Before the End (Beyond Series Ultimate Glom Edition)

by Kit Rocha

  Dallas stared down at her, his eyes intent. "That an observation or a request?"

  The cool, easy words flew right the hell out of her head. "Please."

  He moved so fast her head spun. One second she was on her knees, the next he had her up and moving. Three stumbling steps back with him looming over her, only to spin her when her ass bumped the worktable.

  His slick shaft jutted against the small of her back. The wooden bench pressed against her hips, just the right height to bend over. But instead of pushing her forward, he curled his fingers in the remains of her tank top and jerked at it. "Arms up."

  Anticipation raised goose bumps on her skin, but Lex didn't move.

  Growling, Dallas kicked her feet apart. She swayed, and he used her momentary distraction to haul the front of the shirt up and over her head, dragging it to tangle around her upper arms behind her back.

  "You can be bad." The words didn't quite cover the sound of leather rasping against denim. His belt sliding free of its loops, one at a time. "You can fight. You know what it'll get you?"

  She couldn't hold back her moan. "No, what?"

  "Fucked harder." He planted a hand between her shoulder blades and shoved her down until her only option was to turn her head and rest her cheek on the scuffed wooden table.

  Just like that, every ounce of her attention was riveted to the sweet pressure of his hand, and how much she could push against it before he eased up. Gave up. She struggled carefully, unwilling to risk losing the heat of him at her back and the rough bite of the bench beneath her.

  He laughed and dropped his belt across her lower back, the leather a dangerous threat--or promise. "Is that the best you've got?"

  She jerked hard, panting when his splayed hand shoved her closer to the table. "Oh, Jesus." The words escaped her in a hoarse, pleading rasp.

  "Not quite," he murmured, sliding his hand up over her shoulder and around her throat. He dragged her upright, her arms trapped between them, and wrenched open her jeans. "But you can pray to me for mercy, if you want."

  Lex arched her hips. "You're a tease."

  He responded by shoving his hand into her panties, his fingers slicking over her pussy. "And you're wet. I bet I can get you wetter."

  She started to respond, but the hand around her throat began to tighten. At the same time, he grazed her clit with a rough enough touch to send pleasure rippling up her spine.

  "Oh, yeah." He whispered the words against her ear as his fingers found a quick, unforgiving rhythm, blunt fingertips slicking back and forth until blood pounded in her ears and her vision blurred. "Such a hot, wet pussy. If I weren't such a tease, I'd already be fucking it."

  "Dallas--" Lex barely managed to rasp his name before his rhythm quickened. She rocked as much as she could, and it was almost enough.

  Almost.

  "Declan," he corrected, easing his grip so that she could speak. "Say it. Say it while you're coming."

  "De--" Her hips jolted in a shudder that spread through the rest of her along with a blaze of heat that melted her. "Fuck, Declan!"

  "Shh," he soothed, keeping her on edge with another clever twist of his fingers. "Sweet, sweet Alexa. My Alexa. Do you trust me?"

  A current of fear flowed beneath the words. Lex longed to hold him, but she was trapped against his chest. All she could do was turn her head with a shaky sigh. "I trust you." She rubbed her cheek against his chin. "I love you."

  He caught her mouth in one quick, tender kiss, then sharpened it by biting her lower lip with a groan. "Want me to stop teasing?"

  More than anything. More than life. "I need it."

  One more taunting stroke before his touch vanished, and she was bent over the table again. She stretched her arms against her bonds as he hooked his fingers in the waistband of her jeans and panties and hauled both down just far enough to bare her ass. He didn't give her time to savor the anticipation or even think before the broad head of his cock pressed against and then inside her.

  No teasing. No mercy. With one hand forcing her to the table and the other bracing her hips, he pushed into her in one raw advance. He felt huge, bigger with her jeans trapping her legs together, and he filled her one relentless inch at a time.

  Lex's head spun, all thoughts of struggling to regain control of the situation gone. He'd take what he wanted--and in return give her everything she never knew existed.

