Shiver

by Brandy Schmitt

  Her breathing rapidly grew heavy and labored as she stared down at his mouth wishing she could feel it on her body. “What do you mean, unique? Do you mean like pain?”

  Her stomach flopped as she watched one corner of his mouth curl up in a grin. “Sometimes there’s pain. But it’s mostly about the exchange of control. My kind of fucking isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s not for an innocent girl like you.”

  His accent thickened again. She was beginning to notice that his voice slid deeper into that honey-sweet accent the closer their bodies got to each other. The sound forced her ovaries into overdrive. “Maybe I’m not as innocent as you think I am,” She whispered.

  He smiled with a mix of lust and eagerness causing a tremble in her stomach. “Oh, I think you are, sweet little Nicole. There are things I like to do that would make this beautiful face cringe.”

  She stiffened her back, knowing she couldn’t hide her burning face. “Try me.”

  He smiled at the challenge. His hands moved up the outside of her thighs as he leaned toward her. “Little one, be careful what you wish for.”

  She stiffened her back, raising her chin a notch higher as she looked into his face. She was tired of everyone thinking she couldn’t handle herself. “What I wish is for you to show me what all the fuss is about.”

  He stared into her eyes for a long intense moment. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for two co-workers to get involved.”

  Her head fell a little to the side. “Really? Is that why all the other girls talk about how big your di…talk about you all the time?”

  Her failure to say the word brought a smile to his face. “First of all, I never fucked all those girls. Half of them are liars, and for another, you want me to believe that you can play in the big girl leagues, but you can’t even say the word dick?”

  “I can say it. I’m not afraid. It’s only a word.”

  “All right then convince me. Say it. But don’t stop there. I want to hear all your naughty thoughts on your lips.”

  Her back stiffened at his challenge. He moved in closer until his steel-hard abs pressed against her bent knees. All it would take is a tiny movement of her legs to let her knees fall apart and welcome him between her thighs. Then she could feel him against her core.

  “This is ridiculous. Fine. Dick. Happy?”

  “Very much. Now keep going. That’s only one word. You said you could handle it?”

  She could handle it. She needed to show him she could handle him. If he wanted to hear her name off all the dirty, crude words she knew, well, he asked for it. “Fine. Dick. Ass. Fuck…What are you laughing at?”

  His lips were curled into a gorgeous smile that reached deep inside his eyes. “I don’t want a vocabulary lesson, sweetheart. I mean talk dirty to me. Tell me what it is you want from me.” He leaned his massive body into hers, urging her knees to finally fell to the sides, letting his torso slip into and press against the core of her heat. She felt the hardness of his chest against her breasts. The sensation forcing her to lock her fingers around the edge of the countertop to stop herself from moving her hands to the front of his shirt. The smell of his aftershave staked a claim on her senses, and she damn near rolled her eyes from the pleasure.

  His smooth fingers caressed along the edge of her cheek and jawline down to her chin. “Can you do that little one? Can you talk dirty for me?” His thick accent dripped Irish tones. Talk to him? Yes, she could talk to him if it kept him close and kept him touching her.

  “I-I’m not sure what to say.” Her eyes drifted closed as his face moved toward her bare neck.

  Running his nose along the skin above her throbbing pulse at the base of her throat, he inhaled deeply, allowing her scent to enter him but his mouth didn’t touch her. “I want to hear all the dirty details of what you fantasize about? Who do you imagine doing these things to you? I want every detail.”

  “Is this what you ask all the girls to do?”

  As if someone had tossed a bucket of ice water over them, Ice quickly pulled away so he could look down in her eyes. “Like I said, you are too much an innocent for me. I should have never asked this from you.” He began to pull away from between her legs.

  She didn’t want to lose him. If she let him leave her now, she was going to lose him for good. Her hands reached out circling his waist, stopping him from pulling away. She spoke the first thing that came to her mind. “I fantasize about you fucking me.”

  That got his attention. “Nikki…?”

  “You asked if I could do it and I can. Please, give me a minute. I’m not used to describing my thoughts out loud and letting someone know what I’m thinking.”

  He nestled back into the warm cocoon between her thighs, but his hands remained at his sides. She swallowed a lump of fear and began. “There are times when I’m on stage dancing that I pretend I’m dancing for you. I pretend you’re sitting in the chair and I dance around you, hoping to get close enough that you can smell how badly I need you. I rub my breasts against your back because I know I’ll love the feel of the strong muscles flinching under the gentle rub of my hardened nipples.

  “Your chest will rise and fall as I work my hands over your shoulders and across the hardness of your sweat-kissed chest. Then, I’ll move to your lap, where I’ll sit across your thighs feeling the hardness of your cock rub along the bare skin of my ass. Arching my back, I’ll lean back into you, letting those massive hands circle around me, grabbing onto my breasts to roll my nipples between those gentle fingers.”

  “Fuck. Nikki…?” Her breathless name fell from his lips. She opened her eyes and peered into the face inches away. His eyes were closed, and his breathing labored. Dropping her gaze down the front of his body, she noticed just how much he enjoyed hearing her truth. The massive bulge at the center of his groin pressed tightly against the seam of his jeans begging to be released.

