Before the End (Beyond Series Ultimate Glom Edition)

by Kit Rocha

  "You angling to mark me, angel?"

  "It'd be fair," Cruz replied, tossing a bottle to the bed. Oil slicked his palm, and he curled his fingers around Ace's shaft. "You've marked both of us."

  "Fucking hell, man." Ace tilted his head back and arched, thrusting against Cruz's hand. "Fuck."

  Witnessing this sort of unbridled sexuality could be addictive. Riveted, Rachel stared at him before leaning in to graze his nipple with her teeth. Then she stretched up, put her mouth right beside his ear, and sighed. "Is it this sexy, watching me get off?"

  Ace parted his lips, but a groan spilled out as Cruz sped his strokes and answered for him. "Every damn time."

  Her body was too spent to ignite into arousal again, but that didn't stop her heart from pounding or her hands from shaking as she clenched her fingers in Ace's hair and pulled. "I like it."

  "Of course you do," he choked out, clutching at the back of her head. "My dick's fucking mesmerizing."

  "No lie." Hard and thick, jerking in Cruz's hand. Rachel reached down to help, marveling at the contrast of hot and even hotter skin, slick and unyielding. "Come on me. I want you to."

  And he did, spilling across their fingers with a moan, the only sound until Cruz shifted their fingers to rest on Ace's trembling abdomen. "Too bad we won't all fit in my tub."

  "We will if we stand up." Giddy, Rachel laughed. "If we can stand up."

  "Fuck it," Ace groaned. "Kick the blankets onto the floor and we'll sleep under the sheets. My mesmerizing dick and fine-as-fuck ass aren't moving."

  "Until the next time you get excited?"

  Ace rolled over, trapping her against Cruz's chest. "Bite your tongue, woman. I earned at least an hour of sleep."

  Cruz wrapped an arm around both of them, and Rachel's heart skipped a beat. Together, the three of them filled the bed, with no room between them for things like doubt, no time to second-guess what had happened. Maybe that would come later, when the afterglow had faded and sense returned.

  Or maybe, just maybe, they fit together so perfectly there would never be room for regret between them at all.

  Scarlet

  If only the bastard wasn't so damn hot.

  Scarlet brooded into her fourth drink--vodka, neat--and watched Jade smile up at Dylan Jordan. What she had to smile about was anyone's guess, not to mention a mystery. Every time Scarlet herself had spoken to the man everyone called Doc, she'd come away irritable. Hot under the collar, in more ways than one.

  Doctor. Back in Sector Three, there was no such thing, not really. People assumed the title, of course. Some were even good at healing, provided they'd apprenticed with someone skilled in folk medicine. Other, more affluent sectors had real doctors, older men and women who'd trained for years in the formal schools that had existed before the Flare.

  And then there was Eden. Rumor had it Dylan Jordan had learned his trade in one of the city's state-of-the-art facilities. Exiled since then, no doubt, but that didn't change facts. He wasn't some back-alley job with a bag full of drugs smuggled out of Sector Five. He was the real deal.

  And a real asshole. Scarlet's stomach flipped over as Jade leaned closer to him, her smile widening. Whatever knowledge and skills Doc possessed were practically buried beneath a drug-fueled haze. He spent half his time high and the other half doing suicidal shit that would get him killed sooner rather than later.

  Scarlet would be damned if she let him take Jade with him when he went down.

  A drink thudded next to hers, liquor sloshing over the edge of the glass as Adrian Maddox leaned against the bar beside her. "When did that start?" he asked, jerking his head toward Jade and Doc. "He never sticks around to unwind after a visit."

  Scarlet shrugged. "Beats the shit out of me."

  Mad considered the pair for a few moments before shaking his head. "It's not going to happen. I don't care how pretty Jade's smiles are. Doc's not going to start smiling back."

  He sounded almost jealous--though of which one, Scarlet couldn't begin to guess. She nudged Mad with her hip and snorted. "You know better than to go there. Just like I do."

  He exhaled sharply, and it almost sounded like the start of a laugh. "Yeah, that's you and me, Scarlet. Smart."

  "Liar." Her gaze drifted back to the dance floor, where Doc had laid a hand on Jade's waist. "We're both stupid as hell."

