Chapter 11 Talon
ELEVEN
TALON
As soon as I stormed off, I ended up stealing a bottle of bourbon from behind one of the bars, and ended up on some fancy-ass balcony with a cigarette burning to the filter between my fingers.
Nasty habit, but fuck it. I inhale the smoke and hold it in my lungs until it aches.
She doesn’t get to talk to me like that, but rage looks so damn good on her. The heat in her voice was enough to fill my dick. I lean against the railing and take another sip straight from the bottle.
Behind me, I hear the click of the French doors opening, the roar from the party, then it quiets down again. I turn around and see Mara walking toward me.
“Come to slap me again, Princess?”
“I didn’t come to slap you.” She scoffs, making her way over to me, her arms crossed over her red dress. “Not unless you give me another reason.”
My eyes rake over her and land on her icy-blue eyes. Her chin is high, but her eyes are wary. The rise and fall of her chest suggests her nervousness. Good. She should be nervous. Because at this moment, I could ruin her. “Aren’t you afraid to be seen with Omega Chi trash?”
Her eyes narrow. “Anyone who truly believes that the men of Omega Chi Kappa are irrelevant clearly have no idea how the Syndicate actually functions.”
I shake my head. The Syndicate. The backbone of elite society. The ones who hold all the strings to this goddamn puppet show. The only reason why we’re here, trying to get Mara’s father elected president. He’s been groomed his entire life for this prospect.
“Why don’t you just go back inside. Let Harrington rub your shoulders while he brags to donors about your GPA and his latest trust fund accomplishments.”
“You know nothing about me.”
“Don’t I?” I close the distance between us. “I think you spend so much time being everything for everyone. I think you’re starving for something but you have no idea what because you haven’t been exposed to it.”
She shakes her head, but I just grin at her disbelief.
“I think you play innocent, and act as if you crave control, when the only thing you truly want to do is let go.” I reach for her wrist, my fingers ghosting over her skin.
She sucks in sharp breath and snatches her wrist back.
“And you think I’m going to let you control me?”
I chuckle. “No, Princess, I know you won’t. That’s what makes it fun.”
Her eyes flash, but instead of recoiling, she takes a breath. “Let’s make a deal.”
“A deal?”
“An arrangement,” she clarifies. “You and me. Publicly.”
I blink. “You’re going to have to talk in more simple terms. I am but OCK trash, after all.”
She laughs. “A fake relationship. You hate PTO, my father, and Chase. I need to do something…”
“Freakishly stupid?”
She ignores the jab. “I just need you to walk me to a few classes—get the campus gossiping. That’s it. No strings.”
That makes me snort. “You know it’s tradition for the officers to share a girl.”
Her nose wrinkles in disgust. “Absolutely not. This is just between you and me”
The thought of her bent over our kitchen counter with Dre and Jas behind me makes my cock stir, but I keep it to myself, letting the corner of my mouth curl instead.
“Funny, though.” I lean in close enough that she stiffens. “If all you wanted was protection, you’d go to Dredyn—man’s obsessed. He’d slaughter half the campus if you asked. So, why me?”
“Because I don’t want Dredyn. I want to control this. With him, there’s none. With you, at least there’s… negotiation.”
That stops me. And fuck if it doesn’t make me laugh. “So, I’m the lesser evil. The devil you think you can leash.” I shake my head slowly, savoring her defiance. “Careful, Princess. I don’t wear leashes; I wrap them around pretty little necks.”
Her breath hitches, but she holds my gaze.
I let the silence stretch, already imagining Dre’s face when he sees her clinging to my arm. The rage. The betrayal. The storm it’ll cause.
“All right. You want to play pretend? Let’s play.”
Her shoulders lift with a shaky inhale. She thinks she’s won something.
My gaze drops to her mouth as she drags her tongue across her bottom lip. My pulse spikes, and I lift my hand, dragging my knuckles up her arm slowly, savoring the goosebumps that ripple in my wake.
“Well then.” I smirk, eyes locked on hers. “We seal the deal, my way.”
My fingers slide down until they rest on the inside of her wrist. Her pulse is hammering too.
I could ruin her right here—pin her to that pillar, fingers buried in her soaked cunt until she shatters and screams my name for the whole goddamn Syndicate to hear.
