Beyond Control(6)

Her eyes were wounded. Broken, maybe. Sometimes Dallas woke from nightmares where Lex stared at him like that, shattered and hurt because the need inside him had crushed her.

Bren grinned as he approached the dais, one arm behind his back. "Especially for you, Noelle," he said, presenting her with a small flogger festooned with a red bow.

It had a multitude of tails, all light, butter-soft suede, and Noelle flushed a pretty pink as she caught one of the tails and rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger. "It's beautiful."

Lex leaned forward to peer at the whip. "Stuart make this?"

"He did." Bren dipped his head. "Thanks for recommending him."

"No problem." She brushed the back of her hand over the braided handle, her expression contemplative. "He does good work."

"That he does," Dallas agreed, watching one tail slither over Lex's skin. Wrapping leather around that woman's body could be a full-time hobby, one to which he'd gladly devote himself. It was an effort to tear his gaze away and smile at Noelle. "Bren knows his toys, kitten. I think you'll like this one." Jasper would like it too, once he had Noelle stretched in front of him, writhing through the pleasure she took from pain.

Jasper set aside the flogger and folded his hand around Noelle's. "Should we ask Bren to dance?"

"It's only polite." Noelle dropped a kiss to Lex's cheek before hauling Jasper to his feet. "Six, do you want to dance?"

Her dark eyes widened just a fraction, and then she was giving Noelle that look, the one Dallas had seen on the poor girl's face a dozen times. It screamed, You cannot be for real, and sometimes it seemed like that was the only look anyone got from Six.

Except Bren.

Dallas gestured to a chair tucked in a dark corner on the dais. It was far enough out of the way to give the wary woman a little privacy, but not situated so that she'd have to worry about being cornered. Not with him--and Lex--between her and the rest of the room. "Why don't you park yourself over there, Six? Watch until you feel like joining in, eh?"

After an awkward moment, she nodded jerkily and mumbled something that sounded like a congratulations as she slipped past Jasper. Dallas arched an eyebrow at Bren, who threw a wave over his shoulder as he followed Noelle out onto the floor.

"They left you alone with me," Lex muttered. "I guess you'll be making them pay for that later."

Dallas laughed and stretched his arm across the back of the couch. "How do you know this wasn't part of my plan?"

She moved fast, and her hair spilled over her shoulders to tickle his cheek as she straddled his thigh. "Was it?"

It didn't matter what his plan had been. When Lex's perfume hit him, his cock got hard and his plans got muddled. He slid one hand up her leg, edging his fingers under the hem of her dress. "It sure as f*ck is now, love."

She slapped his hand away.

He couldn't help his grin. "What's the matter, Lex? Don't want to ride my fingers?"

"Mmm." She leaned down until her lips grazed his ear. "I'm not that easy."

Nothing about Lex ever was. "Congratulations on your protégé's big debut. You were right, back when we took her in. She's gonna settle down and make Jasper real happy."

"Told you so." Lex slipped a hand between them, pressing her fingernails to his chest through his shirt.

Her dress rode up her thighs, and Dallas braced both hands on her hips and raised his leg, grinding up against her. "And you don't get tired of being right, do you?"

"With you? I've learned to take what I can get."

It was a challenge, one he couldn't keep himself from answering with one hand cuffing her throat. Gently, so gently, but he liked the way his fingers looked wrapped around her neck, with his thumb along the opposite side. A collar of his own making and a gesture of dominance, even with his grip soft enough to caress. "You should be careful what you wish for."

For some reason, it made her laugh, though the sound melted into a moan.

That was better. "Keep rocking. I like having you squirming on my thigh."

Her eyes drifted open, oddly intent as they focused on his, and the rest of the room vanished. Lex's clever, intimate lighting, her carefully set stage, the heat in his blood--all of it conspired to melt everyone else into the background. "Gonna slap my fingers again?"

