Sorry I've made you wait so long for this chapter! But I finally get to work on this story!
Please enjoy Calum Scott's version of Dancing on my Own...
Enjoy, vote, and comment if you like this chapter!
--VIVKELLER23
---------------------
Teagan
Dreams had never been a thing Teagan indulged in. The few times he was able to get a decent night's sleep, he managed to close his eyes to complete darkness. Nothing haunted him, nothing lured him, nothing offered him escape except total oblivion.
Nothing but black to give him the few blessed hours of rest he needed before returning to the land of the living.
He should have realized that after laying his hands on the pretty little Ice Queen, all his peace would go up in flames.
Just thinking about her brought back the burning need he'd fought back last night. He could still see those liquid violet eyes gazing up at him from that smooth, porcelain face. And that mouth! That perfect bow of a mouth had all but begged him to take it in a fierce kiss to satisfy just a little of the hunger she'd awakened in him. Those red lips had touched his skin and branded him with just a kiss on his neck.
He shivered at the memory of her kiss. He'd wrestled with himself the entire ride to her grand estate, asking himself why he didn't just take what she offered. He could have used a wild night in bed with the icicle. In fact, if he tried hard enough, he could even convince himself that she had wanted him just as much last night!
Last night, it hadn't looked like she cared that he was a filthy nobody who's hands had no reason being anywhere near her. Last night, it appeared he'd been good enough for her even if it was only for one night.
But he hadn't collected. He'd taken her to her home and carried her up to her perfectly ordered bedroom, despite her father's demands that he just leave her on the living room couch. He scoffed at that. The Ice Queen's own father didn't seem to realize his daughter was the closest thing to royalty he'd ever beheld. Even a good-for-nothing, piece of trash like himself knew the couch was no place for her to sleep.
Still a bit drowsy from his surprisingly vivid dream, Teagan threw back the blue and white checkered comforter and sat up. He felt oddly relaxed this morning. He smirked, as his eyes happened to land on the mirror propped on the back of his bedroom door. With his heavy-lidded gaze and the mussed up brown-nearly-black hair that curled slightly at the ends, he looked satisfied. He looked like a man who'd spent the night ardently melting away the Ice Queen's ice. And he had... in his dream.
Ah, hell. His smirk turned into a wolfish grin as he fought back the hot images that flashed to his mind. The Ice Queen's father wouldn't have let him in the front door if he'd suspected half of the thoughts Teagan had been thinking while holding her in his arms. He'd have shot him dead if he'd seen the things Teagan had done with the Ice Queen in his dreams.
Then again, maybe the older man wouldn't have cared. It came as a shock to find the Ice Queen's father was uncaring about the whereabouts of his daughter. He could almost believe the man wouldn't have cared if Teagan had taken his daughter to his house instead.
Teagan groaned, running a not quite steady hand through his hair. He would have preferred having her here with him. He could have exercised some of the ways he'd thought of waking her whenever he'd caught himself looking at her during the rare times she crossed his path on the College campus; and he could have watched those naturally curled lashes lift to drown him in the loveliest violet eyes he'd ever seen.
Teagan was seriously sick. He doubted another man could take a look at that innocent looking face of hers, lost in deep sleep, and contemplate the hundreds of indecent, but pleasurable, ways he could wake her.
Then again, the girl simply boiled his blood. He could only stand so much temptation. The throaty little "please" she'd whispered last night had been like a shot to his heart.
Disgusted, Teagan looked away from his reflection. He was starting to sound like a pathetic, lovesick fool. The way his mind kept flashing with thoughts of her, you'd think he'd never had a woman before. But he had. More than he could care to count.
So why was he so hooked up on Her Royal Highness?
It must have been the fact that she was a novelty. That despite her very persistent offer to sleep with him, he had turned her down. He couldn't recall a time when he'd ever said no to a willing partner. Maybe that was what made him dream of how sweet it would have been with her? His noble refusal had cost him his one chance to hook up with a woman far beyond his reach. Because he was certain another opportunity to find the Ice Queen willing and pleading to be seduced would probably never present itself.
He'd have to live on dreams for the rest of his life if he wanted to see her in his bed.
And there he went again, sounding like a besotted poet.
If the pretty little Ice Queen knew that she could inspire such beautiful speeches...
She'd laugh at him.
Teagan threw himself out of bed. He'd already spent too much time thinking about a woman he had no business thinking about. He hurried into the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, hoping the water would wash away the memory of the Ice Queen nestled in his arms away as effectively as it washed away all traces of sleep.
A few minutes later, with freshly brushed teeth, nicely combed hair, and casually dressed in a black v-neck paired with faded blue jeans, Teagan emerged from the bathroom ready to face the new day. He stepped out into the hallway of the small house he called home, listening for the colorful curses that usually informed him of his father's bad mood. A quick glance around the corner into the living room showed his old man was still passed out on the old leather couch he'd fallen onto last night.