  “Do you want me to stop?” She prayed he didn’t. She wanted to get under his skin and make him want her as much as she wanted him.

  “No.” That one word was all the encouragement she needed.

  “My back is against this hard chest.”

  She continued with her story as she moved her hands up to brush against his body. His eyes drift closed. Her gaze remained on his face, feeling safe enough to be allowed the freedom to touch him.

  “Your hands drop low to my lap and you run your fingers along the soft, smooth skin on the inside of my thighs. You can feel the heat escaping from the front of my moist G-string. That small piece of fabric is all that stops your fingers from exploring my aching body. I want you to explore. I want to know what it will feel like to have these thick fingers inside me, fucking me.”

  “Enough!” Ice snapped his eyes open, locking his gaze down on hers. Raging lust overtook the beautiful blue, turning them darker. The man was two hundred pounds of muscle and raging hard-on, and he was standing between her legs.

  “Sorry. Did I get too intense for you?”

  “Do you truly think about those things when you dance or are you teasing trying to get me to pop the hardest wood of my life?” His voice deep and low, forcing her groin to clinch tight with want.

  “That’s what I think about.”

  “Every time you take the stage, I’m going to know it’s me you’re thinking of. I think I like knowing that I’m the one you’re fantasizing about.”

  “Did I pass your test? Do you think I have what it takes to play with the big boys?”

  His hands shot out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her body closer and tighter to his. His cock pressed into her stomach. Her mouth watered with the thought of taking such a massive muscle between her lips.

  Before she had a chance to suggest the idea, his lips came down on hers, eating away at her like she was the last meal to a dying man. His thick tongue invaded her mouth, dominating hers. He took whatever he wanted, and she happily let him.

  He held her face in the palm of his hands. There was no escaping the powerful for
ce of his tongue. He consumed her mouth, sucking her bottom lip between his before nibbling softly on the plush little pillow. Slowly, he pulled away but not before he took her bottom lip once again between his own and suckled it into his warm mouth. “I love the taste of you. I can’t help but wonder if you taste this good everywhere.”

  He finally succeeding in pulling away from her. “But that will have to wait for another time, little one.” He kept his hold on her waist as he picked her up off the counter and set her on her feet in front of him. Just like that, he could turn his lust off and on?

  “If you will excuse me, little one, I need to go take the coldest shower in my life and rub one out.”

  “Are you kidding right now?” Surprised he could be so open about masturbation. Not that she minded the mental image of him stroking himself. She could store those thoughts away for her own private moments. But here she was, right in front of him, giving herself over to him, and he would rather touch himself in the shower?

  “What? I’m sorry, little one, but I’m in pain here, and you got rid of my date leaving me to take care of this on my own.”

  He still wasn’t going to sleep with her? After all that? “What’s wrong with me? I thought I passed your little test?”

  “Look, I don’t want to hurt you. I’m growing fond of you, and you getting hurt is the last thing I want to happen. You’re a relationship kind of girl and that’s something I can’t have in my life right now. Fighting has to take front seat to everything in my life, and that includes everyone. I’m sorry.”

  Hurt and humiliated for all the stupid things she had told him moments ago, her heart dove into the acidic pit of her stomach. She wouldn’t allow herself to leave this room the loser he probably thought she was. She was a fighter too, and she would hold her head high. Not showing her true emotions was the one thing her father taught her well.

  Forcing her mouth into a smile, she refused to show him how much his words hurt her. “Maybe I’m not looking for a relationship either. You know, I recently got out of a pretty serious one. Barely escaped marriage.” Her nervous laugh made her and Mark’s broken relationship seem like such a light subject.

  “I guess what I’m saying is, I left that guy because he wanted too much from me. I’m not stupid enough to get that involved again…at least not this soon. So don’t go overthinking things, buddy.” She walked out of his grip and headed toward the door. A few more steps and she would be tucked away safely inside her own apartment. She needed to wait until then before she let herself have the breakdown her mind demanded.

  “Nicole?”

  She raised a hand in mid-air, stopping him from saying another word. She forced the biggest smile she could fake onto her lips “Nope. You and I are good.” She didn’t want to hear the pity in his voice.

  “I’ll see you later.” She let herself out into the hall and quickly ducked behind her own door, swinging it closed before she pressed her back against it. She needed to set her mind straight about what men in the future were going to mean to her. She needed to work on hardening her outer shell, because the last thing she needed right now was another broken heart.

  Chapter Six

  Fuck! Why did he have to be such an asshole? Or better yet, why did he have to be an asshole to her? The fact that Nicole was quickly growing on him pissed him off even more.

  She was probably in her apartment right now cussing him out with every foul word she had stored in her vocabulary. Or maybe she was over there crying because he had hurt her feelings.

  The second the look of hurt crossed her face, he knew he had caused it. Could he blame her from walking away from him? The girl all but threw herself at him, telling him all the things he had asked to hear, and he turned her down and sent her on her way out the door. In that moment, he felt sending her away had been the right thing to do so he wouldn’t fuck her, hard, on the countertop. But now that he had rejected her, he wasn’t so sure he had done the right thing.

