Beyond Ecstasy (Beyond #8)

by Kit Rocha

  He'd wasted so much time. But wasting more wouldn't change that.

  He slid onto the massive bed, hiding a smile at how easily the pieces fell into place. Gia might be humoring him with the illusion of control, but it wasn't stopping her from nudging them along. She'd reclined against the pillows at the head of the bed, with plenty of room for Jeni between her legs—and plenty of room for Hawk behind Jeni.

  Hawk wondered how many men had gone to bed with Gia and walked away convinced they'd somehow gained the upper hand, oblivious to her quiet authority because those men equated dominance with bluster and show.

  Ego was the enemy of control. And control was what he wanted more than anything.

  He settled behind Jeni, savoring the view. Jeni, naked, her ass still sporting bruises from his hand, her skin flushed, her hair wild and her thighs wet.

  Thwarted arousal. He trailed his finger up the back of one leg and thrilled at her shiver. “You've been so patient, Jeni.”

  She laughed and rubbed her cheek against the inside of Gia's thigh. “That's an overly generous assessment.”

  “I don't think so.” The flogger lay next to his leg, tempting as hell, but he kept stroking her, both hands sliding over her hips, up her back, down to massage her ass. Slow, gentle, precise—because she melted for him. No, not melted. Softened. Like clay under the heat of his hands, so easy to mold. He coaxed her ass higher, her knees wider. Nodded to Gia, who gathered Jeni's hair up into a shining rope she wrapped around one hand.

  He didn't even have to give the command. Just a few fingers against the back of her neck, a slight pressure, and maybe she knew him a little after all, because she immediately lowered her open mouth to Gia's pussy.

  Gia's throaty moan filled the room. Under Jeni's devastating tongue, she'd be writhing her way to orgasm in no time at all.

  He planned to get Jeni there first.

  But he was the one who groaned when he slid his hand between her legs. Slickness and heat greeted him, so much of both that he immediately pumped three fingers into her.

  She tensed and shuddered. Her body tightened, gripping his fingers, as if silently begging him not to pull them free and leave her burning.

  Giving her what she wanted meant his fingers were there to feel the helpless flutter of her inner muscles as he lifted his other hand to her clit. This time, she moaned huskily, and her fingers bit in to the soft skin of Gia's thighs.

  Gia dragged Jeni's head up, her breathing rough. “Let me see it, Jeni. Show me how you come for him.”

  Jeni's back arched as another shudder took her. “Fuck, Gia—” Her voice broke on another moan. “You have no idea—”

  He knew this about her, at least. That she liked firm, quick pressure. That when he thrust his fingers into her, slow and deep would get her going, but nothing would send her screaming over the edge like fast and rough.

  As much as he craved control over her, she craved his loss of control over himself. So he gave her a taste of it, fucking her hard with his fingers as he worked her clit. “Show her, Jeni. Do it. Let go.”

  Jeni's legs shook, then gave way. Their hands were the only things holding her up, and that seemed to make her shake harder as she hovered in that fevered, blissful moment before orgasm. Then she was there, her pussy clenching around his hand as she cried his name.

  Hawk eased back, not ready to overload her senses. Instead, he petted her hips and her back, leaned over her to kiss her temple while his cock ground against her ass. “Is that better?”

  She answered with a soft noise of frustration. “Don't stop.”

  “Begging for mercy already?” He nipped at her ear and slid his fingers over Gia's, where they lay curled in Jeni's hair. “Focus, sweetheart. Focus on pleasing her for as long as you can, no matter what I do to you. Do you understand?”

  He could almost feel the denial trembling through her. But when she spoke, it was with a seductive whisper. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good girl.” He gripped her hip and straightened again. Gia had Jeni by the hair, so he stroked to the base of her neck and let her feel the bite of his fingers as he guided her head back down.

  Gia sucked in a harsh breath as Jeni's tongue glided over her spread-open pussy, but her dark gaze seized Hawk's. Watching him, assessing even as Jeni moaned and licked deeper.

  Holding it together, coolly collected, while Hawk was scrabbling for the self-control not to drive into Jeni and send them both spinning into oblivion.

