Summer Fling: An Anthology by Vi Keeland

 

 

 

I SPENT THE next day moving my things out of Chris’ apartment into storage.

Chris decided to keep our Sherman Oak place. I rented a U-Haul, packed my little belongings, and spent the day carrying heavy boxes to and fro. Chris wanted to “clear the air” while I was there, but I told him I’d rather pack my stuff in peace. Adam didn’t know my whereabouts. I figured it wasn’t his mess to sort out. Besides, I was born into the #GirlPower era. There was nothing I couldn’t do, including moving half an apartment on my own.

The entire day, Val sent me encouraging text messages, and by ‘encouraging’, I mean passive-aggressive to the extreme.

Val: Tell Chris if he gives you trouble, I will punch his face in.

Val: How are things at Adam’s? Hope he is treating you well.

Val: While you’re at it warning Chris, tell Adam I will punch his face, too, if he touches you.

Val: Never mind, I’ll tell him myself.

Val: Think his face is insured? Like J-Lo’s ass and Elle Macpherson’s legs? He is kind of a big deal.

I shook my head, laughing. I knew my brother was doing this to make me feel better. Honestly? It kind of worked. But I still wished he would let me make my own decisions. By the time I dragged myself back into Adam’s apartment, I was limp with exhaustion. My thighs quivered as I fiddled with the digital pad of his entrance door, getting the code wrong twice before finally stopping my fingers from trembling.

When I walked in, Adam was there on the couch, watching something on TV I couldn’t see from that angle.

“Long day?” He smiled.

“Yup. But it’s over, and all my stuff is out of the apartment.”

“You moved out today?” He frowned, pausing the movie he was watching. I nodded, still standing by the door.

“You should’ve told me. I’d have helped, work be damned. Or told my assistant to do it.”

“Don’t worry about it. I needed the time to marinate on everything that’s happened lately.”

He scowled. He didn’t like the idea of my overthinking things. But that wasn’t what I meant. I rolled my eyes and laughed.

“Not about us. I’m happy that we kissed.”

In fact, I was pretty bummed we hadn’t gone all the way. Adam went straight to his agent after that pool kiss, and we’d missed and didn’t see each other since then.

I didn’t want to elaborate on Chris because, A. As much as I disliked Chris for what he did, I still didn’t want to out him and Johnny, and B. Because life with Chris felt like it was eons away. It was scary how easily I’d picked back up my obsession with Adam Mackay. Like it was never gone. Maybe it really hadn’t been.

Adam sat up, patting the spot next to him. “Betsy warmed it up for you.”

I loitered by the door. I really needed to take a shower. I was sweaty, my hair was a mess, and I was pretty sure two damp circles adorned my shirt around my armpits.

“Let me just hop into the shower. Do you want me to cook anything? I can make pasta.” I breezed into the hallway.

Adam pounced from the couch with feline grace, stalking my steps. “Pasta’s fine. Sure you’re okay?”“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know, maybe because you just packed up four years’ worth of a relationship into cardboard boxes and moved in with your brother’s best friend?”

“We’re not technically roommates. It’s just a pit stop.” I smiled, but inside, I was oddly sad about having to leave here soon. Which was crazy, because Adam was supposed to be a virtual stranger to me at this point.

“Whatever makes you sleep better at night, Nik.”

I walked into my en-suite. He joined me. I stopped.

“May I have my privacy now?”

“Sure.” Adam turned around, but stayed in my bathroom. Unbelievable. But I kind of liked having him there. It was nice to have someone to talk to at the end of the day. Especially this kind of day. It wasn’t that I was extremely upset, but I still felt hurt and humiliated.

“What are you doing?” I picked up my brush and ran it through my hair.

“Offering you company. A shoulder to cry on.”

“Is it sad that I’m not even that heartbroken over it?” I asked.

He shook his head, looking relieved, his shoulders loosening.

“Love comes in very different ways and forms. You can’t pick and choose how it hits you.”

I knew exactly what he meant. That was why my feelings for him were so strong still. Adam hit me like a semitrailer. Chris…like a scooter accident, maybe.

I put the brush down. “Okay. I’m getting into the shower now.”

“Have fun.”

“Are you going to just…stay?”

“If you don’t mind.”

I knew if I told him to leave, this time he’d go. But I wanted him to stay. “Fine. No peeking,” I warned, peeling my damp clothes off and dumping them on the floor.

“Pinky promise.”

I could see him through the mirror, squeezing his eyes shut in an exaggerated way that wasn’t going to win him any Oscars.

“So, have you slept with a lot of starlets?” I stepped into the shower, turning the water on. Adam was still squinting.

“I’m not a virgin anymore, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“It’s not what I’m asking. You lost your virginity sophomore year to Tina McNelis.”

I’d eavesdropped on Val every time he’d talked to Adam when we were teenagers. The walls in our house were thin and my appetite for all things Adam was insatiable.

“Damn.” Adam laughed. “Your talents are needed at the CIA.”

“I’ll be sure to send them my résumé if the scriptwriting gig doesn’t pan out.”

“It will pan out. You’re the most talented girl I’ve ever met,” he said, serious as a heart attack. “To answer your question—no, I haven’t slept with many actresses. Three, to be exact. I had a girlfriend the entire time I was at Juilliard, and after I graduated, it was pretty much work nonstop. What about you? Other than this Chris guy, did you have a lot of boyfriends?”

The hot water felt good on my body, washing the day away.

“Nothing to write home about,” I answered.

“Me neither.”

“No serious boyfriends?” I joked.

Adam licked his lips, his back still to me. “Nope. Just casual dick.”

I actually snort-laughed, my mind drifting to Chris. It felt weird not telling Adam about what happened. I used to tell him everything. Then again, it wasn’t my place to drag Chris and Johnny out of the closet.

There was silence as I lathered myself with soap, watching the muscular ridges of Adam’s triangle back in his soft white V-neck. I’d watched a GIF of him taking his shirt off in a rom-com for half an hour last night, managing by some miracle not to pleasure myself in the process. But now that he was here, in the flesh, the temptation was overwhelming.

“Hey, you won’t open your eyes or turn your back, right?” I asked teasingly.

“Trust issues much?”

“A ton, actually. Part of the reason why I broke up with Chris.”

He let out a manly growl. “I’m not Chris.”

I snuck a hand between my thighs, washing myself there, sans the soap. My cheeks heated as I checked through the mirror to see if his eyes were still closed. They were. I let mine drop shut, too, imagining him inside the shower with me.

“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.