Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
Dante
I stare at her, little fucking omega lost.
She stands in the office upstairs, looking like what she is, the girl marked by an alpha and out of options.
That’s not strictly true.
There are options. But none she wants.
None we want.
I eye her backpack and the bag at her feet.
It’s a little lesson in discomfort, and she presses those soft lips together before releasing them, the move making blood flow to them, making them redder. Her skin slowly flushes as those wide, dark eyes fixate on me.
“Trying to decide if you hate me?” I ask.
Her scent weaves around me, and it pisses me off. Just like it did before Julien interrupted the pre-private event prep we were undertaking in the downstairs club.
Knight’s handling it. There’s just the approval of the dancers and the vetting of the add-ons for the guestlist. He’s got Darcy helping, but he’d prefer to be here—he’s more than aware Lizette turned up since he fucking bit her—but I need someone downstairs. And this is more my domain.
Besides, I’m not about to fuck her.
No matter how tempting she is. I have more control than Knight or Reaper.
“I already know that,” she says, the fierce tone making me smile slightly.
“Claws in, Lizette. You came to me, remember?”
“What else am I supposed to do?” Her eyes glimmer as her hands clench and release, clench and release, at her sides. “I don’t want to go to the Council, or to that pack. I don’t want to register.”
“You know that’s a serious offense.”
She tosses her hair back and takes a step toward the desk where I sit. “What is?”
I sit back. “All of it.”
Lizette’s silent for a long time. Then she says, that mouth twisting, “I guess that makes me one of you.”
“An alpha?”
Her eyes narrow. “A criminal.”
“Moving up in the world?”
“More like down.” Her snap is like a sting against steel. “If it’s with you.”
I’m not sure if she means just me or her boy, Knight. And, I’m guessing Reaper, who has a destructive edge that women find hard to resist.
But I let it slide.
Instead, I let my gaze travel the length of her, lingering on her breasts. “No one gets a free ride here, girl. Not even you.”
“I’m not sleeping with you.”
“Good,” I say, “because I never said you were. Never said I was interested.”
“Of course you aren’t.” Her bitterness gives her away.
Reaper’s off dealing with a troublemaker, and Knight’s busy for now, so I have all the time to toy with her .
I want to. She riles me the wrong ways, and I pick up my drink, taking a swallow.
“You’ll work. You saw the club downstairs, where the girl’s dance?”
She nods and goes to say something, but I shake my head.
“If it’s anything other than a yes, don’t say it. Because, omega, there are consequences for everything.”
She doesn’t move, but finally, she nods and I can feel the waves of hot resentment that wash up against my libido, stroking it. I do love a challenge. And a girl in denial about who and what she wants.
Business, however, comes before me giving her a lesson.
“There’s a private event tonight downstairs in the club. We get them all the time. This is for a group celebrating some big deal. Normally something like this wouldn’t be in Pandora’s but one of our more legit places on the edge of civilized society uptown. We know them, we deal with them and they want the thrill of the Avenues.
“But they’re a company we deal with, an above-board business who have underworld ties. So it’s here. They’re spending big.”
“I assume there’s a point?” she asks.
“Glad you asked.” I get up, pick up my drink and round the desk, leaning on the front edge, deliberately crowding her in the medium size office. It might as well be a broom closet for all the space it suddenly seems to have. She gasps but stands her ground.
And I have to begrudgingly give Lizette points for that. Others would back the fuck into the wall.
I’m not hiding who I am.
She knows I’m deadly, carnivorous, and I don’t give one fuck for her.
And all Lizette does is raise her chin and meet my gaze.
“We,” I say, “are short a girl.”
“And that’s my problem, how? ”
“You need to earn your keep, starting tonight.”
She swallows. And I could come from the thoughts that cross her face, at the fact I’ve got her exactly where I want to. Plan whatever the fuck it is, is in motion.
I can play with her, and she can’t do a fucking thing.
“You want me to dance? Fuck someone?”
Something sharp slashes through me. “No. I don’t want that. Fuck, I’m not about to throw you out like fresh meat.”
“And here I thought that’s what I am.”
She’s got some mouth on her. I stand, walk about her, sipping my drink. “You’re both too marked and too fucking na?ve to be considered fresh meat. They want the look of it and a girl who knows the score. Not a virginal omega who’s marked.”
“That isn’t my fault.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I wasn’t there to see.”
“You're an asshole,” she breathes.
I deserve the insult. I know I went too far and not far enough. But I let it slide. Instead, I take a sip of my whiskey and lean in, using my free hand to brush her hair from her throat, letting my fingers skim the mark.
She shivers and bites her lip, like she’s trying to squash a moan.
