Jace

by T. A. Grey

  “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.”

  Chapter 8

  Inside Aphrodite’s Love, Bob, the gruff but loveable secretary, gave her a strange look. She hadn’t thought this far ahead into this ordeal. How did she explain to people that she needed a bodyguard because her psycho ex wanted to kill her?

  “You’re late. Sherry’s roaring mad and looking for you,” Bob said.

  “I know, I know. I’m going to go find her right now.”

  Mara found Tia in her office. She was typing at her computer. Tia looked up. “You know you’re late, right? I was almost, just a little worried from your safety. That’s only because your abusive ex is looking for you.” Tia glared daggers.

  “God, I’m so sorry. You wouldn’t believe everything that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours.” Mara closed the door and took a seat, or more like collapsed into the office chair.

  “Tell momma Tia all your problems, girl. Let me hear it. I see you got that boy with you still.”

  Mara sighed. “He’s not a boy but yet he’s still here.”

  “I take it he won that argument then.”

  “He absolutely did not. The man is a bully who has to strong arm me into doing things I really don’t want to do,” Mara said, crossing her arms. “I need your support on this.”

  “He seems real genuine,” Tia said, arching one brow. “I wouldn’t have left you with him if I didn’t think that.”

  “You saw what he did to that guy, right? I’m not just imagining the violence I saw. You and he keep acting like that doesn’t matter when it means everything to me.”

  Tia folded back into her chair, sighing. “I know and that’s got you worried. I’d be worried to, but not every man is violent. Some men would never ever hurt a woman even if she hit him first. I think he’s like that.”

  Mara shook her head. “How could you know that?

  “Just one of momma Tia’s special feelings.”

  “You know the other side to that coin, right? The side where I get into the relationship with him and he does turn out to be like Corey. Then I’m just another woman with the wrong taste for men. Like a bad stereotype. Well, Tia, I don’t want to be that woman. One terrible man is enough for me.”

  “I say get to know him then make your decision, but forgetting him when you don’t know him yet seems pretty shortsighted,” Tia said.

  Mara paced the room, unable to keep still any longer. “Sounds so easy when you say it like that. I have to tell you something.”

  Tia tensed. “What is it? Did something happen?”

  Mara nodded. “Yeah. Last night I had sex with Jace on my living room floor with most of his clothes still on. Afterward he made me go to his house because he didn’t feel my house was safe. The sex was the best I ever had. He kisses like a dream. We went back to my house today only to find it completely ransacked. There was a knife stabbed through a picture of me and Corey together. And I’m completely confused about Jace.”

  Tia tossed her head back laughing. “You finally got some! It’s about time. I knew the plumbing needed a vigorous pumping down there.”

  “Please tell me you did not just say that,” Mara muttered.

  Tia clapped, bouncing in her seat with excitement. “Tell me how big he was. Was he thick and long? Oh! Oh! Wait, don’t tell me yet. Hold on, hold on, hold on. First,” she squirmed in her seat, “first tell me if you came.” She held one finger pointed in the air like she was about to do a count.

  Mara blushed and stomped her foot. “What does this have to do with anything important?”

  Tia only s
tared. Her finger was still poised sharply in the air.

  They went into a staring contest, neither willing to break. Mara could only hold out one minute. “Fine! Yes, all right? Yes, I did.”

  Tia smiled approvingly. “I knew a fine man like that knew how to take care of a woman right.”

  Boy was she onto something there, Mara thought. “I really don’t want to talk about this. Can we just stop, like now?”

  Tia laughed really hard. “Like hell we can. Tell me everything.”

  Sighing, Mara sat back down, pouting. “I came, he came. End of story.”

  Tia took a seat, her eyes lost in calculating thought. “Have you asked him why he is the way he is?”

  “What are you talking about now?” Mara asked.

  “I mean, have you asked him why he went crazy on that guy and beat the crap out of him?” When Mara didn’t answer Tia snorted with derision. “I knew it. You need to ask him about it.”

