Razors Ice 04 - Hot Ice (6 page)

“Is everything all right?” he asked, referring to her phone conversation
with Patricia.

“Ye
ah. Pats just forgot to give you our business card, so…,” she straightened back up, rummaged through her purse and produced her business card. “Here is mine.”

“Thanks.” He took the card and ran his finger over the edge.

“And she also wanted me to remind you to call if you need a last minute massage or anything.”

“I will.”

“I know you will, but she gets so uptight about things.” She blew out a frustrated breath, hoping Patricia had left her enough room in her schedule today for a quick bite to eat for lunch.

Jace
glanced down at the business card and couldn’t help but smile.

Violet James

Healing Touch

S
pecializing in all types of massage.

We make house calls!

“What gave you the idea to make house calls?” he asked and tucked the card into his coat pocket.

“Well, it started out mostly for our elderly clients, but it’s been a great option for everyone. People are always more relaxed in their own home. And that’s the whole point of a massage, right?”

“Right.
You know, you’re great at what you do.” As an athlete, Jace had had a bajillion massages, but none of them had affected him like Violet’s. Her hands seemed to reach more than just his aching muscles and that was a good thing.

She blushed again.
“Thank you. Because of your profession, I took the liberty of using more pressure on you than I would on one of my eighty-year-old clients.”

“I’m glad you did. I like it rough,” he said, testing his flirting skills.
They may be a bit rusty, but he used to be pretty damn good at flirting if he remembered correctly. He doubted it, but maybe just
maybe
the guys were right. Maybe he needed a little bit of no-strings-attached action.

Violet glanced away
and nibbled on her lip. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Jace
looked over to gage her reaction. She had blushed, but she wasn’t completely repulsed. It was a start. “Believe me,” he said. “I’ve had a career-full of massages and you were amazing.”

Violet smiled.
“I’ve always been good with my hands.” She started to say she didn’t mean it like
that
, but by the look on his face, Jace didn’t mind her unintentional innuendo.

“
Is that what made you decide to go into massage therapy?” he asked.

Quickly realizing that anything that came out of her mouth at this point was going to sound like innuendo,
Violet stopped and gathered her thoughts. “I wanted to help people,” she finally answered. “My favorite grandma had advanced arthritis in her hands.” When Violet needed a break from the testosterone of having three brothers, she visited her grandma, Collette. “When I would visit her at the nursing home, I would massage her hands for her and it always made her feel better. Then, when her friends at the home found out, everybody wanted in on it. So, I put two and two together and realized that I might as well get paid to give massages and decided to make a career out of it. My dad always says that if you find a job you love then you’ll never have to work a day of your life. Know what I mean?”

“
Yeah,” Jace chuckled. “You’re talking to someone who plays a game for a living and has the summer off, remember?”

Violet smiled and tried to imagine having the summer off. She hadn’t had more than two consecutive days off in ages.
Spending the day getting coffee and massages sounded like heaven.

When
they arrived at the gas station, the wind had finally died down, leaving just the bitter cold behind. While Jace bought coffee, Violet purchased a gas can and filled it up.

“All set?” he asked when she climbed back into the passenger seat.

“Yep.”

He handed her a steaming cup of coffee and she decided he was a Good Samaritan in every meaning of the word.
“For me?”

He nodded.

“Wow, that’s really nice of you. Thank you.”

Yep, definitely too good to be true.

“So, where’s your car parked?” he asked, pulling out of the gas station.

“It’s in front of the pharmacy
over on Oak Street.”

Violet sipped her coffee and went over the morning
’s events in her mind. If someone would have told her she’d be riding in Jace McQuaid’s car, sipping coffee and talking about life, she would have laughed in their face. Her brothers were really going to have a field day with this.

“There it is
.” Violet pointed as they cruised down Oak Street. “The little blue car.”

Jace
pulled into the empty space behind her car. “Nice parking job,” he joked.

“Yeah.”
She looked at her crookedly parked car and laughed. “I kind of coasted into it on vapors.”

They shared a look and
Jace’s eyes caressed her face. Between his hungry look, the warmth of her seat and the smell of leather and coffee, Violet became dizzy. She quickly cleared her throat and unbuckled her seatbelt. “Thank you so much for everything,” she said, her voice shaky. “You were a real life-saver today.”

“It was my pleasure.”

The words echoed in her head.
Pleasure
. The word meant different things to different people, but right now the only thing she could think of was Jace’s big strong hands.

My p
leasure
.

“Don’t forget this
,” he said, waking her from her reverie. He disconnected her phone from the charger and handed it back to her.

“Thanks.”
She rested her fingers on the door handle. “Your next massage is on me. It’s the least I can do for you after everything.”

“Nah, the Razors are footing the bill anyways. We’ll figure something out.”

We’ll figure something out.

The words bounced around in her brain like pinballs inside a noisy arcade game.
Violet fumbled with the seatbelt and finally freed herself. When she opened the door and got out, so did Jace.

“You don’t have to get out
,” she told him. “It’s freezing out here.”

Jace shrugged. “That’s okay.” He took the gas can from the trunk and proceeded to fill up the tank
of her Jetta for her.

Watching
Jace insert the nozzle into the tank had Violet hot and bothered all over again.

