Chapter Thirteen

Her heart in her throat, Noelle shoved through the door to Dallas's bedroom and nearly moaned her relief at seeing Jasper on his feet, more or less whole. Bring the med kit to my room was all Dallas had told her before wheeling off in search of Lex, and the five minutes it had taken her to collect the first aid supplies and traverse the maze of corridors to the large suite had been among the longest in recent memory.

But she was here now, and he was alive. "Jasper? Are you hurt?"

He held up his arm. "It's nothing. Just a scratch."

An odd piece of furniture sat a few feet in front of her, one that looked like two padded leather benches connected back-to-back, so they faced in opposite directions. She set the med kit down on the shared back and lifted the cover. "Sit and let me look at it. I'm not very good, but I know how to use gel and bandages."

Instead, he slipped his hand into her hair and yanked her down for a rough kiss. The pounding of her heart shifted from fear to exhilaration as she slapped one hand on his shoulder to keep her balance.

Even that didn't help when he dragged her into his lap and pressed the slim tube of healing gel into her hand. "This and you. That's what I need."

She had to catch her breath as she twisted the top off the tube. "How did this happen?"

Jasper growled. "Some bastard got this bright idea to blow Dallas up. We stopped him. Had a little bit of a fight, though."

Her hand trembled, and it took another breath to steady it enough to apply the healing gel to the long, shallow cut. Blood had dried on his skin, bisecting the flesh left bare of ink, in some places looking like artwork of its own.

"You all could have died," she whispered as the truth of that fact hit her hard in the gut. The cage fights, those were manufactured danger, violence in controlled form. Tonight had been real.

"We smelled the trap," Jasper countered. "We had it, solid. No reason for you to worry."

She frowned. "You're bleeding."

"That happens more often than you'd think out here."

"Then I get to worry if I want to." She dropped the gel back into the kit and found a precut bandage. His muscles were so large that it only wrapped around his arm twice, and she stripped away the protective panel from the adhesive at the end and sealed it in place with a kiss to the coarse fabric. "I don't like it when you bleed."

He smiled, slow and hot. "Liar."

It wasn't the blood that stirred her, but the fact that he was whole. Hard against her, so vital, so alive... "I don't like it when you bleed," she repeated, kissing the warm skin above the bandage. "I like it when you win."

"That I believe." He slipped his arms around her and kissed her again. Slow and warm and wet, his tongue working past her lips to stroke the inside of her mouth, each deep caress tugging at things low in her body.

In minutes, she was squirming in his lap. "We could go back to your room," she offered against his lips. "I can like more of you."

"We could do that." Jasper trailed his mouth to her jaw, then to the spot below her ear. "Or we could stay here. Dallas went to find Lex."

Memory rose, a fractured piece with no beginning or end, just the feeling of Jasper at her back and Lex crushed against her chest, and Dallas smiling as he gripped Lex's hips. All of them moving together, grinding, swaying...

She shuddered and tilted her head back. "You don't mind?"

"No." He nipped at the front of her throat and soothed the bite with his tongue. "You want me, but you want them too. Tonight's the night we find out how much. How far."

Not a night for saying no, then. Hopefully not a night where he'd want her to. But she could draw one line. "I have a condition."

His hands traced up her back. "What?"

She sank both hands into his hair and adopted the firmest, fiercest look she could manage. She was an O'Kane woman. She could say these words. "I want you to fuck me tonight."

Jasper shifted beneath her, his arousal as evident from his heated gaze as from the growing hardness of his cock. "Say it again."

"I want you to fuck me." She rocked against him, wishing she'd worn a skirt instead of her jeans. Something easy to jerk out of the way, because she'd spent too many nights going to bed frustrated, and she thought she might be able to chase her pleasure just like this...if he let her. "Promise you will."

"I'll fuck you," he whispered. "I promise, Noelle."

"No cheating. No technically. You have to really do it." She released his hair and gripped her shirt instead, tearing it over her head, leaving her hair a disheveled mess. Her bra was the only one she actually owned, the only one not borrowed from Lex, a clever bit of lace and wire that pressed her breasts together and up, and the way Jasper's gaze lingered made it worth every credit. "You promise?" she asked again, while she had his attention and the advantage.

He dragged her arms behind her back, pinning them above the swell of her ass. "I'll fuck you," he answered in a rough murmur.

Maybe Lex had been right. The more she demanded, the more he gave her exactly what she'd wanted all along. She wiggled a little, enough to trigger that delicious sense of helplessness without the risk that he might mistake her squirming for actual struggles.

Trapped. Finally. Noelle wet her lips and summoned another challenging glare. "Tell me how. Tell me the dirty details. The obscene ones."

"No." He hefted her against his chest and rose.

Her heart skipped, slamming against her rib cage as her breath caught. "Tell me," she snarled--or tried to snarl, only without air it came out as a gasp, a begging plea that used up all the oxygen she had left.

He didn't answer. He dropped her on her knees on one side of that odd, two-sided bench and bent her over the center section of it. He pulled at her jeans, drawing the button and zipper free in one hard yank. Her heart started pounding, her pulse throbbing everywhere. She could hear the blood rushing in her ears, could feel it between her legs, an ache that wouldn't go unanswered this time.

She tilted her head to toss her hair from her face and blinked at the wide metal rings affixed to the opposite side of the bench. They were clever, nearly invisible unless you knew to look for them, but once she did she found more on the sides. "What is this thing?"

Jasper's nails scratched her skin as he pushed her jeans and her panties down. "Ask Dallas. He'll show you."

Oh God, this was familiar, too. The bite of the bench against her stomach, the scrape of fabric over her thighs, that heady mixture of anticipation and helplessness that came from being exposed. Last time she'd wanted too much--or too fast--and it had twisted into disappointment.

Not a mistake she wanted to repeat, so she tried to shove away anticipation and focus on his words. "Dallas isn't here. Can you show me?"

"Sure he can." Lex closed the door behind her and smiled at Noelle. "I know where the cuffs and chains are."

Cuffs and chains.

Yes.

She was drunker now than she'd been last night, drunk on the possibility of having everything she wanted at her fingertips. Smiling, she spread her arms wide across the back of the bench, her fingertips inches from the rings. "Then maybe you should show me."

Lex dragged two leather cuffs and a thick length of chain from the bedside table drawer and walked over. She leaned in to kiss Jasper with a pink flash of tongue, then unhooked Noelle's bra. "We don't want to rip this."

