by Kit Rocha
"Mmm." She eased her legs apart. Noelle was there in the next moment, lips soft on the skin of her inner thighs. A tease, nothing more, sweet kisses that tormented Lex and taunted Jasper with the barest hint of disobedience. When Noelle's gaze met hers, there was mischief there, an awareness of her own power.
Jasper pushed Noelle's dress higher, revealing the bare curves of her hips. His hand slipped past the fabric, up to her hair, and he turned her head, guiding her mouth.
Her tongue grazed Lex's clit, wet and rasping. The sudden sensation rocked Lex onto her toes, arching against Noelle's mouth and Dallas's hand, which was still caged around her throat.
He laughed near her ear, breath tickling heat over sensitive skin. "Look at her, Lexie. Those big eyes aren't so innocent anymore." Dallas's fingers covered Jasper's, tangled in Noelle's hair, and he braced the back of her head before rocking his hips, forcing Lex closer to her tongue.
He was in control. The thought flitted through Lex's mind faster than the helpless zing of pleasure that shook her. And just like the pleasure, it circled around, tighter and tighter. Dallas had the control, and even though she reveled in it, she also wanted to take it.
One day, she would.
Noelle moaned helplessly, and Lex opened her eyes just in time to watch Jasper slide home, his jaw clenched. Noelle's eyes fluttered shut as bliss rolled over her features, and she renewed her attentions, slicking her tongue into Lex with quick, hungry thrusts before sliding up to work her clit with newly inspired dedication.
Dallas flexed his fingers around Lex's throat, but his next rock was more of a grind, rubbing his caged erection against her ass. "They make a pretty picture, don't they? Except..." He moved his hand from Noelle's head to Lex's dress, winding the fabric higher, giving Lex an unobstructed view of Noelle's lust-clouded eyes.
"Better." Dallas slid the slinky fabric over Lex's skin.
Jasper wrapped his fingers around Noelle's wrists, one after the other, and pulled them behind her back. It left her balanced on her knees, rocking precariously as he eased his cock in and out of her pussy. Every thrust jolted her just a little, pressing her mouth more firmly to Lex's wet flesh, turning her gentle, eager caresses into hard swipes of tongue and the barest graze of teeth.
The room might as well have dissolved in a haze. The mounting heat reduced Lex's vision into a series of flashes--ink on skin, pink lips, the wet glisten of Jasper's dick as he fucked Noelle faster. Harder.
"So fucking beautiful." Dallas muttered the words against her cheek, his lips brushing the corner of her mouth. He had her pinned against his chest, her legs splayed wide, held up by the brutally gentle hand at her throat and one iron forearm across her hips. "Come for her, Lexie," he whispered. "Show her she's a good girl and come all over her hungry tongue."
"No." The denial was as much for her as it was for Noelle.
His growl vibrated through his chest, more amused than irritated. "Are you teaching her to be as disobedient as you are?"
"Never," Lex panted. For Noelle, disobedience was a means to an end, a reason for Jasper to punish her until she came.
Jas slowed his thrusts and shifted both of Noelle's wrists to one hand. He leaned over her, pausing to slip his thumb into her mouth before massaging it in a firm circle over Lex's clit. "Get her off. Now."
Noelle hummed her agreement, her tongue slicking over and around Jasper's thumb and then lower, moving in the rhythm Lex had taught her over lazy nights curled together, with or without him, the one Noelle knew twisted her into dizzy knots.
Lex gave up trying to still her hips. They rocked in anticipation of every lick, and the world narrowed even more, shrank until the only things that existed were touching her. Her dress, chafing her nipples with every movement. Noelle's mouth. Jasper's fingers. Dallas.
She came with a cry she could barely hear through the buzz in her ears, but it had to be loud because it burned her throat like whiskey. Like a scream. Pleasure and relief, and beyond it all a hunger Lex couldn't quite understand. A need for more, for less, for something.
The world tilted and took her along for the ride, and she realized belatedly that Dallas had spilled them both to the floor. He knelt a foot in front of Noelle and Jasper, with Lex sprawled across his lap, her knees on either side of his and her face level with Noelle's.