"I think..." Her throat worked under his hand. "I think I'm going to go dance."

He could tighten his fingers. Keep her with him. That was the eternal battle, the constant temptation. "You could do that."

"What do you want?" Lex reached down and rubbed her palm over the hard bulge of his cock through his pants.

People were watching them. Friends, members of his gang that might as well be family but would always be his. He was Dallas O'Kane, leader of Sector Four, and he was expected to get everything he wanted.

Which meant he was only allowed to want what he could get. Easy things. Casual things. Her fingers around his dick, her mouth, sucking him deep.

Not enough. Not tonight. "I want you to take off your panties."

She rose with a shiver, hesitating only a heartbeat before easing her thumbs under her skirt. The fabric rucked up a little, and she dragged her panties down. The skimpy black lace fell to her knees and then her ankles, tangling around the high spike heels on her shoes.

For one breathless moment, Dallas could only stare at her, high on the thrill of this woman's obedience.

"Hell, yeah! Throw me your underwear, Lex!"

Lex started, as if Ace's drunken words had drawn her out of a fantasy, and she threw him a glare that was more flustered than angry as she kicked free of the lace. "You don't deserve my panties, jackass."

When Ace jerked to a halt two steps from the dais, Dallas realized he was glaring at him, too. Belatedly, he smoothed his features, but it didn't diminish his urge to smack the irreverent artist. "You're pushing your luck, Ace."

"I'm too pretty to kill," Ace drawled, full of fake bluster and confidence as he sprawled on the edge of the platform. "But if you two were having a private party..."

"If it were private, we'd go someplace else," Lex said quickly.

She was right, much as Dallas hated it in this moment. Just beyond Ace, Noelle was pinned between Jasper and Bren, their dance a slow grind. She looked blissful under their attentions, her skin already flushed with the slow heat of arousal.

The highlight of any party celebrating a couple taking marks tended to be the couple taking each other, a public consummation played out in loving, explicit detail. This wasn't a time for private moments. It was a time to celebrate Jas and Noelle and their crazy, dirty love.

Telling himself it was about them and not the buffer they provided, Dallas grinned up at Lex. "Think we can lure the happy couple back? Or should we start without them?"

But the moment was gone, and Lex's answer was light, breezy, with no hint of her previous intensity. "Why don't we just play it by ear?" she asked as she stepped off the dais and headed into the crowd.

Ace flashed him an apologetic look. "Sorry, boss."

Dallas sighed. "Get lost. Go find some woman dumb enough to let your face between her legs."

"Oh, you mean damn near all of them?" Ace sprawled back on his elbows. "The trick is having a dexterous tongue, you know. If you brooded less and talked more, yours might--"

Dallas raised an eyebrow and dared Ace to finish the thought.

"...I think Amira's flagging me down," Ace said instead, coming to his feet in a rush. Before Dallas could say another word, the smartass disappeared into the mass of dancing bodies, vanishing as surely as Lex had.

Dallas tensed to follow, but forced his muscles to relax. He stretched both arms across the back of the couch and sprawled out his legs, every inch the lazy king surveying his court. Dallas O'Kane didn't chase after women who ran. Dallas O'Kane lifted a finger and women came running.

"I don't know how you're still in charge," a quiet voice murmured from behind him.

Craning his head, Dallas met Six's gaze and stilled his angry retort when he saw the honest bafflement in her eyes. As clumsy as the words were, there was a bone-deep need to understand hidden beneath them.

She'd come into adulthood under the brutal hand of a man too weak to hold his people without abuse and violence. Of course she didn't understand the obedience that came from loyalty and respect instead of crippling fear.

So he tried to explain. "This is my family, sweetheart. These are my people. I'm in charge because they trust me to make life a hell of a lot better for them than it would be without me. I don't need to beat them into line, and I don't need to prove I'm the strongest."

She blinked at him, her eyes huge and painfully wary. "Everyone needs to prove they're strong."