Jace had insisted that Violet stay with Patricia while he went to get stitched up. He didn’t need her there worrying her pretty little head about him. Besides that, he needed time to think about what happened tonight and to mull over how he really felt about her and the feelings she kept bringing up in him. If Dennie had been Violet’s stalker, Jace would have beaten that little twerp into a bloody pulp.
And Jace didn’t know if that was a good thing.
* * *
Early the next morning, after the whole Psycho Ice Pick Stalker of August County ordeal, Violet showed up on Jace’s doorstep unannounced. She couldn’t stay away after what had happened even if Jace probably wanted her to. She felt awful about what happened.
“Pats wanted me to tell you how grateful she is for last night,” Violet told him when he answered the door. “All she could talk about was sending you a fruit basket to show her appreciation. So don’t say I didn’t warn you when five pounds of gourmet pears end up on your doorstep.”
“I don’t think that little shit’ll be bothering Patricia anymore.”
“Really?” Violet’s voice held a mixture of surprise and relief.
“Yeah. I think I scared him pretty good.”
“Oh, thank you, Jace.” She dove in for a bear hug and he sucked in a wince.
“Oh, crap, I’m so sorry. I forgot.” She pulled away. “How’s your stomach?”
“Fine. It’s just a flesh wound.”
“You’re going to have a gnarly scar.”
“It’ll go along perfectly with the others. It’ll be nice to have a story behind a scar that doesn’t involve a skate blade.”
“Jace,” she ran her thumb over the scar near his lip, “is that how you got this one?” She had never asked him about it before. It was just always there, a part of him.
“Yeah. There was a huge dog pile in front of the net and unfortunately I was at the bottom and got nicked by a guy.”
“It wasn’t one of your own teammates, was it?” Freak accidents involving friendly fire happened all too often in hockey.
“No. A prick named Aleksi Nikkola from the Vegas Greenbacks. He gladly used my face as a welcome mat.”
“Does it hurt?” she asked about his stomach.
“Eh, it’s just a scratch. I’ve felt worse.”
“How many stitches?” she asked, knowing full well he was downplaying the injury like always.
“Seven.”
“Damn you, Jace McQuaid!”
“What? It’s no big deal and it’s not worth talking about.”
“But you got hurt,” she protested. “That’s a big deal to me.”
“It’s what I do. One time I played three games with a broken wrist.”
She grimaced. “You were hurt protecting Carter and me and I’m grateful for that.”
“How grateful?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.
“I can think of a few ways I’d like to repay you.” In fact, she had wracked her brain all night for ideas of how to pay him back for his bravery.
“As long as one of them involves that pineapple stuff, I’m good.”
“What about your stitches?”
He smoothed her hair from her face. The stitches were the last thing on his mind. “Sshh, I’ll be careful.”
Jace made love to Violet differently that night. He kissed and caressed every inch of her body and didn’t let up until she was trembling with pleasure.
This would be the last time. Sure, he’d said told himself that before, but this time he knew it to be true. The longer he waited, the harder it would be. It was like ripping off a Band-Aid, right? Don’t hesitate, just do it without thinking twice about it.
Jace prided himself on being an All or Nothing type of guy. On the ice and in his personal life. And that’s what made his decision even more painful, more excruciating. But no one ever said life was going to be easy.
That night when they made love again, Jace knew it would be the last time he would ever hold her, so he took what she gave and a little more. He relished in her touch and stored the sensations in his memory. How she tasted, the little sounds she made when he moved over her and how her hair felt so damn soft when it was tangled around his fingers. The sensitive spot behind her ear that made her gasp whenever he found it. How her pulse quickened when he kissed her a certain way. All of the things that made her so special and beautiful.
From the very first day he saw her standing, shivering on the sidewalk, Jace knew she was beautiful. Her cheeks painted pink by the wind chill, her expressive eyes sparkling in the cold. And now, she was even more beautiful than before. Her cheeks flushed from their lovemaking, her eyes twinkling in the fire light, her lips swollen from kissing, her skin glowing and damp with perspiration.
