Black Ice: A Standalone Enemies to Lovers Romance

by Mickey Miller

  Part of me wanted to park right next to Shane and confront him right in the parking lot, but I had to see this through to the end. Was this his kid, and he was taking him to practice?

  I watched as he walked to the doors with a giant bag of gear. Once he was safely inside, I got out and went in myself.

  I felt hands wrap around my waist the moment I stepped inside. My adrenaline pumped as the man guided me into a bathroom in the otherwise empty lobby and locked the door.

  Glancing up, I saw Shane, and my heart started to throb. A mix of relief and nervousness that I’d been caught rolled through me.

  “You just felt the need to follow me on my route to hockey practice?” He shook his head. “Did you really think I wouldn’t see you in the rear view mirror the whole way?”

  A surge of adrenaline poured through me, and I straightened my back, reminding myself of the self-resolve I’d promised myself not one hour ago in my father’s house to get to the bottom of this.

  “Why wouldn’t you tell me where you were going? Why were you being so shady?”

  He blew out a deep breath, sounding frustrated. “Why do you need to know what I’m doing every single second of the day?”

  Holding my nerve, I approached him and grabbed his wrist. “Who’s the woman?”

  “Are you fucking serious?”

  “Is he your son?”

  “What. The fuck. Are you talking about?”

  “The woman I saw you with on Old Copper Mine Road.”

  “You mean the druggie whose son I pick up because she doesn’t have the mental fortitude to bring her son to practice most days?”

  “I heard, though, she invited you in…”

  “I knew you were crazy, but you’ve got to be kidding me here.”

  “I just want to know what’s going on with you. You won’t tell me anything! It’s like I’m talking to a brick wall or something!” I pleaded.

  Even so, I felt my resolve weakening. I’d been oh so wrong.

  What was I even thinking, following him like this? This wasn’t like me.

  “We’ll talk tonight,” he said. “But you owe me.”

  “Owe you? How so?”

  Moving toward me, his hand trailed down my stomach to my hips. “The key is under the mat at my house. Head back to my place, and have dinner ready for me when I get home. And I want you to be wearing something sexy. If you look this hot when you are just in your loungewear, I want to see you all dressed up.”

  Need flared through me.

  I had never in a million years expected him to be as direct as this.

  I took a shallow breath as he fisted up a ball of my hair, pulled my head back gently, and kissed me forcefully on the neck, causing an electric chill to fire through my body.

  “You’re asking me to be your…little stay at home hook-up tonight? So I’m your little wifey who makes dinner for you?”

  “All I’m asking you to do is to heat up the chili. And stay the fuck off the roads tonight because they’re saying twenty-nine inches of snow. The something sexy, well, Florida, that’s just for me and the trouble you’ve been putting me through.”

  I averted my eyes, looking down, not sure what to say. At the end of the day I had no reason not to trust him. And I couldn’t deny that I wanted him. I wondered if those thoughts he had mentioned started with me wearing something sexy.

  “Got it?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “I don’t know if I have anything sexy.”

  “You’ll find something. I’ll be home after I’m done coaching the team.”

  He unlocked the door, smirking.

  “Oh and Natalie,” he said, still blocking the door.

  “Yes?”

  Leaning in, he whispered. “Make sure it’s something that’s easily torn off.”

  12

  Natalie

  AS I HEADED BACK to Shane’s house, Christmas music played on the radio even though it had passed. My cheeks burned.

  It wasn’t like me to actually stalk someone like that. But after a day of going through my father’s things and trying to have a serious conversation with my mother, I was on edge.

  I reminded myself, I hadn’t conjured the shady vibe I’d been getting from Shane out of nowhere.

  Now, my mind was going a mile-a-minute, racing with thoughts of our chemistry and the fact that he had given me an order to get dressed up in something sexy.

  What would he do if I didn’t play his little game? Why did he want to play it when he’d been acting standoffish, abruptly ending two make out sessions just as they were getting hot and heavy?

  I wasn’t crazy; Shane was acting more than strange. He had a reluctance to talk about certain topics, and something about his word and actions set off alarm bells inside me. I understood why he might not want to chat about his father or Louisa’s death. But I felt him hiding something else too and I wanted to know what that was.

  I had to dig under a few inches of fluffy snow with my bare hand and feel around before I found the mat and the key. As I went inside his home, I found myself pondering what could be in that room he refused to show me. The best guess I’d come up with was that they’d kept it just like Louisa’s room without moving her stuff. This was similar to how my father had refused to tamper with my room in the slightest after I left. Like dismantling the room would mean they are gone for good.

  Resting on his mother’s bed, I pulled out my phone and I pored over our conversation. From the beginning he’d been quite cocky, and sure, with reason.

  The selfie reminded me he had a reason to be cocky.

  After reading for a little while to relax, I took a nice hot shower.

  I looked through my clothes to see if I had anything even remotely sexy. I didn’t want to wear any of the fancy clothes I’d used for the funeral, so all of the black pieces were out. Those were on the more conservative side, though.

  On top, I found my go-to pair of red flannel pajamas. The opposite of sexy.

  Then, folded up in the corner of my suitcase, I smiled when I saw it.