“These men are animals, Lizette,” I say. “They only want female staff. I need you to earn your fucking keep by dressing in the outfit that’s going to be sent to your room, and then get your ass back here.”
“What—” She frowns. “I’m not going to do anything until you tell me what I have to do.”
“You will.”
I hand her my drink and get my phone, sending Darcy a text. Right now, she can wait tables, work her way up to the stage. She’ll make a fortune, too.
But not naked.
Knight and Reaper told me she can sing, so… If I lay down ru les, make her do that… Fuck, even if she can barely hold a note, she’s money in the fucking bank.
Not to mention that setting down some hardline rules with her is a hotness all on its own.
She wants to know what I’ll make her do to earn her keep, but I’m not telling her it’s only going to be serving and maybe singing. Not yet. The not knowing’s driving her mad, and I like that.
Lizette licks her lips. “Tell me?—”
A flick of my eyes stops her words dead in their tracks. I come back at her, take my drink, and set it down, then I move, deliberate, slow, not stopping until Lizette’s got no choice but to back off into the door.
She tries to hold ground but she doesn’t. Her pupils are dilated, lips slightly parted, and her tits rise and fall unevenly.
Some might mistake this as fear. It isn’t. It’s pure, unadulterated lust. She’s drowning in it. Her scent blooms, giving her away, taunting my senses.
That’s the problem with her. Games are dangerous. A double-edged sword.
Lucky for me, unlucky for her, I like those games. I’m a master of control and denial. I can have her so fucking hot, she’ll come without me touching her.
Unless, of course, I deny her. Order her not to.
And, I think, I’m going to do just that.
“Baseline rules, Liz. One, you’ll be on the floor waiting tables, and then you’ll perform, sing, who knows? Two, you obey us without question. And three, you don’t fuck near your heat. With anyone. Even your knight in shining armor.”
“Not even with you.”
I grit my teeth. “Never speak back to me. I’m your boss now.”
“You don’t want me.”
Oh fuck. Despite my warning, her pushing back is hot.
“Maybe I just like the control. Maybe I want to make sure you keep your fucking scent and baby fatale ways in your fucking panties.” I lean in, lips almost brushing her ear. “Maybe I don’t want anyone else to touch you.”
A small moan, so soft it’s like a sigh, breaks free and washes against me, making my cock hard.
“I will not be your slave,” she whispers.
“Oh?”
“N-No.” She struggles for air. “I came here looking for help. What are the other rules?”
I ignore the last part. “Nothing’s for free.”
“Knight—Reaper. I…they…”
“They what?” She’s just given Reaper away. He didn’t fuck her. I’d know, but she wants them both. She’s flinging them at me like they’ll save her.
Fuck, Knight probably would.
Reaper? He’d watch whatever it was I wanted to do to her. Maybe join in.
And in the end, Knight’s loyal to the Unholy Trinity, not a pretty little omega.
But I play with her some more.
“You think they have control over you? Or they’ll come to your rescue?”
“I…”
“Tonight, you’re going to do what you’re told. No man is to touch you. If he does, I’ll have him killed. You aren’t a dancer, you’re just cleaning up, bussing the tables. And then, if you pass, we’ll keep you on in exchange for protection. Then I’ll let you know if you’ll sing naked, or just strip.”
“I despise you.”
“Do you? I could tell you to drop to your knees and service me, or I could set up a room for you so you can lie on your back and fuck all the men who attend the event.”
“Bastard.” She turns pale and I… My triumph is tempered with a touch of guilt. That’s her power, she makes men protective. She also makes them want to fuck her .
Or maybe it’s Knight’s bite and how it somehow infiltrates me and Reap.
We’re the three alphas of the pack, all equal. The mark is bound to affect the three of us in some way. But I lean right in so she’s pinned, and she can feel the heat of me just like I can feel the heat of hers as it infiltrates flesh and bone and marrow, engorges my cock.
“But I won’t. As I said, I don’t want that. Fuck, I’m not even going to stop you getting it on with Knight, or Reaper, if you can, but you can’t do a fucking thing until your trial period’s over. A week. One week. And you can’t even try and get yourself off.”
“I’m not about to do that,” she says, voice all melting with heated need.
I close in a little more, my mouth skimming along her throat, not quite touching her, but I can fucking feel her pulse leap, her uptick in temperature. Smell her arousal.
It brings a musky complexity to her scent, so fucking sweet and erotic that it could fell a man.
Christ, no wonder Knight marked her.
She isn’t even in heat now and she’s as potent as if she was.
Fucking Lizette’s dangerous.
My kind of danger, the flame I like to taunt and tease and play in. My mouth hovers right at the mark.
