Chapter Twenty

At least Noelle had the night off.

Jasper threw back another whiskey and banged his glass on the table. "You're slow with the refills tonight, Mad."

"You're quick with the drinking." Maddox tossed his hair out of his eyes and paused to flash a rakish grin at the next table over. The women--groupies Jasper had seen a dozen times before--giggled and ducked their heads together, whispering behind their hands. Satisfied, Mad slopped whiskey into Jasper's glass and topped off the others as well. "Pace yourself, or you'll be drooling drunk before Ace is."

Ace made a crude gesture. "Bite me."

"I'm not looking to get that drunk," Jasper groused. It might be easy, but it was also weak. There wasn't a damn thing about his situation that wasn't of his own making, and he didn't deserve to run from it.

She'd stayed. The damn woman had stood in this very room, looked at him and said, "Okay." Okay to the end of them, okay to going back to the safety of Eden. Okay.

And then she'd stayed.

If that wasn't a giant fuck you, he didn't know what was.

Ace planted his elbow none too gently in Jasper's side. "Brother, if you glare at the table any harder, it's gonna piss itself."

Jasper elbowed him back. "I'd be happy to glare at you instead."

"At least it'd be progress." Ace sighed. "Come on, man, you've got to do something. Live life. Get in a fight. Find some fucking pussy."

Jasper drained half the liquor in his glass. "Not all of us run at full-bore manwhore all the time like you. We work and sleep sometimes too."

"Whoring was only one of the options," Ace muttered. "But fuck it. Whatever, keep brooding."

Mad took a swig directly from the whiskey bottle. "You've got shit for tact, Ace."

The stage was still dark, and Jasper eyed it moodily. "Who's dancing tonight? I could try my luck with that." It couldn't go worse than his fling with Noelle.

Ace shot him an amused look, his earlier irritation forgotten as only Ace could manage. "Doubtful. I'm pretty sure Lex took someone's shift."

Well, fuck. Even if Jasper had felt like braving that minefield, he couldn't close his eyes and picture Lex naked anymore without also picturing Noelle kneeling between her thighs, eating her pussy.

"Yeah," Ace said, as if Jasper had spoken. "I thought so."

"Dallas doesn't feel much like sharing lately," Jasper mumbled, then finished his drink.

Giggles drifted up from the table beside theirs, and Mad tilted his head. "Uncomplicated is easy to come by, if that's what you're in the mood for. There's only two of them, but I'll share."

A damn generous offer, when you got right down to it. Every one of the O'Kanes knew Jasper was nursing a bruised heart, so everyone around was bending over backwards, going out of the way to cheer him up.

Well...almost everyone.

He shook it off. "It is what it is, right? This too shall pass? Got any platitudes to add?"

Mad shook his head. "You're handling the clichés just fine on your own."

The house lights dimmed, and soft music began to play. It was so unlike the usual tracks chosen by the dancers that Jasper blinked. "This doesn't sound like Lex's sort of thing."

"No, it doesn't--" Ace started. A single light flared on the stage, and his eyes widened. "Oh, sweet mother of Christ."

Lex was sitting in a chair, dressed in demure white lace and silk. It was completely different from her usual act--until the music deepened into a rhythmic throb, and another woman, this one dressed in red, slithered onto the stage.

Jasper's heart kicked into high gear, his body reacting before his brain caught up.

Noelle.

Everything about her was sin to Lex's sweet. A blood-red corset hugged her torso, topped with low black ruffles that barely hid her nipples. The ruffles at the bottom didn't hide black lace panties or her smooth thighs, the pale skin bare and lush in the soft light.

She came to a stop behind Lex and pressed both hands to the other woman's shoulders, pausing for a moment to let the men drink in the sight of both of them. Her hips swayed, a gentle roll with the music more than an actual dance, and she caught one of the ribbons holding Lex's virginal white top together...and tugged.

It was a dirty, dirty game, and Jasper couldn't look away.

The ribbons yielded one at a time, baring Lex's skin in the slowest tease the stage had ever seen. Ace shifted in his chair, muttering something too low to be understood. Mad just stared, unblinking, as Noelle wrapped her hand around the front of Lex's throat.

With the stage lit and the floor dark, there was no way Noelle could see him in the crowd, but her gaze still swept straight to him as she bent low and closed her teeth on Lex's earlobe.

Lex gasped, and Jasper felt an answering tug in his gut as his balls tightened. The perfect show, a role reversal. Innocent little Noelle playing the seductress, while Lex submitted with astonishingly convincing wonder.

Not that Noelle looked innocent now. She teased Lex's gown open far enough to bare her breasts, and Ace bit off a curse as Noelle licked her thumb before teasing one of Lex's nipples to a hard point. "Fucking hell, Jas. You tried to send her back to Eden? You're brain dead."

"Shut up, Ace. I mean it." Oh, she was teaching him a lesson now, all right. Showing him all the ways she'd never fit in back in Eden, not anymore.

And it only got worse. Noelle stroked Lex. Teased her. She stripped lace and silk from skin with lingering touches, ground against the other woman's body, and left no possible room to doubt that she loved it.

"Holy shit." Bren yanked out the fourth chair between Ace and Mad. "I heard, but I didn't believe."

"Watch it," Ace warned. "Jas'll punch your face in if you comment on the beautiful thing happening on that stage."

"Like that'll stop me." Bren tilted his head as Noelle straddled Lex's thighs and rolled her hips. "Those two have no mercy, do they? A match made in heaven and hell."

"She's taunting Jas," Mad murmured. "That's one hard-ass lady. Lex's influence, I presume?"

"Or Jas just pissed her off that much," Ace said. "That's usually my job."