  “Why would I do anything to get to know him better, Tia?”

  Tia smiled knowingly. “Because you really like him.”

  Mara hung her head between her knees. “God. I really do.”

  “Talk to him and give it a little time. Things will work out if you want them to.”

  Yeah, Mara wanted things to work out, bad. It’d be nice to have a good man in her life. But did she know if she could trust Jace or not?

  Tia went to the window and pulled a blind down to peer out. She made a choking sound.

  “What is it?” Mara asked.

  “I can’t believe it. What the hell does he think he’s doing here?”

  “Who is it?” Mara asked, excited. Anyone who made Tia mad got what was coming to them.

  “It’s that chauvinistic, Italian, son of a bitch from the coffee shop.”

  “Dante’s Coffee?” The greatest coffee shop in all the land, according to Tia.

  “That’s the one. He’s the one I was telling you about. You probably weren’t even listening.”

  Mara squeezed herself next to the window and pulled down the blind. “I always listen. That’s him? Wow, from the way you always talked about him I pictured him as fat, greasy, and ugly. I think you left out mention of him being tall, dark, and sexy.”

  Tia scoffed. “I’ll tell you what I do know about him. He’s a sexist asshole and I’d rather punch his stupid face than…”

  “Than what?”

  “I don’t know, okay!” Tia said. “What is creepy coffee guy doing here anyway?”

  Good point. Mara exited the office and found herself staring straight into her boss’s gently wrinkled neck. Sherry was a sixty-two-year-old redhead who wore gold-rimmed tortoise shell glasses, red flower patterned dresses, and scuffed up black heels every single day to work. It washed her complexion out using so much bright color but she compensated by piling on layers of black eyeliner and mascara until it clumped. She’d probably have a cigarette clamped between her lips if the higher-ups hadn’t banned smoking from the workplace.

  “Are you gonna explain to me why I have two football players taking up office space?”

  Jace stood in the back corner next to a brown filing cabinet. His co-worker had a black bag slung over his shoulder standing nearby. And while he looked at ease, Mara could see the stiffness in Jace’s muscles that said he was ready to move at a moment’s notice.

  “Sherry, you know me better than that. I don’t know any football players.”

  Sherry stared down at Mara with a stoic frown.

  Mara couldn’t help but feel like she’d disappointed a parent. Sherry always had that effect on her. “Listen, let’s go into my office.”

  “You don’t have an office,” Sherry said.

  “That’s right but you do and it’s nice and big so let’s go in there.”

  They talked in Sherry’s office.

  “I’m having a problem with an old boyfriend of mine so I’ve hired Superior Protective Services to help me. The buff hunk with the scruffy beard is Jace Mathews. He’s my personal bodyguard.” She couldn’t say that without feeling like a princess even if his services were not wanted (very much). “I don’t know who the other one is. Maybe he works with Jace.”

  Sherry blinked behind her gold-rimmed glasses. Her voice was scratchy from years of cigarette smoke. “I don’t give a damn about the Italian fella’. Now I want you to cut the shit and get straight with me, little girl. I ain’t no pushover like that man you got out there. What’s going on with you and are you safe?”

  Mara’s smile crumbled. Even her heart quaked in her chest. “Yes, I’m safe. I think my ex wants to hurt me. That’s what Jace is here for.”

  Sherry’s metal chair squeaked along the floor as she stood. “You gonna take some vacation off and let that man clean the old cave out?”

  Red flooded Mara’s cheeks. “What is with people thinking my vagina is a cave? Tia said almost the same thing.”

  “All us women got caves, honey. I hired you to use yours, so you should know.”

  This is what Mara was familiar with. The back and forth banter that made her job ten times greater than if she didn’t have it.

  “By why would my cave be old? Thirty-two is not old,” Mara said.

  “You know, I’ve had these shoes for about thirty-two years. I wore these to Jeffrey’s graduation back in…1981.”

  “Don’t you dare rope me into another conversation about Jeff.”

