Steel Lust (10 page)

“
Mmm hmm
,” she hummed with a knowing smile.

“Oh, Joy,” he said, and she had to laugh because she
couldn’t tell if he was saying her name or making a declaration.

Joy braced herself on her arms and gave him a quick peck on
the mouth before she crawled backward until she was face-to-face with his dick.
She wedged one knee between his legs and he made room for her to settle between
them.

“Oh fuck,” he whispered, propping the couch pillow higher
under his head to watch when she took his cock in hand.

She let her lips slide over the head. Her tongue teased the
slit at the tip, then slid down to flick over that sensitive spot where the
underside of the head became the shaft. Leonardo sucked a deep breath of air
through his teeth.

Cradling him in her hand, she licked him from root to tip,
drew the head into her mouth, let go with a sucking pop that made his hips jerk
and did it again. She wrapped her hand around the base of his shaft and started
fucking him with her mouth and hand at the same time. Every time he groaned,
every time he whispered her name or sucked a sharp breath of air through his
teeth her clit responded with an answering throb.

Without losing the rhythm they had together, Joy reached
down between her legs, slicked her fingers in the wet folds of her pussy and
stroked her clit in time to the bobbing of her head over his cock. Leo must
have been able to see what she was doing because he groaned deeply and muttered
something that sounded highly approving.

“I’m going to come,” he warned her in a ragged whisper.

Fuck, she was going to come too.

He groaned her name and touched her head but she couldn’t
tell if he was trying to move her away so he wouldn’t come in her mouth or push
her down on him farther. She quickened the pace of her head and looked up to
let him know she wanted it.

God, he was so unbearably sexy. His deep-blue-green eyes
watching her, the flush on his face and over his chest, the tightness of his
pierced nipples and the washboard tightening of his stomach as he breathed
hard. The sight of him so clearly aroused by what she was doing to him sent a
thrill through her body triggering the first wave of her orgasm. Her mouth
tightened around him reflexively and she moaned deeply. He thrust and spilled
into her mouth with a long, desperate moan.

When she could move again, she flopped onto her back by his
side.

He told the ceiling, “Holy shit.”

She laughed and pressed a hand to her belly when he looked
at her and smiled.

It was way too soon for her to be reacting the way she did
when he looked at her.

“I’ll come to Chicago any time you want, Joy,” he said, and
she laughed again.

Later, after they were settled into the pillow-topped heaven
that was his bed, him spooning her, she had to shoo away the thought that it
felt too good, the way his body felt tucked behind hers, his hand cradling her
breast familiarly and the warmth of his breath on the back of her neck. It was
too soon for it to feel so right.

What happened to the fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants woman she
used to be, she wondered. She hardly recognized herself, lying awake worrying
about how long things were going to last with someone she’d essentially just
met. Because the time they’d met a year and half ago didn’t count. That Leonardo
had been someone else entirely.

Easy come, easy go had always been her motto, right up to
the last man she’d dated a few months earlier. It had always been that way for
her, even the couple of times she’d tried to live with someone. When it was over,
it was over and there would be another man right behind the one who’d left. Or
been asked to leave. Joy had a feeling when it came time for Leonardo to go,
there wasn’t going to be anything easy about it.

March flew by in a blur of hiring and training two new
counter girls, training Agnes—who was going to be a really good
piercer—rehearsals with Grind, and Joy.

Glorious, ravishing, intoxicating Joy.

They’d only managed one more face to face visit over the
weeks since he’d brought her back for her car, but they’d spent hours talking
on the phone, texting, exchanging dirty e-mails. And the phone sex…

Yes, even phone sex with the woman was unbelievably hot.

Leo, Jamie and Oz had arranged things at the shop so they
could all be out of town at the same time for a few days. Jamie taking Leni to
Chicago to celebrate her thirtieth birthday the first week of April had turned
into a group event.

Leni’s twin sister Jo and her husband Gabe were going
because Leni and Jo had never celebrated their birthday apart, and Joy wanted
to photograph Leni and Jo’s matching tattoos for her book. They were only
staying the weekend because they’d never been away from their year-old daughter
overnight.

Oz was coming because once Joy met him, she’d decided she
wanted pictures of Lust for Life’s three partners. His plan was to spend the
weekend with the group, then stay with friends he had in the city the rest of
the week.

Leo was staying with Joy for the week. From the moment
they’d started planning it, he’d been more than looking forward to five whole
uninterrupted nights with her.

He pulled up to the front of Joy’s building just as Bruce
Allen was coming out the front door, walking so fast his limo driver almost
didn’t make it around the car to open the back door in time. Bruce ducked
inside without seeing Leo, who’d pulled his Jeep up close to the back of the
spotless Lincoln Town Car, but the driver gave him an annoyed look as he made
his way around the front.

Leo gave him an overly friendly wave, but he was seething
inside. After not hearing a word about the man for more than a month, not a
single mention since the encounter at Joy’s studio, there he was, leaving her
apartment in the middle of the afternoon.

