Before the End (Beyond Series Ultimate Glom Edition)

by Kit Rocha

  "I doubt that." He looped an arm around her waist and hauled her back until she was snuggled soft and warm against his chest. "But I'm done sharing you."

  "For now, or forever?"

  The game they were playing was too high stakes for lies, even little ones. "I don't know. For tonight, at least."

  "I'd do it," she said quietly. "For you."

  Those were the words he'd never expected to hear. Or maybe he had, but only wrenched from her, a grudging trade for some ambiguous promise he'd never been able to figure out. "You'd give it all up? Even Noelle?"

  "I don't want to. Not because I have to have sex with her or anyone else, but..." Lex turned her head toward him, leaving him staring at her profile. "It makes me feel like you don't trust me. Like you think it means you mean less, or that I won't come back to you."

  Of course she'd come back to him. That possibility never bothered him as much as the reasons she'd leave to begin with. The implication that he wasn't enough.

  Easy to think. Admitting it out loud--shit. The thought alone made him cringe, so he shifted the conversation to something less embarrassing. "It's not about trust, but yeah. I get jealous. And not just over sex, love. I got jealous as hell when Gideon started running his mouth like you two have some big secret."

  She exhaled a short laugh. "Only because of his cousin. Mad's been helping me funnel money into some of the other sectors, a little aid for people who need it."

  Not the answer he'd been expecting. "Why don't I know about this?"

  "Because of how I get the money."

  In the earliest days--days when she was new to the gang and he was still wondering if she was a trap Cerys had set for him--he'd kept an eye on her. Followed her.

  Watched her steal a whole lot of shit.

  In the beginning, he'd thought it was about security. She had no reason to trust him, and anyone who'd come off the streets in Sector Three was liable to hoard anything they could get their hands on. Time had passed and Lex had taken ink, and the bouts of thievery had come to an end.

  Or maybe they hadn't. He'd stopped watching so closely after she'd quietly paid off Cerys. That was another secret he wasn't supposed to know about, but it had been the turning point. The proof she wasn't a trap--or, if she was, that the endgame was so subtle and convoluted he'd never uncover it by shadowing her.

  So he'd stopped, and he'd assumed she'd given up climbing through third-story windows in search of valuable items. After all, he gave her any fucking thing she wanted.

  The silence had stretched out uncomfortably, so Dallas shifted Lex in his arms until she was facing him. "You steal." Not quite a question.

  She held his gaze unflinchingly. "Yes."

  "From where?"

  "Three, mostly. But I've been into Five and Six a few times."

  Emotion churned in his gut, and he honestly didn't know if it was anger or fear. Three was bad enough, but at least he knew she could handle herself against lowlifes and thugs. Five, on the other hand...

  He curled his hand around the back of her neck. "Do you know what Fleming does to pretty women who cross him?"

  Her lips pressed together in a tense line. "I'm not stupid, Dallas. I know what I'm doing."

  As if that made it okay. "Then what the hell could be worth risking your foolish fucking neck?"

  "I want to help." Her voice dropped, low and almost ashamed. "Most people don't get as lucky as I did."

  Christ. He lifted her chin to force her to look at him. "Did you think I wouldn't let you?"

  "No. But I didn't want you to feel like you needed to take over and do it for me, either."

  He didn't know what was worse--that she assumed he would, or that he was half-convinced he wouldn't. It was the first lesson he'd learned growing up, the one that had always seemed to weigh heaviest on his mother's shoulders. You picked your people, and you held them close. You didn't have to go out of your way to hurt anyone else, but you couldn't save them all, either. It had been true on a tiny ranch in Texas, and it was true in the sectors surrounding Eden.

  Lex had always given him too much fucking credit--and it always made him want to try harder, to be worthy of it. "You do help. Jesus, Lex. You've changed the lives of every woman in this fucking sector."

  Her brows drew together in a frown, and she reached up to rub her thumbs over his cheeks. "But is it enough? I don't know anymore."

  "We're about to change a few lives in Three, too. That's a quarter of the sectors, love. It's a lot."