  Mad's gaze followed hers, and she felt the sudden tension roll through him. "Stupid," he agreed. "But never selfish. You just met him. You don't know how good he was, how good he could be again. I tried to make him see it, but..."

  He sounded so damn sad, and the answering twinge in Scarlet's chest pissed her off more. "The man's a fucking burnout, Maddox. Everyone knows it."

  "Do they? Everyone knows you collect lovers, even though you're stone cold." He leaned closer, his voice dropping lower with every word. "Everyone knows you like the easily controlled, submissive ones. The ones you can play mind games with." He straightened abruptly. "And everyone in Sector One knows my grandfather performed miracles and I should bless their kids. Everyone knows shit."

  Adrian Maddox on a defensive tear was a sight to behold, all clenched jaw and fiery, dark eyes. Scarlet smiled and fished a cigarette out of his pocket. "Stop trying to convince me your boyfriend is a prince and give me a light, would you?"

  One thing was for sure, at least Mad could laugh at himself. He slid out his lighter, a nice, shiny silver one engraved with an intricate logo she didn't recognize. "I thought you knew, honey. I'm the prince."

  "You're something close." Scarlet lit her cigarette and turned the lighter over between her fingers. "Are you gonna break up the party on the dance floor, or should I?"

  Mad frowned and said nothing.

  "It's okay to want to, you know. Whatever your reasons."

  His frown deepened, and Scarlet knew what was coming. Anyone who'd known Mad more than five minutes would have. "If she can make him smile, I'm not about to get petty."

  "Saint Adrian." Scarlet slipped her cigarette between his lips and raised both eyebrows. "Maybe you should go bless some babies, after all. Me? I think I'll go get laid."

  She made it two steps before his laughter rolled over her, deep and warm, because Mad could be a stuffy martyr but he never took himself seriously for long. "Show me how it's done, Scarlet."

  "Yes, sir."

  Scarlet eased up behind Doc, running one finger up his back a heartbeat before dancing a hip-swinging circle around him to slide her arm around Jade.

  Jade wasn't stingy with her smiles. She laughed and turned her head, and Scarlet got the full force of one as Jade leaned back into her. "Am I not dancing with enough enthusiasm?"

  "You're doing fine, sweetheart. Doc's technique could use some work, though."

  The man smiled, easy and blurred around the edges, a perfect match to his red eyes and flushed skin. "Scarlet likes to tease me," he said, his tone lending a lascivious double meaning to the word.

  "I think she teases all of us." Jade eased closer. They were the same height, and the movement thrust her ass against Scarlet's hips. Gone was the fragile woman whose body had suffered through all the worst rigors of addiction. She was solid now, curves filling out more and more as the weeks passed.

  Scarlet wanted to touch her, so she did, drawing one hand slowly up Jade's thigh. "Sometimes it's not a tease," she mused. "It's a promise."

  Jade shivered under her fingers, turning her head just enough to whisper against Scarlet's cheek. "So which do you give him? The tease, or the promise?"

  "Who, Doc?" Scarlet rolled her hips, urging Jade to move with her. "Nah, he's a special case. The tease doesn't work, and he's not interested in the promise." She looked up, her eyes locking with his. "Right?"

  Tension had straightened his back, but that was the only sign anything she said affected him at all. His mouth curved into a lazy smile, and he shrugged. "You're not my type. No crime there."

  It stung. Not his type...because she didn't need him to save her. Scarlet bi
t her tongue. The words wouldn't touch him, but they could cut Jade to the bone, and she'd be damned to hell before she did that.

  Jade slid her hand over Scarlet's, twining their fingers together as their hips swayed in a slow, taunting mimicry of sex. "Maybe you haven't found the right promise," she murmured, turning them both in a lazy circle.

  Mad was watching.

  Only watching didn't cover it. He was fucking them with his eyes, his face shadowed with lust, and Scarlet's heart skipped a beat. The only thing keeping him from touching them was the space between them, and that could be gone in a few insistent strides.

  She'd assumed Mad was carrying some kind of torch for Doc, but the truth hit her in a rush.

  It was much, much more complicated.

  Chapter Seven

  The sound of water woke her.

