted its devil seed all over you. Smack. Pray with me, Sara. Beg the Lord for His forgiveness. Smack.

  The voice of my mother in my head is like a ghost in the room with us, and I can feel the sharp agony of each lash of the belt against my thighs as if it’s happening again right now.

  “Sara?” Chance whispers, alarmed. “Sara, I’m sorry. Are you all right?”

  I can feel myself trembling but I’m powerless to stop it. Everything was so good, but now I feel like I’m going to vomit.

  Damn you, Mom. Even dead, you still torture me.

  I swallow hard and manage to open my eyes.

  “I’m fine,” I lie. “This was just… unexpected.”

  “Yeah,” he pants. “For me too. Do you... do you want to…?”

  “I think I should go,” I say, climbing off him.

  Suddenly the feeling of being naked in front of him is mortifying, when just a few moments ago it felt like the ultimate freedom. God, I’m so fucked up!

  I wriggle into my bra and gather up my dress, trying not to seem frantic. Chance pulls on his shorts and zips me up without being asked.

  “I really am sorry,” I say. “Tonight was…”

  “Yeah,” he says. “It was.”

  “But it’s just not…”

  “Not the right time,” he says. “I get it. It’s okay.”

  I kick into my shoes and grab my purse from the nightstand.

  “Let me call my driver to take you home,” he says.

  “It’s fine, I’ll just catch a cab. There should be plenty on North Wayne at this time of night.”

  He throws on a robe as I speed-walk to the bedroom door.

  “At least let me see you out,” he says, ever the gentleman.

  We walk downstairs in silence. As we reach the front door, he takes my arm and pulls me close.

  “I hope you don’t regret tonight, Sara. I don’t.”

  The demons in my mind are chanting unspeakable things to me about touching his thing, but I manage to wrestle them back long enough to speak.

  “I don’t regret it,” I say, laying a hand on his cheek. “I’m just a little… confused. Can you understand that?”

  “Of course.”

  “Can we take it slow?”

  Chance takes my hand from his cheek and kisses it.

  “Absolutely.”

  I flash a smile that I hope doesn’t look as strained as it feels and say good night. He stands in the doorway and watches until I flag down a cab and ride away into the night.

  I’m not even a block from Chance’s house before my phone starts to warble in my purse. I pull it out, expecting Chance’s number to show up on the screen. I don’t know what I’ll say to him.

  But it’s not him. It’s Quentin Pearce.

  Shit.

  I briefly consider letting it go to voicemail before finally hitting the answer button. I can’t afford to screw things up any more than I may have already.

  “Quentin,” I say. “Kind of late, isn’t it?”

  “Money never sleeps,” he quips. “Have you got an update for me yet?”

  “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but so far, there’s nothing. Atlas is a paragon of virtue.”

  “I know that much,” he grumbles. “It’s Chance Talbot I need the dirt on.”

  “I haven’t found anyone who wouldn’t take a bullet for him so far. I’m beginning to think whatever rumors you’re hearing are just that – rumors.”

  “I didn’t hire you to chase a wild goose for a month, I hired you to find Talbot’s Achilles heel. If you can’t do that, maybe I need to cancel your contract right now and find someone who can.”

  I cringe. This whole situation is getting out of control, but without that money, Grace and I might not even be able to keep our doors open. I don’t have a choice here.

  “I’m getting closer,” I blurt. “I just need to find the right person to talk.”

  “You better,” he says. “Taking over Atlas isn’t enough here – I can buy the Sullivans’ shares, but as long as Talbot still has a significant amount of stock, I won’t be able to do what I need to do with the company. So get me results.”

  As usual, he indicates the conversation is over by hanging up.

  I sigh as I rest my head against the cab window and watch the downtown lights fly by. I thought life was confusing enough before I answered that first call from Pearce a few days ago. Now I realize that I didn’t even know the half of it.

  What the hell am I going to do now?

