by Vivian Arend
But he’d give back a hundred times what he took. He’d give her affection and pleasure and a chance to use her wits and her brains and her skills for something bigger than herself.
He’d care, and that was the oddest feeling of all. Being cared for.
He was still watching her, handsome and brooding and perfect, so she leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Watch out, Derek. I’m starting to suspect you like me a little bit.”
Instead of answering, he lifted her hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles.
Oh yeah. She was falling. And she never wanted to stop.
CHAPTER NINE
Dallas O’Kane’s weekly fight night should have been as far from the sedate civilization of Sector Two as it was possible to travel, but being surrounded by O’Kane women as they gossiped and cheered was like coming home.
Lex had recreated the best part of Sector Two, stripped of competition and desperation. Sisterhood, raw and pure, and Mia was drunk on it from the moment Nessa dragged her down to a couch.
“Just wait,” Nessa promised, passing her a shot glass. “These are just some punk kids warming the place up. Wait until our boys get in the cage. Jas or Bren or Cruz...”
“Cruz is busy,” Lex corrected, grinning. “He disappeared into Ace’s room with Rachel—and locked the door behind him.”
“Ace is missing fight night? Shit. The sex must be supernova hot.” Nessa snatched up a shot of her own and knocked it back before giving Mia an expectant look. Remembering the last time she’d hit the whiskey too hard, Mia took a sip.
A small one.
She nearly spit it back out again when Noelle appeared. Most of the O’Kane women owned a style that could best be described as sex edged with danger, but Noelle had abandoned the leather and denim she’d worn while working the bar in favor of the sort of dress a Rose might wear—lacy, white, and short enough to flash the delicate garters sitting high on her thighs.
Noelle looked like innocence begging to be debauched, and the glint in her eyes as she dropped into Lex’s lap proved she knew it. She kissed Lex’s cheek before grinning at Nessa. “Don’t worry, Jas is fighting later, and Bren’s getting in the cage in a little bit. Mia will have the full O’Kane fight night experience.”
But Ford wouldn’t be fighting. He was leaning against the wall near the bar, his attention trained on the two men brawling in the cage. Her heart beat faster when she looked at him, and not just because he was gorgeous even in jeans, his shirt stretched tight over every perfect muscle in his chest and shoulders.
He still hadn’t taken her. The tension stretching out between them had skittered past anticipation that afternoon, settling low in her body as an ache that wouldn’t ease until he was inside her, stoking a different sort of need.
But Nessa had been waiting for them in Ford’s office, touchingly excited to offer Mia her spare bed for as long as Mia wanted to stay...and Ford hadn’t murmured a word of protest. He’d even seemed eager to have her safely settled elsewhere.
So she’d gone, because perhaps he wanted her to know her safety wasn’t tied up in his bed. He wanted her to come back because she wanted to, not because she had nowhere else to go.
Or maybe he’d just wanted to get her out of his hair. That was the possibility that kept her rooted to the couch instead of crossing the crowded room to talk to him.
“Mia!”
Fingers snapped in front of Mia’s face, and she started, turning to look in Nessa’s direction. Her gaze snagged on Lex and Noelle, who were stroking each other in a way that brought a flush to Mia’s skin. Casual physical affection—another perk of living in Sector Two, one she’d lost when she’d left Orchid House for Vaughn’s sterile, lonely estate.
Nessa laughed and nudged Mia with her shoulder. “Don’t mind them. They’re just real friendly.”
“I don’t mind at all.” Mia met Lex’s gaze and smiled. “It’s a little like home. The good parts of it.”
“Mmm.” Lex blinked innocently. “They don’t have men like Ford in Sector Two, though.”
No, they really didn’t. She snuck another peek at him, tracing the line of his jaw and the stern set of his brow. He always looked so serious, but she’d learned to find the warm places in him, edges that softened just for her. “Is this something he did before the accident? Fight in the cage?”
“Nah, he hasn’t been around much. Hopefully that’ll change now.”
