Jace (2 page)

Jace Mathews. Surveillance.
Protection. Bodyguard. It listed a work number and said SPS at the top.
Superior
Protective Services
.

“You’re a bodyguard.” She
arched a brow at that, almost not buying it.

“Among other things, yeah. What
of it?”

“Seriously, I’m supposed to
believe that?”

His face contorted into a
confused look. “Believe what, lady? That is my job. You wanna see my damn name
badge too?”

“Actually---”

“Nah, forget it. I just want to
get out of here. It’s been a helluva day already and this was the icing on the
cake right here.”

“Really, you shouldn’t be so
angry. My car’s in far worse shape than yours. It doesn’t seem fair.”

He eyed her car then pulled out
his phone again, cursing and mumbling so softly she couldn’t make out the
words. A minute later he turned to her. “I got a tow truck coming to get your
car. In the meantime, I’m taking you home.”

Um.

“Excuse me?” She couldn’t help
but feel that several steps had been bypassed here.

“The tow driver works for SPS.
He’ll take it to the lot or an auto shop. I’d recommend the lot until you’re
sure which auto shop you wanna use.”

“Okay,” she said slowly. “So I
don’t need to wait here and sign anything…?”

“Just get your shit and let’s go.”
He got into his truck and slammed the door shut, waiting for her.

Well then. Mara grabbed her
shit and got up into Mr. Jace Mathew’s truck. The truck took off on a loud
roar. His engine put hers to shame.

“You really work with sex toys?”
he asked a minute later.

She fought a grin. “Sure do.
Are you really a bodyguard with the name Jace Mathews?”

He gave her another strange
look. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m weird.” He looked
uncomfortable as if he thought this whole situation was strange.

God, right away she knew this
man was different. He was not Corey. His eyes were too kind, the laugh lines
around the corners of his mouth were genuine. She knew now to look at a
person’s face, to really look. If she had when she met Corey then she would
have run far and hard the moment she met him.

“It wouldn’t be weird if you
looked like a normal guy, had a normal name, and a normal job.” A whole lot
like Corey.
Don’t even think about him, Mara, he doesn’t deserve even that
much.

“Lady, I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

“Mara Colgen. Call me Mara.”

He was quiet for a moment.
“Where do you live…Mara?” He hesitated to use her name and she wondered why.

She gave him her address, sat
back, and waited. “I really am sorry about your truck. I don’t believe in using
cell phones while driving but someone keeps calling me. He’d called about
twelve times in a row before I finally answered to cuss him out. That’s about
when I took my eyes off the road.”

His body tensed, became alert.
“You got a problem? Stalker? A crazy ex-boyfriend, co-worker, husband, friend?”

“No. At least, I don’t think
so.” She laughed, feeling that niggling fear that never completely dissipated.
That fear that would never go away so long as Corey was alive. She needed to
change the subject, and fast. “So what do you normally do as a bodyguard?”

“We get some clients that need
physical protection which is what you’re thinking of as a bodyguard, but mostly
we do surveillance, protection of property, things like that.”

“Protection of property, what
does that mean?”

“Objects like jewelry and
special documents. We ensure nothing happens to them while transporting it. We
also set up security systems.”

His job sounded so important
compared to hers. It certainly topped her ex’s job as a cashier at a gun shop.

“So now you know what I do at
my job. I wanna know more about yours. You mentioned a vibrator earlier…” He
looked at her, daring her to chicken out and be bashful now.

Once upon a time, a few months
ago, she would have been too scared to even talk to a man like Jace Mathews.
Now she was claiming the control back in her life and that included who she
dated. She loved her job, her toys, and embraced it.

“Yes, I get to try out all
kinds of sex toys: dildos, strap-ons, vibrators, anal plugs, nipple clamps, Ben
Wa balls, masturbators…the list is quite large.” She nearly chuckled aloud
saying the word large to a man like him…as if she were some silly schoolgirl
and he the big beefy football player. Well, he did look the part.

“And today you got to try a
vibrator?” His voice sounded deeper.

