Jace (3 page)

Chapter
3

“You shoulda seen the ass on
this one, Jace.”
Giorgio Vincinatti groaned
in fake ecstasy.
“Perfect heart-shaped ass; I’m telling you, she
had legs that go all the way up. I wanted to grab her right there as she bent
over the counter to grab her coffee.”

Jace shook his head. “You think
you wouldn’t have learned the first thing about sexual harassment, Gio.”

Giorgio or Gio as the team all
called him, collapsed back in his chair, dark eyes rolling upward. “I know, I
know. Why do you think I didn’t? But damn, I’ve never wanted to grab a woman’s
ass so bad in my life. In my life,” he added for good measure.

“I’d have gotten her name and
number and had her in the sack before week’s end. Possibly by day’s end.” This
arrogant statement came from tech guru, Kyle Lassenby.

Jace shrugged because the man
had a point and was probably right. Kyle was considered ‘hot’ by most women.
Women went to bed with him like he was some lucky prize. Jace didn’t get it.
The man was as loud-mouthed as a punk teenager. Maybe worse. It didn’t matter
to Jace if Kyle had a nice jaw line and six-pack abs, not when his arrogance
outshined everything else.

At the head of the table, Frank
rubbed his temples. His grimace looked worse than usual. Stress from his recent
divorce was weighing heavily on him. Over the past two years the number of gray
hairs at his temple had more than doubled. Jace felt for the man, he did. Aside
from getting him drunk, or possibly getting him laid, he didn’t know what to
say to the guy. Jace had never been married. Didn’t really plan on it. Though
he didn’t
not
plan it either. He preferred to let life come to him. Just
because he didn’t see himself finding a woman and settling into some suburban
house and having kids didn’t mean some woman wouldn’t stroll into his life and
turn his world inside out.

Speaking of crazy women…not for
the first time, his thoughts moved to that intriguing woman. He couldn’t keep
her off his mind. Mara Colgen had taken up way too much of his thoughts. At
first it was just because she was weird and cute and he was quick to admit he
wanted to see her naked. But some gut instinct told him there might be
something more to it, to her.

Stupid asshole. Gonna get your
heart broken.

She had ‘stay back’ stamped all
across her unsure gaze. But, oh man, did he get to see a few bursts of that
wicked side of her. She was like a package only partially unwrapped. He wanted
to see the package unfolded and wide open.

Someone coughed.

“What was that? I drifted off
for a second there,” Jace said.

Kyle grinned and combed a hand
through his blond hair. “I see that. We were all placing bets; well, everyone
but old man, Frank, there.”

“Bets on what?” Jace asked.

“Forty-two isn’t old,” Frank
retorted.

“Bets on the hottie who just
walked by looking lost.”

Jace perked up in his seat as
if his mother had just walked into the room. A rush of excitement burst down his
spine. He checked the glass paneled wall that separated them from the hallway
but he didn’t see any woman.

Stupid, Jace. Do you really
think she’d come to your work?

Maybe you need to get some
action if you’re that hot over this lady.

Yeah, some action with her
would do just fine.

“Would it be so bad if we
actually stayed focused and got some damn work done around here?” Frank asked,
scowling.

“Yeah, it would be,” Kyle said,
smirking.

“Dang, you missed her, Mathews.
Sexy thing, a regular curvy mommasita,” Gio said. “She’s my type.”

“Every woman’s your type,” Jace
said.

“This is true,” Gio agreed,
laughing.

“Twenty says I’ll get her
number,” Kyle said. He pulled a twenty out and slapped it on the conference
table.

“This has to be breaking a rule
somewhere,” Frank muttered. “Gonna get my ass fired…” his murmurs trailed away.

Gio slapped his own twenty on
the table. “I’ll take that bet. How ’bout you, Mathews?”

It was on the tip of his tongue
to say that he wasn’t interested. His mouth had already moved to speak the
first word.

But then she walked by.

The team started posturing like
a bunch of apes. Everyone save tired Frank and quiet Mac. Jace spotted her
strolling down the hallway. She looked lost and confused with her button noise
pinched.

It was her. Mara Colgen. The
sexy sex toy operator.

His gut clenched with
excitement. Blood started burning a fiery length through his veins.

Standing, he slapped a hundred
on the table. “This one is mine.”

He marched out of the
conference room, ignoring the outraged calls from his friends. Mara was here.
Something had happened when he met her. He wanted her naked. His need for her
had nothing to do with her job. It wasn’t even because she was astoundingly
beautiful. No, it was because when he looked at her and their gazes met,
something special flashed between them.

His dick twitched when she
spotted him. Her reaction at seeing him said it all; it explained exactly why
they were going to be together. Because the moment she saw him her lips rounded
into an
O
while her cheeks flushed scarlet and her pupils dilated. Yeah,
he liked that…because he felt about the same way.

There was something good about
Mara. Something wholesome and pure like light.

“You came,” he said.

They squared off. She wore a
red T-shirt that hugged her fine curves and dipped low down the front to tease
him with the sight of her breasts. She had full breasts and a slender waist
that flared out into hand-holding hips. Hips he could grip as he made love to
her. Shapely thighs were shown off in a flowery skirt. She looked real and
womanly. She didn’t wear makeup and he didn’t smell any perfume. Everything
about her was down to earth and real. He liked that.

Mara’s lips twitched. “I did
come.”

That’s all she said. A double
meaning hung in her words and in the way her lips fought a laugh.

Damn, but he wanted to know
what she meant by that. “I’m glad you did.”

