by Selena Kitt
I laughed and followed him across the room to a narrow staircase. We went up to a landing area that was painted, but had no other design elements. To the right, was a large metal door that looked like something from a restaurant meat locker, not an apartment. I made a mental note to start shopping for doors. Jace unlocked the deadbolt, slid the door open, and beckoned me inside. We entered into what was apparently the living room, but at the moment, it was more like a collection room at a thrift shop, boxes and boxes of stuff were scattered everywhere. Most of them were still taped shut, but the ones that were already open looked to be filled with pillows, books, small sculptures, and a few art prints in plain black frames.
The couch in question was rough looking at best, a brown sectional that had definitely seen better days. It was the only piece of furniture in the room, save for a larger than life flat screen TV hung over the small fireplace that didn’t have anything but dust inside.
“Hmmm.” I walked to the couch and ran my hand along the back, mentally debating whether or not it could be saved.
“Uh-oh,” Jace said, a flicker of humor on his face as he watched me. “Tell me, is it terminal?”
I laughed. “You want my real advice?”
He spread his hands, “Hit me with it.”
“Burn it.”
Jace burst out laughing. “That bad huh?”
“I’m sorry, but seeing your place downstairs and then seeing…this…I’m beginning to wonder if I have a Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde situation on my hands here,” I teased.
Jace crossed the room to stand next to me, looking down at the couch as though it was a dear friend. “First off, I had a designer downstairs, and second, while I don’t suffer from a split personality disorder, I do have to cop to being overly sentimental sometimes. This was my couch from college, actually, and it stayed in storage for the better part of the last decade while I was off globetrotting with the SEALs…” his voice dropped off, as though realizing he’d let a secret slip. “Anyway, I don’t know why, but I wanted to save it—not that big a deal.”
SEAL? I nodded, my mind screaming out to ask questions about him being a SEAL, but I kept my mouth shut. It was obvious it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, and as a woman with a past…I respected that desire. “Tell you what…I might have someone who can help.” Jace looked over at me. “I have a friend in one of my design classes, she has a shop and takes old things and makes them new. She’s basically a genius. She could probably reupholster this thing and it would look better than new, that is, if you’re willing to part with this brown corduroy looking stuff,” I said, smiling as I ran my fingers along the back for emphasis.
“Deal.”
I turned to Jace and found his blue eyes locked on my lips. “Wasn’t there something else…?” I started, unable to finish my thought.
Jace’s hand rested on the side of my face, and with the other, he gently brushed back the strands of hair that had fallen into my face. My lips parted slightly as I watched him studying me as though I was the most beautiful, intriguing thing he’d ever seen. My body was trembling, and when Jace brought his lips to mine, I shivered as he closed the gap between us, pressing his rock hard body against mine. His kiss was hot and intense, as though it had been simmering on his lips all night.
He backed me up against the wall, the kiss getting deeper and more passionate with each step. With my back pressed to the wall, he planted his hands firmly on my hips and pinned me. My heart raced as his hot lips pressed into mine. The room was silent—the only sound was our ragged breathing. He pulled away, letting his lips hover inches from mine, as he stared into my eyes.
My stomach fluttered, wondering if I’d done something wrong. It had been a while…but then, in answer to my silent question, he pressed against me, letting me feel the weight of him against me and dragging my lips back to his. I melted into him as the kiss exploded into a frantic, desperate, clinging, pushing and pulling as we devoured each other like lovers that had been separated by time and space for decades. I moaned into Jace’s mouth as his hands slipped up the front of my sweater, taking his time as his fingertips explored my skin beneath. His mouth left mine and went to the bare skin on my shoulder, the scruff on his jaw scratching me softly, creating a delicious mix of hard and soft, gentle and rough.
“Jace,” I whispered into his ear, my breath hot and frantic. I arched against the wall, desperate to be even closer to him. The carefully orchestrated dance that had begun on the balcony was now reaching its finale and I was breathless, waiting and wanting what would happen next.
He tugged my sweater even lower, exposing more skin for him to ravage, and I couldn’t hold back another moan as his tongue flicked over my collarbone, shoulder, and then back up the side of my neck, until he found my hungry mouth again. With a flick of his tongue, he parted my lips, slipping between them and slowing to explore every bit of me. I gripped his strong shoulders, digging into the leather as I had on the back of the bike. Jace’s hands slid down my body, taking in every curve, until he reached my hips. He grabbed my ass, pulling me into his obvious hardon, and I gasped. Even through the thick material of his jeans, I knew what lay beneath would deliver pleasure beyond even my wildest fantasies. As though imagining him inside me, I moaned out his name again, and he hoisted me up, so my legs were wrapped around his hips.
With my back braced against the wall, he held me with one arm, and let his free hand explore up the front of my sweater, and I wished I’d left the bra off. His fingers ran over my skin, sending licks of heat fanning out from wherever he touched me. He cupped my breast and ran his fingers over the smooth fabric of my bra. I strained against him, wishing there was much less clothing between us.