The only difference now was that he knew her, really knew her. Inside and out. Her hopes, dreams, fears. And he had had her. Tasted her. Tasted those plump lips. Felt those fingertips dig into his flesh when he made her come. Seen those eyes bore into his own as he buried himself into her depths. And it was because he’d done all those things that he knew he had to let go of her. In the one way that really mattered, she wasn’t his, couldn’t be his.
And that fact alone was the cause of many of his sleepless nights.
“Why didn’t you call Phillip last night instead of me?”
She was quiet for a while before she answered. “Phillip is in San Jose at some medical conference.” Or at least that’s where he’d told her he was going to be. His next credit card statement would probably tell her differently. The truth was she wouldn’t have called Phillip even if he was in town and that bothered her as much as it bothered Jace.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Jace clarified. “I don’t mind that you called, especially when I got the ‘reward’, I was just curious.”
“He would have blown me off anyway, Jace. Phillip doesn’t care.”
“I doubt that.” Why wouldn’t Phillip choose to be there for her? She was a beautiful, amazing woman that any man would thank his lucky stars to be with.
“You don’t know him,” she replied with a heavy sigh. “Last year, when I had to have dental surgery he told me to call someone else for a ride home.”
“Why are you with him?” Jace asked, his voice so soft that Violet thought he might not have meant to say the words out loud.
“Whenever I try to talk to him about breaking things off, he has some excuse, somewhere more important to be. He avoids me at all costs and it makes things…difficult.”
Jace wondered if she’d still try to break things off with Phillip if it weren’t for him. Jace also knew that if he weren’t in the picture, she wouldn’t be faced with the dilemma. Phillip would be the one for her. Her only choice.
“There’s something else that’s been bothering me,” Jace admitted. Might as well get everything out in the open before ending it altogether. “Why tell me about Phillip in the first place? Why not keep it a secret while you had a little harmless fling with me?”
“Because I know you’ve been hurt and betrayed by a woman in your past and I wanted to be honest with you. I couldn’t stand the thought of keeping it a secret and then you finding out somehow and it ruining us.” She threw her hands up in defeat. “But, I guess it was too late for that. By being honest with you, I revealed that I’d been dishonest with someone else.” To save herself, she tossed the grenade away, but it ended up landing smack dab in her lap.
“I appreciate your honesty with me, but I really think you need to try some of it on yourself.”
* * *
The next day, when a package of USDA Choice Filet Mignon was delivered to his door, Jace was pleasantly surprised to discover he had been enrolled in the Meat of the Month Club compliments of Patricia Liles.
Chapter Fifteen
The Doctor Is In
Jace had a full day of doctor’s appointments ahead of him. In the afternoon, he had an appointment with the team doctor to reevaluate his shoulder and if—no when—he got the all-clear,
he could play in Thursday’s game.
But first, he had an appointment of a more personal nature.
Weeks ago, after meeting Violet for the first time, Jace had done something stupid and out of character—well, besides falling for a woman he couldn’t have. He’d made an appointment with a urologist to inquire about a vasectomy reversal.
After marrying Simone, Jace had made choices—one in particular—that had permanently affected his future. Things were different now—or so he thought. Maybe it was time to see about reversing that choice. But maybe that was just his dick talking.
Making the appointment was a silly thing to do, but he’d been doing a lot of silly, uncharacteristic things lately. Why stop now?
The way Violet talked about Patricia’s son Carter had him imagining them with a little tike of their own. But that wasn’t what he wanted. And Violet wasn’t even technically his woman anyway. It was just a stupid mistake like sending her flowers. Those mistakes seemed to be happening a lot lately. The longer he was away from the game, the more his brain got scrambled.
