by Vivian Arend
He nodded, his throat working as he swallowed. “I can do that, buttercup.”
“You don’t have to be afraid to let me choose, Derek.” The paper fluttered between them as she held it out. “Because Dallas is wrong. You’re not better off alone. I choose you.”
He brushed past her outstretched hand, wrapped one strong arm around her waist, and dragged her to him.
Mia let everything go. The bill, her terror, a lifetime of holding back. She rose up on her toes and buried her fingers in his hair, drawing so close her lips almost touched his. “It’s better this way. You know why?”
His answering rumble vibrated against her lips. “Why?”
Because all of the games they’d both been dancing around could be hotter and darker and rawer, because they would only be as real as she let them be. “For one thing, now you can tell me to pull up my skirt and bend over your desk, and I might do it.”
He licked her lower lip as his hand slid down to her ass, clutching her firmly against him. “You would have anyway, just to find out what happened.”
“Maybe,” she admitted, since it was true. The thought had always heated her blood, and now she could let it. Freedom and responsibility in her life, freedom from responsibility in his bed—it was the opposite of everything Sector Two stood for, and it was hers for the taking.
So she took it. Parted her lips and claimed him, muffling his groan as her tongue slid over his. Deeper and rougher than ever before, especially when he clutched the back of her head and tilted his mouth to hers.
Taking, because the line had been there for him, too. Now the only lines left were the ones they drew together.
Not that she was drawing many now. The harder he kissed her, the more eagerly her body reacted. She was flushed already, breathless and melting, and if he jerked up her borrowed skirt and snuck his fingers between her thighs, he’d know just how hot she was.
But he didn’t lift her skirt. He lifted her, turned, and settled her on one of the wide steel desks along the wall. Mia edged her knees apart, making room for his hips between her thighs. Over his shoulder she could see the wide-open door and the hallway beyond.
It wasn’t exactly fucking up against the cage during fight night, but the possibility of being caught zipped through her, bringing with it a fresh surge of exhilaration as she reached for his shirt. He batted her hands aside, but only long enough to tear open the buttons on her shirt.
He cupped her breasts through the lace of her bra and bent his head to them with a groan—one she echoed when his mouth opened over one nipple. The flimsy fabric wasn’t enough to shield her from heat that only grew more intense when he worked the edge down and his mouth met flesh.
Mia arched her spine, whimpering when her shoulders slammed against the wall. Unyielding concrete at her back, unyielding man in front of her. She had been totally naked and felt less debauched than she did like this, almost entirely clothed.
Then his hands slipped under her skirt.
“Belt,” he rumbled against her skin.
“What?” Those big, wonderful fingers were sliding up the insides of her thighs, and this time he wouldn’t go easy with them. Just a few more inches and he’d realize how wet her panties were, how much she wanted this moment—
His fingers bit into her thighs, and he nipped at her chin—hard. “Unbuckle my belt, Mia. Now.”
Her hands trembled. She had to take a steadying breath and slow her movements, guiding the supple leather free of the silver buckle. “What else? Tell me.”
His rasping laugh shivered up her spine. “Get your fucking hands on my dick, buttercup.”
Oh God, yes.
She fumbled with his fly and shoved aside his underwear, and she didn’t care if Noelle came back from lunch and caught her jerking Ford off. It was probably only a matter of time until she came back and found Jas bending Noelle over a table, because squeezing every possible drop of joy out of every spare moment seemed to be what the O’Kanes were all about.
There was so much pleasure in this. In the heat of his cock under her fingers, in the way her touch made him groan and arch up against her hands. She caught his gaze and licked her palm before wrapping it around him, and he answered by edging his fingers into her panties and thrusting them into her.
Maybe she was getting used to having him inside her body, because she barely registered the discomfort. His fingers were still broad and long, but she was wet and a hundred years past ready, straining to spread her knees wider as she stroked him. “Don’t make me wait. Please.”
“Not another second,” he promised roughly. He tore at her panties, the delicate lace yielding beneath his hand as he dragged her with the other to the edge of the desk. “Do it. Put me inside you.”
There was something deliciously lewd about the words, about obeying them. She gripped his shaft and teased herself with the broad head, slicking it over her clit with a gasp. But it wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t be enough until he was buried deep, so she guided him into place.
And waited.
It killed her not to lift her hips, not to wrap her legs around him and drag him forward. He hovered there, just barely inside her, and she shivered and stared up into his eyes. “When we’re like this? I’ll take anything you want to give me.”
Ford looked down at her, his gaze fixed on her lips. “Do you need it, Mia?”
A question with a dozen meanings. Did she need his cock, did she need the sweet freedom of sexual submission, did she need this relationship and whatever it could be, did she need him?
A dozen meanings, and only one answer. “Yes.”
He drove into her, thrusting deep, and he swallowed her cry of pleasure.
