“Yeah, I’m sure.” His voice fell. “You sound like you don’t want me to come.”
“I…I do. It’s just a surprise.” A really big, unexpected, horrible disaster of a surprise.
“Talking on the phone is great, Julia, but I’d like to see you and… I can’t wait to hug you and hold your hand.”
She wanted those things, too. But she didn’t want the rejection that would almost certainly result from them.
Gabe had gone and screwed the pooch and he was completely oblivious of it.
* * *
Cassidy was a long-haired cat who hated to be brushed, so Julia wasn’t surprised when she noticed a knot in her fur. She tried to untangle it with a brush—much to Cassidy’s extreme displeasure—but it only made matters worse. Cassidy was so angry that she had escaped Julia’s grasp and was now hissing in the corner. Frustration mounted when the angry cat refused to come out and Julia threw the brush down on the carpet.
Damn, it was infuriating not being able to do anything on her own.
She hated to make the phone call, but unfortunately, it was unavoidable. “I need help.”
“I’m on my way. What’s wrong?”
“Cassidy has a tangle in her fur. It needs to be cut out and I can’t do it. Jesus, Kate, I had the freakin’ scissors in my hand, but I can’t do it without the risk of hurting her.” Her voice broke on a sob and she bit down on her lip. “Dammit, I can’t even do the simplest thing on my own.”
“It’s okay, honey. I’ll be there in two seconds.”
Kate’s calm and reassuring voice made Julia that much more frustrated. “That’s great and everything, but what if you weren’t around to help me?”
“I’m not going anywhere, Julia. Where else would I be?”
“I don’t know. Maybe to have your own life without your pathetic sister holding you back.”
“Jeez, Julia. I don’t know where you come up with this stuff. I was on my way home for lunch anyway.”
A short time later, after her arrival was announced by VINCE, Kate breezed in through the door. “Now where is the offending creature who has caused such an uproar?” she asked playfully.
Julia was on the couch, scowling. Kate ignored her for now to focus on the matter at hand. After a few moments of peering underneath tables and chairs, she finally found Cassidy cowering behind the toilet.
Julia had been right. The tangle needed to be cut out because it was pulling at the skin and making the cat miserable.
With a quick snip of the scissors, the knot was eliminated.
As she approached Julia on the sofa, Kate knew to tread lightly. “What’s got you so freaked out?”
Well, maybe not too lightly.
Julia took a ragged breath and swiped her hair out of her face. “Nothing. Everything is perfectly perfect.”
“No, it’s not. Now spill.”
Julia’s shoulders slumped and her whole body seemed to sag. “Gabe is coming here to Red Valley.”
Kate clapped her hands together. “That’s great! It’s about time the two of you finally met in person. Wait, that’s what’s got you all huffy? Why are you acting like Darth Vader is coming for a visit?”
The scowl deepened. “I like the friendship we have. Why go and ruin a good thing?”
“How would seeing Gabe ruin your friendship?”
“What if he doesn’t like me and I lose my best friend?”
Kate let out a heavy sigh and threw up her hands. “Do you hear yourself? You’re talking like a crazy person.” Since when was her baby sister so insecure?
Since she liked a boy. A man. Gabe.
“Don’t you dare hide behind your blindness.”
Julia’s jaw dropped open and she made a sound like she’d been punched in the stomach. “You can go now. Thanks for helping Cassidy.”
“Yeah right. Like you can get rid of me that easy.” She shoved Julia over and sat down on the couch next to her. “This isn’t bad news, JuJu.”
Julia threw her head back and groaned. They why did it feel like it was the end of her little world as she knew it?
* * *
When Gabe called her that night, Julia was still in a sour mood. She liked to think that she had some façade of control over her life and now Gabe was pulling the rug out from under her.
“What kind of music do you listen to? Besides classical?”
The question was simple and she knew exactly how to answer it, but it still made her pause. After hours on the phone together, how was it that there were still things about her he didn’t know?
Still, she was thankful he hadn’t brought up his big trip out west.
“I like Crush 21,” she answered.
“Me too.” He sounded relieved that they shared the same taste in music. “I saw them in concert last summer.”
“Really?” She would have loved to experience her favorite band playing live.
“Yeah. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. But I guess you already know how little I get out and do anything. Anyway, Cassidy the lead singer was born to work a stage.”
“She has an amazing voice. I guess I never told you how my cat got her name.”
“That makes sense. Yeah, their album is good, but being there and hearing them play live was phenomenal. Cass was all over the stage head banging to the music. The drummer was rockin’ out like crazy. The guitar player shredded like a bad-ass. And when the bass player switched places with the drummer, the crowd went crazy.”
Julia could feel the excitement radiating from him. She could tell by his voice that he was moving around and probably gesturing and acting out the concert.
“Everything is ten times louder and amplified,” Gabe continued. “The audience was really going nuts.”
“I hear the guys in the band are good looking,” she commented.
He laughed. “I don’t know about that. But it’s like they were born to be rock stars. And I was born to be a computer geek. What do you think you were born to do, Julia?”
