by Calinda B
“We’re back where we started.” His voice sounded gleeful, ecstatic. “Only we’ve changed the inner landscape.”
“Jace, handcuffs? Scarf?”
He leaned across her, his big body warm and solid against her. When he’d removed the cuffs, she rubbed her wrists, bringing life back, before lifting the scarf. She blinked in the dawn light. The sun shone brightly along the Grievous Angel in Zoé’s driveway, heralding what would surely be a splendid day. She turned her attention to Jace.
He seemed reborn, his face a triumphant, transcendent wonder, as he gave her the sweetest, most satisfied smile she’d ever seen.
She returned the smile. “You look different.”
“So do you. You look even more beautiful.” His smile grew wider.
“What did we do tonight? Where did we go? Did we break in somewhere?”
“We changed our lives, baby, that’s what we did. You’re completely mine now.”
“Come on, that may be, but where did we go?”
“Seems a water pipe broke somewhere tonight.”
“What?”
“I had to do it, baby, I had to.” He gave her a scorching look. “That motherfucker, Billy, tried to take you from me, the same way he did Kate. We slipped into one of his favorite lairs and had a beautiful, sacred experience — something he could never in a million lifetimes do.”
She stared at him, unsure what to think. “You don’t strike me as the kind of guy to speak in such a way. What’s the thing you carry around as sacred?”
His demeanor grew serious. He pulled a gold talisman free from his pocket, now covered with beeswax. His eyes narrowed as he studied her.
“I got this in New Mexico on assignment once — same place I got this ring.” He tapped the turquoise, silver, and gold ring she’d noticed the first night she met him. “It’s a golden spiral. It combines the golden mean with the Fibonacci spiral. It’s a symbol of the cycles of life…and natural beauty. It keeps me going when shit gets rough. Like you.”
She nodded, floored by the reverence with which he spoke.
“He desecrates women, Zoé. He uses them. He tried to use you tonight, I know he did. We transformed one of his fucked-up domination and abuse palaces into a place of beautiful surrender, then I took it away from him so he can never use it again. That broken water pipe washed it away. Boy’s got to get a better plumber.” He let out a short laugh. “I had to do that, baby.” His eyes grew moist. “That was the most beautiful fucking experience I’ve ever had in my life. And you’re the one who gave it to me.”
Zoé grew quiet.
Jace looked at her, a quizzical expression on his face. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“No, what, tell me.”
She scrunched up her face. “That was a beautiful experience, it really was. I’m still blown away by it, but…”
“But?”
She huffed out a sigh. “This isn’t going to be a regular thing, is it? I don’t have to save up bail money or anything, right?”
“Don’t think so.” He laughed. “But I guess you’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?”
His answer wasn’t in the least reassuring.
Chapter 25
Jace
“So, when are you moving to Port Townsend?” Jace laid against the headboard of his king-sized bed, a mess of pillows behind him, Marni tucked into the hollow of his arm, sucking a bottle. The phone laid next to his head.
She held her bottle with one hand, sucking rhythmically, the other picking at the hairs on Jace’s forearm.
“Excuse me?” Zoé spluttered on the other end of the phone.
“With me. When are you moving in with me?”
“Uh, we didn’t actually discuss it.”
“So now we’re discussing it. When?” A grin split his face as he pictured her squirming.
“Jace! I happen to like my house! And, I start school in a couple of weeks. It’s my last semester.”
“You can commute. Think how much you’ll like coming home to me.” He smiled as he listened to her protest. “You’re wet, aren’t you?”
“Jace!” she said again.
“Well?”
“I’m not telling you. And, you’re too far away to check for yourself, so there.”
“My point exactly. You belong in my arms, under me, with me between your legs, rolling into you like a thunderclap.”
“Damn it, Jace!”
“I like the way my name sounds on your lips, baby.” He chuckled softly. “Shouldn’t there be a prize for telling you all my shit?”
“The prize, stud, is that you got a lot of stuff off your chest, and let me in, and now you don’t have to skulk around hiding. That’s your prize.”
“What kind of answer is that,” he said, pouting.
Marni whimpered, wriggling, struggling to keep her eyes open.
“Hold on, sweetness, I need to shift Marni.” The bottle empty, he hoisted her onto his stomach, resting her head against his shoulder. Then, he patted her back. “That’s it, baby girl. Uncle Jace has you.”
“It’s so sweet picturing you taking care of a toddler, Jace.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you saw my complete and total resistance to diaper changing time. Or 3 a.m. scream time. Or, what the fuck does this mean time. I’m doing my best.”
“Oh, so you want me there as backup.”
“I hadn’t thought of it but sounds great. Thanks for offering.”
She scoffed. “I never in a million years pictured a stud like you soothing a one year old.”
“Yeah, well.” He patted Marni’s back. “Let’s get back to the question at hand. When are you moving in?”
“I told you I love my house.”
“More than you love me?”
“Jace,” she said, exasperated. “Of course I don’t love my house more than I love you.”
“Okay, then. When are you moving in?”
