Tough Going (Tough Love Book 2)

by Trixie More

  And then, the unthinkable. Allison startled a bit and then studiously looked away. Derrick continued, making the bot lay the rose on her table, but he already knew he’d failed. Allison was ignoring him, back to work, head bowed, refusing to look at him.

  You’re a tough woman to love. He regretted the words, but he couldn’t disagree with them. Maybe he wasn’t the man for her after all. Allison rushed out of the kitchen, with Sophia and Marley following, all carrying trays. He’d slipped Christopher Robot out the back.

  Derrick got into the cab and started the truck, waving to the onlookers who’d been watching the robot come down the street to him. That was it. He’d have to find some way to move on. No more thinking about her father, wondering what was happening and no more stopping by Mastrelo’s.

  His heart clenched. His family had looked so happy, the door between the kitchens open now, Angelo and Rose smiling, Allison smiling. She deserved that, she would never be able to survive the business without help. As long as he stayed absent from Mastrelo’s, maybe she could keep that.

  He sighed, driving out to the Bronx. He couldn’t give up his grandparents so she could have them, could he? He thought about how alone she was. Six months, if he stayed away from the bar that long, then when he returned, he and Allison could be friendly and everyone could get along. He tried to imagine being in Mastrelo’s, knowing she was back there and not going to her. Not trying to get her back, not begging.

  That pulled him up short. Grovel. There was one thing he wouldn’t do. His plan would work. Six months. Then he could return to Rose and Angelo’s again. He carried the robot home, not bothering to bring it up to the loft, stashing it in the doorway to the downstairs storefront instead. He went upstairs, suddenly glad he had a cat.

  Allison yelled through the door to Rose. “I’m going to Derrick’s!”

  “OK, cookie! Shower first!” Rose and Angelo both cracked up.

  “For pity’s sake, why did I bother to get to know you, people?” Allison’s words were tart, but her grin was silly stupid happy. “Hell and buckets, Marley?”

  “What, boss?”

  “Can you …”

  “Uh course, I’m closing up for you. Just take the keys. Rose’ll lock for me.” Marley flexed her muscle, mimicking Rosie the Riveter. “Go get him, muchacha.”

  Allison was out the door, her boots eating up the sidewalk on the way to the train. The night was clear and mild with a slight breeze. All over the city, the lights were coming up, people were out walking, laughing, most of them done with their work for the day. The construction sites she passed were silent. She thought about men she’d seen, walking along the narrow beams, high above the earth, hands lose, movements so natural. Derrick did that.

  She pounded down the steps into the subway, a feeling of physical energy inside her, so alive that it was all she could do not to put her palms on the turnstile and swing her legs to the side and vault the thing, the way she saw some punks do. She slowed down and put her metro card in. There would be no going gangsta today. She strode onto the train, turning and bracing her feet wide apart, crossing her arms and feeling so powerful, so good. He wanted her, she wanted him. All they had to do was renegotiate the contract. A smile curled over her face. Angelo had been so easy on her, negotiating was hardly the word for it. She hoped Derrick would put up a better front. She wanted to fight for him.

  The train dumped her off a few blocks from his loft. By now, the streets were dark, sounds of people laughing and shouting drifting between the buildings. She passed George’s garage, the doors covered in hurried graffiti. She wondered if Derrick had a window open, if he would hear her boots storming his street, thundering toward him. He’d tossed her over his shoulder and carried her out of her shop, kicking the whole way. Again, he’d picked her up and took her from her apartment kitchen. She could remember the feel of his bare back, the muscles so defined along his spine. The way her tongue had slid over his shoulder before she bit him. She remembered biting his calf, his teeth on her ass. Love bites, no broken skin, just a bit of tooth, a bit of sharpness inside all the roaring love barreling down between them, all that raw power and wild surging racing through them. Just a bit of control in what could never be harnessed.

  She arrived at his door, chest heaving from the pace of her walk, energy crackling inside her. She didn’t bother to knock. She tossed a stick at his window.

