Blind Ice (Razors Ice Book 5) (8 page)

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 expecting 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 that 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.

Was it a mouse?

A lot of help Cassidy proved to be, Julia thought bitterly.

Veronica was absolutely no help at all. “
Ardilla, ardilla
,” she repeated.

Julia had a knack for picking up foreign languages in school and tried to place the word along with its definition.

Ardilla
.

“Squirrel!” Julia exclaimed, excited that she remembered and then bewildered at why one would be inside of her apartment. “He must have come in through the doggie door,” she murmured.

She went to the door and held it open, hoping the
ardilla
would head toward it and out into the great wide open.

* * *

When Veronica reassured Julia—which she pronounced as
Who
-lia—that the squirrel had indeed scampered out the door, everything returned to normal inside Julia’s little apartment. Veronica carried out her duties and when everything was clean, she went to the coat closet to retrieve her purse.

“The boys got their school pictures back yesterday…” The tail end of the sentence waivered when it dawned on her that she wouldn’t be able to show them off to Julia like she had the rest of her friends and clients.

“I bet they are very handsome,” Julia reassured her.

Veronica nodded, knowing Julia couldn’t see that either. “
Sí. Guapo
, Miss
Who
-lia.”

“Describe the photos to me.” Julia took a seat on the arm of the couch, hoping to put Veronica at ease.

Veronica cleared her throat as if she was preparing to give a speech to congress. “Javier is in
cinco
grade this year. He looks so grown up...”

There was love in her voice as she described her children and Julia could picture their fresh faces smiling into the school photographer’s lens.

Julia swallowed down the bitter taste of jealousy. She could never get a man to stick around long enough to even
think
about having children. She tried to picture Gabe with children, but all her mind’s eye could see was him hunched over his desk, buried beneath his work. If he didn’t get out once in a while, VINCE would be his only form of offspring.

Veronica prattled on about her children, slipping from English to Spanish and back again, while Julia tried to remind herself of all the things she
did
have.

* * *

Even though she knew athletes made a pretty penny, Kate still couldn’t help but be surprised at the size of Logan’s house. It was everything Kate expected it to be. New, modern, lavishly large…

And surprisingly empty. He supposedly had a roommate, but by the looks of the sparse décor, the guy hadn’t brought much to the literal table.

The house was a bit dramatic and pretentious for her taste. She didn’t need a fancy address in Pacific Hills to give her prestige. She preferred the warm hominess of her bungalow to the shiny marble floors and cathedral ceilings of Logan’s house—even if it did sit on a golf course and have beautiful landscaping.

She liked how she had transformed her house into a home by filling it with personal touches and comfortable furniture. The only seating in Logan’s massive living room was a futon-like sofa bed that didn’t exactly scream “
sit on me!
” and a leather recliner that had seen better days. But she didn’t mention her feelings about the place and just smiled when he showed her the oversized modern kitchen.

When Logan’s arms snaked around her and he started nibbling seductively at her neck, the sparse décor was forgotten and Kate melted into his strong embrace.

And then she caught sight of the mini grand piano in the corner. She pulled away from Logan to take a closer look. The piano was white, just like his car, with silver hardware and vase legs. In this house full of high-end amenities, it was the one thing she had an instant connection with.

“You have a beautiful piano.” Her fingers itched to touch the keys even though it had been a decade since she’d played. It was just like riding a bicycle, right?

As often as she’d played during her childhood, Kate could never play as well as Julia. But it hadn’t always been that way. She remembered sitting for hours and playing for her younger sister. Julia pouted when Kate had to stop because her fingers started cramping up. Kate had taken lessons, but didn’t feel the connection with the music like Julia eventually did. When Julia kept begging her to play, Kate finally convinced her to learn how to play for herself.

“But I can’t read the music, Katie,” she had whined. Losing her sight had presented more challenges than any teenage girl should have to deal with.

“Just remember it or make up your own. It doesn’t matter.”

Their mom got tired of Julia banging away on the piano, so she bought her a keyboard with headphones so that Julia could play as long as she wanted without disturbing the rest of the household. Kate never thought of it as a disturbance though. As long as Julia was happy, she didn’t mind the noise.

Kate swatted away the memories and sat down on the bench. It was difficult to indulge in scenes from the past when Logan was running his tongue around the shell of her ear and making her shiver.

“The decorator brought it in, claiming it would give the house ‘character,’” he explained.

“Do you play?”

“No. You?”

“A long time ago.”

He gestured to the keys. “Have at it.”

So Kate played for him. A choppy version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and then what she could remember of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The piano was slightly out of tune, but Kate didn’t care. It was the most beautiful sound in the universe.

While she was playing, Logan bent down and kissed her neck. Her fingers stilled as his lips traced a lazy path around to her ear.

“Keep playing,” he whispered.

He reached down and stroked his fingers up and down her arms as she continued. She misplayed a few notes when he breathed hot breath into her ear, but he didn’t seem to notice the break in the melody.

Kate stopped and swung her leg over the bench and straddled it. Logan lifted her onto his lap and she circled her arms around his neck.

They made their own music on the padded bench that afternoon. A blend of heavy breaths, suckling noises, and the sound of bodies joining as one. Soft moans and murmured words of pleasure replaced the song from the piano.

Later, they found themselves on the floor, the plush carpet biting into elbows and hipbones.

“Your roommate isn’t going to come in and see my bare ass, is he?” Kate asked, stretching her leg out, mimicking a compromising position.

“Nah,” Logan answered, grabbing onto her leg. “He’s in Sacramento visiting his girlfriend. So flexible, Kate,” he remarked.

“Julia and I do yoga.”

He smiled, picturing her in downward dog in the middle of a steamy yoga studio. “I’ve been known to yoga,” he said with a smirk.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yep. Nathan, one of our goalies, does it for flexibility and I’ve gone with him once or twice.”

Kate tried to picture Logan on a yoga mat and smiled when the image came clearly into mind. Was there anything he didn’t look good doing? “What’s your favorite position?”

“C’mere and I’ll show you.”

“Right now?” He
had
to be tired after the acrobatics on the piano bench earlier.

“I want you again,” he said huskily.

“Already?”

The slow smile that curved his lips made her belly quiver.

“Once is never enough.”

He took her hand and said, “Come with me,” and led her upstairs to the bedroom.