Jasper found himself nodding in agreement, so he stilled his head. "The whole damn thing is probably as much for Dallas's eyes as it is for mine."

Mad's laugh was mean. "Yeah, except he gets to curl up in between them if he wants."

"He'd be the only one anyway," Jasper rationalized. "He's always been possessive of Lex, and that shit's just getting more and more out of control lately."

"Coming to a head," Ace agreed. "Sooner rather than--oh hell, tell me Noelle's not going to--"

But she was. She slid to her knees in front of the chair, the stage lights gilding the perfect curves of her ass beneath her corset. Lex shuddered as Noelle slipped one questing hand up her inner thigh, closely followed by her tongue.

The whistles and calls from the audience almost drowned out Lex's cry as she arched her back and lifted her hips. She buried one hand in Noelle's hair, holding her in place, and raised the other to her own breast to pinch and tug at her nipple.

Ace forgot decorum--and the threat of Jasper's fists--and hooted along with the rest of the crowd. Jasper didn't care. He was riveted, locked on to the sight not only of Noelle but of Lex too. The abandoned, honest pleasure.

This was a message, all right, but it wasn't a fuck you, or even a look at what you lost, dumbass. It was a declaration, of independence and self-possession. Noelle's power, the spark of will that had always lurked inside her, in flames on the stage.

And she was beautiful.

»»» § «««

Distraction was a bitch. A painful, bleeding bitch.

Jasper shook his hand and flexed his fingers. Smashing his knuckles into the engine block the first time had been stupid but understandable. But not paying enough attention to the engine block in front of him meant not only a second smash, but also lacerated, raw knuckles.

"You should be more careful," Rachel admonished. "A bike like that'll bite you."

Jasper choked back an instinctive, foul retort and released a deep breath. "Thanks. I'll bear that in mind."

"If you're going to do more harm than good, stick to watching." Dallas wiped his hands on a rag before digging through his toolbox. "These bikes are the only perk we got out of that bullshit with Trent."

"And they're classically neglected." Rachel didn't bother to hide her disgust. "Spit shined and perfect, but running like hell. They could all use tune-ups, that one needs a new carburetor. It's ridiculous."

Everything Trent touched was like that--only the show had seemed to matter to him, not the foundation beneath. "The man ran his bikes the way he ran his sector," Jasper muttered.

Dallas grunted. "Pretty on the outside. Dom's still pushing to take over his organization, but the more Bren finds out from Six, the more I think Trent pulled this stunt out of desperation rather than ambition. His business was collapsing under him."

"What better reason to go up against the O'Kanes?" Jasper sat back and studied his bleeding knuckles. "He had nothing to lose."

"He was alive," Dallas replied flatly. "As long as you're drawing breath, there's always something to lose."

Rachel dropped the wrench she was holding and wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. "Well, obviously that wasn't enough for Trent. Not sure it'd be enough for me, either, though not remotely for the same reasons."

Dallas smiled at her, though the expression didn't reach his eyes. "You gonna get all wise on us, angel?"

She matched his expression, right down to the way it didn't seem happy at all. "Wisdom would be lost on you two knuckleheads."

"Ah, hell. Not you too, Rachel." Dallas abandoned the bike and crossed the garage to retrieve a beer. "Which of us are you planning to chew on?"

"You both deserve it." She rose, hopped up to sit on a workbench, and pointed at Jasper. "You need to stop thinking you get to decide what's right for someone else. Noelle has a whole life that you haven't lived, you know, so you can't make her decisions. Just yours."

Jesus Christ, now he had to defend himself to her, too. "Not that it's any of your business, but that's what I did."

"Yeah?" She arched one blonde brow. "I hope that's not true. I was assuming you were a dickhead, not a coward."

Dallas damn near choked on his beer. "What has gotten into the women in this place? You're slicing us all to hell and back."

"Uh-uh, don't talk to me. You're no better. You might even be worse." She shook her head. "At least Jasper's thing makes sense, in a twisted sort of way. But you're just a big mess."

"Do tell, angel. Don't hold back now."

She rolled her eyes at his flat, indifferent tone. "Dallas O'Kane, the only man I ever met who'd drop ten grand on pretty presents when a fucking kiss would do."

Dallas didn't flinch, didn't even blink. "And Jasper's sin?"

"The opposite. Not making any grand gestures at all, even empty ones."

The words cut, drove Jasper to his feet. "Look--"

"But." Rachel silenced him with one upheld hand. "The good news for both of you is that some women are stubborn. Even if they know when to give up, they can't quite seem to do it. So there's hope for you yet."

"Oh, there is, is there?" Dallas set his beer aside and returned to the dismantled bike. "It's good to see you have us both all figured out."

"Of course I do. You're not me."

He barked out a laugh. "Yeah. Easy from the outside, huh? Talk about nothing to lose."

"I never said I wasn't a hypocrite." She slid off the bench and bumped Jasper with her hip until he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Find me a prince, boys, and I'll be too blissfully happy to bust your balls."

"Ace is as princely as he's getting, doll."

Merciless teasing, and Rachel blushed so deeply that Jasper almost felt sorry for her.

Almost. He kissed the top of her head. "You had that coming."

"I know," she grumbled.

Rachel could be hotheaded, but she was also a damn good judge of people. And if she was willing to stake that judgment on the fact that, whatever else, Noelle might not hate him...

And Jasper's sin?

The hollow ache in his chest throbbed and expanded. The past week had been a miserable haze of work and not much else, a bleak snapshot of how barren the rest of his life could be.

Not making any grand gestures at all.

If he had a shot, he had to try. And if Noelle Cunningham wanted a grand gesture, she'd get the grandest fucking gesture he could find.