  “Yo! Derrick!”

  She tossed another.

  “Derrick!”

  A light went on. Derrick came to the window and looked down, shirtless, broad-shouldered, looking down like a king. She was no vassal.

  “Open up!”

  He stood motionless, making her wait. Good for him.

  The door buzzed and she had to jump for it. Laughter chased itself out of her. She purposely pounded her boots on the stairs, trying to sound like the conquering hordes. She was coming for him. He was going to know about it. He wanted her? He was going to get her, exactly as she was. Her hand slid around the banister and then she was at his open door, the man himself blocking her way, arms folded on his massive chest, eyes dark and severe. Oh, her man had a serious game face.

  “I’m looking for you,” Allison said.

  “You found me.”

  “Let me in.” She licked her lips.

  “Why didn’t you follow the robot?”

  “When have I ever done what I’m told?” Oh God, the image crashed over her, him telling her to run to her bathroom. Her heart hammered harder, faster.

  “Only once, that I know of.” His eyes were hard.

  She raised her hands and pushed on his chest. “I’m coming in.” Derrick stepped back and let her pass. How was she going to explain? She wasn’t willing to come to him weakly, mewling and making excuses. Her love was strong. She’d been willing to let him go and allow her own heart to rip asunder.

  She stepped on something, and a rising shriek split the air. She looked down. The furriest cat in the world was hissing at her, all of its wild hair sticking out in every direction. Her head swiveled, and she looked Derrick in the eyes. “You have a cat?”

  Chapter 25

  Derrick had pictured how he might win her back several times, but never once did he think to use Mister Whiskers, yet it was clear from the look on her face, the cat was a winner. Without a doubt, it had never crossed his mind how much alike they were either. MW was all beige and white fur, crazily fuzzing out around him, his mouth open and spitting, back arched up so tight Derrick could have turned him upside down and hung a bridge from him. Almost exactly like his Allison, wild hair exploding from beneath her hat, eyes blazing, energy crackling from her. Maybe she needed an electrician instead of an ironworker.

  She bent to pick up MW, and the cat laid a good one across her hand. True to everything he knew, she just snatched him up anyway and cradled him to her, dodging the occasional flinging paw. They called a truce when MW’s claws got twisted in her hair, and Derrick had to break down and untangle them.

  “There.” He gently pulled MW’s paw from Allison’s mane. “It’s OK, MW.” He stroked Allison’s hair, smoothing it down.

  “Are we OK?” She was clutching the cat to her chest, looking at Derrick between the pricked ears.

  “You and the cat are.”

  “Derrick. You didn’t change your mind in the hour since that robot left my shop!”

  “Why didn’t you follow it, Allison?”

  “I had a customer. Doesn’t that thing have a microphone? Couldn’t you hear your grandfather busting my ass?”

  Derrick started to smile, and then the doubt rose, vestiges of the tattered wrappings he’d finally let drop. His stomach clenched. She’d walked away from him. Left him waiting in her shop.

  “Why did you leave?” Derrick crossed his arms. He didn’t want to ask her, but he didn’t want to carry the question around. “I never thought you would sneak away from a fight.”

  Allison flushed and looked away, burying her face in the cat’s fur,
a cat who was purring now. Was Derrick just as easy for her to manipulate?

  “Derrick, I,” Allison looked up, put the cat down and looked him in the eye. His gut relaxed, just a bit. “That was terrible of me. I’m sorry.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “At the time, I was happy. I’d come back from talking to Angelo, and I felt like I had a way to move forward with the shop.” She knelt, stroked MW’s tail. “Then you came in, and said all that stuff about how tight your family was.” Looking up at him now, sitting back on her heels, she continued. “Before that, I was sure you would leave me sooner or later. After you talked like that? I knew I could count on you then, and it scared me. What if the business went under? What if you wound up working there with me and at your job? What if I sucked the money and the fun and the life out of you and your family?” Her eyes brightened a bit, and she blinked. “What if I made your life worse?” She stood, hands at her side. “I wanted to give you something. I thought I wanted to give you freedom.”