  My heart actually palpated as I pulled the red dress out.

  For some reason, I’d tossed it into my bag before I left Florida, then it found its way into my suitcase that I brought here. It was the dress I normally only wore when I was cocktail waitressing, since it got me the most tips. A tube top dress, I liked to call it my ‘almost’ skanky outfit. If I had bigger boobs, the outfit wouldn’t be able to contain them. But since mine were smallish, the dress helped squeeze together just the perfect amount of tempting cleavage.

  My lips quirked in a small smile when I put it on, and I declared I would go full make-up tonight. So Shane likes to play hot and cold games?

  I would show him I could play, too. I was going to embrace my role tonight as his little plaything.

  I straightened my hair, put on maybe a little too much makeup, and smiled at myself in the mirror. I looked like I was ready to go out to the clubs in Miami as opposed to what I was actually going to do: heat up some chili and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

  I chuckled at that. Less than a week in my small town and here I was, playing housewife.

  I took a few sexy selfies in the mirror for fun after finishing my makeup, some more provocative than others. Maybe they’d come in useful in the future.

  On my way down the hall, I tried Louisa’s door, and it was still locked. My eyes naturally drifted next into Shane’s room, and my natural curiosity drew me inside. On his desk, I saw the envelope he’d snatched out of my hand yesterday, now empty. It was nosy, and I couldn’t help reading the letter that was face up on his desk:

  Shane North - Offer to Play for the Chicago Huskies

  I skimmed the rest, and my heart did a tumble as I read some of it. He hadn’t mentioned this to me at all. Was he really being recruited to play professional hockey? Yet he was ‘happy’ here in Black Mountain?

  I sighed.

  What a great mystery of a man.

  I walked aro
und his room, scanning it for clues about him, or about Louisa. I felt a little guilty but curiosity about my old friend was overriding my guilt.

  To the right of his desk, my eyes landed on a photo collage of he and Louisa.

  As I glanced over the photos, it struck me as a little odd that he had no pictures of the two of them from high school. Almost all of the pictures were from grade school. I even saw myself in a couple of the pictures, and noted that I had taken the picture on his bedside of the two of them.

  Looking at a photo album, I flipped to the end and saw some pictures of him playing hockey in college. The man might not be emotionally vulnerable, but he looked so rugged and handsome in all of his pictures that it sent a chill down my spine knowing I was truly staying with him here.

  Tonight.

  All alone.

  And I’d be wearing something sexy for him.

  As I thumbed through some more of them, it dawned on me that what I was looking for: a picture of him with a girl. To my surprise I couldn’t find a single one. Just photos of him and the guys.

  I turned and stared at his bed which was neatly made, and it smelled like him--a manly, woodsy scent. If a company could bottle this up they’d make a million dollars overnight.

  I laid down in his bed, trying to immerse myself a little more in his world. In theatre, if I wanted to do an amazing job of acting, I would read the books that person read, try to visualize the space they lived in and how they would react to different stimuli. I would try to become them. Like when I played Ernest Hemingway’s second wife in last semester’s play adaptation, and I went out to the Keys for a weekend, just pretending I was her.

  I would never be Shane North in a play, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to know how his mind worked.

  What do you think about, Shane North? I asked myself, relaxing on top of his covers. What’s on your mind when you don’t answer my questions?

  He was a man of contradictions, that was for sure. Sometimes he seemed too soft-spoken to me for such a secure man. Maybe that was the point. Since he knew who he was, he didn’t have to raise his voice. Like my father, who almost never raised his voice.

  When he did--you knew he had a reason to and wasn’t just yelling because he felt powerless--like my college boyfriend.

  I shuddered thinking about one of my previous ‘relationships.’ I couldn’t quite call it a real relationship, since I was apparently the only one who was under the impression we had to stay faithful to each other. He’d raise his voice way too often, although I only knew that in retrospect, once I went on dates with other guys.

  I couldn’t believe what my ex had said to me in anger after we broke up.

  Well you weren’t giving me everything I needed, so I had to go and find it somewhere else while I was waiting for you.

  I was glad I hadn’t lost my virginity to him--I would have regretted that.

  Easing my body back on the pillow, I felt my short dress riding up my legs.

  I was turning twenty-two next month, and I was still a virgin. At what age did it get weird to have no sexual experience beyond third base?

  I had no trouble getting off. Pleasure, or sexual hang-ups weren’t the issue.

  I just hadn’t found a guy I trusted enough not to be doing something shady behind my back after my last love interest, who I’m pretty sure just had this weird obsession with taking my V-card like it was some kind of trophy. Thank God Lizzie saw him with some other girl right before he came to hang out with me one night and sent me picture proof.

  I leaned back onto Shane’s pillow, and when I inhaled his scent I felt heat build between my legs. My heart fluttered just imagining Shane’s mouth on my neck, just like he’d kissed me in the sportsplex.

  He had this ability to be both ferocious and gentle at once, like he had this streak of wild in him that he knew he had to control.

  Wild Man.

  I giggled thinking of his old nickname.

  As I slid a finger up my legs to my mound, I imagined it was his. Playing with my clit, my chest ached and I could feel the heat growing stronger in my core.

