A/N: Hey everybody, I'm so glad that you all liked the first chapter. There were a few reviews asking exactly how old Haley is and if she knows about what her father does for a living. Those questions will be answered in this chapter. Just a warning, not alot of eventful things happen in this chapter, it's somewhat of a filler chapter. And sorry for the wait, I had SAT's and Prom all in one weekend.
Chapter 2: Ice Cream or Ice Breaker?
Dropping his duffel bag onto the floor, Nathan looked around the room that was provided for him on Jimmy's estate. It was about the size of a normal hotel room including an en suite bathroom. Inside the room was a queen-sized bed, a dresser, a television, and a small table with two chairs.
Unzipping his duffel bag, Nathan took out the contents and placed them in the drawers of the dresser. He placed his toiletries in the bathroom and hung up his jacket in the closet before tossing the empty duffel bag onto the bottom of the closet and closing the slidding door.
He stripped himself of his clothes save his boxer briefs and threw on a pair of plaid pajama pants. Turning down the covers, he climbed into bed and turned off the bedside lamp. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep but his thoughts were consumed with the young beauty that came into his life earlier that afternoon.
"You don't even know, Brooke, this guy is gorgeous." Haley explained, flopping back onto her king-sized bed, holding her iPhone to her ear.
"Hold on, rewind, so Papa James hired this extremely hot man and placed him in charge of you?" Brooke asked, holding the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she blew on her newly painted nails.
"He was kinda quiet though, when Owen introduced him to me he barely said two words." The auburn-haired girl said, picking at the thread of her comforter.
"Mmm, Owen, now that's my type of man." The brunette said, licking her lips.
"Brooke, can you focus for like two seconds, please?"
"Okay, sorry, your daddy hired quiet McHottie to be your bodyguard. Oh my God! I'm gonna totally call him hot BG." Brooke delcared, clapping her hands excitedly.
"Hot BG?" Haley questioned with a slight smile on her face.
"Bodyguard, hello? You and this Nate person can have a whirlwind romance just like Kevin Costner and Whitey Houston. I mean, you have the voice for it but if you start going around blabbing 'Crack is whack'. Well, let's just say that passes the friendship craziness quotient." The brunette rambled.
Chuckling at her friend's antics, Haley glanced over at the clock and noticed it was almost midnight. "Well, Brookie, I'm gonna go. I'll see you in school tomorrow."
"Alright, babycakes, talk to you later." With that, Haley pressed the red end button on the touch screen of her phone.
Sighing, Haley stared straight at the ceiling. Her mind kept running through everything that happened that day, but kept returning to the dark-haired, blue-eyed man she had encountered that afternoon. She closed her eyes and tried in vain to fall asleep.
The floor tiles felt cold against the bottom of his feet as he entered the kitchen. The room was completely dark other than the light emitting from the open stainless steel refridgerator. He looked around and even in the dark, Nathan could tell that the kitchen was beautiful. It was decked out with stainless steel appliances and black marble countertops and floors.
The refridgerator door closed and standing there was Haley, in nothing but a pair of boy shorts and a fitted cami. Nathan felt his breath hitch in his throat as he stood there, looking at her. She was holding a carton of chocolate ice cream in one hand, the other was running through her unruly hair and he thought that she couldn't look any more beautiful if she tried.
Running her hand through her wavy locks, Haley laughed nervously, "I guess you caught me." She inhaled a deep breath as she took in the beautiful sight before her. Her eyes raked over his broad shoulders, the wide plains of his chest, the firm muscles underneath the tan skin of his stomach, even the fine trail of hair starting at his belly button and disappearing underneath his pajama pants.
Haley caught herself staring and shook her head slightly, releasing a pent up breath she didn't even realize she was holding. She busied herself with rummaging through the silverware drawer looking for spoons. Catching two in her grasp, she offered him one, "Would, I mean, d-do you wanna join me?"
Noticing Haley's slight stuttering, Nathan let a small smile grace his face. "I'd be happy to." he said, reaching out to grab the spoon. They both let out a small, inaudible gasp at the jolt of electricty that ran through them as his hand grazed hers.
Clearing her throat, she sat down on a stool that was positioned next to the island. He watched her as she removed the top to the carton and place it down on the counter. He found himself biting down on the inside of his cheek as she brought her fingers to her mouth, licking off some of the sticky treat that got on them.
"You can sit down, you know", she said, breaking into his thoughts. She pulled out the stool next to her and patted the seat.
Trying his best to contain himself, Nathan nodded and cleared his throat, approaching the offered stool. He sat down and dug his spoon into the frozen dessert.
