Steel Lust

Jayne
Kingston

Take one bombshell photographer,
add a sexy body piercer slash rock singer and toss in a broken down car for
good measure and what do you get?

Nights of passion hot enough to
melt even the coldest Midwestern winter.

Joy has been let down by her share
of musicians, but Leo quickly shows her he’s nothing like the rock star types
she’s known before. Coming to her rescue—and then treating her to a night of
toe-curling erotic pleasures—are just the first of many things that keep her
running back for more. And once Leo’s had a taste of the spicy-sweet daughter
of Chicago blues legends, he knows a handful of mind-blowing nights with her
are not going to be enough.

Now he just needs to convince her
their age difference, a closely guarded family secret and one act of chivalry
too many aren’t more than their passion can survive.

A
Romantica®
contemporary erotic romance
from Ellora’s Cave

Damn, he hated February in Ohio.

Let me count the ways
, Leonardo thought, stepping out
of his warm house and into a bitterly cold, late-winter morning. He hated the
endless freezing temperatures and the overcast skies that left the city a
washed-out, grayscale version of itself—to the point he wished a snowstorm
would come along and wipe his world clean again. Anything would be better than
the relentless ugly of deep winter.

He gave his dog Norma Jean a wave through the glass of his
front door and pocketed his keys, then adjusted his scarf higher over his nose
as an ice-cold breeze cut across the front porch and made him catch his breath.
With the shoulder strap of his messenger bag slung across his chest, he flipped
up the high collar on his long wool coat, shoved his gloved hands into his
pockets and headed for work.

Despite the biting wind chill, he refused to drive the three
blocks to the shop. He walked—rain, wind, sleet or snow—every day, diligent as
the goddamn postman.

Every once in a while he considered moving someplace warmer,
someplace where the sun shone year round, even in winter. His band would have
been all for moving out to L.A. where the action was, especially since they
were starting to get some serious recognition lately, but Leo was rooted to
this bland, gray place now more than ever.

His family was here. Lust for Life, the tattoo and body
piercing shop he co-owned with his friends Jamie and Oz, was thriving. His job
as manager and top body piercer kept him busy when he wasn’t practicing or
traveling to shows with his band, Grind. And now he had the house he’d bought
from his grandparents almost a year ago.

Deep, strong roots, all of them.

When he walked through the front door a few minutes later he
found the waiting area of the shop empty, as expected. Agnes, the counter girl,
had her head together with Leni, his partner Jamie’s fiancé, both of them
looking at something on the computer.

Without looking up, Agnes said, “Hey, Leo. No one on the
books today.”

He pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair.
February was generally slow. Business boomed for the shop’s piercers in warmer
months, but it still wasn’t easy to hear there was no one on the schedule.

With a handful of the area’s most popular and well-respected
tattoo artists on staff, the store wasn’t in any danger of going under. Jamie
Rodriguez and Oscar “Oz” Gaudin, who were both internationally known and booked
months in advance year round, could keep the store afloat on their own, even if
the shop lost half of the rest of their tattoo artists tomorrow.

The piercing part of the shop was Leo’s baby, and his to
make succeed or fail. With only one part-time and two full-time
piercers—including him—and Agnes just starting to apprentice, it was a
significantly smaller part of the shop, but he preferred it when they were
pulling their weight.

“I’m in the office today,” he told her. “Pete will be here
later to take walk-ins in a little while.” Leo bent across the counter to kiss
Leni’s cheek. “Hey, gorgeous.”

“You’re a Popsicle,” she squeaked, and put her warm hands on
his face. “I can’t believe you walked in this cold.”

“It would have taken ten times as long to warm up my car.”
He closed his eyes as the heat of her palms started to defrost the only frozen
spot on him. “I’m going to steal you away from him one of these days, I swear
it.”

She was giving him a sexy little smirk when he opened his
eyes.

“I’d like to see you try,” she cooed.

“Yeah,” he sighed and leaned back out of her touch.
“Contrary to popular belief, I do not have a death wish. But when I do…” He
wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Leni just laughed and shook her head.

Everyone in the shop had a little bit of a crush on Leni
Brewster, including him. She worked at the main branch of the library downtown,
almost always wore her blonde hair twisted into a tidy, low knot, and dressed
in vintage sweater sets and skirts. She even had the studious black-framed glasses
to complete the look. And beneath all that she was tattooed and pierced in some
hot-as-hell places.

