Don’t Deny Me: Part Three Read online

  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. Fingers twisted, tugged, pulled. Then, without warning, yanking.

  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.”

  * * *

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

  —Alice to Mick

  * * *

  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 Dubliners had taken the stage and hadn’t stopped rocking for the past hour. Mick had been watching Alice more than he’d been looking at the band. She bounced along to the music, throwing him a grin every now and then, and Mick found her more intoxicating than the Jameson and ginger. Everything about her was light and joy, and every time she looked at him, all he could think about was how much he wanted to be the man to always make her look that way.

  He was aching to taste her. Get inside her. But it would’ve been kind of a dick move to ask her to leave early so he could get her home just for that, so Mick forced himself to stop thinking about his half-hard cock and the heat of her against his thigh, and how she’d moaned and shook. …

  “That’s my favorite song,” Alice said as the band finished one of their recent hits and started immediately into a rare ballad. Her gaze glittered for a moment at the opening notes. Some of the joy faded from her face.

  Mick knew this song. It was from the Dubliners’ first album, before they got signed to a major label. It had been written while the band was trying to find its voice and wasn’t typical of the band’s style. It was about love and loss and heartbreak, and once, Mick remembered, Alice had burned a copy of it onto a CD and sent it to him along with a short, viciously sad letter telling him she never wanted to see him again.

  It had been the last thing she sent him.

  Facing him, Alice met his gaze in that steady way she always had, not looking away. Her eyes glittered with blue and green reflections from the lighting. She wasn’t crying, but he pulled her close to him anyway. He couldn’t take away what had happened in the past, so he did the only thing he could; he held her close and tight and breathed her in and hoped it would be enough to stop her thinking about what had been and start her thinking about what could be.

  When the song ended, she squeezed him hard and stepped away. “Gonna run to the bathroom.”

  By the time she got back, the band was heading into an encore. When she asked him if he wanted to get out of there before the rest of the crowd, Mick agreed. They made it through the doors and to the parking garage before the rest of the traffic hit.

  “Are you hungry or anything?” he asked as he navigated out of the city and onto the highway.

  Alice, who’d been quiet since leaving the club, shook her head. “No. Let’s just go back to your place, okay?”

  That had been the idea on his mind all night, but again, he didn’t want to seem like he was making it all about getting her into bed. “Sure. If that’s what you want.”

  “If it’s what you want,” Alice said. “I guess I could just go back to my place. If that’s what you want.”

  Mick bit back his irritation. “You can go home if you want. Or we can go back to my place. Whatever you want.”

  “I don’t want to make you do something you don’t want to do,” Alice said sharply.

  “I want you to come back to my place!”

  She looked at him then. “Good! Because that’s what I want to do!”

  It felt like half a fight, and he didn’t know why they were heading that direction, but he did know enough to shut up about it after that. Alice turned on the radio, so at least the drive to his house wasn’t too awkward, though it was quiet. By the time they got there, she was even singing along under her breath.

  Inside, he offered her a drink, but she declined. Same to food. It wasn’t early, but it wasn’t late, either, not by Friday night standards.

  “Want to watch a movie or something?” Mick asked, trying to figure out what he could do to make her happy.

  Alice shook her head and gave him a look from the corner of her eye. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

  “No,” he said, deciding to be bold. “I want to take you upstairs and get my mouth between your legs until you scream my name.”

  A low, raw noise slipped out of her. Just like that, heat blazed between them. He had her in his arms half a minute after that. Somehow, she jumped. He lifted. Her legs went around his waist, his hands beneath her ass. If they’d been close to a table or a counter he’d have seated her on it, but all he could do was take a few unsteady steps toward the stairs.

  “Shit, Alice, I’m going to drop you,” he muttered into her mouth as he put one foot on the bottom step.

  They both moved, ending up with her sitting and him between her legs. Arms tangled. Mouths sliding every place they could get to. She broke the kiss with a gasp, a hand on his chest to push him back.

  “Upstairs,” she said. “Bed.”

  She got to her feet and m