“Something smells good in here.” Ice announced walking through his front door.
“I hope you don’t mind, I let myself in to use your grill. I thought you might want some red meat after your work out today. Plus, we both have the closing shift tonight so an early dinner probably won’t hurt.”
Ice dropped his bag on the floor by the table as he gazed over the place settings and the food she had cooked for them. Giving him a smile, she took a seat at the table. When he didn’t move to join her, she gazed up at him, only to notice a dark frown on his face.
“What’s the matter? You do eat steak right? I mean, I see you order them all the time downstairs.”
He braced his hands at the top of one of the chairs curling his fingers around the edge. “What is this, Nicole?” His tone held a hard coldness.
What had she done now? Looking down at the plates, she didn’t understand his anger. “I-I don’t know what you mean? I thought you might be hungry.”
His gaze snapped over to hers. “This all seems a little too…domesticated to me. You know this…thing between us isn’t a relationship, right?” His words felt like a fist to the stomach.
She leaned forward slightly as if she could actually feel the punch in her gut from the blow. The hurt wasn’t that he didn’t want a relationship with her; it was that he kept throwing it back into her face. She wasn’t sure how to respond. The back of her eyes burned, and she willed the tears away. She’d promised herself to never let a man control her emotions again. Her father and Mark had tried, and she would never give the reins over again.
She blinked her lashes a few times to keep the tears from falling down her cheeks and stared back to the food. Forcing a smile to her face, she shook her head. “Can’t a friend make another friend dinner? I mean, don’t go reading too far into this. Like I told you before, I just got out of a relationship, and I’m not about to start another one.”
Her heart was exploding in her chest, and her pulse pounded in her neck to the point she could choke on it. She had seriously misunderstood all his signals the last few days. He did only want her as a fuck buddy. She stiffened in her chair. She would never let her pride drop or let him see how much the truth hurt her.
“Fuck!” Ice slammed his palms down on the back of the chair.
She needed to get out of here. “Look. I meant nothing by cooking this. It’s fine, don’t eat it…I mean…do whatever.” She pushed away from the table and got to her feet.
“God damn it.” He swore, hanging his head between his shoulders. He looked as if he too were battling with inner demons, but she wasn’t about to stick around for the outcome. With her own anger rising to her boiling point, she needed to get away from him now before words crossed her lips that she didn’t want him to hear. Turning away from the table, she made it a few feet toward the door before he stopped her.
“Damn it. I’m a shit. I didn’t mean it like that.”
She didn’t stop walking “Yes, you did. Don’t tell me you didn’t. That’s the chicken shit way out, Ice. You don’t owe me a thing.” She nearly made it to his door before his fingers grabbed her wrist and yanked her back to look at him.
“What did you just say?” His eyes burned into her as if he were her superior.
That look enraged her all the more. There was no way she was backing down now. “I called you a chicken shit. You know, being a little pussy.” She watched his eyes grow wide, and she thought for a second about taking the words back…almost.
“Is that what you think of me? You think me to be a pussy?”
She pulled her wrist out of his grip and thrust her hands to her hips. “I think you are acting like a pussy. Just tell me what the hell you want from me? You want me to go? I’ll go. You have made yourself perfectly clear that you don’t want a relationship with me, so why am I here?”
“Do you want a relationship with me?” His question threw her off guard.
As much as she would love to embrace the idea, she wasn’t going to give him anything else to hold over her head. “Of course not. I already told you I escaped one proposal. I’m not going to run into another.”
He arched a thin eyebrow at her denial. “What do you want from me, Nicole?” His voice dropped to softer tones, and the anger that was there a moment ago began to slip away.
“I thought we were having a good time together. You’re the one reading more into me cooking food for you than there needs to be. It’s only food, not some ploy to trap you.”
She watched as his blue eyes searched her face for signs that would confirm she was lying. He would never find a trace that she was lying through her teeth, and her heart broke the second he turned on her. Her father taught her to mask her emotions before others could use them against you.
She closed the distance to the door, but before she reached the handle, his hand come out from behind her and covered her fingers, stopping her from leaving.
“Nikki?” Her name whispered softly next to her ear. He leaned close enough so that his breath tickled across her cheek. Her eyes drifted close when she felt his lips drop to the side of her neck. She needed to fight this. She needed to get out the door and to her own apartment. Maybe they needed a breather from each other.
“Nikki?” This time her name sounded like a moan as his mouth opened against the skin at her neck. His tongue drew circles over her tender flesh below her ear.
She tightened her grip on the door knob, willing herself not to let it go.
His hand fell away from hers at the door and moved up to her chin, turning her face to his, allowing his mouth to meet the corner of her lips. “Nicole?”
He was asking her for something she wasn’t sure she should give again, even though every fiber of her being wanted to give it to him. She wanted to give herself to him, but the fear of getting her heart crushed when he finally walked away, stopped her.
His fingers turned her face up to his, and he crushed her lips under his. His mouth tore at hers, hungrily nipping and sucking, trying to consume her as if she were one of the steaks.
“Nicole?” He repeated her name.