Dang, she was having fun. “Sure
did. Today I was testing a new butterfly design, as we call it. It’s bright
pink, has three speeds, and a little antennae that’ll tickle the clit like you
wouldn’t believe. The difference in this model compared to others is a more
bulbous head on tip of the shaft. We’re trying that out. With some designs, the
thick end is at the base, but this one is supposed to hit the G-spot better.”

He looked so serious. Maybe it
was residual anger from hitting his pretty truck. At least she seemed to be
melting some of the ice to his armor. “And does it?”

She grinned at him. “No, not
for me, but one of the other testers, my friend Tia, said it worked for her.
Sometimes that’s how these toys work; they fit in some vaginas better than
others.”

At that statement he pulled up
in front of her house and killed the engine. She loved her house. It was only a
one bedroom, one bath, but it was perfection to her. A little too old; it
didn’t keep that cool in the summer or that hot in the winter, but it was her
baby. It became her baby after she fled New York and Corey. That house in her
mind stood for her accomplishment in leaving Corey. That house was a symbol of
her strength, a symbol of defeating Corey.

“Mara Colgen, sex toy tester.
This has been a strange afternoon.” He looked at her and ever so slowly smiled.
The first smile she’d seen on him. It downright curled her toes.

She thought ahead ten minutes from
now and pictured herself standing in her house alone and empty-handed. She
would never see this man again unless she did something about that.

“Give me your number!” A flush
crept over her at her brash demand. She’d never been so forward with a man, but
something inside her told her not to let this one go.

He raised an eyebrow in
surprise. “You want my number?”

“Yeah, err, yes. So I can…talk
to you.”

“Give me my card back.”

“What?” She was suddenly
fiercely protective of the business card he’d given her.

That smile came again, even
broader. Two dimples formed in his scruffy cheeks where he could probably use a
shave but she liked the rugged look. “I’ll return it, promise.”

Begrudgingly, she handed the
card to him. He grabbed a pen from the middle console and scribbled some
numbers on it.

“Those are real numbers,
right?” she asked.

One corner of his mouth kicked
up. “As opposed to?”

“You know, a local pizzeria’s
number or something.”

He just looked at her. “Mara,
this is my cell number and I want you to call me real soon…to talk.”

“Okay.” She snatched the card.
“Have a nice day, Jace. And watch your rear end.” She smiled at her cheeky
double entendre.

The smile he sent her made her
dizzy. “I’d rather watch yours.”

With that, he drove away from
the curb leaving her alone at her coveted one-bedroom home. Her house looked
extra spectacular tonight. Seeing as she didn’t currently have a running car,
this night could have been a whole lot worse.

Vvvrrrm. Vrrrrm.

Not again.

Mara pulled the god-forsaken
cell phone out of her purse. “What?” she growled.

“Tick tock, Mara. Tick tock.”

The caller said his message and
had already hung up before the phone slipped from her hand. She didn’t stop to pick
her phone back up. That voice…his voice. She would recognize that one voice out
of a thousand others. It was his. It was Corey’s.

Chapter
2

Mara tossed and turned that
morning. Sweat soaked the sheets. Groaning and fumbling, her consciousness slowly
came to as slick skin touched more slick skin. She squirmed through the
unpleasant sensations. Blinking through the bright morning sunlight filtering
through the window, Mara sat up and wiped the sleep from her face. Only
something strange happened. She wiped beads of sweat from her brow, in her
hair, and down her neck. She’d damn near soaked through the sleep T-shirt she
wore.

Mara jolted, sucking in a sharp
breath. A second later she bolted down the hallway to the thermostat, no longer
feeling any of the excessive heat as she had a moment ago. Ice filled her veins
making her movements stiff and unnatural. The thermostat was on the wall. It
was white with simple buttons that she had to jab really hard to make them
work. She and the thermostat did not get along. However, she’d never feared her
thermostat…until now.

Like a soldier turning to face
his superior, Mara turned to the thermostat.

The heat was turned on to
ninety-three degrees.

“Aha hahaha.” She made a sound
between a laugh and crying.

The sound came again, this time
definitely a cry, a low wail of pain.

She sucked in deep breaths. She
had to search the rest of the house first. There would be time to think and cry
later. Right now she knew she had to make sure she was safe. Mara bit her lip
to stifle her cries. First thing she did was go to her nightstand drawer and
grab the Taser. It was still there. That gave her some relief. She searched the
bedroom first. Nothing looked amiss, just the typical—clothes strewn about on
the floor, both clean and dirty. The bathroom was clear, the same for the
living room, her dining room, and the kitchen. She checked the closets twice.

