Shiver

by Brandy Schmitt

  “Gentlemen. Please wrap yourself in a nice toasty warm blanket because our next girl is going to give you a cold. Give it up for…Shiver.”

  Fuck! Ice cringed when he heard Nicole’s stage name being announced over the speakers. The other dancers thought it would be funny to call her Shiver, once they’d found out the two of them had a thing going on. They figured Ice and Shiver went hand and hand.

  “Hold. The. Fuck. On. Damn, girlfriend take it off.” Poe all but moaned the words from the back of his throat. Ice’s hand clenched into fists, and his face filled with heat. Poe didn’t know anything about Nicole. A mistake he was going to clear up right the fuck now.

  “Hold up…no fucking way…bro, do you know who that is?” Poe’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. Ice swung his gaze back to the stage. Nicole worked the stage, dancing a new number she had practiced for him. None of the other girls were up there with her. “Who are you talking about?” His eyes darted around.

  “The fucking stripper,” Poe said waving his hand toward the stage.

  “Whoever you think she is, I’m going to tell you you’re wrong, man.” Poe shook his head smiling. “Nah, man. I know that bitch. I know her well.”

  Ice couldn’t hold back his rage in any longer, and it finally got Poe’s attention when he slammed his fist on the table. “Call her a bitch one more time, I’ll fuck you up.”

  Poe’s smile dropped to seriousness. “Fuck, bro. Chill. You got a thing going with her or something?”

  Ice sure as hell wasn’t going into details with Poe. “Yeah, something like that.”

  Poe backed off as he grabbed his beer and leaned back in his chair. A wide smile covered his face.

  Ice wanted to knock it off his face for him. “What?”

  His friend shook his head. “I can’t believe you don’t know who she is?”

  Ice damn well knew who Nicole is. She was his. “Whoever you think she is, it isn’t her.”

  Poe’s gaze slid to the stage then back to him. “Remember a few years back, right before you got off the streets and my man, Tray, got wrapped up in all that legal shit? The cops arrested him for breaking into all those houses across town.”

  Ice shrugged. He remembered, but he wasn’t seeing his point. “So?”

  “So? Bro, remember the families brought in those overpriced suits to make sure Tray and his boys went down for stealing from all those rich assholes?” Ice still wasn’t putting it all together.

  “The lawyer, the top dog who got him convicted on bullshit charges, his picture made it over all the front pages of all the papers as the hero who kept the streets safe from thugs like us. Dude, that chick is his daughter.”

  Ice’s head swung back over to the stage, watching as Nicole finished up her number. He did remember her saying that her father was an attorney. He had no idea that meant the top attorney. Did it matter now? If Nicole had been anything like her father, would she be here now? She left that life behind when she came here. Just like he had done with his.

  “I can’t believe that dude’s daughter is a stripper.” Poe laughed, and the sound crawled under Ice’s skin.

  He leaned forward in his chair, his eyes pierced into Poe’s. “That girl has a heart of gold, man. She’s here because her father is a piece of shit and can’t see that. Don’t ever compare her to her father again. While you’re here, you better treat her with respect.”

  Poe laughed and took another pull from his beer bottle. “Shit, man, you like her.”

  “Why would that be funny? You think I’m not good enough for her?”

  “Um…no. Bro, she’s the daughter of a millionaire. The guy can put anyone away with a fucking snap of his fingers. I also heard the dude’s got a mean streak in him. All I’m saying is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mister Big Shot wasn’t thrilled knowing a con and reformed drug pusher is fucking his daughter. Women like that marry polo players, not thugs, bro.”

  He wasn’t a thug…anymore. And who the hell was talking about marriage? He sure as hell wasn’t. He and Nicole had a different relationship than others. They had an understanding that they were only fooling around. They were scratching an itch for each other…that was all.