  That sharp stab of jealousy eased. Every day with Jeni, every moment, shredded his defenses and threatened his discipline. The more he got to know her, the harder it was to resist falling into her, because every bit he uncovered only made him want her more.

  Gia had the knowledge, the long-standing affection, and maybe she knew Jeni's body in ways it would take Hawk years to learn. But if she could hold herself above the pleasure of having Jeni on her knees, working to get her off with such sweet obedience…

  Fucking hell. Gia didn't deserve her.

  The corner of the other woman's mouth quirked up as if she'd heard the thought, as if she could read every damn emotion churning through him.

  He didn't care. He slid his hand possessively down Jeni's spine and reached for the flogger. The handle fit perfectly in his palm, smooth and cool. He let himself get a feel for the weight of it. The balance.

  Bringing it down against her skin would spark a reaction, fast and easy. But tonight wasn't about that. It was about feeling out Jeni's boundaries, knowing Gia was there, ready to stop him if inexperience pushed him too far.

  He knew how she reacted to fast and easy. So he trailed the falls across her hips and gave her something far more devastating—anticipation. It made her twist beneath the flogger, chasing the tease as surely as she would have chased the pain.

  As hungrily.

  “Shh.” He gripped her hip with his other hand, stilling her movements. Then he dragged the soft leather across her skin again, letting it tickle her sides and map the graceful arch of her spine. “Stay focused.”

  She dropped her hands to the bed and clenched them in the luxurious sheets. The muscles in her arms tensed. Her body trembled.

  Waiting was its own sort of agony, a gentle burn he could nurture until it consumed her. First a tiny flick of his wrist, just enough for the leather to kiss her skin. She started, just a little, the barest hint of movement. But the sound she made—relief and need and a longing so fierce he felt it stab through him.

  He wasn't the only one feeling it. Gia's head tilted back and her back arched, her lips parting. She murmured something, obscene words of encouragement that melted past him. Nothing seemed as vital as watching Jeni's reactions as he went back to teasing her, not even Gia's sharp gasp or the shaking moan that heralded her first orgasm.

  So Hawk focused on Jeni. On the way the leather fell against her skin—no easy rhythm she could anticipate, no pattern she could learn. Sometimes he teased until she stopped straining into it, then landed a gentle blow. Sometimes he gave her several in a row. But always light, never enough to bring more than the softest color to her skin.

  More pressure than pain, but it didn't seem to matter. Before long, Jeni was reacting to every touch as though it was a blow, shivering and even lifting her head to gasp his name.

  When she lowered it again, she laid her cheek on Gia's thigh and murmured something too soft for him to hear.

  “We can't hear you, love.” Gia reached for Jeni's chin, tilting her face up. “Say it again.”

  Her only response was a long, lazy moan.

  Hawk dropped the flogger to the bed, wrapped an arm around Jeni, and flipped her onto her back. She sprawled languidly with her hair spread out across Gia's chest, her eyes full of the same glazed pleasure as the night he'd spanked her.

  Gia ran her knuckles down Jeni's throat. “I've never seen her let someone this far inside her head.”

  Not the words he would have thought to use, but they fit. They resonated. And all of Ace's rants
about choosing the right tool for the job clicked together to form a picture that was far bigger than pain and pleasure and physical sensation.

  Those were the tools. The goal was this—Jeni, stripped bare and open to him. Needing him. Because, in this moment, she did. She'd trusted him so much that she had let go of the world, and until she came back to it, she was his responsibility.

  His, in a way that truly did fracture his control.

  He touched her knee, and she opened her legs and reached for him. Need and want and hunger and yearning tumbled over each other in her eyes—an actual impossibility, so maybe he was just seeing what he wanted. What he felt.

  Desperate.

  He leaned into her, and Gia was right there, the answer to the only question holding him back. “What do I do when she's like this? Do I stop?”

  Jeni whimpered, and Gia stroked her throat again with a soothing noise. “You take care, Hawk. You remember that she might say yes to anything right now, just to please you. So you don't ask for anything you don't already know she needs. If you're not sure, don't do it.”

