“Come back in the office with me,” Leo said quietly, aware that everyone was looking at them. “Please,” he added, turning as he got an arm around her waist.
“I’ve got this,” Leo assured Jamie and Oz, giving Eva a narrow-eyed look as he passed her on the way back to his office.
She gave him a lopsided smile and a wink. “She stopped, didn’t she?”
He tightened the hold he had on Joy when she moved to break free, possibly to kill Eva, and looked at Agnes. “Make sure no one else comes back?”
She gave him a wide-eyed but amused nod.
“I’m so stupid,” Joy whispered the moment the door was closed.
He locked it for good measure. “That was not what you’re thinking.”
She turned slowly, but instead of the fire he was expecting, he only saw sadness in her eyes. “I’m sorry I showed up out of the blue,” she told him. “I should have known better than to think that maybe this thing of ours had become exclusive.”
“There’s no ‘become’ about it. I’ve been straight with you from day one, Joy. I was not seeing anyone when we got involved and there hasn’t been anyone else since.”
She crossed her arms and took a step back when he moved toward her.
“I know I was a bitch to you the last time you were there. This is my fault.”
One more step back in the small space of the room and she’d be trapped against a filing cabinet in the corner. Since he was blocking access to the door the only other place to go was behind his desk, and she’d really be stuck if she wedged herself back there.
“You’re not listening to me. That was Eva. I’ve told you about Eva.”
“Jamie’s sister?” Her eyes got a little wide as her back touched the wooden filing cabinet. “The one you’ve said is one of your best friends?”
He nodded and took another step. Her spicy clover scent was going to his head.
“Then what was she doing sitting in your lap?”
“She’s been sitting in my lap since she was a baby—to play, to tell me stories, to cry when she needs to cry. It’s what she does.”
Her nostrils flared. “I don’t like it.”
He pressed his lips together to keep from smiling. “Well that’s going to be a problem because I’m not going to ask her to stop.” He put his hands against the front of the cabinet on either side of her head. “I’ve missed you.”
She braced her hands on his chest, stopping him as he leaned in close.
“I owe you an apology about that,” she whispered.
That caught his attention. “Say again?”
She sighed and turned away, her cheeks going a little rosy. “It turns out Love knows about her father. Bruce never had anything on me.”
If he hadn’t already had himself braced upright, the rush of elation would have sent him staggering.
“It never mattered whether or not you called his bluff, he wouldn’t have been telling anyone in my family anything they don’t already know.”
“Joy,” he whispered, feeling her relax slightly. “There’s no way you could have known that at the time. You were right to be afraid and angry with me. I’ve been killing myself trying to figure out how to make things right between us again.”
She shook her head. “I still don’t know if he’s going to let this go.” She looked away and drew in a deep breath. “He knows things about my past. He might tell you.”
He touched a finger under her chin and she looked up.
“Do the things you know about my past affect the way you feel about me?”
She took another deep breath, her eyes damp. “No.”
“Do you want to tell me before he does?”
She hesitated.
“I’ll listen if you do, but I’m okay with not knowing if you don’t.” He touched the tip of his thumb to her bottom lip. “Joy, as far as I’m concerned the slate was wiped clean for both of us the day we met. You and I started the moment you walked through the shop doors. No sooner. No later.”
Her gorgeous, multicolored eyes were wide open and vulnerable as they searched his. “I’m afraid of you going on the road this summer.” She spoke so quietly his heart ached with every word. “For the first time in my life I’m worried about whether or not the man I’m seeing is seeing other people when he’s not with me.”
He tested her by leaning in a little closer and she let him.
“I’ve already told you there is no one else,” he said, angling his head for a kiss.
“You don’t want to be free to play with all the young, nubile girls that are going to throw themselves at you this summer?”
God, he was so in love with her he could have floated to the ceiling.
He drew back and met her eyes.
“Why would I want nubile girls when I have access to the goddess herself?”
She slid her hands up his chest and laced her fingers together at the back of his neck. “You say the damndest things, Leonardo Jones.”
“Come on the road with me. Work on your book while I’m working, sleep next to me at night.” He touched his mouth to hers lightly. “I want you with me.”
She shook her head, took his face in her hands and made him look at her.
Her eyes were still so sad. “I might be able to tag along now and then, but I can’t come with you for the whole tour.”
“Well then that’s the way it’s going to have to be.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her body against his. “Think of how much fun it’s going to be, seeing each other again after being apart so long.”
She arched an eyebrow at him and the sadness slipped away.
“You mean the way things are now?”
He backed up a little and stroked her silky cheek with the backs of his fingers. “I talked to the guys today about possibly opening a second Lust for Life in Chicago.”
She dropped her arms and stilled and her expression went unreadable.
“Nothing has been decided,” he added before she could respond, “but we’re staffed to capacity and getting calls all the time from tattoo artists who want to work with Jamie and Oz. We could easily open a second store, especially in a bigger city.”
