Beyond Jealousy

by Kit Rocha

  Mad frowned and said nothing.

  "It's okay to want to, you know. Whatever your reasons."

  His frown deepened, and Scarlet knew what was coming. Anyone who'd known Mad more than five minutes would have. "If she can make him smile, I'm not about to get petty."

  "Saint Adrian." Scarlet slipped her cigarette between his lips and raised both eyebrows. "Maybe you should go bless some babies, after all. Me? I think I'll go get laid."

  She made it two steps before his laughter rolled over her, deep and warm, because Mad could be a stuffy martyr but he never took himself seriously for long. "Show me how it's done, Scarlet."

  "Yes, sir."

  Scarlet eased up behind Doc, running one finger up his back a heartbeat before dancing a hip-swinging circle around him to slide her arm around Jade.

  Jade wasn't stingy with her smiles. She laughed and turned her head, and Scarlet got the full force of one as Jade leaned back into her. "Am I not dancing with enough enthusiasm?"

  "You're doing fine, sweetheart. Doc's technique could use some work, though."

  The man smiled, easy and blurred around the edges, a perfect match to his red eyes and flushed skin. "Scarlet likes to tease me," he said, his tone lending a lascivious double meaning to the word.

  "I think she teases all of us." Jade eased closer. They were the same height, and the movement thrust her ass against Scarlet's hips. Gone was the fragile woman whose body had suffered through all the worst rigors of addiction. She was solid now, curves filling out more and more as the weeks passed.

  Scarlet wanted to touch her, so she did, drawing one hand slowly up Jade's thigh. "Sometimes it's not a tease," she mused. "It's a promise."

  Jade shivered under her fingers, turning her head just enough to whisper against Scarlet's cheek. "So which do you give him? The tease, or the promise?"

  "Who, Doc?" Scarlet rolled her hips, urging Jade to move with her. "Nah, he's a special case. The tease doesn't work, and he's not interested in the promise." She looked up, her eyes locking with his. "Right?"

  Tension had straightened his back, but that was the only sign anything she said affected him at all. His mouth curved into a lazy smile, and he shrugged. "You're not my type. No crime there."

  It stung. Not his type...because she didn't need him to save her. Scarlet bit her tongue. The words wouldn't touch him, but they could cut Jade to the bone, and she'd be damned to hell before she did that.

  Jade slid her hand over Scarlet's, twining their fingers together as their hips swayed in a slow, taunting mimicry of sex. "Maybe you haven't found the right promise," she murmured, turning them both in a lazy circle.

  Mad was watching.

  Only watching didn't cover it. He was fucking them with his eyes, his face shadowed with lust, and Scarlet's heart skipped a beat. The only thing keeping him from touching them was the space between them, and that could be gone in a few insistent strides.

  She'd assumed Mad was carrying some kind of torch for Doc, but the truth hit her in a rush.

  It was much, much more complicated.

  Chapter Seven

  The sound of water woke her.

  Rachel stretched and bumped into Ace, who grumbled an incoherent protest and threw his leg over hers, pinning her in place. "No wiggling."

  "Grump." She felt blindly at the empty expanse of bed behind her. "Cruz is in the shower?"

  "Mmm." He tossed an arm across her body, too, his skin warm against hers. "He probably has a meeting today."

  "Then shouldn't we clear out?"

  "Does that involve moving?"

  "Probably." Not that she was any more excited by the prospect than he sounded. So she rolled on top of him and kissed his chin. "Good morning."

  Ace didn't open his eyes, but his lips curved up into a lazy smile. "Now this is the kind of wiggling I can get behind."

  "Or under?" One last wiggle, and she sat up. "The etiquette here is a little mystifying. Maybe we should talk about it."

  He cracked one eye as his hands settled on her hips. "Funny thing, angel. Straddling a man's dick when he's half-awake doesn't really get him thinking deep thoughts about etiquette."

  A flush of awareness prickled over her skin. She braced her hands on his chest and levered herself back until she was sitting on his thighs instead. "Better?"