  As if he sensed her submission, his fingers drifted up to smooth through her hair. He withdrew a few inches before rocking back, pushing deeper and a little harder. "Does it scare you, love? Knowing you're stuck with me?" His hand tightened suddenly, hauling her head back. "Does it scare you to know I'd burn it all to the ground if that'd make you happy?"

  Pleasure clashed with satisfaction. "Hell, no." Nothing less would be enough.

  He thrust harder, angling to hit all the right spots. "It should. I couldn't let you go. I knew I had to, and I couldn't. I'll be any man you want. A king or a beggar or a farmer or a killer. But I'll never be the man who can let you walk away."

  It hurt where he pulled her hair, painful tingles that shimmered down her spine and melted until her body clutched greedily at his cock. "No more leaving," she gasped, a promise and a warning.

  And because he was Dallas, because he knew her, he understood both. "What'll you do instead?"

  "Make you pay," she growled. "Make you mine all over again."

  Groaning, he slapped a hand on the table and bent low enough to speak in her ear. "Your threats get me so fucking hot."

  The angle shifted his thrusts to a subdued grind, and Lex smacked her head back against his shoulder. "Sharp edges, remember?"

  "Uh-huh." Every thrust was a little rougher, a little quicker, as if his self-control was fraying at the edges for all the lazy drawl of his words. His body told the truth--the hardness in his tensed muscles, the growing urgency every time his cock plunged into her.

  He reached for the knife as he straightened. The tangle of her shirt around her upper arms loosened and fell away, and he jammed the blade back into the table in front of her. Catching her hand, he guided it to curl around the hilt. "If you let go, I'll stop."

  "Kinky bastard." She gripped the knife with one hand and the edge of the worktable with the other.

  Dark laughter spilled over her as he slapped her ass. "It's not kinky until I tell you to stab me," he corrected.

  Before she could respond, he clutched her hips and drove into her so hard that she pitched forward into the table. She bit her tongue, but the pain vanished in an instant, consumed by the fire sparked by his next thrust.

  Deep and unforgiving, the kind of merciless fucking she'd had to coax out of him before. Rough grunts punctuated each thrust, along with the slick sound of his cock slamming into her, their bodies slapping together.

  It should have been selfish, Dallas using her body, wrenching his pleasure from it too fast and hard to give her any in return, but his hands held her hips at that desperate angle, and the sparks multiplied, turned to fire.

  He cracked one open palm against her hip. "Is this what you wanted?"

  Yes. The word didn't come, but she did. The knife wrenched free and clattered to the wood, but Lex couldn't help it. Her entire body shook, trembled on the edge of something more, so she pressed her forehead to the table and whispered his name.

  "Christ," he groaned, dragging her back to meet his cock. "I love fucking your pussy while you're coming. So fucking tight and hot."

  She swept one arm out, desperate for something to hold on to, and the knife skittered away and flipped onto the floor. "Don't stop--"

  "Never," he promised, riding her faster. "I'll never stop fucking you. Never stop needing you. Loving you."

  Something crashed off the pegboard above the table, and the impact vibrated through the wood, up through her body. In the midst of a storm of ecstasy, that small, quiet sensation centered her.

  Never stop.

  Dallas had always known how to get her off, but this was
different. Having him with her--and knowing she always would--tripped something primal deep in her brain. Every nerve ending lit up, and she tensed again with a mounting pleasure that went on and on, tighter and tighter as his movements grew less and less controlled.

  A rumbling noise started in his chest, twisting feral possession with satisfaction, and gave way to a string of snarled encouragements, words bitten off between fast jerks of his hips. Things like fuck yeah and so good, commands that stroked inside her. "Take me," he growled, barely audible over the rattle of the table and the blood pounding in her ears. "Love it. Tell me you love this."

  "I love--" Something snapped, just fucking snapped, and her brain locked down. The waves turned to bolts, lightning strikes that curled her toes and left her gasping for enough breath to scream.

  He did it for her, a wordless shout of triumph as he rode her clenching pussy to his own orgasm. He slammed home a final time before freezing there, his body locked within hers, his forehead dropping to rest between her shoulder blades.

