Where's the fun in a woman who'd never stab you just a little, if you pissed her off bad enough?"
"You like to live more dangerously than I do."
Dallas patted her hip. "No danger. You wouldn't stab me anywhere important, would you, love?"
Before she could answer, a melodious chime rang through the hall. The call to dinner, and whatever entertainment Cerys had devised. It was guaranteed to be illicit--Sector Two took cultured debauchery to heights unimagined even by most of the O'Kanes. For once, Dallas wasn't relieved to be spared more conversation. Watching Lex sharpen her tongue on bastards like Mac Fleming revved him harder than anything Cerys could have planned.
Fleming and his bodyguard drifted toward the long table, but Dallas slid his hand around Lex's abdomen to hold her back. He splayed his fingers wide over the skin bared by her corset--the skin marked with his name--and lowered his mouth to her ear. "I should have brought you with me years ago."
She dug her nails into the back of his wrist. "I'm here now."
Two steps to the left and he had her up against one of those ridiculous columns. It seemed a lot less ridiculous when he had Lex pinned to it, her hands trapped under his, her leather-clad ass rubbing against his cock. He found her ear again and bit it roughly enough to draw a moan from her. "If you were wearing a skirt, I'd be in you already. I'd fuck you right here, while they sat down to dinner."
She wiggled and moaned again when he held tight. "Why? To show them what a big man you are?"
"No." He swept her hair aside and bit the back of her neck this time, setting a mark in her smooth skin. He'd have Ace do it for real someday--that much he'd already promised himself. For now, he used his teeth before licking the ravaged spot. "Because watching you wield a verbal knife gets me hot. Slice up that jackass from Seven over dinner, and I'll make it worth your trouble tonight."
"You're gonna do that anyway."
He knew Lex. He'd paid attention to all those trysts he'd pretended not to notice, had filed away the pleasures Lex pursued again and again. He knew how to stir fantasy to life. "Maybe I'll invite Bren or Mad to help me. Maybe both."
Lex shuddered. "You're a dirty tease, Declan."
"Only I get to fuck you." He tugged at her hair, arching her head back until she had to meet his eyes. "But they're creative. They'll think of a dozen ways each to get you off."
Her eyes fluttered shut, and she snapped them open again. "And you, telling them what to do, every step of the way."
He kissed her, hard and abrupt, a promise more than anything else. Her lips tasted too good for him to linger, or he really would decide fucking her was better than gritting his teeth through awkward dinner chatter. He stepped back and smoothed her hair back into place. "I am the king, darling."
Her gaze raked over him, head to toe. Her breathing was just short of steady, and a delicate flush colored the skin above her corset. "I hope that means you can fake dinner conversation with my hand around your cock. You deserve the distraction."
He almost thought she was joking, but he shouldn't have. They'd only been seated for a few minutes when Lex landed her first verbal blow on Sector Seven, undercutting Colby's crudely leering greeting with cool ease. The lights dimmed before the man could recover, and a dozen of Cerys's girls glided into view, draped in transparent scarves and enough sparkling jewels to impress men used to pretty things.
Dallas appreciated the beauty of woman debauching each other, but Cerys's little show always lacked heat, honesty. The girls were pretty, no doubt, and flexible in ways some of the dancers at the Broken Circle would envy. But there was an emptiness to their movements, almost an innocence, if you could call a woman innocent as she was spread wide and stroked by a half-dozen hands before being flogged to supposed ecstasy.
For all their artful moans and graceful thrashing, Dallas couldn't see past the choreography. The other men never seemed to notice, but they weren't used to watching Lex and Noelle crawl all over each other, their tongue-tangling kisses hot because they weren't really meant for anyone else. Even on a stage, with a crowded bar of men riveted to her every move, Lex never let anyone forget she