a yawn. “That’s not really Jasper’s style, though.”
Noelle tried to imagine a world where she would be capable of kicking a man like Jasper anywhere, much less out of her life. Impossible. Then again, a week ago she wouldn’t have been able to envision a world where she could take advice from a naked woman as if nudity were a casual, acceptable thing.
She settled for a noncommittal, “I’ll remember that. Do I need anything else?”
“To go shopping or to deal with Jas?”
“To go shopping.” She knew she wasn’t ready to deal with Jasper.
Lex grinned, leaned over to dig through her nightstand, and emerged with a handful of folded bills. “Don’t let him pay for anything.”
“Lex, I can’t—” The other woman pressed the stack of money into her hand, and Noelle hesitated for a moment, struck by the novelty of holding cash. Actual bills, the tangible paper kind that her father never would have let her touch. All banking in Eden was electronic, with accounts tied to the bar code you were given at birth. But the rich and powerful kept paper money in vaults, along with stacks of gold bars and precious jewels, all the things they swore were unnecessary in a clean, digital world.
It wasn’t the only way her father was a hypocrite. Noelle closed her fingers around the bills. “I’ll pay you back.”
“Are you kidding? Dallas wipes his ass with that kind of money. I’ll get it from him.”
“Thanks.” She tucked the money into her pocket and smiled. “Go back to sleep. I’m sorry he woke you.”
“Mm-hmm.” Lex crawled back under the covers and dragged them up almost over her head. “Just be yourself, Noelle. You’ll make out all right.”
She would have replied, but Lex was already asleep by the time she slipped out the door. No one else was stirring this early in the morning—no surprise, not after last night—so Noelle navigated the twisted warren of hallways that led to the front entrance alone.
Jasper leaned against the front wall, a cigarette in one hand. “Walk or ride?”
“Is it safe to walk?”
“It is. Market’s only about five blocks.” He held out his hand.
She stared, caught up in the memory of him working those broad fingers into her body, stretching her as pleasure singed her from the inside out. Her nipples tightened as arousal crept through her, riding the moment when memory drifted into fantasy. In her dreams, he’d pushed his cock into her one agonizingly blissful inch at a time, making her beg for each thrust with obscene words she could only imagine saying in her own head.
Praying that he couldn’t follow the path of her thoughts, she slid her palm against his, shivering as calluses scraped her skin. “Let’s walk.”
He folded his fingers around hers and pulled her toward the street. “Lex give you a hard time?”
“No, not at all. She’s good to me.”
“I know. I was teasing.” A smile tilted his mouth at the very corner. “I’m bad at it.”
She was gripped with the irrational urge to stroke his cheek, where a tiny dimple had almost formed. Maybe if she could coax him to smile wider, it would appear. “I need practice being teased. You should do it a lot.”
“I just might.”
“Maybe I’ll even learn how to tease you back.”
“Someone has to.” Something oily and noxious had puddled on the cracked asphalt in front of them, and Jasper lifted her over it like she weighed nothing.
Even when he set her on the street again, she gripped his arms, dizzy from his proximity and the surreal moment of tenderness in a dirty, dark alley. “Thank you.”
“Sure.” He dropped his hand to the small of her back.
Hard-looking men were already filling the narrow gaps between buildings, but they averted their gazes as Jasper led her past, and the few stragglers still in the street melted to either side. One or two nodded to Jasper in recognition, but even those greetings were tinged with as much fear as respect.
Aware that her safety rested entirely in Jasper’s hands—or in the ink curling above them—Noelle pressed closer to his side and lowered her voice. “Do you know most of these people?”
He shook his head. “Not really. I’ve seen them, and they know who I am, by the tats if nothing else. Once you have yours, it’ll be the same.”
It sounded more
He eyed her with puzzlement. “Don’t you?”
“He seems like a complicated man. If he’s letting me stay, I think it’s mostly for Lex.”
Jasper squinted at her. “It matters to you, doesn’t it?
“A little.” If she lifted her gaze, she could just see the shining outer wall of Eden in the distance, the barrier that supposedly kept the city pristine. Like so many things about the city, the safety of those walls was an illusion. “I know I’m naive about a lot of things, but I was raised to know my value as a councilman’s daughter. To his allies
He guided her around a cart piled high with bolts of fabric. “Then…maybe, yeah. For Lex’s benefit. Or for mine.”
Warmth kindled in her belly. “I’d rather it be for your benefit than because he hates my father. Not that I’d blame him. My father is easy to hate.”
Jasper snorted. “I’m not saying it’s impossible that he’s thought of something like that, but it’s not really who Dallas is. Not when you get right down to it.”
“He’s intimidating,” she admitted. “He comes across as relaxed, easy and laid-back. But still dangerous. Even when he smiles, he makes me nervous.”
Jasper drew her to a stop, grasped her shoulders, and turned her to face him. “There isn’t anyone in Dallas’s gang who
“Rachel?” The pretty blonde waitress was no more threatening than Noelle herself.
He ignored the question. “Even you,” he murmured softly. “You need it to live out here, or you die, one way or another. Dallas sees that danger in you too, or he’d have sent you packing already.”
Even more ludicrous. “The only reason I’m still alive is you.”
“Because you don’t know how to survive out here. Once you learn, you’ll do anything you have to do.” He sounded certain.
It made her feel certain too. “Will you help me learn?”
“Yep.” He grinned and pointed her at the cluster of carts and ramshackle booths that lined the street as it began to widen. “First lesson. Never pay anyone what they ask right away. They’ll rob you blind.”
The market. It looked nothing like the high-end shops she usually patronized. The area directly in front of them was devoted mostly to carts full of clothing. Bright fabrics hung from ropes strung between buildings, swaying in the early morning breeze. More items lay stacked on carts or in front of makeshift tents.
Noelle caught her reflection in a tarnished mirror and almost laughed at her own wide, delighted eyes. Her expression matched the feeling in her chest, light and excited. “I get to barter?” It was like something out of a history text.
He chuckled. “Coming to an agreement about price is called haggling. Bartering is trading. We’re paying cash.”
Haggling. She made a mental note and returned his grin. “
“Why am I not surprised?”
“You can still help me pick out something to wear to Dallas’s next party.” It was the closest thing to suggestive she could manage, and some part of her braced in anticipation of a brush-off or a quiet rejection.
He moved his hand, curling it around her hip as his smile faded into something darker. Hotter. “Too long to wait. There’s a thing tomorrow night. You can come watch me fight.”
She couldn’t concentrate on his words when his fingers stretched almost to the small of her back. She felt tiny under his hands. Powerless, vulnerable—two states that were familiar, but they’d never heated her blood like this before.
She wet her lips because she liked the way his gaze followed her tongue. “What should I wear?”
He glanced around, then nodded to a booth draped with displays of leather—belts, bracers, even corsets.