  Chapter One Hundred Eighteen

  25. CHANCE

  “I don’t know how your plan’s been going, but it doesn’t seem to be having an effect on Sara’s investigation,” says Tre. “She’s going about her business the same way she has since this whole thing started.”

  She’s kept our conversations almost completely professional the last couple days, too, but I’m not going to give Tre the satisfaction of knowing that.

  “I’m telling you,” I say. “Things went really well the other night. We reconnected.”

  He holds up a hand. “Spare me the details, if you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t kiss and tell.”

  “See, just saying that is telling.”

  I grin. “Okay, I’ll leave it at this: we were acting like when we were kids again.”

  Tre fixes me with a lecturing look. “Under other circumstances, I’d be over the moon about you guys getting back together. I can’t think of anybody who deserves happiness as much as you two. But doing it this way… I just don’t know, man.”

  A knock at my office door interrupts what I’m sure would have been my clever comeback.

  “Yeah,” I call out.

  Karen pokes her head in the door. “Sara’s here to see you, Chance.”

  “Speak of the devil,” I say with a smile. “Send her in.”

  Sara walks in looking perfect, as always. Today she’s in a sleek pants suit that shows off her legs and makes her look like a power executive. My cock gives a little throb under my own pants as I imagine having a special board meeting with her.

  “What can we do for you?” I ask.

  “I was just wondering if you two might be free tonight,” she says. “I promised Grace that I’d set up a get-together with all of us soon. She’s been dying to see you guys again.”

  Tre grins wide. “Absolutely,” he says. “I’d love to catch up with little Gracie.”

  “She’s not so little anymore,” Sara cautions. “She’s a grown-up now. Well, as much as Grace is ever going to be, anyway.”

  I chuckle. “I’d love to see her, too.”

  And if it gives me another opportunity to spend time with Sara, so much the better. I’m excited now – not just for catching up with Grace, but at the fact Sara isn’t walking on eggshells around me anymore. If she’s inviting us out, it means she’s not feeling weird about the other night.

  At least, t
hat’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.

  “I’ve got another friend I’d like to bring along,” Sara says. “She’s my BFF, my therapist and my mixed martial arts instructor.”

  “Sounds intriguing,” says Tre. “The more the merrier. Where should we go?”

  “Well, with you two moneybags buying, I suppose we could go anywhere in the city,” she grins. “But there’s an English pub near my apartment called the Toad & Turtle that we’re sort of regulars at. So if you guys don’t mind slumming it in Riverdale…”

  “We’ll be there,” I say a little too quickly. Way to play it cool, Chance.

  “Perfect,” she says. I’d like to think her smile is all for me.

  “What time?” Tre asks.

  “How about eight?” she asks. “And please bring your significant other, Tre.”

  “Oh, I’m single.”

  “Is that right?” Sara says, arching an eyebrow. “Grace and Kelsey will be very interested to hear that, I’m sure.”

  I can’t see it in his skin, but I’m a hundred percent positive Tre is blushing right now. For a guy with his looks and success, he’s always been oddly shy around girls.

  “We’ll be there,” I say. “We’ll start at your pub, but who knows where the night will take us? We’re young, single and rich.”

  Sara crosses her arms and sizes me up. “You sure you two can keep up with us? We’re semi-pros at this.”

  “Challenge accepted,” I say with a smug grin. “Last one standing has to get the other ones home safe.”

  Tre sighs. “You know that’s going to be me.”

  I drape an arm over his shoulders. “Yes, I do. Sorry, buddy.”

  “All right, then,” Sara says. “We’ll meet you there.”

  “I can’t wait,” I say, hoping she picks up on the lewd thoughts I’m trying to telepathically send to her.

  Chapter One Hundred Nineteen

  26. SARA

  I sure hope this isn’t the stupidest idea I’ve ever had in my life.

  Luckily for me, I’ve set the “stupid idea” bar pretty high in my life, so chances are good that this isn’t the stupidest of them all. How comforting is that?