Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 174544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
I confided in him. And I’m starting to wonder if Original Luna more than just “liked” Donnelly. Did she really love him?
He said he’s one-of-a-kind, so if I look elsewhere, I might not feel the tingles and electricity that I feel with him—but I wonder if OG Luna had proof.
“Did she date a lot before you?” I ask during another spin.
He halts me in front of him, his face unreadable, but he’s tensed. “A bit. Right before me, you were mostly into casual hookups.”
That’s not so hard to believe since I’ve been interested in having sex. “She likes sex?”
“You love sex.”
It scares me that I might be compulsive in bed, and I don’t even know. Maybe that’s why it’s easier to still consider Original Luna a separate entity from me. Her and she. Not me. It’s reassuring, though, hearing Donnelly keep referring to her as me. I like that he’s hopeful I’ll remember everything again, even if I’m not so sure that’s possible. It’s making me feel like…it might be. Maybe.
I hope.
“Am I a sex addict?” I ask so quietly, I’m unsure if he hears.
He drops the burning cigarette into the glass bottle. “You haven’t been diagnosed or anything, but I know you think about it.”
“Do you think I’m one?”
He shakes his head. “But we also haven’t had sex that many times. You and me—the two of us—we’re fairly new.”
Didn’t expect that. Something about Donnelly makes me feel like I’ve known him my whole life, as if we’ve been together millenniums already.
I stand on the cushion of the chair, double-fisting Pringles and soda. “So she was into hookups until you. What’d you do to her?”
He grins. “Only you know that, space babe.”
I wish that were true. “You rocked her universe somehow.”
“With my good looks and wit.” Donnelly spins me while I’m standing, and I balance, smiling as I whirl around and around and around. During each turn, I try to pin my sole focus on him, and everything begins to blur except for Paul Donnelly. He is the most vivid thing ahead of me, and I never want to lose sight of him.
“Do you think,” I say in another rotation, “that we could trigger memories of you and me?”
“How so?”
I see his blue eyes.
I see his pink lips.
Anticipation and attraction swirl like a toxin around me, but I want to believe it’s the opposite of poisonous. Being this close to Donnelly could reawaken me.
“We could kiss,” I say. “It’d be like an experiment.”
He breaks the chair’s momentum again, but this time, I feel like I’ve flung off. While I stare down at him, his expression makes zero sense to me.
31
PAUL DONNELLY
Experiment. That word rings in my ears. ‘Cause this is exactly how we started, and what are the chances this could be happening all over again?
“Bad idea?” she asks quietly, searching my gaze for answers.
Not sure it’s one. I never regretted eating her out for the other experiment. I’d do it all over again—I’ve always known that. And given the opportunity a second time around, my instinct is to rush forward, to race right after her desires. Which have become mine.
Kissing Luna? Can’t turn that down if you paid me to.
“Doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me,” I tell her, the air thickening with a hotter tension. She’s still standing on the chair, an inch or so taller than me. I set aside our sodas and her Pringles. Then I reach out and cup her soft, flushed cheek, blood pumping like I’m boarding a rocket.
She’s grinning.
My lips begin to rise. “I’m at your earthly service, space babe.”
Her breath deepens and grows stronger.
I’m on a high. The biggest high I’ve been on in a while, and I’m not looking to come down. But I know, this is different than the first experiment. For me, not for her. She has no memories of me and our first kiss, but I have so many more of Luna—of us together—but I try to imagine this is the first intimate moment of our existence.
I latch on to the eagerness in her gaze. “You ready for takeoff?” I breathe.
“Yes,” she whispers, her hands on my shoulders. “Let the experiment commence.”
I bring her head down with gentleness, and very slowly, I press my lips to hers. Light bursts in my chest, and I urge her lips apart in a sensual motion. Her tongue slides against mine in exploration, and I want to go on every journey to every fucking place with this girl.
Don’t leave me behind, Luna.
Deepening our kisses, my fingers thread through her light brown hair, and I step onto the chair with her. The instant I tower above Luna, her breath hitches. Swiftly, I place a hand on the small of her back, holding her body against mine. Stabilizing her. Then I carefully kick the desk, and we spin.