“That’s the plan anyway,” a new voice rumbled, and Mia followed a pair of leather pants up to a wide belt buckle, and over endless skin covered in beautiful tattoos before reaching Dallas O’Kane’s eyes.
She knew it was him, even though this was the first time she’d laid eyes on Sector Four’s infamous leader. There was no one else it could be—and not only because everyone within twenty feet was slowly turning, as if his mere presence drew them in like gravity. The tattoo that stretched across his collarbone and climbed up his throat was a stylized version of the O’Kane logo beneath an intricate crown—the twin of the one Lex wore, and decorated with her name.
He held out a hand, and Lex dragged him down into a hungry kiss. Their tongues flashed, but it was Noelle who moaned, low and shaky—and Mia realized that Lex and Dallas’s joined hands had slid up under the woman’s dress.
It was shameless, casual and easy, as if it happened all the time—and maybe it did, because Nessa rolled her eyes and did another shot. “That’s how Lex and Dallas say hi. You get used to it.”
Dallas laughed and slipped his hand out from under Noelle’s skirt. Even in the uncertain light, Mia could see that his fingertips were slick with arousal. He traced one over Noelle’s parted lips with a smile. “You sure got used to it, didn’t you, kitten?”
Noelle nipped his finger. “Only when it gets me in trouble. Have you met Mia yet?”
That dark, dangerous gaze swung toward her, and for the first time in her anything-but-innocent life, Mia felt utterly out of her depth. Sex was everywhere in Sector Two. Affection between the girls, training in the houses, provided to patrons. She knew chapter and verse when it came to vices, lists of sexual positions, and techniques that had seemed dry and impersonal, even when she was watching them play out before her.
Chilly. Everything in Two had been cool, calculated. Heat radiated off Dallas and Lex and everyone around them, and Mia’s heart raced out of control as she struggled for a casual tone. “I’m honored.”
“Are you, now?” Dallas straightened slowly. “I hear you’ve been turning Ford’s life upside-down.”
Nerves left her lips numb, as if she’d had as much to drink as Nessa instead of one tiny sip. This was Dallas O’Kane, the man whose viciousness and ruthlessness kept everyone in the sector safe. And he was staring down at her, his fingers still thrusting between Noelle’s lips with an absent-minded lewdness that bordered on obscene.
No, it was obscene. And it was making that hungry ache inside Mia worse.
She wet her lips and hid her nervousness with a bright smile. “I don’t know about his life. Mostly his filing system. I can’t believe he was wasting his time with paper records.”
The wrong words. Mia’s heart stopped as Dallas’s face twisted into a scowl—an intimidating, terrifying scowl that slammed down on her like the weight of the entire sector. She barely heard Noelle erupt into giggles—the sound was meaningless with all that danger and irritation burning through her.
Then Dallas snorted. “Great. I’m fucking surrounded. Way to make me feel old, Lex.”
She wrapped her fingers around his belt buckle and gave it a teasing tug. “You’ll live.”
Mia’s pulse slowed. A little. “I’m sorry if—”
Noelle cut her off with a laugh. “No, don’t apologize to him. He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Watch it, kitten,” Dallas growled. “You get too mouthy, and I’ll tell Jas not to spank you tonight.”
“Then we’d all be sad.” Lex eased Noelle off her lap, rose, and whispered something i
n his ear.
Whatever it was, it must have been filthy. Dallas groaned and claimed Lex’s mouth in another of those hard, messy kisses, one so raw and carnal Mia felt her own body react. God, she’d seen shows designed to titillate that contained less passion than this spontaneous, shameless kiss.
In the end, she had to look away. But that only made the confusion churning inside of her worse, because Ford was making his way across the room, his gaze fixed on her.
He stopped beside the raised platform that held the couches. “Ladies. Dallas.”
“Ford.” It was Dallas’s voice, low and lazy. “Are you here to rescue your woman? She’s looking a little dazed already, and Lex hasn’t even crawled under Noelle’s skirt yet.”
Ford didn’t blink. “I thought you might like the grand tour, Mia.”
