Free Don’t Deny Me: Part Two by Megan Hart

break.”
    “No, Alice, c’mon, that’s not—”
    She was already taking off her borrowed clothes, searching for her own, but with only the light coming in from the window, she was having a hard time. Mick watched her for half a minute, then got out of bed. He tried to take her by the arm, but she pulled away.
    “I guess it’s fine when your dick is in my mouth,” she snapped. “Then you don’t need a break, huh?”
    “That’s a shitty thing to say!”
    She whirled on him, wearing only her panties and clutching the rest of her clothes to her chest. “It’s true, though, isn’t it? When I try to make plans with you, you can never manage to give me more than a day’s notice or so. You don’t return my calls or texts sometimes, and now I find out it’s because you need a break. A break, Mick? I see you once or twice a week, and I haven’t ever asked you for more than that, because we live just far enough apart to make it kind of a pain to get together. But guess what, I would make the effort to see you, even if I have to get up at five A.M. to get to work the next day. Or even just for dinner and then we both went home. I’d make it work to see you, Mick, because to me, it’s worth the effort.”
    She’d stopped fighting to get away from him, but she didn’t let him pull her closer. His fingers had dug into her upper arms, and he relaxed his grip. He let his hands slide down her arms, then let her go.
    “When you love somebody, you should make them worth the effort,” Alice whispered.
    She looked at him, waiting. He knew what she wanted to hear, but he couldn’t say it. He could tell her he loved her a dozen times, and it probably wouldn’t be enough, because that was how love worked. You fell into it like a deep, dark pit, and you couldn’t get out.
    Mick frowned. “I took you to see my family. Isn’t that making an effort?”
    “I liked meeting them. Yes, it was.” She put her clothes on the chair and slipped on her shirt, buttoning it over bare flesh. “And when we are together, Mick, we have a good time.”
    “I have a good time with you, too.”
    She looked at him. He could barely make out her features, but he could see enough to know that she wasn’t crying. At least there was that.
    “It’s not how it feels when we’re together, Mick. It’s how it feels when we’re apart.” Here she gave a low and bitter laugh. “When I’m not with you, I’m never quite sure if you’re thinking about me. Or how you feel about me. If you like me or love me or just want to fuck me, I have no idea. And I shouldn’t have to guess that. Not ever.”
    “Why does it have to be all or nothing with you?” The words came out angry, and yeah, he was kind of pissed, but more than that, disappointed. Stung. “Why can’t we just have fun?”
    “Because this isn’t just fun for me!” Alice’s shout shoved him back a step. “Not anymore. Dammit, Mick, I’m not asking you to tell me you love me if you don’t, but don’t play with my feelings this way. That’s not fair.”
    “I do love you,” Mick said slowly. “On some level.”
    * * *
    Alice had always known she had a temper. Her mother had told her over and over as a kid that nice girls didn’t get mad … but maybe, Alice had learned, nice girls got even. At Mick’s words, “on some level,” two things had happened. One, she’d felt a real and physical pain in her heart as though he’d stabbed her. Two, the rising tide of her fury had swept away the rest of her reasonable thought.
    She kissed him hard enough to bruise, then bit his lower lip. Her fingers gouged his shoulder blades, holding him close, though at the sting of her violent kiss, Mick jerked. His mouth opened, and she stabbed inside it with her tongue. One hand went between his legs to cup his balls, then to stroke along his cock through his pajama bottoms. She’d never felt him completely flaccid—every time they’d been together, he’d always been at least semi-hard at