Before the End (Beyond Series Ultimate Glom Edition)

by Kit Rocha

  It took her a second to make sense of the words, even though every flex of his hips bumped the end of the metal barbell into her clit, sending electric shocks rocketing through her. "Uh-huh," she managed. "Wanna see?"

  He laughed, low and hot, and thrust against her with a slow, circular grind that left her gritting her teeth to hold back a cry. "Later. I'll get my tongue all over it."

  "Tease." His eyes were so blue, deeper than the sky but not as dark as ink. She'd never seen the ocean, but maybe it was like this, like tumbling down until all you could feel was--

  Holding on to his shoulders didn't give her enough leverage. She dropped her hands to the small of his back, to the swell of his ass, and swiveled her hips. Pleasure splintered through her at the directness of the contact, at the way he groaned encouragement and watched her face as if he'd never seen anything more perfect.

  "Just like that," he whispered hoarsely, mirroring her movement with perfect precision. "Show me what gets you off."

  Just like that. The words echoed in the buzz in her ears. His voice, rasping and hungry. Sunshine. Her pulse throbbed, hot and low, as she rocked her clit against his cock. Show me.

  She never came this fast, even with her piercing. But having Noah hard against her--starving but so focused on her, rough but so fucking careful--drove her over the edge. The twisting tension crashed in on her, dragging a cry from her throat and curling her toes as she rode her orgasm.

  He cupped her face as she stilled, his thumbs rubbing back and forth along her cheek with a gentleness that softened the harsh need in his eyes. "I want to fuck you so damn hard."

  The combination of tenderness and lust undid her. Deep. Now. She pushed at his shoulders, lifted her body, and angled her hips until the head of his cock nudged between her pussy lips. "Take it, Noah." The strangled plea sounded far away, like it hadn't come from her lips. "Fucking take it."

  One strong hand curled beneath her knee, shoving her thighs wide. "Is that what you need? Hard?"

  She needed to know he was real, not some leftover remnant of childish fantasy. That he was with her. "I need you."

  He gripped his cock, the muscles in his arms tense and trembling. He stroked the crown between her pussy lips and up, slicking it over her clit, bumping against her piercing. "How? Say it."

  Emma grasped the bedspread. "Fast," she whispered, pinned in place by his fierce gaze. "I want you to ride me, and I want it rough."

  Noah positioned his cock and drove forward with one desperate thrust. He was even bigger than he looked, thick and so damn hard, pressing into her, stretching her. He didn't just fill her--he invaded her, marking her as his from the inside out. But it felt as much like submission as it did dominance, like he was giving in to the fire between them. Like he knew her pleasure was incomplete without his.

  Breathtaking. She'd heard the word, used it, but never felt it as viscerally as this.

  And then he was over her, hands planted on either side of her head as he thrust again, hard enough to make the sound of their hips slapping together audible in spite of his satisfied groan. "Do you have any fucking idea how good you feel?"

  "No." The word spilled out on a moan as her brain scrambled to catch up with the ready heat flooding her body.

  His voice lowered to a rasp as he rolled into her again, driving deep. "Do you want me to tell you? Do you like dirty words as much as you like hard fucking?"

  She barely managed a pleading whimper. She didn't usually give a damn about words, dirty or not, but the way Noah wrapped his voice around every filthy syllable left her clenching in anticipation.

  And that was the first word he whispered, wreathing it in fervent approval. "Clenching. Soft. Slick, because you already came all over me."

  "Noah." When she lifted her legs higher, gripping his sides, the head of his cock hit her G-spot with his next thrust, and her whimpers gave way to begging. "I need it fast, please--"

  He hooked one hand under her knee, forcing her calf up to his shoulder as he quickened his pace. Noah had always been smart, but now she could see the calculation in his eyes as he made minute adjustments in their positions until he was riding hard right on the spot she needed.

  Her lungs burned, but oxygen had never been so unimportant. All that mattered was his dick, the unrelenting, slamming thrusts--and the way he whispered her name, almost as if he didn't even know he was doing it. As if his breath itself carried her.