"So, what's your story, anyway?" Haley asked with a mouth full of ice cream.
"What do you mean?" he questioned, looking at her while taking a bite of ice cream for himself.
"Come on, someone who ends up working for a drug dealer has to have a screwed up past, right?" Nathan stopped mid-swallow and looked at her somewhat shocked. "What? Do you seriously think that I'm that naive to think that this huge house and all my designer clothes are a product of my father's hard work? And by hard work I mean having a 'business' meeting once a month and lounging around by the pool the rest of the time. Everyone knows that I know what my dad does, it's kinda like an unspoken truth around here."
Nodding his understandment, Nathan looked down at his spoon which was stabbing at the ice cream before looking back up at her. "And you're okay with what he does?"
Shrugging her shoulders, Haley looked down, twirling her spoon around in the ice cream. "I don't know. I mean, ever since my mom died it's always been me and him. He's my dad and I love him and I would support him no matter what, but sometimes I wish he had a less hazardous job." Looking up, she gave him a smile. "Nice job of changing the subject, Mr. Bodyguard. You never answered my question. How did you end up here?"
Scratching his nose with his thumb, he tried his best to conjure up a story as fast as possible. Damn, he knew he should have thought of a solid story before he came here. "Well, my old man left when I was still a baby and to make ends meet my mom started walking the streets. When I was fifteen, she got heavily involved in crystal meth and I had to start taking care of myself so I started selling. And I lived happily ever after." He finished, giving her a fake cheeky grin.
Pushing him away by his face playfully, Haley laughed, "Wow! Nice way of putting it there, Nate."
Letting out a small chuckle, Nathan took another bite of ice cream. "So Miss James, tell me about this bodyguard position that I am so graciously filling."
"Well, you have the pleasure of following me around all day and night." she teased. A pleasure indeed, he thought with a smile. "You see the last tool that was my babysitter drove me insane, he was kinda a pervert too, now that I think of it."
"How long did you have him as a bodyguard?"
"Well I got him the week before my sixteenth birthday, so I would say a little over a year." Doing the quick math in his head, Nathan almost choked on his ice cream.
Coughing slightly, he cleared his throat, "That would make you seventeen?"
"Very good, you must have been a mathmatician in a previous life." she joked, rolling her eyes.
"I'm sorry", he said, shaking his head with a smile on his face, "You just don't look seventeen."
"Well, I am very mature for my age." she said, bringing her spoon to her lips to take some ice cream into her mouth.
Nathan couldn't help but laugh when Haley removed the spoon from her mouth and there, in the corner of her lips, was a small brown splotch. "What?" she asked, confused as he continued smiling at her.
He pointed at her lips, "You got a little someth-"
"Where?" she asked hurriedly, wiping at the wrong side of her mouth.
"No, here, I got it." He said, bringing his hand up to her face and gently swiping his thumb across the little indent at the corner of her lips, getting rid of the excess ice cream.
Looking up from her lips to her eyes, Nathan suddenly realized how close he was to her. His face couldn't have been more than six inches away from hers. His eyes scanned over her features and he couldn't help but notice she was even more beautiful up close. She had the cutest little birthmark on the left side of her jaw which he never noticed before and her nostrils flared slightly everytime she took a breath. He felt his own breath catch in his throat when he saw the way she was chewing nervously on her bottom lip.
Haley felt a slight blush creep up her chest and make its way onto her cheeks. She tried to look away but this man was staring at her with such an intense gaze that she was finding it quite impossible. Her eyes met his and she felt like the air was knocked from her lungs. They were the most amazing color blue she had ever seen. They weren't like the light blue that most 'dreamy' boys had, they were a deep, dark, intense blue that had her completely mesmerized.
His hand had fallen to the cover hers on the counter and the movement of his thumb running across her knuckles brought her back to reality.
Clearing her throat, Haley got up from the stool and put the rest of the ice cream back into the freezer, hoping that the cold rush of air would help her cool down. She could feel his eyes boring into her back as she bent over to place the spoons in the dishwasher.
Coming to standing in front of Nathan, she placed a hand on his shoulder, "Goodnight, Nathan."
"Goodnight, Hales", he whispered with a smile and she felt her heart skip a beat at the nickname he used.
She smiled back at him then turned around and headed for the stairs. He watched the way her hips swayed as she walked and the fact that her ass was almost busting out of her boy shorts. He was going to have to make sure the cold water worked in his new shower, he had a feeling he would be needing it alot in the following months.
Sorry, this was kinda short (even though it ended up turning out longer than I expected). Anywhoo, I hoped you liked it.