Dazed by the sudden tangle of emotions, Noelle let Lex coax the fabric down her arms. Seeing another woman kissing Jasper should have made her jealous. Maybe it had, a little, but only a dull niggle that tasted as much of what she should have felt as what she really did. Arousal. Belonging. She wanted them to kiss. Kiss each other, kiss her--one got her as hot as the other, because no one would be left on the outside and wanting. Not this time.

Lex tossed aside the bra and stood there, her hands on the bench, and she didn't move them until Jasper said, "Touch her before you put on the cuffs." Then she lifted her hands to Noelle's face as Jasper slid his lower, drawing the denim all the way down.

Noelle shivered and met Lex's eyes. "Kiss me?"

Lex tipped her head back and drew her thumb across Noelle's bottom lip before licking it. The sensual shock lasted only a moment before a greater one overtook it--Jasper's tongue across the small of her back.

"That's right," Lex murmured and kissed her, her mouth open and seeking. Wet warmth and the tang of liquor, and Noelle moaned into the other woman's mouth as Jasper slipped off her shoes and her jeans and spread her legs wide.

He molded his hand to her pussy, cupping her before easing one finger over her clit.

She cried out against Lex's lips as the jolt of pleasure jerked her entire body. It was too much, too fast, the kind of overwhelming sensation that had her using the leverage of the bench to squirm her hips up and away from such direct contact.

Jasper pushed her back down with a firm hand on her hips. "Chain her."

Lex broke the kiss and buckled the first cuff around Noelle's wrist. "What made you pick the bench?" she asked softly.

"It was the closest--" She yanked against the chain as Jasper's finger brushed her clit again. The sound was breathtaking, the rattle of iron and the kiss of it sliding over leather. Noelle whimpered and uselessly tried to twitch her hips out of Jasper's grip. "I didn't pick it on purpose."

Lex fastened the second cuff and ran her thumb over it. "If you like this, you'll be glad. So glad." She took a step back and started unbuttoning her shirt.

It wasn't a show, not like when Lex danced on the stage, but Noelle couldn't tear her eyes away as fabric teased apart, baring tawny skin stretched over sleek muscle and intriguing curves.

She wasn't wearing a bra. Naked from the waist up, she moved closer, until one nipple hovered near Noelle's mouth. Jasper reached out, curled his fingers in the top of Lex's skirt, and dragged her across the remaining space.

Not a verbal order, but a command nonetheless. Noelle swiped her tongue experimentally across Lex's peaked nipple. It hardened under her touch, even more when she closed her lips around it and sucked hard.

Jasper slipped his fingers away from Noelle's clit to thrust two inside her. Wide and stretching but shallow, only to the first knuckle. "Show me your tongue. I want to watch you lick her."

She was having too much fun listening to Lex make satisfied little noises, and she liked the way Jasper growled when she challenged him. Ignoring the aching demands of her body, she paused only long enough to say, "I'm busy," before catching Lex's nipple again, this time with a wicked smile.

"Lex?"

She shivered and moaned, even arched her back before meeting Jasper's gaze. When she did, she twisted her hand in Noelle's hair and jerked her head to one side, forcing her mouth open.

It hurt, hurt in the good way that started as pain and dissolved somewhere between her brain and the juncture of her thighs, where her inner muscles squeezed tight on Jasper's fingers as her entire body seized for one long shudder.

Someday she'd ask if it was meant to be a reward, part of the game and something they enjoyed as much as she did. Someday when she wasn't floating on the illicit thrill of closing her eyes and parting her lips in newly earned obedience.

"You like that, don't you?" Lex's voice was thick with desire.

A rhetorical question. It had to be, because the words hadn't yet died in the air when Jasper drove his fingers deep into Noelle, all the way in, and rocked them inside her.

This time there was nothing to muffle the sound, not of her cries and not of metal slapping against leather as she tried to rear up. Lex hadn't left much slack in the chains, and Jasper's hand at her lower back kept her hips pinned.

No retreat, no leverage, nothing to do but twitch as his blunt fingertips massaged inside her, moving in a seeking pattern that made little sense until he brushed something that brought her thighs together as she whimpered and fought to rock away.

Noelle hadn't heard the door open, but Dallas's low chuckle drifted over her. "You got her over the bench and didn't bother tying her legs? Lexie love, get me the rope. The silk one."

"I don't know where it is," she said lazily.

"Liar." His reply was every bit as easy, but the hand he wove in Lex's hair made her grip on Noelle seem gentle by comparison. He fisted the strands and hauled her up from the bench with a roughness that made Noelle's heart pound as Lex's eyes clenched shut. Dallas licked the shell of her ear. "The silk rope, Lex. And maybe the pearls, too. You know which ones."

After an eternity, she nodded. "I know."

He released her hair and swatted her hip. "Go." Then he turned to Jasper--and Noelle. Her cheeks warmed under his amused, appreciative gaze, especially when he stepped forward to brush a fingertip down her jaw. "Do you like pearls, kitten?"

There had to be more to the question, unless Dallas's enjoyment of buying Lex jewelry extended to draping her in it while they had sex. But trying to determine what that more might be was impossible with Jasper's fingers so deep inside that she could barely draw breath. Her thighs ached from clenching together, but she couldn't make her body relax, not when every instinct conspired to protect her from the agonizing pleasure she craved.

Jasper whispered against the naked curve of her hip. "Settle down, honey, and answer him."

She shuddered and nodded. "Yes. I like pearls."

"Good." Dallas circled the bench and smoothed one work-roughened hand over her hip and down to the back of her thigh. "Can you get her knees apart, Jas? Or do you need a little help coaxing her to open up?"

"She'll open for me." Jasper eased his fingers free of her body to urge her legs wide again, and apparently he could do what she couldn't--demand her body's obedience.

Lex came back with strands of pearls and two lengths of silk rope. She wound the rope loosely around Dallas's neck and nuzzled his temple. "Are the pearls for her or me?"

"Maybe both." Dallas winked and tossed one of the ropes to Jasper before wrapping the other around Noelle's thigh. She shivered as much at the touch of his hands as the rope sliding over her skin. He looped it carefully around her leg, just above the knee, and threaded it through one of the iron rings. "Tell her what's special about the pearls, Lex."

