Don’t Deny Me: Part Two (3 page)

They’d met a month ago, but it seemed a helluva lot longer. Sometimes, Mick felt like he’d known Alice Clark forever. Sometimes, he felt like forever wouldn’t be long enough.

With an hour and a half drive between them, dating Alice wasn’t convenient, but that only made the time they’d managed to spend together even better. They’d seen each other three times since Bernie’s party. Dinner, movies, one night they’d gone bowling. She’d kicked his ass, and her victory dance had been so cute he could hardly stand it.

He was falling for her. Hard. It was like the universe had taken a look at Mick’s secret checklist of everything he’d always wanted in a woman—sense of humor, smart, passionate, considerate. Beautiful. Damn, she was so beautiful it hurt his heart. And thickened his dick.

It was getting hard right now, as a matter of fact. He’d been dating a few different girls when he went to Bernie’s, but since meeting Alice, Mick had stopped returning their calls and messages. Less drama that way, he figured. It wasn’t like he had anything serious with any of them, anyway. Easier to simply let it fade.

Thinking of her now, the memory of her mouth sent a surge of desire flooding him. That girl kissed like a fucking dream. She could do things with her lips and tongue Mick had never even dreamed of, and that was a fact. He could still remember the taste of her perfect pink nipples, though. The way she’d moaned when he sucked them. Shit, his cock was straining at the front of his sweatpants now.

Mick slipped a hand into his waistband and found his hard-on. Two nights ago they’d had a steamy phone conversation, full of teasing and innuendo, but it hadn’t quite made it into phone sex. The same with a few of their instant message sessions, which tended to be even more frank on the subjects of sex and love, maybe because it was easier to be honest about what you liked when you could feel at least a little anonymous. He knew a lot about what turned Alice on, and off, just like he knew how she voted, her views on religion, hell, even what size shoes she wore. But so far, though they’d danced around it, he had yet to get her off … or hear her getting off. At the moment, he couldn’t be sure which would be hotter.

Cock hard in his fist, Mick stroked a little faster as he pushed his sweatpants down to his thighs. Closing his eyes, he pushed his hips upward, sliding his dick through curled fingers.

“Fuck,” Mick breathed, pumping. “Alice.”

She was making him crazy, and she wasn’t even there. Giving in to the desire rushing through him, toes curling with it, Mick stroked his cock to the thought of making Alice just as crazy. Of kissing her mouth and the curve of her jaw. Slope of her neck, throat, shoulder, tits … ah, shit, her nipples again. Down her belly, over hip. He thought of the noises she would make when he nibbled her there, and how she would gasp and sigh and moan his name when he let his mouth drift over her belly. Lower. To her thighs. Inside, the sweetness there, then a little higher, to that heat—

He let out another long, slow groan and palmed the head of his cock. Fingers sliding down, gripping the base. Up again, his other hand cupping his balls to stroke a thumb along the seam between nuts and ass. His hips pumped. Feet flat on the bed to give himself purchase. Harder, a little harder and faster.

He wanted to taste her so fucking bad.

Mick rolled onto his belly to thrust that way. In moments he was shuddering and spent, the pleasure leaving him gasping her name. In the aftermath he flopped onto his back to catch his breath. Blinking into the darkness. Wishing she were with him … and not just so he could’ve been making her moan his name, feeling her touch him instead of his own hand. No, he thought as dreams stole him away at last. He just wanted Alice with him there when he fell asleep so she’d be there with him when he woke up, too.

* * *

“It’s going to happen this weekend.” Jay shook his head at the dress Alice held up. “Ugh, no. That one makes you look like you’re someone’s favorite babysitter.”

With a grimace, Alice looked at it, then at him. “That’s a bad thing?”

“If it’s not, it ought to be.” Jay lolled on her bed, no help at all.

Alice put the dress aside and picked another. This summer had been hotter than Satan’s asshole, and all she could manage to wear was dresses. Anything else was simply too freaking much. She waved it on the hanger. “This one?”

“Just bring a bathing suit and a sarong. It’s not like you need to look nice for anyone—hey!” Jay ducked away from her swatting hand. Laughing, he kicked out at her. “Wow. Bitch.”

“Asshole,” she said without anger, and tossed the dress into her bag. “And how are you so sure it’s going to happen this weekend, anyway? Is he giving you hints, or what?”

