Another rough hit slammed him against the cage bars, and Noelle winced. “He’s not going to fight back?”
“Sure, he will.” Rachel grinned and passed her a shot. “When he’s had enough.”
Their scattered comments coalesced, formed a cohesive whole, but Noelle still couldn’t quite believe what they were saying. “He likes getting beat up?”
Nessa snorted. “Like? Try gets off on in a major, seriously hot way.”
“She means that he’s a masochist.” Amira dropped to the couch with a sigh and draped her legs across Lex’s lap. “He derives sexual pleasure from pain. Intense pleasure, apparently.”
Noelle’s cheeks flamed. She very carefully didn’t look at Lex, and didn’t blurt out there’s a word for it? either. She did rub her thumb across the inside of her wrist, remembering the tiny stabs of pain as the needle pierced her skin, each one an irritation on its own, but all of them together burning through her into something hot and hungry. “Oh.”
“Oh, she says.” Rachel tugged at a lock of Noelle’s hair. “Bren’s a special case. Most of the people I’ve met who like pain are subs, but not him. By all accounts, he’s damn bossy while you’re whipping him.”
A roar went up from the crowd, dragging Noelle’s attention to the cage just in time to catch Bren twisting his opponent’s arm high behind his back. “So he really is playing with the other guy? He could win whenever he wants to?”
“You don’t know?” Amira cracked open a fresh bottle of water. “He was on the military police force in Eden. Special Tasks. He could snap that guy’s neck without breaking a sweat.”
Belatedly, Noelle drained the shot Rachel had handed her. She needed it as she studied Bren again. Within Eden, people barely admitted that Special Tasks agents existed. The city of the future should have no need for men trained to stalk and kill…but of course they did.
“That explains a lot,” she said faintly. “About how he can fight so well, I mean. I don’t know what to think about the rest of it.”
Lex raised an eyebrow. “You plan on fucking him?”
Noelle made a face, remembering how gently he’d rejected her the night of her party. “Even if I were, I don’t think he’s interested.”
“Then why do you have to think anything about it?” Lex slipped out from under Amira’s legs and walked off, into the crowd.
Rachel watched her go. “Jesus help us all. She’s in a mood.”
Apparently so. Lex had already disappeared into the mass of bodies, and Noelle didn’t think she’d appreciate being followed. “It’s not something I said?”
“Maybe,” Nessa told her, patting her shoulder awkwardly. “Or not. You’ll never know. That’s the beauty of Lex.”
But Amira shook her head. “It’s Dallas. Has to be.”
“Ah, yeah.” Nessa blew her bangs out of her eyes and gave Noelle a speculative look that left her squirming. “You were with them the other night…”
She trailed off, as if inviting Noelle to fill her in on all the gritty details. Maybe that was common—sex and gossiping about it. Or maybe Nessa was nosy and Lex wanted her privacy.
Not that Noelle had anything useful to contribute. She’d spent the night so wrapped up in Jasper that Lex and Dallas could have had a fight a foot from her head without her noticing. “They seemed fine then. Though Dallas did come around this afternoon to tell us we can’t leave the compound alone.”
“That could be it,” Rachel observed. “She doesn’t respond well to orders. Which means half the time, she’s giving Dallas the finger…”
“And the other half, he’s giving it to her,” Amira finished, holding up her hand.
Nessa slapped her palm. “And his thumb too, when she’s lucky—oh Lord, have mercy and look out. Bren’s had enough.”
The man in the cage swung, and Bren caught his opponent’s fist in one hand. Another swing, with the same result. When he held both of the man’s hands trapped in his, Bren grinned ferally and headbutted him. Once, twice. The man swayed, dazed, as Bren released him.
Then he dropped to the floor, unmoving.
The crowd cheered, and even Nessa bounced up off the couch with a triumphant shout. Caught up in the excitement, Noelle raised her voice, too. She’d never cheered before, but it turned out to be the most natural thing in the world. Her shouts rose to meld with the other voices, made her as much a part of the group as Nessa’s arm around her shoulders.
Dallas was the one who hauled open the cage door and gestured for someone to drag away the fallen man. Noelle watched his lips move, though she couldn’t hear what he said over the din in the large room. Bren answered with a curt nod, and a scuffle broke out between several of the women standing near the cage.
Amira made a disgusted noise. “Girl, look at that pushing and shoving. No pride whatsoever. Bren’s hot, but you don’t make a fool of yourself over a man who isn’t yours.”
Bren seemed to have come to the same conclusion. He stared at the women surrounding the cage door for a moment, then stepped out and stomped past them, his chest still heaving.
Was that how she looked to Jasper? Desperate? Worry gnawed in Noelle’s gut until she remembered she’d been in the warehouse for at least twenty minutes without scanning the faces in the crowd for him, much less throwing herself at his feet like the pouting girls in front of the cage.
Of course, the thought of him forced her gaze through the throng until she spotted his familiar profile in the far corner. He was standing next to a man Noelle had never seen, one with O’Kane tattoos winding up his bronzed arms. Coal black hair fell rakishly over his eyes, and he smiled when he caught her staring, an expression as wicked as any Ace had ever offered her.
Noelle looked away before Jasper could follow the man’s gaze and find her mooning over him. “Who’s the man with Jas?”
“That’s Maddox.” Rachel tipped back another shot. “Just got back from a trip south of the city.”
“Ace will be disappointed,” Nessa said, reaching for a drink of her own. “Mad’s just as charming, but he’s got these eyes… Oh, you could drown in them. I mean, if you weren’t already drowning in Jasper.”
“You should meet…” Amira trailed off and winced. “Oh, yeah. They’re fighting.”
Noelle followed her gaze and saw Lex headed for the back exit with two rough-looking men trailing behind her. They were dressed almost like Nessa—ripped jeans, big boots, and lots of silver jewelry flashing under the bare lights—but the tattoos covering every bit of available flesh were even rougher. Gawkish. Nothing like the breathtakingly detailed work Ace did, so maybe he had earned a little bit of his ego.
Nessa groaned and drained her shot. “Lord save me. Dallas is going to be unlivable for the next week, and I have to deal with him.”
“He doesn’t own her,” Rachel said firmly. “If he wanted to lock that down, he could. We all know it.”
“You mean with the marks?” Noelle asked, glancing at Amira’s throat. What would it be like to have Jasper’s ink wrapped around her neck? To feel the needle and know each stab of pain said mine and forever? Her body tingled at the thought of it.
“He could start off with a collar.” At Noelle’s confused look, Amira explained, “It’s a less permanent option.”
“But otherwise it’s pretty much like being marked,” Nessa added. “Totally at the guy’s mercy. Man, I don’t even know. Dallas is hot enough to melt a girl’s panties, but we’re all pretty much at his mercy already. Can you imagine how much more intense it’d be if he collared you?” She shook her head. “Maybe he knows better. Lex would try to kill him, and that wouldn’t end well.”