  He panted, his skin slicking over hers with every breath. Lex tried to lift a hand to his hair, but her limbs felt too heavy. So she licked her lips and shivered beneath him.

  Lips brushed her nape, a soft kiss through her hair. "You all right, love?"

  "I can't move."

  "Me neither." But he did anyway, levering himself up before easing his cock from her body with a soft hiss. His hands were gentle as he eased her panties and jeans back into place, relentless possession in every touch.

  He turned her, lifted her onto the table, and grabbed her arm with a curse. "Shit, you're bleeding."

  There was a shallow, harmless gash running along the outside of her forearm. Lex stared at it and laughed. "I don't even feel it."

  Dallas still frowned, sparing only a few seconds to straighten his pants before ordering, "Stay here."

  He stomped out of the easy circle of light only to return with a small med kit. He fussed over her arm, applying med-gel and frowning even harder when she winced at the contact.

  Lex watched him, rapt. "I was willing to stay and be her, you know. The queen. For you and the gang. That's what I had decided tonight."

  Dallas froze in the act of opening a bandage, his gaze suddenly wary. "And now?"

  She touched his face, every last shred of doubt gone. "I still want to be her for everyone else. For you, it's different. I can be all of me."

  He fixed the bandage in place before catching her hand and turning to kiss her palm. "Christ knows I'm not going to stop being dumb, Lex. And I'll always want power. To keep us safe, and because it's who I am. But I'll come to you first, and be honest about it. Because I'll always choose you. Over power, over money, over everyone and everything. You just have to believe it, okay?"

  "I do." Part of her always had--the part that had held her back from seeking more of Dallas's attention over the years. It was safer, in a way, to flirt with that devotion rather than submit herself to it...and then have it snatched away. "I need to come first. Well, me and the gang."

  "Hey." He caught her chin. "Everyone and everything. Get it straight in your head, woman, 'cause it's too late to back out."

  "Stubborn ass."

  "Whose stubborn ass?"

  Lex wrapped her arms around him, relishing the heat of his bare skin against hers. "All mine."

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Ace had always had a hard-on for symbolism and subtext.

  With the bulk of Lex's hair wrapped around his fist to keep it out of the way, Dallas watched Ace lay the final lines on Lex's new marks. His own throat and shoulders still stung with the reminder that he'd gone first, and the knowledge that they'd soon be a matched pair pleased the darkest, most possessive urges Dallas had.

  Or maybe it was just seeing his name--his given name, his real one--curled across the nape of her neck in stark black ink, a private claim no one could refute. Ace had risen to the challenge of marking his king and queen, crowning an elegantly understated version of the O'Kane logo. Dallas's was set in bloody barbed wire and Lex's in thorny rosebuds, but both faux-collars ended the same way--with the name of the person who held them together.

  Knowing ALEXA stretched across the back of his neck was almost as satisfying as watching DECLAN take shape across hers. Ace might be a cocky pain in the ass, but sometimes Dallas was reminded how much the bastard deserved that attitude.

  Ace swiped a hand across the back of Lex's neck and patted her shoulder. "Almost done. You hanging in there, sister?"

  "It doesn't tickle," she murmured, "but I'll make it."

  Dallas shifted his grip on her hair and bent down to meet her gaze. "It looks fucking fantastic. And hot."

  The corner of her mouth kicked up in a smile. "You'd better think it's hot. That's my skin he's marking up."

  With the way she was bent forward over the chair, he could have stood up and given her an eyeful of just how hot he found it. Not that a blowjob was his top fantasy right now, as sexy as Lex could make it. He wanted to stare at that ink as he rode her, every thrust made sweeter by the promise staring back at him, the one that said forever.

  "Uh-uh," Ace said loudly enough to interrupt his fantasy. "I recognize that look. I'm glad as hell you two aren't fighting anymore, but no getting frisky while my needle's near someone's neck."

  With a laugh, Lex reached out and wrapped her fingers around Dallas's. "I recognize that look, too. And he has a point."

