“What are you thinking about?” Adam asked, his voice thick and faraway. I licked my lips. I wanted to touch myself so bad. To touch him.
“Nothing.”
“Try again.” His voice darkened, becoming smoky and low.
My eyes were still closed. “I’m thinking about that night,” I admitted. “How jealous I was of Maya.”
“I hated that you were sixteen, that you were my best friend’s sister, that you were the only girl off limits in our entire goddamn town, and yet exactly who I wanted.”
His voice grew louder. I stifled a moan, biting down on my lower lip as I tried to regain control over my own body. I removed my hand from between my legs, changing the subject so I wouldn’t be tempted to sexually harass Adam without his knowledge.
“I think Val still doesn’t want us to be together.”
“Val doesn’t chart anymore. You’re a big girl now, Nika.”
I leaned against the crème granite wall for support, my eyes still closed. I was no longer touching myself, but I couldn’t open my eyes and face reality.
“He was the one who suggested we live together until I find a place. Maybe he thinks we hate each other too much to hookup,” I mused.
“I never hated you.”
I heard the click of the glass door as it opened. I snapped my eyes open and saw that Adam was there. In the shower. With me. And that he was completely clothed, still in his jeans and white tee. His eyes scorched a path down my body. I felt more naked than I was. Raw to the bone.
“Not even after the fact. Val knows I love you. That I will always love you, Nika Popov.”
“You said I could trust you.” My mouth fell open, my arms encircling my chest. Drops of water clung to my lower lip.
“No, I said you should.” He took a step forward. “You cannot trust me to stop pursuing you, because I won’t. I will not pass up on the opportunity to make you mine.”
With that, he stepped into the stream of water, his clothes soaking, his shirt clinging to his pecs. He grabbed the backs of my thighs and plastered me to the wall, kissing me viciously, punishingly, his tongue exploring, demanding, conquering every inch of my mouth. My hands glided down his body, fast and eager, desperate to feel every inch of his muscular, smooth body. He unbuckled himself with one hand, supporting my body against the tiles with the other.
“Finally,” he muttered into our dirty kiss, the rustling of his belt as he undid it making every nerve-ending in my body explode with tingles. “Fucking finally.”
I kissed his neck, his shoulder, his chest, a shiver of pleasure sliding down my spine. “I never should’ve let you go. Condom.”
“I still go by Adam,” he jested, pushing his jeans down, just enough for his hot and velvety hard-on to spring out. I laughed.
“No. We need a condom.”
“Right. Of course.” He fished through his back pocket, tearing a condom wrapper with his teeth before shutting me up with a kiss.
“Don’t even go into the whole why-do-you-have-a-condom-handy speech, Nik. I had it with me because I knew this was going to happen. You and I. I don’t go around carrying condoms like a high schooler expecting to get laid.”
He entered me, all at once, in a thrust that was much more than a thrust. It was a statement. A declaration of intent.
You are mine.
You were always mine.
You were never his.
I couldn’t dispute that. It was the naked, painful truth.
“Adam,” I moaned, my head falling backwards.
“Nika.”
He pushed into me mercilessly, going deeper, wrapping my hair around his fist. I wanted to sink into his body and put roots there. To never leave him. My toes curled around his waist as my climax washed over me in waves, everything in my body clenching, the spasm rocking me back and forth.
“Adam, Adam, Adam.”
Mine, mine, mine.
I buried my face in his shoulder as he came inside me, groaning with pleasure. He cupped the back of my head, kissing the side of my face. We were still for a moment, him still inside me.
“How could we do this to each other?” I asked. He knew exactly what I meant. All those years that had gone by. The nothingness that stretched inside of them.
“I don’t know.” He put me down carefully, his mouth on mine as he spoke. “But I’m not letting it happen again.”
When we went back into the living room some time later, I saw what he’d been watching on the TV, the frame still frozen on a scene I recognized.
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?” I sucked in a breath, my heart jumping to my throat. Adam rubbed the back of my shoulder, picking up the remote.
“Paused it exactly where we left it ten years ago.”
He plopped onto the couch. It was true. The movie was set on the exact same scene I left it at. Down to the same second. Overcome with emotion, I struggled to make sense out of it.
“But when I came in…”
“The frame was already frozen.” He looked up at me.
“You remembered.”
“I don’t ever forget.” He patted the spot next to him. “This is no longer warmed up by Betsy, but my arms can do the trick.”
I sat next to Adam and finished the movie we started all those years ago.
It was a masterpiece.
THREE DAYS OF a lot of sex, a lot of conversation, and a lot of pasta flew by. Adam had to go back to Mexico for another week of filming. He begged me to tag along, but work had piled up for me, too, during the time I’d taken off to channel all our energy to give each other orgasms.
Besides, I was growing strangely attached to Betsy and didn’t feel comfortable