“I will not let him control
me,” she said to herself in a mantra.

She checked the lock to the
front door. “I will not let him control me.” The lock looked fine to her. If
Corey had come through this way then she couldn’t tell. She found the same
result at the back door and each of the windows.

Mara found herself standing in
her kitchen. She was wearing her slowly drying sleep T-shirt, on a workday,
carrying a Taser in her hand, and completely terrified.

“I will not let him control
me.”

But her voice wavered. Too many
fears plagued her. Too many what-ifs. Each of those what-ifs led to
should-dos
for her. What if Corey had found her all the way from New York?
Then I
should leave town right away.

He knew where she lived. He’d
come into her house last night and she’d never even know it.

Had he touched her? A shiver of
disgust ran through her. He would. Of course he would. He loved controlling
her, manipulating her. He’d probably arranged her hair or tucked the covers
over her or pulled them off.
Something.
He’d do something to mess with
her because he was sick like that.

“I will not let him control
me.”

But she loved her job so much
and she had a great best friend, Tia. Her mom lived only two hours away, close
but not too close for her.

He’d been in her house. This
might not have even been the first time. Just the first time she noticed. Her
heart broke and it took all her strength not to break down and cry.

“I will
not
let him
control me.” He can’t control her any longer. She wouldn’t cry for him,
wouldn’t be scared of him. He was not stronger than her. She could beat him.

Because she had a weapon. Jace
Mathews.

Finally ungluing her frozen
feet from the floor, Mara set the Taser down. She scanned the table, searched
inside her purse but couldn’t find it anywhere.

“He took my phone.”

Wait. She had to laugh at her
own stupidity. She remembered where it was now—on her driveway and most likely
broken into a bunch of expensive pieces.

Mara looked out the peephole of
her front door.

“You will not control me.”

She’d picked this house because
of its location and charm. Mostly the charm. It had a modest metal fence that
lined her driveway with ivy and shrubs growing along the fence so it looked
like she was pulling home to her cottage each time she came home. It was her
own little castle. Big willows stood on either side of her house keeping it
cooler and shaded by its leaves. Now the shrubbery looked menacing as the wind
blew the little green leaves. What if he was waiting for her right now…hiding
behind the bushes?

Her gut was sickeningly
clenched. “You will not control me, Corey.”

She still struggled to say his
name. He’d taken even that from her. The fear he’d held over her had been so
powerful. She’d never go back to that.

That’s why she opened the damn
front door, stepped out into the morning air and picked up her phone at the end
of the driveway. She kept her pace casual, unafraid, even if her heart raced
enough for her to be sprinting.

The phone wasn’t broken; so
that was one good thing so far today. Mara went back into the house and began
sweating again. It was actually warmer in the house than it was outside. She
turned the A/C back on and cranked it nice and low. She’d deal with the big
bill when it came. It’d be worth it after the morning she’d had.

Her purse sat on the dining
room table. She emptied the bag expecting to find her wallet gone, but
everything was there. This didn’t make any sense. If Corey had been here then
he would take something of hers. Of course everything was a game with him. It
wouldn’t be something big and obvious like her television. No, he’d take
something small that she might not even notice. That was part of the fun to
him.

The thermostat and that call
yesterday solidified the severity of her situation.

Tick tock, Mara. Tick tock.

What did that even mean? She
knew the answer wouldn’t be good.

He’d called and now she knew without
a doubt who the caller was. Still, though it’d been difficult to fall asleep at
first after hearing his voice, she hadn’t been that scared. After all, it was
just a phone call and he lives in New York. Not for one single second last
night did she think he was
here
in Florida. And that he knew where she
lived.

Mara needed help bad.

The man from yesterday drifted
through her mind, not for the first time since she met him. Jace Mathews with
the compelling blue eyes. There was just something good about him. Something
almost wholesome. Something masculine and warm. He was not like Corey.

Maybe he could protect her. Not
in some eye-rolling display of heroic machismo, but in a more realistic way. It
looked like he made a living doing what she needed help with. She would need a
security system because she refused to move.