Joy had a bright smile and a big welcome for Norma Jean—who’d
come with him instead of Leo leaving her with a dog-sitter for the week—but Leo
could see she’d been crying. The sight of her watery eyes and red nose wiped
away the anger and suspicion that he’d caught her at something.

“It’s nothing,” she said, attempting to wave it off when he
asked what was wrong.

Whatever had happened she was reluctant to let him hold her,
and she hadn’t kissed him hello. Leo let Norma Jean off her leash and she
instantly took off, nose to the floor, to explore the new surroundings.

“Joy.” He held her shoulders and she stilled. “I saw him
leaving when I got here.”

Those big gorgeous eyes of hers lifted to his and filled
with tears.

Leo clamped his jaw shut to stop the onslaught of questions
that was backing up on the tip of his tongue, falling over themselves in an
attempt to escape.

“Did he hurt you?” he asked gently.

“No.” She shrugged out of his hold, took the duffel bag with
Norma Jean’s food and bowls from him and went to the kitchen. “He would never
lay a hand on me.”

“But he clearly hurt you.” He followed at a distance.
“Should I be worried that he’s competition?” he asked in a way he hoped sounded
playful.

She snorted out a sarcastic laugh, dropped the bag a little
too heavily on the kitchen counter and slumped against it with her back to him.

“Leave that.” He turned her and pulled her close. “I’ll get
it later.”

She slipped her arms around his waist and held him just as
tightly as he was holding her, her face pressed to his chest. He smoothed his
hand over her silky hair, careful not to pull it out of her ponytail.

“What does he have on your family?”

She went completely still for a moment before taking in a
deep breath and looking up at him. “My sister Love is not my father’s child and
Dad knows it.”

He nodded and said nothing. What could he say to a bomb like
that?

Leo loosened his hold on her arms and led her to the kitchen
table by the hand. He pulled out a chair for her, then sat in another close to
her. “Tell me.”

She pulled her legs up, heels caught on the edge of the
seat, and wrapped her arms around her shins.

“My father ran around on my mother a lot early in their
marriage. She told me she had an idea that he’d never really stopped playing
the field when they got together, but neither did she until they got married.
According to her, he was never unkind or unloving, and he didn’t flaunt the
women he slept with in front of her. She loved him, loved the life they had
together, so she let it be.”

She took the elastic out of her hair and ran her fingers
through it distractedly as it cascaded over her shoulders in those gorgeous
gold-brown waves.

“Then she caught him in the act one day. He’d gone to the
studio early, so she dropped us off at the sitter thinking she would go in
early too, that they could use the extra time to work on a song they were
struggling to write.”

“And she found him with someone else instead.”

“Yeah, he was in an equipment room with one of the
production assistants who worked in the building. Suspecting her husband was
unfaithful was one thing, but seeing it with her own eyes was entirely
another.”

He nodded. He’d been there once or twice with girlfriends
he’d had in the past.

“She turned to Don Lane, who was head of Blue Suede Shoes
Records at the time. He’d been working with my father for years before Dad met
Mom and they signed her. He’d tolerated my dad because he was a talented
musician, but they weren’t friends.”

She dropped her feet to the floor and put the hair elastic
over her wrist.

“Don and my mom, on the other hand, had become good friends
over the years. At first Mom turned to him because he’d offered her a shoulder
to cry on, but it turned into an affair. I guess it only lasted a couple of
months. She’s said she knew from the beginning that Don never had any intention
of leaving his wife, and she didn’t want that anyway. For as much as my father
had hurt her, she was still very much in love with him and had no intention of
divorcing him.

“She was already pregnant by Don when it ended. He knew it,
she knew it, my father knew it. Dad was so happy to have her back that he
agreed to keep the secret and raise the baby as his own and eventually they all
learned to work together again.”

Leo reached over and ran the backs of his fingers down her
arm.

“In an ironic twist of fate, my baby sister is my father’s
favorite.” Her eyes filled with tears again. “I mean, he loves all three of us,
but Dad and Love,” she shook her head and smiled through what was clearly a
tough wave of emotion, “they both worship the ground the other walks on. It
would kill both of them if she knew the truth.”

“Then we’ll make sure she never does,” he assured her.

She looked at him, lips pressed together in disbelief. “We?”

He trailed the backs of his fingers over her cheek. “I know
it’s still kind of early in the game for us, Joy, but you’re not in this by
yourself any longer.”

She took his hand and held it in her lap as Norma Jean came
into the kitchen, nose still to the floor, scouting the territory. Joy laughed
and rubbed her head affectionately when she stuck her face in the space between
them.

“How did you find out?” he asked when Norma Jean went back
to her mission.

“My parents had thrown a record release party at the house.
I was up in the tree house we had in the backyard, hiding from the drunks that
were getting loud inside. Mom and Don were walking through the yard together,
talking about Love, kidding around about how lucky she was that she looked like
Mom and not him.”

He brushed her loose hair over her shoulder and ran his hand
down her back.

“I can’t imagine what hearing that must have been like. How
old were you?”

