Steel Lust (2 page)

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.”

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.

This Leonardo was so drastically changed she’d thought she
was seeing a different man when she walked through the shop’s doors and saw him
behind the counter. Her reaction to him—to sitting next to him, breathing his
scent and catching him stealing glances at her with those eyes—was a hundred
times more powerful as a result.

She wanted to climb into his lap and bury her fingers in his
shoulder-length, pale gold waves. She wanted to watch his ocean-blue eyes
darken to the color of a stormy sea as she wrapped herself around him and
whispered his name in his ear.

Leonardo.

It practically begged to be spoken in her mother’s thick
Spanish accent.

Lee-oh-NAR-doh.

God, it was delicious.
He
was delicious.

He smelled vaguely of clean wool and campfire and drank the
coffee shop’s darkest brew black. There were wide silver rings on the middle
finger of his left hand and one each on the first and third fingers of his
right. Thick, stainless steel hoops pierced the conchae of his ears and circled
through half-inch-wide gauges in his earlobes.

And she was just about dying to find out if he was also
tattooed under that heavy cable-knit, torso-hugging black sweater and dark
jeans he was wearing. He’d pushed up his sleeves earlier, but she didn’t see
anything but the gold dust of his arm hair and a sprinkling of caramel-colored
freckles on his forearms. Freckles she was dying to taste.

She had to have at least ten years on him, but what did that
mean these days? It wasn’t as though she was in the market for a husband. She’d
resigned herself to never being married, or even finding someone who wanted to
commit to her, years ago, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a little fun.

When he did finally join the conversation, he was not at all
what she remembered about the man she’d met in Chicago. Back then he’d been the
larger-than-life rock-and-roll frontman on stage and all cock and swagger off.
The man sitting next to her now was soft-spoken with a clear, deep voice and a
quiet calm that was making her toes curl.

“I’m working on a book about significant tattoos, as a
matter of fact,” she said, tuning back into the conversation in time to catch
Leni’s question about whether she was planning another book or not. “My genius
webmaster sister talked me into it after she discovered the Ink page on my
website gets ten times the hits of any other page. That includes the Wedding
page, which gets an insane number of visitors every day.”

“You’d find a gold mine just hanging around the shop talking
to the people who work there.” Leni said, her eyes shifting to Leo.

Now they were talking. He
was
tattooed under there
somewhere.

“And their significant others,” Leonardo added, returning
Leni’s pointed look.

“I like where this is going,” Joy said, looking between
them.

“I’m going to warm my coffee.” Jamie stood, shaking his head
at them.

“My twin sister and I have matching tattoos,” Leni offered
without further prompting. “Jamie did both of them, but mine is a little different.
I’d show you, but it would require practically taking my shirt off, and I’ve
been asked to stop flashing people in public places.” She said the last bit
with a warm look in Jamie’s direction.

“We can have a look when you come to Chicago for your engagement
portraits.”

And she could not wait for that to happen. As a couple Jamie
and Leni were going to be amazing in front of a camera together—the tall, dark,
tattooed tough guy and his fair-haired, sweet-faced librarian.

Joy swiveled on her chair toward Leonardo and crossed her
legs so the toe of her boot hooked around the leg of his chair.

“And you?”

His eyes shifted a second before he turned his head and gave
her his full attention.

The barest of smiles touched his lips. “What about me?”

“Your significant tattoo,” she prodded.

The smile stretched a fraction of an inch. “I have one.”

They were playing a game, were they? Okay. She liked games.

“Just the one, or one that’s significant?”

“Just the one. It’s significant.”

She laced her fingers together, resting her hands in her lap
as she looked him over.

“And it’s top secret?”

“Password protected,” he said with a single nod.

“What happens if I guess the password?”

He gave her a one-shoulder shrug and grinned playfully. She
wondered if he’d accept her ripping off his clothes in lieu of guessing,
because she was absolutely willing.

Right then. Right there.

And then his phone rang. He excused himself and crossed to
the coffee shop’s double set of entrance doors in long, easy strides.

“I think I’d want to hang out at the shop all the time if I
lived here.” Joy turned her attention back to Leni. “How do you handle it? I
feel like I’m going into sensory overload sitting here with the two of them.
They’re both so gorgeous.”

Leni gave Joy a knowing look. “Yes, I hang out there as
often as possible. Between these two and Oz, there’s no shortage of eye candy
in that shop.”

When Joy tipped her head to one side, not understanding,
Leni grinned.

“You haven’t met him yet. His real name is Oscar, but
everyone calls him Oz.” She sipped her coffee. “He can be a little surly, but
he has that black-eyed gypsy look about him. Even with the full beard he wears,
he’s beautiful.”

He sounded intriguing, but her thoughts were stuck on the
tall blond in the foyer, leaning against a rack of shelves holding messy stacks
of local freebie newspapers and flyers, listening to whoever was on the other
end of the phone without speaking.

“I have to confess something.” The words were out of her
mouth before she could stop herself. “I probably shouldn’t because I like you,
and frankly it could jeopardize you giving me this job, but I have to tell you
I tried to take your fiancé home with me after he tattooed me in Chicago.”