  “All I’m saying is if you’d have given him a chance you two could have been a cute couple. I heard the ladies say he’s great in the sack,” Sherry said, smirking.

  “Ew. That is gross on so many levels. He’s your son,” Mara said.

  Sherry pulled a cigarette out from her desk and lit it. “He might be my son, but I hear girls talk when they’re around.”

  “Enough about Jeff, yuck. Listen, I’m going to take a week of vacation.”

  Slowly, Sherry started shaking her head. When she smiled her yellowing teeth flashed. Sherry managed to make the expression look charming and scary at the same time. “Not until you finish your queue. You know the rules. You have four products left to test and review.”

  Mara’s jaw dropped. “No way. Can’t they wait until I get back?”

  Sherry smiled. “No, that’s why those ones are top in queue right now. I need them tested, stat.”

  Mara couldn’t help feeling down, like she was a kid back in school again who just learned that there will be school today instead of being canceled.

  “Darn it. Fine, but after I finish my report on the projects I’m out of here.”

  “Good, and Mara?”

  Mara paused at the door. “Yeah?”

  Sherry turned serious. “You be careful now. I can’t be losing my best employee.”

  Mara wanted to say some funny quip but found the words tangling in her throat. She’d known Sherry for ten years. In that time, they’d hated each other, loved each other, and wanted to kill each other. Mara knew there wasn’t another boss in the world like Sherry. She was something special.

  “Will do, Sherry.”

  Mara found Jace and informed him of the update. The change in plan didn’t faze him.

  “That’s fine. Show me the room you’ll be in.”

  Mara led him down the hall that led away from the front of the building. The hallway connected to another which had the testing rooms. There were only two of them, a female and male testing room which could only be occupied one at a time. A light outside the door was lit up green if the room was unoccupied. If the room was occupied the light turned red.

  Mara opened the door. “This’s it. Nothing special.”

  There was a television in the room with a bookshelf of pornographic DVDs, erotic novels on another bookshelf, a computer open to a porn website, and a radio. They offered anything they could to help the testers to use the products. After all, they wanted to replicate the environment in which the average woman might use a sex toy. There was a hospital bed that had parchment paper which was switched w
henever a new tester used the room. Everything was sanitized afterward.

  Jace inspected the room. There were no other doors, no cameras, and no windows.

  “This works perfectly. I’ll be outside the door. Gio’s going to get to work setting taps on your phone and getting the place cleaned up. We just need your boss’s signature to do it. Hey,” he said, his voice turning soft.

  Mara’s wide eyes flew to his. “Yes?”

  He crooked his finger, beckoning her. She took a step forward, then another until their bodies barely touched. For a moment she forgot she was supposed to hate him. That’s also the moment she learned Jace wasn’t going to take it easy on her. He wanted her and he wasn’t above showing her.

  He pressed his finger against her lips; they parted around him with a slight pucker. Heat permeated her belly at the thought of something harder and longer replacing his finger. It was like that’s what he wanted to put in her head. He rocked his finger ever so slightly before taking it away.

  “Have a nice day at work.”

  He backed away and closed the door after him.

  Chapter 9

  “How’s it looking?” Jace asked.

  Gio shrugged. “Good.”

  “You’ve been awfully tight-mouthed since you got here. Does it have something to do with the woman who happens to have a heart-shaped ass and legs that go all the way up? The one glaring at you like she wants our balls on a stick?”

  Gio ground his jaw. “Why don’t you shut the fuck up and mind your own business?”

  Jace laughed. “This is too good. It must be her. The only time you get pissed is when it’s about a woman. You can’t handle the stress of a woman being mad at you. Your mother did that to you.”

  Gio flipped him off. “Like you know anything about me or my ma.”

  “I know I’m right.”

  “Stupido idiota,” Gio muttered. “Listen, you may have nothing but wall sits to do all day but I got a tap to set up.”

  “And an angry woman to deal with.”

  “Ah hell, that’s it. I’m going to go take care of this right now.”