  Mollified, she pressed her forehead to his chin. "I swore Mad to secrecy. Dr. Jordan, too."

  Doc didn't wear his ink, so he owed him no loyalty--nothing beyond what any man in Four showed him out of sheer practicality, anyway. But Mad... Dallas sighed as he sank his fingers into Lex's hair. He knew what Mad's defense would be, as if he'd already heard it. What, O'Kane? You want her out there without backup?

  Dallas doubted she even knew how deep Mad's scars ran, but those old wounds made it easy for Dallas to understand his motivations. Mad had suffered the backlash that came from standing too close to power. He knew all the ways an enemy could use a hostage as leverage--and that the truest loyalty to any leader meant protecting them from the hard choices that followed.

  Didn't mean Dallas wouldn't scream at him. But for now, he pressed a kiss to Lex's forehead. "They're big boys. Not your responsibility."

  Her fingers brushed her throat, where her collar usually lay. "That's not exactly true anymore."

  No, it wasn't. "Is that a weight you wanna carry, Lexie? You of all people know the state my shoulders are in most nights."

  "Yeah, I do. Which is why I'd have to be a selfish ass to stick you with all the work."

  He touched her collarbone, tracing his finger over the skin he planned to mark. Thick black ink, a design fit for a queen. The queen. "Do you trust me?"

  Her eyes locked with his--for once, clear and unguarded. "Yes."

  Finally.

  His blood pumped fire through his veins as he splayed his fingers across her chest, his thumb canted toward one shoulder and his pinky brushing the other. She looked deceptively delicate in moments like this, small under his hand, but there was nothing fragile about the heart beating under his palm.

  And it belonged to him. "Ink," he said, the word edged with all his desire. "O'Kane for life."

  "For life," she echoed, covering his hand with hers.

  He couldn't stop his feral grin, the triumph and satisfaction. "All of you."

  "Mmm." She arched an eyebrow. "What's that look for?"

  The fire in his veins settled as a burning heat in his gut, stoked higher by the mental image of Lex wearing his ink. Lex, his.

  He lifted his hand to trace her lips and let his imagination run wild. She was soft and sweet, her defenses swept away. How much hotter would it be now, fucking her when she was already open and trusting? When he could show her that he didn't need an orgy to overwhelm her senses, to claim every goddamn part of her?

  Still smiling, he edged one finger between her lips. "Maybe I'm not done with you for the night."

  Lex closed her eyes and bit him. "I won't be able to walk tomorrow, and neither will you. You realize that, right?"

  The world could survive the day without them. Bracing his thumb against her jaw, he pushed his finger deeper, savoring the sharp scrape of teeth almost as much as the quick heat of her tongue. "If you can walk before sundown, it means I didn't get the job done."

  She shivered and licked his fingertip with a moan.

  He couldn't stop himself from pumping his finger in and out, fascinated by the way her lips looked wrapped around any part of him. "Tonight, you're mine to play with. This mouth..." He added another finger, pushed them both in to the second knuckle. "Mine to kiss, mine to defile."

  Her eyes lit up at the word, amusement and lust in equal measure. The back of her hand brushed his stomach, and she walked her fingers slowly up to scratch her nails across his chest.

  Oh yeah, she li
ked that. Liked it even more when he withdrew his fingers, slapped her cheek in teasing warning, and smoothed his hand down her throat.

  He smacked her breast next, and the firm flesh swayed enticingly. Made his dick ache, too, and his next words sounded rough. "I could play with these tits for hours. Sucking, pinching..." He tweaked her nipple just to watch her jerk. "Making them bounce."

  Her skin flushed, and her breathing quickened. "Yours to play with. Whatever you want."

  Three simple words, but the layers in them. A man could go dizzy trying to untangle the subtle shifts in power. He owned her the same way he owned them all, as a benevolent dictator who enforced his ownership lightly. Someone who didn't understand would think her submission solidified that claim, would think she'd yanked her own collar tight and handed him a leash.

  Blind fools. Submission snapped the leash. Here she was, flushed at the sudden freedom, and he was the one weighed down by the responsibilities that came with her gift. He was the one who had to walk that razor-thin line, knowing one misstep could cut them both.