  Nicole’s music ended, and she ducked behind the stage curtain. She was nothing like those stuck-up people in the upper end of town. She was sweet, kind, and genuinely cared about others. Nikki was also straightforward and upfront with what she wanted.

  Memories of the last few weeks played back over in his mind. Little things started to pop out for his attention, things he might have missed before. She liked cooking for him. They slept all night in the same bed. Shit, they were practically living together. What if she really did want a lifelong partner?

  Poe was right, at least a little. Girls like Nicole got married and have babies, and they bought houses with little, white fences around them and drove minivans. She had shown him that earlier today when he had come home and found her in his kitchen cooking him dinner. Not that he didn’t enjoy her cooking, but the whole scene of her taking care of him made their relationship feel a little too domesticated.

  He was a cage fighter from the streets. He never wanted to marry and had thought long and hard about getting a vasectomy so he couldn’t father any kids. Men like him don’t get the happily ever after. He needed to think about what a future with Nicole would look like. She claimed she was only in it for fun, and at first he believed her. But did she really just want to have fun like he did, or was she looking for something more? Something he couldn’t give her.

  If they did stay together, even as fuck buddies, what would her father say when he saw them together? That man would dig up so much shit on him. Patrick Phillips had the ability to end his career before he even got started. That thought sobered him up quick.

  Poe looked at him then dropped his eyes to his beer again. “Sorry, bro. I didn’t realize you had a real thing for the girl. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it isn’t her.”

  No, he had been right; it was her. She had never hidden who her father is. He never asked for details about her family. If he had, maybe he could have put two and two together.

  He finished his beer, pushed the empty bottle away from him, and stood from the chair. “You can stay at my place tonight. Give me a minute before we go.” Ice left Poe at the table and headed for the dressing room. He needed to tell Nicole he had an old friend staying over, and he would see her in the morning. They hadn’t spent a night apart since they started sleeping together. Ice felt like he could, indeed, use some time alone to think things over.

  ****

  Nicole drummed her fingers on the metal bar top. Her nerves were doing a number to her insides. She had no idea what was going on with Ice. Last she saw him he had come to the dressing room after her dance to tell her that an old friend of his would be crashing at his place for the night before he left town. That had been over a day ago. He also called in for his bartending shift the next day, telling Lou he had some things he needed to take care of.

  When Nicole told him Ice had an old friend staying with him, Lou grew nervous. He knew all about Ice’s past and the people in it. The last thing any of them wanted for Ice was to see him go back down that path again.

  “Should we call the police? It’s been nearly twenty-four hours without word. He’s not answering anyone’s phone calls, and Hunter drove through Ice’s old stomping grounds to see if anyone had seen him. Nothing,” Keith said to the small group of friends and employees who had gathered around the bar just before opening.

  “I can’t believe he hasn’t even called to check in with you, Lou. Doesn’t he care about his job?” Bridgette said from behind the bar.

  Nicole looked at the waitress. She tried not to jump down her throat to defend him. But the truth is, they were all worried about him, and all of them had a right to be angry that he had disappeared.

  “I’ll wait until Hunter gets back before I make any official calls. Let’s see if he finds anything. Until then, we have a bar to run,
people. Ice is a big boy. He knows when it’s time to come home. We open in an hour,” Lou informed everyone, pushing away from his spot at the bar counter.

  Nicole had to dance tonight. She wished like hell she could get out of it, but still being short on girls, she had no one to fill her spot. Besides, dancing has always been the best way to clear her mind and find peace. Nicole and Bridgette headed back stage to the girls’ dressing room to get hair and makeup done. They were in the middle of shimmying into their costumes when loud commotion drifted through the room from the main bar. They weren’t open yet, so maybe there had been news about Ice.

  Nicole zipped up her butt-length skirt, then headed back toward the bar. Everyone crowded around the door, and her heart slammed into her chest, hoping Ice had made it back. She walked forward and as his hair and then face come into her view, she let out a sigh of relief and ran to his side.

