Skintight Read Free

he’d caused her.
    Particularly for the embarrassment. He’d spent too much of his youth learning more about that state of mind than any kid needed to know. Humiliation might not kill you, but it could sure as hell make you wish you were dead, if only momentarily.
    But he didn’t want to think about that, so he focused on the couple of minutes spent getting up close and personal with Treena McCall. He stilled the packet between his fingers midflip as he reflected on those few brief moments.
    His reaction to her had caught him by surprise. He’d noticed the shift in her mood when Julie-Ann made such a production out of her age, and he hadn’t hesitated to use it to his advantage.
    But he sure as hell hadn’t expected to feel such an instant connection when her golden brown eyes lit up and she’d let rip with that full-throated laugh once hetold her nothing short of the truth: that she looked ten times better at thirty-five than the decade younger Julie-Ann. The small surge of lust he’d felt at catching her scent and feeling the soft brush of her pale red curls across his knuckles was no big surprise. But that momentary flash of I know you he’d experienced just because she had a great laugh? What the hell was that all about?
    Just then the object of his thoughts strolled through the dining room door, and he tossed the sweetener packet back into the little silver holder in the middle of the table and straightened. Draping his arm along the back of the leather upholstered banquette, he adopted a casual, friendly pose as he watched her speak to the hostess, then turn to follow the young woman as she wove through the dining room toward his booth.
    She caught him watching her and flashed him that lopsided smile. Jax smiled back, aware of his heartbeat shifting into overdrive.
    She was dressed in sleek, polished cotton beige pants and an olive-green top made of some slinky material that hung loosely, yet tantalizingly suggested the curves beneath.
    So, okay then, most likely his attraction was about sex. And, hell, even if it wasn’t, it really didn’t matter. Treena McCall was a means to an end. She had something that belonged to him. Something he needed if he planned to stay alive.
    Which he did.
    So he’d do whatever it took to get it back.

CHAPTER TWO
    T REENA HAD COME this close to not showing up. She’d talked herself into keeping the breakfast date only by administering a few pithy lectures about the rudeness of standing up someone who’d been nothing but nice to her. Yet even as she followed the hostess into the heart of the restaurant, she was tempted to turn around and head back to the ’burbs. She really did need to run a few errands before her dance class at noon.
    Then she looked up and saw Jax staring at her from the banquette, and all her reservations melted like so much sugar on the tongue.
    Man, she didn’t know what it was about this guy, but something sure grabbed her attention. She didn’t think it was his looks, because he was hardly your standard babe material. The man was certainly no troll, but neither did he qualify as knock-your-socks-off gorgeous. His nose was a little too big, his jaw a little too long. All of his features taken individually, in fact, shouldn’t have added up to much. But somehow, put together, they formed an appealing whole that worked. Plus, he was fit, which as an athlete she appreciated, and there was an intensity in his vibrant blue eyes that she could feel clear across the room.
    He rose to his feet as she approached the table, and she found herself at an eye level with his collarbone. With a little start, she realized that he was so much taller and wider than she was that she felt almost petite. It was a rare sensation. Since most choruses in Las Vegas shows had height minimums of at least five feet nine inches, she’d never considered herself one of those pocket Venus types.
    His height caught her by