Not You Again

Chapter 19 #2

“Can’t argue that.” Adam sat on the grass, brought his knees up and wrapped his arms around them as he stared out. “So, what

do we do now? We have the setting. Do we fantasize about a thriller in an orchard?”

Carly raised her brows. “Not the worst pitch I’ve ever heard. But no, this is called the five-senses brainstorm. We use sight,

smell, taste, touch and what we hear to think of story ideas.”

“Gotcha,” he said with the kind of tone that conveyed he very much did not get it.

And that was okay, because Carly found she was excited to explain it. “So if we start with sight, we can look out at this

view and think, Who owns this farm? What kind of a person might we want to imagine has a view like this? Could be anything, like, maybe this is a hundred-acre

estate held by a wealthy family who just spends their summers here. Or maybe it’s a farmer who’s had this land for generations,

and they’re trying to make enough money to not have to sell it off.”

“Or maybe someone inherited it? After a family member passed away?” Adam suggested.

“Exactly.” Carly winced at the reminder of her dad and the theater she’d inherited from him. She changed the subject. “For

smell, the apple trees add a kind of sweetness to the air. It reminds me of summer in Los Angeles. The figs fall off the trees

and get sticky on the concrete, and the smell is this mix of like, dirt and jam.”

Adam let out a huff and she glanced at him. “What, is this too touchy-feely?”

“No, it’s just . . .” He trailed off, then shook his head. “This smell reminds me of how Shireen and I started dating, actually.”

“How did you?”

“It’s too embarrassing to share.”

“Well, then you must.” Carly grinned.

He rolled his eyes but began to talk. “I was in high school. Senior year. Every fall our school went on a field trip to Crowley’s

Corner Farms, which is one of the apple orchards here. Part of the field trip is learning about farming and apple production.

They have all of these ladders and tractors and things around but tell you not to actually get on them. It’s not safe.”

“And you always follow the rules,” Carly said.

“I do love rules.” Adam gave her a small smile. “But Shireen was standing near me and mentioned to her friend that she wished

she could reach the apples at the top of the tree. I was trying to impress her. So I decided I would climb this really tall

ladder they had to get her some.”

“That’s sweet.” Carly’s expression softened. “I’m worried about the but that’s coming.”

“But something happened. Maybe a gust of wind. Or the rumbling of the school bus as it came up the path. I’ll never really know,

but I fell.” He used a hand to reenact falling from a great height. “I went through the tree limbs, which shielded my fall

considerably. The doctors said I was lucky I didn’t break anything. That’s when Shireen and I started dating, though.”

“Did you get her an apple?” Carly asked.

He chuckled. “I did, actually!”

“An apple hero,” she said with a smile. “I might have to borrow that story for a screenplay. I never had a grand romantic gesture like that in high school. I didn’t even have a date to the prom. I just stayed home and watched movies.”

Sometimes Carly worried that not enough had happened in her own life to be interesting on the page. She’d grown up in Burbank

and hadn’t moved anywhere else. She’d gone to school at USC, just a quick drive away. She’d lost her mom at a young enough

age where she only wondered what could’ve been. She spent her time bartending, or on her laptop. It wasn’t until the loop

when she’d finally said “fuck it” and just spent her days doing whatever whim suited her best.

What if she didn’t have enough story to ever make a movie? What if all she had was recycling other people’s experiences, instead

of growing from her own?

They’d both gone quiet. And that quiet made her self-conscious. “I wish I could just climb into your thoughts and hear what

you’re thinking,” she said honestly. “Most of the time I have absolutely no idea if you’re here with me or out in the stars.

And you’re always so damn quiet, Adam.”

She waited, and he looked at her with an expression so irritated she worried she’d overstepped.

“I go quiet because I keep getting distracted by that plump little mouth of yours.” He bit his own lip, but stared straight

at hers.

Carly knew she was breathing, but also . . . was she?

“You think I’m distracting?” She traced a fingertip along the line of his impossibly high cheekbone. When she got close to

his lips they parted on instinct, and she drew across the line of them, too. “Guess you better do something about it.”

Then he kissed her without any warning. Hard at first, but his lips softened as his tongue found hers.

She held on to his hand. “I’m ready, Adam. I think we should, before . . .”

Before the eclipse vanishes and we do, too, was what she thought but didn’t say. Carly didn’t want to lose him, or the opportunity to have all of him before their time

ran out.

Without asking, Carly slipped her dress up and over her head. Adam’s expression was more shocked than anything, which she

really enjoyed. So she decided to unclasp her bra, too, and his breath caught as she let her breasts fall out.

“Carly, you’re cold,” Adam said. His hands traveled up the length of her legs, hips and the sides of her breasts. Her nipples

pebbled against his touch.

“This can be the touch part of the brainstorm.” She leaned back to put her body on further display. “What kind of character

would feel like this?”

She grabbed his hand and helped him cup her breast.

“The kind of character I want to touch . . . ?” He laughed, but still played with her nipples. “I told you, I’m not creative.”

“Maybe if you explore the taste part of the brainstorm, that might spark something?”

She guided his hand between her legs to show him how wet she already was. Adam let his fingers smooth over the cotton of her

panties, then slid them off and down her legs. He let out a deep exhale as he took in the sight of her.

Adam gently eased Carly onto her back, and she felt the cool blades of grass on her skin. Then he positioned himself between

her knees and buried his face in her. Her head fell back and she let out a loud, “Oh!”

