Ice (Thor Book 2), page 11
“Shouldn’t Tobias be out of bed by now?”
The voice startled the dog, and he quickly disappeared out through the door I'd left partially open. I turned slowly to glare at the woman who had taken the open door as an invitation to walk into my small cabin without knocking. She owned the house, so she could, but it was rude, and the tone of her voice was a little condescending.
Her words also hit a nerve.
“That is none of your business,” I said through clenched teeth.
“You have to stop treating him like a baby,” she told me and raised one of her brows. “He also needs to get a grip on the situation and start fighting to get back on track.”
What in the ever-loving hell? Gee had been Toby’s grandmother for a very short time, and there she was, handing out unsolicited advice. She might have a point about what we both needed to do, though, but it was an uncomfortable one, so I promptly lost my temper
“Get the hell out of here,” I snapped.
Gee looked stunned, which for some reason pissed me off even more.
“I don’t –”
“Was I not clear?” I interrupted and moved toward her.
She backed out of the house and down the two steps.
“You should –”
The egg hit her straight in the chest.
She stopped talking, and the look in her eyes turned ice cold and ugly.
***
Ice
Reena disappeared into the cabin and damn if the dog who shied away from everyone didn't follow her.
“Jesus,” he muttered and wondered if he should walk in there to give her a hand.
And perhaps shoot the animal if it snapped and suddenly attacked her.
“Pretty cool woman,” Brooks muttered and tucked his gun away. “You’re gonna go after her, or can –”
“Get the fuck out of my face, or I’ll fucking kill you,” Ice growled hoarsely.
“I’ll take that as a confirmation that you’ll eventually get your head out of your ass,” Brooks muttered and walked away but not before Ice saw the smirk on his face.
“I might kill him anyway,” he muttered.
“You could try,” Black chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder to steer them toward Toby’s cabin. “Not right now, though. Right now, you should go and wake your boy up.”
“Reena doesn’t want –”
“Petter,” Black said firmly. “Why the fuck are you acting like such a pussy?”
“Am not.”
“Yeah, you are. So, explain why because I don’t fucking get it.”
Ice thought about what to tell his brother and sighed.
“Not sure I know how to be a father,” he admitted quietly.
“You are a pretty fucking fantastic uncle.”
“That’s different.”
“It is, but it never was with you,” Black retorted. “The way Leeanne acted, it was mostly just me raising the kids, you know that. Mom and Dad helped, but you did most of the shit I didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with. My boys can be damned annoying, and you could have walked away when they were acting like morons. You never did.” Black’s face softened slightly, and he nodded. “Not once,” he added. “You stayed and dealt with them. Did homework, cheered them on, kicked their asses, whatever. You did all the things a dad does, and they fucking love you. Don’t you know that?”
Ice shrugged, feeling a bit embarrassed about the praise.
“Yeah,” he said when Black kept watching him.
“So, go be a dad. Tobias needs to get his act together, and we all know it. Reena is exhausted, or she’d yell at him herself.”
“I can’t yell at Tobias,” Ice muttered.
“He’s your son, Petter. It’s fucking mandatory to yell some at him,” Black countered, and tilted his head toward the main house on the other side of the compound where their parents had walked out on the porch.
Ice snorted out a quick laugh because they’d been yelled at plenty over the years, but sobered and shrugged again.
“He’s in a goddamned wheelchair,”
“Yeah. One he should have gotten his ass out of days ago.”
“I know,” Ice agreed. “Reena can’t seem to –”
“It’s not just her job anymore, is it?”
Well, hell. His goddamned twin was not entirely wrong.
“Right,” Ice muttered and turned toward the cabin. “He hates me anyway, so why not?”
Then he walked up the steps and into the cabin. Toby wasn’t in the small living room, so he knocked on the door to the bedroom and opened it slowly.
“Hey,” he said and blinked a few times when he saw Toby on the bed, looking supremely pissed off and wearing only his jeans. “You’re not up yet?”
“Can’t get the wheelchair through the door,” Toby said sourly.
Ice took a step into the room and glanced at the narrow door, cursing silently because he should have known, but also because Reena should have told him.
“Tobias,” he said quietly. “I’ve fucked up some with your mother, and I’ll try to sort that out. I’m also not exactly sure how to be your father, but that's what I am. I told you I wasn't going to stay away, and I won't do that anymore. Can you deal with that?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No,” Ice said, and added, “I’m gonna deal with you the way I’ve dealt with my nephews all their lives, which is the way my dad handled Black and me. If that doesn’t work out for you, then you'll have to tell me.”
Toby’s eyes had been guarded, but Ice thought they softened a little, and then the young man slowly pushed himself up to sit.
“You could start by calling me Toby,” he muttered. “Tobias is what Mom says when I’ve done shit she doesn’t approve of.”
“Okay.”
“And you should know that I’d do anything for my mother,” Toby said. “My back might be broken, but if you hurt her again, swear to God, I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Fair enough,” Ice said. “Can’t promise I won’t, but I’ll try not to.”
