Beyond Shame (10 page)

Jas considered pressing a foot to the man's throat, just to teach him a lesson, but backed off. "You're welcome."

"Fuck off, Jas." Dom pressed a hand to his bleeding face and rolled to his knees. "Next time, I'm smearing you all over this mat."

"You're gonna try." A redhead—one of the dancers, maybe—opened the cage door and offered Jas a towel and a smile as he walked out. Noelle, on the other hand, stood at the fringes of the cheering crowd, a beer in one hand and a bewildered look on her face.

If that had been all, Jas would have kept walking. But a fire burned in those big eyes—admiration and even pride, but not fear.

He took the beer from her hand and drained it. "Like the show?"

"It was..." Her fingers hovered over his chest before brushing the spot where Dom's fist had abraded his skin. Worry creased her brow, along with something darker. An edge, possessive and angry. "You must have let him hit you. I saw how fast you can move."

He caught her hand, pressed it to his skin. "It doesn't hurt for long." Unlike the rest of him, which was throbbing thanks to her simple touch.

As if the words gave her permission, she smoothed her other palm up his side, fingers slicking over his bare chest, past his new tattoo and up to his shoulder. "You're so strong," she whispered, tracing his biceps with something damn close to reverence. "Powerful. Raw."

"Hungry." He didn't even look at the throngs of people milling around them. "You keep touching, and I'm bound to think you want to do more."

Her touch drifted lower. Over the curve of his elbow and along his forearm. "Like what?"

He slipped his hand into her hair. "Like try out some of the stuff Lex showed you."

She licked her lips like she could already taste him, and her sharp breath made it clear she wanted to. "Right here? In front of everyone?"

If he said no, she'd pout. If he said no, his own body would murder him in his sleep. Jas untied the top of the new leather corset she'd bought from Stuart and dropped to the nearest free couch. "Show me."

A few people turned to stare, but that didn't stop Noelle from kneeling between his legs, breathing so hard her tits were damn close to spilling out of her top entirely. She smoothed her palms up his thighs and rested her fingers on his belt. "Rachel said you never lose a fight."

"I never have." He caught her chin. "Is this my reward?"

She inhaled sharply. "Would it be a reward?"

"To come in your mouth?" Jas eased the top of her corset down a fraction of an inch, but it was far enough for one luscious pink nipple to spill out. "Hell yeah. Unless you want me to come somewhere else instead?"

"Where?" She fumbled with his belt buckle, her expression an endearing mixture of frustrated impatience and anticipation.

He tweaked her nipple with just a hint of pressure. "Your tits?" He moved his hand to her mouth, a lingering brush of his thumb over her lower lip. "All over this pretty face?"

Her movements stilled as she whispered against the pad of his thumb. "You'd like that?"

It was like the ink—no one would wonder who she belonged to, or what would happen if they tried to touch her. "It's sexy when a woman lets you come on her. Sexier when she likes it."

Without looking away from him, she wrapped her lips around his thumb and slipped his belt free from the buckle. Her fingertips ghosted lovingly over the leather strip, and she raised her head. "Do you know what the show was last night?"

"At the Broken Circle?" With the way she was fondling his belt, he didn't even have to ask. "Ace likes spanking before fucking. He takes it further than I would."

Her blush spread to her neck as she ducked her head and tugged at his fly. "I wouldn't think being struck with a belt would be pleasurable."

"Me neither. But plenty of people get off on it." He lifted her face to his again. "Are you one of them? You liked it when I slapped your ass."

She swallowed hard and stared at his chin. "What would you do if I said yes?"

"Depends. Do you want it...or
need
it?"

"I don't even know if I like it," she said quickly, dragging down the zipper on his pants. "It's not important. I can't need something I've never had."

Those were the things people needed the hardest. "Noelle."

"I don't know." She left his pants hanging open and met his eyes. "I know I want to do this. I want to..." her voice faded to a husky whisper, "…suck your cock. I want to do things you like. Not things you don't."

Her hair was soft under his hand, and he twisted the strands in his fist. She seemed to enjoy that more than the pain—the
force
behind it. The domination. "Do it."