“You will not control me,
Corey.”

If she moved then that only
gave him more power over her. She had to stay and fight, so to speak. So the
first things she needed were new locks and some kind of alarm system.

Her thumb swept over his phone
number. His handwriting was made up of tall, black, slanted letters. He pressed
down hard when he wrote. She could feel the mirrored numbers on the back of the
card.

“Oh boy.” She let out an
unsteady sigh. “Here goes nothing.”

Seven digits later and the
phone was ringing at her ear. She bit down on her lip, nibbling it like a toy.
Dang, but her belly tingled with nerves. What if he answered the phone? What if
he didn’t? After several long rings the phone beeped and went to voicemail.
Mara hung without leaving a message.

Instead of playing phone tag,
she’d go to see Jace. But she needed a ride to get there. Her best friend, Tia,
arrived only twenty minutes later than she said she would.

“Girl, you know that when I
give you a time it’s more of an approximation. I’m like the weatherman. I have
a fifty-percent chance of being right.” Tia was gorgeous and had a body that
made men and little boys do a double-take. Only problem was…she was Tia. Or as
Mara liked to called her, Ticket Into Anal. It might not sound complimentary,
but it was in a way. Since Mara and Tia were both sex toy operators at
Aphrodite’s Love they were naturally bound to discuss their own sexual
preferences. This happened on many occasions. If fact, it’s how Mara and Tia
became close since Mara moved here.

Tia wasn’t called Ticket Into
Anal because she abhorred anal sex. That’s all she was saying.

“Just get me to this place,
please; it’s been a hell of a morning.”

Tia saluted her then peeled
away. Mara probably shouldn’t have said anything. Tia’s driving foot was as
heavy as a bowling ball.

“So are you going to tell me
why your car isn’t anywhere to be seen and you need a ride to some protective
services place?” Tia asked.

“Do I have to?”

Tia arched a stern brow at
Mara.

“All right already. I think…”
The next part was so much harder to say aloud. “I think Corey’s here. I think
that he might have found me.” How on Earth her voice managed not to crack right
there she did not know. Tia didn’t know Corey. She didn’t even know what he
looked like, but she had heard Mara’s painful stories a few times. Usually
after two pitchers of margaritas.

“Damn.” The way Tia said it
explained it all—like she’d just stepped in a pile of shit.

“I still have the restraining
order but that didn’t stop him before.”

“What do you have to do now?”
Tia asked.

“Go to the police. I’m not
sure. That’s what Jace is for, right?”

“So this Jace fella…he’s a
brother?” Tia tapped her bright red fingernails on the steering wheel.

“Looks mixed to me. And no, you
can’t have him.”

Tia sighed with an eye roll. “I
doubt he’s that fine anyway. We’ll see.”

Mara laughed. Just being around
her good friend again warmed her cold blood. It made the day seem much more
normal.

“I’ll call you when I’m ready
to be picked up. Thanks for driving me, mom.”

Tia played a straight face. She
pulled a five-dollar bill out of her purse. “Do you need lunch money, dear?”

Mara stuck her tongue out and
waved goodbye. If she didn’t have a friend like Tia in her life right now Mara
would be screwed.

Superior Protective Services
was a surprisingly small building. In her mind she’d pictured a gleaming
skyscraper. This looked more like a dentist’s office. Inside was a round room
with dark green carpet and dark wood paneling. It smelled like old carpet and
stale coffee. A young woman stood waiting behind a desk. She looked startled
and quite pretty with a real fresh-faced look about her.

“May I help you?” she asked.

“Yes, is Jace Mathews in?” Mara
bit her lip to keep from giggling. Her giggle did not mean she thought
something was funny. More often than not her giggles were signs of her
nervousness.

The woman nodded. She didn’t
even need to use the computer or make a phone call or look in the office.

“Do you want to see him or
something?” the woman asked. She had bright blue eyes and light red hair.

Um. “Yes, that’d be great.
Thanks.”

The woman acted like they’d
never had a customer before. She pressed a button and a lock clicked on the
door behind her. “Go on in. His office is down the hall, then go right and it’s
at the end of the hall on the right.”