Did he want permission to take what they both wanted him to have? Her heart and mind played tug-a-war with her emotions. Her mind told her to turn the knob and flee his space, but her heart told her to surrender to him. To let him make her forget that this could never be real.
“Baby girl?” She loved it when he called her that. She loved all the pet names he had for her. She also liked the fact that she never heard him call any of the other girls by a cute little name, making her feel special and different from the others he had in his past.
Hoping it doesn’t come back to haunt her later, she dropped her hand away from the door, turned and throw her arms around his neck dragging him deeper into the kiss.
Ice bent down at his knees, wrapping his arms under her ass and lifted her body to his, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist. Being a few inches above him, she had the advantage of looking down at him. Grabbing ahold of his face with her hands, she took over the control of the kiss. She felt movement under her but paid no attention to where he was taking her, although she had a good idea where they were going to end up.
Less than a minute later, Ice slid her down the front of his body until her knees touched the plush softness of his bed. Not wasting any time, she quickly tore her shirt over her head as she watched him do the same. Her skirt and his pants were the next to meet on the floor. She hadn’t put panties on this afternoon when she had taken a shower and gotten dressed. She had hoped to surprise him with a little messing around before their shifts started.
Her fingers moved to the hook between her breasts as she watched his hand move to the band of his underwear, pushing them down over his thighs. His cock sprang forward, hard and eager. Her body throbbed at the thought of sucking him deep inside her mouth. Her moist tongue darted out to wet her lips as her hand drifted down the front of her body allowing a single fingertip to brush against her pulsing clit. He
r own body as hard and ready as his. The soft brush over her sensitive nerves brought a moan from deep inside her throat.
At the sound, he reached for her wrist and pulled her hand away from her pussy. “Someone’s a little eager. That’s mine, and no one touches it until I say so. Tell me who this body belongs to.”
Her eyes darted up to his. “It belongs to you.” She ran the finger she had touched herself with over his bottom lip before pushing it inside the warmth of his mouth.
Ice sucked the juices from her finger, never removing his eyes from hers. “Someone’s trying to be a tease. I think a little discipline might be in order. Lie on your back and hang your head slightly off the bed.”
She jumped to do his bidding. Lying back across the mattress, she inched closer to the side until her neck rested on the edge and she had a view of his cock. He closed the distance between them, taking his cock in his hand. He wiped the pad of his thumb over the tip; his finger came away with a pearl size drop of cum. “Open that pretty little mouth and stick out your tongue.” As she did, he slid his thumb over her tongue, wiping his juices over it.
“You like the taste of that?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good. Open those lips wider this time. I want you to suck my cock as far in as you can.” With his cock in hand, he guided the tip to the opening of her mouth, gently brushing it back and forth before dipping inside her wetness.
She closed her mouth around his width as best she could.
Pulling away from her until the tip was all that remained, he paused for a second before pushing back in sinking lower and deeper with each thrust. “Doing okay, little one?”
She couldn’t respond with her mouth full of him so she moaned and nodded the best she could. He pulled out slowly before thrusting back in once again. “I need you to relax your throat, baby. When I push in, I need you to try and swallow. That will open the pathway for me to slide in.” She moaned and nodded again wanting to comply.
Ice pushed fully back inside, and as she felt him hit the back of her throat she swallowed him down. It actually worked and didn’t even set off her gag reflex.
“Oh Christ, baby. You have no idea how good it feels when you do that.” His words spurred her to do all she could to please him. He pushed in and out of her, gaining a comfortable rhythm for both of them. His fingers found her nipples, toying with them by pinching and pulling until they stood high in the air aching for more attention.
“Fuck. You have me wanting to come already.” He pulled away from her mouth.
She didn’t want him to stop. She had never let a man come inside her mouth. Before him, the thought of letting a man do so turned her stomach, but the thought of letting Ice do it excited her.
She wrapped her arms around his waist, grabbing ahold of his naked ass and pulled him closer to her. Showing him without words that she wanted more. “Are you sure?” His voice cracked with lust. Her pussy pulsed just hearing the way she affected him.
Ice slid fully back in her mouth giving her what she asked for. Pump after pump, he drove deeper inside her throat, and she loved every inch. The closer he got to his release, the shorter and faster his thrusts became until hot liquid shot over her tongue to drizzle down her throat. She sucked harder at him, trying to drain every drop she could.
When the last of him spread over her tongue, he pulled out of her mouth but didn’t leave her side. He leaned forward over the top of her and using his hands he forced her thighs to fall wide open, allowing him to dive face first into her throbbing mound. She groaned against his hard stomach at the feel of his tongue attacking her clit. He took the whole thing in his mouth, sucking it hard and without mercy. Her orgasm surfaced and teetered close to the edge. She needed him to tell her to come. “Please. I need to come.”
“Fuck, baby girl. Come in my mouth.” His words sent her flying. She screamed his name, bucking her hips to ride his mouth. It was crazy that in such a short amount of time, she craved his command and responded to him.
Ice licked and purred over her until she floated back into her right mind. Kissing a trail over her stomach and between her breasts, he made sure to pay attention to each one, giving them both his undivided attention.
