“You’re the one who taught me to rely on myself before anyone else.”
“You must not have been paying attention the day I told you to know when to ask for help when you really need it then.”
Joy rolled her eyes, but she could feel the weight of the situation lifting. Even if she still didn’t have an answer on how to make Bruce stop once and for all, she could feel her head clearing, and that was a huge relief in itself.
“How long has it been since you’ve eaten?” Mama asked.
She had no idea. “I’m fine. You don’t need to go to the trouble of cooking for me,” she said when Mama got up and headed for the refrigerator.
“I’m your mother,” she said in that tone that meant the subject was not open for negotiation. “It’s my job to make sure you eat no matter how old you get.”
The doorbell rang and they looked at each other.
“Were you expecting someone else?” Mama asked.
Joy stood and gestured to the two-day-old sweats and t-shirt she was wearing.
“Does it look like I was expecting anyone?”
Mama just pursed her lips, amused. “You want me to answer it then?”
Her pulse started to pound with hope. What if it was Leonardo? He hadn’t shown up out of the blue in a long time, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t.
“No. I’ve got it.” She kissed Mama on the cheek. “You cook.”
She jogged a couple of steps to the door once she was out of her mother’s sight, smoothing her hair and hoping her breath wasn’t too bad. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d brushed her teeth. Or put on deodorant. She stopped, one hand on the doorknob and gave her armpits a tentative sniff. Nothing offensive there.
“I’m through playing games with you, Joy,” Bruce said, shoving his way into her apartment before she had the chance to slam the door in his face. He gripped her by the upper arms and backed her into her living room.
Frightened, she wrenched her arms free and slapped him across the face when he bent his head as if he meant to kiss her.
“Get the fuck out of my apartment,” she whispered harshly, not wanting Mama to hear. “You have no right showing up here and treating me this way.”
“I told you this was happening one way or another and you didn’t listen.” His breath reeked of alcohol and anger. “The time has come. It’s me or your family.”
Rage burned hot inside of her. “You know, your seduction techniques could use a little polishing. This isn’t exactly making me hot to spread my legs for you.”
“Oh, you need seducing?” he sneered. “That cunt of yours has seen so much dick over the years I didn’t realize it was especially choosy.”
He chuckled evilly when she flinched.
“Does your cheap punk boyfriend know about all the cock you’ve sucked over the years, Joy? Does he know about the scandal your father had to cover up when you were sixteen, nearly getting that thirty-five-year-old singer arrested for statutory rape and kidnapping because you lied about being eighteen?”
Joy breathed deep and let his words pass through her instead of cut. She’d hinted about her past to Leonardo the morning after their first night together, but he hadn’t asked her for details. It wasn’t as if he didn’t care. He was simply the kind of man who wasn’t hung up on people’s mistakes. He lived in the present, and she couldn’t imagine her fallen angel holding her past against her even if he did know the sordid details.
“Go ahead and tell him,” she said, a deep calm settling inside of her at the knowledge that she had someone who loved her, flaws and all.
“Good idea,” he nodded, obviously thinking he was calling her bluff.
Little did he know she was perfectly serious.
“I’ll just give your sister a ring while I’m at it too,” he added, his tone slick, icy.
“Why would you do that?” Mama asked, stepping into the living room.
Adrenaline rushed through Joy’s system and made her head spin briefly.
Bruce staggered back from Joy a few steps. “Angelina.”
“Which daughter of mine do you intend to harass next, Bruce?” She was moving toward them slowly, her steps calculated and predatory—the mother lion ready to spring without warning to protect her cub.
He put his hands up and stuttered incoherently.
“He knows about Love and Don,” Joy told her, finding Bruce’s voice for him.
Mama gave her a cool look as she let that bit of information sink in, then shifted her deadly gaze back to Bruce.
“That dirty lawyer of yours and Don’s told you.” It was not a question.
From the look in Bruce’s face, Joy could tell that was exactly where he’d heard.
“He told you in case you ever need leverage against the old man,” Mama said. “How much did that cost you, Bruce? How many thousands of dollars did you pay for information in case you ever needed to blackmail the one man in this world who’s always believed in you?” She got close to Bruce, facing him fearlessly. “Or did you just sign over your soul?”
Bruce had gone still but he was obviously seething.
“He’s been threatening to tell Love about Don so I’ll sleep with him.”
Damn it felt both amazing and awful to say it out loud.
To her mother. In front of Bruce.
The look of sympathy that came across her mother’s face was so sincere Joy almost believed it for a moment.
“Really, Bruce?” Mama asked, talking to him as though he were an unruly child and she was going to teach him the error of his ways as gently as possible. “Are you that desperate to get laid you have to resort to blackmail?”
He pulled himself to his full height.
“Angelina, I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” he said, easily slipping into the role of the music mogul schmooze artist. “This isn’t how it must seem.”
“Really?” She crossed her arms and feigned a puzzled look. “Because it seems to me you were about to force yourself on my daughter.”
The thought made Joy’s stomach turn.