Jay scowled. “No. Getting anything out of Paul is like pulling teeth, one at a time. Without gas. Like tying each one to a doorknob and slamming the door.”

“I get it. Gross.” Alice eyed him as she tucked her favorite bikini into the bag and added some pretty lacy panties and matching bras she tried to be casual about. Eagle Eyes saw it anyway.

“Spill it,” Jay demanded, sitting up straight.

Alice gave him an innocent blink. “I thought we were talking about you and Paul and how you were sure this was the weekend he was going to finally ask you to move in with him.”

“Oh my
gawd.
Mick? Not Mick!” Jay shook his head and got up to grab Alice by the upper arms so she had no choice but to face him. “How long has this been going on?”

“Nothing’s going on. Nothing much. I mean …” Alice coughed, incapable of lying to him. They’d been friends for too long. “We’ve been sort of seeing each other since the last party at Bernie’s, when we met.”

Jay raised an eyebrow and squeezed her gently before letting go. He crossed his arms. “Uh-huh. And you didn’t tell me because … ?”

“Because it’s really been … nothing.” This didn’t quite feel like a lie.

“It doesn’t look like nothing. Alice, you should know better than to think you could keep something like that from me. Why would you, anyway? Shit, I tell you everything.” Jay frowned and took a peek in her weekend bag, then looked at her. “I’d go with the pale blue panties with the flowers, not those.”

“I didn’t ask you!” With a swat and a laugh, Alice pushed him out of the way to get back to packing. She paused. “I like him, Jay. A lot.”

Jay laughed. “Well, there’s a recipe for disaster, right there. Liking a guy. Who does that?”

“Right, I’m stupid.” Alice shook her head and moved to the dresser to pull out a camisole she knew she’d never wear but was going to pack anyway, just in case. She tossed it into the bag, then sat on the edge of the bed to look at Jay. “So stupid.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Jay flopped onto the bed, bouncing her.

Alice curled up next to him, both their heads on the same pillow. Staring at the ceiling, she reached for his hand to link their fingers and squeeze. They stayed that way in silence for a bit, until finally Jay turned to push his face into her shoulder. Alice stroked his hair.

“I’m totally in love with him,” Jay told her.

“I know you are, honey.”

“He makes me crazy.”

Alice laughed. “I know that, too.”

Jay pushed up to look at her face. “You don’t think he’s right for me.”

“I never said that.” Alice twisted to face him. “I barely know him, to be honest. You haven’t brought him around a whole lot. I really haven’t had a chance to get to know him.”

“You shouldn’t have moved so far away.” Jay frowned.

“Oh, my God, Jay. An hour! I moved an hour away from you, and it was for a really good job!” Alice poked him, then tickled him until he squirmed away from her.

He caught her hands, holding her still. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too,” Alice said. “Always. Of course.”

Jay settled back against the pillows with a heavy sigh. “He mentioned last week that it was a pain to always have to bring his stuff in a bag to my place. The week before that, he bought me a toothbrush when we were out, because I forgot mine.”

“How … sweet.”

Jay laughed, but there was a hint of anxiety below the humor. “He hates my apartment. Says it’s too small and dark, too ‘vintage.’ His place is all bright and modern, much bigger … very spare. But there’s a lot more room in it. He’d never suggest he move into my place. Maybe I should get a new place. Something with a better kitchen.”

“But you think he’s going to ask you to move in with him.” Alice thought about this. She’d never lived with a guy other than Jay, and that didn’t count. She’d had a few serious relationships, some that had definitely been in the “sleeping over” stage, but never any that had moved beyond that. She couldn’t quite imagine it, actually. Sharing her space with someone else on a permanent basis.

“Yes. I mean … I hope so. I think so.”

“Why this weekend?”

Jay rolled onto his side to look at her. “Because Paul talks a lot about how important things should be accompanied by the right mood and stuff like that. And he freaking loves it at Bernie’s house. Once he told me it was the perfect place for a marriage proposal … oh. Shit. Shit, Alice!”

Neither of them said anything for a minute or so.

“He couldn’t,” Jay said finally.

“No. I guess he couldn’t.” Alice frowned at the unfairness of that. “Not that.”

Jay sat up and pulled his knees close to his chest, linking his fingers. “But moving in together. He could ask me to do that. I mean, when he asked me to be his boyfriend, he had a singing waiter bring me a bouquet of roses with a watch in a box attached. He said it was ‘time’ for us to ‘bloom.’”

