Jace (8 page)

Mara did what he said. She went
home with Jace that night. At two o’clock in the morning, she found herself
back in Jace’s truck again, and that’s when she realized nothing could ever bet
the same. Corey knew where she lived and he had a gun. It was only a matter of
time until he found her.

Corey was right. There was a
time limit to this game of his, she’d only just now felt its ticking pulse.

Tick tock, Mara. Tick tock.

Chapter
7

Mara woke up with itchy,
scratching feeling eyes. It took a few moments for her to orient her senses to
the new surroundings.

“No way.”

Mara buried her face in her
hands. For the first time since she’d left Corey she’d had sex…and it’d been amazing.
Spectacular, write about it, sing the praises to your momma, kind of good.
There was a shower in the bathroom and towels under the sink.

Mara grabbed her beauty
supplies from her suitcase and got in the shower. The water stung it was so
hard but the temperature was hot. She bathed slowly, not looking forward to
seeing Jace just yet. She picked out a pretty yellow sundress to wear and even
applied some light makeup. She told herself she wanted to put makeup on because
it would match the dress, but really she knew she was procrastinating.

Finally with nothing left to
do, she left the bedroom. She could hear water running down the hall from his
bedroom and she figured him to be in the shower. She took a moment to inspect
his house while he was away. He had a large ranch style home in the woods
outside the city where she’d never been before. His property was fenced in and
surrounded by woods. She hadn’t asked him questions last night. She’d been
silent the whole trip to his house and he’d been the same. Neither one of them
said a word about what happened.

Everything was made from dark
colored wood from the kitchen cabinets to the paneled floors. He had a
comfortable home, especially in the living room where he had pictures on the wall
of him with what looked like his mom. She was a dark-skinned woman so he must
get his lightness from his father. Mara found no pictures of his father
anywhere.

The shower shut off. Mara
tensed, then forced herself into the kitchen where she found the coffeepot. She
started making some so she’d have something to do. A door opened down the
hallway. She heard his heavy footsteps coming and her breath quickened. He was
coming!

She started to fill the carafe
with water as she kept her back to the doorway. Maybe if she just pretended he
wasn’t here then he’d go away.

The pot was full. She didn’t
need to be standing at the sink anymore. Jace’s presence filled the doorway. He
paused in the doorway as if surprised and then she heard the fridge open.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Mara went back to making coffee. As she
did, she spied Jace. He held a bottle of orange juice by the neck and gulped
down big gulps of it. His eyes were on her. Shit! And he was dripping wet,
literally dripping little puddles on the floor where he stood in only a towel
knotted around his tight hips. She could see every glorious, strong inch of
him. His chest showed two defined muscles rippling down over hills of
abominable muscles. He’d shaved. His jaw looked stronger than ever and more
handsome. His chest had only a dabbling of hair trailing down the middle of his
stomach to his groin.

He watched her take in his body
naked for the first time with unnerving intensity.

She startled, spilling some of
the water on the counter. Shit again. Ignoring him, she finished the coffee and
hit the switch.

“I’m making coffee.” Mara
rolled her eyes at her obvious statement. Of course he knew she was making
coffee. What else could she possibly be doing with the coffeepot?

“I see that.” He drank about
half the bottle, capped it, then put it back. All while looking at her. Her
stomach fluttered with nerves and she wished she’d worn sweats and sweater,
even though it was hot outside, because his gaze held nothing back. His eyes
were intense and he looked like he wanted to say something. “Get dressed.”

He turned and went back to his
bedroom.

Well that wasn’t exactly what
she had in mind.

After Jace drove them back to
her house, Mara didn’t know quite what to say. Something should be said since
they had sex last night, intense, passionate wild rutting that made her wet
just thinking about it. Which she was trying stridently not to. Yet, she
couldn’t help but feel like she was supposed to say something.

Unable to take the silence
anymore, she turned the radio on. Willie Nelson was crooning a country song
about horses. Jace shut the radio off. “We need to talk.”

This couldn’t be good. Talking
was never good when it was prefaced with
we need to talk.

“Okay.”

Jace sighed and scrubbed a hand
across the back of his neck. “Yesterday was…” he trailed off then tried again.
“I really like you.”

Mara blinked, not expecting
that. “Okay…?”

Jace sent her a stupid smile.
“Last night was incredible and this changes things between us.”

“I’ll have to disagree. Just
because you put your penis inside me does not mean I think any differently
about this arrangement, mister.”

His eyes darkened with heat as
his gaze flicked down her dress a moment. “Yeah, I guess it does.” Even his
voice was deeper.

“Jace…” she looked away, blushing.
“I’m not gonna lie and say I’m not looking for someone because I am. I’ve been
looking for someone for a long time who will complete me. Who will be my
friend, my lover, my protector. I wouldn’t take back what we did last night
because it was wonderful, but I’m not going to do it again either. Because
you’re not the one to complete me.”

He laughed in disbelief. “Mara,
you’re weird, but I like that. I like you enough to come inside you without a
condom. Have you thought about that?”

Ice filled her veins.
Shit!

“I can see from your look of
horror that you did not. Are you taking anything?”

“I’m not on the pill,” she said
woodenly. What if she was pregnant?

God, please don’t do this to me
right now
, she prayed.

“Listen, everything will be
fine. I’m not usually so stupid about things like that, but I’d never been with
you before. It was a whole other thing entirely.” Again his gaze swept over
her. His look made her warm all over.

“Stop looking at me like that!”
she snapped.

He looked back at the road.
“Then stop looking so fucking beautiful, Mara,” he shot right back.

Her mouth floundered open and
closed but no words came out.