  Trust went both ways, a fact that held him in its grasp as he smacked her other breast hard enough to feel the sting of impact in his fingers. He had to trust that her moan of pleasure was honest, that she wouldn't hold back or hide discomfort. All it would take was one lie on her part to turn him into a monster.

  Especially when her fantasy was being taken by one.

  Lex shuddered through a soft sigh and framed his face with gentle hands. "You don't have to. Not if it's too much."

  Of course she saw. Of course she understood, which was why it would never be too much. Growling, he caught her face, his thumb and fingers digging in to her cheeks just enough to serve as a quiet warning. "Are you going to be a good girl?"

  Her answer was quiet, serious. "You know me better than that."

  He knew she fought back, but sometimes it was hard to tell how much was a struggle to hold on to her defenses, and how much was a silent plea for him to fulfill a need she could barely articulate.

  Maybe she couldn't articulate it, but he understood it. Leaning closer, he licked her lips. "Tell me you'll be good tonight."

  She stilled and then moved, sliding her inner thigh up the outside of his leg. "I'll be good. Only for you."

  He rewarded her with a rough whack on the hip before rolling away, his mind already stumbling over what part of her to claim first. With a few clever toys and a little patience, he could reduce her to limp, trembling bliss.

  "On your knees," he ordered as he moved to the open cabinet. A fortune in tools of debauchery lined the shelves, a mix of custom pieces and pre-Flare relics, things meant to bind, to penetrate, to cause pleasure and pain.

  He bypassed the whips and floggers, uninterested in striking her with anything but his bare hands. Pain wasn't Lex's trigger, for all that he'd seen her transported by the hazy rush of it. She thrived on sensation, on roughness that stemmed from too much desire, from the feeling of being overwhelmed.

  That made his selection easy. When Dallas retrieved the items and turned back to the bed, Lex was kneeling near the end of it, facing him.

  Waiting.

  God, she was striking. Beautiful, from her disheveled hair straight down to her perfect toes. Sleek, but not soft. She had the strength of a dancer, toned muscles under dangerous curves, and sometimes it was hard not to just stare at her.

  But staring wasn't enough tonight. He dropped the toys to the bed and traced the luscious line of her thigh before curling his fingers to cup her pussy. "Ready to get back to that talk about the things that belong to me, love?"

  Her head fell back, and she clutched his arms with trembling hands. "Yes."

  He delved between her outer lips and bit back a groan at how wet she was. Wet and hot, even more so when he thrust his finger deep inside her. Not only for the pleasure of hearing her moan, but for the satisfaction of feeling her muscles clench with arousal when he lifted his other hand to lightly slap her face again. "Open your knees, Lexie. Keep 'em spread wide, so I can play with this pussy however I want."

  She shifted on the bed, her knees parting, hips tilting toward his touch. So obedient, so eager, and the naked trust in her eyes was as delicious as the way she squirmed, like she couldn't not ride his hand.

  Edging closer, Dallas dragged her head back, forcing her to stare up into his eyes as he fucked her lazily with that one finger. "Good girl. You do everything I tell you, and I'll let you decide where I fuck you. And how hard."

  Her eyes flashed, dark and hungry. "Surprise me," she rasped.

  Possessive heat skated under his skin. This was the part of her he never wanted to share. The others could line up and beg for the privilege of pleasuring their queen, as long as no one else saw Alexa, stripped bare and willing to do anything to please him.

  His secret pleasure. His gift. And goddamn, was he ready to play with her.

  He didn't bother with orders, not when they'd both get off on the alternative. Locking rough hands around her waist, he lifted her bodily and flipped her, sprawling her face down across the mattress as he smacked her ass. "Up on your knees."

  Her hands clenched in the bedspread, but she arched her back and obeyed.

  Anticipation wouldn't hurt her, so he stayed silent as he retrieved the heavy silver plug. It was wicked, blunt at the tip and sharply flared, with a green jewel flashing from the flat, circular base. Not the sort of adornment you tried with someone inexperienced, but the complete set with their differently colored gems were among Lex's favorite toys.

