Breathe [Running to Love 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (10 page)

“So, Chief McEachern, what do you think of our city?” The cloyingly sweet voice of Alice King drew Jace’s attention. She had been on the panel that had interviewed him, and was also a member of city council. Jace had noted her interest upon meeting him, and it hadn’t appeared to diminish, although he had felt nothing in response. Alice sported a heavy set of wedding and engagement rings on the appropriate finger of her left hand, and Jace believed he had met Mr. King earlier, a nervous, bespectacled individual who owned a chain of hardware stores. Jace knew that anyone who still did well in business in the present economy had to be far more effectual than he appeared. He needed to keep Alice at a distance without offending her, and worked hard at evading her increasingly blatant invitations to join her elsewhere for a private drink. He was rescued by the mayor himself who dragged him off to discuss a problem with vandalism and graffiti in the public parks.

“I see you’ve taken our Alice’s measure, my boy,” the mayor said with a wink. “She’s working her way through the ranks, so to speak, and is essentially harmless, but Jack tends to take exception if he finds out.”

It was on the tip of Jace’s tongue to ask why Jack didn’t take his woman in hand, but he had bigger fish to fry, and what was it with all this measuring crap anyhow? Instead he said, “I don’t think I met everyone tonight.”

Mayor Holden squinted at him and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He then conceded, “You didn’t meet Lawrence English. He’s head of our Recreation and Parks Department and had his eye on your job. And I don’t think you met the new head librarian of our satellite college. Rowan Scott.” Any thoughts Jace might have had about Morrisville being just that, a village, were fast becoming disproven. The mayor was clearly a keen political animal, aware of everything that went on around him, and kept his finger on the pulse of his town. He hadn’t missed anything during the ceremony, although Jace hoped he hadn’t seen through his studied avoidance of Rowan and hers of him.

Jace carefully concealed his reaction to both the news that he probably had some difficult times coming up with a man who would resent his hiring over himself, and the fact that Rowan was living here now, just as he was, and was actually a librarian. It was one of his fantasies come true. He could see her wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses and nothing else, shaking her finger at him and chiding him for upsetting the quiet of her sanctum, right before she punched his library card. He dragged himself back to the present and thanked the mayor for his insight and information. He had some work to attend to for the remainder of the day before he focused on what he was going to do about his little book minder.

* * * *

Rowan threw herself into her work until everyone had gone home and it was well past closing time. She thought she had better lock up and get home to her bland apartment where she could maybe just blank out. She hadn’t had anything to eat at the ceremony and then missed dinner, and was feeling a bit faint, but hadn’t thought about fate and karma and destiny hardly at all, at all. She knew he hadn’t followed her here. He hadn’t even known her last name, although he would know it now. When he had walked up to the podium wearing the Morrisville police chief uniform, looking so formidable and darkly handsome, so controlled, Rowan thought she would swoon. Now she knew just what it was that swoon meant. Her heart had swelled and tried to beat out of her chest, and her temples seemed to join it in concert. She couldn’t breathe, and the buzzing in her ears magnified everything. If she hadn’t been sitting down, she was certain she would have measured her length on the floor. Rowan thought everyone had noticed her reaction, yet no one remarked on it, so perhaps they hadn’t. She had stayed for a short time after the speeches were over, pretending to sip on a cup of coffee, carefully working her way through the crowd, making concentric circles toward the outer perimeter, stopping only to chat briefly with those who spoke to her first, until she could leave without it being too obvious. Aside from that one look, Jace hadn’t appeared to pay her further attention, and Rowan didn’t know if that made her feel relieved or not. She didn’t know how she was going to cope with his proximity in such a small center and couldn’t fathom relocating again. Her head whirled, and her brain ached, and she ignored the message her body was sending.

Her staff hadn’t expected her back that afternoon, but no one said anything, and Rowan didn’t have to come up with an explanation. She had no idea what she would have fabricated. Maybe that a figment of her specious imagination had materialized? Or that a blast from her past had blown into town? She had to get a grip.

