Blind Ice (Razors Ice Book 5) (2 page)

“A paddle, Doc?” he asked with a smirk. “Did I do something wrong?”

He was treading into very dangerous territory and Kate couldn’t go there. Not until
after
his examination at least.

“Are you able to read the second line down from the top?” she asked, firmly ignoring his comment.

He did one better and read the entire bottom line. “
D…E…F…P…O…T…E…C
.”

“Good. Now, the right eye.”

Logan skated through the rest of the eye exam without much thought to the answers he gave to Dr. Kate’s questions. While he mindlessly read out the letters on the chart, the majority of his brain wondered why she wasn’t wearing a ring on her left hand. How could a man in his right mind let a woman like her slip through his fingers without making things permanent?

Shaking his head, he shook off the ridiculous thought of walking down the aisle with any woman, including the incredibly sexy Dr. Kate Kapowski. He wasn’t in the market for a wife. What the hell was he thinking?

“No, nothing on that line?” she asked.

Logan realized she thought he’d been shaking his head about the lines on her chart. “Oh, uh…” He rattled off the letters with perfect accuracy eliciting a satisfied smile from her.

“Perfect.”

What was perfect, he thought, was the little bow in the middle of her top lip. And the way the rich brown color of her hair brought out her eyes. And how her heels made her legs look shapely and—

Logan resisted the urge to shake his head again. The last time a woman had caused him to be this distracted—well, that was the thing—he couldn’t think of a time he’d let someone of the female persuasion hijack his thoughts like this.

When he boldly proved he had 20/15 vision, Kate moved on to the slit lamp exam. They sat across from each other with the biomicroscope between them. She projected a beam of light onto the eye to get an optical cross-section under high magnification and examined the eye for any problems. When the iris, cornea, sclera, and conjunctiva showed no abnormalities, she powered down the microscope and pushed the instrument off to the side.

With nothing between them again, Kate could feel the tension in the room multiply. Logan Murray’s eyes were healthy and apparently so was his libido.

He shifted in the big chair and his knee bumped hers. When she looked up at him, he watched the slender column of her throat as she swallowed.

She looked away and scanned his file again and made a few more notations. “Well, if you don’t have any questions, we’ll see you next year.”

“It’d be a shame to have to wait a whole year to see you again.”

Kate looked at him and pondered. Did he really mean that? Something told her he did. And she just happened to agree with his statement. Next year Logan might be sitting across from Dr. Benz and that would be incredibly unfortunate.

She tilted her head to the side and studied him. “Do you have a minute? I was wondering if we might speak…in private.” The question left her lips before her mind had a chance to catch up and realize the ramifications.

He started all this
, the little voice in her subconscious whispered.

Well, now it was up to her to finish it. And to pounce on this situation before it became a missed opportunity.

Logan’s lips curved into a smile like he’d just scored the game-winning-goal in overtime. “Of course.”

* * *

Kate swung the exam room door open and summoned Janis. She appeared almost too quickly as if she’d been hovering around the area, waiting for the handsome hockey player to emerge.

“Janis? Will you show Logan into my office?” Kate rarely invited patients into her office except for when she had a grim diagnosis to deliver, but this meeting with this particular patient required a bit more privacy. “I’ll be there in a moment.”

Janis shot her boss a curious look, shrugged and led Logan away.

There was no missing the grin that lit up the hockey player’s face as he followed Janis down the hall. Kate just hoped he’d still be smiling after he heard what she had to ask him.

Kate hurried into the restroom and rested her hands on the edge of the sink, the cold porcelain cooling her hot hands. Was she really about to do what she thought she was? It wasn’t like she was going to jump him right there in her office. She just had a…a
proposition
for him. Something perfectly acceptable between two adults.

Where had this unexpected behavior come from? Well, her new wardrobe was probably mostly to blame. That along with all the other changes she’d been making in her life lately. She’d recently started wearing heels and dresses to work. Gone was the matronly uniform of flats, slacks and a starched blouse with her hair pulled back in a severe bun. It was like in the movies or on TV when the mousy librarian let her hair down and pulled off her glasses and suddenly she was transformed into a sex kitten. And a sex kitten was exactly what Logan Murray was making Kate feel like right now.

