Somehow, Alice didn’t think she was going to lose. Not with the way Mick’s gaze kept slipping back to capture hers, no matter where she stood, or how he made sure to somehow be wherever she was. Not in an obvious way, nothing anyone else might see, because while Mick was pursuing Alice, she was making it extremely easy for him to do it.
When the fire had burned to coals and there were more yawns than laughs going around the circle, Alice gathered up as much trash as she could and paused next to Mick. “Hey. Help me carry this up to the house?”
Jay and Paul had both disappeared an hour before. Bernie and Cookie were snuggled together, and Tanya had fallen asleep in a lawn chair. Alice, with Mick a step or two behind, carried the garbage to the oversized can at the base of the deck steps and dumped it in. It was darker up here, the light from the fire an orange haze at the bottom of the garden and the house itself lit only dimly from a few lights in the living room. Under the deck, sliding glass doors led into the finished basement … and the room where Mick was sleeping.
“Wanna play some pool?” Alice asked.
Mick laughed softly. “Are you any good?”
“Terrible. But that’s what makes it so much fun.”
There was a beat or two of silence, in which she was sure he’d reach for her. He had to, didn’t he? After eye fucking her all night long, surely he’d move a little closer. Lean in. Put his hands on her hips.
Instead, Mick backed away. “Sure. I’ll play.”
Alice followed him inside, calculating how many steps between the sliding doors and the hallway to his bedroom. Imagining herself stripping out of her dress and letting it fall to the floor, walking in just her bra and panties to his room with no more than a glance over her shoulder and a crook of her finger. He’d follow, she was sure of that. Yet something stopped her. … Anticipation was delicious, after all.
“You can rack,” she told him, and went to the glass-front fridge Bernie had salvaged from a convenience store being remodeled. “You want a soda?”
“I’ll be up all night.” Mick grinned.
Alice smiled back and lifted her brow. “And?”
“Sure. I’ll have one.” Mick grabbed two cues from the wall rack and handed her one, taking the can of cola from her. “You want stripes or solids?”
“Stripes.” Alice took a drink and set the can down, then put some chalk on her cue. She was truly terrible at pool, that part hadn’t been a lie. But bending over the table and shaking her ass to keep him distracted? That she was good at.
They played for about five minutes before the sound of shouts from upstairs made her pause. Mick hadn’t heard them; he was in the middle of a joke when she held up her hand to hush him. To give him credit, he did at once, looking concerned.
“You okay?”
“I heard something.” She went to the bottom of the front staircase, head tilted to listen. “I thought it sounded like Jay.”
Mick put his cue down and stood beside her. “I don’t hear anything.”
She didn’t either, now, just the huff of their breathing. The heat of him brushed her bare arm. When she turned her face, his mouth was there. The kiss felt like an accident, or at least like something they could pretend wasn’t on purpose. His lips urged hers to open. He pushed her back against the wall, his hands on her hips.
Everything else was forgotten then. The pool game, Jay’s shout, the late hour. Alice wound her arms around Mick’s neck. She opened for him, hips tilting forward. He slipped a hand beneath the back of her knee so he could press against her center. She let out a long sigh against his lips.
“I’ve been wanting to do this all night,” he murmured. “God, Alice, you taste so good.”
She pushed her fingers into the thickness of his hair, tugging. “Less talking. More kissing.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He laughed and went back to the job of kissing her.
They kissed for a long time. No urgency. Lips and tongues moving. Teeth clashing every so often. He nibbled at her jaw and throat, pausing when she arched and shivered to do it again, a little harder that time. His hands moved over her body, no place terribly intimate, just belly and hips and sides, until she couldn’t stand it any longer and took his hand to cup her breast.
“Ah,” Mick said into her ear. “Okay, then.”
From upstairs came the shuffle of feet in the kitchen, but nobody came downstairs. The lights went out, casting the stairwell into dimness. Mick turned them both so he sat on the lower steps, Alice straddling his lap. He rocked her against him. His hands roamed her back, digging in just hard enough to make her moan into his open mouth.
It had been some long months since the last time Alice had kissed anyone, and then it had been nothing like this. Mick’s mouth and hands on her, his kissing, were all magic. She didn’t want any of it to end, not even to take him to the bedroom, strip him down, and fuck him until neither of them could walk.
Alice wanted to kiss Mick forever.
He shifted beneath her. The press of his cock hit her just right through the barrier of his soft khaki shorts and her dress, tangled around her thighs. She let out another low moan, swallowed by his mouth. His hand came up to fist in her hair, his fingers digging gently into the base of her skull and tugging her head back so he could get at her throat. The top slopes of her breasts revealed by the dress’s scoop neck. A little lower, his nibbling lips found her erect nipples, hard enough to poke through her bra and the dress.
“Yes,” Alice whispered. “That.”
With a low chuckle, Mick pulled her neckline down to gain further access to her bare flesh. Her bandeau bra, lightweight nylon, slipped easily down. For a second, just a second, Alice hesitated. She arched into the slide of his tongue along her skin, the tug of his lips on her nipples, but common sense, her stupid brain, did tell her to slow down. Before she could pull away, though, he did.
Mick kissed her mouth as he let her neckline return to its original place. Then he buried his face against her neck, holding her close. They sat that way in silence, breathing in unison. Under the press of her lips on his neck, Alice felt the beat of Mick’s heart slowing in time with her own.
She waited to feel rejected—she’d been half naked, her tits in his mouth, after all. He hadn’t even tried to get his fingers in her panties, not that she was sure she’d have let him. But all Alice felt just then with Mick’s arms around her was a strange sense of contentment.
She lost track of the time they sat there, just that it was long enough for her to need to stretch. They moved at the same time, disengaging. Uncoupling. She stood and shook her foot, which had started to fall asleep. Mick got up, one hand on the stair railing, and cracked his neck.
“It’s late,” Alice said.
Mick smiled. “Yeah.”
He reached for her, and she stepped back into his arms. Her head fit neatly under his chin, something she wasn’t expecting. His hand ran down her back, pausing just above her ass, and though she totally would not have minded had he taken a little squeeze, Mick stopped there. Alice discovered she liked that even better.
“Good night, Alice,” he said into her ear.
She let her lips brush along his cheek as she stepped away from him to climb the stairs, looking back over her shoulder. “Good night, Mick.”
* * *
Good night, Alice.
Good night, Mick.
It had become their ritual. Each logged into their laptops and tucked into bed for an instant message conversation that always meant to be a few minutes or so but almost always lasted for hours. Sometimes they talked on the phone, too, but the distance between them and expensive cell phone minutes meant IM was easier. On the rare nights they didn’t manage to connect for even a quick chat, without that Good night, Mick found it hard to fall asleep.
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?”