Before the End (Beyond Series Ultimate Glom Edition)

by Kit Rocha

  Not refined enough for Jared's tastes, which could mean only one thing. "New patron's giving you gifts already, eh?"

  "She's eager to please." Jared handed him a whiskey on the rocks. "But then, she'd never had an orgasm before."

  So few of the women in Eden had, even the ones who moved in less elite circles than Noelle once did. Ace took a sip before gesturing to the statue with his glass. "If you put that look on her face, I'm not surprised she's buying you presents."

  "Better." Jared dropped to sit in the chair opposite the couch. "I taught her how to get there herself, too."

  Which was one of the many reasons he was a more successful whore than Ace had ever been. Ace's artist-in-search-of-muse shtick had opened plenty of pocketbooks and parted more than his share of trembling Eden thighs, but Jared's reputation as a connoisseur of female pleasure earned him mindless devotion and gifts that pushed him past well-off and straight into obscenely wealthy.

  There'd been a time when Ace had envied his friend that success, a time before he'd fallen in with the O'Kanes and learned to untangle sex from competition and desperation. "You and Lex should exchange pointers. Have you seen what she's got Cunningham's daughter doing on stage at the Broken Circle?"

  "Not yet, but I heard it was positively stunning."

  Stunning was a pale word to describe what Noelle and Lex got up to. "If one of Eden's angels making Lex scream for mercy turns your crank, hell yeah. You should come around next week and watch."

  "And get the hard sell on signing up with the O'Kanes?" Jared shook his head. "I'm not a joiner, Ace. I don't play well with others."

  He waved a hand. "Don't worry about Dallas. Didn't you hear? He finally collared Lex. We've all got a month, minimum, before he even comes up for air."

  "Really now?" Jared swirled the ice in the bottom of his nearly empty glass. "Is he still interested in information about Councilman Woods?"

  The question brought a pang of guilt. He came to hang out with Jared because he enjoyed the man's company, and had spent years ignoring Dallas's increasingly pointed suggestions that he leverage that friendship into a source of information. But asking about Woods hadn't been a suggestion, it had been an order.

  Even Ace didn't ignore orders. "Yeah," he admitted. "Full disclosure, brother. I'd have asked eventually--the boss told me I had to. But I can tell Dallas you don't have anything, and that'll be the end of it."

  Jared looked away and finally said, "He doesn't keep to Eden. Might find him out here in the sectors sometime, if you figured out where to look."

  It felt carefully phrased. Deft, though Jared was always deft. Ace wasn't a fan of having to pick and choose his words or when to let his silence do the talking, so he filed the tidbit away and changed the subject. "If you don't want to swing around the club, I could always bring a party to you."

  His friend ignored the offer. "He'll owe me one. Your boss."

  Ace's blood chilled. "Is it that dangerous? Fuck, man. I'll go to my grave for O'Kane, if that's what I have to do, but the gang's got my back. Don't go out on a limb for him if you're not gonna take protection."

  "Relax. At best, I might spook a few rich ladies." Jared grinned. "The city has them to spare, and so do I. But he'll owe me, all the same."

  "Gladly, if you can give him anything. Dallas wants to spike his morning whiskey with this bastard's blood."

  "Then I'll keep it in mind." Jared finished his drink and clinked the ice in his glass. "Another?"

  It'd take two, minimum, to get the taste of politics out of his mouth. "You know it," he replied, holding out his glass. "Now, about that party. You have got to meet this new girl who's doing shows with me. She's got a dirty fucking mind and she's inventive."

  Jared poured the refills with a chuckle. "I'm sure she's wonderful, but is there any particular reason you're dying to bring her around here? You O'Kanes have plenty of filthy parties."

  Plenty of parties he spent watching Cruz count Rachel's teeth with his tongue. "What, I can't miss hanging with an old friend?"

  "I can't help but be curious as to the source of this sudden nostalgia."

  Ace produced his best leer. "Maybe I miss refined debauchery. We can do wonderful things to a lady when we work together."

  Jared wasn't fooled. "Does it have anything to do with how studiously you've avoided talking about Rachel lately?"