She swallowed hard. “What about Grind? What about your house?”
“If touring this summer turns out to be our big break that’ll be amazing, but the store and the band and the house are beside the point, Joy. I want to be where you are.” He took her face in his hands. “Whether I’m out on the road or piercing nubile girls’ bellybuttons all day, I want to go home to you when it’s time to go home.”
Her eyes went soft and her hands drifted up to rest on his hips.
“I love you, Joy. I love your strength and your fight and your fire. I love every soft, devastatingly feminine thing about you. You are the only woman I know who has the power to make me feel like a god of man one moment and vulnerable without you the next.” He touched his lips to hers lightly. “I love all of it.”
She slipped her trembling fingertips under the hem of his shirt.
“How solid is the lock on that door?” she asked.
His blood went hot and his cock, which had admittedly been half-hard since he’d had to chase her down and drag her back to his office, went completely stiff and aching.
“It’s solid. Even if someone got past Agnes, they wouldn’t make it past Eva.”
She arched an eyebrow at him even as her hands slid higher up his chest.
“Eva who was just so lovely to me?”
He grinned and attempted to look sheepish. “I’m sure she’s sorry.”
But Leo didn’t want to talk about Eva. He covered Joy’s mouth with his, pressed her body into the filing cabinet behind her with a force that sent the stack of papers on top sliding off the side. Her hands were all over him—stroking his chest, running over his back, sliding between them to cradle his cock through his jeans.
They parted long enough for her to push his shirt off over his head.
“Tell me t
he walls are soundproof.” Her tongue came out and touched her upper lip and he nearly lost his footing.
“I have no idea,” he said with a grin. “I’ve never fucked in my office before.”
She shoved both of them away from the cabinet and steered him backward toward his desk chair, her hands unfastening his belt.
“So I get to christen your place of business the way you christened mine?”
She pulled all the buttons of his fly open and shoved his jeans down to midthigh.
His breath came out in a rush as his hard cock fell free.
“Seems like a fair trade to me,” he said and fell into his desk chair when she gave him a gentle push.
She hiked up her skirt and slipped her panties down her legs and he shoved his hands in his pants pocket, praying like hell he had a condom. He did. He rolled it on and reached under the chair to drop the seat down so she could straddle him easily.
“I love you,” she breathed as she directed the head of his cock to her cunt and slid over him—hot, tight and soaking wet with arousal.
Leo just about choked on his next breath.
“I love you,” she repeated, raising and lowering to take him deeper.
He was beyond words, beyond speaking when she seated herself all the way onto him. Her back arched and she swiveled her hips in a tight circle.
She gasped and her pussy squeezed him tight. Leo could tell this wasn’t going to take long for either of them. He held her ass in both hands to support her as she rode him, careful not to come down too hard or fast so the sound of their bodies coming together wouldn’t give them away, just in case someone was listening outside the door.
He started to push into her from below in quick thrusts and she covered her mouth with one hand to stifle the gasp that tried to escape her throat. Part of him wanted her to scream. A bigger part of him wanted her to scream his name so the entire fucking shop would know how wild his woman could be when she came. Another part was enjoying the stolen moment way too much.
She slammed down hard on him and her head fell back. Leo gripped her ass and rolled her hips for her, thrusting hard into her one last time as he started to come, teeth ground together, holding back his own growl of release.
Joy was panting and sweaty when she collapsed against his chest a moment later.
“So what do you think?” he asked when he could speak again. “You, me and Chicago makes three?”
She kissed his neck. “Location is irrelevant, Leonardo,” she told him, smoothing his hair back from his face when she sat up. “Home is wherever you are.”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. His heart had never felt so full or his spirit so light. He looked into her gorgeous eyes and found them full of the same happiness he was feeling. “We are so on the same page, baby.”
About Jayne Kingston
Jayne Kingston is a multi-published erotic romance author. When she was growing up she spent many hours daydreaming about a time when she could flee the too-small town in Ohio where she grew up and run laughing for the sunny West Coast. Of course she stuck around and raised her family there instead, and doesn’t regret it for a moment. Now she spends her days dreaming about the delicious fun two people can have while falling in love.
Jayne welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Jayne Kingston
Ink Lust
Mischievous Matcher 1: Key Party
Mischievous Matchmaker 2: Cupid’s Choice
Mischievous Matchmaker 3: Luck of the Draw
Mr. Sir
Saving the Best for Last
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Steel Lust
ISBN 9781419946868
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Steel Lust Copyright © 2013 Jayne Kingston
Edited by Briana St. James
Cover design by Perry
Cover photography by hotdamndesigns.com
Electronic book publication November 2013
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
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Table of Contents
Blurb
Title page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
About Jayne Kingston
Steel Lust Page 13