Don't Deny Me Read online

  Wendy started to giggle. “Mick has the magic peen!”

  Alice frowned, but there was no denying it. Mick McManus had a cock made of magic, and she couldn’t get enough of it. The question was, would that be enough?

  * * *

  Knock, knock.

  Who’s there?

  Ewan.

  Ewan who?

  Nobody. It’s just me.

  —Alice to Mick

  * * *

  “So, did it work?”

  Mick turned away from the coffeepot, then grinned when he saw Jay. Mick clapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, man. I didn’t know you were coming to the office first. Yeah, yeah! It worked. I went to her house, did the whole grand gesture thing. It absolutely worked. Thanks.”

  Jay looked thoughtful, but shrugged. “Good.”

  “What?”

  “I’m just surprised, that’s all. I mean, it’s great, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad.” Jay grabbed a mug and held it out. “Can I get one of those?”

  Mick filled both mugs. “Why are you surprised? You’re the one who told me what to do.”

  “I did. I just didn’t think it would actually work.” Jay sipped and grimaced. “The coffee here is shit, you know that? You want to grab something on the way to the site?”

  Mick wasn’t going to argue with that. He dumped his mug and headed for his office, Jay following. “Yeah. Let me grab my stuff. You want to drive together?”

  “Sure. I’ve got some plans later back this direction. That’s why I stopped in here first. You want to go in my car?”

  “Nah, I got it.” Mick stopped to grab his keys, then took another minute to hop on his computer and check to see if Alice had answered his instant message. She’d been sending him goofy knock-knock jokes all morning. The punchline to this one made him laugh under his breath. He typed out a quick response, then waited for the little pencil icon to show up in the box to alert him that Alice was typing a reply. She wasn’t, so he shut down his computer and looked at Jay. “Ready?”

  Some onsites were simple fixes. Swoop in like a superhero, take care of the issues, clean up the mess. Some, like this one, were an insane pain in the ass. Because Mick worked on the tech side and Jay on the management side, it took both of them almost the entire day to get the situation in this branch back on track, and only then because Mick was able to call in a last-minute order for some new conference room equipment the branch manager insisted he’d requested a month before and needed for the client meeting next week.

  “You earned your bonus,” Jay told him when they’d finally put everything back on track for this branch’s reopening and were heading back to Mick’s office. “Hey, you want to grab a drink? I’ve got some time to kill before my date.”

  Mick, feeling accomplished about the day’s work, had been tapping the steering wheel to the beat of the song on the radio. Now he gave Jay a sideways look. “Date, huh?”

  “Yeah. New guy.”

  Mick wasn’t one to get in anyone’s business, but this startled him. “What happened with Paul? I thought you two were back together.”

  Jay was silent for a minute. Mick concentrated on driving. Jay would talk when he was ready.

  “Ten years is a long time to let someone treat you like shit, over and over,” Jay said finally. Stiffly. Like the words hurt coming out. “I got tired of being treated like shit.”

  “I don’t blame you, man.”

  Jay made a disgusted sound. “Anyway, let him do what he wants, with whoever he wants. I’m done.”

  They went to a sports bar near Mick’s office. Jay’s date was meeting him there and would give him a ride back to his car later. They settled into a booth, ordered some drinks and food. While Jay answered a message from his date, Mick checked his phone.

  Nothing from Alice.

  He sent her a message anyway, just a quick forward of a funny picture he’d gleaned from his newsfeed. It was in the spirit of the knock-knock jokes from earlier that day. She replied with a laughing emoticon, and before he had time to say more, Jay had put away his phone, and the drinks had arrived.

  They talked about work for a few minutes before the conversation turned to the next weekend at Bernie and Cookie’s house. They’d planned their traditional big Fourth of July party. Mick hadn’t talked to Alice yet about going, but Jay wasn’t sure he was going to make it.

  “Paul got invited too, of course,” he explained. “And it’s too late to tell Bernie not to invite him, which I wouldn’t do anyway, because that would make me the asshole. It would never occur to Paul that Bernie was my friend first, or that he should stay the hell home because we broke up, which is just going to make everything super awkward and not only because of the rooming arrangements.” Jay stabbed a fork into the small plastic cup of guacamole that had come on the side of his quesadilla.

  Mick knew how that had felt, but he’d also declined years of invitations from Bernie upon the assumption Alice would be there and had only too late learned she’d been doing the same. “You guys were broken up the last time you were there.”

  “So were you and Alice. Something must’ve been in the water that weekend,” Jay said sourly, then gave Mick an apologetic look. “Sorry. I’m sure it’s all cool with you and Alice.”

  Mick dunked a celery stick into the bleu cheese and crunched loudly. “Let’s just say yeah, it’s all really cool. Kind of hard to believe. But cool. Hey, want me to tell him to fuck off, make sure he doesn’t go to Bernie’s?”

  “Who, Paul?” Jay looked surprised.

  “Yeah.” Mick grabbed another hot wing. “I don’t care. I’ll tell him to keep his punk ass home.”

  Jay laughed and shook his head. “Wow. Thanks. But nah, it’s fine. I might have plans for the Fourth anyway with this new guy, and as much as I love the lake house parties, I’m not about to bring around another person there until I’m sure. You know. That it’s going to work out.”

  “I haven’t talked to Alice about going.” Mick thought a moment. “Maybe she wants to go someplace else, too.”

  Jay looked thoughtful. “You haven’t said anything at all?”

  “Nope. But maybe we’ll go someplace romantic. Or something.” Mick grinned.

  “Yeah … but …” Jay’s phone rang, interrupting him. He held up a finger to Mick while he took the call.

  Mick pulled out his own phone, typing a message to Alice. What are you up to?

  Her reply didn’t come right away, but Jay was trying to give directions over the phone, so Mick had nothing to do but wait. After a few minutes, Alice’s answer came in the form of a picture message—a platter of spaghetti and a glass of wine. No text or explanation. Just a picture. Mick took a shot of his beer and sent that off just as Jay disconnected.

  “Sorry about that. He’s lost. He’ll be here in about ten minutes.”

  “I’ll get out of here, then. Leave you some privacy.” Mick waggled his eyebrows until Jay laughed.

  Jay held up his bottle. “Hey, thanks for coming out with me. And about Alice …”

  “I know, I know, man. You’ll kick my ass.”

  Jay looked solemn. “I was going to say I hope it works out for you.”

  “It’s going to this time.” Mick clinked the bottle against Jay’s. “I know it.”

  By the time Mick was ready to leave, Alice had replied to his text, so he called her on the way home. “Hey, gorgeous.”

  She sounded sleepy. “Hi. What’s up?”

  “Heading home. Had a drink with Jay after work. He was waiting for a date. Are you in bed already?”

  “Oh, really?” There was a soft shuffling. He imagined her turning in the sheets. “Yeah. I was reading in bed, guess I fell asleep. What time is it?”

  “A little after nine. I’ll let you go.”

  Alice laughed gently. “No, no, don’t do that. Talk to me.”

  He had another twenty minutes’ drive. So he talked. He had her giggling over some silly story when he pulled into his driveway. He cut th