  "Have I?" He hadn't thought he'd been that obvious, but he'd mostly been trying to avoid thinking about Rachel at all. Life was better simple, and there was nothing simple about the tangle of emotions evoked by her and Cruz and their fucking tongues. "Nothing to tell. She's making big eyes at Bren's military police friend."

  "That's not exactly nothing," Jared replied.

  His friend's voice held an uncomfortable edge of sympathy, and Ace needed more whiskey. "Nothing to do, then," he said as he leaned over to snag the bottle. "City boy doesn't share, and I don't play that game. I gambled on a slow chase, and I lost. So it goes."

  "As you say. I am sorry, though. I liked her."

  "You can still like her. She's not dead." Ace knocked back the whiskey, enjoying a brief moment of comfort as it burned its way down his throat and kicked him in the guts. Or maybe that kick was this conversation, battering away at his determined denial. "Sorry, brother. I'll replace your booze."

  Jared snorted. "Fuck the booze. I buy it by the case, and Dallas cuts me a sweet deal."

  Of course he did. "Then screw you. I'm drinking it all."

  "Good." He abandoned his glass on the coffee table and leaned back in his chair with a slow smile. "Drink it all, and then tell me about the redhead who works at the bar. The tall one."

  Feeling like he'd just stepped clear of a minefield, Ace relaxed into the couch cushions and began to extol Trix's many, many charms. But somewhere in between a loving description of the busty redhead's glorious tits and her deliciously spankable ass, he acknowledged that his reprieve was likely to be short-lived.

  The O'Kanes lived in close quarters with high stakes. Sooner or later, someone was gonna stomp on one of those mines, and the whole thing would blow up in their faces.

  Chapter Five

  She could hear him grunting.

  Lex stared at Dallas's door and ran through the incredibly short list of activities that could result in rhythmic grunts drifting from the other side of it. Fucking, obviously--easily set aside. Even if he wanted to be a pig, he wasn't a stupid one. If anyone was getting in his pants today, it was her.

  Of course, he could have started without her, a mental image that curled her toes in her heeled sandals and stopped her just shy of a knock. She licked her lips and rubbed her thumb over the inside of her thigh as she tugged the hem of her skirt down. An intoxicating possibility, but unlikely. Dallas wouldn't begin this discussion at a disadvantage, even one borne of pleasure.

  Working out, then. Probably doing pushups, and enough of them to leave his skin sheened with sweat and imminently lickable. Enough to distract the hell out of her.

  "Fuck you, O'Kane," she muttered, then banged on the door with the side of her fist.

  The grunts paused long enough for him to say, "Come in," before resuming.

  Not pushups, after all. He was hanging from the bar in one corner of the room, his shoulders flexing as he pulled his body up and then lowered it again. The sweat was there, of course, dampening his white wifebeater just enough to give an impression of the ink beneath. He kept going, every movement a controlled concert of muscle and power--and tailor-made to leave Lex weak in the knees.

  "Fuck you," she said again, this time plenty loud enough for him to hear.

  He grinned at her and paused with his chin above the bar. "Says the woman who makes us all watch while a fallen angel from Eden licks her pussy on stage."

  "You love it." Lex held up the folded paper between her fingers. "I have something for you."

  Still grinning, he dropped to the floor and reached for a towel to wipe his face and neck. "I wasn't sure you'd do it."


  "Then maybe you don't know me very well," she said innocently.

  "Uh-huh." He tossed aside the towel and walked toward her. No, not walked. Swaggered, every line of him dripping self-confidence. "We'll see."

  Damn him, and damn his swagger, too. "Did you make a list?"

  "I know my list." He stopped in front of her and touched her chin. "You want to hear it first?"

  "Sure, why not?"

  He nodded toward the couch and waited for her to sit before sprawling out beside her. "First rule. No sex without me."

  A command that echoed the one scribbled on her own list. "I figured as much. Next?"

  "The shows." His gaze darkened a little. "Though God only knows how much we'll lose if I pry Noelle off you."

  Plenty enough for them all to feel the pinch. "You don't act like it bothers you."

