Breathe [Running to Love 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (5 page)

The big blond man had disappeared with his date behind the same door that Jace had gone through and Rowan’s curiosity was piqued. Ashley and Jackie were cuddled up together on the love seat, and Max had both pairs of feet on his lap and was stroking their ankles. It was clearly sexual, but fairly discreet, and Rowan suppressed a smile. Jace came back through the door and straight over to her, offering his hand, and all felt right in her world. She let him pull her to her feet and again willingly followed him when he walked her back that way. To the green door. Rowan’s mind flashed back to the screenplay she once read, and she shivered.

“Cold?” Jace asked her, slowing to put his arm around her shoulders.

This man seemed to pay close attention to everything she did. “No. I just had a thought.”

“Tell me.”

“I read a lot, and there’s a screenplay, a movie about a green door and what’s behind it.”

He turned her to face him and stared right into her eyes. She was tall enough in her heels to tilt her head back only a fraction, and it was like he was in her mind with that discerning gaze. “I know it.” He drifted his mouth across hers for an instant and then hurried her down a hallway. Rowan’s senses spun at even such a whisper of a kiss, and she was confused. Was it the anticipation of what he might do to her, with her? Or was it this incredible draw between them? Rowan wished for a moment that she knew, a hint of disquiet coloring her arousal.

A variety of rooms branched off from the hall, and Rowan was aware of darkness that was spotlit in some areas and filled with what seemed to be odd pieces of furniture in others.

“These are rooms for scenes, Rowan,” Jace offered like a tour guide. “There are also private rooms for members to entertain or just stay over.”

Scenes. Real BDSM scenes. Rowan’s stomach tightened, and her sex got wetter just like that. She didn’t know if scenes were for her, but the sexual activity certainly was. She came to an abrupt halt, teetering on her heels, when an older, slender man stepped out of what appeared to be an office and motioned her inside. Jace shut the door behind her and remained in the hall. Rowan was startled and reached blindly behind her for the doorknob. What the hell? Had Jace just turned her over to this other man and left her? No, she realized, this was just part of the privacy everyone respected, and it calmed her.

The older man gave her a careful scrutiny, and she bore it with her usual poise. He wasn’t really tall, compared to Jace, and had more of a swimmer’s physique, yet had a quiet strength about him that was appealing. He, too, sported a short haircut, but his was blond going silver. He had unusual green eyes, like the color of green grapes, like the eyes of her childhood cat. He actually looked at her the same way Oscar did when he was annoyed that his dinner was late. Rowan dismissed her musings.

“I’m Alistair Frayne. Jace has asked for you to be allowed to witness one of our more private activities. Is this something you want to do?”

Rowan inclined her head and then quickly replied, seeing the same glint of displeasure reflected on his face that she had seen on Jace’s when she hadn’t spoken aloud. “Yes, please.”

Alistair gave a short bark of laughter that didn’t sound amused. “Such a polite sub. Jace doesn’t know his luck. Read these and sign them. Or don’t.”

Rowan was bewildered by both Alistair’s apparent bitterness and his reference to her as a sub. She hadn’t even done anything yet that was remotely submissive. Or had she? She skimmed through the documents and recognized them as basic release and confidentiality forms, and scribbled her name across the bottom of both. Alistair took them without further comment and locked them in a file cabinet.

“It’s up to you what you share with Jace, Rowan Scott. But he won’t get any additional information from me and you won’t get anything on him, understood?”

“I understand.” Rowan felt slightly overwhelmed when Alistair then bent an incredibly sexy and welcoming smile on her and escorted her to the door. She instinctively ducked her head as he passed her to Jace, but it didn’t stop her from seeing the telling look the two men shared. Rowan felt as though she had passed some sort of initiation and wasn’t sure she liked it, yet she felt claimed and significant, too.

“C’mon, honey. Greg and Lacey are already at it.”