  He raised an eyebrow and peered down at his undeniable erection. The flush spread up her face, but before she could respond, he tightened his grip on her hips and hoisted her with an effort that made his arms flex enticingly. He dragged her up and dropped her to sit on his stomach. "There. You have my undivided attention."

  Only now hers was shot to hell with his abs rippling beneath her. "Etiquette," she repeated blankly, then shook herself. "You're big on rules. Surely a situation like this has some."

  "Probably," he agreed, rubbing his thumb over her hipbone. "If I'd ever been in a situation like this before, I'd tell you all about them."

  The idea that this was different for him was intoxicating. "So we're all flying blind."

  "Mmm. But we're doing it together."

  And it was good, damn good. So good it felt like she must be missing something, overlooking a crucial piece of information that would make her second-guess it all. "It feels so right that it makes me wonder," she admitted. "Whether there's some drawback I'm not seeing because I don't want to."

  "Well, I can think of one..." Ace chuckled softly and tugged on a lock of her hair. "After last night, we'll be lucky if that bossy bastard doesn't chain us both to his bed. Or maybe that's not a drawback."

  She shivered as a thread of the now-familiar sexual tension snaked through her, and she leaned over Ace, her mouth close to his ear. "I'm glad you want to be here just as much as I do."

  His lips ghosted over her jaw, a teasing caress before a sharp bite that elicited a zip of pleasure. "Right now I want a whole lot of things."

  "Like...to see if Cruz was right about us all fitting in his tub?"

  Ace swatted her ass. "Bad girl. Don't tempt me to distract him from whatever serious fucking business he's headed out on."

  The shower cut off, and Rachel grinned. "We could wait right here until he gets back."

  "Right here? Have mercy and scoot up a few feet. Or down. Either direction works."

  "For fuck's sake, Ace." Cruz stepped out of the bathroom, naked except for the towel he was using to dry his hair. Droplets of water rolled down his skin, playing peekaboo over ridges of muscle and through hair.

  Rachel swallowed. Hard. "You heading out?"

  "Yeah." He stopped next to the bed and cupped her cheek. "Wish like hell I didn't have to, but I've got a meeting with my contact in Eden."

  The word around the compound was that Cruz's contact was high-level, someone who shouldn't have been talking to him at all, even before his exile from the city. The fact that he still had that source of information was invaluable--to Dallas, to the gang. Maybe to their lives.

  But it was dangerous. She covered his hand with hers. "Take care of yourself."

  He bent for a brief, warm kiss, then rose and tossed his towel across Ace's chest. "You two can be lazy in here for as long as you want, but don't let Ace ride you hard, or I won't let him touch you next time."

  His tone was easy, but there was nothing casual about the words. They were as precise as Cruz himself, with layers of information you could spend all day peeling back. That he had accepted their relationship, that he intended it to continue. That he planned to control it, even when he wasn't physically present.

  Ace's fingers tightened on her hips as he drew in a ragged breath and spun the game out. "Do you want me to ride you after he leaves, Rae?"

  Her mouth went dry. So many possibilities, and she had to trust her instincts, her desires, because there weren't any rules here--except for the ones they made. "Maybe not," she whispered. "Unless you could do it soft and slow."

  Cruz made a sympathetic noise as he hauled on his pants. "Are you sore, sweetheart?"

&nbs
p; "A little." She turned and met his gaze over her shoulder. "I like it."

  He smiled as he slipped his belt through its loops. "Then Ace keeps his dick out of you for the morning."

  Ace's warm, aroused laughter tickled up her spine. "You see that spark in his eyes, Rachel? It took me forever to get him to admit that giving orders rocks his world."

  "I see it." He'd probably never understand why getting them could be sexy, but all that mattered was that he accepted it. "Proper motivation, that's all. If we do what he says, he gets off. And so do we, right?"

  "Mmm." Ace ran his fingers lightly up and down her thighs. "I might need more explicit orders though. We all know I'm an asshole with a short attention span. Maybe he should give me a list."

  Cruz's glare broke as he dragged a tight black shirt over his head, covering all those beautiful muscles. "There's only one thing on it, and you were going to do it anyway." Cruz shrugged into a shoulder rig but left it unfastened as he crossed to sink a gentle hand into Rachel's hair. "Give her anything she needs."