He knew. He’d pierced her.

She’d first started coming around a couple of years earlier
when she was dating a now-former bass player from Leo’s band Grind. A few
months after she caught the asshole cheating and promptly dumped him on his
ass, she’d started dating Jamie, who recognized a really damn good thing when
he saw it. He’d wisely put a ring on her finger and made it official this past
Christmas, the lucky fucker.

Agnes jammed a fist on her hip. “What am I invisible?
Where’s my kiss?”

Leo gave her a look and started to unwind his scarf.

Far from invisible, Agnes was actually cute as hell—a sexy
little animé character come to life. She dressed in body-hugging,
schoolgirl-type outfits, and always in black and white. She was so fair even
her skin was almost pure white, interrupted only by the black-and-white
half-sleeve tattoo on her upper right arm. The only color on her was her huge
green eyes, her eye makeup and her hair, which were both royal purple that day.

“You are eighteen and an employee,” he reminded her, not for
the first time.

She pouted. “You’re no fun.”

It was a challenge to keep his smile as neutral as possible.
“That’s not true at all.”

Her eyebrows went up just high enough to change her
expression from petulant to caustic. “I guess I’ll never know, will I?”

“Not until you’re old enough to buy me a beer and no longer
work here.” He lifted the strap of his bag over his head. “What brings you in
today?” he asked Leni. “You ready for the other piercing we were discussing?”

She laughed and her cheeks went pink but she evaded his
question.

“A photographer Jamie knows is meeting us here, then we’re
going for coffee to talk wedding photos.” She tapped the computer screen with
her fingernail. “Agnes and I were just checking her out.”

He went behind the counter. “Joy Pope. Never heard of her.”

“She’s from Chicago. I guess Jamie tattooed her when he
worked at Dover Mark’s shop back in October,” she explained. “Her mother is
Angelina Pope, the blues singer.”

Oh, he definitely knew who that was.

She clicked the mouse and the screen changed. “She wrote a
behind-the-scenes book about the history of the Chicago blues scene. Jamie has
it. She’s really good.”

He could see that. Her photographs were classy with an edgy
style to them.

“If she’s from Chicago, why is she meeting you for coffee
here in Toledo?” he asked, taking over the mouse and clicking to the gallery
tab labeled Ink.

“Ooo, pretty,” Agnes breathed, leaning against his side. She
pointed to a portrait of a beautiful brunette, her strapless wedding dress
showing off the traditional-style winged-heart tattoo spread across the width
of her chest.

Leni leaned against the counter on one hip. “He said she’s driving
to Chicago from New York City and called to see if we were free so she and I
can finally meet.”

The bell over the front door jingled and the three of them
looked up as a lone woman came through the door. Leo’s vision tunneled briefly.

Please, God, let her want something pierced,
he
thought. Preferably something under her clothes. Even in her sheepskin coat,
jeans and knee-high boots, he could tell she had the kind of luscious, curvy
body that warranted a good, long look.

“It’s colder than a witch’s tit out there,” she said in a
warm, velvety voice that melted over Leo like warm honey and made his cock
stir. She crossed the reception area, pulled off one of her gloves and extended
her hand to Leni. “Hi, I’m Joy. I recognize you from the pictures Jamie’s
e-mailed me. It’s good to finally meet you.”

Joy was almost the spitting image of her mother. Angelina
Pope was a Chicago blues legend—a Spanish-born former model who’d married a
hugely talented blues musician back in the mid-sixties. Joy’s hair was pulled
back into a ponytail, but he could see she had her mother’s long gold-brown
curls as well as her rich Mediterranean skin, large, catlike eyes and wide,
curvy mouth.

She laughed at whatever it was Leni had said and turned her
gaze on him, making his mouth go dry. Her eyes were a hypnotic kaleidoscope of
color—yellow around the iris, mossy green through the middle and surrounded by
a thin ring of gray so dark it was almost black around the outer edge.

And her mouth… Christ, his mind was overloading with the
images of things he wanted to do to that mouth of hers.

Leni elbowed him, reminding him there were other people in
the room.

“This is Leonardo, our best body piercer and co-head
honcho,” she told Joy.

Had she asked him for his name? He had no idea.

“I’m Agnes,” Agnes said, holding her hand to Joy even as she
squeezed herself closer to Leo’s side. “I’m the counter bimbo right now.” She
gestured to the counter, then to Leo. “But I’m about to start apprenticing
under the co-head honcho here soon.”