  Nicole felt too far out of his league. He was a nothing, a nobody from the streets, and she was a silver-spoon goddess who came from a shitload of money. She was an innocent in so many different ways. The two of them couldn’t be any more different.

  Although, he had to admit, he found it incredibly fucking hot the way she had tried, and succeeded, to turn him on with her words. When he had demanded that she tell him all her dirty little thoughts, he had hoped she would shy away and turn a hundred different lovely shades of red. He hadn’t expected her to open that beautiful, fuckable mouth and tell him all the naughty little things she really thought about.

  And to think they were all about him. He had been shocked by her confession, and he reacted badly. So fucking badly.

  He wasn’t sure what her backstory was besides she was hiding away from something. What he didn’t know was why.

  He needed to take his own advice and stay away from her. But that was going to be near impossible with her living ten feet away from him.

  Did she truly feel that way about him? Could a beautiful woman such as her really be interested in a street fighter like him? Or maybe she wanted what the rest of the female population wanted from him—his cock.

  Nicole didn’t seem like the type to show any interest in him just to become another notch on his fuck post. When he first jumped on the circuit, it had taken him by surprise the amount of women who followed the fighters and how many threw their bodies around like trophies. It had never bothered him before, but a ball of bile crawled up his throat at the thought of Nicole doing the same thing.

  It was only seven in the evening, and he and Nicole were both off tonight. It was past time he laid all the cards on the table with her. It was time for all these mind games to stop.

  Grabbing his keys from the table next to the door, he turned the lock and pulled his front door closed before making his way across the hall. Raising his hand, he knocked once then twice against her door. He brought his fist up for a third time when he heard her voice through the wood panels. “What?”

  “Nicole? Open the door, I need to talk to you.” He needed this to work. He couldn’t keep letting this girl get to him. He had the fight of his life coming up in a few weeks, and he sure as hell couldn’t afford any distractions, and she was proving to be a big one.

  Even through the thickness of the door, he could hear her heavy sigh as she thought about not opening for him. He had to make sure she knew how serious this is for him.

  “I should warn you, Nicole, that if you don’t open this door, I have a key and once I use it and get inside, I will pull you across my knee and paddle your little ass for forcing me to commit breaking and entering.”

  He heard a soft curse from behind the door before the lock clicked and the door swung open.

  “What the hell, Ice? You wanted me out of your apartment. I left. You followed me. That’s not how this works.” Her eyes were red rimmed. He could tell by looking at her she had been crying, but what puzzled him was why? Him turning her away like he did couldn’t have affected her that much?

  “I think the two of us need to have a little talk. No more bullshit. Let’s go grab some food, a beer and talk? Just talk. What do you say?”

  He held his breath waiting for her reply. Why her response mattered so much he didn’t know. Whether she agreed to talk or told him to go fuck himself, he shouldn’t care this much one way or the other. He didn’t want her to walk away thinking the worse about him.

  “You want to talk? No more bullshit?”

  “No bullshit. I know this great place around the corner. Let’s get some food. Let me buy you a beer, and we will talk and maybe get to know each other for real this time.”

  Nicole grabbed her purse from the floor before walking past him. He followed her down the stairs, out the main door and into the warm, summer-night air. He moved across the busy street, glancing over his shoulder, making sure she followed him. Unlocking the doors of his silver pickup, he thought about opening the door for her. That would have been ge
ntlemanly of him to do so, but this wasn’t a date and he sure as shit wasn’t a gentleman. It was two friends having pizza and a beer. He couldn’t let it be anything more than that.

  Thinking about what happened only minutes ago upstairs had him terrified that it could easily happen again. Nicole had the unnatural ability of making him feel too comfortable when he was around her. It had been years since he felt comfortable.

  It took them only minutes to get down the few blocks to the place he wanted to take her. They could have easily walked, but walking would have taken more time and he needed that beer, badly. Her closeness drove him crazy.

  “Is this really where we’re eating?”

  He looked over at her little, turned-up nose and grinned at the glimpse of the snob side of her. “Are you too good to eat at a joint like this?”

  “Not at all. It’s just been a long time since I have. Being a dancer, I have to be pretty picky about the foods I eat. I’m actually dying to have some pizza.”

  Ice led them into the small pizza parlor and over to a small booth for two toward the back of the room. The waitress brought them menus and took their drink order before leaving them alone again. Ice glanced down at the menu, but he already knew what he wanted. “Let’s start by being friends, shall we?” he said leveling his gaze at her.

  “Sure.”

  “Time to come clean, sweetheart. What in the hell are you running from?” His question took her by surprise.

  “I’m not running from anything. What makes you think I’m running from something?”

  He hoped she picked up on the warning he was aiming for with his glare. He never wanted her to lie to him again. She was hiding something from him, and he was damn sure going to find out what it was.

  “You said you were trained in ballroom dancing. Let’s start there.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Why were you trained in ballroom dancing but you’re not a professional dancer?”