Kate liked how she felt in heels. She was able to sit down enough throughout the day that her feet weren’t killing her by the end of it. And they gave her the confidence she’d been denied while she was married to Carl. The kind of confidence she would need if she was going to go through with this crazy, spontaneous plan.

She fluffed her hair, smoothed the invisible wrinkles on her blouse and headed into her office. She breezed in, making sure the door clicked shut behind her. The room was tidy, with a mahogany desk in the center of it, surrounded by a file cabinet and a few cherry wood bookshelves. There were a few personal touches here and there like the pink orchid and the monogrammed desk accessories, but it still remained a very professional workspace.

Kate walked around the desk and sat down. The big leather chair enveloped her like a hug and helped reassure her that she was the one in charge. She was the one with a BS Degree with Honors in Visual Science and a Doctorate of Optometry degree with Distinction from Red Valley State University’s College of Optometry.

She leaned back and crossed her right leg over her left. The desk sat between them, large and bed-shaped.

Logan had made himself comfortable in a chair, his legs spread out, hands resting loosely on the arms of the chair. She imagined he probably didn’t look much different than when he’d been called into the principal’s office as a young boy. And she was positive he’d been in trouble dozens of times while in school. With a smirk like that, it was inevitable. He probably grew up thinking he could get away with more just because of his looks. Right now he looked a bit like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Good. She couldn’t be the only one feeling awkward and self-conscious, now could she?

This was no child in her office though. This was a man, complete with a piercing gaze, a sexy smirk, and enough pheromones to attract a herd of rhinoceroses.

When he was finished thoroughly looking her over, Logan took his time looking around the room. “Nice office, Doc.”

He might as well have been undressing
her
with his eyes because she felt every glance of his eyes as they traveled around her office.

“Very…
private,
” he added.

“Are you this…
forward
with all of your health care professionals?” she asked, her voice laced with a stern tone.

“I don’t flirt with my dentist. He’s a little old for me,” he joked.

Kate hadn’t been referring to flirting. Logan flirted with everyone, she was sure of it. She was referring to how he looked at her as if he could see right through every last thread of her clothing.

Had he behaved the same way with Janis? She thought not. If he had, Janis would’ve had to have been scraped off the floor with a snow shovel. No, this tension between them was unique and isolated.

Logan scooted forward in the chair and rested his elbows on his knees. “Why do you ask?”

Her tongue darted out and wetted the middle of her top lip. “Your answer will determine whether I ask you to dinner or not.”

“No,” he answered without blinking. “Just you.”

She scribbled her address on a sheet of monogrammed memo pad paper and slid it across the desk. “My place tonight. 7 p.m.”

Season tickets were one of the perks of being the team’s alternate optometrist and she knew he didn’t have a game tonight. This was a test to see if he really wanted her as much as he put on. And to see if he’d drop his plans for her last minute proposal. Because this truly was a one-time offer that had a very short shelf life.

Before she could pull her hand away, he covered it with his. He swiped his thumb over her knuckles and the movement sent shivers up her arm and throughout her entire body. It was a good thing she was sitting down because one touch from this man made everything under her skin feel like Jell-O.

Then he removed his hand and stood up, tucking the piece of paper into his pocket.

She came around the desk to see him out, but he didn’t move toward the door. When she was standing in front of him, he reached up, cupped her cheek in his palm, and kissed her. His tongue darted out to taste her and she touched her tongue to his. Her calves bumped the back of the desk and she put her hands back to steady herself. He nudged her legs apart and her pencil skirt trapped them together. He reached down and slid the skirt up her thighs so that he could stand in the V of her legs. She gasped when the cool air of her office caressed her exposed thighs.

Just when she decided to let him take her right there on the desk, he broke the kiss and stepped back from her. It only lasted a few seconds, but the few seconds his lips touched hers were electric.

