Razors Ice 04 - Hot Ice

by Rachelle Vaughn

  “Went to the store. Not much else.” He tossed the bra aside and cupped her breasts in his hands.

  She gasped when he gave them a firm squeeze and pinched her nipples. She could feel his length hard against her thigh, but she didn’t want to be the first to give in. “What’d you buy at the store?” Her voice was shaky, but she kept up the charade. She slid her hand over his bulge and stroked the outside of his zipper.

  The feeling of light friction through the denim fabric made Jace’s breath hitch in his throat. “Some steaks and beer…”

  “And…?”

  He pulled a condom from his pocket. “And more of these.”

  “Mmm. That’s good news. I’d hate to imagine what we’d do if we ran out.”

  Okay, that was enough talk. All Jace wanted to do now was slide himself inside her slick heat. The steak and the beer could wait until later. Much, much later.

  He peeled off the rest of his clothes, his movements slow and deliberate.

  “How’s your knee today?” she asked, sidetracking his thoughts of bending her over the table and thrusting himself inside her moist warmth.

  He shifted his weight to test it. “Feels good.” He stretched and rubbed his lower back. “My back is a little tight, though,” he said only half serious.

  She took the bait and went around behind him and started kneading above his buttocks. “How’s this?”

  “Ah, that’s better,” he sighed. Better that his muscles were loosening up and better now that her hands were on his skin again.

  Slowly, she worked her way out to his hips. She spanned her hands over his waist and slid one hand forward until she could cup his cock in her palm. A moan escaped his lips as she slid her fingers up and down the length of him. “And how’s this?” she asked, her breath hot against his back.

  “Even better.” He reached behind her and pulled her body up against him until her breasts squished against his back.

  She continued to work him into a frenzy until a clear pearl of liquid formed at the end of his shaft.

  “Christ, Vi,” he bit out. “Has anyone ever told you that you have magic fuckin’ hands?”

  “Not in so many words,” she answered.

  He twisted around to face her and covered her mouth with his. Lips meeting lips. Tongue caressing tongue. He kissed her until they were out of breath and their lips were swollen.

  Though his eyes spoke pure need, she swallowed and took a deep breath and stepped back. “Business first,” she heard herself say. “I’d hate for you to miss out on your massage because we skipped it and went right for the good stuff.”

  Jace smiled. “The good stuff, huh?” Her soft hands massaging his entire body weren’t so bad, so he agreed to get down to business and got onto the massage table.

  After five minutes of her hands working on his calves, Jace could barely contain himself. When she moved up to work on his thigh, he thought he would burst. Finally, he couldn’t take any more “business” and flipped over onto his back and grabbed her wrists. She looked at him with wide eyes and waited for him to speak.

  “Business or no business, I can’t wait any longer, Vi.” His voice was deep and husky and a ribbon of desire coiled in her stomach and moved down between her thighs.

  “You’re used to getting what you want, when you want it, aren’t you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

  His chin went up and his eyes flashed. “You’re damn right I am.”

  “Okay then. But so am I.” She freed her wrists from his grip and placed her palms on his thighs. “Today, we each get our way.” She smiled and slid the rubber band from her hair and let her hair tumble down around her shoulders. “Me first.”

  Grabbing the bottle of massage oil, she squirted some on her hands and slid them up his thighs and began massaging his arrousal.

  Jace’s eyes rolled back into his head and he sucked in a ragged breath. That’s when Jace McQuaid knew. He had met his match. Violet could have her way with him any time she wanted. Business be damned.

  If this was business, he shuddered at the thought of how she defined pleasure.

  The oil smelled like tropical nights and piña colada and made him want to fly her to a deserted island and make love to her all night on the sand.

  Jace’s eyelids fluttered open the instant she stopped moving her hands. “Don’t stop,” he started to whisper, before noticing the reason.

  She’d stopped to take off her pants and panties and that was fine with him. He watched her shimmy out of her clothes and couldn’t imagine a sexier sight than Violet’s bare skin.

  Before he could reach up to cup her breasts with his hand, she leaned down and licked the tip of his cock. After a few swirls of her tongue she took him in her mouth. With each thrust of her mouth, her long hair danced on his thighs. It tickled and sent a chill over his skin. He gripped the edge of the table and hoped to God he could hold off until he was inside her.

  Just before he lost control, she eased off, straightened herself and searched his eyes.

  “God, you’re amazing,” he managed to say in between breaths.

  Suddenly he didn’t want her just for the night or the week. He wanted her for the long term. He wanted to make plans with her for the summer. He wanted to take her out on the lake on his boat and find a quiet little secluded cove where they could make love under the summer sun.

  Violet swallowed. “Mmmm. Pineapple,” she said and smacked her lips. She had known he would want to mix business with pleasure and had been sure to pack flavored massage oil. A girl could never be too prepared.

  “Pineapple?” The tropical smell wasn’t the only thing making his mouth water.

  “Wanna taste?” She stuck out her tongue and he covered it with his mouth and suckled her sweet fruit-covered tongue.

  He eased her onto the floor and with one hand cupped over her breast and the other between her legs, Jace thrust a finger into her sex.