“You taste so fucking good.” He sucked her clit into his mouth and she whimpered. He dipped back to her pussy and lapped at

the opening, making her legs tighten.

“Do you want to come on my face?” he asked. When he looked up for her answer, she pulled him up and brought his lips to hers.

Because while she loved being eaten out just as much as the next girl, Carly was also ready to be filled by him.

Adam took the hint and quickly tried to take off his shirt, but forgot he had a blazer on top and got tangled. Carly laughed

as she helped him out of his clothes. When she brought her hands around his back and dug her fingernails into his shoulders,

he pressed his chest to hers. His kisses became more intense with the added heat of their bodies. Carly reached down to his

pants, fumbled with the button and then slipped the zipper down in one long and loud slide.

She’d fantasized about what Adam’s dick might look like—long and lean, like him? Thick and veined? She’d felt how hard he’d

been on several occasions, so she knew whatever she saw would be eager to please. But when he pushed his pants the rest of

the way down, she was absolutely shocked.

“It’s red,” she said without thinking.

“Carpet matches the drapes.” Adam leaned his forehead against hers and said in a lower voice, “Tell me what you want.”

“I want you,” she said into his ear. “If that wasn’t clear.”

His lips were on hers and his hands were in her hair, then on her clit, almost unsure of where to start. But Carly was impatient

and she reached for the length of him. Adam let out a groan as she squeezed him in her palm, then released. She did that a

few more times to gently pump his shaft as she guided him closer to her entrance. Once there, he teased her by putting his

tip over her wet clit and rubbing in light circles.

“We can stop,” he offered.

But she grabbed him and eased the head of him in, then slowly back out.

She looked up to make sure he heard her when she said, “We are not stopping until I come all over you.” She squeezed him in her hand for emphasis, and he growled.

She positioned him at the edge of her entrance, then eased him in enough to get started.

“I don’t have—” He looked around, as if condoms would fall from the sky. Although, stranger things had happened.

“I’ve been on the pill. We’re in a time loop. And I want this. So while I appreciate the safety precautions, I think we can

carry on.”

Adam bit his lower lip as he held Carly’s gaze and eased into her, then slid back out, and in, one inch at a time.

But she wanted all of him. To move as one. To feel consumed. And instinct told Carly to wrap her legs tighter around Adam.

When she did, he managed to push even deeper inside until he hit the very edge. Her body shuddered as he hit that spot over

and over again.

While he was taking notice of what she liked, she couldn’t help clocking how the gentle scrape of her nails up his thigh made

him tighten, too. Adam panted into her shoulder when she reached for his ass, then said, “No, I need the nails again.”

Carly’s eyes flicked to Adam’s as she gently clawed her way up his thigh. Then he rocked into her, slow and deep. She let

out a moan as he brought his cock all the way out, then dove back in. He cupped her ass and rocked harder and faster into

her.

“You feel so fucking good. So fucking good, Carly.”

Her body began to tense around him. As if sensing her closeness, Adam dipped his mouth to her breast and sucked on her nipple.

And then, as he moved into her again his mouth found her ear and he told her, “Come for me.”

Those words, and the friction and his arms surrounding her finally sent an orgasm crashing through. Carly couldn’t manage

to tell him she was coming, but as he went farther to touch that most sensitive spot, she knew he understood.

“Holy shit,” she said plainly, with no hang-ups about it. The man had made her toes curl, and he deserved to know.

With her legs still wrapped around him and his hard length inside, he picked her up and flipped them over, positioning them

so that he was underneath and she was on top. “I want to see all of you,” he said.

Carly was boneless, but nodded as she rocked back and let Adam’s cock sink into her again. Then she lifted her hips up and

down, sliding on him easily. Little aftershocks of pleasure sparked each time he buried himself in her. And when he grabbed

her and pulled her down hard on him . . . that nearly sent her over again. But she reached behind and gently tugged on his

balls. He groaned, and she felt him tighten in her hand.

When he released, Adam’s eyes briefly pinched closed and the moan he let out seemed to emerge from the depths of him. He shuddered

and gave her a half smile. She licked her lips, knowing she’d never get enough, not in this timeline or any other.

Carly curled her body next to Adam’s, and he wrapped his long arm around her shoulder to pull her in close. She listened to

his breaths even out, and his heart rate slow. He was sticky with sweat, and so was she. Carly wasn’t sure she’d ever felt

so aware of her body, which tingled from all of the places Adam had touched her.

“Sorry for distracting you,” she eventually said.

He laughed a low and deep chuckle that went through her. At some point, his watch beeped, and he frowned as he glanced down

at the thing, then toward the sky. “The eclipse,” he muttered as he sat up and rifled through the pockets of his jacket to

find their glasses. He handed a pair to Carly and slipped his on, too.

“Is it okay for me to time it?” he belatedly asked.

“Yeah, I want to know.” The unsaid thing was that Carly wanted to know how much time they had left together. Would there be any at all?

“There.” He pointed to the shadow bands flitting across the ground in front of them. “Hard to imagine not seeing them every

day.”

What was harder for Carly to imagine was not seeing Adam every loop. As the eclipse started, Carly quietly put on her clothes

and Adam buttoned up his shirt. His gaze was trained on the sky, but she couldn’t bear to glance up. She and Adam were just

getting to the good parts. Time had not been on her side in so many parts of her life—time with her mom, time with her dad,

timing with work—so why would now be any different?

She sensed Adam glancing at his watch, then slipping the glasses off. She looked over at him.

“No change,” he said.