  "Mmm, things change. But I'll let the shows stand for now. Just the ones with her, though." Leaning in, he traced a fingertip along the collar before catching her chin. "No one with a pulse will wonder why I haven't put a stop to that."

  But he wanted to. She could hear it in his voice, a low hum of tension and something else, a deeper rumble almost like possessiveness. "Anything else?"

  "No lying to me about sex." He held her gaze, his own firm and unwavering. "If I ask a question about what you can handle, or what you need, that means I want the truth, not what you think I want to hear. Because believe me, I'll be taking plenty without asking."

  Unbridled honesty, no matter what. Lex had been taught never to give it, because revealing too much led to deadly weakness. "I can try." The admission alone made her gut tighten. "I can't promise. Not always."

  His jaw tightened, but the frustration in his eyes didn't follow through in the soft way he stroked her jaw. "Do you trust me?"

  Honesty. "As much as I trust anyone."

  It seemed like he studied her forever, his gaze roaming her face, his fingers still stroking. The silence stretched on long enough to make her want to look away before he jerked his head in a short nod. "If that's what I've got, I'll work with it."

  It sounded too much like a concession, and she bristled. "I am what I am, Dallas. If you don't like it, I can find the door."

  That fast, his fingers clenched on her chin. "Don't you snarl at me. If I didn't want you, you'd already be out of here. But if you think I'm not going to fight to turn that answer into yes, then maybe you need to rethink what you're walking into. I'm not a man who stops at almost."

  In that moment, she hated him. Her eyes and throat burned, and she ached to throw it all back in his face and leave, just to prove that she could. Not even to him, but to herself.

  She told her brain that it was time to move, but words spilled out instead as she shoved her crumpled note into his hand. "You want the truth? I don't know why I'm here, but I don't know how to leave. Not until I find out what this is."

  He released her with a deep breath that turned into a chuckle. "I guess we'll learn whether I can handle the unvarnished truth, won't we? Not many people will give it to me anymore."

  Lex pushed her fingers through her hair, bereft without his touch. "Do you blame them?"

  "Sometimes." He smoothed the paper out on his thigh and glanced at it. A frown creased his brow as he studied what she'd written. "What is this?"

  "It's my list. My rule."

  He read the words aloud, all seven of them. "Whatever we do, we do it together."

  No inflection, nothing. She shifted on the cushion and cleared her throat. "That's all."

  "What happened to not liking punishment like Noelle?"

  "It's not my thing, but it's not a deal breaker, either." Lex arched an eyebrow. "If you expected me to list everything that gets me hot and everything that doesn't, forget it. You can figure it out like any other mere mortal."

  For a second, he looked so irritated she thought he might snap. His hand clenched tight around the paper, and that dangerous heat she knew so well gathered in his eyes. "So you're saying I can do any damn thing I want to you."

  The pendant woven into the center of her collar was warm on her skin, warmer still when she touched it with nervous fingers. "That's what it means for me, wearing this."

  "Stand up."

  It sounded different from his usual commands, softer and harder at the same time. She rose and faced him, standing with her hands in fists at her sides.

  He shifted into a pose she knew well, settling in the center of the couch with his long legs sprawled out carelessly. The lazy king at his finest, except he usually had plenty of people to demand his attention. Now there was only her, shivering under the weight of his gaze.

  He was looking at her like he owned her, and that was all he needed.

  Another long moment, and he smiled slowly. "What's under the dress?"

  "Not a damn thing." This was more familiar territory, and Lex clung to it as she gathered her dress an inch higher on one leg. "Want to see?"

  "Dirty girl." The words held nothing but sincere approval. "Show me. Take it off."

  With every nerve on high alert, the fabric sliding over her skin felt like hands. Lex eased it up, over her head, and dropped it on the floor at his feet.

  He gestured again. "Shoes, too."

  She nudged his knee with one toe. "The buckles are tricky. Help me?"

  "Maybe if you bend over, you can see them more clearly."