  Derrick turned and walked back to the window, looking down at the front sidewalk, almost as if he could see her arrive again. She’d come barging in, so sure of herself, so sure of him. All that pain hadn’t been over what he’d said?

  “And now?”

  “Now, I don’t.”

  He shook his head. This was ridiculous. They were adults. She was the woman he loved. How hard did this have to be? He turned around and let himself smile at her. “You know, you’re a real pain in the ass.”

  The woman standing in the loft’s shadows, back straight, chin lifted, smiled. She marched her boots over to him, toe to toe. Tipping her head up, her elvish eyes sparkling, she flung an arm around his neck and tugged at him.

  “Those are the sweetest words I’ve ever heard,” she said, and then her lips touched him, just barely, the tip of her tongue so faint against his mouth, he wondered if he imagined it.

  “Good, because I’m probably going to say them every day.” Derrick followed her back, bending over to bring his mouth against hers. Allison pressed forward, rose an inch and tried to tug at his hair.

  “You cut it,” she said, lightly brushing her palm over the bristles, sending crazy zings of feeling through his scalp.

  “Summertime. It gets hot as hell up in the steel.”

  She tipped her head to the side, looking him in the eyes. “There’s so much I don’t know about you, yet.”

  There was that word again—yet. It held the promise of change, of growth, of a future.

  She moved her hand down his arm and threaded her fingers through his, her hands strong and rough, like his. Allison started walking down his hallway, heading straight for the end. She kept his hand, pulling him into the bathroom with her. MW tried to follow, but Derrick gently shut the door. He wasn’t going to want the cat to watch.

  Allison pulled her baseball cap off, her long earrings swinging. Derrick stepped closer and pulled his fingers through the thick waves, spreading them out, massaging her scalp. It was going to take forever for her hair to dry tonight. He smiled.

  She crossed her arms, her breasts pressing together. Another photo op missed. Derrick just watched her, smiling, enjoying whatever she was willing to give. She pulled her shirt off, and unhooked her bra, letting it fall free. She folded her clothes, placed them on the bench, propped her foot next to the pile and untied her boots, her tits swinging gently as she went through the motions. Derrick felt his answering arousal start. Her shoes came off with a pair of thumps; she toed them under the bench. Looking over her shoulder, Allison put her thumbs in the waist of her jeans and pulled them down, stretching them around her fantastic ass, sliding them down her shapely thighs, pulling her red and angry feet free, with their polished toenails. She picked up her jeans and folded them. Then she turned back to him.

  “Coming in with me?” She leaned into the shower and turned on the water.

  “I can’t decide,” he said.

  Allison shrugged. “You can watch if you like.” She got into the water, but when she shut the glass door between them, he changed his mind, shucking his pants and shirt, tossing them haphazardly to the bench, opening the door and stepping into the warmth, pulling her wet and perfect body up tight against his own. She felt so good against him. Taking the soap from her, he lathered himself, then watched her spreading the suds over her own skin.

  “What happened to your feet?” he asked.

  “I was young, home alone, there was a fire.” She moved her hands over her thighs, the soap foaming and sliding over her knees.

  Derrick poured shampoo in his hands, moved behind her and started to wash her hair. She tipped her head back, he could see her face, her closed eyes, the tops of her breasts, full and lovely.

  She reached up and helped him work the soap through her thick tresses.

  “We had a landlady, an old woman, all alone. She was passed out from the smoke. I was barefoot when I went in after her. The linoleum floor burned my feet.”

  “Did she live?”

  Allison nodded, but she didn’t smile. “Yes, it was a good thing I went in.”

  “So that’s why the fire extinguisher is next to your bed?”

  “It is.” She turned away from him, rinsed the soap from her hair, then began to wash his back. “My turn. Why didn’t you go to college?”

  “Stupidity, I guess.” He bent his head so she could run her hands over his neck. “I overheard my father telling Sophia and David that my robots were childish.” He shook his head. “It seems so petty when I say it that way, so small. But I took it hard. I didn’t want anything to do with him after that. I started hanging out at Ben’s house. I thought I liked his family better.”