  That tantalizing danger lurking beneath the surface broke free. It wasn't just in his eyes anymore. His face twisted into an expression of naked hunger, jaw clenched, brow furrowed. His body loomed large above hers, muscles bunching and flexing with his unrelenting rhythm. The smiling, gentle man she'd known was gone, swept away by this dangerous stranger who fucked her like he wanted to turn her world inside-out.

  Like he wanted to own her.

  Emma bit back a shriek as the mounting pleasure crested, sudden and inescapable. Gripping the covers wasn't enough to keep her from spinning away, so she grabbed on to Noah. His skin burned, and it wreathed her in a satisfaction almost as visceral as the pounding, twisting bliss.

  That bliss melted into a different kind of need as he groaned wordless approval. The need to show him every moment of her orgasm, to reflect it back until it took him, too.

  She scratched him, her nails digging furrows into his sweat-slicked chest. "Come in me."

  His pace faltered as his eyes narrowed. "Say it again."

  "You heard me." She dragged her fingernails down his side, to his hipbone. "I want you to come inside me."

  "Dirty," he growled before pushing upright. He pinned her in place with one hand on her thigh and splayed the other across her belly with his thumb hovering just above her clit. That was all the time she had to prepare before he slammed forward, wilder than before. No more carefully calculated thrusts chasing her pleasure. He was riding her, driving into her, chasing his own and demanding she get off on it.

  He nudged her piercing, a quick flick that ricocheted through her like a shot. He held her trapped, at his mercy, and Christ, she could get addicted to this.

  She couldn't get closer, and she couldn't get away, so Emma closed her eyes and let go, let him drive her higher, until the shuddering passion felt like part of her and Noah, like something that would never stop.

  His fingers bit into skin as he came, a delicious slice of pain bursting through the ecstasy, and he clutched her long after his desperate rhythm stilled.

  Emma lay there, frozen, as if the slightest movement could shatter the moment. She whispered his name instead, and he stretched out over her, his weight pushing her into the mattress as he caught her mouth in a lazy kiss.

  She pushed at his shoulders. He rolled over, taking her with him, never breaking the kiss. So Emma finally did, resting her forehead against his with a sigh.

  Noah gathered her disheveled hair with gentle fingers and swept it away from their faces. "Hey."

  "Hey." A laugh bubbled up, and she let it. "Is this where things get awkward?"

  His lips twitched into a half-smile. "Only if you didn't like it."

  "I didn't like it." She brushed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "I loved it. I want to do it again."

  This time he laughed, running a hand down her spine to cup her ass. "Good. I made some mental notes for refining my technique."

  "I bet." Emma slid to the bed beside him and propped her head on her hand. "Don't you ever get tired of thinking?"

  He turned his head to study her, his brow furrowing. "No, the thinking isn't the problem. It's never having anything good to think about."

  "All the more reason to stay, isn't it?" He could ease up on his obsession with Mac Fleming, replace some of those violent thoughts with more pleasant ones. "Cib wouldn't have wanted you to live like this."

  The line between his eyebrows deepened as his lips tugged into a frown. "Staying might not be as easy as you think. O'Kane wants my skills, but he may not like my baggage."

  "What, you
r vendetta against Fleming?" Emma sat up with a snort. "I doubt it'd bother Dallas. He hates him even more than you do."

  "Emma." His voice was serious, and so was his expression as he caught her arm and tugged her back down. He lifted himself on one elbow and framed her face with one hand, his thumb a firm pressure on her chin. "You need to take what I'm about to say seriously, okay? Promise me."

  She tried to look away, but he wouldn't let her. "I promise."

  "Mac Fleming wants me under his thumb or dead, whichever he can get." Noah closed his eyes. "I doubt he'll risk pissing off O'Kane by snatching a woman who wears his ink. That's the only reason I'm still here at all."

  She, of all people, knew what a deadly bastard Mac Fleming could be. Memories she'd tried to repress bubbled up in bits and pieces--low, tense arguments, fear, the scent of blood and terrible, terrible silence. Of all the things her older brother had fought so damn hard to shield her from, the reality of life in Sector Five topped the list. The reality of Mac Fleming.

