Beyond Control(47)

Physical pleasure was a f*cking beautiful thing, but it was fleeting. The thrill of having her curl trustingly against his chest as he lifted her from the bed would linger.

Maybe even forever.





Chapter Seventeen



The potential recruits from Three looked like they'd just stumbled across the lost city of El Dorado--if they'd been looking for tits and ass instead of gold.

Lex sat up straighter and tugged at the bottom of her velvet corset. From her vantage point beside Dallas, she watched the new guys weave their way through the crowd. They didn't speak unless spoken to, but they seemed relaxed, their heads occasionally bobbing in time with the throbbing music.

At least they had manners enough not to be grabbing ass already. It was damn near the most a woman could hope for, especially out of Wilson Trent's old sector.

"They don't seem so bad," Noelle observed, shifting closer to Jasper nonetheless. She looked unusually fierce in leather and chains, but the dark style and dramatic makeup suited her every bit as much as her usual ruffles and lace. She'd braided her hair up off her neck, leaving Jasper's ink winding across her skin in elegant, deadly warning.

There was a lot of ink on display tonight, including Dallas's. Spiked bands clasped his wrists below his O'Kane cuffs, but his arms were left bare by his heavy leather vest, and he draped one across the booth behind Lex as their three visitors drifted closer. "They're careful," Dallas corrected, "which just means they're not idiots."

Jasper huffed out a laugh. "Or they're careful idiots."

Dallas snorted. "Six said these were the brightest of the bunch, but that's like saying they're the softest rocks. The one on the left is Cain. I'd bet on him being the brains of the operation."

The man was tall, dark, with a look of deceptively relaxed concentration on his smooth brown face. It reminded her of Bren, the way he watched the world, registering everything and filing it away for later.

"The other two are Riff and Elvis." Dallas's lips twitched. "One of them's a musician. And it ain't Elvis."

Lex had seen enough musicians in her time to spot Riff, with his long black hair and scowl. Which left Elvis as the pretty boy, the one licking his lips and eyeballing the women like he was making a f*cking grocery list for later. "He thinks highly of himself, doesn't he?"

"Presumably. He wants to run things, and that takes a certain amount of arrogance."

Lex leaned her head back against his arm. "You would know, honey."

"Damn straight."

Elvis turned toward their corner, and Dallas tensed as the man's gaze slid over Lex and Noelle in turn. He mostly kept the expectant lust from his face as he approached, but Lex could see it in his eyes. Hear it in his voice. "Dallas. Jasper. Quite a party."

Dallas settled a hand on Lex's shoulder as he nodded to the chairs on the opposite side of the table. "Oh, we're just getting started. Take a seat."

He did, sprawling out to take up as much space as possible. Cain was the last to sit, choosing the chair that would leave him with his back against the wall.

Lex liked him already.

She offered him a smile as she slid a whiskey shot closer to him. "Cain, right?"

He nodded and accepted the tiny glass, but didn't drink. His gaze flicked briefly to her collar--and no lower. "And you'd be Lex?"

"I would." She glanced at the other two men. "Noelle and I were sorry to miss the trip into your sector. Introduce us to your friends?"

Cain opened his mouth only to close it as Elvis leaned forward and swiped the shot of whiskey. He knocked it back without fuss and grinned. "This is Riff, and I'm Elvis. I guess that kind of makes me a king."

Riff's derisive snort was the only sound he made. Lex longed to echo it as she placed a drink in front of him before sliding another shot to rest near Cain's hand.

Since he hadn't gotten whatever he was clearly after, Elvis tried again. "I've always wanted to meet the infamous Lex Parrino. I caught your show once. Never forgot it, either."

He said it with a leer that left everyone at the table uncomfortably sure he'd spent more than a few nights jerking off to the memory of her dancing. Dallas tensed to the point of anger beside her. Before he could explode, Cain stepped into the awkward pause. "That would make you Miss Cunningham," he told Noelle, managing not to stare at her tits, either.

