Flawed Beauty (17 page)

She lifted a hand to push her hair
out of her face. Her injured hand protested as it throbbed along with each
heartbeat. She immediately pulled it against her chest in an involuntarily
protective measure.

“Hi,” he said quietly. “How’s the
hand?”

As she raked him head to foot, she
murmured, “Good.”

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

Slowly, she shook her head.

“You need to eat. The painkillers
will make you sick otherwise.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

“I have to be back to the hospital
in about an hour. Are you planning on working today? I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“I have to work. My shift begins at
seven. What time is it now?” she asked.

They both glanced at his bedside
clock: five p.m. She’d slept most the day.

Jace
came and sat down beside her on the
bed.

“Let me see your hand,” he demanded
softly.

Unfolding it from her chest, she
extended it to him. He set his coffee down and gently began to
unwrap
the bandages. With soft and easy touches, he probed
the wound lightly.

“If I can’t convince you not to
work, I’d recommend you at least wear a glove.”

“I will.”

“Are you okay,” he asked.

“Yes, why?”

“You were tossing and turning most
of the day,” he replied.

“I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t keep you
up,” she gushed.

“Who’s Nick?” he asked.

“Nick?” she asked hoarsely.

“Yeah, you kept repeating his name.”

She cringed. “Just someone I knew
from a long time ago.
How strange.”

Jace
pulled the edges of the comforter
down exposing her naked flesh. Moving his eyes over her body slowly, he said,
“I’m glad you played hooky today. I’ve missed you.”

“Me too,” she replied softly.

Rising from the bed,
Jace
quickly dispensed of his pajama bottoms and climbed
over her.

“I want you so much,” he whispered
as he ran his tongue down the length of her neck.

“Me too,” she repeated.

He kissed his way down her body
before slowly easing into her velvety softness. He stilled, buried deep within.

Moaning against her ear, he
whispered, “God, you feel so good.” Moving his lips to hers, “I don’t think
I’ve ever needed a woman as much as I need you… so stick around, okay?” he
whispered.

Tears stung her eyes at his words.
As much as she wanted to tell him she needed him too, she couldn’t force the
words out of her mouth. The words would make her vulnerable to him and she just
couldn’t risk it. So instead, she closed her eyes and gave herself up to this
moment, to this man, who made love to her so tenderly.

As they stood together underneath
the spray of the shower later, he drew her up against his naked, wet form – his
front to her back. Lightly, he rained kisses across her shoulders causing
chill-bumps to form on her skin. He intertwined their fingers and folded them
around her middle.

She leaned her head back onto his
chest. “Can I tell you a secret?” she asked.

“Of course… the dirtier the better,”
he grinned against the top of her head.

“Today’s my birthday. I’m
twenty-two.”

She felt his head snap up. “Why
didn’t you tell me earlier? I would have…”

She turned in his arms and looked up
into his beautiful face. “You’ve already made it perfect. This has been the
best birthday of my life. Thank you.” Rising up on her tiptoes, she kissed him
softly.

He drew his finger across her
eyebrow as he stared down into her eyes. “How did I ever get so lucky?”

“I’m the lucky one,” she whispered
back.

Wrapping his arms tightly around
her, he picked her up and carried her back to his bed, never minding the
pooling water or that he’d be impossibly late to work.

§§§

Thankfully, Wednesday night at
Zeal’s was not as busy as the previous night. As promised, Tate wore a glove on
her hand, which throbbed because she’d refrained from taking the pain
medication, as it made her fuzzy-headed. While Thor was off on Wednesday, he’d
called to check on her, along with a couple of the other wait-staff. It made
Tate feel as if she finally belonged someplace in the world. She kept an eye
out for Nick Tracey, and gave a huge sigh of relief when she didn’t see him.

Around ten p.m., with a thinning
crowd,
Zek
ordered her off the clock and demanded
she
go up to her apartment to give her hand a chance to
heal. Seeing she’d not be missing out on too many tips, she complied. Truth be
told, her hand hurt… bad.

Exhausted from her all-nighter the
night before, Tate slowly made her way up the stairs to her apartment. She was
surprised to first see the light on in her kitchen, but also to find the door
unlocked. Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened the door. Leaving the door
open behind her, she cautiously entered the apartment. Sitting on her kitchen
table was a tumbler of amber liquid sitting beside her bottle of Jim Beam. She
knew she’d not left that out. For just an instant she wondered if maybe
Jace
had gotten off work early, but dismissed the notion,
as she knew he’d have joined her downstairs.

She dug her
cellphone
out of her pocket and slid her thumb up the screen to activate it – just in
case. She crept through the kitchen and darted her head around the archway.
Seeing nothing, she moved stealthily forward with her heart pounding. She’d
gotten halfway down the hall when her heart seemed to stop, as Nick Tracey came
to the bedroom door, naked except for a towel wrapped low on his hips. Once her
heart started again, pounding more furiously than before, she said through
gritted teeth, “What are you doing in my house, Nick?”

“What kind of greeting is that? Why,
we’re practically
family
,” he said, leaning against
her bedroom doorjamb.