With his mouth on hers she couldn’t speak, couldn’t tell him how good he felt moving inside her, how much she loved the way his hands stroked over her body, as if he couldn’t stand leaving any part of her untouched. She couldn’t tell him she wanted to spend every night in his bed, curled around his body with his heart thudding under her ear, a reminder that she never had to be alone again.
She couldn’t tell him anything—and then his hands settled on her hips, lifting them until the angle of his strokes sparked fire in her blood and light behind her eyes, and she couldn’t remember what she’d wanted to tell him.
She’d figure it out. Sometime between now and forever.
MORE FROM KIT ROCHA
If you'd like to receive notification of future Kit Rocha titles, you can subscribe to our announcement list.
Interested in more books in the BEYOND series? Series order:
Book #1: Beyond Shame (October 2012)
Book #2: Beyond Control (March 2013)
Book #3: Beyond Pain (August 2013)
Novella #3.5: Beyond Temptation (February 2014)
Book #4: Beyond Jealousy (March 2014)
Novella #4.5: Beyond Solitude (April 2014)
Book #5: Beyond Addiction (Fall 2014)
Book #6: Beyond Innocence (2015)
Book #7: Beyond Ruin (2015)
Beyond Shame, Beyond Control, and Beyond Pain are now available in a discounted bundle.
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Was this your first visit to Sector Four? You can start at the beginning and find out how Jasper McCray stole the heart of a Councilman's sheltered daughter in Beyond Shame...
AN EXCERPT FROM BEYOND SHAME
All Noelle Cunningham has ever wanted is a life beyond--beyond the walls of Eden, where only the righteous are allowed to remain, and beyond her stiflingly restrictive existence as a councilman's daughter. But only ruins lie outside the City, remnants of a society destroyed by solar storms decades earlier.
The sectors surrounding
Eden house the corrupt, the criminal--men like Jasper McCray, bootlegger and cage fighter. Jas clawed his way up from nothing to stand at the right hand of Sector Four's ruthless leader, and he'll defend the O'Kane gang with his life. But no fight ever prepared him for the exiled City girl who falls at his feet.
Her innocence is undeniable, but so is their intense sexual attraction, and soon they're crossing every boundary Noelle barely knew she had. But if she wants to belong to Jas, she'll have to open herself to a dangerous world of sex, lust and violence. A world where passion is power, and freedom is found in submission.
* * *
The process, as Rachel explained it, was simple--drink a shot, then celebrate with the other O'Kanes gathered around the makeshift bar. Eight shots, eight passes around the cheering crowd.
The liquor ranged from the really cheap moonshine apparently favored in the other sectors to an exquisite, high-end single malt whiskey--which explained how Dallas could afford to throw pre-Flare artwork at Lex like it was nothing.
The whiskey burned smooth all the way down, worth every penny Dallas charged, and Noelle barely had time to lift the empty glass triumphantly above her head before someone dragged her into the crowd. Lips landed on her cheek. Someone else swept her into a hug. The redheaded stranger from Dallas's party snatched her away from Amira and planted a kiss right on her lips before passing her on to the next person in the circle with a grin.
So it went, all the way around the circle. Kisses, hugs, a few pats on the shoulder and one or two on the hip, but all fond and good-natured instead of lascivious. Ace got her last and sent her back to Rachel with a swat on the ass.
Noelle still held the shot glass in one hand, so she slammed it on the table upside down and laughed. "Do I do that every time?"
"Do what?" Rachel asked innocently as she handed over another shot. "Vodka's up. Next is the tequila, so pace yourself."
Sound advice, but Noelle downed the vodka and dropped the shot glass this time before she was whisked away by the revelers. Her skin tingled more this time around, and she was laughing by the time she reached the table again.
The tequila made her cough, but she drank all of that, too, before spinning into the crowd with a triumphant noise that felt right. Ace grinned and claimed his kiss before passing her along. It took longer, the hugs lingering and the kisses coming in twos and threes.
She was only halfway around the circle when the dizzy warmth crept from her stomach up into her chest, which was right about when the latest man relinquished her quickly.
To Jasper.
He looked down at her with a half-smile and rubbed her bare upper arms. "Sorry I'm late."
The warmth of his hands shot straight to her core, though that could have been the tequila, too. Or the vodka. Maybe the whiskey, making its presence known with a slow burn that turned her smile wickedly bold. "You missed two kisses. I gave them to Ace instead."
"Hell yeah, she did," Ace called from the opposite side of the circle. "You gonna come get them, brother?"
"Wouldn't be the first time." Jasper tilted her head back with his fingers under her chin. "Three shots. Still steady on your feet?"
"Steady enough," she lied, fidgeting under his unwavering gaze. He had a way of looking at her that made the rest of the room seem frozen, as if they couldn't possibly be interrupting anything because nothing important would dare happen while his attention was fixed on her.
"Good." He released her, but not before brushing his lips over hers. "Congratulations, sweetheart."