“Jace.”
“Baby. It makes sense. You love me. I love you. I told you my shit. You still love me. Move in with me.”
“It’s not that easy. You live miles away.”
“Exactly. We’d kill two birds with one stone.”
Marni squirmed and whimpered in her drowsy state.
“Shhh, baby girl, Uncle Jace has you.”
“You’re melting me. You don’t really have a baby there, do you? It’s a ploy to evoke sympathy out of me, right?”
“Is it working?” He chuckled.
“I’m changing the subject.”
“Go ahead. I’ll change it back.”
“Tanya’s pissed at you.”
“Me? Why?”
“She thinks you’re too intense.”
“Yeah, so, she also wants what you’ve got with me. She’s jealous. I saw her looking at us.”
“She thinks you’re a hothead.”
“I’m passionate. Passion needs to be felt and expressed. I’m passionate about you. You were scared and angry. I was pissed. So, sue me. We got through it. People try to be so PC sometimes.”
“Did she and Tony bore you?”
“No, I wouldn’t say they bored me. I just didn’t find them all that interesting. They’re the kind of people that toe the line. Not my kind of people, baby, sorry.”
“Tanya’s a good friend.”
“Keep her. I’m not telling you who to hang out with. If you like her, keep on keeping on.”
“I want you to like her, too.”
“Why?” He gently jiggled Marni up and down on his chest. He liked the way she grew completely limp when she fell asleep. She slept the sleep of the innocent, safe and trusting in his arms.
“Well, because, I just do, that’s why. Shouldn’t we like one another’s friends?”
“Should we? Baby, you should do whatever you feel the need to do. Same with me. I support your choice of people but I don’t have to make the same choices.” He listened to Marni’s soft breathing and waited for Zoé to respond. “Talk to me
. Where’d you go?”
“I’m still here. Processing what you said.”
“Now think how cool it will be when you can process over here, in my bed, with my arms around you. Your cogs can spin while I play with your body.”
She laughed. “Jesus, Jace!”
“Do you own your home?”
“Now how do you think I could do that on a bar waitress income, putting myself through school reality? I rent.”
“Another point in my favor. I own my home. You can save money.”
“You bought the house you live in?”
“Well, still paying it off. Neil co-signed for me a year after I started working for him. I’ve got a great place. It sits on a ridge. I can see the water from my front window.”
“Sounds lovely. I see the street from mine.”
“Exactly. Who wants to look at a street? I’ll bring the truck over and we can move you in this weekend.”
“I have a job here. Friends. Friends at work. A life over here. School.”
“You’re a friendly girl. You keep the old friends. And, you make new friends. There are plenty of bars in Port Townsend, believe me. I can call in a favor and get you a new job in a snap.”
“You’re not listening to me, Jace.” Her voice came out sharp.
“How am I not listening to you? You keep laying out problems, I keep offering solutions.”
Marni made a snuffling whimper.
He patted her back until she sighed and settled back into dreams. “Hold on, I want to move the kid into her crib.” He slowly sat up, soothing Marni. He crept from the bed to lay her in the crib in the far corner. When she didn’t wake, he covered her with a blanket. “Shhh, baby girl,” he said, rubbing her warm back.
He quietly made his way back to his big, empty bed. When he settled on the mattress, he said, “I’m back. So. When are you moving in with me?”
“Will you stop pushing me, Jace?” She sounded exasperated.
He smiled. “You want it, too. Admit it.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want it, only that I have things over here.”
“Are they more important than me?” He ran his hand over his belly.
“No! I didn’t say that!”
“Then move in with me.”
“What if it doesn’t work and I let go of my house and my job and my friends and then I’m left high and dry in Port Townsend? I didn’t even know Port Townsend existed until I met Billy.”
“You Seattleites are so isolated. And I guarantee you won’t be left high and dry. Not with your juicy pussy.”
“Damn you, Jace!”
He pushed his hand beneath his waistband, gripping his hardening cock. “Guess what I’ve got in my hand?”
“A baby bottle. I don’t know.”
“Mmm,” he said, stroking himself. “It misses you.”
“‘It does or you do?”
“We both do. We come as a set.”
“Jesus, Jace, I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you and you’re getting into my head and scrambling my brain cells. I can’t think straight!”
He chuckled. “I’m really hard now, baby. And you’re too far away from me. You’re not doing your man any favors.”
She groaned in his ear.
“Jace,” she said, this time with a pleading tone. “Please.”
“Let’s do it. You’ll love it.” He grinned into the phone.
“I will or you will?”
“We both will.”
“What if your toddler doesn’t like me?”
“She’s not my toddler, she’s my sister’s. She’ll love you until she goes back with my sister.” He bore down on his cock to keep from coming.
“You were worried about her getting attached.”
“I thought better of it. She needs a good role model. You’re perfect.”
She sighed. “What about my school?”
“What about it? Do you have classes every day?”
“No.”
“Then, what’s the problem?” He started stroking again.
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It is easy, baby. You see a problem, you fix it. You act on it. Its what people do.”