“You’ll try really hard,” Toby stated, and Ice almost started laughing.
The damned boy had pain written all over his face, and couldn’t get out of his bedroom on his own, but fuck it if he didn’t mean what he said.
“I’ll try really hard,” Ice echoed solemnly.
Then he swung around, raised a leg, and planted his hard boot in a firm kick on the doorframe. The house was old, and it didn’t take much effort for the frame to break, and splinters flew across the room. Black and Roddy barged into the house, but he called out for them to stay back and kicked the wall a few more times. When the opening seemed wide enough, he turned back toward his son.
“When you’re stuck, you find a way. That’s how we deal with shit around here,” he said and raised a hand to point at the chair. “You’ll be out of that thing within a week. Until then,” he moved the finger to indicate the door, “You can now get your ass out of bed without waiting for your mother.”
Their eyes met, and for the first time, it felt as if they actually saw each other. To Ice's surprise, something that resembled humor filled Toby’s eyes.
“Can’t get into the bathroom either,” he muttered.
“For fuck’s sake, Toby,” Ice said with a sigh. “You have to ask your mother every time you need to go?”
“Yup.”
There was a loud crash behind Ice suddenly, and he turned to find his damned old-as-dirt-father kicking at the offensive frame.
“Dad,” Black grunted. “Jesus. I’ll do it.”
“Fuck, no.”
“Dad,” Ice said. “Don’t want you to break your hip...”
He trailed off when Roddy slowly turned.
“Say again?” Roddy said quietly.
Too quietly.
“Just kidding,” Ice said quickly, and added a broad grin which never worked on his mother, but sometimes got him out of trouble with his father. “No way someone as tough as you would ever break a single bone anywhere.”
He wiggled his brows and heard Black snort something under his breath, which sounded suspiciously like the word suck-up.
“Are you being a smartass?” Roddy asked.
“Of course,” Ice agreed affably and grinned for real when he saw the anger fade away from his dad’s eyes.
“He always is,” Black said and turned toward Toby, who had gotten into the wheelchair. “Did you inherit that part?”
“Always thought I got that from Mom,” Toby retorted, and Roddy barked out laughter.
The bantering was so normal and had started so smoothly that Ice suddenly had to swallow around a lump in his throat, which he hid by bending down to pick up a few pieces of wood so the chair could pass through the room.
“Thanks,” Toby muttered, and Ice turned to look at his son.
There it was, that connection again.
“Get out and don’t come back unless you’re invited!” Reena suddenly shouted outside.
“The fuck?” Black grunted.
Ice moved toward the door, followed by the others, but the scene outside made them all stop and stare.
Gee Hagen was backing away from someone for what likely was the first time in her almost eighty-year-old life. Something yellow was running down her chest, and when Reena threw another egg at his mother, Ice had to press his lips together to stop from laughing out loud, but the laughter caught in his throat when he saw his mother’s eyes.
She suddenly looked hard and dangerous, so Ice took a step forward because he wasn’t going to let –
“Don’t you give me that look,” Reena snapped, and Ice blinked a few times in surprise. “I’ve raised a boy who has given me that glare plenty of times and let me tell you; it did not scare me then, so it’ll not scare me now.”
The two women faced each other, and it seemed to Ice as if the whole Thor compound held a collective breath.
This was not good.
Not good at all.
“You threw an egg on me,” Gee stated.
“I threw two, and they were my last ones, so now Toby won’t get pancakes for breakfast, and he doesn’t eat enough as it is,” Reena snapped, pointed at Gee, and added, “That’s on you too.”
Gee took a small step forward.
“You thr –”
“Nuh-uh,” Reena said and didn’t back away. “Just don’t.”
They stared at each other some more, and then Ice felt his mouth fall open because his mother’s lips suddenly twitched with what seemed to be the beginning of a smile.
“I have eggs,” she said evenly.
Reena made a huffing sound and kept glaring at the older woman.
“I could make pancakes if I got to eat them with you and Tobias,” Gee added.
What the heck? Was his mother bribing her way into Toby’s life?
With pancakes?
“Toby doesn’t like maple syrup,” Reena said.
“I don’t either. Could bring some jam,” Gee said and raised her chin a little. “Huckleberry.”
After what felt like forever but probably was a few seconds, Reena nodded.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay,” Gee echoed.
Both women suddenly looked like they had trouble holding laughter back, and Roddy didn’t even try, which made them turn.
“Tobias, get inside and put a sweater on,” Reena ordered, and added firmly, “Black. I would like to have a word with you about the layout in Toby’s cabin.”
“Huh?”
His twin was as stunned as he was, Ice realized.
“At your earliest convenience,” Reena added.
“What?”
“Now,” Reena snapped and marched into her cabin.
Ice watched her ass disappear, and how she closed the door firmly and wondered if someone would notice if he adjusted his crotch slightly.
“My mother never had a man in her life, so she has no clue how to deal with one,” Toby said into the silence.
“She never –”
“Just saying,” Toby muttered, and tried to turn the chair on the small porch.