She teased the end of one strand over Noelle's bare back. "If she tells me what Jasper did with his fingers that nearly flipped her off this bench."

Noelle didn't know how to describe it, didn't know the words, though they had to exist. Something that powerful must have a name, a name spoken in hoarse whispers and broken pleas. "He--he touched me. Someplace inside me."

"Your G-spot." Lex sounded sure as she rubbed a few of the pearls over Noelle's skin in rhythmic circles. "If he can do that with his fingers, imagine what he could do with these."

"In--inside--" Instinct tried to pull her legs together again, but the ropes held snug, tied firmly to the base of the bench. She truly was helpless this time, her body spread wide and primed to explode, and all she could manage was a throaty, hungry moan.

Jasper leaned over her, his chest bare now and pressed to her back. "You want it, sweetheart?"

It would drive her beyond herself, fracture her world. She panted for breath, every gasp chafing her nipples against the supple leather, but before she could form a reply, Dallas stepped into view again and smiled. "Hardly a fair question when she can barely imagine what you're offering." Dallas lifted a second strand of pearls from Lex's grasp, letting it trail down to reveal several feet of round, shiny beads strung tightly together. "Why don't we show her, Lex?"

She toyed with the short hem of her skirt. "Right here?" She sat sideways on the unoccupied side of the bench. It left Noelle hovering over her, and Lex tilted her head back, rubbed her cheek against the leather.

Dallas laughed. "Naked. You want to give her a good view, don't you?" He didn't wait for an answer--Noelle was starting to notice that he never really seemed to expect one, as if he couldn't imagine a world where he wasn't obeyed--and tugged at her skirt as he winked at Noelle. "I heard you were watching pre-Flare porn before you got booted from the city. Do you like to watch people fuck, kitten?"

Like was the perfect word for how she'd felt about those scratchy videos. Like. A pale, numb word for the sorts of pale, numb feelings she'd had in Eden. Safe feelings, without the ability to cut as deep as her passion for Jasper, but likewise unable to evoke a fraction of the tangled, wild sensations twisting her into knots.

"I liked the porn," she told him, wiggling to feel the ropes dig into her flesh. Sharp, raw...so good. "I think I could love watching people fuck."

Lex laughed, low and a little drunk, just like Noelle felt. "Dallas isn't going to fuck me, baby girl. Not the way you think of it."

"Lots of ways to fuck," Dallas countered. He caught Lex's hips and tipped her back on the wide seat, her hair spilling off the end as he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her skirt. In the next moment, he slid her skirt and panties both down her legs, a smooth motion that left Lex sprawled naked--and Noelle wondering how much practice it took to get that good at stripping women to their skin.

Lex caught her breath and gripped the chain that bound Noelle, rattling it in the rings that anchored it. "There are those wide eyes again, Jas."

He chuckled, his breath blowing across the back of Noelle's neck. "I think that's what you like most, Lex."

Dallas made a rumbling sound, a laugh that didn't quite form but lingered in his chest instead. One broad hand closed around Lex's ankle, the one closest to the bench, and he dragged her leg up until Noelle could have craned her head and kissed the other woman's shin.

That didn't seem to be his intention, though. He checked where Lex's thigh brushed Noelle's arm and adjusted the angle a little before nodding to Jasper. "Right about here will give our girl a nice view."

Jasper wrapped one huge hand around Lex's calf, his thumb stroking over her skin, and dropped his other hand to Noelle's hip. "Watch," he whispered.

She barely had a choice, but that wasn't what drew her gaze to Dallas's hand as he tracked his fingers down Lex's leg to her pussy. He used the blunt tip of his middle finger to part her folds, teasing his way up to brush around her clit before working his way lower and deeper. As Lex arched off the bench with a shaky moan, Dallas spread her other thigh wide and buried his finger in her body with a satisfied growl. "She's already so fucking wet. You two get her running hot."

Lex opened her eyes and met Noelle's gaze. Then she jerked the chain harder and smiled. "She'll find out soon enough, won't she?"

"Why wait?" Dallas fixed his hypnotic stare on Noelle, and she felt as trapped by his eyes as she was by the chains and rope, by the bulk of Jasper's body pressing down on her.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him raising his hand, but she couldn't tear her gaze from his until he lifted his slick finger to her lips with a growled command. "Suck it."

Noelle almost hated herself for how quickly, how eagerly, she obeyed. Then again, all she did was part her lips and Dallas was there, plunging his finger deep, working it back and forth between her lips with an obscene thrusting rhythm that her hips tried to match. Her inner muscles clenched around nothing, intensifying the ache of being so empty.

She licked the oddly addictive taste of Lex off his finger with quick, obedient strokes, each one a silent plea he ignored, except to growl again. "If you're half this enthusiastic with a cock in your mouth, it's a fucking miracle Jas ever puts his pants on."

Jasper bit the back of her shoulder. "Tell him about the last time you sucked my dick."

The last time had been the first time, the only time, and it was only natural that the realization led to the fantasy of Jasper circling the bench to thrust his cock into her mouth, into her throat, though she still hadn't learned how to take him that deep without choking and God, right now she wouldn't care.

Dallas slid his finger free with a soft pop and caught her chin. "What happened last time you sucked him off?"

It was getting easier to say the things she never could have imagined before, even if her voice wavered and cracked at the most embarrassing moments. "He came on my face. And my neck. And my--my breasts."

Laughing, Dallas released her and reached for the string of beads. "I guess that's another way to get a pearl necklace. These look gorgeous wrapped around Lex's throat and tits, but not as good as they're about to."

He echoed Lex's earlier movements, rubbing a few of the smooth spheres against the woman's skin, low on her abdomen. She trembled under his touch and locked her fingers around his arm, her nails digging into his skin. "Please, Dallas."

Quiet but needy, close to begging.

Noelle knew how she felt.

But Lex's torment was nearly at an end. Dallas used one hand to part her folds--No, corrected Ace's voice, mocking even in Noelle's imagination, her pussy lips--and used one finger to nudge a long loop of pearls inside her body, the soft click of the beads knocking together undercut by Lex's harsh groan.

She twisted, thrusting her hips toward him. "More."

Noelle held her breath as he repeated the process again and again, pumping his finger in and bringing another few inches of the long strand with him each time. "This is what we'll do, Noelle," he said in a hoarse voice, speaking over Lex's whimpers. "Everything Jasper wants to do to you, I'll do to Lex first. And if you want it, you wrap your tongue around the dirty words and you beg him to give it to you."