It was an innocent question, but it struck a tender spot inside her. What was she born to be? Blind? Disabled? Pathetically alone?
“Sorry.” Gabe bit his lip and looked sorry for asking such a dumb personal question. But she couldn’t see his expression. He kept forgetting that she couldn’t see him.
Sheesh, that made him want to reach out and touch her all the more. Sound and touch were senses she could read. “I know you were born to be a composer, Julia. And a great mom to Shamus and Cassidy, too.”
“Yeah,” she mumbled. “I guess so.”
“What’s going on, Julia?”
“What are you talking about?” Somehow it wasn’t so easy to play dumb with her best friend. It didn’t seem to work very well with her sister either.
“Ever since I told you I’m coming to Red Valley you sound…different.”
So, she mused. He’d picked up on that.
“Honestly?” Of course honestly, she thought. They’d never been anything but honest with each other. “I’m afraid to lose what we have.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” he said as if the notion was news to him. “If anything, it’ll just make our friendship stronger.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Good.”
“I can have a car sent to the airport for you. Or I could meet you there.” Gabe deserved to be greeted by someone when he got off the plane. Being a gracious host was one of the obligations of friendship, wasn’t it?
“Nah, I’m going to rent one at the airport. I’ll want a car if I’m going to be there for a week anyway. That way we can go anywhere together. You and me and Shamus can hop in the car and drive wherever we want.”
Gabe sounded thrilled about the prospect and she knew it had been years since he’d taken an actual vacation or any time off from work for that matter. She couldn’t rain on his parade no matter how leery she was about his impending visit.
So, Julia said exactly what he was exp
ecting her to say.
“I can’t wait.”
Chapter Eight
Business Hours
In the weeks following that first dinner, Logan and Kate’s relationship had blossomed like a Shasta daisy beneath the warm Red Valley sunshine. Between his games, practices and team meetings and her busy optometry practice, they spent as much time with each other as possible. But somehow it still didn’t seem like enough.
Logan’s feet walked up the path to Kate’s office even though he willed them not to. He probably shouldn’t be here. He really shouldn’t interrupt her while she was at work. And he really shouldn’t distract her from her patients.
But when he went inside and saw her leaned over the front desk, looking over paperwork with the receptionist, Logan knew exactly why he’d come. Just seeing Kate and catching a whiff of her perfume justified any ethical lines he was crossing by showing up at her work unannounced.
Kate straightened and tossed her long hair over her shoulder. When she saw Logan standing there in the waiting room, her lips curled up into a smile. “Hi.”
“Hey,” he replied.
Kate’s heart did a little cartwheel as she tried to hide her excitement.
“Mr. Murray,” Janis purred, sailing into the waiting room, hijacking their conversation. “How are you doing today?”
“I’m doing well,” Logan answered, his eyes still locked with Kate’s. “I just stopped by to talk to Dr. K.”
“Oh.” Janis bristled a bit before pushing her shoulders back. “Dr. Kapowski, Logan Murray is here to see you,” she announced unnecessarily. “Should I have him make an appointment?”
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Kate answered, holding back a smirk. “I’ll see him now.”
Kate pushed away from the desk and went to him. “How are you feeling, Mr. Murray?” she asked, keeping up the ruse of their doctor/patient relationship.
“Fantastic, Dr. K,” he answered as she led him down the hallway.
When they were out of sight, Kate shoved him into exam room 3 at the end of the hall. It was closer than her office and might help limit the temptation to rip the clothes from his body.
She shut the door and leaned back against it. “I have patients to see,” she hissed.
“I know,” he said, his excitement deflating. “I probably should have made an appointment.” He looked down at her lips and back up to her eyes.
She looked concerned at the lack of propriety, but he didn’t give a good damn where he took her, just that he took her now.
He gave her a pained look and dragged his hand through his hair. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
That was all it took—that swift movement that mussed up his hair—and Kate practically threw herself at him right then and there.
“I don’t have much time.” She closed the space between them and captured his mouth in a hot, breathy kiss.
Her appointments were light that afternoon and she didn’t have anyone coming in for another ten minutes at least. It was a shame to limit Logan to ten measly minutes, but it was that or nothing.
“We’ll have to settle for a quickie,” he grinned. “I’ll make it up to you later.”
Good. She wanted to be able to take time to explore that magnificent body of his. All toned and muscular from his profession. But whenever they saw each other they ended up frantically ripping each other’s clothes off and didn’t make time for exploration.
“I’d take you right there in the big exam chair,” he said, peppering kisses down the column of her neck, “but to be honest with you, those contraptions over there scare the shit out of me. I’m afraid one of them is going to latch on to my eyeball and not let go.”
She grabbed his erection through his jeans with one hand and snaked her other hand around to squeeze his butt cheek. “I’d never let a contraption do that to you, Mr. Murray.”
“Ooooh, but I like it when you do it.”
She pushed him down onto the wheeled stool and straddled him. He bit back a groan when her thighs clenched around his legs.
The walls were thin and she was taking a huge risk, but wasn’t that what life was all about?
