He selected the two largest irons and set them into the flames. “Let me know when you think it’s safe to loosen the girl’s leash. I’m not ready to give her free run of the place, but she doesn’t need to stay locked up all the time.”
Bren hammered the last nail into place. “I’ll let you know when I think you can turn her over to Lex.”
He couldn’t hold back his snort. “I don’t think Lex is looking for another playmate. She’s pretty well enamored of Noelle.”
Bren pulled up short and eyed Dallas with a shake of his head, then returned to the task at hand with an unintelligible mutter. This time, Dallas didn’t feel like poking for an answer he didn’t want to hear. He knew what it would be.
Turn her over to Lex.
Like Lex was his damned queen. Like she wasn’t off screwing a couple of street brawlers just to remind him that he could own her allegiance, but he could never own her body. The harder he closed his hands around her, the more she’d slip away…and the thought of losing her for good made him want to wrap her in chains.
Maybe he should. He could use the excuse of Trent to slap that collar around her throat and show her how good it would be.
If she’d take it. If it would be enough.
No, no use pretending, even to himself. It would never be enough. Not a collar, not a mark. He wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than all of her—mind, body and soul—and Lex would never give up that much control. They’d destroy each other. He’d destroy her, and that was the one thing he couldn’t bear. Better to take what he could get and leave them both whole.
Mostly.
Chapter Sixteen
In Noelle’s imagination, her seduction of Jasper had started differently.
For one thing, in her imagination she’d had time to prepare. To take a bath, to pick the perfect outfit. The perfect underwear. The perfect jewelry, all wonderfully illicit, turning her on before she even reached his door.
Her fantasy hadn’t included a sick waitress, a club full of rowdy drunks, and Dallas deciding they would damn well stay open until the idiots stopped throwing around fistfuls of money. By the time the bouncer rolled the last one out the door, Noelle was frazzled, a little disheveled, and caught in some jittery place between exhausted and so hyped up she could barely sit still.
She almost decided to forgo the entire thing in favor of a quiet hour unwinding in Lex’s tub and a night of sleep. But as she found herself in the long hallway that led to Jasper’s rooms, then at his door, the truth was stark and undeniable.
He was how she wanted to unwind, even if it meant nothing more than the chance to kiss him before she went to bed without him. So when his door swung open in response to her knock she did exactly that, ignoring all of her careful plans in favor of rising up on her toes to seal her lips to his.
He lifted her in his arms, his mouth still on hers as the door slammed shut behind her. His tongue traced her lips, then eased between them, a lazy exploration he didn’t end until her back hit the wall. “Long night?”
“Endless.” Amazing how promptly her aching feet recovered once they were hovering three inches above the ground. She wrapped a leg around his and smiled. “Dallas wouldn’t close the doors until he’d emptied everyone’s pockets. But the drunker they got, the better they tipped.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
Noelle dug in her pocket and pulled out the thick wad of tightly rolled bills. She’d counted each one before adding it to the stack, stunned by how quickly they added up, and how freeing it was to realize they were hers. “As long as you promise to take me to the market soon. I promised Dallas I’d wait for you.”
“He’s coming down like that on everyone, not just you.” Jasper stuffed her money back in her pocket and started for the bathroom. “We’re all on restriction, for obvious reasons.”
“I know. Lex is in a mood about it.” Which was the politest way to describe her temper. Everyone had tiptoed around her today—except for Dallas. He’d acted like nothing was wrong, and that had only pissed Lex off worse.
Jasper set Noelle down and cut on the shower. “Dallas has his asshole moments, but this isn’t about some sexist bullshit. I think there’s something else going on with them.”
Noelle couldn’t argue with that, but she didn’t want to discuss it, either. Lex’s pain was too real—too raw—to make gossiping about it anything other than cruel. “Are we taking a shower?” she asked instead, watching as he fiddled with the knobs. Sex against the tiles would be delicious, she imagined, hard and slippery and quick, no time for the slow torment Jasper loved so much.
He made a noncommittal noise and stripped his shirt over his head before turning his attention to the hooks on her corset. Each gave way with a soft click, her breasts spilling free as he unhooked the final fastening and let the structured leather slide to the floor.
God, she loved the way he looked at her. He traced the very tips of his fingers across her shoulders and down the slopes of her breasts, stopping just shy of her nipples. “Want me in there with you?”
“Yes.” She arched her back, pressing up into his touch as she reached for his belt. “You’re all I want tonight. Just…you. Wherever, however.”
“However?” His hands dropped to her ass, and he dragged her closer.
The movement left her hands pinned between their bodies, her fingers crushed against the solid heat of his abdomen. His skin was so close to her mouth that she couldn’t stop herself from kissing him, parting her lips against his shoulder before stealing a taste.
She had to be honest. She had to say yes, before he even asked the question. “Maybe fucking, if you want.”
“Mm-hmm.” He released her and backed away. “Clothes, Noelle. Take them off.”
She started with her cutoff shorts, dragging the zipper open before wiggling the denim off her hips with enough gyrating to make Lex proud, though with a fraction of the other woman’s grace.
At least Jasper didn’t laugh at her.
She had to bend down to unfasten her shoes, presenting Jasper with an unobstructed view of her ass covered only by her favorite ruffled panties. That part of the fantasy matched her imagination, and she peeked up at him as she worked at the second buckle. “Should I take yours off next?”
He shook his head and unbuckled his belt. “Get under the water.”
His voice held an implacable edge. It was an order, for all the easiness of the words, and she slipped out of her underwear and obeyed.
He stood at the open shower door and watched her as he took off his pants. “I like the way the water drips off of you. The way your skin looks when it’s wet.”
Noelle shivered under his gaze, though the water was so hot steam drifted up around her. “I like the way you watch me. It makes me wetter.”
The shower stall seemed roomy—until Jasper stepped into it. He loomed over her, pressing her against the tile. “How wet?”
Words froze in her throat because it was hard to breathe with him stealing all the air from the tiny space. She wanted him so much that she started to reach for him, then hesitated and lifted her arms above her head instead. “You could touch me and find out.”
His erect cock nudged her hip as he closed the scant space between them and rested one arm against the tile. He slid his other hand down, over the crest of one breast and farther. To her upper thighs. “Open.”