Noelle whimpered, too, shifting her hips as much as she could. "I want it. I want that."

"Uh-uh." Dallas rocked two fingers into Lex and flexed his wrist, doing something to the pearls inside her that made her entire body jerk. "Tell her you want the details, Jas."

Jasper straightened and moved his hand from her hip. For the longest moment, he didn't touch her at all--and then his hand fell heavy around the front of her throat. "Say it, sweetheart."

Before Noelle could speak, Lex sucked in a breath and released it with a curse. "Fuck. Fuck." The chain rattled again as she dug her teeth into her lower lip and struggled against both men's restraining hands.

Lex's pleasure turned her own arousal sharp enough to cut. Noelle squeezed her eyes shut and forced out the words, each one slicing through her self-consciousness until the plea tumbled from her lips. "I want the pearls in my pussy. Please, Jas, please let me have them, please let me come."

Instead, his touch vanished again.

Noelle bit off a panicked moan as her heart slammed into her throat. He'd lied, he'd lied and he was going to leave her like this, begging and wanting and always empty, always starving--

Dallas caught her chin and lifted her head. "Easy, love. He went to get something. We've got you."

Jasper stared at her as he walked back to the bench, a small bottle in one hand. "She doesn't trust me yet," he muttered.

"I do," Noelle protested weakly, but Dallas pressed his thumb over her lips before she could say anything else.

"Don't lie," he told her softly. "It's not just something you do, it's something we earn. Let us earn it tonight, kitten." He used his grip on her chin to turn her face toward Jasper. "Look at him. Look him square in the eyes. Don't think about forever, think about tonight. Can you trust him to take care of you tonight?"

Still ashamed by her weakness, she nonetheless lifted her gaze to Jasper's. His eyes were dark, endless, and there was a wariness there alongside the hunger. Even lashed to a bench, physically helpless, she had the power to hurt him. Not only with words, but with something as visceral and silent as a moment of fear.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. The next words were harder, because she had to say them knowing that a wrong one might end the night, like it had before. She had to take the step over the edge of the cliff, blind and willing to shatter if he stepped away and let her fall. "I promise to trust you."

The words rolled over him, relaxing a little of the tightness in his eyes. "Maybe you shouldn't yet, since I'm not giving you what you asked for." When he stepped behind her, his slippery fingers skated over her pussy but didn't linger. He touched her ass instead, probing between her cheeks. "Not exactly."

His fingertip pressed against her back passage, stretching the tight ring of muscle with a painfully pleasurable jolt that startled a cry out of her. Her gaze found Lex's, and she whimpered a question she hoped the other woman could understand.

Her leg was still propped high against the middle of the bench. She lowered it a little, reached up and brushed the back of her hand over Noelle's jaw. "Relax, baby girl. He'll make you feel good. All you have to do is let it happen."

Noelle panted as his finger pushed harder, and this was pain, the kind she wasn't supposed to like but couldn't stop craving. Her clit pulsed with every slow twist of his finger, and she caught herself rocking mindlessly against the leather padding, reveling in the friction against her nipples.

There was only one thing to say. One thing to beg for. "More."

Her name melted into a pleased rumble as Jasper gathered the second strand of pearls and drew them up the inside of her thigh. "I'm going to put them in your ass, darling. Should we let Dallas decide what I put in your pussy?"

She was so distracted by the sensation that the truth tumbled free, the naïve, silly truth. "I never knew there were so many possibilities."

"Everything you ever wanted," Lex whispered, slipping her fingers into Noelle's hair just as Jasper pressed the first of the pearls into her ass.

It was impossible to define the feeling of intrusion, impossible to narrow it to only one feeling at all. She seesawed between the giddy burn of the tight muscles resisting to the heady relief each time he pushed the widest part deep enough for her body to do the rest.

She lost count after three. It could have been only a few more or a hundred, she only knew that she felt full and empty at the same time, and when the next little sphere popped into her body, she moaned and tugged against Lex's grip in her hair. "Tell him what to put in my pussy," she whispered, not even stumbling over the word. "Anything, anything, please, just something..."

"Like what, kitten?" Dallas bent and licked the corner of her mouth with a teasing laugh. "Do you like steel? Something long and hard? Or do you like the way those little round pearls feel pushing inside you? I have a second set of big brass balls, you know. Lex screams when I fill her up with those."

"You're an impossible bastard," Lex rasped as she released Noelle's hair and scratched her nails over Dallas's chest.

"Mmm." Dallas caught her hand and bit the inside of her wrist. He trailed his other hand between her legs and ground a doubled-over string of pearls back and forth over her clit.

Lex cried out, shocked and sudden. Her skin flushed, and her hips jerked up with every rough caress. Noelle had never been this close to a woman in the first grip of orgasm. It looked agonizing--Lex's entire body tensed, muscles taut and face fixed in an openmouthed grimace. It could have been mistaken for pain if Dallas hadn't driven another round of cries from her throat with a twist of his wrist.

"You like watching her." Jasper's breath tickled Noelle's ear as he parted her pussy wide and slipped two fingers teasingly over her entrance. "You could make her come that hard."

Noelle squeezed her eyes shut and tried to chase his hand with her hips. The rope around her thighs had no give, but spreading her knees wider gave her enough slack to rub against his fingers with a pleading noise. It didn't embarrass her anymore, not when need had burned away everything else. "I need to come, please let me. Please."

Those two fingers pushed just inside her and rubbed in a slow circle. "You don't have to beg, sweetheart. Not for this." A little deeper, but before she had time to focus on the delicious stretch, Jasper tugged on the string of pearls.

She squealed when the first popped out, triggering a shudder of pleasure that swept up her spine and was still rocking her when the second slipped free and sent her spinning into release. Her toes curled and she jerked at the chains, desperate for something to cling to as her inner muscles spasmed around his fingers in short, sharp clenches, each one releasing a wave of liquid heat that flooded her limbs.

He slid his free hand down her back. "Shh. Just ride it, Noelle."

Somehow, Lex was on her knees now, her lips pressed close to Noelle's ear as Dallas stroked her back with the same soothing possessiveness alive in every touch of Jasper's fingers.