  Her hand had started to shake, so she laid it on Noah's cheek. "He can't get to you here. And he doesn't know anything about you and me."

  His jaw clenched under her fingers. "He could figure out that you're Cib's little sister."

  She could barely think about her brother without pain, especially alongside such a harsh reminder of his bloody fate. "What does he care? Whatever problems they had died with Cib."

  "He doesn't care, not about that," Noah said roughly. He opened his eyes, and they were dark again, almost blank. "But if he knows that, he'll know he can use you to get to me."

  No warmth now, nothing but that flat lack of emotion. Emma shivered. "I don't know why I feel like I should apologize to you. I haven't done a damn thing wrong, except maybe exist."

  "No, it's not--" He groaned and rolled away, covering his face with one hand. "It's not about me. You haven't done anything wrong, which is why I don't want you paying for my sins. Or Cib's."

  "Then what do you want from me?"

  "I want you to be safe. Happy."

  And, as far as he was concerned, neither of those things could include him.

  Emma reached for her robe and shrugged into it. "I'm both. You don't have to worry about me, Noah."

  He moved fast, coming to his feet and catching her around the waist. Her back slammed against his chest, which felt as hard and unyielding as a brick wall as he lifted one hand to curl around her throat. "Don't do that. Don't make the mistake of calling what's inside me worry. Good men worry. Men like me take care of the problem."

  Her breath seized in her lungs, and Emma reminded herself that Noah Lennox would never hurt her. Then again, he would never put his hand around her throat, or fuck her like he couldn't stay out of her for one more heartbeat before losing his mind.

  What she knew of Noah Lennox didn't seem to be true anymore, and all bets were off.

  She took a slow, deep breath. "You take care of it like you plan on taking care of Fleming?"

  "Or like I took care of Clara Danforth."

  Emma turned her head as far as possible, and she could still barely see his face out of the corner of her eye. "What did you do to her?"

  His breath fell hot against her cheek. "Special Tasks made her disappear tonight. She'll be lost in an Eden holding cell while they try to figure out how she managed to run a credit counterfeiting operation out of her store."

  Clara was a hard woman, mercenary. She'd never had a kind word for Emma, but she'd never raised an angry hand to her, either. "Why?"

  "Because she lied to me." Noah gripped her chin and tilted her head back until she could see his brutal, furious expression. "I paid for you and some bastard who probably never existed to start a new life in the mountains. You were supposed to be gone, and the whole fucking time you were right here where Fleming could have laid hands on you, could have hurt you, and I never would have known. Not until he wanted me to."

  Emma's stomach churned. There was too much information in the words--Noah had cared enough to keep tabs on her, to watch out for her, to pay for her way out of hell. But it was the unspoken meaning lurking below it all that tore at her heart.

  He said because she lied, but what he really meant was because she gave me hope.

  "I'm sorry," Emma rasped. "Stealing is reason enough, but that-- I'm sorry."

  He shuddered. "Don't. Don't understand. I ruined a woman's life."

  But Emma's own anger built until it spilled over into hot tears. "It's not the money. What did she do, make shit up? She lied to you, and she never once told me that you gave a damn. Not even when I left."

  He spun her around with a tortured noise, dragging her into his arms with her head tucked under his chin. "I sent her money every month. For room and board, extra for art supplies. I wouldn't have left you there at all, but Fleming was after me. Fuck, he still is."

  "Then it's my turn." He'd left a helpless child, a woman who couldn't protect herself. That wasn't who she was anymore. "Stay. If he comes at you, we'll show him what happens when he crosses the line with an O'Kane."

  Noah exhaled, his body tense and rigid against hers. "It's more complicated than that. Fleming isn't just another thug. He could call a meeting of the sector heads and demand Dallas hand me over. And that'd be bad."

  "Dallas wouldn't do it. Not only for my sake, but because he wants you here."

  "Of course he does," Noah said dryly, his hands fisting on her back. "Everyone wants what I can do. But if Fleming can't have me, he'll make sure no one can."

