Shiver

by Brandy Schmitt

  “You have got to be kidding me.” There was no way of denying the disgusted tone in Mandy’s voice.

  Ice shot his gaze up to Hunter’s new woman. If looks could kill, he would be dead.

  “Tell me you are not seriously thinking of crawling in that tonight.”

  Hunter grabbed ahold of Mandy’s wrist, trying to turn her anger away from Ice. “Trouble. Leave the man alone. If he wants to get his wick wet, that’s his business.”

  Mandy looked back toward Hunter as if she were thinking about what he said. Ice wasn’t sure about the relationship between the two of them, but like Hunter had said, it wasn’t her business.

  “You’re right, it’s not my business. What my business is, is my best friend. Nicole doesn’t deserve getting her heart broke by you turning your back on her like this.”

  Ice’s eyes narrowed at her. He could barely hold on to the amount of anger that threatened to boil through him. “Do you see her here? I don’t.”

  “Yeah, if she cared at all for him, she would have shown her face at the fight tonight,” Johnny added. Ice didn’t need or want his friend’s help.

  Mandy turned her body quickly toward both of them, and as she did, Hunter threw his hands in the air as if telling them there was nothing more he could do about her. She looked as pissed as he felt. Placing her hands flat on the bar, she leaned toward him.

  “My best friend wanted to be here tonight really bad. Matter of fact, she cried her eyes out over the phone because she couldn’t be. All this for a man who don’t deserve her anyway.”

  Staring into her gaze, Ice tried to see if she was being serious. She looked it. “If she wanted to be here so badly, then why isn’t she? Hell, she all but moved out of her apartment. She probably didn’t want to live across from a drug dealer anymore.” Ice’s tone dripped with bitterness. He’d grown tired of having to defend himself against people who thought he wasn’t worth their time.

  A red blush spread over Mandy’s cheeks, her anger getting the better of her. “You are a dumbass!” She pointed her finger in his face.

  Ice rolled his shoulders back and tilted his head up. Man or woman, he didn’t like people getting in his face. He would never touch a woman, but he didn’t want her to think he would be pushed around either. Hunter took a step closer toward her back.

  “Enlighten me.”

  Mandy shook her head. “You don’t fucking get it, do you? How the hell do you think you made bail? Do you think there’s a bail fairy flying around?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Fifty big ones, is what I’m talking about. Do you know anyone with that kind of money? I do. I know a man who has it, and he has a hell of a lot of power to go with it. That’s why his only daughter left him and would rather be a stripper in a bar to make her own way in life than be around him.”

  Ice’s anger fell away to be quickly replaced with confusion. Nicole’s father paid his bail? Mandy’s anger died just as fast. She took a step closer toward him until she stood right next to his stool. “Because you look confused, I’m going to spell it out for you, big guy. My best friend is so head over heels in love with your dumb ass, she sold her happiness to her father to bail you out and make sure you made it to your fight tonight.”

  Love? She didn’t love him? How could she? Shock took over. He couldn’t think or feel. Nicole hated her father. Why would she turn to him? Because he had the money. “I thought she hated me after the other night? Nicole can’t love me.” She couldn’t.

  “The chick at the bar? Yeah, not your finest moment, buddy. She totally thinks you slept with that girl. And to think, even after that, she still went to her father for help. Nikki knows what that fight meant to you, and she would rather see you live your dream than live hers. If that’s not love, then you tell me what is?”

  His body slumped toward the bar top as if someone had punched him in the gut. He was having trouble breathing, and his heart felt like it might explode in his chest. He felt a hand on his shoulder but didn’t bother looking up.

  “The deal is, her father bails you out and gets your charges dropped, clearing your name to fight, and she returns home and plays happy daughter to her father’s rules.”

  His heart pounded so fast, he couldn’t think straight. Ice had never in his life had someone love him enough to put his needs in front of their own. He had never mattered enough to someone for that to happen. Nicole hated her father after the way he treated her. He had wanted her to marry that prick from his office just to prove he held all the control. “Is that why she wasn’t here tonight? Her father forbid her from coming?”

  Mandy rolled her eyes. “Her father’s throwing a dinner party for her tonight. I think it’s another dog and pony show to show all his rich, snobby friends that he’s back in control of his daughter.”

  “Nicole allowed that?”

  The small woman who had been daring enough to go toe-to-toe with him shrugged her shoulders as another sad look crossed her face. “She didn’t have any choice. Like I said, she sold her soul to the devil. And the treasure she bought with it…was you.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Nicole had no idea who all these people were who filled her parent’s posh mansion. She could only guess they were friends or clients of her father’s. After all, it was his dinner party. She didn’t want to be here rubbing elbows with the snobs who kissed her father’s ass. She wanted to be downtown celebrating Ice’s victory.

  Mandy had texted her all about his fights. She had offered to record it for her too, but Nicole thought it would be easier if she didn’t see him again at all. Ice was bound to be great in the ring, and his dreams to be in Vegas one day were within reach. As much as it broke her heart to think of him moving that far away, she wanted nothing but the best for him.

