the club for the night and hold it in the Broken Circle. Dancers, but not any of our girls. Everyone needs to be shined up pretty, but I want you to double-check the lieutenants and their women. And no sweet white lace for Noelle. The two of you will be front and center, and I want you both as fierce as you get."
"Dallas," she chided softly. "I know how recruitment works."
"I know. But this is a whole new playing field." His fingers curled around the back of her neck, commanding and possessive. "For all of us."
Lex shivered. "I'll get it done."
"Tomorrow." A word that allowed no argument, and he didn't give her a chance to make one. "You got plans tonight?"
"Asks the man who just barged into my bedroom," she whispered. "Would it matter if I did?"
"Maybe." His grin returned, edged in wicked promise this time. "But mine are better."
"Yeah? Why don't you tell me about them?"
He reached into his pocket and dragged out a two-foot length of black silk. "Were you telling the truth about your fantasy?"
Her mouth went dry as the implications of the silk hit her. "I wouldn't make something like that up."
"The blindfold is for me," he admitted, watching her with dangerous intent. "But the hands and the mouths and all that comes after... That'll be for you, if you trust me and take it."
If you trust me. There was no going back. If she denied him now, they'd lose the careful, fragile balance they'd fought so hard to find. And if she said yes...
Could she say yes?
Lex swallowed hard, held his gaze in the mirror, and nodded. "You won't let anything happen that I don't want."
He smiled and settled the silk over her eyes, dropping her world into darkness. His breath danced over her ear as he tied it, and his words...
Wicked words. Evil words. "Jasper and Noelle know all about what you want. They're waiting for you already, and you're right. She's so hungry to touch you. So are Ace and Mad. But they still know you're mine."
"Six of us?" she asked, her voice hitching over the question.
"Two of us." The knot pulled tight, and he dragged her head back. "Don't ever forget it, Lex. I don't care how many people are piled on a bed, in the end it's still about me giving you what you want and getting off on getting you off."
No, it would always come down to just them. Everyone else, no matter how cherished a companion, was secondary. No one else could compete because no one else was Dallas.
No one else was her.
Lex relaxed against him. "They can touch me," she murmured, "but they can't have me. Only you."
"Damn straight," he said, then hauled her out of her chair and into the air.
The world spun around her, all the more dizzying from behind the blindfold. She landed across his shoulder a heartbeat later, pinned by a strong, unforgiving hand dead center on her ass.
Lex dug her nails into the small of his back through his shirt. She could only track their progress through the disorienting dip of his steps and the sway of his turns. It seemed to take an eternity, but finally he paused, and she heard his boot thump against a door.
The next thing she heard was Noelle's familiar laughter, low and sultry. Dallas strode forward, and footsteps whispered past her to the right before the door clicked shut.
Were they all there already, watching? Waiting? Lex tried to slow her breathing, but the anticipation that prickled along her skin had kicked everything else into high gear, too.
He stopped after half a dozen paces--too few to be near his bed--and let her body slide along his as he lowered her to the floor. "Kitten, I know how you love to undress Lex. How about you crawl on over here and get started?"
Hands. A touch she would have recognized, even without Dallas's pet name, tugging at the belt on her robe. The satin slithered to the floor, and Noelle traced her fingers up Lex's sides. "You're so beautiful."
Lex opened her mouth, but the hot sensation of lips grazing her hipbone turned her words to a gasp. Not Noelle, not with the rough rasp of beard that chafed as the mouth moved, opened, followed by the wet heat of a tongue soothing her skin.
"Jasper thinks so, too." Noelle's fingertip brushed the edge of Lex's bra and followed the line of lace until she reached the bow nestled between her breasts.