He easily could have cancelled the appointment and went about his own business, but curiosity had him by the short hairs. Jace had used his professional athlete charm to weasel an appointment with Dr. Krandall. He was the best urologist in town and Cody had recommended him.
And he just so happened to be the man who Violet was engaged to.
Jace stopped and looked at the name etched into the glass door. Phillip Krandall, MD. This was great. Just great. Jace had made yet another mistake to chalk up with the growing list of others. But he’d already made the appointment and figured he might as well find out about the procedure anyway. For the future. It couldn’t hurt to get a little information, right? At least that’s what he told himself.
Violet was obviously clouding his judgment. The woman had him bamfoozled to the max. First, she had him buying flowers and then she had him visiting a doctor to inquire about a vasectomy reversal so that he could have children he didn’t even want.
Now that he knew the doctor was engaged to Violet, he was just too damn curious about Violet’s fiancé to let it go. Was Phillip anything like him? Did Violet have a type? Was he tall and athletic or did he look like most of the white coat-wearing, middle-aged, gibberish speaking doctors Jace had encountered over the years?
Seated in an uncomfortable chair in the plush waiting room, Jace scraped his hand over his face and stood up to leave. This was ridiculous. He shouldn’t be here. What business was it of his to see what Violet’s fiancé was like? He was supposed to be breaking things off with her not nosing his way deeper into her life.
“Jace? Jace McQuaid?”
Jace looked up to find the nurse looking expectantly at the crowded waiting room.
“Yeah, that’s me.” Jace obediently followed her down the hall. There was no turning back now.
Since he was just there for a consultation, the nurse led Jace into Phillip’s office instead of an exam room.
“Dr. Krandall, this is Jace McQuaid,” the nurse told Phillip.
The two men shook hands and sized each other up.
“He’s here about a reversal.” She handed Phillip Jace’s file and left the room, closing the heavy door behind her.
Phillip Krandall looked exactly how Jace had imagined him. Medium height, thin build. Sure, he probably had the IQ of Einstein, but nothing about him screamed “I’m good enough for a woman like Violet James.”
A photo of Violet sat on the desk like an ominous reminder. So, it was really her and not a twin sister who just so happened to also be engaged to an urologist as well.
The gold nameplate next to the photo read Dr. Phillip G. Krandall, MD. Christ, Red Valley was a big enough city. How come the doctor Jace had chosen just so happened to be the fiancé of the woman he was bangin’? Because. Krandall was the best board-certified urologist in the North State and if anyone was going near Jace’s junk, it was someone qualified to do so. But no one was going anywhere near Jace’s junk. Especially not Phillip G. Krandall.
While Phillip was enveloped by his giant padded executive office chair, Jace teetered on the chair across from him like Donkey Kong sitting on a child’s Hot Wheels car.
Before today, Phillip was just a first name that Jace knew of and Violet never talked about. But here, here he was, a real flesh and blood man. A successful doctor with a fancy office, a cute, perky receptionist, an office with shelves full of thick medical books behind an expensive looking desk, and a shiny metal nameplate on said expensive looking desk. This sure changed Jace’s perspective of the situation. Jace was betraying this guy and he didn’t even know it. Sure, he looked like a geek who wouldn’t know the meaning of the word fun if it slapped him in the face, but that didn’t change the fact that Jace was doing something morally wrong and unjustified. Shit, this was a crappy time to grow a conscience.
Oh well, the Doc was probably sleeping with his perky receptionist anyway, Jace thought to himself.
“You have a beautiful wife,” Jace commented about the photo, gauging the doctor’s reaction.
“Oh, uh, fiancé,” Phillip stuttered and followed Jace’s gaze to the photo. “Violet is my fiancé.” He said her name without a flicker of emotion. Like she was just another name on a chart to him.