“7 p.m.,” he said and then he was gone. The door clicked shut behind him, an ominous sound.

Kate stared at the closed door and ran the last few minutes through her head. He had left her panting for breath, hair disheveled and blouse askew, face flushed, and her skirt pushed up nearly around her waist.

And she had never felt better or more alive.

In case Janis decided to come into the room unannounced, Kate quickly straightened her clothes, and on wobbly legs, lowered herself back into her chair. She took her purse out of the bottom drawer of the desk and looked into her compact mirror. The woman who stared back at her had swollen lips and pink stained cheeks. Quickly, she reapplied the lipstick he had surely kissed right off her face. Then she took a few deep, calming breaths.

It was a full five minutes before Kate was composed enough to leave her office and return to the rest of her patients.

Seven o’clock was a long ways off.

Chapter Two

Julia

Julia woke to the sound of her cat Cassidy’s insistent cries. No matter how badly she wanted to sleep in, Cassidy always played the dutiful role of alarm clock and insisted on breakfast. Julia had even invested in an automatic feeder, but it didn’t seem to do the trick. What made matters worse was the fact that the infuriating feline would go back to sleep just as soon as Julia go up.

Julia put her hand out and Cassidy nudged it with her head. Julia took a moment to enjoy the feel of silky fur and the rumble of purring and soon any ill feelings were replaced with affectionate ones.

Named after the vivacious lead singer of Julia’s favorite band Crush 21, the cat’s name was fitting. Cassidy St. Claire probably didn’t spend much time lounging around in bed either.

Oh well, Julia thought. She needed to get up anyway. Daylight was burning, as her sister liked to say, and Gabe would be calling at any moment. And unfortunately, she still had a long way to go before she could even start thinking about putting the final touches on her first sonata. As easy as the notes came to her, putting them together and arranging them in a way that evoked emotion was a completely different story. No matter how challenging the task was, it was far and away better and more fulfilling than anything else Julia had ever done.

She’d worked in customer service at a call center for a while and then decided to pursue her music full time. You were only given one life and she didn’t want to spend hers doing something she didn’t love completely with all her heart. She had a passion for music and a driving need to create her own. It was a comfort as well as a means of expression.

Julia composed music on an electronic keyboard and kept the volume turned down low as she worked. As much as she wanted to crank the volume up—or better yet have a
real
piano—she had to be mindful of the neighbors she shared walls with on either side of her apartment. When she played the piano at the music center, she loved the way the music flowed through her, filling her with its magic.

Birds chattered outside and a lawnmower hummed in the distance. Julia might not get the early worm, but it was probably time she rolled her butt out of bed already.

Cassidy walked to the edge of the bed and let out an impatient wail.

Julia’s dog Shamus groaned, also perturbed by the disturbance.

“All right, I’m up!” Julia reassured the impatient cat.

Only then did Cassidy jump down from the bed and strut triumphantly into the kitchen where she would check on her food dish—which was most likely filled to the brim.

Julia got up and instructed Shamus to let himself outside. She had a ground floor apartment so Shamus could have a doggie door and he was well acquainted with the morning routine.

Someday Julia would have a house of her own where Shamus could have a big backyard to roam around in. But for now she had been relegated to apartment living. She could still remember the conversation she’d had with her sister Kate about her living arrangements…

“Why don’t you move back in with me?” Kate had asked. “I have an extra room,” she’d insisted.

Julia had moved out of her sister’s house when Kate married Mr. Not-So-Wonderful Carl. When they divorced—no big surprise there—Kate couldn’t stand the thought of her little—twenty-two year old—sister living on her own.

“You need your own space,” Julia had insisted right back. “You can’t bring guys home and have me in the way of you getting it on.”

Kate had let out a longsuffering sigh—the one she’d been working on since adolescence. “Jeez, Julia. You make it sound like I make a habit of bringing random guys home for sex.”

“Well, if you aren’t then you definitely should be. You’re a hot commodity!”

