Don’t Deny Me: Part Two Read online

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  Alice’s mouth opened, but before she could answer, Mick kissed her again. He tasted himself on her tongue and a fresh surge of emotion clobbered him over the head. Fuck, what the hell was going on? An unfamiliar burning stabbed the backs of his eyes and closed his throat.

  When had they stopped kissing? How had they started hugging? He was nearly naked and she was still fully dressed, and shit, goose bumps had started breaking out all over him, and oh, fuck, was he going to do something insane like … what, like tell her he loved her?

  He laughed, his momentary insanity fading. The woman in front of him had just given him the best head of his entire life; no wonder he’d lost his shit a little bit. But it was more than that, and he’d known it for a while.

  Love.

  Shit.

  “My knees hurt,” she said when he didn’t speak. “Umm …”

  “Shit, yeah. C’mon.” He got to his feet and helped her up, then snagged his pajama bottoms and pulled them up. His T-shirt seemed to have disappeared, flung who knew where. Alice smoothed her skirt and then ran her fingers through her hair, looking completely put together in a few seconds.

  Neither of them said anything for a minute.

  “So,” she said finally, “are you going to ask me to stay?”

  Mick coughed, caught off guard. “Yeah, you want to?”

  “It’s late,” she said. “I didn’t bring anything with me to stay over in, and I’ll have to leave really early to get up for work in the morning. …”

  Was that a yes? A no? Still fuzzy from the force of coming hard enough to knock a hole in the wall, Mick could only stare. Alice looked expectant.

  “Can I borrow a T-shirt and a pair of boxers?”

  “Yeah, of course. And a toothbrush. I have an extra, I think.” He pulled her close again for a kiss. “Of course you can stay.”

  Upstairs, he pulled a clean T-shirt and pair of pajama bottoms from the drawer and showed her the shower. The bathroom was a mess, something he only noticed when seeing it through Alice’s eyes, but if it bothered her, she didn’t say anything. He found a clean towel and washcloth for her. A spare toothbrush. In the bedroom while she showered, he quickly stripped the sheets that had been on the bed for … well, he didn’t remember the last time he’d changed them, so it was time. He was just shoving an extra pillow into a fresh case when she came out of the bathroom.

  “You look good in my clothes,” Mick said.

  Alice smiled. With her face scrubbed and wet hair slicked back from her forehead, she still looked luminous and beautiful enough to stop his heart. She looked a little shy, though.

  “Are you sure this is okay?”

  Mick pulled back the blankets. “Get in.”

  She hopped into bed, scooting over and turning on her side so he could spoon her. He buried his face in her damp hair, breathing her in. His hand fit naturally on her belly, just below the hem of his T-shirt. He was already falling asleep when she spoke.

  “Hey.”

  Mick yawned. “Yeah?”

  “I don’t like it when you don’t call me back,” Alice said after a second or so.

  Her voice had been matter-of-fact and low, not confrontational or bitchy. Still, it set him back a little. Mick’s fingers twitched on her bare skin.

  “Okay,” was all he said.

  Alice was silent.

  “I can’t always get back to you right away,” Mick said after another few seconds had passed. “I mean, sometimes I’m busy.”

  She shifted to look at him. “Well, yeah. I know that. I’m just saying that in general, I don’t like it when you don’t answer me. I know sometimes you’re busy, we all are. But when you just don’t answer me at all, well, that’s not cool.”

  “I always answer you.” Defensive, Mick moved away from her a little bit.

  “You didn’t today. I called and left a message for you, and you didn’t answer.”

  He thought about that, knowing she was right but still not willing to take blame for what he didn’t think needed it. “I would have called you tomorrow, Alice. You know that.”

  “I hope so,” was all she said and tucked herself back against him.

  Shit. This wasn’t an argument, but it had the flavor of one. He thought of a comeback and discarded it. Then another. He listened to the soft sound of her breathing slow and felt her relax against him. She was falling asleep, but now Mick was wide-eyed. Not quite with indignation, that was too strong a word for it. But definitely irritation.

  “I always answer you,” he said again. “Maybe it takes me awhile, but I do.”

  Alice’s breathing caught, and she twitched. Her voice, thick with sleep, rasped. “You didn’t today, and we could’ve had lunch together or something, because you were in York, but you didn’t call me back.”

  “I was busy working, Alice, I didn’t have time for lunch.”

  She pushed away from him this time to sit up. She rubbed at her face. “Well, I didn’t know that. If you’d called to let me know, I wouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.”

  Mick sat, too. “What’s the big deal? I don’t get it.”

  “It’s just that … I was missing you. And when you IM’d me, I got excited, I thought maybe we’d get to see each other in the middle of the week, and I wouldn’t have to wait until Friday or Saturday.” She paused. “If you’d called me back and told me you were too busy with work, I’d have been disappointed, but I’d have understood. But you didn’t.”

  “We still got to see each other,” Mick pointed out. “You’re here now.”

  “Because I called you! Because Jay asked me out for happy hour, and I was close enough to stop here! That’s the only reason!”

  This was not the kind of conversation he wanted to be having at nearly two in the morning. And he definitely didn’t want her to start crying or some shit like that, but there were tears in her voice. With a scowl, Mick ran his hands through his hair to keep himself from saying something he’d regret.

  “Never mind,” Alice said sullenly. She moved to the edge of the bed, her back to him. “I’ll be out of here by five or so.”

  Mick lay back, staring at the ceiling, jaw clenched. Beside him, too far away to touch but close enough he could still feel every move she made, Alice was as still as a corpse. Maybe she’d been able to fall asleep, but there was no way Mick was going to.

  She was right. He had not called her back, nor had he intended to. Well, sure, he would’ve called her the next day, but he really hadn’t returned her call today on purpose. No special reason, other than she’d caught him when he was busy and by the time he got home all he wanted was to eat dinner and watch a few hours of TV and crash. He’d thought about calling her, but in the end, he’d been unable to muster the energy for a conversation.

  “I needed a break,” Mick said aloud.

  From the edge of the bed, Alice made no sound but the subtle, hesitant shift of her breathing.

  “I was tired, and I knew if I called you back that you’d want me to meet up because I was so close, and I didn’t have time for lunch, so I figured you’d angle for dinner, and I really just wanted to get home.”

  Quietly, smoothly, Alice sat. In the dark, she was only a silhouette, which meant he didn’t have to see her face. Mick wasn’t sure he wanted to.

  “I see,” she said.

  “I was tired.”

  He heard her swallow. “Okay.”

  “I would’ve called you tomorrow, Alice. You know I would have.”

  “I don’t know that,” she told him, and shit, she was crying, he could hear it. “I hope that you would, but I don’t know that you would. Not really. Because I thought you’d call me back today, and you didn’t. And I thought you’d call me back last week, but you didn’t then, either. So, I get it. You needed a break. Sorry. I shouldn’t have come over—”

  “Don’t,” he said as a way to cut her off before this got out of hand.

  She shrugged off his touch and got out of bed. “Don’t what? Go h