There was no choice for Noelle but to ride it, to tremble as the waves gentled to rolling swells, and the spasms came farther and farther apart. Her head drooped, but Dallas wrapped his hand in her hair and tugged gently, guiding her chin up until her neck was arched under Lex's lips. "She's ready," he murmured, looking past her to Jasper.

She wet her lips. "Ready for wha--?"

He growled and moved his fingers again, pumping them in slow, sure strokes. "For this."

Pleasure, which had been a lazy, sleeping thing, roared up, dragging her right back to the edge. Dallas tightened his grip in her hair. "Does Lex have permission to leave marks?"

Lex made a soft noise and nipped at Noelle's earlobe. "If Jas doesn't want me to, he'll have to stop me."

Jasper groaned and thrust his fingers home--hard and fast. "Do it."

Noelle didn't have time to ask what they meant. Dallas guided Lex's mouth to her throat with a rumbled, "Bite her," and Lex's teeth closed tight on her skin as Jasper twisted his fingers deep in her pussy. Pain and pleasure crossed paths somewhere in between and melted into hollow, blind need.

She had time to anticipate it, time for her muscles to tense. Time for her body to teeter on the brink as she strained and panted and scratched her fingernails helplessly on the leather bench. Please was the only word she remembered, and it didn't matter if Jasper expected her to beg.

She couldn't stop chanting the word, not until he eased another finger into her pussy and curled all three against her G-spot as he began to slowly pull the rest of the pearls out of her ass.

If she could have gotten free she would have squirmed away after the first stroke. It was still too intense, more jolting sensation than pure pleasure. But every touch built on the last, and he had a sadistic sense of timing. Stroke. Tug.

Stroke. Tug.

Stroke--

She cried out when the third pearl jerked free, cried out as her entire body drew taut in the prelude to something massive. She closed her eyes and strained toward it, strained until she was stretched in all directions, trembling with a tension that would kill her if it didn't snap.

Jasper pulled the finals pearls free, one after another, and she catapulted past bliss into oblivion.

»»» § «««

Lex lit a cigarette and watched Jasper as he stroked Noelle's hair. "Is this how she was with you and Ace when she got her tattoos?"

"Close." So close, but even that couldn't compare to the open way she'd embraced ecstasy this time. Jasper had felt the difference, the absence of any sort of walls or space between them. "She's perfect."

"Mmm." Lex took a deep drag from the cigarette and passed it to Dallas. "If I'd known, I would have tried to fuck her already."

Dallas leaned against his massive mahogany headboard and eyed Jasper with a shake of his head. "You're a dumbass if you still doubt whether she's into it."

"I never doubted that." It just wasn't that simple.

"If you say so." Dallas dragged Lex up against his bare chest and offered her the cigarette again as Noelle murmured something and rubbed her cheek against Jasper's shoulder.

Dallas's grin widened. "You coming back to us, kitten? You came so hard you passed out."

Noelle made a grumpy noise and nuzzled her face against Jasper's neck. "I'm not a kitten. Or a princess."

Lex nudged her with one bare foot. "Or a baby girl, huh?"

Noelle huffed, but Jasper felt her smile against his collarbone. Whatever else, she liked the teasing, and the genuine fondness Lex obviously felt for her stirred his banked desire. Noelle had made passes at Lex while she was drunk or craving touch, but how deep did that attraction go?

Lex caught his look and grinned. "Watch it, Jas. She needs to pace herself."

"Pace myself at what?" Noelle twisted in his lap.

Jasper drew the tip of his finger around her nipple. "Too much, too fast. You need a break, or you really will be finished...and I haven't kept my promise yet."

She shivered, her nipple tightening under his touch, but she reached down, her fingers splaying across his cock. "What about you? Do you need to pace yourself?"

Yes. The word tripped up on his tongue, and he guided her hand over his cock, a firm pressure that left him thrusting against her touch.

Noelle smiled and peeked at Lex from beneath the tousled fall of her hair. "Can we have another lesson?"

Lex's gaze was dark as she studied both of them. "If we both suck Jasper's cock, he might not be able to fuck you later. You gonna let Dallas do it instead?"

Jasper growled and opened his pants. "I'm not a kid, Alexa, and I'm not Dallas. I won't blow just because you put your tongue on me."

Dallas leaned over to snuff out his cigarette. "I don't know which one of you to spank."

Jasper freed his cock, stroked it slowly, and watched Noelle. "What do you think?"

She twisted to straddle his knees, flushed and beautifully naked and, for once, seemingly oblivious to it. She wrapped both hands around his shaft and studied it with adorable seriousness. "If you come now, will it be hard to...to get hard again?"

Just that bare touch made his balls tighten. "Right now? Hell, no."

Her fingers trembled as she traced them up to the crown, then circled her thumb around the head. "How do I take him deep, Lex? How do I take all of him?"

"I'd show you..." Lex leaned over and slipped her thumb into Noelle's mouth before slicking it over the head of his cock. "But I don't think he has a healthy appreciation of my talents."

Jasper ignored the pleasure skating up his spine and wound his hand in Lex's hair. "Behave yourself, and you might end the night with a healthy appreciation of mine and Noelle's talents."

"Don't waste your time, Jas." Dallas slapped Lex's hip. "She doesn't behave. Do you, love?"

"For nobody but you." She stretched out on all fours, her ass high in the air. Dallas smoothed a hand over it and smiled at Jasper, looking pleased with himself and the world in general.

Noelle seemed pleased by Lex's proximity too. She left one hand wrapped around Jasper's cock, but the other touched Lex's cheek as Noelle leaned in to kiss her. "Teach me," she murmured against the other woman's lips. "I want to make him come."

Lex's dark gaze went soft. She wouldn't do it for anyone but Noelle, and the thought of that link aroused Jasper. The three of them could fuck without Noelle, but it wouldn't be the same as coming together to teach her, to show her the pleasure to be had under the right hands and mouths.

"Suck me," he whispered, slipping his fingers from Lex's lips to Noelle's.

Lex licked Noelle's mouth, all the while guiding her down toward the head of his dick. "Put your tongue on him first." Lex demonstrated with a long, slow draw of wet, pink tongue up the underside of his shaft.

Jasper's breath caught, and he held it as he waited.

Noelle's gaze flicked to his, and she smiled softly and licked the other side of his cock without tearing her eyes from his.

He gritted his teeth as they ran their tongues over his rigid flesh, sometimes tangling together in an openmouthed kiss, but never stopping. When his cock glistened, wet and slick, Lex wrapped her hand around the base of his shaft and pushed Noelle's head down.