“Petter,” Roddy said with a sigh. “Never thought I’d say this to one of my sons, but you really have to stop acting like a fucking pussy.”
Then the old man took hold of the handles on the wheelchair, turned it around, and disappeared inside with Tobias.
“She went after mom, and came out on top,” Black said hoarsely. “She –”
They stared at each other, both knowing that the only one they ever had seen doing that was their father. The image of Reena glaring at his mother hit Ice again, and everything else suddenly stopped being relevant.
“Yeah,” he grunted and moved toward the other cabin.
***
Reena
I probably shouldn’t have picked a fight with Toby’s grandmother of all people but God how good it had felt to blow some steam, and I knew the older woman could take it. Her eyes had softened with a smile, and in just a little while, we’d have pancakes.
The door suddenly flew open, only to be shut forcefully, and I turned to find Ice walking toward me. Since he didn’t seem to have any intentions to stop, I started walking backward, but the room was small, and I hit the wall almost immediately. There was a look in his eyes I didn’t recognize, and I suddenly struggled to breathe.
When he reached me, he leaned down a little, put his hands on my behind to pick me off the floor as if I weighed nothing, and then I was pressed against the wall.
There it was, that flash of heat, but not like it had been the last time. It had been slow and almost sweet, and it wasn’t this time.
There was an urgency rushing through me, sending warm quivers through my belly and down between my legs.
“I’m not entirely sure you want this, but swear to God, I just have to,” Ice mumbled against the side of my neck, and another rush of warmth flashed through me.
“Wh –”
“Mama bear,” he mumbled in my ear. “You were pretty fucking amazing out there.”
His lips moved over my cheek, and I gasped, which he caught with his mouth, and then his tongue was touching mine. Of their own accord, my legs wrapped themselves around his hips, and I felt his hard crotch grind against me in a way that only built an ache for more.
“Please,” I mumbled against his mouth, not sure what I wanted him to do.
“Yeah,” he replied and kissed me again at the same time as he slid a hand under my tee to cup my breast.
I moaned quietly, and he moved his head back a little to look at me.
“Baby,” he murmured. “Let’s –”
“You gonna let that lead to other things?”
Black’s amused voice cut through the haze, and I blinked furiously. Then I tried to untangle myself from Ice, which he wouldn’t let me do.
“What?” he growled and turned his head to glare at his twin.
“Reena wanted to talk to me, and if you’re just about done, then I’ll wait. If you’re gonna get naked, then I can come back.”
Ice closed his eyes and opened them slowly. Then he turned back to me and mumbled something about shooting someone, and how I probably didn’t have a single condom in the cabin anyway. I heard Black cough, which I suspected was to hide laughter and tried again to wiggle out of Ice’s grip.
This time he let me, and I smoothed down my tee with what I hoped was calm indifference. Black’s grin told me that I hadn’t fooled him at all.
“Reena,” Ice said, and he was not grinning. Instead, he put a pretty annoying finger in my face and said, “You wanted to do shit on your own, and I’ve let you. Won’t do that anymore. You’re going to let me help.”
I was too tired and not getting anywhere with Toby, so I simply said, “Okay.”
“Okay,” Ice echoed, but added, “Six-thirty.”
“What?”
“Dinner. My home.”
Then the exasperating man walked out of the house without even a glance at his suddenly laughing brother.
Chapter Ten
Black lace
Reena
The hand I raised to knock on the door shook a little, and I lowered it again.
What the hell was I doing?
Ice had kissed me, and it had been... I wasn’t exactly sure what it had been, but it had put me on edge, and I’d spent the day profoundly confused.
And, I had to admit to myself, horny.
What was it about the man that sent shots of warm shivers through my belly and made me want to either yell at him or rip his endless supply of gray tees off his admittedly fantastic torso?
I’d thought I had myself under some semblance of control. The twenty-four hours we spent being naked together had been sweet, and I’d felt cherished. Now it felt urgent and hot, and I was nervous.
I raised my hand slowly but held it in midair while I wondered if I should perhaps skedaddle my stupid behind back to my cabin and claim I had the flu or something.
“Reena?”
I turned toward Black and winced.
“Yes?” I asked stupidly even though I knew that he wanted to know what the hell I was doing.
His face softened, and then he moved toward me and sat down on the porch step.
“Sit,” he ordered and patted the wooden board right next to him.
I sat down and stared straight ahead, feeling mostly stupid and ridiculous.
“I’m not sure I should, you know?” I heard myself mumble.
“Why?”
Our eyes met, and I swallowed a silly sigh.
“A man like your brother doesn’t need someone like me,” I said.
“A man like my brother needs someone exactly like you,” he countered.
“But I don’t –”
“Petter is a good man. Decent. Loyal. He’s funny but never in a way that hurts because he’s also compassionate and clever. But he’s a little spoiled which over the years has made him selfish. And a little bit lazy. Finding out about Tobias was fucking fantastic, but having someone like you in his life will be even better.”
“Black...”
“I’m closer to him than anyone, Reena. Sometimes I think I know him better than I know myself. Trust me on this one?”