  It was permission, not for sex but for intimacy, the chance to get close to Ace in a way she craved, a way that was just as real as him being inside her. Rachel closed her eyes and leaned in to Cruz's touch. "Tonight?"

  He nodded. "Why don't we meet at Ace's studio before the party?"

  "Fine by me," Ace murmured, still stroking her legs. "We can make bets on how many people are making bets on whether we all show up together."

  When an O'Kane hooked up with someone, word got around. With three of them? Gossip would be flying. "Do we care?" Rachel asked.

  Cruz's fingers tightened a little. "I care. I want everyone to know."

  A possessive touch, one that curled Rachel's toes. "Then we don't wait for them to talk. We tell them instead."

  Ace showed his possession, too, but not with anything as simple as a rough hand in her hair. His fingers wrapped around one side of her throat, his thumb stretching across the front to rest over her pulse. "You know how O'Kanes make that announcement, angel."

  The same way they did everything else--with ink. But before that came the collar, a mark that was a step below the permanence of a tattoo. "You like leather and chains, and Cruz is all about ribbons and silk. You'll figure it out."

  Cruz released her hair to cover Ace's hand with his own. "This is what you want?"

  "It was inevitable, right?" This was why their hesitation had been so awkward--they'd spent months dancing around each other because there was no going back once they crashed into one another.

  "Maybe it was." He bent to kiss her again, slower this time, his lips warm and firm. But he lifted his head before she could deepen the kiss, smiling down at her as he shifted his grip to Ace's wrist. "Only sweetness for her this morning. We've got a big night to look forward to."

  Anticipation joined the arousal swirling through her. She laid her hand over Ace's and twined their fingers together as they watched Cruz check his knives and tuck his handgun into its holster. "I'll be back by noon for our run," he told Ace, giving them both a final smile before he slipped out.

  The door clicked shut behind him, and Ace's easy smile faded a little. "Fuck, I wish he'd take some backup on these trips."

  The gentle arousal twisted into concern. "You think he needs it?"

  "It's Eden." Ace caught her hips and resettled her in his lap as he sat up. "Everyone needs someone watching their back in that snake pit."

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled his cheek. "You have to trust him. He'd know if it was too dangerous."

  "Maybe," he murmured. "But sometimes I wonder if that bastard thinks anything's too dangerous. Maybe it's all those years of knowing Eden would put him back together."

  "You could mention it to Dallas."

  "Oh, he knows." Ace caressed her back, and the warmth returned to his voice. "Maybe Cruz'll be more careful now that he knows you're waiting for him to come home."

  It wasn't the first time he'd downplayed his importance to Cruz. "What about you? You're here for him, too."

  "Of course I am." In a pretty flex of muscle, Ace rose with her tangled around him. "Wanna go see how big his shower is?"

  She ached at the carefully concealed pain in his voice. He was trying to distract her--and the moment felt so new, so delicate, that she let him. "Only if you remember the rules, Santana."

  He chuckled against her temple. "I'll be a perfect gentleman. Just clit-sucking and jerking off, no funny business."

  He was incorrigible. She muffled a laugh by dropping her face to his shoulder for a sharp bite. He hissed, tightening his arms, and hurried his steps.

  The bathroom was as tidy and sparse as Cruz's bedroom. Shaving supplies lined the counter in a neat row in front of a stack of precisely folded towels and a few bars of unused soap, each an equal distance from the next.

  Ace let Rachel slide to her feet in front of the mirror, which was still fogged over from Cruz's shower. "You bite me again, pretty girl, and I'll bite back. And then we'll both be in trouble tonight."

  "We wouldn't want that." Ace's erection pressed against her hip as she reached past him to cut on the water, turning it hot enough to billow more steam up around them.

  Groaning, he lifted her with an arm locked around her waist and swung her around. "In. Now. Unless you want me to bend you over the counter and see how deep I can fuck you with just my tongue."

  "Uh-uh." She stepped onto the warm tile and let the water stream down over her hair and face before wiping it away. "Come here. I want to kiss you."