Jace fairly hustled her back down the hall, and they entered one of the rooms, now cluttered with many of the people who had been in the lounge area, although Rowan didn’t take much time to notice. Her eyes were on the little woman who had been with the big blond man. She recognized her even without her clothes. Her petite form was suspended by some kind of leather ties at her wrists and ankles within a large, freestanding frame. She hung there as if crucified, spotlighted by a light in the ceiling, and then Rowan saw the leather supporting her at her waist. The big blond man had taken off his shirt and had what appeared to be a long strap in his hand. The woman’s back and buttocks had red marks all across them, and Rowan once again found it hard to breathe. This made it all so real, the difference between how her imagination interpreted the written word and what actually was taking place before her very eyes. She could feel the suppressed, yet tangible sexual excitement in the room, pressing in from all sides, feel the empathy for both Lacey and Greg, and longed to experience something like it for herself.

Jace gathered her to him and held her back to his chest, talking quietly in her ear. “Lacey discovered that the best way to work off her stress and also submit to Greg is the lash, Rowan. Watch how she welcomes it and how he knows just how hard to stripe her.”

Rowan continued to be mesmerized by the sight of Lacey arching into each stroke, moaning with what seemed to be satisfaction verging on ecstasy. “She wants him to do that to her?”

“It’s a reward, honey. Greg is pleased with Lacey. If he wasn’t, he would be disciplining her in private, and she wouldn’t be in subspace now.”

The idea of flagellation wasn’t new to Rowan. It had been around since the beginning of time, and probably released endorphins and other brain chemicals that made the mind let go, dissociate, not to mention how it would awake all the tiny nerve endings in the skin. She wasn’t so sure of what to make of Jace’s comment about discipline. Lacey was being taken down from the frame now, her little form drenched with perspiration, boneless and replete. Greg laid her body facedown over some sort of high padded bench and kicked her ankles apart, albeit with gentleness, and stepped between them. Rowan realized he had released his penis and watched in awe as he thrust up into his girlfriend’s body, powering forward and back, in and out of her relaxed form. Lacey suddenly screamed, a sound that filled the room, and Rowan flinched for her. She nearly missed Greg’s groan of completion.

“It’s okay, honey. He just got her off, and coupled with the flogging, it was probably a spectacular orgasm.”

As they watched, Greg pulled out and tucked himself away and then scooped Lacey up, carrying her further into the dark of the room. A door shut, and Jace told her that Greg would probably bathe Lacey and stay with her a while before taking her home. Rowan personally felt as though she had run miles or had done a full circuit at the gym. Her heart pounded, and she knew she was breathing heavily. Her pussy clenched and tingled and her breasts felt heavy.

“Do you want to come to a member’s room with me and talk about what you just saw and felt, Rowan?”

She felt herself nod again and tried to verbalize but nothing came out of her mouth, so she shut it with a snap. Jace chuckled, but it sounded forced, and she knew he hadn’t been unaffected by what they had witnessed. “I’ll ask ’Stair to tell your friend and Ash that I’ll drive you home. Okay?”

This time she was able to answer, now that her saliva glands were working again and her mouth wasn’t as dry as the desert. “I should probably do that myself.”

Jace hesitated and then said, “I think those three have other plans, honey. Let Alistair do it.”

Rowan studied his face, and was filled with a sudden suspicion, but let it go. She had decided to trust him tonight, see this thing through, and if he thought she might change her mind if she met up with Jackie again, he was incorrect. But then, he didn’t really know her, despite his obvious concentrated attention on her. “All right.”

* * * *

Jace hid his elation. He didn’t want Rowan’s friend to influence her and maybe make her second-guess herself, and he also wanted to push Alistair a little. The man was acting peculiar, and Jace didn’t like the fact that he had flexed his owner muscles unnecessarily tonight. The quickly hidden look on Alistair’s face when Jace asked him to pass on the message confirmed his earlier suspicions that there was something going on with Rowan’s friend, Jackie. But ’Stair shrugged and agreed, so Jace moved Rowan right along. He chose the member room with care. This one wasn’t monitored, and he knew that Alistair would give him some grief about it, but that the other man would also give him the benefit of the doubt and grant him privacy. Jace had never hurt a woman, never upset one, and was not considered any kind of risk. He had worked hard for that reputation to better assuage the memories of his past. Jace didn’t want to spook Rowan, although she had made it through Lacey’s flogging with hardly a hitch. He had felt her curiosity and arousal, and there had been no sense of judging. Rowan was a gem, and he intended to explore her every facet.