She was awkward at first. Her fingers trembled as she eased his cock free and stroked them up his shaft. She wet her lips first, then dragged her tongue around the crown with a humming noise of satisfaction.

Heat. Jas gritted his teeth and used the hand on her head to guide her. "Bold, honey. Don't think about it so much. Do what feels good."

Her licks got longer. She worked her way along his shaft until it glistened before taking him into her mouth. She gripped his belt and bobbed her head, eyes closed and face slack with a blissful sort of peace.

Because she liked it, or because she wanted to be his? The question ripped at him even as her touch tightened his skin and made his balls ache. It wasn't something he could answer, not here or now.

So he gave in.

"Deeper." He wanted to be
inside
her. Wanted her to take him.

She tried. She surged down, took him deeper with every moan until she was damn near choking herself because she didn't know how to deep throat.

It would have been scorching hot—if she'd meant to do it. Jas pulled her head up and wrapped her hand around his cock. "Look around, honey. What do you see?"

Her gaze drifted over the crowd as she stroked him. "Fighting. Fucking. No shame."

What she wanted to see. "It's a bunch of people who've never seen anything like you before. Not because you're from the city, or because you're damn near a virgin. Because you're
you
."

She turned back to him, confusion creasing her brow. "How can they know what that even means? I'm still trying to figure it out."

"Because they're not trying as hard as you are."

Her hand stilled on his cock. "What do you see?"

A woman who needed to let go. A woman who didn't know how. A woman he couldn't claim until she learned. "I don't know yet either, honey, because I'm trying just as hard as you."

She tested his grip in her hair by straining toward his lap again, but her eyes never left his. "We're not going to find out what I really am by being gentle."

"Or by making you do what I want." He released her and spread his arms wide on the back of the couch.

No mistaking the disappointment in her eyes—she tried to hide it, but every damn thing she felt played across her face. She worried her lower lip with her teeth and lifted her hands to finish unlacing her corset. "I'm in control?"

He was riveted to those hands, that soft, pale flesh, like a kid who'd never seen a woman naked before. "Complete, total control."

It took her forever to pull the last lace free. Her corset fell to the ground, and she returned both hands to his cock. "I want you to come on me."

There it was, the same lust that had gripped him as he'd watched her blow Dallas. She wasn't skilled or experienced, but when she set herself free, even just a little...

She wanted it.
Hungered
for it, and Jas would crawl across the floor to taste that hunger.

This time, she closed her lips around his cock without hesitation. She drew him into the heat of her mouth and sucked, tongue working in time with her hand.

A groan fought its way out of him, and he let his head fall against the sofa. A bit of control could be a heady thing, and something told him Noelle would get off on it, if only because the inevitable would come, that moment when she'd hand it back to him.

"Fuck, that's good." His voice had dropped to little more than a rasp.

She hummed as she pushed lower, pushed until his cock bumped the back of her throat, then retreated with a frustrated noise.

Jas checked the command that rose automatically. Instead, he let himself feel it, every press of her fingers and flutter of her tongue, even the hesitation when she tried to take him into her throat.

After another attempt, her head popped up. She slicked her tongue around the crown again before exhaling softly. "I'm going to ask Lex to teach me. I want to be able to do what the girl with Ace is doing."

The woman wasn't part of the gang, but she came to watch the fights all the time—and she'd do any goddamn thing Ace told her to do. He had her on her knees, his hands gripping her head as he fucked her face, hard and deep. "Honey, there are seasoned pros who can't do that."

For the first time, Noelle flashed him a wicked little smile instead of lowering her eyes bashfully. "So it'll take time to learn. Am I really so bad at this that you don't want me to practice on you?"

"No." He covered her hand with his and stroked down the length of his cock.

She gave him big eyes and an innocent expression. "No, you don't want me to practice on you?"

"You're not bad at it, brat. When you let yourself like it."

Noelle ducked her head, but the heavy tumble of her hair couldn't hide her satisfied smile. The moment of teasing power had stripped away one layer of shyness, revealing mischief and heat.