  The doors to the dining room opened, indicating to the guests they were able to take their seats around the massive table. Nicole purposely moved away from the chair that had been pulled out for her next to her father’s seat at the head of the table, taking a seat next to her mother instead. Dinner plates were brought out to their guests and placed in front of them by the wait staff her father had hired to take care of their guests for the evening.

  After a dinner of stuffy business conversations, the sound of metal clinking against glass brought everyone’s gaze around the room until they were all looking at the man who stood at the head of the table. Nicole looked on toward her father, hoping this party wasn’t going to turn out like the last one she attended with her parents. She had made a deal with her father in order to get Ice the help he needed and now she had to pay the piper. Reminding herself to breathe, Nicole turned her gaze over to her father and waited.

  “First, I want to thank all of you for coming out tonight. It means a lot to my wife and I to see all of you here this evening.” As her father went on to talk about his business associates, Nicole tried her best to stay interested in what he talked about, but her thoughts kept straying to another place across town. Mandy had texted her before dinner, telling her they were all headed back to Big Dogs, and she wished Nicole had been there. She wished she had been too.

  As her father continued on with his speech, muffled voices were heard from the other side of the room, coming from down the hall. The voices were growing louder and louder, the closer they got to the main dining room. Just as her father was about to order everyone to raise their glasses to something she hadn’t been paying attention to, a massive body filled the entrance of the room. Every pair of eyes moved to the newcomer, and a hush fell over the room. Patrick Phillips, turned his gaze behind him to see who had stolen his spotlight.

  Nicole’s breath jammed in her throat. Her heart raced, and her stomach cramped with anxious pain. What in the hell was Ice O’Malley doing standing in the doorway of her father’s dinner party? His intense blue eyes found hers in a room full of people and locked on her. His hand raised in front of him, and using one finger, he motioned for her to come to him.


  Stares burned into her as the guests followed his gaze back to her. It wasn’t hard to see who he had come for. She looked down the length of his body and nearly melted. He sure had a way of standing out from all the other guests. He wore a pair of loose-fitting blue jeans and a T-shirt stretched tight across his wide chest. He had a small bandage over a cut on the corner of his eye and his bottom lip looked as if it had been bleeding. If those were the only injuries he had acquired during his three fights tonight, it was no surprise he had walked away the winner.

  As she stayed planted in her chair, she watched him arch a single eye brow at her, as if to ask if she seriously wanted to defy him. She didn’t want to. She wanted to run to him, throw her arms around him, and never let him leave her sight again.

  Her eyes swung back to her father who had lowered his glass back to the table and now stood with his head bent down and both hands on his hips. Her father was beyond angry. Nicole left her chair and headed toward the two men who scared her the most. One scared her because of what he might do, and the other scared her because of what he wouldn’t do.

  She didn’t speak a word as she walked past him and out of the room. She left it up to him to follow her.

  As soon as they entered the room across the hallway, Nicole pulled the door closed behind them, hoping to buy a few minutes alone before her father found them. With her hand still on the door, she turned to ask him what the hell he was doing here and came up hard against his chest. Bracing her hands flat against his pecks, she raised her eyes up to meet his. “What are you doing here?”

  He didn’t answer her. He closed off the last few inches that separated them before landing his lips hard against hers. His mouth hot and hungry as he tore over her. She moaned through their sealed lips. She had been so afraid she might never get the chance to touch or taste this man again. But even though she wanted to, she couldn’t forget about the deal. Placing her hands on his chest, she pushed herself away from him. Looking up into his eyes, it saddened her heart even more. “Ice? What are you doing here?”

  “Why weren’t you at the fight tonight, baby girl?”

  She loved it when he called her that. Her gaze dropped from his, and she stepped back. She wasn’t going to tell him the truth. She couldn’t. She didn’t want him to think she had bought him. “I couldn’t. I would have loved watching you win all those fights. I just couldn’t. Not after the other night…”

  “I want you to know that I didn’t sleep with that girl from the bar that night. I know you think I did, but I left alone. Wait, how do you know I won all the fights?”

  A relieved feeling melted over her with hearing him admit he hadn’t slept with anyone but her. “I guessed.”

  His lips curled at the sides. “No, you didn’t. And you weren’t there, so how did you know?” His blue eyes held hers.

  “Mandy texted me earlier.” Damn it. Why could she not lie to this man?

  “Let’s get this right. You leave me sitting in jail with no word from you. When I get out, I’m told you have moved out without so much as a good-bye to anyone, and yet you still want to know my business. Why is that, Nicole?”

  “Can’t we still be friends?” She wouldn’t allow it even if he did. She couldn’t be around him and not be with him.

  “Friends, huh? I don’t think I could be friends with someone who thinks the worst about me. Tell me the truth. Do you think those drugs were mine?”

  She shook her head. The thought never crossed her mind. “Not for a minute. You love your dream too much to have ruined it.”

  Her confession made him flinch back away from her as if she had slapped him. “Of course I do. Don’t you love your dream of becoming a dancer?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. She was learning to make peace with the fact that she may never be a professional dancer. “Some people deserve the shot more than others.”

