The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
His thumb grazed her, and she whimpered. “It’s okay.Relax.”Impossible. Though, if Olive had to be honest, the way hisfinger was curving inside her—it was already getting better.Not so painful now, and maybe even wetter, and if he touchedher there . . . Her head lolled back. She clutched his muscleswith her nails.“There? Is that a good spot?”Olive wanted to tell him that no, it was too much, butbefore she could open her mouth, he did it again, until shecouldn’t keep quiet anymore, all groans and whimpers andwet, obscene noises. Until he tried to get a little further inside,and she couldn’t help wincing.“What is it?” His voice was his regular voice, but a milliontimes raspier. “Does it hurt?”“No— Oh.”He looked up, all flushed pale skin against dark waves.“Why are you so tense, Olive? You’ve done this before,right?”“I—yes.” She was not sure what compelled her to continue.Any idiot could see from a mile away that it was a terribleidea, but there was no room left for lies now that they werestanding so close. So she confessed, “A couple of times. Incollege.”Adam went immobile. Completely motionless. His musclesflexed, coiled strong under her palms, and then they juststayed like that, tense and still as he stared up at her. “Olive.”“But it doesn’t matter,” she hastened to add, because hewas already shaking his head, pulling away from her. It reallydidn’t matter. Not to Olive, and therefore, it shouldn’t toAdam, either. “I can figure it out—I’ve learned whole-cellpatch clamp in a couple of hours; sex can’t be much harder.
And I bet you do this all the time, so you can tell me how to—”“You’d lose.”The room was chilly. His finger was not inside heranymore, and his hand had left her hip.“What?”“You’d lose your bet.” He sighed, wiping a hand down hisface. The other one, the one that had been inside her, moveddown to adjust his cock. It looked enormous by now, and hewinced as he touched it. “Olive, I can’t.”“Of course you can.”He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”“What? No. No, I—”“You’re basically a vir—”“I’m not!”“Olive.”“I am not.”“But so close to it that—”“No, that’s not the way it works. Virginity is not acontinuous variable, it’s categorical. Binary. Nominal.Dichotomous. Ordinal, potentially. I’m talking about chisquare,maybe Spearman’s correlation, logistic regression, thelogit model and that stupid sigmoid function, and . . .”It had been weeks and it still took her breath away, theuneven tilt of his smile. How unanticipated it always was, thedimples it formed. Olive was left without air as his large palmcupped the side of her face and brought it down for a slow,warm, laughing kiss.“You are such a smart-ass,” he said against her mouth.
- Page 236 and 237: to my professional career, general
- Page 238 and 239: “Hey.” Olive forced her face in
- Page 240 and 241: “What is it?”“Calories. To fu
- Page 242 and 243: She rolled her eyes. “For Dr. Asl
- Page 244 and 245: It didn’t go perfectly, either. S
- Page 246 and 247: friends, but maybe she could buy hi
- Page 248 and 249: “A pretty girl like you should kn
- Page 250 and 251: to spending more time with you next
- Page 252 and 253: “Nothing.” Her voice shook. It
- Page 254 and 255: “It’s not what they say. It’s
- Page 256 and 257: “And I keynote-spoke.” He grabb
- Page 258 and 259: “Um . . . I’m wearing heels, he
- Page 260 and 261: She moved closer to him and grasped
- Page 262 and 263: “It’s appalling.”“—or the
- Page 264 and 265: like having a thousand little splin
- Page 266 and 267: well on her way to wasted by that p
- Page 268 and 269: “An obscenity, isn’t it? It’s
- Page 270 and 271: “For a moment there, during the t
- Page 272 and 273: “The opposite of discipline and h
- Page 274 and 275: Adam shook his head. “He wanted a
- Page 276 and 277: all of it, maybe it was always goin
- Page 278 and 279: “Olive.” He sighed heavily, clo
- Page 280: It was a little embarrassing, the a
- Page 283 and 284: studying her, it brooked no self-co
- Page 285: “No.” He shook his head. “Not
- Page 289 and 290: —IT TOOK HER the longest time to
- Page 291 and 292: Yes.“Fuck,” someone said. It wa
- Page 293 and 294: orgasm, and the taut stretch of it,
- Page 295 and 296: “Inside you?”“If you—”Ada
- Page 298 and 299: Oh. Maybe, now that they had sex—
- Page 300 and 301: “What?” She gasped and freed he
- Page 302 and 303: finally belonging that seemed to ge
- Page 304 and 305: Slowly, precisely, she wrapped her
- Page 306 and 307: “The book you’re reading. With
- Page 308 and 309: “Who needs to know how to say ‘
- Page 310 and 311: He rolled his tongue inside his che
- Page 312 and 313: “Okay.” She leaned forward and
- Page 315 and 316: who hugged her and started talking
- Page 317 and 318: “He was shameless, Ol. And glorio
- Page 320 and 321: It was an even fancier hotel, and O
- Page 322 and 323: about Malcolm’s elbows. Holden ha
- Page 324 and 325: A beat. Adam studied her, patient a
- Page 326 and 327: “Right,” he said. “Right.”
- Page 328 and 329: “It was good, wasn’t it?” Oli
- Page 330 and 331: Tom Fucking Benton take credit for
- Page 333 and 334: “Fine,” Anh huffed. “Malcolm,
- Page 335 and 336: recording of Tom Benton saying shit
His thumb grazed her, and she whimpered. “It’s okay.
Relax.”
Impossible. Though, if Olive had to be honest, the way his
finger was curving inside her—it was already getting better.
Not so painful now, and maybe even wetter, and if he touched
her there . . . Her head lolled back. She clutched his muscles
with her nails.
“There? Is that a good spot?”
Olive wanted to tell him that no, it was too much, but
before she could open her mouth, he did it again, until she
couldn’t keep quiet anymore, all groans and whimpers and
wet, obscene noises. Until he tried to get a little further inside,
and she couldn’t help wincing.
“What is it?” His voice was his regular voice, but a million
times raspier. “Does it hurt?”
“No— Oh.”
He looked up, all flushed pale skin against dark waves.
“Why are you so tense, Olive? You’ve done this before,
right?”
“I—yes.” She was not sure what compelled her to continue.
Any idiot could see from a mile away that it was a terrible
idea, but there was no room left for lies now that they were
standing so close. So she confessed, “A couple of times. In
college.”
Adam went immobile. Completely motionless. His muscles
flexed, coiled strong under her palms, and then they just
stayed like that, tense and still as he stared up at her. “Olive.”
“But it doesn’t matter,” she hastened to add, because he
was already shaking his head, pulling away from her. It really
didn’t matter. Not to Olive, and therefore, it shouldn’t to
Adam, either. “I can figure it out—I’ve learned whole-cell
patch clamp in a couple of hours; sex can’t be much harder.
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