Noelle didn't hesitate. She slid her lips around the head and suckled a moment, her eyes glinting with mischief, before she pushed lower, taking another two inches.

Even in the hot grip of her mouth, Jasper found himself distracted by the sway of her ass in the air. Lex caught the direction of his stare, smiled slowly, and spanked Noelle hard enough to drive his dick deeper into her mouth.

Oh, hell yes.

Vibrations from her helpless moan fluttered her tongue against him. She flailed for a moment, hands groping wildly for something to cling to before finding his forearms.

"Mmm." Lex laid her cheek on the back of Noelle's shoulder. "She likes that."

Dallas rolled from the bed and padded toward the bulky mahogany cabinet pushed against the wall. "You gonna let Lex spank her?" he asked, glancing back at Jasper as he tugged open the doors. Inside lay his extensive collection of leather straps, whips and other toys, all expensive and most custom designed by crafters in the sectors.

If Jasper said no, Noelle was liable to bite him. He opened his mouth, but all that came out was a groan, and he had to nod his assent.

Chuckling, Dallas took down a leather crop with a square tip graced with a heart-shaped cutout and tossed it onto the bed. "Get started, Lex. I'm going to consider my options."

She slipped the leather strap around her wrist. "Options for what?"

"What you're going to do to her. And what I'm going to do to you."

"Good." She traced the end of the crop over Noelle's ass, then wound a hand in her hair and pulled her head up gently. "Jasper's never hit you with anything but his hand, has he?"

Noelle peeked at him as she answered. "No." She rubbed her lower lip against the underside of his cock and smiled. "His hand was impressive enough."

Lex rolled her eyes with a grin, a tease meant for Jasper alone. "We'll have to get him one of these. Unless you'd like a paddle better..." The crop zipped through the air and landed on Noelle's skin with a smack.

She jerked, her fingernails digging into his forearms as her lips formed a silent O of surprise. He'd seen the expression on her face before, knew that the excitement that accompanied her shock would have her pussy wet and clenching.

He could draw her into his lap and fuck her, have Lex spank her ass in time with every deep thrust. Or he could let Dallas call the shots, exert enough power and dominance to get Lex off just as hard as Noelle.

Dallas made the decision for him, sliding onto the bed near Jasper's feet to deliver a swat of his own to Noelle's ass. "Take his cock back into your mouth, kitten. Suck him deep." Dallas twisted his hand in Lex's hair and grinned at Jasper. "And Lex will do whatever Jasper tells her to. Won't you, love?"

Lex muttered something, but her retort was lost to the roaring in Jasper's ears as Noelle obeyed Dallas's order, enclosing him in the willing heat of her mouth only to sink down until he bumped the back of her throat.

"Jesus." He touched her head but didn't dare sink his fingers into her hair. He'd hold her there without even meaning to, and he knew it.

"They make a picture, don't they?" Dallas's voice was raspy, his gaze intense as he clutched Lex's hair and stroked her bare hip. "Hit her again, Lex."

She bucked against his touch. "I thought you said Jas was--"

Jasper cut her off. "Do it."

Lex practically hissed at him, but she straightened and brought the crop down on Noelle's ass--a different spot than before, and Jasper watched, spellbound, as the pale flesh reddened. Her ass wiggled as she squirmed, but her moans were muffled this time. Even with her body trembling, she kept working his cock, driving down far enough to gag herself before easing back.

"Such a good girl," Dallas murmured, stroking up to tweak one of Lex's nipples. "Do you like that, kitten? Like how his cock feels, shoving so deep you can't breathe? Lex loves it when I fuck her face until she chokes on my dick."

"You're lucky, Declan." Lex swung the crop once more, twice. "Any other man who tried it would lose some precious parts."

Noelle moaned, her entire body rocking as she panted. "I like it," she gasped, raising her gaze to Jasper's. Her lips were swollen, her eyes glazed. Tangled strands of her hair stuck to her face, but she made no move to push them aside.

She just stared at him, open and hungry and so clearly willing to take any pleasure--or pain--he offered.

He could give her this.

"Turn around," he rumbled, reaching for the leather crop. "It's Lex's turn. Dallas will show you what to do."

Noelle eased around on wobbly knees to face Lex, who knelt near the foot of the bed. Dallas crawled onto the mattress behind her and clasped her inner thighs, pulling them wide as he lifted her to straddle his own spread knees.

Lex laughed as she reached up and wrapped her hand around the back of Dallas's neck. "He's been waiting for this, baby girl." She licked her lips. "So have I."

When Noelle hovered uncertainly, Dallas winked over Lex's shoulder and slid his hands up her thighs to stroke her pussy. "Crawl on over here, honey, but keep your ass in the air for Jasper."

Noelle obeyed, going to her elbows in front of Dallas and Lex. Her ass was already reddened, except for the tiny heart-shaped spots of pale flesh left untouched by the paddle's cutout.

Jasper rolled the long, thin handle up over the bowed curve of Noelle's back. Her pussy was wet, the swollen lips pouting for his touch, and he indulged himself by stroking one hand down the length of his erection before speaking. "You want me to spank you?"

Her shiver made her entire body sway for him. "Yes."

Dallas met his eyes and nodded once, silently giving him control of the moment. A rare concession, a true gesture of trust--especially since it was Lex in his lap, Lex he was turning over to whatever happened next.

Jasper released a breath. "Lex left some beautiful marks back here. She deserves a reward, I think." He flicked the crop against the side of Noelle's hip. "Lick her cunt. Make her come and I'll fuck you."

No hesitation. Noelle rocked forward with an eager sound as Dallas used his fingers to spread Lex wide. "That's it," he rumbled, his gaze fixed to where Noelle's tongue darted out in quick, nervous licks. "Lick her all up and down. But if you want to hear her squeal, suck on her clit."

Lex choked on a moan and lifted her hips. "Slow and a little rough."

Noelle obeyed as effortlessly as always, licking where Dallas told her to lick and sucking Lex's clit hard enough to set the woman thrashing in Dallas's iron grip.

Jasper swatted Noelle every time Lex cried out, leaving red marks on her thigh, hip, and ass. "Dallas?"

"Your girl's got a clever tongue no matter where she puts it." Dallas licked the side of Lex's throat with a rough laugh. "Tell him, Lex. Tell him how close you are."