Spontaneity here we come.
“We can’t make a sound,” she whispered, pleading with her eyes.
He grinned, already aroused by the challenge. “That might be difficult for you,” he whispered, his fingers trailing across the sensitive skin at her throat.
Her hands dived up under his shirt and impatient fingernails scraped across his nipples.
Oh, if Janis ever did such a thing in the office, Kate would be livid. But Kate was the boss and she was allowing herself the indiscretion just this once.
Logan pulled up her dress and slid his hands into her panties to cup her buttocks. One hand kept a firm hold of her flesh and the other circled around to her front. He teased her clitoris and she bit down hard on her lip to keep from moaning.
What was she doing? They had to keep quiet. There were patients waiting in the surrounding exam rooms and her staff walking up and down the hallway, completely oblivious.
It didn’t matter what she was doing. It was too late to stop now. And it felt too damn good to—
“Ah!” she hissed when he released his grip on her ass and rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
Damn, he knew exactly how to touch her.
He slipped two fingers inside her, his thumb pressing firmly against her clit. Oh, yes. She would happily take ten minutes over nothing at all.
Logan’s breath was hot and ragged in her ear. Without the sound of their voices, all other sounds became more prominent. The rasp of clothing sliding from skin. The deepening of breath as it whooshed in and out of lungs. The wet sound of kisses being exchanged. The quick intake of breath when fingers explored sensitive areas. All of that, added to the sound of their hearts beating excitedly, was deafening.
When Logan whispered naughty things in her ear, Kate bit back an anticipatory moan and dug her fingers deeper into the flesh on his shoulders.
Pressed for time—and unable to wait any longer anyways—Logan lifted up to unzip his pants and push them down. He barely had the condom on before Kate was angling over him and impaling herself onto his length. With a content sigh, she sunk down, letting him fill her.
Damn him for strolling into her office and making her toss ethics out the window. And now she couldn’t even call out his name as he stretched her and pounded into her.
Because she was on top and had control of the pace and thrusting, Kate’s orgasm came quick. She bit her lip and dug her fingernails into his shoulders to keep from crying out loud and announcing to her office exactly what was going on in exam room 3.
Logan jerked his hips and came a few seconds later. Kate collapsed against him and he anchored her with a palm against the small of her back. With no time for cuddling or pillow talk, Kate indulged in one last kiss before separating herself from Logan’s hot and throbbing body.
Luckily, there was a sink in the room for her to use to clean up. It was normally used by her patients to wash their hands before removing their contact lenses, but that was far from the case now. She took the used condom from Logan and buried it in the garbage can beneath a mountain of paper towels.
When she turned around, he was buttoning up his jeans.
She cocked her head to the side, liking the looks of him half naked in the place where she worked. “Do you have plans for dinner?”
“Not yet,” he answered with a smile.
As much as they couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other, they always managed to work dinner into the agenda.
Chapter Nine
Keys
Julia slept like a rock. When they were kids, Kate often joked that a California-sized earthquake couldn’t rouse her little sister from sleep. There were very few things that could do the trick and Cassidy was one of them. The headstrong cat had a way of making her voice just shrill enough to wake Julia from her dreams and tha
t was for purely selfish reasons—breakfast.
But this morning, the sound of something crashing to the ground woke Julia and she sat up with a start, trying to pinpoint the noise and mentally identify the object. Cassidy voiced her displeasure and bolted from the room.
Before she had made it out of bed and shoved her feet into her slippers, Julia could hear Shamus’s big feet padding down the hall to investigate. Then the real commotion began and something else crashed to the floor and Shamus began to bark like she’d never heard him bark before.
Julia’s first thought was that there was an intruder in her apartment, but Shamus’s tone was high-pitched and not a mean growl like he would use on someone unfamiliar to him or who posed a threat. And VINCE hadn’t chirped a warning.
Shoot, maybe the software was glitching again. It was hard to trust something that told her the population of Antarctica was twelve billion.
Something squeaked and it didn’t come from a cat or dog.
“Veronica Valdez is approaching the door,” VINCE piped up amidst the commotion.
Fine, VINCE, Julia thought and rushed into the living room. Now tell me about who or what is already inside my apartment.
Shamus barked incessantly and Julia crouched down, trying to find out what in the hell had him so riled up.
The key turned in the lock and she knew her housekeeper Veronica was right on time for her weekly visit. Julia had insisted that she didn’t need the housekeeper Kate had hired for her, but Kate had insisted right back, claiming the extra help would free up more time for Julia to focus on her music. Julia knew it was just a ruse and grumbled about it for a while until she and Veronica settled into a comfortable routine and actually became friends. The upbeat woman was always relaying colorful stories about the fancy houses she cleaned because most of her clients played for the Razors.
Normally calm and quiet, Veronica screeched a string of words in Spanish as soon as she entered the apartment. “Dios mío!” she shrieked.
“What is it?” Julia asked, finding Shamus’s collar and pulling him to her side and away from whatever it was that was making a squeaking sound.
Blind Ice (Razors Ice Book 5) Page 8
