Beyond Temptation

by Kit Rocha

  There it was again, the same flash of hesitation she'd seen in the fight warehouse. A cold knot coalesced in her stomach, and she swallowed hard before asking carefully, "Is something wrong, Noah?"

  "Trust is hard." He traced a fingertip over her brow before sweeping a strand of hair from her forehead. "How much do you trust Dallas?"

  She stared down at the O'Kane cuffs encircling her wrists. "I wouldn't have these if I didn't trust him more than damn near anyone else."

  He followed her gaze. "Good enough," he said after a moment, then dropped a kiss to her forehead before rolling away. "I can get what he needs, but I'll have to go to Three."

  "I'll go with you." The words escaped without thought, instinctive and automatic.

  Noah froze on the edge of the bed, his shoulders tense. "It's dangerous, Em. I know O'Kane's starting to clean the place up, but it still isn't safe."

  "All the more reason you need someone to watch your back."

  He turned to study her wrists, lingering on the ink. "You've got a weapon?"

  She kept her pistol in her nightstand, so it took her only seconds to retrieve it. "We don't go out unarmed, not anymore."

  "Smart." Noah capitulated with another smile, leaning in to touch her chin. "Dress in something sturdy. We're going underground."

  He wasn't fucking kidding.

  At first it was a regular trip through Three--navigating broken streets and dodging piles of trash, though the mess had been cleaned up considerably since Dallas's takeover. But then Noah led her into a crumbling building with only half a roof, and Emma started to wonder whether the dangers of the trip had anything to do with other people at all.

  They climbed down a broken staircase that had been patched together with what looked like a ladder from a fire escape, and Noah handed her a small flashlight. It was the only way to see, because the boarded-up windows had vanished, leaving only brick, concrete, and earth to line the walls.

  They were underground.

  Noah shoved a desk and a few rusty folding chairs aside, revealing a heavy steel door with an inactive control pad next to it. While she held the flashlight, he popped open a switchblade and pried off the cover. "This is the scenic route," he said, pulling a miniature solar battery pack from his pocket. "But it bypasses the sewers, and trust me. You want to avoid those."

  "Yeah, no shit." She'd worn the sturdiest clothes she owned--jeans, boots, and a duster made of heavy leather--but even those wouldn't stand up to a traipse through sewage.

  The wires inside the control panel had already been stripped. Noah fiddled for a moment, twisting them with the wires from the battery pack. The face of the panel lit up, illuminating his furrowed brow and narrowed eyes as the door squealed open. "Welcome to my neighborhood."

  Emma stepped into the tunnel and stared at the seemingly impenetrable darkness until the clang of the steel door swinging shut startled her.

  She'd heard rumors about these tunnels. Hardly a month went by without a new story of some treasure hunter getting caught in a cave-in, sometimes whole goddamn groups of them. Dead in an instant.

  But Noah wouldn't have brought her here if he didn't think he could get her out again, so she tightened her grip around her flashlight and followed him down the endless tunnel.

  "Here." He grasped her free hand and tugged her to the left, and when she swung the flashlight around, she caught sight of another steel door and a block-letter sign.

  He repeated the trick with the battery pack, muttering curses under his breath until the panel flared to life. He pressed his palm to a screen beneath, and the door whispered open. Lights flickered on in the hallway beyond, and Noah grinned. "That was the hardest part, after finding the damn place. Figuring out how to steal power without tipping Eden off to it."

  "How did you?"

  "I tricked their computers into thinking this bunker was part of Sector Five." He retrieved the battery pack and ushered her through the door before closing it from the inside, leaving no trace of them behind. "Figured it was only fair for Fleming to pay for my resources."

  Another door lay in front of them, this one with a round handle that looked like a steering wheel. A blast door, the kind Emma had seen in pre-Flare movies about wars and fallout shelters. The handle creaked with a metallic shriek as Noah turned it, and he pulled it open to reveal a row of metal rungs set into the concrete--a ladder, leading down into another corridor, brightly lit and far more inviting than the last dozen.