Joy was looking Agnes over. He wanted those eyes back on
him. He wanted everything she had on him—her eyes, her mouth, her delicate
hands with her short, dark-plum nails clawing at his back. That dangerously
curvy body, naked, sweaty and writhing beneath him. Or above him. However she
preferred was fine.

“You have a fantastic look,” Joy told Agnes. “If you ever
come to Chicago you’ll have to look me up. I’d love to take your picture.”

Agnes gave Leo a dry look. “At least
someone
appreciates the work I put into being this damn adorable.”

Leni snickered. Leo thought Jamie’s timing couldn’t have
been more perfect when he stepped out of the hallway that led to his room in
back.

“You made it,” he said to Joy, shaking her hand. “Sorry it
took me so long. My last appointment went late, and I lost my clean-up helper
to my girlfriend.” He gave Agnes a pointed look before he smiled at Leni, then
asked Joy, “I take it the two of you met?”

“Yes. I just got here, so we’ve barely had time to do more
than exchange names. I also met Agnes and Leonardo.” She finally turned those
amazing eyes on him again. “Although Leonardo hasn’t said much so far,” she
added with a little smile that made his pulse race even faster.

Leo realized he hadn’t said
anything
so far.

“He’ll have plenty of time for that over coffee.” Leni gave
him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “He’s coming with us.”

He looked at her, feeling inexplicably panicked. What was
she doing and why?

“You’re already in your coat.” She picked up his scarf,
although he couldn’t recall having put it down, and hung it around his neck.
“You have nothing going on here but paperwork, and that can wait. Right?”

He had more than paperwork on his schedule that day. He had
advertising to plan, inventory to take and supplies to order. There was a file
of applications from potential piercers he needed to start sorting through in
case he needed to hire someone this coming spring. It was starting to look like
Grind might be getting its big break soon, and he was going to need to hire
someone to replace him for at least part of the summer if that happened.

Leni looked to Jamie for confirmation that it was all right
that she’d invited him, then gave Leo a gentle nudge when Jamie nodded. “It’s
been decided. Let’s go, mister.”

“And leave me here by myself?” Agnes demanded, arms crossed.

“My six o’clock cancelled,” Jamie told her, ignoring her
protest. “Will you call my two o’clock and try to move her down to three so I
don’t have to rush coffee?”

She threw up her hands, exasperated. “I guess.”

“Eva’s here,” Jamie added, meaning the youngest of his six
siblings and the shop’s newest artist. “You won’t be completely alone.”

They could hear the steady buzz of Eva’s tattoo machine
coming from her room.

“I might as well be,” Agnes grouched. “She
neh-ver
talks to me.”

Eva Rodriguez didn’t like women as a rule, the only
exceptions being her mother, older sister Tammy and Leni. Aside from those
three, she was a guy’s girl top to toe.

“We’ll bring you coffee and lunch,” Leni offered, slipping
her arms into her coat when Jamie held it up for her.

“A caramel macchiato with extra caramel?” Agnes simpered.

“The biggest one they have, a turkey panini
and
one
of those ridiculously huge cookies you like,” Leni promised, heading toward the
door.

Leo was aware that Joy was watching him as he came around
the counter. She didn’t follow Jamie and Leni as they made their way to the
door, but half stepped in his way when he was a few inches from her. Up close
she smelled like cold air and cloves.

She tipped her head to the side and the thick spiral of her
long ponytail swung to the side. “You’re the singer for Grind, aren’t you?”

That snapped him out of his thoughts of drawing her into his
arms and burying his face in her neck to get closer to her smell.

“I saw you play at the Q101 Rockfest in Chicago the summer
before last.” Her gaze dropped from his eyes to his mouth to his neck and chest
before drifting back up. “Your band is amazing.”

He cleared his throat and muttered something he hoped
sounded like
thank you
.

She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Leo’s vision narrowed again and for a moment he thought he
was going to faint. If he’d slept with Joy Pope and didn’t remember he was
going to walk right over to the highway and throw himself in front of the next
speeding semi that came along.

Before he could pull his whirling thoughts together and form
a response she smoothed her hands over the lapels of his coat.

“Don’t worry, nothing happened between you and me that you
need to remember,” she assured him as if she’d been reading his mind. She gave
him a look he couldn’t quite decipher. “My assistant Kelly, on the other hand,
has never been the same.”