She prowled the room like a cat, probably looking for whips and chains, but Jace knew she would find only the large bed that dominated the room. There were eyebolts on all four posts, but the restraints were tucked beneath the mattress. Jace wasn’t averse to using the flogger or a crop, even a cane if the woman needed it, but any correction he administered usually came from the flat of his big hands. Insofar as bringing a woman to the heights, well, there were other ways to do that, and he liked using restraints, if only to take her choice away and help her really let go, but unless Rowan needed the kiss of the whip, he didn’t plan to use one. He was dominant, but not a truly committed Dom. It didn’t matter to him, and he’d soon find out what mattered to Rowan.

She finally quit pacing and perched on the edge of the bed. Jace pushed up from the wall he had been leaning against, and sprawled beside her, forcing her to turn her body if she wanted to look at him, and he expected that she would do so. Her eyes found his as if drawn by a magnet. He was already semitumescent, both from watching the scene and from the anticipation of being sexual with this woman, and her proximity stirred him further.

“Thoughts? Questions?”

Rowan tilted her head and said, “I don’t think I could be put on display like that. I mean, that woman, Lacey, she was obviously fine with it, but I’m too private.”

“That’s a hard boundary, honey, and I can respect that. I’m not inclined to share my experiences with a group either.” Jace again fought elation.

“I don’t want that lash either, ever. My stomach clenches when I think of it, and not in a good way, Jace.”

Better and better. “Done.”

Rowan laughed, a breezy, light sound that skittered across Jace’s heightened senses. He wanted to pull her down and give her something more to smile about. “I didn’t think this was going to be so easy.”

Jace felt his alpha stir, and he took charge instantly. It was time she saw this side of him, time that she saw more evidence that she was not in control in this instance. “Great, hot submissive sex on your part can’t be described as easy, Rowan. I’m going to list some other hard boundaries and you’ll get to choose now. No negotiating later. Or we’re done. Understand?”

Her eyes widened, and she nodded cautiously, clearly remembering at the last moment to answer with a quiet “Yes.”

“I don’t do knife play, wax, blood, scat, or urine. No breath play either. You want to add anything?”

He watched her swallow, and his cock hardened further. It wanted in that mouth. He managed not to wince and waited, although his patience was nearing its end.

“I’m not sure about anal sex.”

Jace immediately shook his head. “Not up for negotiation, Rowan. I won’t take you there unless you are ready and well prepared. If you’re not sure, then you’re just anxious. You’ll simply have to trust me, because anal is high on my list of most wanted.”

This time she touched her throat and swallowed more visibly. “All right.”

His heart leapt at her acquiescence. “Choose your safe word.”

Rowan’s lashes veiled her eyes and she murmured, “Rutabaga.”

Jace felt himself boggling at her. “What? A vegetable?”

Rowan shrugged, the movement making her breasts lift and fall against the fabric of her dress. Her nipples were hard, and Jace’s fingers tingled to touch her there. “It’s not an easy word to say, and I don’t want to say it unless I really mean it.”

Fuck, this woman was downright cerebral. But enough talking, more doing.

“Take your dress off.”

He watched as she stood and reached for the hem of the dress, her hands visibly trembling. She hesitated, her throat working again and Jace wondered if he had pushed her too hard. She then obviously gulped in air and yanked the crimson silk over her head and then stood, clutching it in front of her, just looking at him. Jace gestured to the closet and enjoyed the flexing of her thighs and calves and how her tight, small ass cheeks barely moved when she walked over to hang it up. She had great posture, and that would probably transfer when she knelt for him.