She made her way to the small staff kitchen and looked in the fridge, hoping there was something left over from one of her lunches on previous days. Of course there wasn’t, because she was forever doomed to have her entire life play out beyond her control, without a smidgen of luck. The old gods must be laughing their heads off. She felt him before he spoke, or maybe scented him, and her heart literally leapt at the sound of his voice. She felt it pound and try to climb up her throat.

“Rowan.” He sounded the same. The same voice that continued to invade her dreams, both night and day. It was too much.

She pulled out one of the chrome chairs that sat tucked under the long table in the lunchroom and nearly fell into it, just managing to perch on the very edge. Her arms felt weak, but her hands somehow found their way up to cover her face, the tears leaking through the little gaps between her fingers. Jace was at her side in a trice, kneeling beside her, looping one of his long arms around her shoulders, pulling her head to rest on his broad shoulder. She turned into him and they fell awkwardly to the floor as one, where he held her and rocked her against him, murmuring against her hair. She cried with great, gulping sobs until the whole front of him was soggy and her throat hurt. When she was finally able to get herself under control, Rowan realized that Jace was dragging in shaky, irregular breaths. She tipped her head back to look at him and was taken aback by the pain on his face. Impulsively, she took his face in both of her hands and locked her eyes with his.

“I’m sorry, Rowan. I didn’t want to hurt you like that. I’m so sorry.” The words pushed grudgingly past his lips and were all the more sincere for it.

Rowan pressed her lips against his mouth, sealing in any further apology. Jace held very still for a fraction of a moment and then responded with almost savage force, claiming her mouth and ravaging it. He pushed one hand through her hair and anchored her head as his other hand held her even more firmly against him. They kissed until neither could breathe and only then came apart, gasping for air and a shred of common sense.

“We can’t do this here, honey,” Jace said. “Can we go to your place? I haven’t even unpacked.”

Rowan nodded mutely, unable to even frame a coherent sentence. He helped her up, and she automatically straightened her clothing and tried to push her loosened hair back up into its confining clip. Jace forestalled her, releasing it instead, his face softening as it fell around her shoulders and down her back. He smoothed it away from her face with both hands, mirroring her previous tender hold of him, and touched her forehead with his lips, before stepping back to allow her to lead on.

* * * *

Jace glanced around her apartment and turned to look at her. “It’s not so different than mine, Rowan. Just big enough for one person and not really homey, eh? It’s all the new construction.”

Rowan heard the need to fill the silence in Jace’s voice and realized he was as nervous as she felt. She had driven back to her place in her car with him after he had elected to leave his marked unit in the station parking lot. Rowan hoped he was protecting her reputation and not hiding their connection and then mentally slapped herself for once again doubting him. He clearly felt for her, just as she felt for him, and she was being stupid. No, she was being obstinate. What in hell did she want anyhow? Why was she feeling so undeserving? It was enough already!

“Jace?”

He reached out a hand and Rowan took it. She drew him to the couch, her old, shit-brindle-brown mainstay, the only thing that redeemed the white box of her new home, and sat with him. “Tell me if you want this, Jace. Tell me if you want a relationship, because it’s you I want, but not just for what you can teach me. I want it all.”

Jace gave her a solemn look and said, “I’m no prize, Rowan, you need to understand. My old man didn’t set the best example, and I’m shit scared to commit, scared I’ll turn into him and really hurt you. I don’t know if I can do this.”

Rowan laughed, and Jace looked stunned. She quickly said, “I thought you didn’t feel enough for me to commit, didn’t see me worthy of spending the time other than to do the sexual thing. I didn’t know you were scared. We’re both nuts. There’s something to be said for dating, and getting to know one another. Learning each other’s history and making allowances, adjustments, working up to things.”