As though reading my mind, he pulled away, and grabbed my waist with both hands so he could carry me over to the couch. He set me on the back of it. I balanced on the tops of the cushions and took advantage of the space between us to claw at the zipper of his jacket. Once free, I pushed it from his shoulders, smiling when it hit the floor with a significant thump. He pulled the sweater off of me and tossed it to the floor to join his jacket. His eyes devoured me for a moment, before he stripped off his shirt. I gasped at the sight, the combinations of dark ink and sinewy muscles driving me to distraction.
“What do you think?” Jace asked, reading my wide eyes.
I reached forward and ran my fingers over the smooth ink of the largest design that sprawled over half of his torso, a large, black snake that was coiled to strike. There were half a dozen other designs and I ran my fingers over all of them, letting myself explore every tattoo and trace each detailed line. Jace was silent, his heavy breaths the only sounds, as I sat before him, mesmerized.
After a minute, Jace took my hands and pressed kisses to each finger, locking his eyes with mine. The air crackled between us, as though we both had things to say, but no words to express them. Before I could dive too far into my own thoughts, he kissed me again, stealing away my ability to process anything other than how good his lips felt on mine, and how good his skin felt against mine. I wrapped my arms up around his neck as he got closer, and relished being able to dig my fingers into his hot inked flesh.
As we melted together again, he reached between us, aiming for the zipper on my jeans, and suddenly I inhaled sharply, as though I’d just emerged from a pool of ice water. What am I thinking? It has been years since I’ve done this, and here I am, giving it away to a stranger on our first date that isn’t even supposed to be a date. Shit! Kat, what are you doing?
“Are you okay?” Jace asked, his eyes now wide with alarm. “Kat?”
I untangled myself from him and pushed off the couch. “I just can’t…right now…not like this.” I knew my words made no sense, and I felt bad, seeing the look of confusion on Jace’s face. “I had a good time, it’s just—it’s not the right thing.”
God, I sound like an idiot.
“I have to go.” I turned away, shrugged into my sweater, and ran out the door, before Ja
ce could say anything else. One plea from him, or one more look at his hard body, would make me lose my mind.
And that was the one thing I couldn’t lose. Not for a man. Not ever again.
Kat
“Kat! Wait!” Jace called after me, as he chased me down the stairs. I hit the door of the tattoo shop, and sagged against it. He jogged across the room but stopped a few feet from me, leaving plenty of space between us. “Hey, listen, I’m sorry about that, I got carried away.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “It wasn’t you Jace, I was there too. It’s just—it’s complicated, you know?”
“I do know, believe me.” There was some deeper meaning behind his admission, but I couldn’t ask what was fueling it. “Let me give you a ride home, it’s late and it’s not safe out there.”
I ignored the fact that there hadn’t been so much as a robbery in the last two years, but agreed to let him take me home. We went outside and got back on his bike, but this time, the tension between us was strained with awkwardness. It took less than ten minutes to reach my townhouse, and he insisted on walking me up. I opened the door and before I could turn back to say goodnight to Jace, I heard Mitch’s voice filtering over from the kitchen. I rushed inside, and screeched to a halt in the kitchen, where the voicemail for the home phone was currently recording a message —
“…I don’t know what’s so fucking important that you can’t answer your phone, but this is a new low, Katherine. Your son is in the hospital and you can’t be bothered to—”
I snatched the phone off the hook, interrupting the message. “What—what are you talking about?”
“Katherine?” Mitch sounded ruffled at his message getting cut off. “Where the fuck have you been? I’ve called you half a dozen times!”
My hand went to my pocket, patting frantically where I remembered stashing it before leaving the house with Jace. “I don’t know—what happened?” I demanded, shaking my head to focus on what was really important. “Where is Jax? What happened?”
“He’s in the emergency room. He started throwing up after dinner and had a fever so we rushed him over. We’re waiting to hear from the doctor right now, they’re running tests.”
“Oh my God! Mitch, is he—is he gonna be all right?” My heart thrashed violently inside of my chest.
Mitch sighed. “I think so, Katherine. The doctor says there’s a bug going around, but with his age…they have him getting fluids and all this stuff is hooked to him. Jax was screaming, asking where you were.”
My heart stopped, cracks breaking it into a thousand pieces at the visual of my baby screaming my name. “I’m getting in the car right now. I don’t have my cell phone, but I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Mitch gave me the information and I hung up the phone, momentarily paralyzed as I mentally reamed myself for being so irresponsible. Maybe Mitch was right…maybe I was a terrible mother…
“What’s going on?”
I swirled to find Jace standing two feet away, his eyes dark with concern.
