Joey W Hill - Ice Queen (Nature of Desire, Book Three)

An Elloras Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Ice Queen

ISBN # 1-4199-0572-4

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Ice Queen Copyright 2006 Joey W. Hill

Edited by Briana St. James.

Cover art by Syneca.

Electronic book Publication: March 2006

This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Elloras Cave Publishing, Inc. 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors imagination and used fictitiously.

Warning:

The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. This story has been rated X-treme by a minimum of three independent reviewers.

Elloras Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-rotic), and X (X-treme).

S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. In addition, some E-rated titles might contain fantasy material that some readers find objectionable, such as bondage, submission, same sex encounters, forced seductions, and so forth. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry; it is common, for instance, for an author to use words such as fucking, cock, pussy, and such within their work of literature.

X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Unlike E-rated titles, stories designated with the letter X tend to contain controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

Ice Queen

Joey W. Hill

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

BMW : Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft Corporation

Cadillac : General Motors Corporation

Chapstick : Wyeth Corporation

Chippendales : Chippendales, USA, Inc.

Coalport : Coalport China Limited Corporation

Desert Eagle : TAAS - Israel Industries Limited Corporation

Golden Globe : Hollywood Foreign Press Association Corporation

Lincoln: Ford Motor Company Corporation

NASCAR: National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc

Sig Sauer: SIG Swiss Industrial Company Corporation . S.A.T. Swiss Arms Technology AG Corporation

Taser : Taser International, Inc.

Tinkertoys : Registrant, Playskool, Inc. ; Last Listed Owner, Hasbro, Inc.

Velcro : Velcro Industries B.V. Ltd Liab Co

Viagra : Pfizer, Inc. Corporation

Wal-Mart : Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

White Diamonds : Conopco, Inc. DBA Elizabeth Arden Co.

Chapter One

Catch a tiger by the toe, eeny, meeny, miny, mo.

Marguerite glanced up from her purchase order as her hostess, Chloe Marcel, came into the kitchen area. Genevieve Wisner, her other waitstaff person, slid by in front of her with a tray of teacups as Chloe propped a hip on the doorframe. Fortunately, Gen was a tall woman, whereas Chloe was a tiny thing not even five feet tall and committed by genetics to look fourteen years old though she was nearly twenty-eight. Marguerite had discovered her working a kiosk at the mall that sold a wide variety of body-piercing jewelry. Shed liked the womans easy manner that drew customers to her side like old friends, the selection of high-quality jewelry and the fact that Chloe, while passionate about piercings, only had one. A navel piercing that she rarely revealed by her clothing choices without having to manually turn up the edge of her blouse or tug down her waistband. Marguerite had also liked the simmering mischief in her eyes. However, since hiring her as hostess for Tea Leaves, informally known in the Tampa area as the Tea Room, shed learned to be wary of it.

What are you going on about, Chloe?

Im thinking about better parts of a tiger than his toes.

Genevieve rolled her eyes, setting down the tray. Shes in one of those moods, M. She used her favorite nickname for their boss, having pointed out more than once that Marguerites cool reserve and authoritative presence would qualify her to head up the MI-6 of the James Bond movies. Shes comparing men to animals again.

Its not like we get many here, you know.

Men, or animals?

Chloe grimaced at her. This is a terrific, lovely place, Marguerite, but we do need to figure out a way to market it to men of marriageable age. Or at least the age of sexual interest.

Got it. Gen nodded. Age twelve to ninety.

Ill plan a construction workers convention here just for you, Chloe. Marguerite tapped her pen on the desk, considering the matter from her side office while Gen grinned, placing the teacups from the Coalport set carefully in the sink water to handwash them, as they did with all the porcelain sets. Do you think theyd prefer something manly, one of our strong black teas served up in a reproduction YiXing? If clay was good enough for the samurai, it should be good enough for them. Of course, since the samurai left their swords outside the teahouse, we might ask our guests to leave their tool belts at the door.

Maybe everything else but the tool belts. Chloe grinned wickedly. Here, take him todays sample. She took away the dish towel and pressed a tiny cup into Gens hand. You go take a look and tell me if Im right or not. Money isnt the only thing oozing off this guy. Id have given him a lap dance if hed said another word in that voice, or kept looking at me with those tiger eyes.

Genevieve made a resigned face but obediently went back out the swinging door.

Chloe looked toward Marguerite. Even more intriguing, he says hes here to meet with you. And that youre expecting him.

Though the apprehension curling in Marguerites stomach at Chloes description had already raised her suspicion, the hostesss words confirmed it. He was an hour early. Marguerite suppressed a surge of resentment, laced with a bit of uncomfortable panic. Shed wanted time to close up the shop. While shed wanted the strong foundation of meeting on her own turf, hed taken that edge by coming when she would have to be something different from what he knew, revealing a side of herself shed not intended to give to him.

But then, it wasnt the first time Tyler Winterman had unsettled her. Why had she decided to approach him to help her resolve her dilemma, knowing that about him?

Pride, in a simple word. If she had to do thisand shed been told it was requiredshe wouldnt do it paired with someone whose skills were less than her own. Her hope was that she wouldnt have to embrace the task at all, which was the less galling reason shed invited Tyler here. He might agree with her plan and go along with it. If he didnt Well, she preferred not to address that at the moment, especially when a flush swept her skin like the brush of a herons wings at the thought, making her heart flutter strangely and the muscles in her thighs tighten.

This was a mistake. One she could not gracefully undo.

Genevieve re-entered, a smile playing around her mouth. Beware the day Chloe comes in here and compares a customer to a bull. Well have to run out there and collect all the china cups before the metaphor becomes reality. Shes right. That ones a tiger. I feel ten times prettier, just having talked to him.

Gen didnt know the half of it. Tyler was a Southern gentleman, always rising when a woman entered the room. Shed seen him kiss a womans hand as naturally as an English duke. When he was with a woman, he saw to her welfare with the easy authority of a man who believed it was his responsibility to look after her. That essence was what Gen had picked up. Anything female felt enormously delicate in his presence, as if his sweeping glance put her in skirts, corset, dcolletage, piled-up hair. Marguerite knew all of that. Felt it and so much more that disturbed her about Tyler.