Breathe [Running to Love 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Online Free Page B

suddenly itched to touch his head, to see if his very short brown hair would feel like seal fur beneath her touch or if it would rasp like shaving brush bristles. She actually felt her nostrils flare to try and pick up the scent of him, like a bitch in heat.
    “Jace!” Ashley’s pleased acknowledgment snapped the powerful connection, and Rowan dragged air into her lungs, and her brain began to function again on a higher level. It had felt like being immersed in something, something invisible but none the less tangible. She struggled to process it, but Ashley was already introducing them. Rowan had a sinking feeling in her gut. They hadn’t been introduced to anyone else, so this meeting held significance. Was Ashley intending to involve this incredible man in whatever she and Jackie were building up to? Maybe he really hadn’t been looking at her. Maybe she had imagined the connection. Rowan suddenly wanted to claw the other woman’s eyes out, and bearing in mind the way Jackie was looking at this Jace, she wouldn’t be averse to at least considering him. And now she also wanted to smack her best friend.
    “Rowan, this is Jace. Jace, Rowan.”
    Rowan reached to take the large hand he offered, and hers was swallowed up in a firm, warm grasp. Her pulse raced and she wondered if he felt it, too. She managed a smile and a nod.
    “Would you like to move to a different place to sit, Rowan?” His deep voice thrilled her. She felt like one of those bubble-headed debutantes in a historical romance novel. “There’s really no room for Max and me here.” He gestured toward the inadequate seating.
    Max. Who the hell was Max? The man he had come in with was smiling at her. He looked like a Max, blond and blue eyed and Nordic. He reminded her of Zeke, and Rowan gave him a warm smile right back. Jace’s hold tightened, and Rowan was startled. She transferred her gaze to him and saw that his mouth, already a chiseled masterpiece, was set even more firmly. But what he said startled her more.
    “I thought Jackie had the interest in ménage, honey? Was I mistaken?”
    Rowan pulled her hand back as if he were a hot flame. “What?” Even to her ears, she sounded liked an outraged chicken, and Jace’s face relaxed. He reached down to grasp her wrist and gently pulled her to her feet. She felt his considerable strength and without a word followed him to another small couch near the wall.It felt right, and she didn’t spare the energy to question it.
     
    * * * *
     
    Holy mother. When Ash had told him that she was bringing two possible recruits to the quarterly meet, Jace’s ears had perked right up. The members had been pairing off with unusual consistency, and the number of available women had been dwindling. He had no problem with hitting the bars and clubs, but vanilla sex really wasn’t his thing. He liked to get laid as much as the next guy, but dominance in the bedroom and any other place he could get a woman to spread for him was his real deal, and he always made it worth their while. It tested his restraint and made him feel that he was proving something to himself. The club provided a place to act on his proclivity, because the women there knew the score and some of them wanted what he could provide. Ash had made it pretty clear that one of the women was hers, and that Max might want to have a gander, because her newest love interest liked men, too. Max did women in any configuration, so he had been in high spirits tonight, real hopeful. It was Ash’s hint that the other recruit had expressed an interest in a “real man” that got Jace’s juices flowing. He welcomed the opportunity to help a gal find her niche so to speak, and if it turned out she was submissive, then all the better. He hadn’t had a relationship in a while, and even if he didn’t ever intend to settle down, couldn’t risk it, working with a new sexual submissive to elicit her total surrender tended to take time, effort, and real control,