  The only other words on her lips were his name. He slid his other hand from her breast down to her clit. It didn’t take his other finger long to find her G-spot and when he did she thought she’d faint from the dual sensation of his fingers and tongue.

  When she was on the verge of unraveling, he gripped her hips and thrust himself inside her. She cried out when he filled her with his warmth and they settled into an intoxicating rhythm balancing between frantic need and decadent indulgence.

  * * *

  Jace stirred in his sleep. He knew he was dreaming, but he couldn’t wake himself up. It was so real. The ice, the sound of the crowd. He could feel the weight of the equipment on his shoulders and the stick gripped in his gloved hand. It was real. This was the exact same event that had happened in real life just a few years ago.

  He glanced up at the scoreboard and it looked different, much too bright. Everything was a little off, come to think of it, but that was the way dreams worked. He knew it wasn’t real, but he was still scared nonetheless. Scared because he knew what was going to happen and how bad it was going to hurt.

  Jace pushed himself across the ice and towards the net. He had the puck on his stick and the chance to score the game-winning goal. A defenseman blocked his path and he swung around behind the net. With a bone-crushing crash, Tomo “The Tank” Timonen smashed Jace into the boards. Jace’s leg was in an awkward position and his knee twisted. Just as he opened his mouth to cry out in pain, the heaviness sleep began to fade and the dream dissolved away.

  * * *

  Violet woke up in Jace’s bed with her body curled around his. She was spooning him and his body heat was an absolute pleasure to wake up to. The scent of pineapple hung in the air. She could imagine waking up this way every morning.

  And then Jace let out a blood-curdling moan and Violet nearly jumped out of her skin.

  “Jace?” Violet nudged him softly, but he didn’t budge. “Jace, wake up.”

  When she pushed him a little harder, he abruptly snapped up into a sitting position. “What? What’s going on
?” He looked around frantically with a crazed look in his eyes. His jersey and skates were gone and he was naked in his bed with Violet hovering over him. What had her looking so damned worried?

  “Jace, it’s okay,” she reassured him and rubbed his arm. “You were having a bad dream. It’s okay now.”

  He scrubbed his hands over his eyes. “Why’d you wake me up?”

  She frowned. “I’m sorry. You made this noise that sounded like someone was ripping you limb from limb.”

  “Oh.” He bent his knee, testing the flexibility and was relieved to find the joint still working. At least the damn dream was just a flashback.

  “What were you dreaming about?” Violet asked, rubbing her hand up and down his arm.

  “I don’t remember,” he lied and moved away from her touch. He wasn’t ready or willing to share his nightmares with her. It was just sex anyway. Why did he have to let her into every dark corner of his life? Because he thought he might be in love with her? No, he thought bitterly. He wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about her.

  Violet shook her head. “Whatever it was, it must have been intense.”

  Jace got out of bed and the instant he put weight on his knee, the pain made his breath catch in his throat. Defeated and frustrated, he sat back on the bed with a huff.

  “What’s wrong?” She scooted over to him, the sheets tangling around her. “Is it your knee?”

  He flinched in response. “It feels like it’s on fire.”

  “I’ll get some ice.”

  “There’re ice packs in the freezer out in the garage.”

  Violet threw on one of Jace’s old T-shirts, went through the kitchen and pushed open the door that led into the garage. Inside, she was surprised by what she found.

  So this was Jace’s boat, Ace in the Hole.

  The boat was clearly designed for speed with its slick styling, sleek lines and sexy paint job. Even though the boat sat motionless in the garage, Violet could almost hear it slicing through the water and feel the wind on her face. She imagined going out on the lake with Jace in the summer. There’d be skiing, barbequing, fireworks over the lake on the Fourth… And then she stopped herself. Would they still be together come summertime? You weren’t supposed to make future plans with someone you were having “just sex” with.

  Violet grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and hurried back inside.

  While Jace iced his knee and nursed his crappy mood, Violet pulled her clothes on in a rush.

  “What’s got you in such a hurry?” he asked bitterly. Christ, he really did sound like a crotchety old man. Well, how was he supposed to sound when Violet had his mind and heart twisted up into knots?

  “I’ve gotta go. I’ve got Molinari at nine.”

  Jace’s brows drew together. “What’s a Molinari?”

  Violet sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She looked rumpled and sleepy and incredibly sexy. If it wasn’t for his shitty nightmare, they could be having morning sex right now.

  “He’s a regular client of ours who Pats and I fight over not taking,” she explained.

  “What’s his deal? Is he a creep or something?” Jace asked, pushing aside the rising need to protect her.

  “No. He’s actually a fairly nice guy. It’s just that he…well, he has a forest of hair growing on his back.”

  He made a face and Violet instantly felt bad. “Oh. That’s all?”

  “God, that sounds mean of me to say that, but it’s really nasty and distracting.”

  When she started for the door, Jace grabbed her wrist and she spun around to face him. “Go easy on Mr. Molinari, all right?”

  “I’m always nice to him,” Violet defended.