  She arched an eyebrow. "Over my dead body."

  A growl rumbled through his chest and left his lips on a snarl as he forced her head back. "Don't you fucking joke about that."

  Her eyes locked with his, and it wasn't until that moment that she realized the truth--it hadn't been a joke, not entirely. "Nothing's going to happen to me."

  "No." He backed her toward the wall, letting her thump against it gently before sliding down her body. Even on his knees he looked fierce, his hands pressed to the wall on either side of her hips, strong arms penning her in place. "Nothing's going to happen to you. Not tonight, and not ever."

  Her knees went weak. "You won't let it."

  "No." His gaze swept up her body to burn into her. "Nothing bad. If you want something good to happen, you have to ask for it."

  "Like if I want you to stay?" She nudged his side with her foot. "Not here in Sector Four. In my room, just for tonight."

  "Is that all you want?" He caught her ankle and guided her foot back to the floor before letting his fingers glide up the back of her leg. "Because I was thinking about a few other ways I could show you what sort of man I am."

  "What are you gonna do--throw me over the bed? Fuck me in the ass?" She shifted against the wall, rubbing her leg against his hand. "Tie me up?"

  "Probably all three at once." His hand reached the back of her knee, and he folded his fingers on her inner thigh and tugged, forcing her legs apart. "But not yet. Hold yourself open for me."

  "The girls in Five said you were rude as hell." She parted her pussy lips, teased the top end of the metal barbell she wore with her middle finger, and bit her lip when he growled approval and licked her fingertip.

  "Emmaline Cibulski," he murmured, gazing up at her. "Were you asking them about me, or listening to the gossip?"

  "I wanted to know." What he liked, what he did. Whether he'd ever do it to her.

  He gripped her thigh to hold her in place and leaned closer. "What did you find out?"

  Emma had to try twice just to get the words past her lips. "That you don't do anything halfway. That if a woman says yes to you, she'd better mean it. And that saying yes is worth it." As open and revealed as she was, it was easy to take it farther. All the way. "That's what the nicer girls said. The not-so-nice ones liked to make fun of me."

  He made a low, angry sound that vibrated against her. "You should have told me."

  The need to comfort him trumped everything else, so she slid to her k
nees in front of him and cupped his face. "I couldn't tell you then, and it doesn't matter now. Those things don't hurt me anymore."

  Still frowning, he studied her face for a tense moment before lifting his hands to hers. "I never wanted you to hurt at all. You were always the bright spot in my world."

  Four years. She'd spent four years in pain, and all because she'd never heard these words. But trusting them now--so damn wild, and so damn fast...

  Emma shook her head. "It's late, and you're spun. You need sleep."

  He smiled again, that warm, soft smile that had been hers alone. "Still bossing me around, huh?"

  Her stomach fluttered. "Someone has to take care of you."

  "Is that not what I've been doing?"

  She couldn't even lie, not with the image of his flat, hopeless expression so fresh in her mind. "Not just surviving, Noah. Everything else."

  An amused noise escaped him, something torn between a snort and a laugh. "You know how crazy that sounds? In most of the other sectors, survival's as good as it gets. Hard to imagine something more."

  Her own lips tugged up in response, so the kiss she brushed over the corner of his mouth was more like a smile. "Welcome to Sector Four."

  Chapter Three

  He knew it was a nightmare, because he'd relived it a hundred times.

  That didn't make it any easier to wake up.

  Cib's hands were shaking. Noah watched him try to light his cigarette, the flame always jerking away from the tip at the last second. He finally managed it, then sat back to run those same trembling fingers through his dark, spiky hair. "Matty says Fleming's got extra shipments this month. Sector runs."

  "Fuck, Cib. Sector runs are dangerous." The words tumbled out of his mouth--not the ones he'd said that night, but close enough. He'd muttered a hundred variations, and it always ended the same way.

  Wake up, Lennox. Wake up.

  "But they pay." Cib hopped off the crate and started to pace the width of the alley, kicking trash out of his path. "I need something big, man, or I'm never gonna get my sister out of this shithole."