And I blow out breath over it.
Lizette’s breath stutters and she arches her throat, the offer so fucking blatant I’m not sure she knows she’s doing it.
That move licks my balls.
“No, you’re not. You’re going to be good and obey me.”
“Fuck you.”
“You wish. But know, either way, I’m your fucking boss now. Your lord and master.” I pause, sniffing her scent as I move up to her ear and plant a hand either side of her. She’s quivering, a hum that delights me running through her. “You better not touch yourself. You don’t come. And you sure as shit don’t let Reaper or Knight fucking touch you.”
I stop, rethink that, and lift my head so I can look into her eyes. Her gaze catches and the longing, lust, hate, and anger are a special aphrodisiac for me.
Like a wild creature, she needs to be broken in. Made to see who and what I am to her.
I’m going to be her puppet master, control her, and be in charge of her orgasms. When I decide to let one of the other two fuck her, then that’s an implicit yes to her coming.
If she goes to one of them or lets them touch her when I haven’t handed out permission…
It’s on her.
And punishment’s going to be fucking sweet.
The way she looks pulsates in me, and I revel in it, letting it stoke the fires of my pleasure, my own denial and my power.
“Actually, Lizette, let them touch you, but don’t fuck them. And, no matter what they do, you can’t come. If you do…”
“How will you know?” Her voice is almost breathless.
“I’ll fucking know. Consequences, sweet angel.”
The sudden nickname for her makes me pause. It rings something true in me.
I rather like it. It suits her.
“I know you hate me,” she says. “Don’t mock me. Please.”
I only smile. “The things I could do to you to turn you on. To make you come so hard you won’t be able to walk.”
“Dante—”
“I wouldn’t kiss you.” I drop my gaze to her mouth. “Or, maybe I would because that’s the plumpest, most inviting mouth I’ve seen. Those lips would be perfect wrapped around my dick, you on your knees, begging to be fucked in the throat.”
Her little gasp scrapes down my spine.
I’m being crude, but she’s the one who likes it. I bet if I put my fingers in her panties, she’d be wet. To make for easy fucking into her passage that’s got to be tight.
She likes the dirty, filthy talk.
“I’d start slow, the first time, let the experience of the warm cloudlike softness close around me. Just a little to hold me there, on the brink. Your tongue working the head, over my slit and drinking any precum. There’ll be precum. Your mouth demands my cum. You’re made to get on those knees and service, offer up your wares. And I think you’ll like it, too.”
“Lies,” Lizette moans.
“Yeah, you’d be desperate to suck me down, let your pretty lips stretch tight. Then I’d grip your hair and fuck your mouth. I’d push in, all the way, hammering into your throat that’s so hot and wet and pliable, making you gag until I fucking come. I’m not sure yet if I’d want you to swallow or let my cum trickle down over your chin. To your tits.” I put my mouth at her ear. “Fucking hot. You’re just a deprived angel begging to be corrupted by me.”
She moans again.
“Next,” I say, “I’d have you suck my balls while fingering yourself, and then, sweet Lizette, I’d have you spread yourself open for me. Then I’d fucking eat that sweet smelling cunt. Bite you, lick you. Suck. I’d use my fingers the way I’m betting Reaper’s done, like I know Knight did, I’d stretch you open. And I’d stretch your ass, too. I don’t like waste. And ignoring your ass is fucking waste.
“I’d hook my fingers to stroke your G-spot while also hitting your A-spot in your ass. I’d show you pleasure you’d never dream of. And…” I drop my voice, shift so she can feel my hard on if she brushes against me, and she does in rhythmic little moves. “All the while I’m going to be sucking, biting, licking that clit of yours. I’ll build it up, to the point you ache and need release. Fuck, you’ll beg for it.”
“And then?” she asks, voice slightly ragged.
“Then, right as you think you’re going to come, I’ll stop and spin you, bend you over the desk, and plunge my cock, balls-deep, in your cunt. I’ll fuck you for a bit, and…” I put my mouth close enough to brush her ear. “This is the good bit. I’ll fuck your ass. I’ll go back and forth between both holes until we’re both aching for release. Just like you want to come now, and, with me sucking your tits through that dress, I know you could. But I’m not doing that. Just like when I fuck you over my desk, I’m not letting you come either. I’ll send you away, orgasm so close you can fucking taste it.”
Her entire body shakes with need.
“I’ll send you away with the order I’m giving you now,” I tell her firmly. “You’re not to come. Because I’ll know. And trust me when I say, you don’t want me to punish you.”
I step back, open the door, and motion her out. “Be back here in five. I think you know the way to your room.”
She looks at me like I slapped her, robbed her, and then she turns, and walks away.