Like an Etch A Sketch, Julia shook her head to clear away the memory and went to the closet to pick out an outfit to wear. She bought all of her clothes based on the texture and feel of the fabric. She liked the way cashmere sweaters felt soft against her skin in the winter and how flimsy silk breathed in the long, hot Red Valley summers.

Today she settled on comfortable flannel pants and a T-shirt that was thin and soft from one too many cycles through the washing machine. Because she didn’t have to leave the house for work anymore, she spent a lot of time in her pajamas. It was one of the best things about working from home.

Technically she still went to the Blue Key once a week to play piano. The ritzy club had a swanky hotel upstairs and the atmosphere felt cozy enough to Julia that she didn’t mind getting dressed up for it. The Key’s clientele were usually too busy checking each other out to pay any attention to the soulful music she played—or so she was told—but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

According to Kate, the blue and silver décor was cliché and old-fashioned. Kate had strong reservations about her sister playing at “a seedy sex club” and Julia just laughed at her overprotective sister. Kate had reservations about everything and Julia placed the blame for that firmly atop Carl’s bony shoulders.

The smell of coffee wafted into the bedroom and Julia trailed her fingers along the chair rail following it into the bathroom, counting the four steps along the way. Shamus joined her in the bathroom, eager to fulfill his duties as designated helper, his paws damp from the dewy grass outside.

While her rainshower showerhead washed the last remnants of sleep away, Julia hummed the first movement of her sonata. It was going to be a masterpiece when it was finished—at least Julia hoped so. It would be the perfect backdrop in an epic movie scene or in one of those emotional greeting card commercials.

When she finished washing her hair, she stepped out of the shower, careful not to slip and fall. Shamus nudged a towel toward her and she took it, wrapping herself in the soft Egyptian cotton. Shamus was a godsend and she thanked her lucky stars for him every single day. Without him, Julia’s life would be severely limited and not half as rewarding.

Woman and dog moved as one, a sonata in itself. They each knew the routine and they stuck to it unwavering day in and day out. The routine was comfortable and necessary. Julia hated being put in a box and she probably would be even more of a free-spirited wild child if it weren’t for her condition, but she stuck to the routine because it worked.

Despite being fiercely independent, Julia accepted her limitations. With Shamus, she felt like she could take on the world and be victorious. After graduating from Independence Training at blind school, she had the tools to navigate the world with just a cane and her other senses, but she wanted a service dog anyway. It was a small comfort to have a companion with her at all times. Someone to look out for her in a world full of darkness.

And besides, Kate had insisted that Julia get a guide dog so she wouldn’t have to worry about her so much. There was rarely a situation where Kate’s overprotectiveness didn’t rear its ugly head.

When Julia was dressed and her short hair combed, she and Shamus made their way six steps down the hallway. As soon as she came into the living room, Julia’s computer detected the motion.

“Good morning, Julia,” VINCE greeted in a tinny masculine voice.

Julia had chosen the male voice over the female because she liked to think that Gabe was with her all day long instead of on the other end of a phone line.

“’Morning, VINCE,” she replied. “What’s the weather supposed to be like today?”

“Today’s forecast is negative sixty-four degrees Celsius.”

She chuckled. “Not the temperature for the Antarctic, VINCE.
Red Valley
.”

“The current temperature in Red Valley, California is one hundred twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit.”

Julia threw her head back and laughed. “Great, now we’re boiling to death.”

VINCE must be experiencing one hell of a glitch today. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“How about Chicago?” she asked next. Gabe lived in Chicago and she felt a little closer to him when she knew what kind of weather he was experiencing.

“The current temperature in Chicago, Illinois is five hundred gigabytes.”

She doubled over with laughter. “Fair enough, VINCE. Let’s try to something else. Any email?”

“You have eleven new messages.”

Okay,
that
she could handle.