She whimpered instead, and Jasper caught only a glimpse of her glazed eyes as she turned to catch Dallas's mouth in a bruising kiss. But he'd seen her balanced on the edge of orgasm before, her restless movements and flushed skin, and she was close.

Damn close.

Jasper dragged the crop down Noelle's back and leaned away just far enough to slap the flared leather end hard against her pussy.

Her reaction was everything he hoped for. Trembling thighs and a breathless moan, the wildest of her noises muffled as she--judging by Lex's indrawn breath--redoubled her efforts.

Dallas broke their kiss with a rough laugh and curled his hand around the front of Lex's throat. "Look at those big eyes, Lex. She's got her face buried in your pussy and she's loving it. Maybe if you're good, Jasper will let you get your fingers in hers."

"I'm always--" The strained words cut off in a violent curse and then a wail as her head slammed against Dallas's shoulder. She gripped the back of Noelle's head and shuddered, her chest heaving.

Noelle hummed her encouragement, the same as she had with her lips locked around Jasper's dick, but her knees edged apart and her hips lifted, a silent, desperate invitation for him to spank her again.

But he only leaned over her, his own body aching. "I promised," he whispered, then grasped her thighs and drove into her pussy.

She was so tight. Hot and tight, her body gripping him hard and giving way with reluctance. Her head snapped back, lips parted on a silent cry that melted into a moan. "Oh...oh God."

Jasper was vaguely aware of movement, of Dallas and Lex shifting on the bed, but his world had narrowed to Noelle. He dragged himself under control and rocked against her. "Yes?"

"Not empty." Her elbows slid to the side, unfolding as she spread her arms wide and pressed her cheek to the sheets. With her eyes closed and her lips parted, her profile seemed reverent. "You make me so full."

"Gorgeous." He could fill her up even more, try out all the toys in Dallas's room. One by one, until he found the ones that made her scream.

She shifted her hips restlessly, easing away and then back with a hiss. "Are you all the way in?"

Christ. "Not yet, sweetheart." He rocked a little harder and she sucked in a breath, her fingers curling in the sheets as her pussy clenched, impossibly tight around him.

"I want it all." She freed one hand and reached for him, her fingertips digging into his hip as if she planned to pull him into her by force. "Does that make me shameless?"

"That makes you hungry." One more hard thrust buried his cock all the way inside her. "It makes you mine."

"Yours." When she wrapped her lips around the word, it sounded like a prayer. The words that followed, though, were innocence corrupted. "I love having your cock in my pussy."

He stilled with another groan. "So fuck it."

Noelle peered back at him, her brow furrowing as she blinked her glazed, hungry eyes. "Fuck...fuck what?"

Innocence wasn't his thing, but the way she combined it with a sincere and abiding lust intoxicated him. Jasper rubbed the back of his hand over her hip. "Move, sweetheart. You want me? Fuck me."

Her eyes brightened with unfettered glee. She shifted her weight to her elbows again and rocked experimentally, only a few inches at first, but she still moaned as she shoved back, taking him deep. "I can fuck you," she whispered, repeating the movement. Her pussy gripped his cock, and she slammed her hips back, driving him roughly into her body.

"Someone's finding her power." The words drifted through Jasper's haze. Lex, amused as always, but with an edge of something biting. Envy.

Jasper glanced at the other side of the bed. Dallas had sprawled on his back with Lex on top of him, straddling his head and facing his feet--and his dick. Clearly displeased at her lack of focus, he slapped her hip and buried his face in her pussy.

Lex almost wrenched away before relaxing with a whimper, and she stroked Dallas's cock as it nestled between her breasts. "I was paying attention," she vowed.

Noelle twisted to study Jasper, her cheeks flushed. "Can we try that next time?"

"If you're good." A threat and a promise, all at once.

She shuddered and dropped her head, her hair tumbling forward as she lost herself in fucking onto his cock. "Like this? Is this being good?"

With her neck bared, Jasper couldn't resist. He slid his fingers under her throat, firm on her delicate skin. "Dirty. And so, so good."

Her moan vibrated under his fingers, and her pussy clenched. "You like it when I'm dirty?"

He tightened his hand and met her next movement with a hard thrust. She choked on a breathless noise and faltered, her steady rock turning into hungry little jerks, each one grinding back against him in search of something more, though he'd bet she wasn't even sure what.

The sound of palm cracking against flesh filled the room before Dallas spilled Lex to the bed next to Noelle. "Do you want to keep her to yourself the first time? Or do you want to share?"

The question from any other man might have sparked jealousy, but Jas felt only curiosity and certainty. Curiosity that Dallas would fuck a woman he hadn't collared--something he rarely did--and certainty that of course he would make an exception here, now. For Noelle, who was so beautiful, so responsive. So hungry.

"She's mine right now," Jasper muttered. "Next time, if she wants."

Dallas smoothed a hand down Lex's spine. "I wasn't asking for me. But if you're worried your cock can't compete with her tongue..."

A quick shift of his hips, and Jasper hauled Noelle up against his chest, careful to keep most of the pressure from his arm on her shoulder, not his hand on her throat. The position left the front of her body bare--and, with her knees on either side of his, open. "Like this?"

Dallas leaned over Lex, still half-clothed, grinding against her bare ass as he brushed his lips over her ear. "Look at her. All stretched wide and waiting for you. Do you wanna play with her?"

"Don't you?" Lex reached out.

Jasper couldn't see what she did, but he felt Noelle's reaction--a sharp jerk as her breath hissed out. Her hands flew to his hips, clutching for balance, and the movement arched her back and thrust out her breasts.

Grinning, Dallas rolled from the bed. "What do you want, kitten?"

Noelle's throat worked beneath Jasper's hand. "Everything."

"Uh-uh," Dallas chided. "Not good enough. Be a dirty girl and beg for what you want. I know you want something, I can see it in your eyes."

Pleasure pulsed up Jasper's spine as she squirmed before craning her neck to meet his eyes. Her cheeks were pink, her gaze adorably uncertain.

He kissed her softly. "We can't read your mind, sweetheart. But if you tell us what you want, we can give it to you."

The tip of her tongue darted out, wetting her lips in a nervous gesture. "How do I know if it's a bad thing to ask for?"

Time to find out how much she liked the spankings. He met Dallas's gaze over her head. "If it's bad, all the better. If it's too bad, we'll have to punish you."

