by Kit Rocha
But Jade could also simply need help. For every trainee out of the Flower District who was happy with her patron, there were a dozen more who wound up miserable and desperate, and it was that possibility that had Lex whispering, "I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you." Jade stepped back with a sad little smile. "You do look like her. Maybe that makes it easier to trust you. I miss her."
"So do I." Lex caught Mad's gaze and nodded.
Mad swept in, rescuing Lex from further conversation by inserting himself carefully between them. "I've got to get you back to Dallas before he skins me," he murmured. "Jade, a pleasure to see you again."
"And you, Maddox." She inclined her head with a teasing smile. "Give my regards to Bren, would you? He's a fascinating man."
"I'll do that." He sounded almost grumpy, and Mad bustled Lex away with Jade's soft laughter following them around the corner.
Lex caught his hand and held it tight. "Tried to be noble, huh? No screwing women who can't say no?"
He scowled. "I've got no problem with women who sell sex, but it's different when they're groomed to think it's their only fucking purpose. Hell, you know that."
"Course I do. So why the long face?"
"She gave me a once-over, said, 'I suppose that was inevitable,' and jumped on Bren's dick." He huffed out a laugh. "Maybe. God knows what they actually did."
"Yeah." Lex brushed back an unruly lock of hair that had fallen over his brow. "If she winds up in Four, you'll have plenty of time to get to know her. If that's what you want."
He snorted. "C'mon, Lex. Not even one joke about my hero complex?"
"Not in the mood," she said again, smoothing his shirt as they reached the guest quarters. "I've decided we need a few more heroes."
He stopped abruptly and tugged her around to face him, his voice deadly serious. "Shit, Lex. Are you all right? I know it's been a long day, but..."
Things had gone fucking downhill when she started scaring people with positivity. "I'm ready to go home."
Chapter Twelve
Dallas knew his day had been too fucking long when he was surprised to find Lex in his suite.
Granted, they hadn't had much time to settle into a routine. And he'd always made a point of collaring outsiders before, women who could fit into his life when and where he wanted them and disappear without drama when one of them tired of the arrangement. The woman made that call, more often than not--some because they'd gotten what they wanted, and others because they wanted what he could never give.
None of them had been around, day in and day out, underfoot and there to witness the days he was too tired to play conquering barbarian, too tired to do anything but fall back on the bed and wait for his thoughts to settle enough for sleep to come. Most nights, he drank them into silence, which meant an early morning with an aching head and a vicious temper, and the women who wanted the fantasy of kneeling for the ruthless Dallas O'Kane didn't want Declan groaning about his throbbing temples.
Christ, he should have thought about that before slapping that collar around Lex's throat. He was too exhausted to take off his own boots, and there she sat, curled up on his couch with a book, gorgeous and patient and deserving a hell of a lot more than a man who'd just fall asleep on top of her.
Especially after the last couple days.
She looked up, her brows drawing together as she closed her book. "You look like hell."
"That's where I've been." He kicked the door shut behind him, and damn. Even the four steps to the couch felt like a battle. He dropped beside her with a heavy sigh and stretched out his legs. "Honestly, I expected a hell of a lot more push-back against this. I didn't expect that I'd have to step on half the guy's necks to keep them from charging out tonight to stake their claims on new territory."
"Some of them are hungry. They want to make names for themselves the way Jas and Bren have. And don't forget the money."
He'd bargained hard with the other sector leaders when it came to defining profit, hard enough that the men would have their chance to get wealthy, if they worked for it. "Yeah, but money won't do 'em a fuckload of good if they get their brains splattered on the walls by moving too fast and being careless."
"Relax." She slipped behind him on the couch and started rubbing his shoulders. "No one's getting splattered, because you're going to make them understand that wisdom is better than speed."
He snorted but closed his eyes as her fingers dug into a knotted muscle. It hurt, the kind of pain that came with relief on its heels. "I have my doubts that some of them will understand, but they'll damn well obey either way."