  She climbed down and then stopped awkwardly. It felt like trespassing, so she waited until he joined her. "This is it?" she asked softly. "Your home?"

  "Yeah." He settled his hand at the small of her back and prodded her around the corner, into a tiny kitchen. It was open to the rest of the room, which held more furniture--a couch, a couple of plush chairs, and a dining room table covered in partially assembled electronics and scattered scraps of paper. "It took me almost a year to find it. I was starting to think my father had made the whole thing up."

  "Guess not." She shoved her hands in her back pockets and looked around. "It's like it was built for the end of the world."

  Warm arms slid around her, and Noah buried his face in her hair. "It was, in a way. But the world ended a little ahead of schedule."

  Second-guessing the past was a quick trip to crazy town, but just this once, she couldn't help wondering how different things might have been if she'd stayed with him. "If you had known how to find this place, would you have brought me here with you?" She turned, because she had to see his face when he answered. "Did you want to?"

  He framed her face, his touch gentle. Reverent. "Yes. I was too old and you were too young and there were a million reasons it was selfish and stupid, but sometimes I'm selfish and stupid."

  A different life--and a different Emma. Aside from the four years they'd lost, she didn't want that. "It doesn't matter. I love who I am. I love being an O'Kane. And as long as you're with me now, that's all I care about."

  "I wanted you," he repeated in a softer voice, touching his thumb to her lower lip. "But I like you better like this. I never wanted you to need me, and now you don't."

  "Not like you mean." Being this close to him was sparking the now-familiar buzz, arousal flowing through her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I need you in better ways."

  "The best ones," he agreed, and kissed her.

  He started slow, but every stroke of his tongue was deeper, hotter, than the last. Emma fell into him, and the room fell away--until she realized they were moving, and the backs of her legs hit something soft.

  The couch.

  But he didn't stop kissing her. Not as his hands slid up her body and under her coat, urging it off her shoulders and down her arms. Not as he skated those clever fingers under her shirt, warm and tauntingly gentle on her sides, her belly, her breasts.

  Too gentle. She tried to kiss him harder, but he lifted one iron hand to her jaw and held her still while he started all over again.

  Emma whimpered.

  "Shh." He raised his head far enough to meet her eyes as his free hand drew circles across her skin, inching closer and closer to her breast. "Do you trust me?"

  The question brought a laugh bubbling up, disbelief and amusement. "Of course I do. I'm just really fucking turned on." His shirt was in the way, so she reached for it.

  He closed his fingers around her wrist, as unyielding as steel. "Emma. Do you trust me?"

  She stopped and swallowed--hard. Not an idle question, or even a reassurance, but the first step down a path they'd only flirted with up until now. A little hair pulling, a command here and there--

  This was different. A serious question that deserved a serious answer.

  "You said last night that I'm yours, all of me." She nodded slowly. "I am. I trust you."

  He smiled and kissed her one last time, a quick brush of lips and a stinging tease of teeth before he stepped back and dropped his hands to his belt. "Take off your clothes. All of them."

&nbs
p; Shoes first, then she stripped off her shirt so she could watch him unbuckle his belt. "Is this some alpha-bastard thing? Because I'm in your domain now?"

  "Maybe." He tugged at the buckle, leather hissing over denim as he freed it from one loop at a time. "Did the girls in Five tell you that I like to be methodical?"

  "Intense is usually how they put it."

  His lips quirked. "That wasn't intense," he murmured, catching her arm. He spun her so fast she stumbled, and he steadied her against his chest as his lips brushed her temple. "That was just sex and control. But I've never had any fucking self-control when it comes to you. I want everything."

  Warmth from his body--and his words--suffused her skin, sliding down her spine to join the wet heat already gathering in her pussy. "What does that mean? Everything?"

  Instead of responding, he guided her hands behind her back. And he was methodical, repositioning her until her arms were folded on top of each other, the fingers of each hand brushing the opposite wrist.

  The belt was cool compared to his touch, smooth leather bearing down into her skin as he looped it around. "Tell me if it's too tight."