Her cheeks blushed like a ripe
strawberry.
Pluck, pluck, pluck,
he thought. Had he been right? Had there
been a double meaning there? Had she ‘come’ with one of her sex toys and did
she do it while thinking of him? He liked how she could blush and be brazen all
at the same time. Why was it he found himself fighting smiles whenever he was
with her?

“Come with me.” Jace grabbed
her hand and towed her down the hall to his office.

For some reason holding her
hand didn’t seem odd at all. It felt like the most natural thing in the world
to do as if they’d already skipped certain pertinent steps to get to the coveted
hand-holding.

He reluctantly let her hand go
and gestured for her to take a seat in his office. Instead of sitting behind
his desk and therefore further away from her, he took the seat next to her
normally used for clients. Mara bit her lip, still smiling at him. When she
smiled her whole face lit up and eyes tilted down. Freckles trailed across her
cheeks making her look even more sweetly feminine. Every time she smiled at him
he fought the impulse to instantly smile back at her. She could snag him with
her little finger so quickly and she didn’t even know it.

Cute. Adorable. Sexy. Fuckable.

“You didn’t call me.”

She laughed. “I just did
actually. You didn’t answer.”

His heart skipped a beat.
“Sorry about that. I was in a conference and had my cell turned off. Did you
leave a message?” He hoped he didn’t sound as eager as he hoped.

“No.” She bit her lip, not
saying any more.

Too bad. He would have loved to
know what she would have said. Would her message be professional and
straightforward, or something more unique like she was?

That’s it, he liked this woman.
He didn’t want any games between them. “I want to take you out. Tonight,
tomorrow, whenever. Tell me what kind of food you like, what things you like
and don’t like, and I’ll give you a time and place.”

She gave him a big, wicked
smile. “Mr. Jace Mathews, are you asking me out on a date?”

“Absolutely.”

Her smile waned as she realized
how serious he was. He turned his chair to face hers directly. He wanted to see
her better. He liked her hair and how it looked in the light. It was long and
wavy but as light as champagne. No highlights or anything extra added to her
hair, but natural contrasts in her hair. A natural blonde. She had hair he
could wrap his hand around. This was good to know because he planned on doing
it—soon.

“I thought I was supposed to
ask you out,” she said. There was stunned, teasing look on her face. “I don’t
make it a habit to ask men out. I have before but not to someone as…manly as
you.”

“Manly?” That made him want to
laugh—and preen like a peacock.

“You’re healthy and fit and you
drive a big black truck. All manly things.”

His smile flashed and hers grew
even brighter, white teeth shining. That only made his smile grow until his
cheeks hurt. He wanted to kiss her. Bad. As his mind worked out a strategy to
win a kiss before she left his office, her smile faded.

“So, I came here about
something.”

Instantly on alert, he sat up.
“What happened?”

“See, it’s kind of hard to
explain but…”

“Try me,” he encouraged.

She sighed, looking like the
walls of her life were scraping her at the shoulder and closing in quickly.
“Someone was in my house.”

A muscle in his neck tightened
to an unbearable level. He rolled his head to loosen it. “A robbery?”

“No, no. It’s…you’re probably
not gonna believe me. It sounds crazy.”

Meaning it was probably worse
than better. “Try me,” he said.

“You see, I was in an a bad
relationship a while back. Corey…he’s not all there in the head. I thought he
was when we first got together.” She paused, as she shook her head. “You don’t
need to know that. What you need to know is that he’s hurt me in the past. I do
have a restraining order on him but that didn’t stop him before. Also, I think
he was in my house last night.”

Every muscle in Jace’s body
froze. Only his eyes blinked. “Why do you think he was in your house?” Every
instinctive urge inside him wanted to wrap her up in his arms and shield her
from all harm. He couldn’t help it; by now it was instinctual. His mom had been
through the very same thing Mara had.

Her shoulders sagged. She
looked tired. For a second he hesitated, but instinct took over and he placed
his hand on top of hers. She stiffened at the touch, then relaxed. “I know he
was. When I woke up, the thermostat was turned on to heat and the temperature
was turned up to ninety-three.”

“That’s certainly odd. What’s
the significance?”

Her eyes fell to the floor.
“It’s…not important. Trust me, it’s not. Just know that it’s something between
Corey and me and it’s pretty important.”

It was curiosity that got to
him, but as her security specialist, if she did have a stalker problem, then he
needed to know everything about the situation.

“I want to help, but I need to
know about the gritty details.”

Her fingers twitched beneath
his hand as she started to pull her hand away. Of course. This sort of
handholding was premature. But then soft fingers tangled with his, pressing
close, palm to palm. She’d turned her hand around to hold his. He looked at
their joined hands and felt…a surge of power in his chest, like he was
Superman, capable of flying right through the roof and out into the universe.
The moment faded as he adjusted to the sensation, but still he nearly trembled
with the power of emotion he just experienced.

“I don’t tell my own mom the
gritty details, okay.” She laughed, but he could see the painful glint in her
eye. “You’re cute, but not that cute.”

And there was his stupid smile
again, pulling up his lips. Hell, he was starting look like Kyle with the grin
he wore.

“I’m going to need the details
of your case, Ms. Colgen. Tell me your history with this guy. You don’t have to
leave anything out, but try to keep it brief, point by point.”

Her face scrunched up. “Why’s
that?”

His gaze slid to her mouth. He
jerked it away just as fast. He couldn’t be going there right now. “Otherwise,
people can find themselves reliving the old memories because they’re
remembering how they felt in the situations instead of stating the events as if
they were facts. It will help us both to keep the details straight. Now go.”

At the command, Mara jumped to
her feet and started ranting the horrific events of her ex like she was reading
a grocery list.