She worked his muscles harder. "The first option's easier."
"If everyone's thinking on the same level. God love some of the guys, Lex. They're good and they're loyal...but they're not all Jasper or Bren or Mad."
"So, you pair them up with ones who'll stop and think. The buddy system. You've been doing it for years, haven't you?"
"I suppose..." He leaned forward as Lex's hands worked lower. "But I don't want anyone over there at first except the guys I can trust to keep their heads. We need recon. Intel. If I stuck Six in front of a map, do you think she could figure out what was where?"
Lex brushed her lips over the back of his neck. "Doubtful. She'd do a lot more good on the ground."
"You think she could handle that?"
"She wants to be useful. Let her."
Inside knowledge of Trent's operation and what might be lingering in Three could save him time and headaches. And it wasn't like he'd have to feel guilty about sending her--she stuck to Bren like a burr as it was, and no one would get past him to hurt her.
Lex's lips touched his skin again, and Dallas relaxed into the caress. "Nice to have a second brain to figure this shit out when mine gives up."
"You need sleep." She slid her arms around him. "You've been going nonstop for days. You barely rested when we were in Two."
Sleep. It beckoned with a sharpness that only made his growing erection more ridiculous. "I was thinking about it more seriously before you wrapped yourself around me."
Lex climbed off the couch with a short laugh and pulled at his hands. "No sex until you've slept at least half the night. If you wake up in the middle of it and want to fuck me numb, you be my guest."
"Someone's feeling bossy," he grumbled, but he couldn't sound irritated. There was something fucking adorable about Lex when she was like this. He'd seen it with Noelle before, the open affection, the teasing...
Too bad it only made him harder.
"And if you can't sleep..." She moved in close, pressing her body to his as she spun him around so he backed up against the edge of the bed. "I know how to fix that, too."
That perked up his mood and his dick. Amused, he sank to the mattress and lifted his arms so she could drag his shirt over his head. "You gonna read me a bedtime story, Lexie?"
"Better." She dropped his shirt, slid to the floor, and reached for the laces on one of his boots.
He grinned and extended his legs to make it easier. "You're gonna read me a dirty one?"
"Or make one up. This story..." His boots hit the floor, one and then the other. "It's about a king and his concubine."
"Does she have to tell him a story every night?"
Lex threw back her head and laughed. "You want me to be your Scheherazade?"
Of course an educated woman out of Sector Two would understand the reference. Dallas hooked his foot behind her leg and tugged her closer. "Could you think of a thousand and one filthy stories about what the king and his concubine get up to?"
Her fingers curled around his belt buckle and pulled it free. "I'll show you instead." She rose, off her knees, and leaned over him. "The first night, she stripped him naked and danced for him."
More than willing to play along, he lifted his hips without looking away from her face. "Watch the goods, love. This king's been hard since you started touching him."
"If you're waiting for me to complain, you'll wai
t a long damn time." Her eyes glimmered with amusement, but also appreciation. She peeled his pants down his legs and tossed them aside, leaving him nude and ready.
Then she straightened and stared at him.
Grinning, he stared back...and wrapped his fingers around his aching dick. "I'm imagining you dancing," he lied, dragging his fingers up his shaft. Pleasure formed a lazy haze, but he didn't need to imagine her naked. All he had to do was stare at that collar, at her disheveled hair and dark eyes, and know she was here, in his bedroom.
His.
"Mmm." She swiveled her hips in a slow, languorous circle and licked her lips as she grasped the hem of her loose white T-shirt. Tugging it up a few inches flashed the upper lines of her ink, and her tiny, barely there shorts just begged his gaze to follow her endless legs up to her thighs.
Gorgeous. Fucking beautiful, and if he didn't watch how fast he was stroking himself, he'd blow before she got her hands on him. "You don't hurry it up with the stripping and I'm gonna make a new rule. No clothes in my bedroom."
