Beyond Shame

How convenient it would be to have Lex explain Noelle’s own secrets to her. Then she wouldn’t have to bother to learn them herself. “As soon as you’ll let me drink.”

“Uh-huh. Good night, Noelle.”

Lex

She didn’t ask Dallas for much, never had, but she’d ask him for this.

Lex leaned against the side of the car. “She doesn’t have anyone, and she’s helpless. Tossing her out on her ass would just be wrong.”

Under the hood, Dallas grunted as metal clanged on metal. “Eden spits out a dozen like her a week, love. That’s what happens when you only give reproductive drugs to the righteous. They pop out ignorant, helpless babies like it’s a contest to see who can produce the most useless human being.”

“She has a name, you know.” Lex reached out to trace the shell of his ear. “And if she were really useless, she’d be crying in a heap on my bedroom floor.”

Dallas spared her a look, turning his head just enough to bite the tip of her finger. “Don’t tell me she’s not damn close to it.”

“A couple weeks, okay? Give her a chance. She’ll probably blow you once or twice and then settle down, make one of the guys very, very happy.”

He snorted and focused on the old car’s engine again. “That girl couldn’t spit out the word fornication without turning fifteen shades of red. What the hell happened after I left? I miss a hot time?”

Not even close, but the spark was there. The hunger. Lex could practically taste it. “She wants to be a little bad. How is she going to do that on a peanut farm or whatever?”

Sighing, Dallas straightened and tossed aside the wrench. “Are you seeing what’s really there, Lexie? Or what you want to see?”

As if he knew the first damn thing about what she wanted. “Easy way to find out. You throwing a party tonight?”

“I was, yeah.” He wiped his hands on a rag and rubbed his thumb over her lower lip, a clear sign that his thoughts had shifted from cars to sex. “You think she could survive it?”

“One way to find out.” He still tasted like motor oil and metal. Lex licked the pad of his thumb and wrapped her fingers around his belt buckle. “Are you saving your strength for later?”

“My strength doesn’t need saving, love. Not with you around.”

His jeans were already tightening across the hard bulge of his cock. Lex kept hold of his belt and pulled him toward the back door of the warehouse.

Inside, she reached under his shirt and traced circles over his chest while her vision adjusted to the near darkness of the back hall. Dallas leaned against the wall and watched her through narrowed eyes. “Don’t think I’m not on to you, girl.”

She tensed, but only for a moment, before unbuckling his belt. “What do you mean?”

He caught her wrist with one hand and her chin with the other. “Don’t get on your knees for this. If you’re that damn taken with the girl, she can stay. Hell, have Ace give her the full wrist cuffs if you want.”

Relief warred with anger. He hadn’t really figured her out, that secret part of her with all its insane desires. But the fact that he thought she’d use her body, her mouth, as currency, pissed her off plenty.

Lex still had one hand free, and she slapped him with it. “I’m not a whore. Not even for you.”

She’d seen Dallas kill men for less, but he only growled and caught her other wrist. “Everyone’s a whore for me except you. It gets goddamn tedious.”

She could barely think with his fingers wrapped around her wrists, trapping her and yet careful not to squeeze tight. “Liar. You need me to keep your head on straight. Just one person you can’t buy.”

His laugh swept over her. “Sweet, silly bitch. The whores are the tedious ones.”

Too close. Too intimate. “So let it lie, Declan,” she urged, using his given name. “And apologize, for fuck’s sake.”

He moved fast, jerking her around to crash against the wall, her hands pinned next to her head. “Watch the sharp side of your tongue, Lex,” he rumbled, voice low and dangerous. He loomed over her, his heat its own oppressive weight.

No room to move, breathe, nothing but him, everywhere. “Why don’t you watch my tongue?” She started to slide down the wall. When she was halfway to her knees, he released her hands, sinking his fingers into her hair instead.

Hard didn’t begin to describe him now. His erection jutted against his fly, jumping when she smoothed her palm over its length. “Do you want my mouth?”

Dallas growled and tightened his grip on her hair, skating the line between arousal and real pain. “Am I breathing?”

“Don’t know.” She hummed as she opened his pants and wrapped her fist around his dick. “You’ve got a strong pulse, though.”

His head fell back as he pushed against her hand with another of those hungry, rough noises. “You going to teach your little stray how to do this? If she can get half as good as you at sucking dick, maybe she will get marked.”

Noelle would wind up marked anyway, just as soon as she learned to let go a little. “I thought men liked the wide-eyed innocence.”

“Men think they like wide-eyed innocence until someone like you swallows their cock down like she can’t get enough of it.” He forced her head back at a rough angle. “Or did you see something I didn’t, clever girl?”

“Like Jasper showing off his protective side?” Lex teased her tongue over her lower lip. “Watch them together. You’ll see.”

“All the girls throw themselves on Mr. Hero. He lets them bounce on him for a little while, and then he bounces them right back off.” A rock of Dallas’s hips bumped the head of his cock against her mouth. “Goddamn, Lex. Fucking blow me already.”

One quick lick, followed by a slower one, over and over in succession until his shaft gleamed wet enough to slide between her lips. Not too much pressure, not at first.

“Never enough,” he growled, slapping one palm against the wall. His entire body shook with restrained hunger, but he didn’t thrust against her mouth. Not yet.

Instead, he demanded with words. “Harder, Lex.”

She complied, but only for a moment. Then she pulled away and stroked him with her hand.

“Tease.” Pressing one thumb against her lips, he smiled slowly. “I think I changed my mind. I am saving my strength for tonight. I want a hell of a show.”

Lex took a deep breath to ease the sharp pang of disappointment. “Maybe I won’t bother.”

“Oh, you’ll bother.” He stepped away and tucked his cock back into his pants. “I’ll know you’re really pissed if all I get to do is watch.”

“Or I won’t show at all.” Even as she spoke, she knew the words for a lie. She’d go, all right, just to make him watch another man spend the night face down in her lap.

“We’ll see. Up, Lexie love.”

She rose, hunger still twisting in her belly. “Have fun trying not to walk funny.”

Dallas gripped her chin and kissed her hard and fast, nothing but growls and teeth and gone a moment later. “The girl can stay as long as you keep an eye on her. Bring her around to Rachel. See if she’s waitress material.”

Rachel wasn’t even waitress material. She should have been the one tinkering under the hood of that car outside, because God knew she was better at it than most of the men, including Dallas. “And the party?”

His smile was positively wicked. “Let’s leave that to Jasper.”

Lex held his gaze as she traced her index finger over the corner of her mouth and licked her fingertip. “Yes, sir.”