I trace my way back up her arm, savoring the shiver that riots through her.
Then, I graze the skin just beneath her ear, my breath hot against it, and watch her lips part on a whimper, eyes fluttering closed.
“High off a single touch. Pathetic little virgin tease, and so fucking gorgeous when you’re this desperate for it.”
Her eyes snap open. “It’s fake… Talon…” She breathes.
My fingers find the strand of pearls wrapped tight around her neck, like a collar waiting for its claim.
I slip two under the necklace now, tugging hard enough to bite into her pale skin, pulling her flush against me by that pretty little leash.
The pearls dig in like teeth, and fuck me, she looks good marked—red welts blooming where I own her.
Her breath stutters, tits heaving against my chest, nipples hard enough to cut glass through that flimsy red silk.
She trembles, thighs clenching like she’s fighting not to rub against me, but she doesn’t shove me off. Doesn’t run. Pride may hate my Omega Chi ass, but her body? Her body’s a traitor, dripping and aching, begging for the monster she just leashed.
I let my hand climb higher, cupping her cheek roughly, thumb smearing across her bottom lip like I'm prepping it for my cock. “Your reaction doesn’t feel fake, Princess. Feel that?” I grind my hips forward once, letting her sense how hard she’s got me—thick and throbbing against her belly.
“That’s what your innocent little grind does to me.
Ready to seal your fate? Or should I make you beg for this leash around your throat while I finger-fuck that tight pussy until you’re sobbing my name? ”
Her lips part and that’s it—my control snaps like a thread.
I kiss her, and she gasps, and I swallow it whole.
My mouth moves over hers with purpose. She doesn’t kiss back at first, either from being too stunned or just inexperienced.
But when she finally presses her lips into mine, it’s tentative and sweet. Holy hell.
A groan rips from my chest, and I dive deeper, threading a hand into her soft hair to yank her head back just enough to expose that throat for my teeth.
The other hand clamps at her waist, fingers digging into the curve of her hip, pulling her flush so she can feel every inch of how bad I want to wreck her.
She sucks in a sharp breath, and I devour it, sliding my tongue against hers in a filthy invasion.
She’s really kissing me back.
It’s messy and shy and so goddamn intoxicating I could come just from the way her nails bite into my suit jacket.
That uncertainty in every hesitant swipe?
It only makes me hungrier. Makes me want to strip her bare and teach her how to ride my cock until she’s ruined for anyone else.
I crush her to me, grinding my rock hard dick against her belly, letting her feel the threat of it—thick, leaking, ready to split that innocent pussy wide open.
I don’t give a fuck that we’re on a balcony, feet from those suit-wearing pricks inside.
Let them hear her moan.
Let them know Omega Chi just marked the Syndicate princess.
I angle her deeper into the kiss, devouring her whimpers as she rises on her toes to chase it, heat blooming between us like a fucking wildfire. My thigh shoves between hers, pinning her hard against the cold marble pillar.
She gasps at the pressure right against her core, and I swallow it whole, licking it off her swollen lips before shoving my tongue back in to claim more. “That’s it, Princess,” I rasp against her mouth. “Grind that needy cunt on my thigh like the slut you’re dying to be for me.”
The high slit in her gown parts like an invitation over my leg, and Jesus fucking Christ, I can feel her warm, soaked pussy through the thin fabric.
So wet it’s seeping through, marking me like she’s already mine.
Her hips twitch forward on instinct, desperate for it, and I grind my thigh harder, rubbing that swollen clit until her whole body jolts.
The noise she makes is pure fucking sin—the kind that echoes in my balls.
She tilts her head back on a broken gasp, baring that elegant throat and I dive in like a starving wolf, dragging my teeth along the delicate skin, wanting to mark her as Omega Chi property.
She’s sweating lightly now, a sheen of it glistening under the balcony lights, and it’s ambrosia on my tongue
“Talon,” she moans.
I growl low against her pulse point, nipping the skin before crashing my mouth back to hers, tongues tangling in a war of wet heat while her fingers claw into my shoulders like she needs me to hold her together.
Her lips are swollen, lipstick smeared across my chin like war paint, but she kisses me back like I’m the only air she needs.
Her hips roll into my thigh again, harder now, chasing that friction with shameless little grinds, her soaked heat pulsing against me through the silk.