  Simple, absolute permission to do the one thing he and Jeni both needed.

  He had his hands hooked under Jeni's knees before her next whimper. Pushing them up and out, he drove into her pussy in one long stroke that forced a moan from him.

  Jeni arched into him with a dreamy hiss. “Yes. Yes.”

  Gia's hands covered his, and he let her take over, shuddering when she urged Jeni's legs wider. He gripped the headboard instead, trapping Jeni between their bodies, letting every rough thrust grind her back against Gia. Not just for the sensation of hot skin all along hers, but because Gia was right.

  He was in Jeni's head. And he wanted to stay there forever. “Is this what you needed? Both of us fucking you?”

  “Yes—” The word dissolved into a hitching breath as she touched his face. “Because you needed it.”

  They could spiral forever like that, each swearing they only craved what the other needed. It would be true, but also shallow. Someone had to be the selfish one, the one who let their partner give. The one who took.

  For Jeni, he'd embrace selfishness.

  And oh, it was so easy. To fall into the way she felt around him, the tight, hot clasp of her pussy, the primal satisfaction of the helpless, hungry noises she made when he fucked deep. “That's right,” he groaned. “I need you just like this. Open and wet for me. All mine, to fuck as hard and as rough and as long as I want. Tell me, Jeni. Say it.”

  “Yours,” she whispered, a hoarse sound that seemed torn from her throat. “I have been forever. Longer than you know.”

  That was a dangerous fucking thought, seductive in all sorts of ways that played hell with his self-control, and he had to cling to Gia's reminder. Take care.

  Easier said than fucking well done, with Jeni squeezing his cock like just the thought of belonging to him was enough to get her off.

  He dragged in a breath between clenched teeth. “Did you ever touch yourself, Jeni? Did you slide your fingers between your legs and pretend they were mine?”

  “You know I did.” Her glazed eyes sharpened. “They could have been yours. I tried.”

  So much wasted time. So fucking much. He drove into her again, as if the intensity of it could make up for all the weeks he should have been inside her. “Show me. Touch yourself, only this time you'll come all over my cock.”

  She traced her fingers over his lower lip. He opened his mouth and dragged his tongue around the tips before sucking them hard. When they were slick and wet, she slipped her hand down her body.

  Even without looking, he knew the moment she touched her clit. She shuddered beneath him, exhaling roughly, and he could see the fantasy in her eyes, watch as this moment overtook the one in her memory.

  It was almost as good as rewriting history.

  He seized her mouth, spearing his tongue between her lips with the same ferocity as his next thrust. Rough and wild, because she was already tightening again, her pussy gripping him as she whimpered against his lips, and he couldn't hold on. He didn't want to.

  Hawk gave her what she wanted, let her be what he needed. Selfish and greedy, he fucked her over the edge and kept fucking her. He rode her orgasm until she was trembling and the clasp of her body was desperate, continuous, one endless rolling peak that left her screaming.

  And when he slammed into her one last time and let the fire consume him, it was because he wanted to come inside her, to fill her, to know he'd marked her in the basest way possible.

  Jeni clutched at him, her fingernails cutting into his shoulders as the last of the tremors shook her, and whispered against his neck. Her breath was hot on his skin, carrying praise and promises and vows, all kinds of things he couldn't listen to when she was over the edge like this. Floating.

  Take care. Not just with her heart, but with his, too. It was too soon to accept forever from her, even if he wanted it. Even if she was offering.

  He kissed the words from her lips and eased away, feeling the tiniest dart of guilt as Gia gently coaxed Jeni's legs down. He'd damn near forgotten her in the end, which would have felt like even more of a shit thing to do if she hadn't been smiling like a satisfied barn cat.

  They moved together, getting Jeni under the covers and snuggled down against the pillows. Hawk curled behind her, tucking her head under his chin, and watched Gia retrieve her underwear and slide it on. “Sorry,” he felt compelled to murmur. “I lost it a little bit at—”

  “Shh.” Gia disappeared behind the wardrobe door and reappeared a moment later wrapped in a silk robe. She slid onto the bed and ran her fingers lightly through Jeni's hair. “If you want to demand power over others, then it's your obligation to learn when a moment is about you, and when it should be about what someone else needs. There's satisfaction in both, you know. Selflessness and selfishness. People who only appreciate the latter can't be trusted with power.”