  It turned out the shower wasn't so big after all. Ace seemed to take up all the space as he climbed in and pulled the door shut, trapping them in a world of hot mist and steam. Droplets splashed off her skin to land on his shoulder, and it was impossible not to follow their path as they sluiced down his inked flesh.

  He slid his fingers into her hair, gathering the damp strands up high on the back of her head. "Too bad Cruz only has the unscented shampoo in here. I like the shit you usually use. The coconut."

  He'd been as painfully aware of her as she had been of him. The knowledge made Rachel bold, and she skated one hand down over his stomach. "A lady on the other side of the sector makes it for me."

  "Yeah?" His lips hovered over hers, so close she could taste them.

  A little lower, and her fingers grazed his hipbone. "Yeah."

  "Are you going for my cock, dirty girl?"

  His approving tone sent shivers racing through her, even under the hot spray. "It's not against the rules."

  He licked her lower lip, dragging his tongue from one corner of her mouth to the other. "Let's hope it never is."

  "Mmm." She wrapped her hand around his shaft.

  He groaned, his hips jerking, and she barely had time to shift her fingers before his mouth was on hers, open and firm and starving, his tongue coaxing her lips to part in time for her to swallow another rough growl.

  Rachel pushed off the wall, sinking her teeth into his tongue as she rubbed one leg up along the outside of his, relishing the slick glide of wet skin. Ace was hard under her fingers, rocking into her touch as he embraced her.

  He spun her in a dizzy circle, her hair flying everywhere before her back hit cooler tile. He braced his hands above her head and rested his forehead against hers. "Do you know how many times I've jerked off in the shower, imagining your hands on my dick?"

  "No." She stroked her hand over his length, twisting lightly, and swallowed a moan when he thrust against her palm. "Tell me."

  "Damn near every time." He closed his eyes. "When it wasn't your hands, it was your lips. And when it wasn't that, it was about getting inside you. And those were the quick fantasies."

  Oh God. She watched him, rapt, as she slowed her movements, then stopped entirely and squeezed her fist tight around him. "Give me a not-so-quick one," she teased, "and I'll keep going."

  "You sure you can handle it?" he rumbled, tilting his head back. "Because it starts with you in my tattoo chair.
Strapped in."

  The strong column of his throat beckoned, and she licked a rivulet of water from his skin. "You want to tie me up?"

  "Fuck, yes. Though maybe I wouldn't have to. I bet Cruz would hold you down for me."

  It flashed through her like fire, the thought of Cruz's steely hands locked around her wrists or ankles. She'd glimpsed that unyielding strength the night before, when he'd held her helplessly still while Ace pleasured her with his fingers and tongue.

  Yes, he'd hold her down, hold her up. Hold her spread open to Ace's eager, questing mouth.

  Ace tipped his head forward and grinned. "There's those big eyes. You like that, don't you, angel? Thinking about Cruz pinning you in place so I can play. But you've seen my shows. You know what comes next."

  Pain--and more pleasure. "You think I wouldn't want that, too?"

  "I know you would." He ducked his head and licked a few drops of water from the curve of her breast. "You're not like Noelle. She's flash-fire. You barely hurt her and she's coming all over you. Jas lets her flame out fast because that's the part he likes. The big finish. He doesn't need what I need."

  "What do you need?" Rachel asked, though she already knew the answer. Control, the same as Cruz, with his careful strength and meticulously ordered life, only with a different focus--the precise, measured application of pain.

  "The slow burn." He thrust against her hand again, fucking her fist. "Waiting for that moment, the one where you stop taking the pain for me and start wanting it for yourself. When you don't know if it hurts or not anymore, but you'll die if I stop."

  Blood pounded in her ears. Her nerve endings sizzled. She pumped her fist and leaned closer. "Touch me?"

  He worked a hand between them without moving, his fingers sliding across her belly before grazing her clit. Soft, easy, so gentle that she instinctively rocked against him, seeking a more forceful caress.

  But he held back, quieting her with a soothing noise. "Careful, Rae. So careful. Because Cruz will ask. He'll demand every fucking detail, and I'll tell him."

  She stayed still this time as he explored her slowly, his fingertips slicking through her folds, though she couldn't suppress a whimper. "No secrets, right?"