Jace’s features relaxed and he grabbed both of her hands before responding. “I care about you, Rowan. I connected with you the first time I laid eyes on you, and instead of staying true to what used to be my form, I made love to you.” Jace laughed next, but it was a bitter sound. “That meant a lot to me, but I set you up for something different.”

Rowan smiled and felt her heart and soul brighten and lift further. “It meant a lot to me, too, but all that other stuff spoiled it, because it both confused me and set me up to expect something different. I was greedy and you have no idea how I regret that.”

They sat for a while in comfortable silence, just absorbing the novelty of their recent connection. Rowan relaxed against Jace’s broad chest, listening to the reassuring thump of his heart and enjoyed the slow stroke of his hand down her back and his lips on her hair. When her body began to awaken again in response to his proximity, Rowan took hold of herself. She leaned back and smiled at him, thrilled that she was able to do so. “Now, it’s my turn to call
you
a cab.”

Jace looked at her in surprise. “What?”

“It’s late, and I need to work tomorrow. So do you. I’ll call you a cab.”

“But I thought…” Jace’s voice trailed off as he absorbed the implication of her statement.

Rowan hid another smile, contenting herself with placing a kiss on his cheek. “You can call me at work tomorrow, or stop by to ask me out, Jace. We’ll have a courtship, and let this town bear witness.”

Jace nodded and stood, making no effort to conceal his bulging erection, and gave her an equally chaste kiss. “Tomorrow, Rowan,” he promised, and it made her pussy clench. Before she could give into her need, she pushed him through the door, and shut it tightly, throwing the dead bolt to lean her weight against it. It was going to be so hard, but she knew it was the right way to go about it. And Jace obviously agreed.

Jace thought he might lose his mind over the next few weeks. He dealt with petty personnel issues on the job, including settling that asshole English’s hash simply by deputizing him for time off and vacation coverage. Alice backed off, albeit huffily, when it became clear that the new police chief was romancing the new librarian. The mayor was pleased with his youth initiative, planning to address the vandalism and graffiti issues, and his visible presence in all the downtown businesses seemed to endear him to the business people. The job became a combination of public relations and minimal policing, which left Jace lots of time to pursue Rowan, except that was all that he was doing. He jerked off every morning in the shower and had woken in the night on two occasions in the midst of an erotic dream about her, embarrassing himself like a teenager. He had to buy an extra set of sheets for his monk’s bed and wasn’t thrilled with having to change it once in the middle of the night. And yet he had never felt so rested and so alive.

They went out for dinners, caught movies, walked the downtown in the balmy evenings, and exchanged frantic, hot kisses and the occasional grope when he took her home, but Rowan wouldn’t invite him into her apartment or accompany him back to his. Jace got little satisfaction out of recognizing that it was just as difficult for Rowan to deny herself. Jace admitted that he came to know her better than he knew even his old police friends, and that was saying something. More importantly, he came to better understand himself, as he opened up to Rowan, and found her so tolerant and interested and accepting that it made him open up more and more. He looked forward to the day when he would meet her family and siblings and even entertained the idea of introducing her to his brother and sister. But Jace had been celibate for longer than he could ever remember in his adult life, and he longed to have Rowan in his bed, forever. The idea of forever no longer fazed him. He had even begun to look for a house and found three possibilities to show Rowan once he worked up the courage.

“I’m going to Tulsa to see Jackie this weekend, Jace.” Rowan popped a cherry tomato into her mouth and chewed it carefully. Jace wanted to reach over and lick her bottom lip and barely restrained himself. They were having dinner together in one of the local restaurants, and all the other patrons were very much aware of them. Jace would normally have been mortified at being the recipient of so many knowing smiles and fatuous glances, but instead kind of reveled in them. He had the hottest, most lovely woman in all of Morrisville, hell, in the whole damn state, as his girlfriend, and he didn’t care who knew it.

He mentally checked his schedule instead of acting on his carnal need. “I’ll take you, Rowan. I haven’t been back for a bit, and I can catch up with some of the guys. I was kind of a prick to them the last while.”