who I am. But I'll come to you first, and be honest about it. Because I'll always choose you. Over power, over money, over everyone and everything. You just have to believe it, okay?"
"I do." Part of her always had--the part that had held her back from seeking more of Dallas's attention over the years. It was safer, in a way, to flirt with that devotion rather than submit herself to it...and then have it snatched away. "I need to come first. Well, me and the gang."
"Hey." He caught her chin. "Everyone and everything. Get it straight in your head, woman, 'cause it's too late to back out."
"Stubborn ass."
"Whose stubborn ass?"
Lex wrapped her arms around him, relishing the heat of his bare skin against hers. "All mine."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ace had always had a hard-on for symbolism and subtext.
With the bulk of Lex's hair wrapped around his fist to keep it out of the way, Dallas watched Ace lay the final lines on Lex's new marks. His own throat and shoulders still stung with the reminder that he'd gone first, and the knowledge that they'd soon be a matched pair pleased the darkest, most possessive urges Dallas had.
Or maybe it was just seeing his name--his given name, his real one--curled across the nape of her neck in stark black ink, a private claim no one could refute. Ace had risen to the challenge of marking his king and queen, crowning an elegantly understated version of the O'Kane logo. Dallas's was set in bloody barbed wire and Lex's in thorny rosebuds, but both faux-collars ended the same way--with the name of the person who held them together.
Knowing ALEXA stretched across the back of his neck was almost as satisfying as watching DECLAN take shape across hers. Ace might be a cocky pain in the ass, but sometimes Dallas was reminded how much the bastard deserved that attitude.
Ace swiped a hand across the back of Lex's neck and patted her shoulder. "Almost done. You hanging in there, sister?"
"It doesn't tickle," she murmured, "but I'll make it."
Dallas shifted his grip on her hair and bent down to meet her gaze. "It looks fucking fantastic. And hot."
The corner of her mouth kicked up in a smile. "You'd better think it's hot. That's my skin he's marking up."
With the way she was bent forward over the chair, he could have stood up and given her an eyeful of just how hot he found it. Not that a blowjob was his top fantasy right now, as sexy as Lex could make it. He wanted to stare at that ink as he rode her, every thrust made sweeter by the promise staring back at him, the one that said forever.
"Uh-uh," Ace said loudly enough to interrupt his fantasy. "I recognize that look. I'm glad as hell you two aren't fighting anymore, but no getting frisky while my needle's near someone's neck."
With a laugh, Lex reached out and wrapped her fingers around Dallas's. "I recognize that look, too. And he has a point."
Dallas spared Ace a glare and turned his attention on Lex. "No sex," he agreed before lifting her hand to his lips. He kissed one fingertip, then sucked it between his lips to flick his tongue over it in the most suggestive way he could manage.
Her laughter died, and she released a shaky breath. "Have it your way, but it's on you if Ace fucks up my ink because you had me squirming."
"Christ, you're worse than Jas and Noelle," Ace muttered, swiping a cloth over the back of Lex's neck. "Thank God I'm done. Let me slap some gel on there, and you crazy kids can go fuck each other silly."
Ignoring him, Dallas crouched down to bring his gaze level with Lex's. "Hi, darling."
"Hi." She grinned. "Isn't it cute how he seems to think we're going to clear out of here before we get dirty?"
"Oh, I don't think he'll mind until he realizes he does have to clear out."
Ace's head popped around the side of Lex's body. "Wait, what? You're gonna screw in my studio, and I don't even get to watch?"
Dallas cupped Lex's cheek. He'd come so close to losing everything, but because of her strength and her heart and her willingness to trust again, he'd never have to face the world alone. "Our studio," he corrected absently, smiling as he rubbed his thumb over Lex's lower lip. "Isn't that right, love?"
"Ours," she whispered, leaning into his touch.
Nothing in a life of scrabbling for power had prepared