A soft ringing pierced the room, dragging an angry groan from him. She hoped it wasn’t work calling him in early. They still had a few hours before they were due downstairs, and she wanted as much time with him as she could.
Ice didn’t make a move to answer the phone. Instead he walked around the edge of the mattress pulling on her ankle until he brought her ass to the edge and with one swift movement he buried his cock inside her.
“Ice…” She remembered he wasn’t wearing a condom, and there had been days she had forgotten to take her pill. She needed to stop him. “Ice. I’m-I’m not on the pill,” she blurted out.
He stopped in mid pump. “I thought you said you were?”
“I am. I just don’t remember to take it all the time. I’m kind of forgetful.” She hoped she hadn’t ruined the mood. But instead of being angry and yelling, he simply pushed his way back into her damp cave as his gaze locked on hers. The heat in his eyes held her as his hands pushed her into the mattress. Soon she forgot all about the lack of a condom; she couldn’t move away from him if she wanted to. With their gazes firmly locked on each other, she barely heard the ringing of his phone again in the far distance. Ice never took his eyes from hers, and soon the sound was forgotten again.
Pumping faster and faster, his fingers crept in between their bodies to seek out her clit. Rubbing it over and over to send her over the edge. Pants came heavy from her chest as her breathing sped up. She heard a ringing in her ears but didn’t care enough to stop. The building could be on fire, and still she wasn’t leaving this apartment until they were both spent. With his fingers working her tiny nerves, and his bare cock pumping into her, she climbed to her limit and waited for his command.
“Aww, fuck. Are you ready, baby? We’re going to do this together.”
“Yes.” Her fingers moved over to his forearms and dug her nails into the skin there.
“Come.” At his words, Nicole tossed her head back, crying out his name as her body swallowed him inside her. As the waves left her, he quickly withdrew from her warmth, forcing the hot jets of cum to shot across her stomach and breasts.
His body fell forward over hers. He kissed her cheek then her lips before rolling his spent body to the side of hers.
The ringing started again. “Whoever that is, I’m going to murder them.” Ice jumped from the bed, grabbed his pants from the floor and pulled his phone from his pocket. Stabbing his finger at the screen, he answered. “What?”
Nicole watched his face grew serious before turning stone hard.
“How’s it going, Poe?” He went silent again and turned away from her and walked out into the hallway and into the bathroom.
She had heard the name Poe when Ice had told her a story about his past. For Poe to be calling him out of the blue—she hoped it was nothing serious. It was never a good thing when the past came back suddenly.
When he didn’t return right away, she grabbed her clothes from the floor and headed out to the kitchen sink to clean herself up before putting her clothes back on. She got fully dressed before he finally returned with a towel wrapped around his waist, no longer on the phone.
“Is everything okay?”
He nodded as he glanced around looking for his clothes. Grabbing them in his hands, he quickly dressed before turning back her way. “I’m going to be late to work tonight. I have to go pick Poe up. I hope he hasn’t gotten himself into too much trouble this time.”
Tiny hairs at the back of her neck stood up. She worried about him being around people from his past. “Are you going to be okay? I mean…is there something I can do?”
“Yeah. Call all the employees who are off tonight and see if anyone will cover my shift. I have a feeling I’m going to be longer then I want to be.”
She agreed bu
t couldn’t stop the worry from creeping in. “Ice? You don’t have to tell me what, you don’t have to tell me anything, but I’m going to ask anyway. Is where you’re going dangerous?”
The look in his eyes told her he first thought about lying to her, but he didn’t. She wished he had. “Yeah, it can be. Or at least it used to be, three years ago when I left it all behind me.”
Chapter Nine
“Thanks for picking me up, man. I mean it. Not a lot of people make it out of the ‘hood, and when they do, they sure as hell don’t go back for anything or anyone.” Poe nursed the beer in front of him.
Ice had gone back to his old part of town to pick Poe up. He still wasn’t sure what kind of trouble his old friend had gotten himself into but whatever the trouble, it must have been some rough shit if Poe was on his way out of town.
“Damn, look at you, man. I can’t believe you did it. You actually did become the fighter you wanted to be.”
Ice shook his head. “Not yet. The fight that will make or break my career is at the end of next week. That’s the big one all the sponsors are coming out for. Without getting picked up by one of them, I don’t have the money to invest in the big times.”
“Shit, you’ll get it. Those boys will be fighting’ over you, Irish son of a bitch. People from your country are real as fuck.”
Ice grinned and shook his head. Honesty was one thing Poe did have. He grew up on the streets and had been on his own since the age of twelve. A life that wasn’t too far off from his own. The only difference between Ice and Poe was the determination to make it out. Poe had the determination to make a name for himself on the streets.
“Holy fuck. These bitches are hot.” Poe groaned, looking toward the stage. Ice immediately glanced that way, letting out a relieved breath when he saw Bridgette on the stage and not Nicole. Even though men looked at Nicole every time she danced, he could only handle it when he didn’t know those men and they were nothing but customers. But to have a friend or even an old friend, for that matter, eye fuck his girl…it pissed him off. His girl? When did she become his girl? She was a friend. A friend who happened to be sharing his bed at the moment. That didn’t mean he could stake a claim to her.
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