make me a king. Without you, I'm just another psychotic thug."
She framed his face with her hands and kissed him through a laugh. "I hope I don't make the thug in you disappear completely. I like him."
His answering laugh was low, relieved--and a little dangerous. Cuffing one of her wrists with his fingers, he dragged her hand down until it covered the hilt of the knife. "How much do you like him?"
Enough to give him what he needed, forever. Even if that meant promising violence to keep him from crossing her lines. She closed her hand around the handle of the knife. "Enough to stop him if it's too much."
He stroked a warm path down the side of her neck before gripping her throat, his hand settling high enough to tilt her chin back. "You're worth getting a little cut up. Just don't stab anything you'll want in working order later."
"Smartass."
He just laughed. He was still laughing when he snapped the braided straps on her tank top and jerked the fabric free of her breasts. He caught one nipple in his mouth and sucked hard, the edge of his teeth scraping her flesh.
Lex abandoned the knife and scratched her nails across his bare back with a shiver. "I saw you in that cage. Thinking about this."
"No you didn't." He lifted his head, giving her the full impact of his half-crazed eyes. Need and triumph and bloodlust, and he licked his lips as he thumbed her damp nipple, as if the taste of her lingered on his mouth. "I was thinking about you on your knees, so hot for my cock you'd suck it all night long. Because I'm a psychotic thug and a goddamn barbarian."
"And a horny bastard." She skated her fingers around his rib cage and reached for his belt buckle.
He let her get his belt open before stepping back to lean against the side of one of his favorite cars, a sleek little pre-Flare antique he'd lovingly restored with years of tinkering. Spreading his arms along the roof of the vehicle, he grinned lazily at her. "You can bring the knife with you if you want. It's fucking hot."
Instead, she left it on the worktable and walked toward him. "I used to do this all the time. Right here in the garage, remember?"
"Your mouth isn't the sort of thing a man forgets, love."
"So you've told me." She slipped to her knees and looked up at him, unable to resist rubbing her palm over the hard bulge beneath his fly. "Sometimes I think you don't even care how it feels, you just want to see it. Me, on my knees, with my lips sliding around your cock."
He inhaled sharply as his eyelids drooped. "It doesn't suck."
"Then watch me." Her voice dropped to a yearning whisper as she tugged at his zipper. He had to know what this did to her, being able to wrap her hand around him and hear his breath catch. To see every muscle in his body tense when she freed him from his pants, to hear him groan when she stroked him.
"Only one thing could improve the view," he rasped as she licked small circles around the head of his cock.
She squeezed his shaft and lifted her head. "What's that, honey?"
He bared his teeth in a feral smile. "Ink. Marks."
"Ink." Her nipples tightened as heat rushed through her to settle between her thighs. "Tell me what you want. And try not to scratch the car." She took him deep but not hard, gripping the base of his shaft as she sucked him lightly.
"Fuck." His hand fell to the back of her head, impatient desperation clear in the hard press of his fingertips. "Matching ink, you and me. Something fitting for a king and queen. For Dallas and Lex."
She hummed, the image already forming in her mind--an early version of the O'Kane symbol, stripped down and simple, with a crown for each of them.
Beautiful. Right. She sucked harder, flicking her tongue against him.
"And I want your name on my skin," he continued. "Yours. Alexa."
His fantasy, and she couldn't fulfill it without words. She pulled away and coaxed another curse from him with one smooth glide of her fist. "And your name on me. Do you want everyone to see it...or just you?"
"Just me." The words were a growl. "Declan is yours."
"Mine." She licked him again, base to tip, and moaned.
Growling, he thumped his free hand against the car hard enough to rattle it. "Quit teasing, or