  Dallas spared Ace a glare and turned his attention on Lex. "No sex," he agreed before lifting her hand to his lips. He kissed one fingertip, then sucked it between his lips to flick his tongue over it in the most suggestive way he could manage.

  Her laughter died, and she released a shaky breath. "Have it your way, but it's on you if Ace fucks up my ink because you had me squirming."

  "Christ, you're worse than Jas and Noelle," Ace muttered, swiping a cloth over the back of Lex's neck. "Thank God I'm done. Let me slap some gel on there, and you crazy kids can go fuck each other silly."

  Ignoring him, Dallas crouched down to bring his gaze level with Lex's. "Hi, darling."

  "Hi." She grinned. "Isn't it cute how he seems to think we're going to clear out of here before we get dirty?"

  "Oh, I don't think he'll mind until he realizes he does have to clear out."

  Ace's head popped around the side of Lex's body. "Wait, what? You're gonna screw in my studio, and I don't even get to watch?"

  Dallas cupped Lex's cheek. He'd come so close to losing everything, but because of her strength and her heart and her willingness to trust again, he'd never have to face the world alone. "Our studio," he corrected absently, smiling as he rubbed his thumb over Lex's lower lip. "Isn't that right, love?"

  "Ours," she whispered, leaning into his touch.

  Nothing in a life of scrabbling for power had prepared him for how good it felt to watch her lips form that word, one simple sound that erased a future of lonely decisions and replaced it with companionship and shared responsibility.

  Ours.

  "Damn right," he confirmed, and sealed the bargain with a kiss.

  Beyond Denial

  Caution: this story is not meant to stand alone. The Beyond Happily Ever After stories are vignettes and outtakes showing the O'Kanes in their daily lives, in between the adventures and often after their happy endings. These stories were written exclusively for readers and fans of the series, and will probably not make very much sense to anyone not familiar with the characters. The stories are also available for free at kitrocha.com.

  This is a "behind the scenes" vignette set during Beyond Control. It features Ace and his friend Jared stealing a moment together on a rooftop for some very illicit stress-relief--a moment observed by a very flustered Rachel. It was originally written in 2012 as a bribe/reward during the DABWAHA contest. While it's been available on kitrocha.com all this time, this is the first time it's been available as an ebook!

  Length: 3,000 words

  Characters: Jared, Ac
e, Rachel

  Timeline: Set during the party Dallas and Lex throw to impress the new recruits from Sector Three.

  References: Jared and Ace talk about this moment during Beyond Innocence.

  Beyond Denial

  It was an O'Kane party all right, from top to bottom, and Ace should have been having the time of his life.

  Jared pushed a drink into his hand with a sigh. “Are you going to tell me what's wrong, or shall I guess at it? Twenty questions to figure out why you're brooding?”

  Of course it was beer. Ace scowled at the cup for a moment before giving in and taking a sip. Rachel's homebrew always went down smooth and delicious, and inevitably led him to wonder if she'd go down the same way. The last thing he needed right now was the mental image of her with those sweet lips anywhere near his dick.

  Chances were good she'd bite it off if he gave her half a chance.

  “All right, then.” Jared finished his own drink and shrugged. “Looks like I'll have to ask around until I stumble across someone in the know.”

  The bastard would too, which meant Ace had to shake it off. Tonight wasn't a night for O'Kane vulnerabilities, not with a handful of jackasses from Sector Three measuring everyone with their eyes.

  So what if Rachel had damn near broken her ankle trying to escape Ace earlier that day? She was skittish. That wasn't news.

  Not unless Jared made it news. “Lay off, man,” he muttered, tearing his gaze from the table where Dallas had his head together with the men from Three. “I just don't like having them so close to the ladies. Men from their sector don't have your pretty manners. Fuck, they don't even have my pretty manners.”

  “Do you think they'll make the cut?”

  Ace finished his beer and turned to face Jared. “Not if they keep pissing off Lex. O'Kane has to close his eyes sometime.”

  The corner of Jared's mouth ticked up. “She didn't seem terribly impressed, not that she let on in so many words.” Then he shrugged. “It is what it is.”