Leni nodded, unfazed. “I know.”

That surprised her. “He told you?”

“I got a feeling when he was telling me about you, so I
asked.” She hunched one shoulder. The gesture was casual. “It happens all the
time. Women love him.”

Joy blinked at her a moment, caught off guard once more. “It
doesn’t bother you?”

“It did at first. Then I was supposed to meet him for dinner
one night months ago, but I was running late for whatever reason. As I was
walking up to the restaurant I could see him through the front windows, waiting
for me at the bar. There was a really beautiful woman sitting next to him, and
she was obviously flirting, so I watched them.

“I’m not proud of myself, but I’d just come out of a bad
situation with someone else, so I did it.” She wrapped her hands around her
coffee cup. “He was being friendly with her, but I could just…
tell
he
wasn’t flirting back. Not the way she probably wanted him to, anyway.” She
shrugged a second time. “It hasn’t bothered me since.”

“What hasn’t bothered you?” Jamie asked, setting his coffee
on the table and a scone in front of Leni.

She gave him a serene smile. “The way you attract women like
you’re walking around naked, dipped in chocolate.”

“Have you been spiking your coffee again, sweetheart?” He
picked up her cup and sniffed. “You know we’ve talked about this.”

“I have to go back to the shop,” Leo announced as he came
back to the table. “That was Agnes. She said Pete showed up for work, but he’s
been in the bathroom sick since he got there and someone just walked in asking
about a piercing.”

“I can run you back,” Jamie said, snapping the lid on his to-go
cup.

Joy held up a hand to stop him. “I can do it. I really
should be getting back on the road anyway. My youngest sister has an exhibit in
a new art gallery opening tonight and I’ll never make it in time if I don’t get
back to the city.” She looked up at Leo. “It’s on my way back to the
expressway.”

“You’re sure?” Jamie asked. “I can run and come right back.
It’s no trouble if you want to finish your coffee before you go.”

“No, really. It was great meeting you,” she said to Leni as
she started to rise. “I’ll make another trip back when we can spend more time.”

“Or we can come out to see you. It’s been a while since I’ve
been to Chicago.” Leni looked at Jamie, who looked as though he’d give her
absolutely anything she asked for.

“I cleared my schedule for your birthday the first week of
April.” He looked from Leni to Joy. “Maybe we can come out for a few days
then.”

“Perfect,” Joy said. “We can take your engagement pictures
then.” She reached for her coat but Leonardo was already holding it open for
her.

Sexy, chivalrous, gorgeous man.

His warm fingers brushed lightly against her neck as he
freed her ponytail from her collar and she shivered. Her voice nearly faltered
as she thanked him.

“I have all your mother’s music,” he told her when they were
in her car. “Sorry, your parents’ music,” he amended.

Which meant he knew her father co-wrote most of her mother’s
original songs.

“Do you sing as well?” he asked.

She laughed and started the engine. “Sadly, no. Fate has a
really twisted sense of humor. Not one of my sisters or I got her gift.”

She felt nervous suddenly, confined in such a close space
with him looking at her the way he was. And that heady smell of his was making
her thoughts loopy. She didn’t want to take him back to the tattoo shop and
possibly not see him until Jamie and Leni’s wedding. She wanted to head
straight for Chicago with him in the car.

“Sunny is my website guru,” she continued, dragging her
thoughts back from kidnapper crazy to someplace more rational. “She has our
father’s whip-smart business sense and his musical talent. She’s married with
little kids and runs her website-design business from home, so she doesn’t go
on the road when Mom travels, but she’s Mom’s drummer when she plays shows in
the city.”

She put the car in drive and navigated around a massive
Cadillac taking up too much space in the driveway while it waited for her spot.

“Love is a painter slash waitress,” she continued as she
merged into traffic. “She’s had several pieces in other exhibits, but this is
her first gallery opening. Her best friend is the gallery owner, so it’s a
really big night for both of them.”

The light turned yellow just as she reached the intersection
where she needed to turn to get back to the tattoo shop. She ran it, taking the
corner just slightly faster than she might have normally, and her car jerked so
hard to the right as it came to a sudden stop that she banged her head on the
driver’s-side window. Leonardo, who’d been thrown against her for a second,
righted himself and turned to face her.

“Are you all right?” he asked, one hand on the back of her
neck, the other on her thigh, his eyes wide with surprise and concern.

“I think so.” She rubbed the side of her head. “What the
hell happened?”

She looked to her left, but they hadn’t been hit. She hadn’t
seen a pothole big enough to swallow the right front wheel, but the car was
tilted at a sharp angle toward the curb and the steering wheel was turned
unusually far in that direction.

“Stay here,” he told her after double-checking that she was
really all right. “I’ll go see what happened.”

That was just fine with her. Her hands were shaking and her
head hurt. A lot.

Leo opened the door and stood. “Well shit.”

“What?” she asked, fumbling with her seatbelt.

He closed the door and went to the front of her car without
answering, his expression grim. She started to get out, then remembered to turn
her warning lights on and the engine off. He came around to her door and opened
it for her.