  “I know, but the guy can’t help it that he has a forest growing back there.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry, but sometimes I just wanna take a Weedwhacker to him.”

  Stretching up on her tippy toes, Violet kissed him goodbye and rushed out the door.

  Chapter Eleven

  Secrets

  For the next few weeks, Violet spent nearly every night at Jace’s cabin. It felt nice to settle into routines with him. Sleeping late, drinking coffee in bed, taking long steamy showers together, eating dinner in front of a blazing fire. But it also made her uneasy whenever she thought about Phillip. Phillip was the ugly name of the situation she wasn’t ready to figure out yet. But there was one thing she was sure of. She had to tell Jace. He deserved to know she was a horrible person.

  After a long workday, she returned to his cabin and paced the living room while Jace was in the kitchen scrounging up something for dinner.

  There was a fire blazing in the fireplace and it was toasty inside, but Violet shivered and hugged her arms around herself in anticipation of Jace’s reaction to what she had to say. Maybe he would understand. Maybe he would send her away and never speak to her again.

  She went to the window. The lake was breathtakingly beautiful in the soft evening light, but she didn’t see it. Not when her mind was focused on the past.

  Suddenly, she was hurtled backward in time to two years ago. She had gone about her day the same as any other and then, in the blink of an eye, everything was ripped out from under her. She remembered that day so clearly like it was only yesterday.

  She had been making housecalls all morning and when she finally checked her phone, she frowned at the 23 missed calls. Most of them were from her mother.

  She dialed her mother’s number and held the phone to her ear with a shaky hand.

  “Oh Violet, finally. Thank God. Your father is in the hospital.”

  Her hand flew up to cover her mouth and she collapsed into a chair. She’d never forget that horrifying feeling of utter and complete helplessness.

  “What happened?”

  Then Violet was miles away in the hospital waiting room, huddled with her brothers and mother. When Phillip entered the room, Violet shot up out of her seat and embraced him.

  “Thank you so much, Phillip,” she told him when they were alone. “Thank you for saving my dad.” If it wasn’t for the talented doctor, Lord knows what might have happened.

  “It was a routine prostatectomy,” Phillip replied coolly.

  He used some other long and complicated words that she didn’t understand, but it didn’t matter. Phillip had saved the day and saved her father.

  “What can I ever do to thank you enough for everything you’ve done?” she asked, still clutching his sleeve.

  He squeezed her hand and put his other hand on her shoulder. “You can promise you’ll marry me.”

  She blinked as her brain scrambled to compute and she forced herself to focus on Phillip’s face. Did he just say what she thought he said? “M-marry you?” she asked, unable to hide her surprise.

  “Yes. It doesn’t have to be right away. But eventually.”

  She thought about it and couldn’t find a reason to say no. The fact that he’d just saved her father’s life might have swayed her decision. They’d known each other for most of their lives and her family loved him. Her brothers liked to make a habit out of scaring off anyone who came within five feet of her, so Phillip seemed like a logical choice for a husband. He was a successful doctor with a growing practice and he had a smart head on his shoulders.

  “Okay.”

  “You’ll need to accompany me to the hospital fundraisers and any other events I attend.”

  “But…” She let the sentence trail off when he stared at her with cold, dark eyes.

  “You promise to be my wife?”

  “Y-yes. I promise.”

  He gave her elbow a pat and said, “Good. I have some paperwork to finish up. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  He smiled and squeezed her shoulder again before walking away. And that was the extent of his proposal.

  When Dale was out of the hospital, Phillip enthusiastically announced his engagement to Violet at the family’s monthly dinner. Surprise had flashed across her brothers’ faces and her mother had ju
mped up out of her chair with a zealous squeal and proceeded to capture Phillip into a death hold, er hug.

  Everyone had been happy about the situation and Violet had just sat there feeling numb.

  The concern in Jace’s voice sent Violet’s scattered thoughts back into the past where they belonged. “You okay, Vi?”

  She kept her back to him and heard his voice get closer as he walked toward her. “It’s a shame that something with such an incredible view sits empty so much throughout the season.”

  She heard Jace stop behind her and smiled when he wound a tendril of her hair around his fingers.

  “I’m here enough to enjoy it. When I retire, I plan on living here full time.”

  “I can’t think of anywhere more beautiful to live.”

  “My ex-wife always hated this place,” he said, a hint of sadness in his voice. “She hated the water and the bugs and the snow. Everything about it really. I swear, whenever that woman got more than fifteen miles from a Macy’s she’d start having a panic attack. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I love this place so much.”

  Violet turned to face him. “Because she hated it?”

  The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. “Because it was the only thing she didn’t take away from me. It was the one thing she didn’t want. Simone took everything from me but I wouldn’t let her take my baby.”

  Violet’s stomach flip-flopped and she swallowed. “When you say baby…?”

  He grinned. “I’m talking about my boat.”

  She nodded. “Right. I saw it in the garage. It’s very nice. You didn’t have any children together?” she asked when he didn’t say anything else.

  “No.” He didn’t explain any further. He wasn’t sure how long things with Violet were going to last, but his position on having kids was something he didn’t think she needed to know just yet. Or at all.