I was still searching my pockets, wondering where my phone was. “Oh my God,” I gasped, my mind filling with horror. “My phone! It must have…oh my God. It must have fallen out on the way to the bar, and I didn’t even notice it was gone! I’m a mother! I can’t not have my phone on me.” Tears were streaking down my eyes. “My baby…my son is in the hospital! And I didn’t know because my phone…oh my God. I need to go! I have to get to the hospital.”
Jace grabbed me and pulled me to him. “It’s okay, come on, let me take you out there right now.”
“No!” I recoiled. “I’ll drive myself.”
Jace started for the door. “You’re not fit to drive right now. The last thing your son needs is for you to end up in an accident. Now, come on. I’m driving you.”
“Fine,” I said, giving in to his demand.
We raced to the hospital and I was bolting for the emergency room doors practically before Jace cut the engine. He chased after me, running through the doors, up to the front desk. Minutes later, we were headed towards Jax’s room, but I stopped short, seeing Mitch and Hannah huddled together in the hallway. Mitch looked up at my approach, his eyes dark with anger. “Finally!”
“Mitch, don’t start. It was a mistake,” I pleaded.
“A pretty big mistake, Katherine. What if something more serious had happened?”
Before I could continue to defend myself, Mitch’s eyes landed on Jace, who was a few paces behind me. He ran his eyes over him with a disapproving stare, a sneer turning up the corner of his lip. “And who exactly is this?” He snarled, shooting his accusatory eyes to me.
“I’m Jace Winslow,” Jace said, stepping forward and extending a hand to Mitch. “I’m Kat’s friend.”
Mitch ignored Jace’s outstretched hand. “Friend, huh?” He retorted, still staring at me with fire in his eyes. “So this is why you couldn’t take the call that your son was in the hospital? I wonder what the courts would have to say about that…” Mitch wondered aloud, letting his question hang.
There were about a thousand nasty things I wanted to say to him, but there was one thing outweighing my desire to rip him a new one. “Where is Jax?”
“He’s sleeping. The doctor wants him to finish the fluids in his IV bag and then we—” he snapped, pointing between Hannah and himself—“—are taking him home.”
My fingers balled into tight fists. Jace stepped back to my side and I could feel tension radiating off of him, but he didn’t say anything else. “I want to see him. Now.”
Mitch rolled his eyes as though I was being completely unreasonable. I was about to launch myself at him, when Jace put his hand on my elbow, stilling me. Before Mitch or I could say anything else to each other, a doctor—Jax’s doctor—came over and after explaining the situation to me, took me with him to see Jax. Jace waited out in the hall and I breathed a sigh of relief at not having to ask him for space. He had a way of reading me and I was appreciative that he didn’t get offended when he backed away and sank into one of the chairs on the opposite side of the hallway.
I slipped into the quiet room and stared at my little boy, tears welling up at the sight of him laying in the bed that was obviously made for adults. He had an IV in his arm and the slow, steady beeps of the monitors filled the room with a grounding, peaceful sound. I brushed his tawny hair with my fingers, lavishing the silky feeling. “Hey baby, it’s mama. I’m sorry I wasn’t there tonight,” I whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear me.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I was still smoothing his baby soft hair when a nurse came in, checked the IV bag and then began unhooking him. When she was done, she gave me a sympathetic smile. “He’s going to be all right. Kids get the flu like this all the time, but you did the right thing by bringing him in.”
“Thanks,” I replied softly, giving her a nod, pressing down the self loathing that I had not brought him in, that I hadn’t even heard about any of it until it was over.
Jax stirred and when he opened his eyes, they found me and a heartbreaking little smile crossed his face. “Mama.”
I gathered him into my arms and held him close, kissing his head over and over again, until Mitch and Hannah finally came in with the doctor close on their heels. “It’s time to go home, champ,” Mitch said.
Jax looked over at me and then back at his dad, the confusion on his face twisted another knife into my heart. Eventually, after a lot of consoling, and assuring him that I’d pick him up the next afternoon, he let Mitch carry him out of the room. After they were out of my sight, I collapsed against the wall in the hallway, and exhaled slowly, trying to keep a new batch of tears from spilling.
“It wasn’t your fault, Kat,” Jace said softly. I turned, surprised to see him standing right behind me as I hadn’t heard him approach. He brushed a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, let me take you home. You need some rest.”
I let him take me home, and we parted with a friendly goodnight at the door. “Call me
if you need anything,” he insisted, fishing a business card from his jacket pocket, since I didn’t have his number programmed into my home phone.
“Thanks, Jace. For everything.”
He nodded and disappeared into the night.
That night, in bed, I had nothing but nightmare scenarios running through my mind as I tried to sleep. Each new “what if” worse than the last as I turned them over, unsure which one was about to become my new reality—but the only thing I knew for sure was that whatever had happened between Jace and me could never happen again.
No matter how much I wanted it to.
Continued in SEAL’d Perfection Book 2! (http://amzn.to/1Sw925g)
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