“It’s what you do, maybe. I deliberate, ponder, and stall.”
“That’s what you did until you met me. You were dying for something different.”
Zoé said nothing.
“I’m so hard,” he said, pumping his hand up and down. “I can jack off but it will only make me want you more. I’ll probably get close…really, really close.” He began to pant. “So close, baby.”
“Jace.”
“So goddamned close.” His hand worked feverishly.
“Jace, please, I’m dying over here.”
“Shhh, baby, shhh, I’m close. Hold on. Hold up.” He grabbed his balls and yanked them away from his body, groaning.
“Are you coming?”
“No. Not coming,” he said, squeezing the words through clenched teeth, breathing hard. “It only makes me want you more. When I get this close I squeeze my balls and stop the orgasm.”
“Good lord, sounds like torture. Why would you do that?”
“So I can save my pleasure for you.”
“Still. It sounds painful.”
“And you don’t want that, do you? You’d rather be here to take care of me when I want you. Which happens to be all the time.” He held his breath, to quash his excitement.
A sigh met his ears. He grinned widely.
“I want you, too,” Zoé said.
“So, when are you moving in?”
“I don’t know.”
“This weekend.”
“I still have to work.”
“Give them notice. I swear I’ll get you another job. Or, better yet, I’ll support you.”
“Really? You’d do that for me? That’s…that’s really nice, Jace.”
“Hell, yes. What’s another mouth to feed? You’ll kick in when you finish school.”
“But, it’s important to me to take care of myself.” The thought of living with Jace did sound appealing. “Okay. I surrender.”
“Okay?”
“Yes, Jace. But I’m not getting rid of my house.”
“Don’t waste your money. Give notice.”
“Jace….”
“Baby, I know you want to be with me as much as I want to be with you. Stop playing it safe. You’re not getting away from me.”
“But shouldn’t we take things slow? Ease into things?”
“Have we been easing so far?”
“No.”
“Exactly. I don’t ease. I live. You will, too. Starting next weekend.”
“What if my stuff doesn’t fit in your house?”
“I don’t have that much stuff and I’ve got a big house. It was a short sale so I got a big house at a great price.” He shook his head. “Stop putting on the brakes, baby. You’re moving in. All your girly shit gets to live with me. You get to live with me.”
“Did you live with Kate?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Swear to God. Let’s leave Kate out of this. I told you, I’m done talking about her, thinking about her, processing her. I’m consumed with thoughts of you.”
“Still, it seems kind of…”
“Baby, if you were here, I’d put my cock in your mouth to shut you up. Jesus, woman, give it a rest. We’re done talking. We’ve made our decision.”
“You’ve made our decision.”
“Zoé, goddamn it, you want it too.”
“But…”
“No, Zoé. No more buts.” He gave his cock a few strokes. “I’m going to torture myself, all night, getting right to the edge of an orgasm and then hold it back.”
“I’m going to use my vibrator and come freely,” she purred in his ear.
“Not without me, you’re not.”
“Jace,” she said, letting out an exasperated sigh. “You don’t own me. If I want to make
myself come, I will. You’re not here.”
“But soon you’ll be here.”
“Yes.”
“So save it up for me.”
“Fine. Honestly, Jace, you’re impossible. Do you always get what you want?”
“This time I do, yes.”
“Okay. I’ll save it for you.”
“I’ll make sure it’s worth the wait.” She won’t do it. He smiled.
“So far, so good.” She let out a small laugh.
He smiled again. “You’re going to love living with me.”
“What about you, stud? Are you going to love living with me?”
“Abso-frigging-lutely. I told you. I’m in fucking love with you. I’ll never let you go or make you want for anything.”
“Promise?”
“Guaranteed. Now go to sleep so it will be one day closer to when I get you in my arms forever.” After murmuring a few more endearments, he hung up. Prickles of fright began to form in his belly. Can I really do this? My track record isn’t that hot. He fell asleep, hoping he’d done the right thing.
Chapter 26
Jace
Footsteps clattered overhead in the yacht Jace was working on. He stood in the hot engine room, laboring over a stuck fuel rack in the engine.
The small room was stuffy and cloistered. He had enough room to move around the engine, but no more.
“Hi, Jace!”
Jace looked up from the engine room of Billy’s yacht, aptly named Dangerous Intruder, to see Lila peering at him from above. Sweat dripped from his forehead and trickled down his neck.
He wiped his face with his forearm. “Hey, girl. What’s doing?”
“Nothing. I just got out of school and thought I’d stop by and say hi. Need any help?”
“Know anything about flushing coolant from a Cummins engine?”
“No,” Lila said, scoffing.
“Then, no to working in the engine room,” Jace said with a wink. “Not sure you should be in here anyway.”
He glanced around at all of Billy’s photos of naked women on the walls, hoping Lila couldn’t see them. At least they’re tasteful. No pussy shots.
“It’s okay. I’ve seen photos like that. My dad gets Playboy magazine,” Lila said, looking oh, so cool.