But she was shaking her head before he even finished his sentence. "You like it too much when I take them off." She crossed her arms, dragging the cotton up, over her head.
There was nothing under it but golden skin and soft, firm curves. Lex opened the button on her shorts with one hand, then eased her thumbs beneath the denim and shimmied it down.
"Fuck, Lex." Skin. Skin and ink, his name, and his blood was fire in his veins. His hand clamped tight, and he shuddered. "I don't suppose the concubine blows the king any time soon in this story."
"You've heard this one." She smiled slowly and kicked free of the denim before climbing astride his legs. "When she was naked too, she sucked him, slow and deep, until he couldn't lie still anymore."
Her hands teased up his thighs. She closed her fingers around his, holding his grip securely in place as she bent damn near in half to flick her tongue over the crown of his cock.
"Christ." Sinking both hands into her hair, Dallas sprawled back on the mattress. Impossible not to clench his hands, not to press up in a silent plea. Maybe he should have demanded, should have fucked up into her mouth and taken control. That was his promise--his dominance for her submission, his careful control for her abdication of responsibility. It was damn near self-indulgent to lie back and let her do all the work.
And he was selfish enough to do it.
"I love looking at you," she whispered. "You're so strong. Solid. A badass fighter with ink and scars, but parts of you are delicate." She feathered a soft touch up the underside of his shaft and swirled her tongue around him again. "Delicious."
Naked words. Unguarded, with none of Lex's trademark sass and prickle, only a breathless warmth that drove him crazy. "Glad you appreciate the taste, love. Feel free to swallow it whole."
"Smartass." She licked him wet, then held his gaze as she slid her lips down around him.
That never got old.
Hazy pleasure made his eyes droop, but he forced them open. He loved the sight of her like this, glistening lips stretched wide around his cock, staring up at him as she took him deeper and deeper, wrapping him in wetness and heat. Never letting him forget that he could stick his dick in all the groupie faces he wanted, but he'd always come crawling back for this. The moment when he wasn't sure which of them was leading their filthy-hot dance.
Fucking Lex was like driving too fast. Exhilarating. Terrifying. And always a heartbeat away from spinning out of control.
A moan vibrated around him. She changed the rhythm, sucking hard as she drew him into her mouth, and licking as she retreated, over and over.
Worries about the gang and Sector Three vanished under a hum of pleasure. Release edged closer, and he slapped it away, gritting his teeth as he hauled her up until his cock popped free of her lips. "What did the king do next?"
She exhaled shakily and eased up his body. "He gave her pleasure." Her hips aligned over his so that her pussy lips nestled against his shaft, and she ground down with another moan.
Dallas dragged his hands down her shoulders and up to cup her breasts, toying with her tight nipples. "I think you have it wrong. I think he played with her." He closed his thumb and forefinger around one bud and tugged, giving her a hint of pain to balance the gentle stroking of his other hand. "I think he teased her, and told her to ride his dick and find her own pleasure."
One quick shift of her lower body brought the blunt tip of his erection closer to her pussy, almost inside. "I'll fuck you, Dallas." She rocked her hips, thrusting hard enough to take him into her. "I'll make it good."
His pulse throbbed in his ears as he shifted one hand to her hip. "I'm balls-deep in the hottest woman in any sector. Short of slitting my damn throat, you couldn't make it bad."
"Shh." She braced one hand on his chest and rolled her hips, a slow, sinuous movement that left her gasping. "Fuck, yes."
He ground his teeth together and tried to ignore the silky clasp of her body as she rose and fell. Not easy, when she was clenching and moaning and putting on the kind of show money couldn't buy.
He wanted to savor it. He wanted to remember every time she bit her lip, and the way the flush of pleasure stole down her body. He'd drawn her kicking and screaming to this point before, to the place where all of her masks were gone and she was lost in the feeling of his cock inside her.
All he'd done this time was drop his own mask, and she'd melted all over him like chocolate in the summer sun.