Competitiveness ran through Jace’s blood and right down into his bones, but he knew when he was outmatched. There were always instances when the other team had the advantage and this was one of them. This wasn’t a fight Jace was going to win. A face-off he could win. A sudden-death overtime he could prevail. But he couldn’t win a match that was already stacked so heavily against him. Vivacious, beautiful Violet was going to marry this robot of a doctor and there was nothing Jace could do about it.
Phillip’s phone vibrated and he looked at the screen. “Excuse me, Jace. I need to take this call.”
While Phillip was on the phone speaking nothing but medical jargon, Jace tried to relax. Unfortunately it just wasn’t possible in unnerving surroundings such as these. What in the hell was he doing here anyway? Preparing for a future he didn’t want with a woman who wasn’t his? Jace didn’t want kids. Even before Simone came along he had no desire to become a father. Sure, she was the one who encouraged him to get the vasectomy, but he was completely on board with the decision.
This wasn’t him. This wasn’t Jace-Did-She-Sign-A-Prenup-McQuaid. This was someone else. Someone who was…who was in love. Dammit.
Jace swore under his breath and Phillip must have heard him because he frowned.
Jace was in tune with his feelings, hell, hockey was the most emotional sport on the planet, but this…this love thing had him doing the craziest, most irrational things. If only his teammates could see him now. He’d told them there was no such thing as just sex, but did they listen? Noooo.
By the time Phillip finished his phone call, Jace had made a decision.
“I changed my mind, Doc,” he blurted before the good doctor could speak. “Thanks for your time.” He shot up out of his chair and bolted for the door.
Jace walked out of Phillip’s fancy shmancy office and winked at the perky receptionist on the way out.
* * *
The next morning when Violet knocked on Jace’s front door, he opened it slowly, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to or not. It was cold outside, the spring freeze gripping tight to the thermometer, and Violet could feel the warmth rush out from inside the house. He made no move to invite her inside.
Her smile fell. “How are your stitches healing?” she asked and reached out to touch him.
He shrugged away from her hand. “Don’t fret over me, Vi.”
“Sorry,” she said softly, dropping her hand to her side. She leaned in for a much-needed kiss, but he pulled back and shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Vi, but I can’t do this anymore.”
“Do what?” she asked, her stomach tightening.
His brow furrowed and his jaw clenched. “I can’t be the guy you run to whe
n you don’t like how your life is turning out. And I certainly won’t keep doing it when you belong to someone else. I’m not gonna be that guy anymore. We can’t see each other anymore.”
He started to shut the door before she stopped him. “Jace, wait,” she pleaded. “Let’s talk about this.”
“You’re engaged,” he said flatly. That was all that needed to be said. The end.
“They were just words a long time ago. Jace, you have my body and my heart. You know that.”
“Baby, no matter how you look at it: You. Are. Engaged. To him. You made a pledge, a promise.”
His eyes were dark and she didn’t like what she saw there. The finality of the situation finally dawned on her and she hugged her arms around her waist. Her body felt numb, but not from the cold.
“I may just be some dumb hockey player,” he added, “but I know a thing or two about contracts.”
She shook her head, tears burning at the back of her eyes. “Please don’t do this,” she whimpered.
He worked his jaw and shook his head again. “Phillip may be a schmuck, but he doesn’t deserve this. And I don’t want to share you with someone else. Especially with someone who doesn’t appreciate you. I won’t do it. I’m sorry. Goodbye, Violet.”
“But, Jace, please listen,” she cried, but the door had already slammed shut and the latch clicked. She stared at the wood grain, her eyes pooling with tears.
“But I love you.”
* * *
Jace switched off the TV and tossed the remote on the coffee table.
Bitter.
Was that what his teammates had called him?
Screw those guys. Being bitter was a damn good defense mechanism that had helped keep his heart out of a blender. Up until now at least. That first day he should’ve just walked past Violet and gotten into his car without a second glance. Who was he kidding? A blind man would have been able to sense that the woman was something special.
Razors Ice 04 - Hot Ice Page 20