No surprise there. Teagan's father would no doubt sleep through half the day before going out to search for a job. Of course, he wouldn't find anyone desperate enough to hire a drunk with debts to pay, so he'd stumble into the nearest bar and drink his sorrows away. Sometime around eleven at night, if he still hadn't found his way back home, Teagan would have to go and drag him away from the gambling tables.
It was what they did. It was the only way the two could live together under the same roof without killing each other.
They'd agreed a very long time ago that they would stay out of each other's way. His father gambled and drank his life away while Teagan went to school just to have something to do. He didn't even know what he was going to school for, he was just taking a bunch of electives hoping to find something that would interest him.
All that had interested him in the past year and a half was her, his Ice Queen.
And that wasn't going to help him escape his messed up life. Being obsessed with the one woman he knew he would never have was likely to send him into the same path his father had taken.
Shaking his head at the way his mind strayed back to her, Teagan gave up going into the kitchen to get some breakfast. He wasn't hungry for food anyway.
Maybe if he used some of those sappy words he'd been thinking earlier, he could get Crue to give him a good time before class.
xXx
Crue was more than happy to hear his voice when he called her on his way to the college campus. She all but squealed when Teagan asked her to meet him outside the Larry Manning Library. It was where they'd first met, but Teagan didn't care about that. What he wanted was to be close enough to his parked truck to have some privacy there while Crue used her experience to clear his mind of thoughts on the Ice Queen.
They had an arrangement that was of benefit to the both of them. Whenever Crue was feeling frisky or in need of some male company, Teagan made himself available to scratch the itch. And when Teagan was frustrated and needed something to keep his mind off of problems at home, Crue was there to soothe the ache.
It was great. Or at least it was until Crue started getting possessive. Once she started using her dagger-shaped claws to hold onto him, Teagan lost his appetite for the perky redhead. Last night at the party, he'd been bored and she'd been handy, but he was glad he hadn't gone home with her the way she'd so persistently been asking him to.
But today? Today he'd woken up from a dream filled sleep and spent most of the morning wanting the Ice Queen. Today, he didn't care who he was with so long as it distracted him from his unhealthy obsession.
It was a fairly cool day for mid-September. The sun hid behind heavy gray clouds and a gentle breeze played with the leaves that were just beginning to change color on the trees. As Teagan leaned against the brick wall lining the side of the grand library, he watched students dressed in light sweaters walk across campus while they chatted carelessly about assignments and projects that were coming up before the end of the Fall semester. Some of them actually seemed to have a goal set for their future, something they hoped to accomplish by the end of the usual four years of college. He knew he wasn't the only lost soul traveling the halls at Gray's, but at times it felt like he was.
Teagan kicked a loose grey pebble with the scuffed front of his red sneakers. They'd been a gift from a woman very dear to him, given to him for when he finally got into college. They were worn and scuffed now, the bottoms all but gone, and still they were the only shoes he refused to get rid of. They weren't even his favorite color, but they were all he had of her.
His phone vibrated in his jeans' pocket. Teagan glanced away from the pathetic shoes on his feet to the cracked screen of his outdated Iphone, grumbling when it lit up with Regret Number One. Scowling, he swiped the screen to answer. "Where are you, Crue?" he snapped before she'd even had a chance to speak.
Her forced sultry voice floated back to him, grating on his nerves rather than filling him with lust. It was as fake as the lashes she glued onto her face every morning, and he wasn't asking her for a whole show. He just wanted to get lost in her before he had to step into his first class of the day.
But Crue was all for the show.
"What's the matter, big guy? Miss me last night?" she purred, but he didn't miss the little hiss of reproach in her voice. She hadn't forgotten how he'd brushed her off.
His free hand balled into a fist at his side. "Are you on your way or not?" he demanded. His near growl got him some interested glances from a group of giggling girls in beanies. If he hadn't been so frustrated first thing in the morning, he might have returned a flirtatious wink. But he didn't feel flirty today. He felt mean and in need, and the only girl he'd counted on to get him past that was being a little snob.
She hummed. "Uh, I don't think so," she replied in a sing-song voice that had Teagan on the verge of cursing. "You see, my second choice last night was more than generous in his- ah- attentions last night, and I just don't have the strength in me to try to fake feeling good with you today."
The girl was pissed.
"Fine." He forced himself to breathe so that the word sounded calm even though he wanted to break something. "You aren't the only hook up I've got on speed dial, hot stuff," he told her, knowing it would anger her to know he didn't care who she'd slept with last night.
"Why, you little piece of--!"
Smiling, Teagan hung up the call, cutting off Crue's unimpressive tirade. But when he went to shove the phone back into his pocket, he froze.
Right across from where he stood, climbing out of a sensible yet sleek Toyota Corolla, was the Ice Queen herself, looking every bit the royal persona she'd been given.
But it was the disapproving look in her gorgeous blue-violet eyes that made him feel like the piece of garbage Crue had no doubt meant to call him before he'd hung up.
Well, that and the fact that she didn't look like she'd lost any sleep dreaming about him.
---