  Forcing heavy breaths in and out, I closed my eyes and just let myself go, imagining what it would be like with him.

  He’d play with my clit gently at first, pressing his finger into the perfect spot.

  My hips tightened, and I bridged my hips upward.

  What would he want to do?

  He’d tease me, stop and watch me throb for a few moments, then he’d take off his boxers and kneel next to me, letting me slide a hand down his abs until it landed on the base of his cock.

  Get inside me already, dammit.

  I didn’t want to be a virgin in my fantasy. I wanted to be eager and comfortable with him and know what I was doing. I didn’t want him to think he had to go gentle, I wanted him to fuck me and take me just like he wanted.

  I slid my panties partway down my legs, like a messy, rushed hookup. My head started to get light and a little dizzy. Exhaling a hard breath, I felt the excitement rushing all under my skin. I drove my shoulder blades into the blanket and lifted my hips up further.

  Pressing harder with my finger into my clit, I felt a wave of pleasure wash over me. I writhed and slid kicked my panties completely off and onto the floor.

  How would he want to take me? I wondered.

  Eyes. He’d want to see my eyes the first time.

  Crooking a finger inside, I imagined the weight of his body pressed on top of me. I let out a soft moan and, when I imagined his clear blue eyes staring at me from one inch away, my orgasm ripped through me.

  I came so hard my body convulsed, my limbs became spaghetti-like, and my mind turned to mush.

  As I stared up at the ceiling in my post orgasmic haze, I felt dazed and confused. I’d never come that fast thinking of a man I knew, and certainly not of a man who I’d kissed.

  My fantasies had been relegated to celebrities and romance novels before Shane.

  My thoughts were interrupted when I heard footsteps on the stairs and my insides flipped as I sat up.

  Holy shit he cannot see me in here.

  My heart beating like mad, I jumped up and pulled my skirt down. I could already hear his feet hitting the second to last step before the floor changed to shag carpet again. If I ran into the hall, he’d see me for sure, and would know I’d been snooping in his room.

  So I did the logical thing. I grabbed my phone where I had set it on the nightstand, ran into his bathroom, jumped behind the shower curtain, and hid.

  Two seconds later, I had the thought that I could have just closed the door to his bathroom and pretended mine was broken, or made up some lie.

  It was too late for that now.

  I heard him call my name in his room, then he walked into the bathroom and turned on the light, sniffing. “What the...? Why does it smell like sex in here?” I held my breath and didn’t make a sound.

  I felt something like a punch in the gut when I remembered what I forgot to pick up before I dashed into his shower.

  My panties.

  13

  Shane

  THIS WAS the second practice in a row that she’d somehow managed to invade my sacred space, the hockey rink.

  The first time had been my fault. I’d let myself keep flashing back to thoughts of how stunning she looked with her sandy blond hair done up, wearing short shorts and a tight tank top.

  But this one was her fault.

  Why did she feel entitled to tail me to practice? Why did she have to know every single damn move I made?

  Not to mention the fact that I was beginning to think Natalie had a definite crazy streak. I tried to, but I couldn’t fully blame her for it. Apparently cheating assholes messed with people’s minds pretty bad. As someone who’d been cheated on in the past, I knew.

  I parked in my garage, happy to be out of the snow with how thick the flakes were beginning to fall. They’d been saying this could be the worst storm this winter. I stomped my feet before I
headed inside, and my mouth spread into a smile as I thought about Natalie wearing something sexy for me. Did she perhaps have a sexy Mrs. Claus outfit in that bag of tricks of hers?

  At college, I had gotten pretty good at sizing girls up. I could just look at them and know if they were sexually experienced or not. It was in the eyes. It was in the walk. It was in the way they talked.

  But above all, it was in the eyes.

  With Natalie, though, I couldn’t tell if she was totally inexperienced, or a one-night stand veteran.

  Tonight, I was going to find out.

  We were getting snowed in by an act of God. Twenty-nine inches--if it came true--meant that tomorrow we wouldn’t even be able to drive anywhere. Hell, we’d be lucky to walk down the street. I would have to shovel just to get to the sidewalk. And with the way snow drifted, we might have three feet or more piled up at our doorstep.

  I felt good that the snow would keep Jared and Bob at bay for at least a couple more nights. They talked a big game but were shit at follow through. Good, because I wanted no part in whatever silly revenge they were still thinking about. My mind was only on Natalie.

  I’d blown my top at her in the sportsplex when I knew it was her following me all that way. That was totally unacceptable.

  So I told her to wear something sexy. I would have my revenge on her tonight.

  I was going kiss her until she turned to butter, then spank her naughty ass until it burned pink. Maybe then I would finally get through to her.

  Ah, yes, this was going to be a fun experience for Florida.

  Pushing the door open, I was a little surprised when I didn’t smell any chili heating, or see plates out with peanut butter and jelly.

  I took the pot out of the refrigerator, turned the stove on the lowest setting before I glanced outside.

  Her car was in front of the house. Had she gone for a walk?

  A pit formed in my stomach, and I thought about what Jared and Bob had said today at work this morning.