Unforgivable Read online

  Mick to Alice

  Open the envelope, it’s a surprise!

  —Mick to Alice

  Chapter 38

  They never made it to the farmers’ market. Alice’s plans for Amish quilts and fattening pastries had been circumvented by Mick surprising her with tickets to a concert. He’d looked so pleased with himself when he handed her the envelope containing the tickets he’d printed that she couldn’t even be mad. Okay, so it wasn’t a trip to horse-and-buggy country, but it was still going to be a good time. Did it matter what they did, she told herself, so long as they were doing it together?

  Besides, the Lion’s Head had always been one of Alice’s favorite places to see live music. The venue was touted as “intimate,” which translated into small. A stage, front and center. Bars on either side. A balcony above. She’d been to barely attended acoustic performances and also shows so crowded it had been almost impossible to move. Tonight’s show, a hard rock Irish band called the Dirty Dubliners, promised to be one of the latter, but that kind of added to the fun.

  “I’ve never seen them live,” she confessed to Mick as they waited in line to get in. “But their last album was amazing.”

  “I knew you’d love it. Glad I got that announcement about the show last night.”

  Inside, she directed him to the side farthest from the stage. The bar back there generally had much shorter lines and less of a crowd, with a decent view of the stage. It was closer to the bathroom, too, always a plus when in a crowd.

  “You don’t want to be front row?” Mick asked as they wove their way through the audience, her hand in his, leading him.

  “I’m too old to be in the front row of a crowd like this.” Alice laughed. Her fingers curled in his. It was a good excuse to hold his hand, and she didn’t let it drop even when they got to a clear spot on the floor.

  Mick pulled her close for a second. “You don’t want to be in the mosh pit, huh?”

  “No.” She let him nuzzle her. “Hell, no.”

  Mick laughed. “You want a drink?”

  “Absolutely. Jameson and ginger ale.” Grinning, she watched his brows raise. “Hey, we’re here to see the Dirty Dubliners, gotta go Irish.”

  Under cover of the shadows and the massive number of other people, Mick took her hand and pressed it briefly to his crotch. “You need some Irish? I got some for you, right here.”

  It was funny and dirty and kind of trashy, but oh so sexy just the same. It made her forget all about how she’d wanted to look at quilts and cornfields this weekend, how irritated she’d been that he’d once again switched up the plans without asking her first. His hand covered hers, moving it over the bulge of his denim-covered cock. The heat in his gaze sparked her own; Alice pressed her body to his and lifted her mouth for a kiss.

  “Let me get that drink,” Mick said a few breaths later, when the jostling crowd made it awkward for them to make out.

  They’d need to find a quieter place for that.

  Alice staked out their spot while Mick got the drinks. Her Jameson and ginger was tingly and warm and tasty, though not as delicious as Mick’s kiss. She’d found a place near a pillar so he could lean against it. He pulled her back against him, one hand hooked into her belt loop to rock her ass against his crotch.

  Bill would never have come to see this band with her, Alice thought as the crowd roared and cheered at the opening band’s first notes. He would never even have known how much she loved the Dirty Dubliners. Mick, on the other hand, had been the one to first introduce her to the band way back when the band was selling CDs out of the back of their van. She had one of those CDs, signed by the original members. Years had passed and she still listened to it.

  Alice let her body mold to Mick’s as they moved to the beat. There was nobody else she wanted to be with, and that thought sent competing shivers of heat and cold all through her, peaking her nipples and sending a flush up her throat to her cheeks and making her grateful for the darkness that hid them. Mick rolled his hips, and Alice lost herself in feeling him against her. It didn’t matter the beat of the song, fast or slow, they moved together in perfect sync the way they always did.

  When he slid a hand along the back of her skull to twist his fingers in her hair, pulling her head back, Alice closed her eyes. This, this, oh this, she thought as Mick’s breath caressed her cheek. His lips found her ear. His tongue flicked. She pushed herself back against him.

  “You know my fantasy,” he said into her ear. “About a dark hallway in a club . . .”

  She knew, all right. It was so unfair, how much she remembered about him. How he’d told her once, long ago, that he wanted to take her into the shadows while a rock band played and get his hands all over her. His mouth.

  There was a dark hallway here, beyond the bathrooms. It led to an outside exit where people went to smoke. It also had a small alcove hung with a coatrack nobody ever used, because who left their coat unattended in a bar?

  Maybe it was the drink. Maybe it was Mick. Whatever it was, Alice couldn’t fight it. Hell. She didn’t want to. When he tugged her hair again, everything inside her went molten.

  Mick made her lose her fucking mind.

  She tossed her empty plastic cup into the nearby trash can and took his from his hand to toss that, too. At his confused look, Alice smiled. She took his hand.

  “C’mon.”

  Again, she led him through the crowd with their fingers linked. Inside the alcove, she found his mouth, already open for her. In seconds, Mick turned her. Put her up against the wall. He raked her throat with his teeth until she gasped. Her knees went weak, and if he hadn’t put his thigh between hers, she might have stumbled.

  “You,” he breathed into her ear, but said no more than that.

  “Me?”

  His thigh nudged upward, pressing her in just the right spot, and all other speech fled her. She should’ve worn a dress, Alice thought incoherently. Then he could’ve put his hand up it, in her panties, inside her. . . .

  Oh, God, she was going to come. Unbelievably, unavoidably, and undeniably. Pleasure spiked as Mick rocked her against his thigh. His mouth plundered hers, tongue fucking deep inside. Her hands went to the back of his, seeking purchase in his hair, but it was too short now to lose her fingers inside. His hand, though, went back to where it had been before. Her fingers twisted, tugged, pulled. Then, without warning, yanked.

  Alice came with a low moan into Mick’s mouth. She shuddered. Her pussy clenched, spasming, and her back arched. Blinking, she eased down from the high of climax. They’d only been in the alcove for about three minutes, tops. A couple stumbled down the hall, veering toward the alcove before seeing them and bursting into laughter.

  Mick moved to shield her automatically, keeping her from view. That, Alice thought in a daze, was why she loved him. Because of things like that. Simple, but important, showing that he cared enough to protect her.

  And oh, she thought. Oh, love. Oh, no.

  “I want to fuck you right now,” Mick said into her ear.

  Alice shuddered. They couldn’t. They’d already gone further than they should’ve. But she couldn’t deny that she wanted him inside her, right there, fucking to the steady thumping beat of the opening band’s last song. He was hard against her, his breath hot on her neck. His hands gripped her hips. They stayed that way for another minute before another passing couple interrupted, and then, no matter how much she wanted to stay, Alice knew it was time for them to get out of there.

  “Later,” she promised him. “Later, you can do anything and everything you want.”

  Alice to Mick

  Listen to this song. It always makes me think of you.

  —Alice to Mick

  Chapter 39

  She was amazing, and Mick couldn’t get enough. Not only had she remembered his old fantasy, but she’d made it come true. Making out with her in that alcove, getting her off . . . He could’ve moved a stone block with his dick right now.

  The Dirty Dubli