  Her voice came out breathless, feathery. "No, it's--" A shiver knocked her teeth together. "It's all right."

  She heard the soft click of the buckle and the rustle of fabric. He pressed against her again, his chest bare this time. One warm hand splayed large across her abdomen as the other slid under her chin, angling her head back toward his. "Trust and love. That's everything."

  Even in her most self-indulgent fantasies, he'd never looked at her like this, like trust and love were words that only meant Emma. "Noah..."

  He tugged open the button on her jeans. "Yeah?"

  She couldn't remember what she'd planned to say, but that was okay. It couldn't be more important than his hand slipping into her pants, or his mouth so close to hers. "Please."

  His lips brushed hers. Lingered. He traced the edge of her panties with one fingertip. "Are you wet?"

  She fought the urge to stretch up on her tiptoes, to arch closer to his hand. "Yes."

  "Good." It was almost a groan, and her world upended. He lifted her, spinning them both in a dizzy circle before dropping her to the couch on her back. His tense, precise calm shattered as he hooked his hands in her jeans and underwear and dragged them free of her body in a tangle that ended up flung across the kitchen counter.

  Before she could draw in a breath he hauled her upright, shoved her thighs wide, and sank to the floor between them. The belt around her wrists snagged on the bottom of the cushioned back of the couch, leaving her immobilized, her back arched.

  She tried to shift position, but Noah gripped her waist, his thumbs moving in soothing circles. "I like you like this, with your tits thrust out and your legs spread wide. I can see all the ways you're hungry for me. Your hard nipples and your slick pussy."

  She was acutely aware of all the ways she was exposed, and it took superhuman effort not to fidget or close her eyes to block out the intensity of his stare. Instead, she watched him as she rocked her hips experimentally, and moaned when she slid a few inches across the now-wet, slippery surface.

  Groaning, Noah gripped her thighs, pushing them wider. "Stay like this," he warned as he stroked his fingers over her pussy. "If you move too much, I'll have to stop licking your clit and find some rope."

  She froze, her heart pounding.

  "That's right." So soft, so warm. It was Noah's smile, the one he saved for her, but so much rawer like this, with his thumbs spreading her outer lips, baring her completely.

  Then he bent his mouth to her pussy, his tongue swiping a hot, merciless line straight to her clit. The breath she'd been holding exploded out of her on a helpless cry. And helpless, that's exactly what she was--bound and trapped by his hands and his mouth, by his desire.

  She never wanted to be anywhere else.

  He repeated the motion, his gaze lifting to catch hers as he lingered this time, flicking the tip of his tongue across her clit. "What part got you this hot, this fast? Tell me."

  Oh God. "The way--" The words wobbled, and she steadied herself. "The way you kiss me."

  Another groan, one that rumbled against her as he licked his way lower. "Because you're mine."

  "Yes." She had to move somehow, so she braced her clenched hands on the couch and arched her hips more fully against his mouth.

  If he noticed, he didn't say anything. He was too busy working his way back up to tongue her piercing. "You're mine, but that's not why you sucked my cock in front of half the sector last night, is it? You wanted them to know I'm yours."

  Just hearing the words out loud sent a bolt of pleasure rocketing up her spine. "That's what I learned," she rasped. "All I know. It goes both ways."

  "Show me." The tip of one finger circled her entrance before pushing in, and she was so wet, so ready, that it glided deep. He groaned and added another, working into her body as he growled a command against her pussy. "Come on my tongue."

  His fingers were blunt and impossibly wide. She'd seen them fly across a keyboard and float over reactive screens with ease, but she'd never imagined that he could play her body just as skillfully, dragging her toward the edge with such dizzying speed that the rest of her could barely catch up.

  Then he drew her clit between his lips, sucking with an aroused groan.

  She shattered, bucking up with a shriek. With every wave of ecstasy, she clenched tight around his unyielding fingers, so tight that he sent her spinning straight into a second orgasm with a clever twist of his wrist. Emma couldn't breathe, could only feel, until sensation overwhelmed her and she begged, begged--

  "Shh." He whispered it against her ear, and she had no idea how he'd gotten there. His fingers remained inside her, broad and strong and still, but even as she gasped in a helpless breath, he rocked them gently, setting off another wave of shudders. "Stay with me, sunshine. I'm not done with you yet."