Noelle licked her own lips with a husky laugh before straining forward to kiss Lex. "You didn't make me work for it."
"I tried." Dallas's hands were sliding up Lex's thighs, and she tried to wiggle away.
He laughed and hauled her back, splaying one hand across her belly as he lifted the other to Noelle's mouth. "Jasper?"
"His turn," Jasper whispered, and Noelle parted her lips without looking away from Lex, even as she swirled her tongue around Dallas's fingers until they were slick and wet.
Lex was still squirming when he dropped his hand and stroked her clit. "I told you you'd get a chance to ride my hand. Think you can come again before Jas fucks her over the edge?"
He knew the answer. Sometimes she felt like he knew everything--the only explanation for his raging arrogance. Lex spun around and crawled onto his lap, folding her arms tight around his neck. "You have to make me," she challenged, her mouth close to his. "Can you?"
Hunger tightened his eyes. And something else, too--a hint of danger. She'd challenged him, and he wouldn't back down. Not here, surrounded by his people. It wouldn't matter that most were glued to the spectacle of whatever Jasper was doing to drive those crazy, desperate noises from Noelle's throat.
Dallas O'Kane never let a challenge lie.
He gripped her bare hips and dragged her against him, aligning the unforgiving steel of his cock with her clit. There was nothing slow or easy about his movements as he caught her gaze, held it, and rolled her hips in even, brutally direct circles. "I could make you come so many ways."
"Not with a little dry humping," she lied. Her hands itched to slip between them, to open his pants and bare his cock and then ride him. "Noelle fucked me with her tongue. You have to do better than this."
He just smiled and leaned closer, until his lips brushed hers. "Noelle needed her tongue and Jasper's thumb. I don't. All I need..." He caught both of her arms and crossed her wrists at the small of her back before pinning them with his hands. "Just like this."
The silent, imperious command inherent in the position made her shiver as the ridge of his erection nestled between her pussy lips. Too much, too direct. If he'd been wearing denim, it would have hurt. But he'd donned soft, supple leather tonight, and she was wet, so wet. She took a deep, shaky breath, and even that was enough to slide her over the hard line of his cock through his slippery pants.
Her inhalation caught in her throat, turned into something low and hungry.
Dallas captured her lower lip between his teeth and teased his tongue over it. Nothing else--no movement, no rocking, just the tip of his tongue, sliding back and forth and back and forth, slick with suggestion even before he closed his mouth on her lip and sucked softly.
A taunt and a promise, and it wasn't fair that he could do this to her with the tiniest of touches. Lex trembled through another blinding spike of sensation and tried to free her hands.
He held tight.
She struggled without thinking, lightly but still enough to shift her on his lap. Wet leather stroked her clit, and she bit her tongue trying to hold back a moan.
His gaze held more than a hint of danger now. His cool detachment had shattered, leaving behind a hot-eyed man who bared his teeth in a feral grin. "You want to get away, love?"
Yes. "No." Both answers were true, but neither was quite enough.
He tightened his grip on her wrists and watched her face as if the rest of the room had simply dissolved. Even Noelle's throaty cries of release drifted away as he lowered his mouth to her ear. "But you want to try."
Telling, not asking. The words shivered over her, his voice like fingers on her skin. Truth, but he didn't understand. "I want y
ou to stop screwing around."
"You are so fucking bossy." Rough words, but they came out edged with affection, and he started that steady rock again, grinding her clit against slick leather. "Ask for it. Ask me to get you off."
She wouldn't. She would not. Then the vise twisted, a tense ache that enveloped her. "Please," she ground out. "Please--"
He soothed her with low murmurs against her cheek and moved faster, his fingers clenching every time he rocked her against his cock. He kissed her jaw and her cheek before his mouth found her throat, his lips parting only so he could close his teeth with a hiss of triumph.
The bite was just as delicious as the heat that swept through her. She wanted it all--pain, pleasure, even the anger.
The passion.
Lex closed her eyes as the sensations collided, blistering and undeniable. She came again, and this time it was with Dallas's name on her lips.