I can feel her clit throbbing, begging, and it nearly makes me lose my fucking mind—nearly has me ripping that slit wider and shoving two fingers deep to stretch her out.
“God, Mara,” I groan into her mouth.
Her eyes meet mine, dark and glazed with want, and I know. I know this girl is going to wreck me.
And I’m going to let her.
With one last shred of sanity, I force the words out, “Tell me to stop, Princess. Say it, or I’ll edge this greedy little cunt until you’re sobbing, begging me to let you come all over my thigh like the dirty Omega Chi whore you’re turning into.”
Instead of being the sensible one, she snakes her hand to the back of my neck, fingers threading into my hair and yanking hard, pulling me down into her kiss with a hunger that matches mine. She’s mine now, leash or no leash. Fake deal or not.
She can play her games, live in that pretty delusion until I’ve ruined her—fucked every innocent inch until she’s branded inside and out.
I crush her harder against the stone pillar, kissing her. My hands roam, greedy and claiming, one sliding down to grip her ass and force another grind, the other fisting her hair to tilt her just right. Her arms wrap tightly around my shoulders, body arching into me like she can’t get close enough.
Her innocence hits like a drug against my tongue. God help me, it’s addictive as hell. I’d lose myself in her for hours, tongue-fucking her until she squirts, cock buried to the hilt while I whisper how I’ll share her with my brothers if she keeps grinding on me like that—
“Mara?”
The voice slices the night in half. We freeze. Her eyes fly open, wide with panic, and her breath hitches, like she’s been caught in a lie. “Milo,” she whispers, and just that name—just that one syllable—is a bullet to the chest.
Her brother.
Fuck. I really wanted to get my dick wet…
She tears away from me before I can speak, before I can even think. Just a flash of red silk and perfume and the click of heels vanishing behind the pillar. Back through the curtain. Back into the spotlight. Back to safety.
A beat later, Milo Black comes into view.
His eyes lock on me immediately. I rake a hand through my hair, scrambling to wipe whatever the hell just happened off my face, but it’s too late. My lips are red. My suit’s wrinkled. I probably look like I just crawled off the floor of a backroom blowjob.
Which, in a way, I kind of did.
“Mara?” Milo barks. Not seeing her, his gaze cuts to me. “What the hell are you doing out here, Reed?”
I push off the pillar, wipe the back of my hand over my mouth and taste her lipstick.
Fucking hell.
“Enjoying the night air,” I say, leaning against the railing like I’ve got nothing to hide.
It’s a lie so thin I could spit through it. Milo’s jaw clenches and he takes a step closer. His whole stance shifts—squared shoulders, fists balled. Big Brother Mode: activated.
“Where is she?” he demands.
I tip my chin toward the ballroom. “Inside,” I say lazily. “Safe from the big bad wolf.”
“Stay the hell away from her,” Milo growls.
“And if she doesn’t want me to?”
“She doesn’t know what she wants.”
Oh, I want to say it. I want to say, She knew what she wanted when her tongue was in my mouth and her hips were grinding against my thigh.
But something makes me hold my tongue.
We stare each other down like wolves fighting over the same scrap of meat.
He breathes hard through his nose, nostrils flaring, jaw twitching like he’s two seconds from throwing a punch. I wish he would. I’d welcome it—give me something to bleed so I don’t have to sit here with this madness humming under my skin.
Then he turns and storms back inside.
I drag my hand down my face and laugh. What the hell just happened?
One kiss, one girl, and I feel like I’ve been rewired. I pace, restless and manic, the image of her burned behind my eyes like a fever dream. Her parted lips. Her breathy moan. That fucking look in her eyes when she pulled me down to her.
I get it now.
Why is Dredyn so territorial? Why does Jasper watch her like a starving man in a locked room?
It’s not just because she’s beautiful.
It’s because she’s intoxicating. Untouched. And I just got the first hit.
She tasted freedom.
And I tasted her.
I blow out smoke and grin, something dark curling in my chest, too wild to be rational.
“Too late, brother,” I mutter into the night, flicking my newly-lit cigarette off the edge of the balcony. The ember arcs through the dark like a shooting star, disappearing before it lands.
“She already tasted me.”
And I’ll be damned if that’s the last time.