Page 20 of Lady Sings the Blues

6.

Mark

“What are you doing?” she asks when I drop her on the bed. Her voice cracks. How could she be scared of me? You know I’d never hurt you, Elise. But how could you embarrass me in front of my club?

I don’t answer just yet, pulling an old Easyriders rodeo T-shirt from my drawer and toss it to her.

She holds it on her lap as I pull my own shirt up over my head. And she still doesn’t move to undress when I toe off each boot then let my jeans fall to the carpet, kicking them off to the corner by the laundry hamper.

Enough. “Elise, put the T-shirt on or you can sleep naked. Your choice.”

That lights a fire under her ass. She slides the shirt on before taking her other clothing off, pullin’ her shirt through the armhole then dropping her jeans.

“Bra, Elise. It’s not good for you to sleep in it.”

Then she does that thing I’ve seen her do before, back in high school. She cocks her eyebrow at me, and I swear, it takes every bit of self-control not to attack her lips.

“Bra, Elise,” I order again, because when I pull her against me, a barrier is the last thing I want to feel.

“You have no say in my life,” she says to me, but says it while pulling her bra out through the arm of the T-shirt again. “So just leave me alone.”

“Leave you alone? I’ve been in love with you since fuckin’ high school.”

“Yeah. So you sayMark, if that’s even really your name.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I never went to school with a Mark. You’re probably that creepy, stalker guy—what’s his name?” she snaps her fingers and points at me. “Gary Litman. That it? Trying to get revenge on me because I turned you down, Gary Litman?”

“Iain’tGary Litman. Ihavebeen in love with you since high school. And every man you offended at my bar tonight will be at your father’s funeral to pay respects.”

“They aren’t welcome and neither are you.”

“Woman, you’re gettin’ dangerously close to saying somethin’ you can’t take back.”

“Don’t you woman me. I don’t want to take it back. I don’t need Maryanne or Tommy. I didn’t need Logan. I didn’t need Beau. So I sure as hell don’t need you. You are nothing but a lapse in judgement I plan to rectify as soon as possible.”

She’s spouted that lip one too many times. She wants me to have her lip, fine. I’ll take it. So I launch at her.

She’s surprised but doesn’t refuse me as I kiss her with everything in me. It kills me to do it, but when she starts kissing me back, I pull away. Rolling from her. We’re both breathing as heavily as either of us have probably ever breathed in this situation.

“What are you doing?” Honest to god, there’s almost a whine when she asks it.

“Get under the covers, Elise. I’m tired.”

“You don’t get to order me around. I’m not your kid, and I’m not your girlfriend.”

“You sure as hell ain’t my kid. But you are my woman, and you know it. I didn’t want this to play out the way it has, but you forced my hand, darlin’, with all your judgmental, bratty behavior.”

“Don’t call me darlin’.”

“I will call you darlin’, darlin’. Now get over yourself and get some sleep. You got a lotta ass kissin’ to do tomorrow.”

“I’m not kissing any asses.”

“Those’re my brothers. You will.”

“Yeah. They’reyourbrothers, not mine. And I’m out of here the second my father’s funeral is over. Y’all will never see me again.”

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