Don’t Deny Me: Part Three Read Online Free PDF Page B

delicious tangle all over his face. His arms went around her, holding her close. When she finally rolled off him to flop, spread eagled on the bed, he could barely muster the strength to move. But he had to. He needed to look at her face. It was the last sight he wanted in his vision before he fell asleep.
    “What?” Alice said when she noticed him staring. She rolled to face him. “What?”
    “That was fun.”
    She smiled, but only after a second or so, as though she hadn’t quite been certain of how she wanted to react to what he said. Then she moved in close and kissed his mouth. She took a fingertip and pressed it to each eye, closing them.
    “Sleep,” she whispered, and he gave her that, too.
    * * *
    Hello, gorgeous. I had to leave before you got up. I started the coffee for you and fixed that squeaking drawer in your bathroom. See you later.
    —Mick to Alice
    * * *
    Dayna had pinged Alice online that morning, and with the barest amount of prompting had admitted that she’d been with Paul the night before. Alice had immediately invited her to lunch. There were conversations you simply couldn’t have in a text window.
    “The sex was amazing,” Dayna said. “It’s always amazing, even when I’m wracked with guilt about it.”
    “What do you feel guilty about?”
    “Jay.” Dayna looked sad. “I know he’s in love with Paul as much as I am. I think sometimes that if I weren’t around, Paul would maybe make a real effort with him. Make it work.”
    Alice thought about that. Jay’d told her he’d finally broken it off with Paul. He was dating a new guy, a few of them, in fact. He wasn’t happy about the breakup, but really, who ever was, even when it was the best choice?
    “If Jay weren’t around, do you think Paul would make a real effort to make it work with you?”
    Dayna looked faintly surprised, then frowned. “He got a phone call while we were watching TV, and he got up to take it in the other room. It might’ve been Jay, though I’ve heard him talking to Jay before, and I don’t think it was. I think he was talking to another woman. So, do I think if Jay weren’t around that Paul would make the effort? I don’t know. I guess not. But then he calls me up and he knows all the right things to say, and he knows just where to touch me, and the next thing I know, we’re in bed.”
    “I’m the last person to tell you not to give in to a magic cock,” Alice said. “Believe me, I get it. Especially after a long, long dry spell, finding that person who makes everything work just right is super hard to give up. Even when you know you should.”
    “
Oh,
really? Are you talking about that guy you met the last time we went out? Bill?” Dayna stirred sugar and cream into her coffee and set the spoon on her plate before giving Alice a significant look.
    Alice laughed and shook her head.
    “No way. Mick?”
    Alice smiled.
    Dayna laughed. “Wow. You guys. Again. Kind of gives a girl hope.”
    “It’s either going to be the greatest love story ever told, or the greatest tragedy.” Alice sipped her own coffee and contemplated ordering cheesecake. Not that she needed it or was even that hungry after the giant salad she’d had for lunch, but because … cheesecake.
    “Thanks for meeting me.”
    Alice looked up at Dayna’s off tone. “Sure.”
    “I just needed to talk to someone about stuff. And nobody knows like you do, about everything.” Dayna took a deep breath. “And look, I know Jay’s your friend …”
    “I love Jay, and we’ve been friends for a million years,” Alice said, “but you’re my friend, too.”
    “And you don’t like Paul.”
    Alice couldn’t deny that, not exactly. “I like Paul just fine. I don’t like the way he treats the people who love him so much.”
    “And you don’t understand why we do.” Dayna turned her cup in her hands and looked sad.
    “Honestly, I don’t understand why anyone falls in love with anyone,” Alice said somewhat sourly.
    Dayna