Beyond Control(13)

"The shows." His gaze darkened a little. "Though God only knows how much we'll lose if I pry Noelle off you."

Plenty enough for them all to feel the pinch. "You don't act like it bothers you."

"Mmm, things change. But I'll let the shows stand for now. Just the ones with her, though." Leaning in, he traced a fingertip along the collar before catching her chin. "No one with a pulse will wonder why I haven't put a stop to that."

But he wanted to. She could hear it in his voice, a low hum of tension and something else, a deeper rumble almost like possessiveness. "Anything else?"

"No lying to me about sex." He held her gaze, his own firm and unwavering. "If I ask a question about what you can handle, or what you need, that means I want the truth, not what you think I want to hear. Because believe me, I'll be taking plenty without asking."

Unbridled honesty, no matter what. Lex had been taught never to give it, because revealing too much led to deadly weakness. "I can try." The admission alone made her gut tighten. "I can't promise. Not always."

His jaw tightened, but the frustration in his eyes didn't follow through in the soft way he stroked her jaw. "Do you trust me?"

Honesty. "As much as I trust anyone."

It seemed like he studied her forever, his gaze roaming her face, his fingers still stroking. The silence stretched on long enough to make her want to look away before he jerked his head in a short nod. "If that's what I've got, I'll work with it."

It sounded too much like a concession, and she bristled. "I am what I am, Dallas. If you don't like it, I can find the door."

That fast, his fingers clenched on her chin. "Don't you snarl at me. If I didn't want you, you'd already be out of here. But if you think I'm not going to fight to turn that answer into yes, then maybe you need to rethink what you're walking into. I'm not a man who stops at almost."

In that moment, she hated him. Her eyes and throat burned, and she ached to throw it all back in his face and leave, just to prove that she could. Not even to him, but to herself.

She told her brain that it was time to move, but words spilled out instead as she shoved her crumpled note into his hand. "You want the truth? I don't know why I'm here, but I don't know how to leave. Not until I find out what this is."

He released her with a deep breath that turned into a chuckle. "I guess we'll learn whether I can handle the unvarnished truth, won't we? Not many people will give it to me anymore."

Lex pushed her fingers through her hair, bereft without his touch. "Do you blame them?"

"Sometimes." He smoothed the paper out on his thigh and glanced at it. A frown creased his brow as he studied what she'd written. "What is this?"

"It's my list. My rule."

He read the words aloud, all seven of them. "Whatever we do, we do it together."

No inflection, nothing. She shifted on the cushion and cleared her throat. "That's all."

"What happened to not liking punishment like Noelle?"

"It's not my thing, but it's not a deal breaker, either." Lex arched an eyebrow. "If you expected me to list everything that gets me hot and everything that doesn't, forget it. You can figure it out like any other mere mortal."

For a second, he looked so irritated she thought he might snap. His hand clenched tight around the paper, and that dangerous heat she knew so well gathered in his eyes. "So you're saying I can do any damn thing I want to you."

The pendant woven into the center of her collar was warm on her skin, warmer still when she touched it with nervous fingers. "That's what it means for me, wearing this."

"Stand up."

It sounded different from his usual commands, softer and harder at the same time. She rose and faced him, standing with her hands in fists at her sides.

He shifted into a pose she knew well, settling in the center of the couch with his long legs sprawled out carelessly. The lazy king at his finest, except he usually had plenty of people to demand his attention. Now there was only her, shivering under the weight of his gaze.

He was looking at her like he owned her, and that was all he needed.

Another long moment, and he smiled slowly. "What's under the dress?"

"Not a damn thing." This was more familiar territory, and Lex clung to it as she gathered her dress an inch higher on one leg. "Want to see?"

"Dirty girl." The words held nothing but sincere approval. "Show me. Take it off."

With every nerve on high alert, the fabric sliding over her skin felt like hands. Lex eased it up, over her head, and dropped it on the floor at his feet.

He gestured again. "Shoes, too."

She nudged his knee with one toe. "The buckles are tricky. Help me?"

"Maybe if you bend over, you can see them more clearly."

Grinding a spike heel into his balls would be counterproductive, and not nearly enough payback for this arrogant performance. Instead, she pulled away and turned. One slow, deliberate bend from the waist later, she unbuckled one shoe, then the other.

"That's my girl," he rasped. "Always fighting dirty." She hadn't heard him move, but he was there, suddenly, hands on her hips. "Don't move."

She swallowed hard. "Not even to take off my shoes?"

He splayed a warm hand across the small of her back, traced the curve of her ass and lower, along the inside of her thigh and the back of her knee. When he spoke, his breath spilled hot over her *. "You can do that."

Only long years of practice allowed her to keep her balance. She kicked off the shoes and stilled. "Like this?"

"Mmm." He edged his hand between her legs and stroked her, slicking past her outer lips to tease one finger into her, and her inner muscles clenched at the invasion. "I thought I might have to eat this * to get you wet enough to f*ck, but you could take me right now, couldn't you? I think you like being pissed at me."

As hard as she tried, she couldn't swallow her moan. "I know your game, honey. You're not fooling me."

"Is that so?" Another finger joined the first, broad and sure, working into her with the confidence of long familiarity. This, he'd done plenty of times, getting her off in a hundred ways.

She choked on another moan as heat tingled outward from her core, curling through her like ink in water. "You have to keep up the cocky act, or you'll blow."

"Oh, I'll blow either way." He whispered the words against the curve of her ass, her only warning before he bit her with a dark laugh. "The only question now is where my dick's gonna be when it happens."

There was only one thing he refused to do to any woman who didn't wear his collar, the real reason behind the parade of random women in and out of this very room. And every instinct she possessed screamed that he'd been dying to do it to her.

Lex arched her back, staying bent at the waist but leaning up far enough to peer back at him over her shoulder. "You scared? Afraid I won't live up to the fantasy, Declan?"

Leather whispered over denim, his belt sliding open as he slipped his fingers from her body. Without taking his gaze from hers, he lifted his hand and licked his finger. "Not even a little."

She faced him. "Then what are you waiting for?"

Instead of answering, he left his belt hanging open and plunged his fingers into her hair, jerking her against him hard enough to suck the air from her lungs. His mouth landed on hers, stealing all the air she had left as he wrenched her head back and drove his tongue past her lips.

The answer to more than her question. Lex moved closer, despite the sharp tug of his hand in her hair. He'd kissed her before, but never like this, with a fire that threatened to consume. They'd always kept the need between them so carefully banked, painfully aware of the lines they could cross so easily.

That need sizzled to life now, like something had been unleashed. She scratched him, bit his lip, hissed his name when he hoisted her off the floor and slammed her against the closest wall.

No more waiting.

"Now." His shirt ripped as she wrenched it over his head. "Fuck me now."

"Not like this." He snaked an arm around her, pivoted, and thumped her down on the arm of the couch. Strong fingers dug into her hips and sent her sprawling back, falling until her shoulders hit the plush cushion.

Dallas loomed over her, his hands curled around her thighs. His gaze swept up, lingering on the tattoo of his name, on her tits. Her collar.

Lex squirmed. She'd expected a submissive position--on her knees, maybe, with Dallas gripping her hips--but this wasn't symbolically helpless. She couldn't move or control anything, was completely at his mercy...and he knew it.

He didn't seem to have the patience to savor it. He all but ripped his jeans open and freed his cock, fisting the shaft with a growl. "Pinch your nipples."