  Before either of them had a chance to say another word, the door flew open, and her father entered the room. “I swear to Christ, Nicole. I thought we had a deal? What the hell is he doing here?” Her father’s face clouded with a dark anger. He was pissed, but there was nothing she could do about it. It wasn’t like she had invited him to come over.

  “What deal is he talking about, Nikki?” Ice’s voice trembled low in her ear. It held no anger, just the need to understand.

  She glared at her father. “Dad. Please give us a minute. I owe him that much at least.”

  “You don’t owe him a damn thing. After everything you did for this guy?”

  “Dad! A minute.” Her own anger rose. Her father thought he could control everything, but he wasn’t going to control this. She had a right to say good bye to him her way.

  Patrick grabbed ahold of the door handle, yanking the door open then closed behind him.

  Once they were alone, Ice asked her again, “What deal is he talking about? Be honest, Nicole. We don’t have much time.”

  She dropped her head, shaking it back and forth. What could she say to him? “It’s stupid. I promised my dad I would stay here and not go back to the bar. He didn’t like me being there.”

  “Bullshit. Try again and this time, don’t lie to me.”

  “I’m not. I promised I would stay here. That’s the truth.”

  His hand moved to her face and lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. “What did you ask for in return?” She dropped her gaze away from his forcing him to duck down to meet them again. “Baby girl, tell me what you asked him.”

  Tears formed in her eyes. She didn’t want him to hate her. “I made him a deal that I would return to living here if he…if he…”

  His eyes softened as he watched her struggle. “Got me out of the drug charges?”

  Her eyes widened. How did he know that? And why didn’t he seem upset about it? “Ice…?”

  He silenced her words with his mouth. He closed his lips over hers as he brought both his hands up to the sides of her face, holding her still. He kissed her with a force and passion that had her stomach rolling with lust and need. His tongue poked out from between his lips to drag across her lower lip before he sucked it into his mouth to nibble on.

  He pulled his head away from hers with a mutter. “I know all about the deal you made with your father, and I want you to take it back. I would rather rot in jail for the rest of my life than have you hate me for this, and you will. Some day when you’re living a life that your father handpicked for you, you will hate me.

  “You have dreams, Nicole. Dreams of dancing and I want that for you. Seeing you happy is worth never setting foot into another ring again.” Holding her face in his hands, he closed his eyes and bowed his head until his forehead pressed against hers. “I don’t want to be the person in your life who causes you pain.”

  Hot tears fell from her eyes, and a sniffle left her throat as her arms circled his neck. She loved him so much, and the thought of letting him go again weighed too heavy for her heart. “I did it for you. I love you. Please don’t hate me, but I can’t take it back. My father, he’s…”

  The door to the room swung open again, and her parents re-entered. She tried to pull herself away from Ice, but he wouldn’t let her. He held her to him, wrapping his arms around her waist. She looked over at her father.

  “Nicole. I’ve had enough of this. It’s time to…”

  Ice interrupted him. “Sir, your daughter did something she shouldn’t have. I don’t know everything she promised you, but I’m here to tell you she will be breaking that promise.”

  “Ice, no. They will put you back in jail.”

  “That’s right. One word from me and you will kiss that career of yours goodbye before you even get started.”

  Ice’s shoulders drew up with a shrug. “I don’t care. Like I told your daughter, her happiness means more than mine. I would have thought it would matter to you as well, but I can see now that you don’t care who you make miserable as long as you get what you want.”

  Her father’s face grew shades hott
er. “You son of a bitch. Do you have any idea what I can do to you?” He took a step toward the couple.

  Ice immediately stepped in front of Nicole, pushing her behind him. He and her father were similar in height, but her dad had nowhere near the muscle Ice had.

  “Stop it, right now,” Nicole cried trying to get around Ice’s body. The last thing she needed was for the two of them to go blow for blow.

  “I’m going to enjoy watching them lock your ass up and throw away the key. Think you’re a tough guy now? Just wait until then.”

  “Stop it!”

  The loud scream pierced the air. All eyes turned to the smallest, quietest person in the room. Nicole peered around Ice’s shoulder to see her mother move over to stand between the two men.

  “I’ve had it. Do you not see what you’re doing to your daughter? I’ve seen enough, Patrick. You bully everyone, and this time you have taken it too far. Your daughter’s heart is torn. She loves this man and all you want to do is throw him in jail. Get over yourself.” She paused as she looked between the two grown men. “You may be a great lawyer, Pat, but you are a bad father and husband.”

  Nicole’s eyes widened in shock. She had never in all her life heard her mother talk that way to her father. Carina Phillips was always the shy, quiet mouse. Nicole had thought her mother had always preferred it that way. Her husband stared daggers at her. “Have you lost your damn mind?”

  Her mom straightened her back and lifted her chin. She was prepared to stand her ground against her husband of twenty years for the very first time. “I have not. I know you have, however. We only have one child, Patrick. Do you really want to ruin her life so she grows to hate us? I love our daughter…so I’m going to do what I wish someone would have done for me before I married a man like you.” She turned to her daughter offering her a soft smile. “If you love this man, I want you to go be happy with him.”