  He took his time with the lube, slicking it over the cool silver before spilling it onto Lex's ass without a word of warning. She hissed in a breath and wiggled under the stream of clear, viscous liquid.

  "You know what's coming, don't you?" He massaged the lube into her ass with one hand while he used the other to tease the plug between her pussy lips to rub against her clit.

  "Mm-hmm." A lazy answer, at odds with the way her legs trembled.

  He could get her off like this, but it would be quick and fleeting, the kind of pleasure that melted through you and vanished, forgotten. This wasn't any other night. This was the night she'd agreed to take his ink, to belong to him.

  Patience would reward them both. At least, that's how he justified it to his aching cock when he placed the tip of the plug against her ass and watched her shudder as the slight pressure stimulated all those tiny nerves. "Hands back here," he ordered, his voice hoarsely menacing even to his own ears. "Hold yourself open so I can watch your greedy little ass take anything I put in it."

  She slid her hands over her thighs, slowly stroking her way up to the swell of her ass. Her nails dug into her skin as she spread her cheeks and pushed back toward the plug in his hand.

  Eager. She was always so damn eager, but it had never shredded his self-control like this. The possessiveness throbbing in his veins was barely human. He wanted to rasp darker words. Cruder words, just to see how far she'd let him go, how completely she'd play this game.

  All the way. He knew the answer even as he pushed the plug deeper. Her tight little asshole tensed at the invasion, but he soothed it by working the toy in a careful circle, gently stretching her as his other hand centered on her clit. "Are you scared of me?"

  She turned her head, her brow furrowed, and pressed her cheek to the bed. "Not even close, honey."

  He worked his fingers faster, dragging a moan from her as her ass finally yielded to the mix of pleasure and pressure. The plug slipped in, and the jewel nestled tight between her ass cheeks. He couldn't stop himself from slapping her hip just to watch her clench. "You're never afraid of me. No matter how much I demand from you. No matter how crazy I get."

  Her gaze locked with his as a shudder took her. "I'll always want more of you, Declan."

  His final prize from the cabinet lay a few feet from her knee, and he caught the end loop with one finger and lifted it to dangle in front of her. Three smooth, silver balls dangled from the thin silicone casin
g that connected them, each swaying in odd counterpoint to the smaller round weight trapped inside.

  They were large enough that two would have teased her plenty, even without the plug, and she knew it. So he let them dangle there as he stroked her clit too lightly to do anything but keep her on edge. "I want you to take all three of them."

  Lex groaned, long and low. "Please."

  "That's my girl." He gave her clit one final slap, unable to resist the sound she made or the way her hips jerked. She was so wet he probably didn't need more lube, but he used it anyway before pushing the first ball into her pussy. Dark satisfaction filled him as he watched her body take it, as he watched her writhe and listened to her moan. As he gently pushed the second into place.

  He could do anything to her, anything, and she'd let him. Maybe even love it, as long as it got him off. It was ridiculous. It was humbling.

  It was the hottest fucking realization of his life.

  He stroked her trembling thighs and slid the final ball into place, pushing it deep with one finger and shuddering as she cried out. "My dirty, perfect girl. So good."

  She shifted her hips, just a little, and stopped short with a strangled cry. "Fuck."

  "That's the idea, love." He gave her one last soothing stroke and circled the bed to stand opposite her. A vast expanse of mattress separated them, at least five feet, but it gave him a lovely view of her flushed face and wild hair and her ass still in the air.

  Beautiful. Beautiful, and his. Wetting his lips, he finally gave himself permission to curl a hand around his aching cock and stroke it. "Tell me how you feel."

  She watched his hand, her own tongue darting out to lick her lower lip, as if she could taste him already. "I feel full," she whispered as she started across the space between them on her hands and knees. "Every time I move, something shifts inside me. Like when Jas and Noelle were fucking me with their fingers."

  "You liked that, did you? Are you the one putting all those ideas in her head?" He licked his palm and gripped his shaft again, already imagining himself between Lex's lips. Soon, so soon. "Jasper fucking your pussy and me taking your ass? Or was it the other way around?"