Steel Lust Read online

  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

  STEEL LUST

  Jayne Kingston

  Chapter One

  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-sty
le 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.”

  The name Kelly didn’t ring any bells, but then he only remembered the Chicago Rockfest in photograph-type snatches, and most of those came to him at unexpected moments, like LSD flashbacks. And they weren’t pretty.

  Joy gave him a saucy wink and followed Leni out the front door. Jamie was holding the door for them and pretending he wasn’t listening. Leo knew he’d heard every word.

  “What was that was about?” Jamie asked as the women walked out of earshot.

  “Beats the hell out of me,” Leo said with a shrug.

  Jamie just nodded. “You still up for coffee?”

  Coffee and getting to the bottom of whatever that little encounter had been about.

  Unless he’d burned out more brain cells during his twenties than he realized, “nothing you need to remember” meant something had happened between them.

  Leo pulled his hat on. “Yes I am.”

  Chapter Twor />
  Joy could see why Jamie had turned her down when she’d hit on him at Dover Mark’s tattoo shop last fall. He and his girl Leni had It—that unnamed thing everyone in the world was searching for, whether they knew they were searching for it or not.

  They played off one another with the ease of a couple who’d been together a long time, even though she thought Jamie had told her they’d only been together a few months. They made the room hot simply because they were sitting next to each other. And once or twice she’d caught them exchanging a glance and felt as though she were peeking through the keyhole of their bedroom door.

  Not that she’d stopped in their dingy city to do anything as sordid as scope out the competition. She didn’t need to go after another woman’s man, nor would she. She’d been on both ends of that scenario more times than she cared to admit. Stealing another woman’s man for sport, even if it was just for a night, was a thing of the distant past.

  She and Jamie had hit it off back when he’d tattooed her in Chicago. The man was sexy as hell, so she’d propositioned him. He’d declined so gracefully she thought he should write a book on how to turn a woman down. He’d come across as genuinely sorry about turning her down without leaving her hoping he’d change his mind, and he hadn’t made her feel like an idiot for asking either.

  They’d talked a lot about art while he’d been tattooing her, and he’d been interested in her photography as well, so they’d stayed in touch. Now she had a job opportunity she was excited about and what she hoped were going to be several new subjects for her next book.

  And the new and improved Leonardo was a million times sexier, even if he didn’t remember meeting her or her assistant. And why would he? In the year and a half that had passed since then he’d probably been through dozens, if not hundreds, of women.

  Although…he didn’t seem like the same man she’d met before. Back then his hair had been buzzed short and he’d had a long, scraggly goatee along with the hollow-eyed, pasty-skinned look of a seriously heavy partier.