Fleeing was nothing short of cowardice—and she was okay with that. “I’d love a tour,” she said quickly, hopping off the couch and then the stage. She landed next to Ford with a wobble, and if she heard Dallas laughing behind her...
Better laughing than growling.
Ford tucked her hand around his bent elbow and led her away. “Does he frighten you?”
“Yes,” she admitted. She might tease Ford about always getting his way, but one look into Dallas O’Kane’s eyes and anyone with wits would know the truth—Dallas was a man who never had to settle for the word no. “No wonder Cerys loathes him.”
Ford arched one eyebrow. “When it comes to people, he doesn’t take things by force. He doesn’t have to.”
That only made him more dangerous. The other sector leaders might force you into a cage. Cerys would do her damnedest to trick you. But Dallas could make you walk into captivity and hand him the key with your own two hands. “I’m not worried he’ll hurt me,” she said quietly, tightening her grip on Ford’s arm. “He’s just...intimidating.”
“Because you don’t know him like I do.” Ford sighed. “You should have seen him in the early days. He never wanted to be a king, not really, but it’s the best way for him to keep this sector safe.”
“I think I understand.” How could she not, with the crowd parting in front of Ford as he led her back toward the bar? The ink on his wrists wasn’t magic, after all. It drew its power from Dallas, from his reputation, and he had to be intimidating to be strong enough to protect anyone whose life brushed his.
“It’s a show.” Ford slowed to a stop near the cage, his voice pitched low but carrying easily enough under the raucous din. “Not all of it. Not the life. But there are some things about it an outsider will never see. Hell, some things it’s taken me a while to see.”
She shivered as a shout of pain drew her gaze to the fight. She didn’t recognize either of the men taking swings at each other, but there was something intimate even in their anonymity. It was a different way to be naked, violence stripping away everything but the base desire to survive.
On the couches they’d left behind, a different sort of base desire was playing out. Noelle and Lex again, seemingly oblivious to the attention they were stealing from the fight as they exchanged lazy kisses and touches. Goose bumps shivered up Mia’s arms, and she rubbed at them lightly and forced her attention away. “I thought...”
She trailed off, unsure if it was rude to ask, unsure what she’d do with the answer. Everyone knew Noelle had hooked up with Dallas’s right-hand man, but she wasn’t acting like an owned woman—unless Dallas and Lex shared ownership of everyone who wore ink.
Ford glanced back and huffed out a laugh. “Don’t worry—Dallas and Jas are down with it.”
“It’s different,” Mia admitted, leaning into his side and telling herself it was for the warmth, as if the heat of the lights and the crowd weren’t more than enough to counteract the evening chill. “I’m starting to think I don’t know very much about sex at all. Not the kind people have together.”
“When they both want it, you mean?”
Not just that. Her gaze drifted back to Lex and Noelle, and she recognized those touches. She’d touched other women like that, and had been touched in return. There’d been comfort in the intimacy, and true desire. But every caress had been stolen, laced with tension and worry, because your body wasn’t yours to give. And if you gave too much to the wrong person...
“The kind you have when you’re allowed to want it,” she corrected softly. “I’ve never been that free. They’re not performing, but they don’t need to hide. Because they can do anything they want.”
“So can you.” Ford slid his hand under her hair and wrapped it around the back of her neck. “You don’t ever have to go back there.”
Desire crept through her, starting in the oddest places. Her fingertips tingled. Her toes curled in her borrowed boots. His hand felt dangerous and protective, resting at the top of her spine, and she felt the dichotomy in every inch of her body. She barely heard the crowd roar as the fight in front of her spun its way to a violent conclusion.
Every molecule in her body was focused on where he’d touch her next.
His thumb stroked up the side of her throat, all the way to the spot just behind her ear.
Mia shivered and let her eyelids droop, shutting out the new fighters climbing into the cage as well as the crowd around them. “Tell me what you see in them. The things you didn’t notice at first.”
“Trust. Dedication. Love.” The word blew hot over her lips. “This isn’t just my job. It’s my family.”