  Rachel stretched and bumped into Ace, who grumbled an incoherent protest and threw his leg over hers, pinning her in place. "No wiggling."

  "Grump." She felt blindly at the empty expanse of bed behind her. "Cruz is in the shower?"

  "Mmm." He tossed an arm across her body, too, his skin warm against hers. "He probably has a meeting today."

  "Then shouldn't we clear out?"

  "Does that involve moving?"

  "Probably." Not that she was any more excited by the prospect than he sounded. So she rolled on top of him and kissed his chin. "Good morning."

  Ace didn't open his eyes, but his lips curved up into a lazy smile. "Now this is the kind of wiggling I can get behind."

  "Or under?" One last wiggle, and she sat up. "The etiquette here is a little mystifying. Maybe we should talk about it."

  He cracked one eye as his hands settled on her hips. "Funny thing, angel. Straddling a man's dick when he's half-awake doesn't really get him thinking deep thoughts about etiquette."

  A flush of awareness prickled over her skin. She braced her hands on his chest and levered herself back until she was sitting on his thighs instead. "Better?"

  He raised an eyebrow and peered down at his undeniable erection. The flush spread up her face, but before she could respond, he tightened his grip on her hips and hoisted her with an effort that made his arms flex enticingly. He dragged her up and dropped her to sit on his stomach. "There. You have my undivided attention."

  Only now hers was shot to hell with his abs rippling beneath her. "Etiquette," she repeated blankly, then shook herself. "You're big on rules. Surely a situation like this has some."

  "Probably," he agreed, rubbing his thumb over her hipbone. "If I'd ever been in a situation like this before, I'd tell you all about them."

  The idea that this was different for him was intoxicating. "So we're all flying blind."

  "Mmm. But we're doing it together."

  And it was good, damn good. So good it felt like she must be missing something, overlooking a crucial piece of information that would make her second-guess it all. "It feels so right that it makes me wonder," she admitted. "Whether there's some drawback I'm not seeing because I don't want to."

  "Well, I can think of one..." Ace chuckled softly and tugged on a lock of her hair. "After last night, we'll be lucky if that bossy bastard doesn't chain us both to his bed. Or maybe that's not a drawback."

  She shivered as a thread of the now-familiar sexual tension snaked through her, and she leaned over Ace, her mouth close to his ear. "I'm glad you want to be here just as much as I do."

  His lips ghosted over her jaw, a teasing caress before a sharp bite that elicited a zip of pleasure. "Right now I want a whole lot of things."

  "Like...to see if Cruz was right about us all fitting in his tub?"

  Ace swatted her ass. "Bad girl. Don't tempt me to distract him from whatever serious fucking business he's headed out on."

  The shower cut off, and Rachel grinned. "We could wait right here until he gets back."

  "Right here? Have mercy and scoot up a few feet. Or down. Either direction works."

  "For fuck's sake, Ace." Cruz stepped out of the bathroom, naked except for the towel he was using to dry his hair. Droplets of water rolled down his skin, playing peekaboo over ridges of muscle and through hair.

  Rachel swallowed. Hard. "You heading out?"

  "Yeah." He stopped next to the bed and cupped her cheek. "Wish like hell I didn't have to, but I've got a meeting with my contact in Eden."

  The word around the compound was that Cruz's contact was high-level, someone who shouldn't have been talking to him at all, even before his exile from the city. The fact that he still had that source of information was invaluable--to Dallas, to the gang. Maybe to their lives.

  But it was dangerous. She covered his hand with hers. "Take care of yourself."

  He bent for a brief, warm kiss, then rose and tossed his towel across Ace's chest. "You two can be lazy in here for as long as you want, but don't let Ace ride you hard, or I won't let him touch you next time."

  His tone was easy, but there was nothing casual about the words. They were as precise as Cruz himself, with layers of information you could spend all day peeling back. That he had accepted their relationship, that he intended it to continue. That he planned to control it, even when he wasn't physically present.

  Ace's fingers tightened on her hips as he drew in a ragged breath and spun the game out. "Do you want me to ride you after he leaves, Rae?"

  Her mouth went dry. So many possibilities, and she had to trust her instincts, her desires, because there weren't any rules here--except for the ones they made. "Maybe not," she whispered. "Unless you could do it soft and slow."