“Sweetheart, I like you a lot.
I think about you all the time. This isn’t something I’m going to ignore.
You’re not the only one who’d like…”

“Like what?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing.
Forget about it. We’re almost there anyway. My co-worker, Gio, is coming over.
He’s great with wiring things. We’ll set up cameras inside and outside your
house along with the alarm. I’m going to change your locks too. When we’re all
done, your place will be like Fort Knox.”

Mara wished he’d said what he
really liked. She wanted to know. This man messed her up so bad. This wasn’t a
person who entered your life and left it without you remembering a thing about
them. This was a person who came into your life, tossed all your thoughts and
dreams around like a rag doll, then made you fall in love before you knew it.
That’s why she had to be extra careful with Jace. She was already too susceptible
to him.

“Jace,” she began. “I can’t
take the chance.”

He didn’t say anything but his
eyes tensed around the corners. She hated adding that stress there, making
things even harder on him when he was only helping her.

“Thank you for helping me. I
know I haven’t seemed very grateful and that’s because I don’t want your help.
But you’ve somehow finagled your way into my life so I guess I just have to
live with it.” She laughed and his lips loosened into a small smile.

He looked at her deeply one
last time. And then he took her home.

Right away, Mara knew something
was wrong as they turned onto her driveway.

“Jace, those curtains were
closed when we left last night.” The brown curtains were pulled wide open.

His eyes narrowed. He parked,
then without saying a word, reached under his seat and pulled out a gun. Mara’s
eyes flew open. “Hey, you have a gun!” That was the second time she’d said
something incredibly obvious today. She was on a roll.

“Comes with the job territory.
Stay in the truck, lock the doors, and honk if you see anything.”

With that, he left her. She did
what he said and waited. He came back a few minutes later. She hopped out of
the truck and saw the hard line of his jaw.

“What is it?” she asked.

He put his gun back in his
truck. “Nothing good.”

Mara stared at her house and
wanted to cry. 

“I don’t know if we’ll be
installing that alarm system today. You’ll have to stay with me for a few days.
Don’t worry, I can keep you safe.”

“What’s wrong with my house?”

“I know it’s not what you’re used
to, but you can keep the spare bedroom until we get this all squared away—”

“I asked what’s wrong with my
house, Jace!”

Scowling, he grabbed her hand
and pulled her inside the house.

“Oh no.” She said it again and
again.

Her house had been trashed. Completely
destroyed. Mara walked room to room saying the same two words over and over
again. “Oh no.” Each new thing seemed to stab her in the heart a little bit
deeper. The picture of her and Tia at the club was torn into little pieces.

On the hallway wall, he’d used
one of her lipsticks to write:
whore!

The rest of her clothes had
been torn out of her dresser. Some were in pieces from being cut up. Her
mattress was askew and sheets ripped off. It looked like he’d touched
everything.
Everything.

Mara stopped at the kitchen
table. A butcher knife from her kitchen set stuck out from the table. He'd
stabbed a picture. In the picture Corey had his arm wrapped around her
shoulders and a smile on his face. The knife was stuck through her head.

“What happened here?”

“Don’t look at that.” Jace
pulled her into his arms and she went, needing the comfort his touch brought.
He steadied her, helped her to keep her tears in check as he pulled her back
into the living room. “He was here.”

“Why?” She tried again. “Why
would he ruin everything?”

Jace stopped and looked down at
the floor. That’s when Mara saw what had happened to the floor for the first
time. She gasped. How had she missed this? Had she really been blinded by the
rest of the damage to her personal sanctuary that she missed the crater in her
floor?

Right where they’d had sex, the
floor was torn up. It looked as though someone had taken a hammer to it and
tore the wood up. She could see into the bowels of the house below. Nails stuck
out and splintered wood lay strewn about in pieces.

“What is this? I don’t even
understand. That’s where we…did he see us? Oh my god, is there a camera in
here?” She spun around searching for some kind of camera on a tripod in the
corner of the room.

He wrapped her in his arms,
turning her away from the gaping hole in the floor. How much would that even
cost to fix? More than she had, surely.

“No camera. He was watching.”

Mara panted. The room seemed to
close in on her. He was here watching her with Jace. He saw her in the midst of
passion with another man. He saw her kiss him, saw her pleasure, saw
everything. Mara ran outside into the morning air. She didn’t stop until she
paced behind his truck. Jace followed her.

“What does that mean? Oh god,
what does that mean?” She wrapped her arms around herself but it didn’t make
her feel any less violated. Corey had been there. He’d seen her lose herself in
Jace’s touch last night. And he’d punished her by ruining her sanctuary. Tears
slipped quietly down her cheeks. She wasn’t really crying, it was more of an
involuntary reaction. She couldn’t help but cry some, even though she was
spitting mad.

“He must have seen me watching
the house. When I came in to use the bathroom and take you home, he must have
been at a window watching you. This is my fault. I should have been back in
that car watching the perimeter, not in there with you.”

Mara felt hollow like she’d
been scraped from the inside out. “Do you regret being with me?” Why, out of
all things she wanted to know, this was the first thing to come to mind, she
didn’t know.

He strode forward in time to
her pounding heart and pulled her into another hug. His big arms could swallow
her whole. He was so big. “Never,” he said into her hair.

He held her like that without
saying a word, simply being there for her. Gradually her muscles relaxed and
she succumbed to Jace’s addicting touch, leaning into him, rubbing her cheek
across his strong chest.

She sighed. “I have to go to
work. I’ll take some vacation time, but I have to go and explain to my boss so
I don’t lose my job.”

Jace nodded. “I’ll take care of
it, sweetheart. Do you hear me?” He stared into her eyes until she nodded.
“Good. Let’s go.”