Chapter 39
ADAM
I’d had less than a month of falling asleep with AJ in my arms.
But apparently that was enough to spoil my tastes.
It was honestly the biggest thing I missed about my house in LA. The feeling of waking up in that bed and feeling her warmth. Her skin against mine.
In that house, I’d had AJ all to myself. I’d had her on my couch, in my kitchen, by the pool. In my bed.
In this apartment, I had… not a whole lot yet.
Six weeks into living here and it wasn’t quite a home yet.
The bed certainly didn’t feel like much.
But I didn’t really care. It was a nice, spacious enough apartment, but it was a rental.
I had plans to work at this agency for at least the next year, but beyond that, I didn’t know what was happening.
All I knew was that I wasn’t giving up on her.
“Alright… alright,” I groaned, stretching in bed when I processed that I’d woken up to the sound of “Barbie Girl” playing on my phone.
Fuckin’ Holland.
“I’m going to change this goddamned ringtone today, and you’re not going to guilt me about it,” I said when I picked up.
“Do whatever you want!” she huffed. “I’m just calling to ask if I left my umbrella outside your door yesterday.”
Umbrella? She had an umbrella with her yesterday?
Since I was only an hour drive from Manhattan, Holland and Iain had visited yesterday.
They took a tour of my new office, and my new colleagues further wondered what the hell I was doing working at GL Sports in Stamford, Connecticut when I was best friends with Iain Thorn.
The fact that I was coming from an agency like Engelman in Los Angeles only confused everyone more.
But they were all good, nice-enough people, and both Holland and Iain understood why I’d chosen to be here.
My career was important, and I’d obviously chosen this path for a reason.
But I had a good number of clients and ninety-five percent of them were going to stay with me no matter where I went.
Beyond that, I already made enough money to take care of all the people I loved if they so needed, so I didn’t think twice about coming here.
Neither did my mom.
Gizzy’s was still alive and well in Santa Monica, but she’d gotten someone to replace her in the kitchen.
As soon as I mentioned the idea of moving to the East Coast, she jumped right on board.
“If both my sons are there, why would I stay here?” she’d asked with a laugh during our last breakfast at my corner table with the dogs at our feet.
Since moving here, we still saw each other the same amount. And she got to see Cole even more.
“Yeah, I don’t know if your umbrella is outside my door, Holland,” I said, rubbing my face as I opened my eyes.
“Well, go check.”
“No. I just woke up and I’m not dressed.”
“Who cares? You’re at home.”
“Yeah. But you met my neighbor,” I said, making Holland snort.
“Oh yeah.”
I had two other neighbors on the top floor of this building. A married couple and a single woman. Both women seemed to open the door as soon as they heard me open mine. Neither was subtle about their interest, which more than amused my sister yesterday.
“Well, then put some pants on, Adam. I don’t know what to tell you,” she said.
“Alright, fine,” I grumbled, rolling out of bed and pulling on a pair of sweats as I made my way out of the bedroom, crossing the living room to get to the front door. When I opened it, I looked down and saw nothing. “No umbrella,” I said just as the elevator dinged on my floor.
Great, I thought, expecting one or both of my sexually aggressive neighbors.
But when the elevator opened, I just stood there for a second. And then I heard Holland laugh.
“Bye,” she said before hanging up and leaving me staring at the vision from my every fucking dream this month. Last month, too. However long it’d been since that night in Palm Beach.
“Hi,” AJ said, a crooked little smile wiggling onto her lips as she stepped out of the elevator looking like an angel in a white sundress so perfect on her body I forgot what the fuck blinking was. I was honestly afraid that if I blinked, she’d either disappear or I’d wake up from my dream.
“Hey,” I finally said, unable to tear my eyes off her, even as I heard the sound of one of my neighbors opening her door. AJ briefly turned to look, but I didn’t, and whichever neighbor it was, she got an eyeful of thick morning wood twitching under my sweats as I devoured AJ with my eyes.
There, I thought, figuring that would get the message across that I didn’t have any interest. A California girl in New York still owned every inch of my mind and that wasn’t going to change.
Ever.
“You gonna let me come in?” AJ teased as I brought my roving stare back up from her lips to those big, brown eyes I missed so much.
I nodded.
“As long as you remember what tends to happen when we close the door behind us.”
She smirked. “I know. And trust me, I’m prepared.”
I grinned as I pulled her inside and once the door was closed, I pressed her up against it, hearing her purse fall to the floor as she wrapped her arms around my neck and let me kiss her like I’d been dreaming of doing every day for the past two months apart.
She moaned as my hands squeezed all over her body, but when she tore away, she was laughing. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m doing here?”
I blinked. “Honestly, didn’t occur to me,” I said so earnestly it made her giggle.
But once I got myself together, and once she gave herself a look around my apartment, I went ahead and asked. “What changed your mind?”
Standing in front of my floor-to-ceiling window, looking that much more like an angel with the blue sky behind her, she looked at me. “You mean about seeing each other?”
“Yes.”
She wet her lips as I came close. “I talked to someone who made me realize I could never actually leave you.”
I laughed. “Holland?”
She shook her head. “The other one.”
I paused. Then squinted. “Cole?”
She nodded, making my heart beat a little faster, and with a soft smile, she told me all about the game in Pawtucket. Her conversation with Cole.
What he said about me.
I was so stunned I didn’t know what to say. I tried to dial back my excitement, my hope that this could mean something. That somehow, AJ had done it again. Bridged the gap between me and my sibling.
Take it easy, asshole. Don’t get carried away, I told myself.
But then she took something out of her purse and as soon as she handed it to me, I knew what it was.
Hell, I’d picked it out sixteen years ago, before Dad and I mailed it over to Cole.
I took one look at all the videos in the camera roll before I set the box back down and cupped AJ’s face in my hands.
She broke into that big, beautiful smile of hers just before I pressed a kiss to her lips, and this time, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Two months wasn’t a long time but without her, it was an eternity, and now that I had her in my arms again, I wasn’t letting go.
“I thought I could try,” AJ breathed hastily between kisses as I hoisted her up in my arms and wrapped her legs around my waist. “I thought I could turn it off, but I couldn’t. I don’t know how to stop thinking about you, Adam. Or loving you or wanting you. It’s not something I can do.”
“Me neither,” I murmured, my lips still locked on hers as I carried her into the bedroom and laid her on top of my bed.
There we go.
Maybe this bed’s not so bad after all.
In fact, with our clothes strewn on the floor, the whole place felt like home already.
“God, you don’t know how much I missed this,” AJ whispered once our bodies were flush against each other again. Heart against heart. Skin against skin.
“I think I have an idea,” I laughed as she wrapped her legs around me.
“Promise me we won’t even try it again.” I savored the sound of her little moan as I sank myself inside her.
“I told you once and I meant it. I can’t live without you, AJ.
Not even for a fucking second,” I murmured, rocking into her, already losing myself inside her. “Promise me you’re mine forever.”
Her lips curved against mine as she answered.
“I promise.”