The relentless need for release throbbed at the base of his spine, but he tightened his grip on self-control long enough to slide his thumb over her clit.
She shuddered and clenched even tighter around him as her smooth rhythm faltered. "Tell me you feel it." The strained plea gave way to a cry--and another shudder that shook her entire body.
"I feel it," he whispered, giving up the battle for restraint as hopeless. No one could have held on to reason with Lex bouncing on his dick, writhing and moaning and coming all over him.
Dallas snarled and let go, rolling her beneath him in a clumsy move unworthy of his supposed skill. He had to wrench her hips back toward the edge of the bed and push one of her legs up to his shoulder. Half her hair ended up under one palm, pinning her in place as he found his footing and slammed into her. "Feel it. Feel us. Fuck, Lex, feel me."
Her fingernails dug into his lower back as she gripped him just as clumsily and arched her back, her skin hot under his. "Declan!"
His name, stripping him bare. Raw. Tenderness and rage. Pleasure and pain. He couldn't separate them anymore when she said his name, so he claimed her mouth in a rough kiss to keep her from saying it again--to keep himself from begging her to say it again--and fucked them both into screaming, clenching release.
Lex rode it, clinging to him until her shaking subsided into trembling. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close, brushing a kiss to his temple. Too much of his weight was resting on her body, and he had to move. He had to.
Damned if he wanted to, though, and the legs and arms tangled around him didn't help. "I'm gonna crush you."
"No." Her arms tightened. "I like this."
He chuckled against her ear. "We're hanging half off the bed, woman."
"Good point." She shoved at his shoulders with a laugh. He hauled himself upright and somehow found the energy to drag her along.
It wasn't until they were both collapsed on the bed that he realized the lights were still on. "Fuck. Sector Two is an evil damn place, but I do miss those voice-activated lights right about now."
"You owe me one." She bit his shoulder and slid off the bed. He watched her cross the room, reveling in those last few moments of admiring her flushed skin and vivid ink before the room plunged into darkness.
Moments later, the mattress dipped again, and she crawled up beside him. Hooking an arm around her, he dragged her into his side with a satisfied sigh. "I'll make it up to you, love."
"I know you will."
His mind sho
uld have been cluttered. He should have been staring blindly up into the darkness, running through the eventualities. Marshaling his forces. Making plans he'd have to abandon tomorrow, because no one as exhausted as he was should be making decisions, only he never knew how to make the thinking stop.
Fast, dirty sex and a sleepy Lex snuggled at his side seemed to be the secret. He only wanted to work on one plan before giving in to sleep--his plan to talk Lex into exchanging her collar for something a lot more permanent.
Feel it. Feel us. Fuck, Lex--
"So then I decided I didn't care, and something about forgiveness and permission and which is easier, and you are not listening to me at all." Noelle shoved a wooden dresser out of the way with a little grunt of effort, endangering a precariously balanced stack of chairs. "This is ridiculous. I know Dallas is busy, but Jas says the new storerooms have been built for years."
Lex forced her mind back to the task at hand and steadied the swaying chairs. "Sorry, I'm being a dick."
Noelle waved one hand with a little pfft. "You're daydreaming. Not the same thing."
No good answer to that--nothing that wouldn't make her sound like a kid with a crush, anyway. "Furniture for Six, right?"
"Yes. Bren moved her into a room of her own before he left, but it's... Well, sparse is being kind." Noelle's brow furrowed as she studied the dresser. "I tried to talk her into picking out her own furniture, but that made her freeze up. She keeps saying she's fine with what she has, but she's lying. She's just scared to ask for anything."
Somehow, that possibility managed to perplex Dallas as much as Noelle. "She's having trouble believing hard work and loyalty can be enough. She thinks being an O'Kane woman has to mean selling sex, whether you want to or not."
Noelle's frown deepened. "I remember the feeling, but you and Dallas cleared it up pretty fast for me. Is where she's from so much worse than here?"