  She blinked, but the world was swimming. "Noah."

  "Emma." He lifted his head, hovering over her with a soft smile. "I love how fast you come. How hard. You know your own body."

  Because shame and modesty weren't prized or celebrated in Sector Four. But he seemed just as into filthy sex, and it made her curious. "Don't you know yours?"

  "I know it just fine. Accepting is the hard part. Believing that you want the same things." His thumb grazed her clit, and she hissed in a breath. "I love this. I love making you feel good."

  "But?"

  He eased his fingers free, but only for a heartbeat before they were pressing back into her. Three this time, too big and too much, and his gaze stayed locked on hers as he twisted and rocked, edging them deeper. "Some of the ways I want to make you feel good aren't as pretty."

  It took mere moments for the pain to yield to pleasure. Emma exhaled on a moan, but the hesitation in Noah's eyes lingered, and only the truth would erase it. "Noelle would have four fingers in me already," she murmured. "And she'd be telling Jasper to hurry the fuck up with the lube."

  Noah groaned against her cheek, and his groan turned into a kiss, and then a bite. His teeth left a stinging trail of fire down her throat until they closed around the tip of her nipple.

  She clamped her lips together to hold back a moan, but then he swung his thumb up to circle her clit, and the noise escaped--pleading, desperate. Wetness and warmth enclosed her nipple as he sucked it into his mouth, tugging so hard that, any other time, it would have crossed the line into pain.

  But not now, like this. So close, with his fingers filling her, fast and a little rough, with no hesitation. His thumb stroked out a rhythm he'd already memorized, with no respite at all from the blazing pleasure. Every quick revolution bumped the barbell she wore, back and forth, over and over, until the world shrank to Noah--his hand on and inside her pussy, his tongue on her nipple, his body stretched over hers, hot and protective--and she came again.

  Hard. Almost violent, twisting beneath him until he had to hold her d
own, trapping her under the weight of his body so there was no escape from the sensation, the heat, and the giddy relief.

  "Fuck, Emma--" His body vanished and she was floating, rising up off the couch. She savored a few moments cradled against the warmth of his chest before he lowered her to the floor and bent her forward over the arm of the sofa.

  Her cheek hit the cushion, and she struggled to catch her breath as he stroked her spine. "Tell me you want this."

  The closest she could get to reaching for him was flexing her hands. "I want it."

  "My cock?"

  "Your cock," she panted. "Yes."

  "This is my fantasy. Making you come on my fingers and face until you're begging for it." A zipper rasped open, and the metal teeth dug into her skin as he bent over her, bracing one hand on the couch above her head. He traced her mouth with the other, his fingers still slippery from her body. "What does that say about me? You're tied up and helpless and I can ride you as fast and hard as I want, but your body isn't enough. I need everything."

  She bit his fingertips, then soothed them with her tongue. "Give it to me. Everything. You'll get it back, you know you will."

  He left a trail of kisses down her spine as he eased back, soft and sweet and swallowed by the rush of anticipation when she finally, finally felt his cock gliding against her pussy.

  Just that, and she bit her lip for as long as she could, but then the ridge around the head of his cock grazed her clit, and a whimper escaped. "Noah--"

  He drove into her--fast, hard. Merciless. Emma muffled a cry against the couch cushion and clenched her eyes shut, but light exploded behind her lids when he did it again, and again.

  And again.

  "Feel me," he growled, fingers digging into her hips, angling them so there was no escape, no reprieve. "Feel everything."

  "I do." It came out in a whisper, and she didn't know if he heard her, but surely he knew. She always felt him, even when he was missing from her life--a hole in her heart where Noah should have been.

  He shuddered, one hand sliding up past her arms to her shoulder. His fingers tangled in her hair, hauling her head back, and a shudder ripped through her, too. "Is this how you like it? Hard and rough?"