  Grinding a spike heel into his balls would be counterproductive, and not nearly enough payback for this arrogant performance. Instead, she pulled away and turned. One slow, deliberate bend from the waist later, she unbuckled one shoe, then the other.

  "That's my girl," he rasped. "Always fighting dirty." She hadn't heard him move, but he was there, suddenly, hands on her hips. "Don't move."

  She swallowed hard. "Not even to take off my shoes?"

  He splayed a warm hand across the small of her back, traced the curve of her ass and lower, along the inside of her thigh and the back of her knee. When he spoke, his breath spilled hot over her pussy. "You can do that."

  Only long years of practice allowed her to keep her balance. She kicked off the shoes and stilled. "Like this?"

  "Mmm." He edged his hand between her legs and stroked her, slicking past her outer lips to tease one finger into her, and her inner muscles clenched at the invasion. "I thought I might have to eat this pussy to get you wet enough to fuck, but you could take me right now, couldn't you? I think you like being pissed at me."

  As hard as she tried, she couldn't swallow her moan. "I know your game, honey. You're not fooling me."

  "Is that so?" Another finger joined the first, broad and sure, working into her with the confidence of long familiarity. This, he'd done plenty of times, getting her off in a hundred ways.

  She choked on another moan as heat tingled outward from her core, curling through her like ink in water. "You have to keep up the cocky act, or you'll blow."

  "Oh, I'll blow either way." He whispered the words against the curve of her ass, her only warning before he bit her with a dark laugh. "The only question now is where my dick's gonna be when it happens."

  There was only one thing he refused to do to any woman who didn't wear his collar, the real reason behind the parade of random women in and out of this very room. And every instinct she possessed screamed that he'd been dying to do it to her.

  Lex arched her back, staying bent at the waist but leaning up far enough to peer back at him over her shoulder. "You scared? Afraid I won't live up to the fantasy, Declan?"

  Leather whispered over denim, his belt sliding open as he slipped his fingers from her body. Without taking his gaze from hers, he lifted his hand and licked his finger. "Not even a little."

  She faced him. "Then what are you waiting for?"

  Instead of answering, he left his belt hanging open and plunged his fingers into her hair, jerking her against him hard enough to suck the air from her lungs. His mouth landed on hers, stealing all the air she had left as he wrenched h
er head back and drove his tongue past her lips.

  The answer to more than her question. Lex moved closer, despite the sharp tug of his hand in her hair. He'd kissed her before, but never like this, with a fire that threatened to consume. They'd always kept the need between them so carefully banked, painfully aware of the lines they could cross so easily.

  That need sizzled to life now, like something had been unleashed. She scratched him, bit his lip, hissed his name when he hoisted her off the floor and slammed her against the closest wall.

  No more waiting.

  "Now." His shirt ripped as she wrenched it over his head. "Fuck me now."

  "Not like this." He snaked an arm around her, pivoted, and thumped her down on the arm of the couch. Strong fingers dug into her hips and sent her sprawling back, falling until her shoulders hit the plush cushion.

  Dallas loomed over her, his hands curled around her thighs. His gaze swept up, lingering on the tattoo of his name, on her tits. Her collar.

  Lex squirmed. She'd expected a submissive position--on her knees, maybe, with Dallas gripping her hips--but this wasn't symbolically helpless. She couldn't move or control anything, was completely at his mercy...and he knew it.

  He didn't seem to have the patience to savor it. He all but ripped his jeans open and freed his cock, fisting the shaft with a growl. "Pinch your nipples."

  "No." Despite the refusal, she was already lifting her hands to obey. Instead, she grazed them lightly, teasing the hard peaks with her thumbs.

  His cock ground between her pussy lips as he leaned down and closed his hand around hers, forcing her finger and thumb together on her nipple. "Yes."

  Rough and sweet. It set off a shudder, and Lex dug her teeth into her lower lip when the reflexive movement rubbed her clit against the hard ridge at the head of his erection. Fuck.

  Dallas laughed and forced her to tug at her nipple, guiding her fingers in short, rough jerks that skated close to pain. "That's right, love. Control, not obedience. If I have control, I can get obedience, whether you give it to me or not."