  “Do you still?”

  “In some ways? Yes. But not in all ways.”

  “Then you’re lucky, aren’t you?”

  “How so?”

  She moved around so she could face him. “You have two families.” She kissed him gently. “Soon you’ll have three.”

  He smiled and kissed her back. Maybe a woman did come up and just tell a guy.

  It was only a short time for them to dry off, comb out her hair and get it started drying. They were in bed in no time, Allison straddling him, rocking herself against him. She tipped her head.

  “Reach over your head.” She pushed a pillow between his hands. “Grab that. Tighter. I want to see all your muscles.”

  He flexed for her, and she melted onto his body, running her hands up his chest, over his arms, following along with her soft mouth, sucking and licking at him, the sensation sultry and sinuous. She stretched and brought her mouth to his neck, reaching up to bring her hands to his wrists, making her body long against him.

  “You grab the pillow,” he said. Allison kept her arms stretched, and he coasted his palms over her smooth skin, feeling the narrow strength in her arms, the bones of her shoulders, the sublime curve of her waist. He paused, resting his hands there, at the center of her, feeling her breasts rubbing slightly against his chest as she lifted her chin, brushing back and forth against his mouth, their tongues curving together. She tried to flatten herself against him.

  “Uh, uh. Stay very still, bossy.”

  Allison froze, head lifted, back bowed upward.

  “Good. Girl.”

  He closed his eyes sliding his palms, centimeter by centimeter, so slowly, down over the curve of her ass. One of her legs was between his, and Derrick felt her wetness on his thigh. He cupped the apex of that magnificent booty, enjoying the firm pressure against his cock, the warm globe in his hands. His thumbs traveled down, toward the crease where her ass met her thighs, as she stayed frozen, back arched, waiting. He pulled her legs apart, and she slid down with a sigh, flattening against him, sucking on his ear. His dick strained.

  “Lodestone,” he said.

  He felt her answering smile against his chest.

  “It’s gonna cost ya,” she said. “Time and labor.”

  He shook his head. “I’m going t
o pay anyway, booty or not.”

  She raised her head and looked him in the eyes, her hazel brown eyes flicking between his, trying to untangle his comment.

  “Allison. You’re it for me.”

  Feeling the full rise and fall of her chest as she took a deep breath, feeling his heart beating in his chest, he waited for her answer.

  “I want to marry you, Derrick.” His heart thumped, steady and sure. Slow kisses. She feathered them over his face and neck. “And then? I’ll figure out how to deserve you.” She slid down his body. It was only part of the answer he wanted, but it was enough to move forward with. He closed his eyes as her mouth engulfed him, part of him focused on the sweet bliss of her ministrations, part of him wondering if he could reach the condoms without interrupting her. He was sliding his right hand over the sheets on the way to the nightstand when a crash sounded from the living room. Allison froze, his dick in her mouth, eyes wide and searching for his. She frowned when she saw where his hand was going. His cock popped free, she got ready to speak, and then the cat shrieked.

  He could practically see her brain change course again. “Did the cat knock something …” she started, and then the smoke alarms began bleating, several at once. She was off him and standing, so fast it seemed she transported herself to the door. Palms flat to the wood, she pressed her nose to the gap. He could hear her trying to smell the smoke.

  “It’s not hot.” She licked her fingers and touched the doorknob. “It’s still cool.” He was standing now, pulling on a pair of sweats. They’d left their clothes in the bathroom, so he tossed his T-shirt to her, and she pulled it on, bending and grabbing their towels.

  “These towels are damp. We might be able to use them.” She glanced wildly around.

  “No, no fire extinguisher in here, love.”

  Derrick looked down at her bare feet, and his throat tightened. He couldn’t let her go out there first. Picking her up bodily and tossing her on the bed was an easy feat. Keeping her there, not so much. He pressed his palm to her chest, arm straight, holding her away from the door.