Page 48 of Come in with the Rain
Addison’s eyes shoot to me. “Are you really certain that you want to be publicly tied to yet another boyfriend?”
Adam looks outraged, like Addison implied that I’m a serial killer. “Excuse me?” he says, and somehow, I think he’s more upset about this turn of events than I am. He’s taken a step forward, halfway between Addison and me.
Addison sighs and puts up her hands in a defensive manner. “Look,” she says, glancing past Adam and directly at me. “I’m not trying to insult you. I’m just making sure you know what you’re getting into. If I publish this piece and the two of you are together, people are going to make assumptions, and if people think you started seeing someone else while you were dating Mickey Kline, it could put you in a difficult position. Everyone who’s anyone in this town is friends with Mickey.”
I look up at Adam, who’s turned his face just barely to mine, looking at me over his shoulder. “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me,” I tell both of them. “I’m going to do whatever I want.”
I expect to see concern on Adam’s face, that same hardened look he gets around his eyes and jaw when he’s trying to figure out how to fix a problem. But instead, the corners of his mouth turn up.
Addison laces her hands behind her back. “Okay. Then I’ll do my best to leave out any incriminating details, and the two of you will have to handle the backlash yourselves.”
Adam snorts. “We’ve got plenty of experience in backlash.”
Addison gives a small bow and the three of us move back into the living room. And I guess the whole thing is done because Addison scoops up her bag and goes straight for the door. “I’ll email you, Stella, when the photographer gets back to me about timing tomorrow. I’m assuming that it needs to be early.”
She stops at the door and spins to face us, and I feel like I’m on a Tilt-A-Whirl. I need everything to slow down for a moment. “Yes. I leave for work at 8:30.”
She gives a short nod and reaches for the doorknob, but Adam says, “Wait. Addison. Why did Mickey set up this interview?”
Addison blinks at Adam, and I blink at Addison. And then Addison shrugs. “I don’t pretend to understand Mickey’s motives for this sort of thing, but I’m assuming it’s because he wants you to be successful.”
Adam looks over at me, hands in his pockets. “So, he did it for you.”
I want to bop him on the nose like a spoiled puppy. “No, he did it foryou.”
Adam stays frozen as I bid Addison goodbye and go to close the door behind her. And when I turn, he’s still standing exactly where I left him, hands in his pockets, bent slightly as if I’m still standing beside him.
“Finish your coffee,” I say, walking into the living room and settling onto the couch. I don’t have long before I have to leave for work, but I also don’t think that anyone is going to make a fuss if I’m a little late.
Adam comes to sit beside me, but he does it slowly, like he’s afraid that all of my furniture is made of paper and he has to be careful or it’ll crumble under his weight.
I take a deep breath, ready now to say what I need to. “Adam, I want to apologize to you.”
He’s already shaking his head before the words are all the way out of my mouth. “Absolutely not. Stella, you have nothing to apologize for. I’m the one that needs to apologize. I was an asshole.”
“You weren’t an asshole.”
We’re speaking over each other now, him leaned toward me, and me up on my knees on the couch, and neither of us touching our cold coffee.
“Iwas,” he says. “I just got so terrified of losing the first real thing I’ve ever felt.”
I put up my hands to stop him. “I was afraid that you were turning into Mickey, being another boyfriend that I couldn’t count on.”
He pulls my hands down from between us, so that he can look up at me unobstructed. “I wanted to support you, but I was scared that support was going to be the end of us. You were with him for three years, Stella.”
I put a hand over his mouth gently, feeling his warm breath against my palm. “I don’t want Mickey. I want you.”
He doesn’t pull my hand away, just looks at me over the tops of my fingers, blue eyes shining like comets blazing across a midnight sky. His hand comes up to settle on my hips, warm and safe, and then he yanks me down onto his lap. We’re kissing before I can even make out who initiated it, and tasting him again is like being on a diet and then being served chocolate cake. I moan into his mouth, and he fists both of his hands into my hair.
We break apart. “I just want you, too,” he says, shoving his hips up against mine so that I can feel where he’s getting hard. “If you tell me you’re mine, I’ll believe it. I won’t question you ever again.”
I wrap myself around him like an octopus and give my hips a firm, heavy roll. “I’m yours, Adam. And you’re mine.”
He’s nodding, our mouths slipping against each other, and then he’s pulling at my clothes. We’re both naked in less than a minute, and as if he’s trying to show me that this won’t be a gentle re-coupling, Adam turns me away from him, settles me into his lap, and slides into me from behind.
I shout up at the ceiling because, even though I’m wet and ready for him, the size of him is still enough to stretch me to the point of discomfort. But the stretch is good, so good that I can’t fight back the sob that bursts out of me, and the sound seems to send Adam straight off a cliff.
He growls and grabs me at the nape of my neck, guiding me to lift myself off of him and then slam back down, bent forward so that the only contact our bodies have is where his hand is holding onto me and his cock is inside me.
I’m getting wetter and wetter every time I push back onto him, and he wraps one long arm around me and finds the heat between my legs. I grab onto his thick thighs that are hard with strain as he circles his big, calloused fingers around my clit.
“Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.” I’m chanting it over and over as I get closer to where I need to be, closer to that moment when I’ll squeeze him hard inside, where a part of me will die for him, and I slam myself down harder and harder until the room seems to fragment into tiny pieces. “Oh God, I’m coming!” I scream, and Adam scoops me back up, holding onto one of my knees to spread me open wide, pulling me back against his chest and going at my clit so hard that I’m just screaming, screaming myself raw and coming so hard that the world blurs into nothing but color around me.
I feel Adam’s groan against the back of my neck when he comes, the sound spreading warmth through me it’s so familiar.
And then we lie there like that, me on top of him, and his arms around me as he goes soft. We’re trying to catch our breath, but when we turn our heads and our lips find each other, we gasp into each other’s mouths instead.
I feel that pinch in my chest, the one I’ve been trying to ignore for a long time now, but it won’t be ignored anymore. “I love you, Adam.”
He smiles so wide that his eyes almost disappear. “I love you, too.” With his index finger, he tilts my face up to his and kisses me.
