Jace withdrew his thumb and then slid two blunt fingers inside her just as Lucas lightly pinched her clit between his thumb and forefinger.

“Come, Ren. Come all over his hand.”

She needed no further urging. Her body bucked violently. Daryl and Matt pushed in closer, their bodies adding support so she didn’t fall.

Jace’s teeth grazed her nipple, each touch sending more spasms of delight straight to her pussy. While Lucas bit into her neck, Jace nipped sharply at one nipple, their fingers performing magic in the most sensitive places on her body.

She was no longer capable of standing on her own. She went limp against Lucas, trusting that as always, he’d never let her fall. He held her closely, kissing and licking gently at her neck while Jace worked her slowly down from her orgasm.

She lay there several long seconds, slumped in Lucas’s arms, her breaths coming in ragged bursts. Then Lucas carefully straightened her clothing. Jace withdrew his hand from underneath her panties and arranged her skirt.

He stood to his full height again as the music and dancing continued on around them.

With Lucas’s help, she got her feet underneath her again and stood, though she still leaned into Lucas.

“You may kiss him and offer your thanks,” Lucas directed.

Ren walked into Jace’s arms, leaned up on tiptoe with his help and kissed him on the lips. He swept his tongue over hers, tasting her, allowing her to briefly taste him before he pulled away.

“Thank you,” Ren said so he could hear.

He chucked her affectionately on the cheek. “Any time, sugar.”

Lucas walked her back to the stairs where they’d come down. Daryl, Matt and Jace walked back with them, surrounding them on all sides. At the stairs, two of the bouncers took over and the three men melted back into the crowd, gone before she could blink.

She continued up the steps with Lucas, still in a post-orgasmic fog. They drew the stares of many. Lucas had never been so bold with her, though they’d gotten a little frisky at Lucas’s table before. But never something so open and public. It was …different. Not something she would have thought Lucas would do. In private? All bets were off. There was nothing she’d put beyond him whether it was one man or a dozen. Though it hadn’t ever happened with her, she had no illusions about how far he was willing to take things.

Lucas saw her into her seat and then motioned for the waitress who had taken a nearby post.

“Water for Ren and I’ll take a beer.”

The waitress was back quickly but then she’d likely anticipated precisely what Lucas would order. Lucas didn’t often deviate from his routine and his usual order only consisted of a variety of three drinks.

Ren drank thirstily of the water and leaned back, suddenly exhausted by the dancing and the mind-blowing orgasm. What she wouldn’t give for a good snuggle and a comfortable bed.

Lucas reached over to curl his hand around her nape. He rubbed a thumb up and down the line of her neck as he continued to survey the goings on in the club.

As they sat and he rubbed her neck, her growing more lethargic and content by the minute, several people stopped by to speak with Lucas. She tuned out the conversation and concentrated instead on his touch. She closed her eyes and absorbed the delicious sensation of his fingers, the heat of his hand, the comfort in knowing she belonged to him.

For an hour longer, she watched people come and go from Lucas’s table. He talked easily with his customers, business associates and VIPs. He held court like a pro, never going to others but allowing them to come to him. Even the rich and famous came to him, their ego stroked that he allowed them to enter his inner circle.

Then he turned to her, lifted her hand to press a kiss to the back of her wrist and said, “Are you ready to go?”

She nodded, not bothering to defer to what he wanted. He’d asked and she wouldn’t lie. She’d gotten what she came for and what he’d brought her for. Her mind was much freer of the weight it had borne for the last few days.

Cole wasn’t sure how he felt about his meeting with Lucas Holt. He wanted to dislike the man. A damn lot. But it was hard when he seemed so …decent.

He sighed and glanced at the clock. He was ill at ease. He was fucking nervous, and that pissed him off. He felt like he was preparing for some kind of goddamn test that he didn’t know the answers to.

Lucas was a cagey bastard, and he’d caught Cole completely and utterly off guard with his proposal. It had been on the tip of Cole’s tongue to refuse. It enraged him on Ren’s behalf. But then he remembered those damn rules. Or rather that there were no damn rules in the lives that he, Lucas and Ren had chosen. Only those they made themselves.

And then, when his anger and surprise had abated, he knew that there was no way in hell he could walk away from this kind of opportunity. He wasn’t entirely certain what Lucas’s motives were in offering Ren to him on a silver platter, but what Cole did with the chance was what mattered.

He had another chance to make Ren love him. To make up to her all the pain he’d caused her. To show her the man he’d become.

He’d become more focused. Intense. He had a harder edge now and that might scare the shit out of her. He wasn’t the same young man who adored her beyond reason and was a hesitant participant in their experimentation. He wasn’t even sure he could be that man any longer.

It was a choice he agonized over. Show her the truth and take the chance that she’d never come back to him. Or lie to her and withhold the true part of himself forever.

Neither held any appeal but he knew he couldn’t lie to her or himself. Lucas had warned him of the consequences of such an action. Ren would suffer no pretenses and he was fiercely glad of it. He wanted honesty between them.

He had two weeks. Two weeks to win back the woman he’d never stopped loving. And at the end of that time, he had to hope like hell that she’d choose him because he couldn’t face losing her a second time. The first time had changed him irrevocably. This time would destroy him.

Ren sat between Lucas’s knees as the limousine slid down the highway to God only knew where. Lucas had been cryptic on details and very explicit on how she was to dress and what she was and wasn’t to wear.

She was on her knees, legs apart, the folds of her silk skirt fanned out on the floorboard. The top she wore had a plunging neckline that emphasized her full breasts and barely covered her nipples.

It was an outfit put together with access in mind. He wanted unfettered access to her.

He was distant though. And preoccupied. Whether it was business or something else entirely, she wasn’t sure, but he seemed restless and cagey and she knew from experience that he was harder and rougher when he was in such a mood.

He slid his hand down the middle of her chest and then impatiently pushed aside the material covering her breasts. He thumbed her nipple idly, almost as if he couldn’t quite decide what he wanted to do with her.

It was unusual for Lucas to show clear indecision and she wondered what could possibly be occupying his mind that he was so distracted.

Abruptly, he slid his finger between the band of her collar and her skin and yanked forward until she was leaning against him, her belly pressed to his crotch. He kissed her. Hard.

She felt …branded. Like he was proving all over again that she belonged to him. His teeth bit into her lip, drawing blood, and then he licked over the tender area, sweeping the blood away and onto his tongue.

She wanted to ask him what bothered him, but knew that particular boundary between them shouldn’t be breached. He was private, and if he wanted her to know, he would tell her.