“Ten. Sunny was eight and Love was six. I was devastated. I
held on to it, cried myself to sleep at night for weeks before I confronted my
mother. She didn’t give me any of the details about the affair until I was an
adult, but she explained it in a way I could handle it at the time. And she
made me promise not to tell anyone else. She told me Dad knew, but she didn’t
want Love to know. Ever.”

“And she still doesn’t know.”

“No, and neither does Don’s wife or his daughter Deb.”

“Bruce’s wife.”

She nodded.

“Wait. If it’s so top secret, how does Bruce know?”

She shook her head. “I have no idea. Of course he won’t tell
me.”

“What the hell is he thinking? If he tells Love it’s going
to get out to his wife and mother-in-law too. He could lose his job at the
record company.”

“That’s just it. He won’t lose anything. He brought the
label back from the brink of extinction when he took over. Don hadn’t exactly
run it into the ground, but he also hadn’t signed a new act in years. Bruce
brought the blues to a whole new generation.”

“Me being one of them.”

“See? His wife is a wonderful woman, but she’s not strong.
She’s a rich kid whose daddy did a great job keeping her sheltered from the
excesses of the music business. Don’t get me wrong, she’d be crushed if she
found out about Love, but she’d never leave Bruce for what he’s doing to me. My
family has more to lose and he knows it.”

“While I can sympathize with what a nightmare it must be to
want you but not be able to have you,” he said, smiling when that made her
scoff playfully and roll her eyes, “it doesn’t make sense that he would
threaten so many people’s happiness.”

She shrugged, serious again. “I think it’s just a power
struggle that might not have anything to do with me at this point. He doesn’t
like it when people tell him no.”

Leo leaned across the space between them to kiss her. After
a moment she sighed and rested her forehead against his.

“Seriously, Leonardo,” she said with another sigh. “What
kind of voodoo are you using that makes me just spill my secrets to you?”

“Your idea of ‘just spill’ amuses me. This isn’t the first
time I’ve asked about him.”

“I was never going to tell you all the gory details about
what happened with Kelly either, but you asked and I told you about that too.”

“Yeah, that didn’t pop out of your mouth spontaneously
either. Remember?”

“And here I am telling you all about the ugly skeleton in my
family closet.” She laid her head on his shoulder when he pulled her chair
close and wrapped his arms around her. “For all I know you could run to Love
and tell her the whole thing the moment you decide you’re tired of seeing me.”

Tired of seeing her was a concept he couldn’t begin to
imagine. She was so far under his skin, so deeply embedded in his every waking
moment, that he already felt as though he was missing part of himself when he
wasn’t physically with her.

“But I won’t.” He touched his nose and mouth to her hair and
breathed her in. “You didn’t make a mistake by trusting me,” he told her
quietly.

She was silent a moment. “I know.”

“It still doesn’t add up. Bruce has to be bluffing. And even
if he isn’t, Don Lane doesn’t seem like the kind of man who would stand by and
let someone get away with hurting his family.”

When she sat up he lifted her hand and kissed each one of
the short, darkly painted nails on her fingertips.

“And for the record,” he continued, holding her gaze steady,
“I am not going to stand by and do nothing while he continues to threaten you
and your family.”

“My hero,” she breathed with no small amount of amusement,
then withdrew her hand. “But I don’t need you to fix every little inconvenience
in my life.”

Leo bristled with reflex annoyance, then tamped it down.

“I’m not going to swallow any of the sugar-coated bullshit
you try to feed me either,” he added. “Bruce Allen is much more than an
inconvenience.”

She sighed wearily and he could tell what was coming next.

“Please don’t say or do anything if you see him again.”

“Joy—”

She clapped a hand over his mouth, stood and straddled his
lap.

“I’m finished talking about him. Let’s talk about you and me
and how long it’s been since we’ve been naked in the same room together
instead.”

He looked her over from where she sat on his lap to those
fascinating eyes of hers.

“You’re quite the persuasive subject changer.” He slid his
fingers up the silky skin of her neck, fingers curled around her nape, thumbs
stroking her jaw.

“Baby, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” she purred, and kissed
him.

His body responded with a jolt when she sank into the kiss
with a deep, throaty sigh. Oh her mouth was pure heaven, all sweet tasting and
incredibly lush.

“What do you want to do tonight?” she asked as though she
hadn’t just filled his head with an entire night’s worth of filthy, dirty
things to do. She brushed his hair back from his face and his eyes closed at
her touch. “We already decided we’re staying in while Norma Jean gets a feel
for the place.”

Leo licked her taste from his bottom lip. “More kissing
would be good.”

She inched up his lap, bringing her heat directly over his
cock, now hard and more than ready for her. “And you’re definitely going to
have to do that hip roll thing you do at some point tonight.”

“The one that makes you dig your nails into my skin and pant
my name?”

She wiggled in his lap and a light that had been missing
from her beautiful eyes sparked to life. “That’s the one.”

He drew her face to his and took another long,
heart-stopping pull from her mouth.

“You got it.” He loved the way it took her a moment to open
her eyes.

“And we should eat at some point, but I’m not really in the
mood for cooking.”