"Oh yeah, we will." Dallas waited until Noelle looked at him again before turning to retrieve a simple pair of leather cuffs with a short length of chain between them. He tossed them on the bed between Jasper's knees. A bottle of lube followed, and two shining steel butt plugs with jeweled ends. "Lex, tell her how we punish bad girls."

Lex licked her lips, her attention riveted to the jeweled plugs. "You make them scream."

Shuddering, Noelle dropped her head back and rocked her hips restlessly. "I want her to do to me what I did to her. To--to lick my clit. Even though you're inside me..."

"Mmm." Lex bent her head, touched her tongue to the soft inside of Noelle's knee, and then blazed a wet path up her thigh. "I could get you both off like this."

She licked the base of Jasper's cock first, slow and firm, and he couldn't stop his hips from flexing in a short thrust as her tongue disappeared, traveled upwards, and Noelle groaned, lifting both hands to Lex's head as she pushed closer to her mouth.

Dallas grinned at Jasper, wound a hand in Lex's hair, and jerked her head back so her tongue hovered just shy of Noelle's body. "Ask again. And none of that bullshit about how he's inside you. Tell Jasper you want him to slam his cock into your tight little pussy. Tell Lex you want her to suck your clit until you come on her face."

Noelle whimpered and reached for Dallas's wrist, trying to pull Lex back. He held firm, and she sucked in another pleading breath.

Jasper could hear her voice wrapped around the words already--the lilting, embarrassed hesitation over cock and pussy--and he had no idea how he'd last if she actually said them out loud. But even if it hurtled him over the dizzy edge into orgasm, it didn't matter. Lex was there, Dallas, and either of them could fall on Noelle, lick and stroke her until she came just as hard as he had.

So he released her throat and gathered her arms behind her back. "Lex could suck me instead. And we could hold you right here, like this. Waiting."

"Lick me," she choked out, twisting desperately in his grip. "Please, please."

Dallas laughed and rubbed his fingers between Lex's legs, working her pussy while Noelle watched in tortured frustration. "You can do better than that, kitten."

Noelle sucked in a breath and slammed her head back against Jasper's shoulder, her entire body convulsing as the words burst out of her in a ragged cry. "Fuck my pussy, fuck it with your cock, I want it, I want to be fucked and--and sucked and please--"

He gave her one slow thrust as Dallas let go of Lex. "I go first," the woman whispered huskily before lowering her mouth again.

Every exploring, teasing lick made Noelle jerk against Jasper's chest. He held her still, and by the time Lex finally moaned and focused her attentions, Noelle had started rocking her hips, obviously desperate for a more intense touch, a specific sensation.

More.

Dallas swept up the lube and trickled it onto Lex's ass without warning her. "Don't be greedy, love. Give Jasper a turn."

She kissed her way up the center of Noelle's body, pausing to swirl her tongue around one hard, puckered nipple. "I am greedy." Then she dropped her hands to grip Noelle's hips and kissed her, driving her tongue past her lips.

Noelle whimpered, straining against Jasper's grasp to get closer. When her head tilted, their lips slipped apart enough to show Jasper a flash of tangled tongues, Noelle chasing Lex back into her mouth with an aggression that would have been impossible to imagine a few short days ago.

He gritted his teeth, locked one arm around Noelle, and resumed his rocking motions. Deep but not easy, angling his hips with every thrust and grunting as her body clasped his, slick and hot.

The bed dipped as Dallas knelt behind Lex. He gathered her wrists, coaxing them from Noelle's body. She broke the kiss, tilting her head to his as he cuffed her hands behind her back.

A laugh, heady and drunk, as Lex rubbed her cheek against Dallas's. "I lied. Now it's my turn."

"Maybe it's mine," he rumbled, slicking his hand down to tease her clit. "Everyone's had someone's face in their lap but me."

"You get cranky when you're horny." She closed her eyes and circled her hips under his hand.

With his other hand, Dallas reached out to pinch one of Noelle's nipples, tugging at it until she cried out and jerked in Jasper's arms. "Why don't we let them fuck, then, and see what we can do about it?"

In minutes, the two of them would be too wrapped up to notice anything. Jasper pulled free of Noelle's body and eased her to the bed, coaxing her onto her back. "Look at me."

She blinked twice before her gaze focused on his, already reaching for him. She clutched at his shoulders and tugged, trying to draw him closer. "I don't want it to be over."

The night had to end. "We'll just start again," he promised, sliding into the cradle of her hips.

Her brow furrowed and her lips pursed as she lifted her hips, grinding her pussy against his cock. "You're not inside me," she protested. "Are you going to make me beg?"

As much as she seemed to like the idea, he shook his head. "I can't right now." He reached down and held her still as he drove into her again.

Noelle cried out. Her legs tangled around his hips, her fingers curled around his shoulders, even her lips wrapped around his name as her pussy tightened, her pleasure driving his. He hooked his arms under her legs, pushing her knees toward her chest, and began to ride her.

The first time he hit her G-spot she sobbed his name, her nails pricking his shoulders, and started begging. Not as coherent as the words Dallas might have demanded, but plenty filthy. She pled for his cock, begged him to drive it deep, to take her, fuck her, and each time he slammed home the words broke a little more, until she was making choked noises as she teetered on the edge.

His entire body pulsed with need, the kind that prickled over his skin and narrowed his world to Noelle. Jasper cupped her shoulders and moved faster, harder, ignoring the Siren call of release as he commanded her to come. "Now."

"I can't--" The protest died with his next thrust. Her eyes squeezed shut and she twisted, digging her head back into the bed as the first tremors of orgasm began with her clenching pussy.

One more thrust and she came, screaming.

A fucking earthquake couldn't have kept him from following her in a rush of heat that scalded him from the inside out, stripped away the last of his defenses. He shuddered above her, in her, spilling as she contracted around him, milking his cock.

She kept shuddering even after he stilled, whimpering every time an aftershock shivered through her. Her lips moved, mumbling the same hoarse sounds over and over. "Oh, God...oh my God."

Jasper let her legs down and rolled so that Noelle was on top of him. Her hair spilled across his shoulders as she panted openmouthed against his chest, every breath out accompanied by a twitch of her hips. "Jasper..."

"Shh." Words were for other things, things that didn't matter just yet. Right here, right now, they didn't need anything else.