She poured herself a cup of coffee, curled up on the couch, checked her email and waited for Gabe’s call. He wouldn’t be pleased to hear about VINCE’s latest glitch, but it was her duty to tell him about it. The program had to be perfect if it was going to be released out into the public at large on schedule.

Gabe Crawford worked for Intelliteck, a software company in Chicago. They “met” over the phone when Julia agreed to try out a beta computer program he designed for the blind. Kate had read about his work on revolutionary software that assisted the visually impaired with their daily lives and knew her sister had to be a part of it.

VINCE—Voice Interactive Computer Electrode—was Gabe’s creation, his baby. Instead of a bunch of individual apps, it was a fully customizable, portable program. And when it worked properly it was absolutely amazing.

Julia didn’t mind being the guinea pig for the program because it had the potential to help so many people. She was thankful that technology had advanced enough to where she wasn’t exiled to live a solitary life, reading books by braille and communicating solely via telephone.

VINCE worked for the elderly as well. Its easy, user-friendly interface made it possible for anyone to interact with their loved ones via video conferencing and even had an integrated security system with a facial recognition system for identifying visitors at the user’s front door.

Julia and Gabe talked on the phone every day, several times a day. Sometimes they even spent hours talking at night, her snuggled in bed with Cassidy and Shamus, and him twenty-two hundred miles away inside his twelfth floor studio apartment.

She didn’t know what he looked like—because of obvious reasons—and she didn’t send him any photos of herself because it wouldn’t have been fair. Their relationship wasn’t based on superficial things like outward appearance anyway.

Before she was put in touch with Gabe, Julia struggled with depression and spent most of her time sleeping. In her dreams, everything was colorful and everyone had a face to go with their voice. In her dreams, she and Kate were little girls and Julia still had her sight. Thanks to Gabe’s program, Julia had discovered a world beyond her bedroom and her dreams.

Their phone conversations had started out friendly and then somewhere along the way Gabe had become flirtatious and they’d moved from friends to…well, Julia didn’t quite know how to categorize their current relationship.

As much as she had trouble defining the present, she tried not to think about what would happen in the future. Would Gabe still keep in contact with her once VINCE was complete? Or was the program the full extent of their relationship? She didn’t think their relationship was that shallow, but judging by his recent behavior, a girl could never be one hundred percent sure.

For Julia Kapowski, life consisted of two periods: pre-blind and post-blindness. She had vague memories of the time before she lost her sight and now she was determined to make the best of the cards she was dealt. She had her animals, her music, and Gabe. Gabe was a fairly new addition to her life. She’d only known him for the past year, but he was an important one. He changed the way she approached her days and he had her thinking about ridiculous things like love and relationships again.

But she was practical enough to know that a relationship wouldn’t work out for a woman like her. Lord knows she’d been bitten in the butt by that concept before. Now she cherished her friendship with Gabe and knew she shouldn’t muck it up with thoughts of
more.
But he had such a nice phone voice that it was hard not to picture what his lips must look like. Or feel like…

And it wasn’t entirely her fault that her thoughts about the computer programmer were slipping into the more-than-friends camp. Lately he had begun asking her questions of a more personal nature besides the normal “How’s your computer running?” scope of their relationship. Julia vowed not to make their friendship more than it was, but if he wanted to know what she was wearing then who was she to deny him?

She knew that loneliness was probably the culprit. Gabe worked more hours at Intelliteck than he didn’t and he spent most of his time there talking to her on the phone.

Julia liked to picture him having an active life outside of work, living it up at nightclubs and restaurants and dancing with pretty women. Well, those were the things
she
would indulge in if she was the one living in Chicago, but Gabe frequently reassured her that he was in no way having fun on Friday nights in the sordid ways she imagined.

“I’m a computer geek who writes code for fun, Julia. I’m not what a woman would call “a catch,”” he’d said to her the other night.

Julia disagreed. She found Gabe to be smart, funny and witty, and couldn’t figure out why a woman wouldn’t want to snatch him up and settle down into the suburban life with him. She sure would.

But men didn’t want to be burdened with women who had a life-altering condition.