“
There, all set,” he told her and screwed the gas cap back on. “See if she’ll start now.”

Violet got behind the wheel and turned the key. Sure enough,
after some initial sputtering, the engine purred to life and the light on her dash flickered off.

A
non-empty gas tank and a charged cell phone. All was right in the world again.

Jace grinned and patted the roof of the car
and she rolled the window down. “Drive safe,” he told her.

“
I will. Thank you for all of your help.”

“Thanks for the massage.”

“Well, I’d better get back. Pats keeps me on a short leash.”

Jace
smiled. “As much as I’m enjoying the view,” his eyes darted down to her chest and back up to her eyes again, “I should get going, too.”

Violet gasped and pulled the windbreaker closed. He winked, turned on his heel and strode to his car.

It took Violet a full two minutes before she was composed enough to shift her car into Drive.

* * *

Jace drove away with his head spinning and headed toward the freeway. Violet James was the most beautiful and fascinating woman he’d met in a long while and she was talented beyond belief. She had worked his muscles with precision and his
other
muscle into an absolute frenzy. He just hoped he hadn’t scared her away with his amateur flirting.

Smooth one, McQuaid
, he thought to himself.

Jace stopped at a red light, his mind taking him back to the blissful
forty-five minute massage Violet had given him. He’d had a lot of massages in his day, but there was something in the way she touched him that brought his thoughts past the client/therapist relationship. Sensuality boiled just below the surface as her hands had skimmed his back. The way she moved oozed with sexuality. She didn’t seem to be aware of it even, but it would take a damn fool not to notice.

A car honked from behind him and
Jace looked up at the green light. Shaking himself out of the daze, he punched the gas.

Not only was Jace physically attracted to Violet,
but he was finding out she had a boatload of good qualities too. That thing about her arthritic grandma was pure personality gold.

Sure, he’d just met her, but he felt some kind of connection with her.
Which was shocking considering he’d sworn off women ever since one in particular had taken a machete to his heart, divorced him, and took his bank account with her. There weren’t enough magic hands that could heal that type of wound. But he might be willing to let Violet give it a shot.

The more Jace thought about it, the more he thought
Cody and Sebby might be right. He needed to let loose and just have sex. No strings attached. No awkward first date or uncomfortable morning after. Just pure sex for the pleasure of it followed by an amicable
sayonara
.

It
had
been a while. Too long. And Jace made his mind up about Violet. If they did indeed have a connection, he’d keep it strictly physical. It was the only way.

Shit,
he thought, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. He was going to need to buy some condoms. It had been a while since he’d needed one. He needed to be prepared if he was going to try out his teammates’ theory.

Yep. Violet
could give him mind-blowing massages during the day and then at night…

Well,
he had something else mind-blowing in mind for nighttime. Her buttoned-up business partner didn’t have control over what Violet did after hours, did she? Not a chance. And Violet had said herself that sometimes you had to cut loose a little.

He’d only spent a little more than an hour with her, but
Jace felt like he knew enough about Violet James to make an educated decision. She valued family, took pride in her career and was beautiful beyond belief.

And best of all, he smiled and
as he merged onto the freeway, she made house calls.

* * *

After a long day of appointments and a last minute housecall, Violet finally went home. In the living room, she found Phillip on the phone, deep in conversation. She wasn’t the least bit surprised. Well, maybe a little surprised to see him there because, although they had technically moved in together, he had an apartment on the other side of town near his office where he stayed most nights. But she wasn’t surprised to see that he was on the phone. Phillip had spent most of his adult life with a phone attached to his ear and a displeased look plastered on his face.

With brand new eyes,
Violet watched her fiancé as he paced the room. It was strange seeing him for the first time in a week. He’d been at another one of his urology conferences. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he went to them just to avoid spending time with her. Not that she was complaining.

Compared to the friendly grizzly bear Jace, Phillip was a persnickety field mouse at best.
Violet hated to compare the two men—it wasn’t fair to either of them—but she couldn’t help it. Where Jace often had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, Phillip’s eyes were cold and dark, devoid of all emotion. Jace’s nose was proportionate to his face and chiseled features. Phillip’s nose was too pointy, but it also matched his too pointy chin. Jace had a masculine lumber to how he walked and Phillip was calculating and mechanical in his movements as he paced in front of the television.

“Sorry I’m late,” Violet told Phillip when he
finally disconnected the call. “How are you? How is everything?”

Phillip ran a thin hand through his short brown hair. “Please, Violet,” he scolded, “I don’t have time for pleasantries.”

“Well hello to you, too,” she pouted and sunk into the sofa. After massaging people all day, she could really use one of her own. Too bad Phillip avoided touching her at all costs.

Phillip scowled at her before turning his attention back to his phone.

Violet scowled back. What did she ever see in this man? Everything about him was detached and abrupt. Maybe that’s why she was drawn to Jace like a moth to flame. Jace exuded the warmth she’d been deprived of for far too long. Maybe it was finally time to reevaluate their relationship. Or what was left of it anyway. Certainly, by now her debt to him had been paid in full.

She
should probably come clean and tell Phillip she’d flirted with another man today. Or maybe not. He probably wouldn’t even care. It wasn’t like she had actually
acted
on any of her thoughts. And flirting was harmless, right?