Noelle wasn’t so sure. She’d seen the give and take between Dallas and Lex…but she’d seen Lex give in, too. Seen her melt for Dallas—all of her, not just her panties. “Maybe she’d feel differently if he offered instead of acting like he owns her already.”
Amira smiled. “Looks like you’ve got Lex figured out. Maybe you should clue Dallas in.”
Laughter came easier than Noelle expected, and it wasn’t because of the whiskey humming in her blood. She was as sober as she’d ever been, though maybe high on the feeling of belonging. “I’m not getting in the middle of that. I don’t want Lex to stab me!”
“That,” Rachel declared, “would never happen. She has a real soft spot for you, one she doesn’t even have for Dallas.”
“Because you’re sweet,” Nessa said. “And loyal. I’ve only given you about a hundred chances to dish all the dirty details about Dallas’s bedroom and what he gets up to in it.”
Noelle flushed. “I don’t—”
“Nah,” Nessa cut in. “It’s okay. I should go easy on you because you’re new, but I can’t help myself. I’m a compulsive gossip. Ask Amira.”
The tiny brunette nodded. “It’s true. She’s horrible.”
At least they wouldn’t be upset if she refused to betray Lex’s trust. Noelle rubbed her hands over her thighs and shook her head. “It’s not that I’m not used to gossip. That’s all the women are allowed to do in Eden. I’m just not used to women talking about sex so openly. Or…well, at all, really.”
“No harm, no foul.” Rachel straightened and rose, her eyes on the crowd. “I’m gonna go dance with Ace. I might actually let him touch me tonight.”
Nessa whooped her approval before slugging Rachel on the shoulder. “Make him work for it. Begging’s good for him.”
Rachel turned and tilted her head. “You know it.”
Noelle watched her thread her way into the crowd as another fight started between two men who weren’t O’Kanes. Ace was grinding between two blondes whose adoring expressions vanished when Ace abandoned them to wrap an arm around Rachel’s waist.
“Why doesn’t Dallas let more women into the gang?” she asked Nessa and Amira as the two groupies sulked toward the cage. “They all seem willing enough.”
“Yeah, willing enough to get laid and paid,” Amira said. “You think those two give a shit about Ace? I doubt they even know his name.”
Nessa nodded in sharp agreement. “You can tell the ones who care. Like Trix.” She gestured to the bar, where a pretty redhead in jeans and a tightly cinched corset poured drinks for the people watching the fight. “She started by coming to the fights, but she got to know the guys and the girls. Got a job and made herself useful. I think if she wanted to go for ink, Dallas would consider it.”
Presumably it was a much rarer occurrence than Noelle had realized, which said a lot about her own easy acceptance—or maybe more about Lex’s influence. Dallas had made it pretty damn clear he hadn’t expected Noelle to be of any use at all, which left Lex as her savior.
Lex…and Jasper. Noelle sought him out again and found him still deep in conversation with Maddox. “I guess there must be a lot of gossip about me, then. And how fast he let me in.”
Nessa actually turned a little pink. “Uh…”
Amira slid her arm around Noelle. “I think you’ve already figured out what everyone’s been saying, haven’t you? Lex and Jasper wanted you here, and that’s enough for Dallas.”
“Yeah, mostly that.” Nessa slid to the couch and mirrored Amira’s gesture. “We all love Jas, okay? And you make him happy. Growly and confused like a big dumb oaf, but that’s just because he’s a man. Men need to get used to being happy. Amira can tell you—no one did growly and confused like her big dumb oaf.”
She covered her face with her hands and laughed. “Flash was terrible. It was all this pushing and pulling, like he didn’t know what the hell he wanted.”
A weight Noelle hadn’t realized was there lifted, and she clutched at the words. “So that’s normal? Wanting more and then less, or speeding up and slowing down? Lex told me I should just go for him, but I don’t know what he wants.”
“In my experience? It’s totally possible he doesn’t know, either.”
That part was less reassuring. Noelle had to fight to keep a plaintive note out of her voice. “So what do I do?”
“Whatever you can,” Amira murmured sympathetically. “Whatever you want. That’s all there is. It falls into place, or it doesn’t.”
So, in the end, Lex was right. There were no guarantees, no easy ways. She could float through this, too, like she’d floated through life, floated through rebellion. Jasper might take her. If he didn’t, someone else could. She could be kept, marked, trapped in all the ways Eden had made her.
Maybe the secret was to make a choice.
Leaning over, she pressed a kiss to Amira’s cheek. “Thank you. I mean it.”
“Don’t thank me,” she demurred. “It’s all you. Remember that.”
“Remember what?” a deep voice rumbled behind them. Flash bent down to kiss Amira before resting his hip against the arm of the couch. His hand fell to the back of her neck, a protective gesture he barely seemed aware of. “You girls up to no good, I hope?”
“Hardly. Just some hot and heavy gossip.” Amira wrapped her arm around his thigh, as absentminded and possessive as his hand on her neck.
“A guy can dream.” He dragged his fingers through her hair. “I’ve got a little bit before my fight’s up, baby. Came to check on you.”
She rolled her eyes and swatted at his hand. “I’m the same as I was twenty minutes ago. I’ve been sitting on a couch, for Christ’s sake.”
“That’s our cue.” Nessa hopped up and dragged Noelle after her. “He’ll just get more and more annoying until we move so he can cuddle her.”
Flash’s glare was so growly, so grumpy, that Noelle broke out laughing. That earned her a glower of her own, but Flash circled the couch to claim their spot, and it was impossible not to melt when he eased Amira into his lap and wrapped both arms around her. One of his hands dropped to the curve of her belly, and his surliness evaporated.
Staying felt like intruding, so Noelle smiled. “I’m going to dance. I’ll be back later.”
Amira didn’t look up. “Bye.”
Nessa giggled and pulled Noelle out onto the floor. Rachel caught sight of them and tipped her head. “Over here.”
Ace swung his arms wide to pull the three of them into a laughing, hip-grinding tangle of limbs. “Who’s the luckiest bastard in Sector Four? I got all the hot O’Kane girls to myself.”
“Not all of them.” Rachel shifted closer, sliding one hand into his hair, and licked the corner of his mouth.
For the first time since Noelle had met him, Ace seemed at a loss for words. The easy rhythm of his hips faltered, and she was close enough to hear his groan, low and hungry, the realest sound she’d ever caught slipping past his lips.
Amazingly, with that one little touch, Rachel had damn near brought him to his knees.
Lex was definitely right. Noelle had to make her choice and make her move.
Soon.
Dallas
He’d been all of nine years old the day his mother had taught him the lesson that would define his life.
Life on the farm had been hard. The world his mother had known had been dead for a decade, but she’d never curled in on herself like so many of the weak and the terrified. Nineteen years old when the lights went out, she’d given birth to him six months later and had held on to her little scrap of Texas at the point of a shotgun, more than willing to kill to defend her son and the people who relied on her wits and strength.