No, that warmth wasn't the liquor. It was all him, and it expanded to fill her as she leaned up to kiss him once more. "See you next time around," she whispered against his mouth, then laughed and spun into the arms of the grinning man next to him.
She wasn't steady on her feet by the time she came back around to Ace. He whirled her like a dancer, and the room kept on moving, dipping dizzily to the side before righting itself. She stumbled back toward Rachel and crashed into Jasper.
Again.
Blinking, Noelle pulled back to peer up at him. "Did you come to get your kisses from Ace?"
Jasper didn't answer. Instead, he picked up the next shot Rachel had poured and tipped it back. Then he slipped an arm around Noelle's waist, dragged her close, and bent his head to hers.
Liquor spilled across her tongue. Not the whole shot, not even most of it, but enough to give her the taste of it. His lips crushed against hers, hot and a little rough, the sensation a thousand times more intense with the entire gang forming a cheering, catcalling wall around them. She couldn't forget that everyone was watching as he chased the booze with his tongue, and then she couldn't care because he knew how to kiss her knees weak.
Lex's voice cut through the cheers, close and wry. "That's real subtle, Jas."
Jas released Noelle, and she swung around to face Rachel. "That has to be cheating."
"Not exactly," she hedged. "Technically, you don't have to finish every shot. Not by yourself, anyway."
"Jasper just hung a big 'no trespassing' sign on you." Lex wound her arm around Noelle's shoulders. "Good thing I like to live dangerously."
Jasper glared, and it was hotter than it should have been. His furrowed brow and his tight expression, all of him poised as if he'd snatch her out of Lex's grip at a moment's notice.
Smiling slowly, Noelle leaned in to the other woman. "He didn't ask me if I wanted you to trespass."
"Do you?" A whisper, and Lex's breath stirred the hair curling against the side of Noelle's neck.
Noelle wasn't sure what made the decision for her. The vodka, maybe, or the tequila. Some bit of wildness buried deep inside her, only uncovered when liquor had burned everything else away.
The way Jasper's gaze all but dared her to do it.
She only had to turn her head a little bit, and then Lex's mouth was pressed against hers. Soft lips, more yielding than Jasper's, and gentler. It seemed that way, at least, in the moment where Noelle could only kiss the other woman awkwardly, terrified it might be a mistake after all.
Lex licked her mouth and tilted her head to part Noelle's lips with her tongue. Still soft, but no less demanding than Jasper's kiss, especially when she eased Noelle down to sit on the edge of the table and inched a hand under her shirt to stroke her belly.
Then Lex broke the kiss with a slow smile and reached for the next shot on the table. "Gin," she whispered huskily, pressing the glass into Jasper's hand.
He growled. "You like to play with fire." But he drained the shot, jerked Noelle's head back by her hair, and fused his mouth to hers. Moaning, Noelle tangled her fingers in his shirt, clinging to him to try to keep her balance.
Even that wasn't enough when Lex pressed parted lips to her throat, teeth closing lightly on her pulse as Jasper licked the taste of gin onto her tongue. This time, Noelle really had forgotten about everyone else until Ace shouted, "Fuck, Jasper, let her breathe!"
But breathing was overrated, and doubly so when Jasper nudged Lex out of the way to lick Noelle's throat, soothing the ravaged skin. She grasped at his hair, tangling her fingers in the short strands as much as they'd allow as her heart beat its way toward her throat. "Aren't you supposed to let everyone else congratulate me after each shot?"
"You eager to get up?" he asked, nudging Lex's hips harder into the open vee of Noelle's legs.
"Not really," she managed in a shaky voice. It took another deep breath to strengthen her tone. "But I want to do it right. I want to belong."
"That's a done deal, baby girl." Lex lifted Noelle's hand and nodded to the fresh ink encircling her wrist and forearm. "You belong. You always will."
* * *
Read the rest of Noelle & Jasper's story in Beyond Shame, available now at a discount!
BIOGRAPHY
Kit Rocha is actually two people--Bree & Donna, best friends who are living the dream. They get paid to work in their pajamas, talk on the phone, and write down all the stories they used to make up in their heads.
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br /> The Beyond Series is their first adventure in dystopian erotic romance. They also write paranormal romance as Moira Rogers. You can learn more about their work at www.kitrocha.com & www.moirarogers.com.
JUMP TO...
Copper King by Vivian Arend
Marked by Temptation by Deanna Chase
Rumpel's Prize by Marie Hall
Tank by M. Malone
Shattered Web by Crista McHugh
Caged Wolf by SM Reine
Collateral by Roxie Rivera
Beyond Solitude by Kit Rocha
Blue Roses by Mimi Strong
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Blue Roses
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
More From Mimi Strong
BLUE ROSES
From the very funny and bestselling author Mimi Strong comes BLUE ROSES, a hilarious new story about a gruff motorbike repair shop owner trying to win the heart of a jaded florist. Tina has seen first-hand how Luca's relationships end with him sending apology flowers. She's worried she might be his next disaster.