Her back hit the floor as pleasure ebbed, and Dallas loomed over her. Noelle sat curled in Jasper's lap a few feet away, both of them as lost in their own world as Dallas seemed lost in her.
He reared back and reached for his belt, but his hands froze as his gaze swept down her body. The ragged hunger gripping his features twisted as his lips curled down and his eyebrows drew together.
Lex followed his stare. Her dress had ridden up, revealing her new tattoo, dark and damning against her skin.
He didn't look happy. He didn't look anything but confused, and she swallowed, suddenly feeling just as spun.
Then she whispered the only words that came to mind. "Happy birthday."
He blinked, but that was the only reaction she got before his face smoothed into lazy amusement, the king of Sector Four at his finest. He might as well have been sprawled on a throne instead of kneeling over her, his hand still crushing his belt buckle. Arrogance rolled off him, and the dangerous promise from before seemed tiny and harmless next to what filled him now.
"You're a few months early," he drawled, tracing his finger over one of the thorny vines. "But that's all right." He lifted his gaze to hers, and the easy warmth in his voice didn't reach those predatory eyes. "I'll take it."
Oh, shit.
Seemed like miracles could happen outside the walls of Eden after all, because he'd rendered Lex speechless.
Not that she needed to talk. Her actions were speaking loud enough all on their own, and so was that ink etched from one hip to the other. Ace's work, without a doubt, recognizable not just by his skill and style but his stubborn adherence to the idea of truth in art.
Trust Ace to turn a simple name into a maze of subtext and hidden messages. Like the rosebuds, so tightly furled, except for the one wrapped around the s. That one looked like it was struggling to bloom in the shadow of his name. The vine climbing the D, on the other hand, was thick with thorns, more than one jabbing into the calligraphic letter. One thorn glistened with a barely visible drop of blood.
That felt about right. Sharp edges and blood, and dragging his gaze from the tattoo only showed him Lex, staring up at him in some confused tangle of brashness and nerves. She might well be too scared to speak--God knew she should be--but she wouldn't show terror with everyone watching.
She wouldn't scratch his face off, either. Probably. Without taking his eyes from hers, he unhooked the carabiner from his belt and held it out. "Bren. My desk, top drawer on the right. Bring what's there."
Bren moved to obey, and the jangle of keys almost eclipsed Lex's words, ground out between clenched teeth. "You wouldn't."
A glance around the room showed plenty of people scurrying to find a way to seem occupied. Half of them were probably straining to hear their words over the music, but most couldn't without edging closer than they were willing to get.
Well, they'd get their show soon enough. He stroked a lock of Lex's hair away from her cheek and wondered if he'd end up bitten for his trouble. "What wouldn't I do, Lexie?"
She struggled beneath him and tried to sit up. "It's not funny--"
He caught her throat, laying his thumb over her rapidly beating pulse as he closed his fingers. Not hard enough to choke, but the precise gentleness of it shut her up faster than roughness would have. She was frozen, half-raised on her elbows, and he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I'm not joking."
Lex shuddered. "Don't," she rasped. "If you do, you can't take it back."
"Can you take the tattoo back?"
She bit her lip. "I guess I deserve it."
"A fate worse than death, huh?" She'd etched an invitation into her skin, but now he was the monster, dragging her to certain death by the hair. It stirred a dark frustration that spiked when Noelle made an angry noise and reached for them. Before she could open her mouth, Dallas jabbed a finger at Jasper. "You keep your woman out of shit that doesn't concern her."
Jasper locked an arm around her and pulled her back. "Not our thing, remember?" he whispered. "Theirs."
"That's right, baby girl. This is me and Dallas." Lex pushed up into his grip, challenging him not only with her movements but with a bold stare. If he didn't pull back, she'd end up grinding bruises into her own skin, forcing him to leave the mark of his hand around her throat.
No winning there. He loathed the idea of leaving marks on her flesh that weren't purposeful and planned. But the only other choice was retreat, and he didn't know if he could back down with her staring at him. Daring him. She'd get what she wanted one way or another...and maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Not with all he was about to take.