“Angelina,” he gave her a placating look, “I would never—”
“Love already knows that Don is her real father.”
Joy clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out.
“The only person who doesn’t know is your beautiful, sweet wife.” Mama tipped her head to the side. “Maybe it’s time for her to know that she has a half sister.”
“And maybe it’s time that she finds out what a piece of shit her husband really is,” Joy added, not quite recovered from the shock but needing him out of her apartment before she embarrassed herself by throwing up in front of him.
His professional expression crumbled and he glared at her. “You wouldn’t.”
She snorted. “Wouldn’t I?” As much as it repulsed her to touch him, she reached for his arm to steer him toward the door. “It’s time for you to go and never come back, Bruce.”
He jerked out of her reach.
“You’ll be hearing from my husband,” Mama assured him with a smile.
Joy watched Bruce pale before he stalked out the door without another word.
The moment the door slammed shut Joy bolted for the bathroom. There was nothing in her stomach, but it tried to turn itself inside out anyway. She knelt there, hugging the cold porcelain, sobbing with her forehead propped on the arm draped across the seat. After a minute she felt her mother’s reassuring hand on her back.
“How long has Love known?” Joy asked without looking up.
“Not here, baby.” Mama smoothed her hand over her hair. “Get yourself cleaned up. I’ll tell you while we eat.”
* * * * *
“We were in Italy staying at the Lanes’ villa for the summer when Love was, oh, nine or ten.” Mama waved her hand. “Something like that. Debbie was painting Love’s nails and Love realized their hands looked alike. I don’t know how or why, but she got it into her head to compare them to Don’s too, and then she cam
e to me to ask why.”
Even after a long, hot shower and most of a helping of her mother’s heavenly chicken and orzo, Joy was having a hard time processing that Love knew about Don.
“She’s Daddy’s little darling.” Joy pushed her plate aside. “Wasn’t she devastated?”
Her mother shook her head as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“No. I think she was relieved more than anything. She said there were things about her that didn’t make sense until then. Even though she looks like me as much as you and Sunny do, she’d noticed there were things about herself that were different, like her hands and feet. And she never understood where she got the beauty marks she has on her face and body when none of the rest of us have them.”
It did not surprise Joy that Love had noticed those differences between her and the rest of her family. She was creative, kind and lived up to her namesake by loving freely and generously, but Joy didn’t know anyone who was more thoroughly wrapped up in her looks than her youngest sister.
“Why didn’t you tell me she knows, Mama? It would have saved everyone so much time and worry.”
Mama smiled a knowing half-smile. “You and Sunny would have smothered her with trying to overcompensate if you knew she knew, and she didn’t want that.”
She couldn’t argue with her on that. The drama queen ran strong through all of them. And while other sisters might have rubbed it in that they didn’t have the same father, Joy and Sunny would have spoiled her worse than she was already spoiled.
“Does Daddy know she knows?” she asked tentatively.
“Yes, but only because I told him. She’s never spoken to him about it.”
Joy closed her eyes and laughed quietly at the irony of it all. “Can’t we just have a family meeting and get it all out in the air? It would make life so much easier.”
“Don’t you dare tell either of your sisters about this. Or your father. It’s over.”
“So we’re all just supposed to go around the rest of our lives keeping this huge secret—” She stopped and raised her hands when her mother gave her the face that said she was pushing her luck. “All right. Fine. I won’t say anything.”
Her mother blew her a kiss across the table, then stood and started clearing their dishes. “Enough about the past. Tell me about now. I want to know about that gorgeous man you’re seeing.”
Joy covered her aching eyes with her hands. She hadn’t talked to him for the past two days for the same reason she hadn’t gotten her mother’s calls—she was ignoring her phone. They’d talked a couple of times over the week after he left, but something had changed. Something she hadn’t known if she should try to fix.
“I don’t know if there’s much to tell, Mama,” she lied.
Mama put the dishes in the sink and came back to the table frowning.
“I thought he just spent a whole week here. You did nothing for a week?”
Joy blushed and her mother didn’t miss it.
“Well, maybe you didn’t do anything you can tell your Mama,” Mama said, collecting the silverware, her expression both coy and knowing.
“We’ve had some fun, but I think it’s going to end soon,” Joy said, her heart breaking with each word she spoke. “I’m too old for him.”
That earned her a “don’t be ridiculous” eye roll. “I only met him once at Love’s gallery showing, but it did not seem like he thought you were too old.”
“We’d only just met that day. What did he know?”
Her mother tsked in disapproval. “Does he make you feel old?”
Joy smoothed her hands over her unkempt ponytail. “No.”
That knowing light was still twinkling brightly. “How does he make you feel?”
Like she was half her age and still had the world at her feet and her entire future ahead of her. Like she was the most fascinating creature on the planet. Like she’d never known passion until that first kiss they’d shared on the back stairs of the art gallery.
“He makes me feel amazing, Mama.”
Her mother’s wide, beautiful smile brightened. “Then your age means nothing.”
Joy shook her head. “He’s going on the road with his band this summer. I’ll lose him to someone else. Or many someone elses.”