"Noelle," she corrected with a smile sweet enough to ruin the effect of the wardrobe. "Just Noelle. I'm an O'Kane."

His gaze flickered to Jasper. "Right. I met your man the other night."

"Jas is my right hand," Dallas said in his best lazy voice, relaxed and easy despite the strain Lex could feel in every muscle of his body. "Bren's my left. You'll meet him later."

Riff stirred but said nothing. Elvis transferred his leer to Noelle. "I'm more interested in this little lady here. Not every sector has their own Eden royalty. I heard Jas plucked her out of her daddy's house in the middle of the night and taught her to be bad."

Jasper drew on his cigarette and blew smoke in the man's face. "Maybe she doesn't want to talk about it."

Coughing, Elvis waved his hand in front of his face. "Just curious, man. No judgment. If she's any indication of what they're hiding behind those walls, sign me up for salvation."

Noelle's expression had frozen into that sweet, smiling mask, but her words were edged in frost. "You never know. Eden might welcome a man of your character."

Elvis's eyes narrowed, and Cain slapped him across the arm. "Shut up. We're here to talk business." He arched a brow. "Aren't we?"

Jasper crushed out his cigarette, slid out of the end of the booth, and held out his hand to Noelle. "Let's dance, sweetheart."

Under the table, Noelle wrapped her fingers around Lex's in a brief, encouraging squeeze. She murmured a polite farewell to Cain and smiled at Riff before slipping her hand into Jasper's and abandoning the table without so much as a glance at Elvis.

That only seemed to encourage him. He twisted in his chair, watched Jas and Noelle disappear into the crowd, and whistled. "Tits or not, that is one frigid sister. But I bet it's fun, sticking it to Eden every night."

"That's an O'Kane," Dallas replied mildly as he stroked his fingers over Lex's hair. "And all O'Kane ladies have one thing in common, brother. They don't let you stick much of anything in them if you can't be assed to learn some manners."

"Might even stick something in you." Through the velvet of her skirt, Lex traced the knife strapped to the thigh. "If you know what I mean."

Riff's lips twitched, disrupting his scowl. "If he doesn't figure it out, he deserves it."

Silence fell around the table. Cain stared at Lex, not out of particular interest or even disdain, but almost as if waiting for her to do something.

She refused to fidget, lifting her drink instead. "Yes?"

He cleared his throat and prompted, "Business?"

And that's when Lex realized he expected her to leave.

She froze with her glass to her lips, goose bumps rising on her arms. The reasonable one--the smart one--and he still figured she shouldn't hang around while the big boys talked. "Excuse me?"

The men looked at Dallas. Elvis even went so far as to smile snidely. "Where're your manners, O'Kane? The shit we have to discuss isn't any sort of talk for pretty ladies."

One heartbeat. Two. That was all the time it took for Dallas O'Kane to dismiss her like she was nothing.

He lifted his arm from around her shoulders. "You really don't want to listen to any of this, love."

Maybe he really was trying to spare her, but it cut deep. When faced with ugly words, he'd responded quickly enough, but now, confronted with actual disrespect, he caved. Easier not to argue and risk driving away potential recruits.

So much for being the queen.

Whatever, O'Kane. She slipped her hand under her skirt and drew the knife. She slammed it down on the table as she rose, embedding the tip half an inch into the already scarred wood. "I'll see you boys around."

Without waiting for a response from Dallas--she knew better--Lex stalked off into the throng of bodies, righteous anger driving every quick step. She wanted to get drunk, get stupid, but she had a crowd to manage and work to do.

And goddamn it, she was going to do it.



The knife quivered in the table.

Elvis quivered in his chair.

Okay, maybe that was taking things a bit far, but it figured that now the bastard had decided to shut his f*cking mouth. Maybe that was a good sign, after all, one that showed he could learn. He wouldn't be the first O'Kane to learn manners from Lex at knife-point.

Dallas would be lucky if she didn't cut him tonight.