  He looked tired and wrung out completely, but that didn’t stop her from throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him to her. A wave of relief hit her. It had felt like she had been unknowingly holding her breath all this time and just now released it. She wanted and needed to know what had happened to him, where he had gone. But in this moment, she needed him to hold her, and he did just that. Wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her even tighter against his chest.

  “Sorry, little one. I didn’t think I’d be gone this long.” His lips were against her neck making her the only one who heard him.

  “What the hell, man?” Keith asked from beside them.

  “Are you in some kind of trouble?” Lou’s voice drifted from somewhere off to the side of them. A hundred questions flew at him. She understood all their concerns since she had some of her own.

  “I’m fine. I mean, we’re fine. I had to help Poe out with a little sticky spot, but we got it all under control,” Ice said to the room of concerned but relieved faces.

  “Next time, call someone, kid? You can’t be giving this old heart of mine scares like this,” Lou said moving through the crowd. Tossing an arm over one of Ice’s shoulders the two men hugged and patted each other on the back before breaking apart.

  “I’m sorry, Lou. I left my phone upstairs or else I would have called.”

  The bar owner nodded and stepped away. “Okay, people, the show pony’s home. Let’s get back to work.” He winked in Ice’s direction.

  Everyone from the bar walked up one at a time and either hugged Ice or drilled him for info, but he was like a vault with nothing coming out of him. Once the last person had walked away he turned back to Nicole, dropping his lips over hers. “I missed you,” he whispered against her lips.

  “I missed you too. I worried about you.” She didn’t care how clingy she sounded.

  “I know, I’m sorry. Look, I’m going to head upstairs and shower.”

  “I’m on stage tonight. So you go do what you need to do, and I’ll be up as soon as I’m done.” She gave him one more peck on the lips before turning away. His hand reached out and slapped her ass just under the short skirt. She looked at him from over her shoulder and smiled. This needed to be the fastest dance of her life.

  Two hours later, Nicole had performed her required two dances and begged Lou to let her cut out early so she could talk with Ice. He let her leave after she promised she’d get to the bottom of where he had been. Nicole wasted no time getting up the stairs and over to his apartment.

  He didn’t answer when she knocked on his door, but luckily, she found the door unlocked She found him passed out on his bed with nothing on but a bath towel wrapped around his waist. He must have lain down after getting out of the shower.

  Smiling to herself, she moved over to the side of the bed and kneeled on the mattress next to his sleeping body. From the heavy bags under his eyes, he needed sleep, but she didn’t think she could go another minute without learning where he had been. No one just ups and leaves for a day without a word to anyone. What if he had gone back to his old neighborhood and gotten into some trouble? It would be crazy to think he would sacrifice everything he has worked for, but it has happened to people before. She reminded herself she was letting paranoia get the better of her, causing her to overreact.

  Her movement on the bed caused him to stir. Rolling to his side, he peeked up at her from under heavy lashes. “Hi, beautiful.”

  She offered him a smile. “Hi, yourself.” There were so many things running through her mind that she wanted to say to him, that she wanted to scream at him. How dare he suddenly up and take off and not tell anyone? “Are we going to talk about this? I know you don’t owe me an explanation. I mean it’s not like we’re in a relationship, but I am your friend and on behalf of all your other friends downstairs, let me tell you, you scared the shit out of us.”

  Ice rolled onto his back throwing an arm over his face. The terrycloth towel that had been wrapped around his waist loosened at the knot he had tied on the side.

  She had to drag her eyes away from the outline of his cock. There were other things that needed to be said between them before she thought about how much she missed him being inside her. “Do you want to talk about it?” Her voice low but thankfully, steady. “Do you do this kind of thing often?”

  He swung his arm away from his face turning his head toward her so he could look into her eyes. “Poe needed help, so I helped him.”

  Her heart started to pound in her chest. She prayed she’d been wrong in her line of thinking. “Drugs?”