Fear kept her feet planted squarely
where she stood. The thought crossed her mind, here was the reason she’d taken
all her self-defense classes, and if he moved towards her, his mental hold on
her was so great, she didn’t know if she could move.

“I want you to leave now,” she
demanded.

Cocking his head to one side, he
muttered, “When have I ever cared about what you wanted?”

“Why are you here, Nick?” she asked
with trembling lips.

 “I’ve been worried about you,”
he said with mock concern.

With equally fake calm, she said,
“When have you ever concerned yourself with me?”

“Do you know what happened to me
after… our time together?”

Tate gave a nervous bark of a laugh.
“No, pray tell. What happened to
you
?”

“I was ostracized by most of my
school. Do you have any idea how hard that made things for me?”

“For you?” she scoffed, not
believing his words.

“Yes, for me. Once the student body
learned of your… dubious past and that you’d lived in my house… and after
having witnessed the intimate nature of our
relations
, why, you’d have
thought it was my family who were the poor white trash. You ruined my life.”

Tate gave a tiny shake of her head
at the innateness of his statement. He’d raped her, videotaped it, then
forwarded it to others… and she ruined his life?

She sagged against the wall, wanting
him gone. “Please leave, Nick.”

Nick lifted his shoulder from the
doorjamb and made his way to her unhurriedly. She tensed, but maintained eye
contact, refusing to acknowledge the fear welling up inside her.

Standing a hairsbreadth from her, he
placed his palm against her cheek, while rubbing his thumb over her bottom lip.
Her heart began to pound and her body tensed at his nearness and touch. Her
stomach roiled at the touch of his hand on her face. She longed to swat it away
but was afraid to show him his power over her – his
powShe’er
to intimidate her.

“God, you were a good lay. With your
sad eyes filled with fear. I saw how you watched me… wanted me.”

She jerked her mouth away from his
thumb. “I loathed you. I did not want you. You raped me. You destroyed my life.
I hated waking up knowing you’d… you’d touched me… defiled me.”

He moved even closer, leaned towards
her, and whispered into her ear. “You were so tight. And while you’d deny it,
your body responded beautifully to mine. We were meant to be lovers… and we
will be again.”

 “No!” she yelled. “You will
not ever touch me again. How could you possibly think I’d ever allow you to
touch me? You need to go now!”

Nick startled Tate by throwing back
his head and laughing. He slowly began to clap his hands. “Bravo, little
sister. You’ve finally gotten a backbone. Too bad it’s not going to matter.
Because you will do as I want or I’ll have a little chat… with what’s his
name?” he asked as he snapped his fingers as if he’d just remembered something.
“Oh yes, Dr.
Jace
Staton
.
Your DJ was a wealth of knowledge. Seems he was a little put out that you…
well, didn’t put out,” he barked out a laugh at his own wit. “Who knows, I
might even invite the good doctor over for movie night. And I have just the
movie to show him. Do you remember it, Tate?”

“I’d rather die than let you touch
me again,” she said through clenched teeth.

“We both know I have my ways of
persuasion,” he mocked.

 With her hand throbbing and
tiring of his game, she said through gritted teeth, “Please get dressed and
leave, Nick. And just so we’re clear, if I ever come home and find you here, I
will call the police.”

He pursed his lips as he
contemplated her.

“Tate, you left your door open.”

Tate froze at the sound of
Jace’s
voice. What was he doing here? She snapped her head
in Nick’s direction and saw what
Jace
would see – her
standing in her house with a naked man. As
Jace
turned the corner into the hall, Nick gave a quick tug to his towel causing it
to fall to the floor while he grabbed her arms and pressed her up against the
wall before placing his lips over hers. The feel of his lips on her stunned
her, and fear as never before filled her. She knew she should push him away,
but froze instead. Once she got her brain to work, she began to struggle
against him, but his hold was too tight. Nick stepped back with a grin before
casually bending down to pick up his towel.

Tate wiped a hand against her mouth
and turned her head to
Jace
. He was standing at the
entrance of the hallway dressed in his scrubs holding a cupcake with one candle
lit on top. A myriad of emotions crossed his features: disbelief, shock, hurt,
and finally, anger.

With her heart pounding, shock kept
her paralyzed where she stood. She knew she should go to him and try to
explain, but found she couldn’t move.

After what seemed an eternity,
Jace
blew out the candle and said with grim lips, “Happy
birthday, Tate.”

He turned on the balls of his feet
and headed out of the apartment. The closing of the door catapulted Tate in
action and she turned to run after
Jace
. But Nick
grabbed her arm.

“Let me go!” she shouted as she
snatched her arm out of his grasp. She sprinted to the apartment door and flew
down the stairs, catching her foot and tripping down the last two. She threw
her hands out automatically to break her fall and felt the stitches in her
injured hand rip open. She didn’t care, she scrambled to her feet and ran to
the parking lot just in time to see
Jace’s
blue Cobra
race off.

Her chest heaving, she turned and
ran back up the stairs. When she reached the kitchen, she grabbed her purse and
pulled out her
cellphone
as sobs were torn from her
chest. She punched in his number but the call went straight to voicemail.