"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