The same heat wreathed her voice. "If I feel bad about it later, maybe I'll let Lex spank me."

The very idea tumbled Jas that much closer to desperation. Lex was safe, a willing, eager lover who wanted to get off without needing to hold on to either of them after the fact. "You like her?" He slipped his hand to the back of Noelle's head, resting gently without applying pressure. "She wouldn't just spank you. She'd fuck you."

"Then she'd have to spank me again." Her hands quickened under his guidance, moving up and down his shaft in hot, rough drags. Her gaze found his. "Or you could, right now. After I beg you to come on my face."

Denying her was denying himself, but the words rasped out of him anyway. "I'm not going to spank you."

"Oh." She stroked him faster, in time with the short breaths that made her breasts dance. "But you'd watch Lex spank me?"

"Right after I—"
Fuck.
His breath caught as a pulse of heat rocketed up his spine. "Right after I came on your tits and made her lick you clean."

Noelle moaned and arched her back, pushing her breasts toward him. "She'd have to spank me hard. I'd deserve it."

"No." He urged her head down, just far enough for her parted lips to touch his cock. "But you want to."

A shiver. "Yes. God help me, yes."

A half-step from begging, and the image of her undone, insensate with lust and need and a thousand other things, drove him over the edge. Jas jerked their hands over his shaft with a rough groan, riding the throb that centered on his dick but echoed through him.

He spurted on her face, the lush bow of her mouth and the pink flash of her tongue. She licked her lips as come dripped off her chin, and he milked his cock on her breasts, thrusting against the soft flesh and taut nipples.

Noelle swiped her fingertip over her chin and brought it to her mouth, lapping up the taste of him like she couldn't get enough.

His ears ringing, Jas pulled the towel from across his shoulder and held it out to her. "When I can stand up again, I'll walk you home. Keep your clever fingers out of your panties, though—no coming tonight."

She blinked at him, clearly torn between disappointment and fascination. "Why not?"

"Because tomorrow you get your cuffs. Your first ink," he explained. His gaze strayed past Noelle, over to where Ace had the fight groupie squirming on his lap, her hands tied behind her back. "Our resident tattoo artist has been dying to get you strapped in his chair. Dying to get his tongue in you too."

Noelle blushed as she clutched the towel and shifted, rubbing her thighs together like she was trying to relieve arousal. "That would make the tattooing difficult, I'd think."

"Your own reward," Jas said softly. "Get through both tats and we'll make it all better, honey. I promise."

She rubbed the towel over her breasts in silence, shivering every time the fabric rasped over her nipples. "All right," she whispered finally, casting the towel aside. She crawled up into Jasper's lap, straddling his hips and pressing her tits to his chest. Her face went to his neck, nuzzled trustingly against his throat. "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

Chapter Eight

Jasper hadn't been exaggerating about the straps.

The odd chair had been adjusted to a mostly upright position with platforms stretched out on either side for her arms. As soon as she settled into place, Ace grinned and wrapped a thick leather strap over her elbow, tugging it tight before buckling it into place.

Restrained. She twisted a little, and Ace laughed and toyed with the second strap closer to her forearm. "What do you say, brother? Is she a squirmer?"

"You should know." Jasper leaned against the open archway separating the room from the area of storage and machinery in the back. "You had a front-row seat to the show at Dallas's party the other night."

A snort, and Ace winked at her and took his time buckling the second strap. "Too bad Lex isn't here to hold you down this time. You'll have to settle for leather and steel."

From the smug way he ogled her nipples as they poked against her thin top, it must have been obvious that the harsh bite of leather aroused her just fine. Noelle swallowed and tried to keep her voice casual. "I don't mind it."

"I bet you don't, princess." Ace dropped to a stool and jerked his head at Jasper. "Why don't you take care of her other arm while I check out her bar code?"

Jas crossed his arms over his chest. "Afraid she's gonna punch you in the head once you break out the needles?"

"Maybe." Ace leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Jas is a real stubborn jackass, you know. Can't tell him to do a damn thing without him deciding to do the opposite."