  Too bad the world seemed fucking full of them. “As long as you got something out of tonight, too.”

  “I got to see her happy.” Gia smiled as Jeni turned her cheek toward her stroking hand. “Take care of her, Hawk.”

  Or else hung between them, unspoken but unmistakable, a threat no wise man would ignore. “Is this the part where you tell me you'll stab me in the dick if I hurt her?”

  Gia laughed softly. “Of course not. I haven't done my own dick-stabbing in years, darling. I'd have one of the bouncers do it.”

  Jeni didn't open her eyes, but she did reach up and touch Gia's wrist reprovingly. “Be nice, Giovanna.”

  “I am being nice.” Gia lifted Jeni's hand to her lips and brushed a kiss to her palm. “Are you staying here tonight?”

  “If it's not too much trouble.”

  “It's your room, love.” She settled Jeni's hand back on top of Hawk's before leaning over to brush a kiss to his cheek, too. “Just promise to have breakfast with me. And I have something for you to deliver to Dallas, if you can.”

  The corner of Jeni's mouth quirked up. “Anything.”

  Gia's lips were still close to his ear. “Keep an eye on her while she comes down,” she murmured, before pulling back. Her nails trailed across his cheek in a shivery caress that could have been affection—or a reminder of her warning.

  Hawk imagined the line between affection and violent protection was pretty thin where Gia was concerned.

  She gathered her clothes and shoes and then slipped from the room, leaving Hawk with an armful of drowsily content woman. “You doing okay?”

  “Mmm, perfect.” Her eyelashes fluttered. “That's never happened before.”

  “What hasn't?”

  “No pain.” She turned in his arms and looked at him. She was still dazed, but the glassy look in her eyes was slowly slipping away. “I didn't know it could. Not for me.”

  “You mean getting fuzzy?” He smoothed a hand over her hair, trying to tame the tangled strands. It was impossible—she was disheveled, changed by what had pa
ssed between them even though he hadn't left a single mark on her this time.

  “Never without the pain.” She touched his jaw. “You are magic.”

  His lips curved up. “I'm not. I'm just the luckiest man in the world. Because you trust me.”

  “Yes, I do.” Jeni snuggled closer, curling against his chest. “With my life.”

  Her life. Her body. So much already, but Hawk was greedy. Selfish.

  And he was after her heart.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jeni finished writing down the last name she'd committed to memory and handed the list to Dallas. “Gia said that's everyone who's been spending money like water at her place these days.” The look on his face would have made her laugh—if the circumstances weren't so horrible. “Yeah, it's not exactly a small pool of spy candidates.”

  His gaze slid down the list, his jaw tightening. “Jesus fucking hell, Jeni. Damn near twenty, just from Gia?”

  “And her girls don't come cheap. I should know.”

  Dallas snorted and passed the paper to Noelle, who nibbled on her lower lip as she studied the names. “It's not necessarily that dire. Some of them are probably just blowing their money now before Eden has a chance to get to them.”

  “Oh, that's the good option?” Dallas rubbed a hand over his face. “So we have desperate motherfuckers who are about to be broke, desperate motherfuckers. We have people getting rich off Christ-knows-what behind our backs because we don't have time to chase them down. And somewhere in the middle of that mess, we have assholes selling us out to Eden.”

  Talk about your clouds with no silver linings. “Owen Turner,” Jeni said quietly.

  Dallas raised an eyebrow. “You got a feeling?”

  Well, that was flattering. “Hardly. He's a talker, and he has a crush on one of Gia's girls. Keeps trying to steal her away. Last week, he told her she should take him up on the offer before it's too late.” She rose with a shrug. “It could be nothing.”

  “Wait a second.” He jabbed a finger toward the seat. “Park your ass.”

  She sighed but obeyed. “That's all I know, Dallas. You'll just have to run the leads, see where they go.”