Envy stole her breath. She was greedy, because she wanted all of it. Him, his mind, his body, the chance to work beside him—
They were so close now, so close she could lean up and her lips would brush his. “I’m jealous. I feel like I’ve been alone forever.”
“Do you feel alone here? Now?”
“Not when you’re touching me.”
“Then I won’t stop.” His hand slipped around, nudging her locket before dropping lower. “Unless you ask me to.”
His knuckles grazed the skin bared by her plunging neckline, stroking between her breasts, and her pulse pounded in her ears, drowning out the sound of the new fight. He was touching her, caressing her in the middle of a crowd, but even though her skin prickled with awareness, one glance around them made it clear no one was staring.
Maybe the fight was too exciting, or the sight of a man teasing his fingers over a woman’s body was too tame to merit notice. Or maybe no one would dare gawk at Ford even if he bent her over the nearest table and took her on the spot, because that was the power of being an O’Kane.
She tilted her head back, letting her eyes drift shut as she floated on the energy of the crowd and the sensation of his fingers. “Please don’t stop.”
His touch ventured beneath the fabric of her shirt and followed the inner curve of her breast. “How far, Mia?”
Only one answer to give. The only one that mattered here in the heart of O’Kane territory. “I trust you.”
Ford moved, nudging Mia until she hit something hard that dug into the middle of her back—the bar. Glass clinked as he leaned over her, his mouth close to her ear. “Do you care if people watch? Do you want them to?”
“What other people?” She slid her hands up over those gorgeous arms to the broad shoulders that blocked out the rest of the world. “I only see you.”
He lifted his hand to her chin and turned her head toward the couches on the platform.
The O’Kanes dared to watch.
A man had taken Mia’s abandoned place on the couch, one with massive shoulders and a full beard, and his fingers tangled casually in Noelle’s hair. He and Lex were taking turns toying with Noelle’s body while all three of them stared at Ford and Mia, and the illusion of invisibility vanished.
“Oh,” she whispered, clutching at his shoulders. “Do you care?”
His jaw clenched, a muscle ticking as he stared down at her. He took a step back—mere inches, but it felt like miles—and grabbed her hand.
“Come on,” he growled. “Let’s go.”
Oh yes, Ford cared—and not about being seen with his hands under his assistant’s clothing. He was a marvel of possessive hunger, his gaze so intense people scrambled out of their path as he tugged her toward the door, and Mia almost laughed at the sheer relief.
She’d be in Ford’s bed again soon, and this time she wouldn’t be alone.
CHAPTER TEN
For an O’Kane, sex was everything and nothing, all at once.
It was everything because it meant freedom, not only from expectations but from the twisted morality that Eden held so dear. Here, there was a different culture at work, one that celebrated physicality and pleasure. Affection and release.
And nothing—nothing because until there was a commitment involved, promises and collars and marks, it was all casual. An O’Kane had to be ready to walk when the sun rose, content in the knowledge that everyone involved had had a damn good time.
This was different.
He crossed the threshold and stopped in the darkness just inside his bedroom, but he didn’t turn to look at Mia. Not yet. He stared at the bed instead, picturing her dark hair spread across the pillow, her lips and thighs parted. Waiting for him.
Fabric rustled behind him. A boot thumped against the floor, then a second. She was reaching for her shirt as he turned, but her hands stilled on the hem, fingers bunching the fabric. “I wasn’t trained to be submissive. I need you to know that.”
Training. For a moment, the thought of it was almost enough for rage to overwhelm his lust. Then he focused on the bare strip of skin just above her pants, and everything else dissolved.
He reached for her shirt, pulling the fabric out of her hands as he drew it up to reveal even more luscious skin. “It’s not something to train for. It’s not a job. You like it or you don’t, that’s all.”
“You don’t understand.” She clutched his hand hard enough for her fingers to dig in as she met his eyes. “I know what submission is. It’s everything I was never allowed to have, because my job was to manage every moment without letting him see my power. When I give you control, I need you to know I understand what I’m doing. That I’m making a choice, because I want to.”