He gave her the lingering victory and locked his arm. He didn't need to tighten his fingers, not with her shoving up into his hand. If she wanted bruises, she'd get them.
After too many long moments, she relented, easing back to gasp for breath. The delicate skin of her throat was red, but she acted as though he'd answered a question. "The collar better not be one you've put on anyone else."
He smoothed his thumb over her ravaged skin. "Look at you, jumping to conclusions. You knew what would come of this tattoo, didn't you?"
"Am I wrong?"
"No. Am I?"
But she wouldn't give in, not that much. She averted her eyes. "Your boy's back."
Bren must have run and taken the stairs three at a time to get to Dallas's office and back so quickly. But he wasn't out of breath, and his expression remained calm as he held out the collar. Dallas accepted it with absent thanks and held it up.
It was some damn expensive custom work, made from smooth, supple leather. Flat at the back, it split into four narrow cords on each side, the top and bottom lengths forming a frame for the pieces woven in and out of sterling silver Celtic knots. And at the front, carved with amazing precision, the O'Kane logo, situated where it would nestle in the hollow of her throat.
A far cry from the plain black leather he'd buckled around women's throats in the past, and Lex would know it.
She swallowed hard and met his gaze. Waiting.
No one interfered. No one would, and that made him move slowly. He swept her hair aside, twisting it around his hand and then up. "Hold this, love."
She kept her eyes locked on his as she braced her hands on the cushion and crept out from under him just far enough to sit. She lifted her hands, fingers sliding over his as she took over holding up the mass of her hair.
He'd seen that look in her eyes. The one that said he'd pushed her past fear or anger into driving, vengeful lust. Never before had he taken what that look offered. Blowjobs and spankings were good clean fun, but he didn't fuck a woman he had to share. Not even Lex.
If he wrapped this scrap of leather around her throat, he wouldn't have to share her--and if he dwelled on that, his hands would shake before he got it fastened. Still moving carefully, he laid the etched centerpiece against the hollow of her throat and admired it for a moment before fastening the collar.
"How does it look?" she asked--low, breathless.
He told her the truth. "Beautiful."
She glanced around, taking note of all t
he rapt stares, and her voice dropped even lower. "What now?"
Dallas smoothed her dress down before rising to offer the silent crowd a lazy smile. He held out one hand and waited for Lex to take it. She was still wary, unsure of what she'd gotten herself into.
Good. He wouldn't be the only one, he'd just hide it better. He tugged her to her feet and draped an arm over her shoulder. "Now we let Jasper and Noelle have their moment back."
"I don't think it'll matter. Noelle wants your blood." Lex shook her head. "I'll have to talk to her. Later."
A glance at Noelle proved the truth of that. She didn't look like a soft little city girl now. With ink around her throat and her eyes burning with protective anger, she looked like an O'Kane, one who might not be satisfied with his blood if she could get a knee--or something worse--close to his balls. Jasper was talking to her in a low, even voice, but the words didn't seem to be banking that inner fire.
Jasper was either going to have the hottest time of his life tonight trying to tame that, or he'd end up sleeping alone. If he found himself in a cold bed, Dallas really would owe him for fucking up what should have been a good night. "Think Jas can handle her?"
Lex flashed him a look of sharp rebuke. "If you had any question about that, you should never have let him mark her."
He bit back his retort--that the girl who'd stumbled into their midst wasn't the same one slowly bending under Jasper's words and touches, and Lex should know since she'd been partly responsible for that transformation. But he'd seen the hints of this fierce tiger in the clumsy kitten Noelle had been a month ago, and he was confident Jasper could handle anything she threw at him.
It didn't mean he'd always enjoy it, though. "Collared all of two minutes and you're already second guessing my decisions, huh? You could at least get me a drink first."
She exhaled--it could have been a laugh or a scoff--and nodded once. "Yes, sir." Then she headed in the direction of the bar set up along one end of the room.
Prickly. That was fine. The full impact of what he'd just done was starting to catch up with him, which made the walk back to his couch take forever. The dais was empty, and even Six had abandoned her spot. No one would tread too near with his temper presumably still close to the surface.