Mama sat and took Joy’s hand in hers.
“So you’ve convicted him before he’s committed the crime.”
That made Joy smile, then laugh. “You have a good point.”
“Of course I do.” Mama squeezed her fingers and released her. “You have to give him a chance. Your father likes him.”
Now that was saying something. He’d never liked anyone she’d dated before. The only reason he’d liked Sunny’s husband Greg was because he’d mistakenly judged his formerly geeky appearance and thought he wasn’t a threat to his daughter’s purity.
Love simply never brought men home to be subjected to his disapproval.
“Really?” There was no hiding the skepticism in her voice.
“He keeps asking when you’re going to bring him around so they can jam.”
Knowing that relieved a huge amount of pressure that had been sitting on her chest.
“I think Leonardo just might die when he hears that.”
Mama tucked a stray lock of Joy’s hair behind her ear. “So you’ll invite him?”
Joy sighed and nodded.
“Age does not mean anything if he is the right man, and not all rock stars are unfaithful. What you’re feeling for him might be making you feel unsure of yourself right now, but if you give him time he will show you he’s worthy of your love. Trust yourself. You’ll make the right choice because you are a smart woman.”
Joy took her mother’s hand back and laid it against her cheek. “Thank you.”
“So you’re going to keep him a little while longer?”
Hopefully a lot longer than that, but she was going to need to hurry to make it up to him. “I’m going to try.”
“Good.” Mama winked. “Because I would love some blue-eyed grandchildren.”
Joy let her head drop to the table with a heavy thunk. “Oh, Mama.”
Chapter Fourteen
Leo hadn’t heard from Joy in three days. In the week since he’d been home they’d only talked on the phone twice—once after he’d sent her flowers and another time when she’d called in the middle of the night just to say good night.
He’d been able to sense she was still put out by what he’d done at the bar, but he wasn’t sorry. He hadn’t been able to figure out how to bring it up again to make it right either, so he’d come home with the issue unresolved.
“Goddamn motherfucking asshole Frenchman.”
Leo hated to admit it, but Eva barging into his office was a welcome distraction, even if it did look as if she were about to blow a gasket.
“Oz isn’t French. His father was French.”
She fixed him with a wicked glare. “Really?”
He blinked and swallowed a smile. “What did he do now?”
She paced the short length of his small office. “He’s got that skank-whore Liz Miller in his room. I just know he’s fixing that stupid-ass rose tattoo she made me put on her, but he threw me out before I could ask what was going on.”
“Oz the Great and Calm threw you out of his room?” he asked, skeptical.
She slid him a sideways glance. “Well, he didn’t exactly throw me out, but he got up and blocked her so I couldn’t see what he was doing and backed me out of the room. He shut the door in my face and locked it, the fucker.”
Leo blinked once. Twice. “So, wait…are you angry because he threw you out or because he’s fixing the tattoo?”
Her eyes narrowed to deadly slits.
“Which you don’t know if that’s what he’s really doing since he didn’t let you stay in the room.” Pushing her buttons was just too much fun to resist.
Her nostrils flared. “Are you siding with him?” she asked with deadly venom.
He wanted to laugh but
he knew her roundhouse kick was faster than his reflexes.
“No, of course not. Asshole Frenchman,” he grumbled indulgently. “How dare he.”
“That’s more like it.” She flounced into his lap and threw an arm around his neck. “Why are you so gloomy today?”
He closed his eyes when she tucked his hair behind his ears.
“I think I messed up with Joy.”
She rested her forehead on his and sighed. “Love is such a pain in the ass, isn’t it? You and I should just forsake all others and get married. I’m sure I could learn to love you as more than a brother some day.”
He lifted his head and looked at her with renewed interest. “Have we come full circle to the real reason that Oscar drives you crazy? You crushin’ on the Oz man?”
She opened her mouth to probably eat his head off, but there was a soft knock and the unlatched door swung open. Leo watched Joy look from him to Eva and back.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked.
“Yes,” Eva answered.
“No,” Leo corrected, but Joy was already turning away. He dumped Eva onto her feet. “That’s Joy you dingbat.”
“Oh shit,” she whispered, getting out of his way.
“No kidding.” He brushed past her and hurried around his desk.
He stepped into the hallway, but she was already close to the end, heading at a fast clip for the lobby. He called her name but she didn’t stop so he jogged toward her, almost taking out a client coming out of Pete’s room, calling her name a second time.
As he reached the end of the hall Eva issued a battle cry from behind him.
“I suggest you stop,” she yelled, her voice rising high above the din. “Now.”
Everyone in the lobby stopped, including Joy, who whipped around so fast her long ponytail swung around in a wide arc and wrapped around her neck for a moment. She trained a vicious look on Eva and Leo held Joy by the shoulders as he put himself bodily between them.
Jamie came out of the hallway that led to his room, peeling off the black nitrile gloves he wore when he tattooed. Oz stepped up next to him a split second later. They both knew what it meant when Eva raised her voice that way.
Steel Lust Page 12