  Cruz made a sympathetic noise as he hauled on his pants. "Are you sore, sweetheart?"

  "A little." She turned and met his gaze over her shoulder. "I like it."

  He smiled as he slipped his belt through its loops. "Then Ace keeps his dick out of you for the morning."

  Ace's warm, aroused laughter tickled up her spine. "You see that spark in his eyes, Rachel? It took me forever to get him to admit that giving orders rocks his world."

  "I see it." He'd probably never understand why getting them could be sexy, but all that mattered was that he accepted it. "Proper motivation, that's all. If we do what he says, he gets off. And so do we, right?"

  "Mmm." Ace ran his fingers lightly up and down her thighs. "I might need more explicit orders though. We all know I'm an asshole with a short attention span. Maybe he should give me a list."

  Cruz's glare broke as he dragged a tight black shirt over his head, covering all those beautiful muscles. "There's only one thing on it, and you were going to do it anyway." Cruz shrugged into a shoulder rig but left it unfastened as he crossed to sink a gentle hand into Rachel's hair. "Give her anything she needs."

  It was permission, not for sex but for intimacy, the chance to get close to Ace in a way she craved, a way that was just as real as him being inside her. Rachel closed her eyes and leaned in to Cruz's touch. "Tonight?"

  He nodded. "Why don't we meet at Ace's studio before the party?"

  "Fine by me," Ace murmured, still stroking her legs. "We can make bets on how many people are making bets on whether we all show up together."

  When an O'Kane hooked up with someone, word got around. With three of them? Gossip would be flying. "Do we care?" Rachel asked.

  Cruz's fingers tightened a little. "I care. I want everyone to know."

  A possessive touch, one that curled Rachel's toes. "Then we don't wait for them to talk. We tell them instead."

  Ace showed his possession, too, but not with anything as simple as a rough hand in her hair. His fingers wrapped around one side of her throat, his thumb stretching across the front to rest over her pulse. "You know how O'Kanes make that announcement, angel."

  The same way they did everything else--with ink. But before that came the collar, a mark that was a step below the permanence of a tattoo. "You like leather and chains, and Cruz is all about ribbons and silk. You'll figure it out."

  Cruz released her hair to cover Ace's hand with
his own. "This is what you want?"

  "It was inevitable, right?" This was why their hesitation had been so awkward--they'd spent months dancing around each other because there was no going back once they crashed into one another.

  "Maybe it was." He bent to kiss her again, slower this time, his lips warm and firm. But he lifted his head before she could deepen the kiss, smiling down at her as he shifted his grip to Ace's wrist. "Only sweetness for her this morning. We've got a big night to look forward to."

  Anticipation joined the arousal swirling through her. She laid her hand over Ace's and twined their fingers together as they watched Cruz check his knives and tuck his handgun into its holster. "I'll be back by noon for our run," he told Ace, giving them both a final smile before he slipped out.

  The door clicked shut behind him, and Ace's easy smile faded a little. "Fuck, I wish he'd take some backup on these trips."

  The gentle arousal twisted into concern. "You think he needs it?"

  "It's Eden." Ace caught her hips and resettled her in his lap as he sat up. "Everyone needs someone watching their back in that snake pit."

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled his cheek. "You have to trust him. He'd know if it was too dangerous."

  "Maybe," he murmured. "But sometimes I wonder if that bastard thinks anything's too dangerous. Maybe it's all those years of knowing Eden would put him back together."

  "You could mention it to Dallas."

  "Oh, he knows." Ace caressed her back, and the warmth returned to his voice. "Maybe Cruz'll be more careful now that he knows you're waiting for him to come home."

  It wasn't the first time he'd downplayed his importance to Cruz. "What about you? You're here for him, too."

  "Of course I am." In a pretty flex of muscle, Ace rose with her tangled around him. "Wanna go see how big his shower is?"

  She ached at the carefully concealed pain in his voice. He was trying to distract her--and the moment felt so new, so delicate, that she let him. "Only if you remember the rules, Santana."

  He chuckled against her temple. "I'll be a perfect gentleman. Just clit-sucking and jerking off, no funny business."