“He didn’t!” Alice burst into laughter. “Wow. That’s …”

Jay shot her a sour look, and she sobered. “It’s romantic!”

“It’s romantic.” She nodded. “And cheesy. But romantic, it’s romantic! Hey, you’re sure he’s going to show up, right? I hate to say it, but …”

Jay made a face. “You think he’ll blow me off?”

Paul had done it before. Lots of times. “I don’t care if you ride down with me, you know that, but I’m worried he won’t show and you’ll be stuck without a ride home.”

“He’ll show. He has to,” Jay said. “This is the weekend he’s asking me to move in with him. I know it.”

“I hope it’s everything you’re hoping for, Jay. That’s all.”

Jay grinned. “Me too.”

Alice shoved down the contents of her bag to make more room. Couldn’t. Took out a pair of sneakers she knew she wouldn’t wear and tossed them into the closet. She tried again to zip the bag, but couldn’t, and gave up with a sigh.

“I’m nervous,” she admitted.

“About seeing Mick?” Jay gently pushed her aside and started unpacking the bag, laying out everything in neat piles and refolding things that had become crumpled. “Look, I told you this before. You roll things, makes more room.”

“Yes. About Mick.” Alice leaned against the dresser to watch him. Jay had paid his way through college by working as a flight attendant. He knew more about how to pack a week’s worth of clothes into a weekend bag than she ever could.

He glanced at her. “Why?”

“Because. We’ve talked almost every day and stuff, but this will be the first time I’ve seen him for longer than a few hours since the last time at Bernie’s.” She paused, trying to put her thoughts into words. “I don’t want to act like we’re a couple, if we’re not. And we haven’t talked about it. I mean, we aren’t sharing a room or anything like that.”

“Have you slept with him yet?” Jay tightly rolled a sundress and tucked it in the bag.

Heat flooded her at the memory of Mick’s hands and mouth on her. “No.”

“You think you will this weekend?”

She didn’t answer that, not right away, because the truth was Alice had no idea if she and Mick were going to have sex. They hadn’t talked about it, not specifically anyway, though of course she assumed he wanted to get into her panties as much as she wanted him in there. And it wasn’t like she believed in holding out for some reason, like putting a time stamp on when it was acceptable to finally get into bed together. It hadn’t happened yet because she and Mick lived far enough apart to have made their few face-to-face dates tricky enough to organize. They’d ended up meeting halfway, which meant a couple heavy-duty kissing sessions in the backseat of his car, and there’d been the smoking hot make-out session on the stairs at Bernie’s. …

“Earth to Alice.” Jay sounded annoyed. “Hello!”

Alice gave him an apologetic smile. “I don’t know. First times should be special, you know?”

“I’ve known you for a long time. It would not be your first time.”

“You know what I mean,” Alice told him. “The first time for us. I’m not sure I want to do it in Bernie’s guest bedroom with everyone around. It should be … you know. Special. What?”

Jay had given her such a stunned look, Alice was confused.

“Oh. My. God,” he said. “You are totally fucked, Alice. You know that, right? Utterly and completely fucked.”

“Why?” she cried, heart and stomach both twisting.

“You’re in love with Mick!”

“No.” Alice shook her head firmly. “No way. It’s too soon for that.”

“Soon or not,” Jay said, “you’d better put on your crash gear, baby, because if you aren’t yet, you’re about to fall for that guy. Super hard.”

* * *

“Mick! Welcome.” Cookie, Bernie’s wife, beamed and gestured for him to come inside. “We’re so glad you could join us.”

He kissed her cheek and handed her the basket of breads and cheeses he’d picked up on the way from one of the farmers’ markets. Normally shopping in a place like that gave Mick hives, but somehow a case of light beer and some tortilla chips just didn’t seem like the right thing to bring to this kind of party. How he’d even managed to become a part of this crowd, he had no idea, but he was glad he had, because of Alice.

“Jay and Alice are driving together and they’re on their way. Paul called to say he’d be here in a half hour. Dayna is coming, too. You haven’t met her yet. She’s a friend of mine from work. Tanya unfortunately won’t make it, she’s actually moved to Ohio to take a new job. But that makes room for new friends!” Cookie peeked into the basket and made a sound of appreciation. “Oh, this looks wonderful. You didn’t have to, Mick.”