  “Christ, no. Is that what you think?” He sat up from the bed.

  She heard the anger in his voice and decided she wasn’t going to push him anymore tonight. “I don’t know what to think.” She left the bed and walked out of his bedroom. Ice moaned as he left the bed to follow her.

  “I told you downstairs, I had to help Poe out of some shit. What, you don’t believe me now either? Jesus Christ, is there anyone on this fucking planet who believes me when I talk?” His anger threatened to boil over at the surface. The last thing she wanted to do tonight was start a fight.

  “I do believe you, but yes, I worried about you. I thought you were…” She wasn’t going to finish that sentence. She knew where her mind had gone after a full twenty-four hours had passed with no word from him. He had told her stories about his past before, and her only fears were his past coming back to haunt him.

  He took a step toward her, the anger on his face subsiding. Stepping up next to her, he pulled her hard to his chest, wrapping his arms around her waist. “I need you to believe me. You, of all people, need to believe in me.”

  His words tore at her heart. She had no idea where all this was coming from? She could hear pain in his voice. Whatever he had been through in the last few days had done a number on him.

  “I do believe in you.” She wrapped her arms around his waist as he kissed the top of her head. She liked this side of him, a side she never got to see. How many of the others girls had seen this vulnerable side of him? Her heart sank with hurt over the thought of what had brought this behavior about. He placed three more kisses to her head, then pulled away in order to look in her face. “Do you trust me?”

  She wanted to tell him yes. But trust had to go both ways. She wanted to tell him only if he was willing to tell her the truth of where he went. She didn’t want to pry too hard into his life and have him pull further away from her. She couldn’t help but wonder how often he had asked another person that question. She had a feeling that there weren’t very many. “Yes, I trust you.”

  His eyes softened “Then please believe me when I tell you, this has nothing to do with drugs. I went to help a friend get some things in order so he could move on. I can’t go into details, and the fact that it kills me not to tell you is disturbing to me. I’ve never had the urge to open up to another person, Nicole. Just you. Please don’t ask me to say anymore.”

  His request tore at her heart. It was the closest he had ever come to telling her he felt differently toward her than he had felt for any of the othe
rs who had warmed his sheets. It hurt not knowing parts of his life, but how could she not accept him and the way he wanted things left?

  She gave him a warm smile. “Done.” She watched his eyes as his gaze roamed over her face. His blue eyes softened from anger to content then started to darken with desire. He wanted her again, and that couldn’t make her happier.

  Grabbing her thighs directly under her butt, Ice lifted her to his body encouraging her to wrap her legs around his hips. Her little skirt shoved higher up her thighs. “Damn baby, you’re so fucking sexy.”

  She moaned against his lips as her only reply. His mouth tortured hers until she opened to him, letting him devour her, deepening their kiss. Her body began to spin with all the different sensations. She soared from cool to hot with one kiss.

  Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer to her. Her tongue plunged hungrily into his mouth, rolling over the silky feeling of his before sinking her teeth into the lush softness of his bottom lip.

  He moaned against her little attack. “You have no idea what that does to me.”

  She wiggled her hips a little until she felt his hard cock press against her damp thong. “I have a pretty good idea.”

  Ice moved them across the floor. Her mind flew into overdrive trying to keep up with the kiss as her body started to tingle with feeling.

  She felt a firm touch on the backs of her legs before her ass was placed on top of another hard surface. He dropped her on the kitchen counter. The same counter she had sat on the first day she had entered his apartment and scared his date away. Without removing his mouth from hers, his fingers moved up her arms to grab her hands from behind his neck. Taking ahold of her wrists, he intertwined their fingers together before raising her hands above their heads. He changed the hold he had on her hands until both her wrists were being held in one strong grip. With his free hand he reached under her skirt to rip the thin material of her thong from her body. “Underwear are a waste of my time, baby girl. Save me the hassle in the future and stop wearing them all together.”