Steel Lust (12 page)

Joy quickly shushed her.

“Don’t worry about it.” Leni squeezed her hand and gave her
a knowing smile. “They’re incredibly good at pest control.
If
that’s
what you need.”

Joy nodded. She could have been sick right there in the
sink.

The toilet flushed and Leni put her lipstick in Joy’s hand.
Joy turned to the mirror and applied it with a shaking hand.

“That color looks great on you,” Leni said brightly, turning
off the water still running full force in the sink in front of Joy. “Don’t you
think so?” she asked Deb when she joined them at the mirror.

Deb gave her an assessing look. “It really does. Joy has the
best skin,” she said to Leni. “She could pull off Day-Glo orange if she
wanted.”

Joy snorted nervously. “Remember the eighties?”

“That’s
right
.” Deb laughed. “You did wear your share
of orange when you were in what? Junior high?”

“Sadly, my mother has pictures of me in blue and green as
well.”

“Those were fun days, weren’t they?” Deb met Joy’s eye in
the mirror as she washed her hands. “It looks like these are fun days for you
as well. That’s a gorgeous man you have there, Joy Ann.”

“Inside and out,” Leni added.

Deb nodded in agreement. “He’s talented, well-spoken,
passionate about music. And he doesn’t seem to be checking out other women.”

Joy groaned. She’d just described almost every one of her
past boyfriends. The man-whore part, not talented and well-spoken.

“Am I wrong?” Deb asked Leni.

“Leo’s a great guy. I’ve known him a couple of years now,
and I’ve never seen him act this way with a woman.” She gave Joy a knowing
smile before she leaned in to freshen up her own lipstick. “I’d say he’s crazy
about her.”

“And she’s a little crazy about him?”

“Okay, enough.” Joy blotted her lips with the paper towel in
her hands. “I haven’t stepped out of the room. No talking about me as if I’m
not here,” she chided playfully.

Deb laughed. “Let’s go out and see if Bruce has signed him
to the record label yet.”

Joy didn’t know whether to be horrified or hopeful about the
idea, but she did feel significantly more at ease as they filed out of the
bathroom and made their way back to the table. Oscar was sitting closer to the
rest of them, but their group still looked easy and relaxed otherwise. Then
Bruce looked up and made eye contact for a long, gut-wrenching moment and Joy
could see all was not as well as it appeared.

He stood as they approached, put a smile on his face for his
wife and told her he was ready to leave. Deb hugged Joy again, told the table
how lovely it was to have met them, and promised to call Joy for lunch sometime
soon before Bruce led her away.

Joy was shaking as she turned to Leonardo. “I’m ready to go
home now too.”

“Why are you so angry?”

Leo caught the door as it swung closed in his face with
alarming velocity, the heavy wood slamming against the heels of his hands with
a nerve-tingling bang.

“Joy.” He stepped inside and locked the door behind him.
Steeling himself, he took off his jacket and draped it over the back of the
couch.

Her bedroom door slammed.

Norma Jean came running out of the spare bedroom and dashed
into the kitchen. He heard the scraping of kitchen chairs on ceramic tile as
she hid under the table. Fuck.

He took his time, making sure Norma Jean was calm before he
headed down the hall to Joy’s door. He knew how she was when she was riled up,
but that was in the context of sex. Digging her nails into his back or her
teeth into his shoulder was one thing. He didn’t especially want to be on the
wrong end of her temper.

He put his hands flat on the door. “Joy, I can’t fix this if
you don’t talk to me.”

The door flew open. Her eyes were wild, nostrils flared.

“That’s the thing,” she breathed, her voice quiet and her
eyes wild. “How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t need you to fix
every goddamn thing that’s wrong in my life? I do not need a motherfucking
hero.”

He caught the door when she tried to slam it. There was no
way she was shutting him out, not now that he was pissed too.

“And I told you that I am not going to stand by and watch
that pompous asshole threaten you and your family. If I don’t make him leave
you alone, Joy, who will?”

“
I will
,” she screamed. “I can handle myself just fine.”

“Yes, I can see that. Your powers of evasion are doing the
trick quite nicely.” Her mouth dropped open. “And what happens when he gets
tired of playing games with you? What happens on the day he finds you by
yourself in your studio, or follows you here? He knows where you live, and he
knows you live here alone. What happens when he decides he’s finished waiting
and tries to take what he wants?”

She stepped closer, face tilted up to his even though she
was pulled up to her full height, seething. “And what if you’re the one who
pushes him over the edge? Did you think about that before you got carried away
with all your fucking macho posturing?”

“I can promise you one thing. Any man who would sit at the
same table with his wife and the woman he’s relentlessly pursuing without
batting an eye is not the kind of man who needs to be pushed into anything.” He
leaned close. “It would only have been a matter of time before he hurt you.”

Her eyes went even more wild and she paled. “What did you
do?” she whispered.

Leo took a deep breath and straightened, willing himself to
calm down.

“Please stop worrying.” He smoothed his hands over her
shoulders, hating the way she was looking at him with such disgust. “I never
let on that I know about Love and Don, and I never will. To anyone. I told you
that.”

She shrugged out of his hold. “What did you say to him,
Leonardo?”

“I didn’t say anything, Joy. I
did
make it perfectly
clear that you and I have been seeing a whole lot of each other while Jamie and
Oscar did what they do best and looked menacing.” As soon as the words were out
of his mouth he heard the way he sounded like the biggest dick ever.

“
You did what
?” she shrieked, backing away from him
as though he were the person she should be frightened of, not Bruce. “I knew this
was a mistake,” she breathed, a deeper, blacker anger replacing the look of
disbelief.

He took a step toward her. “Joy—”

“No.” She held up a hand to stop him and backed into the
dresser behind her. “You might as well have told him you know about Love. You
might as well go tell my sister for that matter. And Deb, and my parents.” She
pressed her hands to the side of her face, looking around as though she were
looking for an escape route, clearly panicked. “This is going to ruin
everything.”

“Joy, he isn’t going to say anything to anyone.” He was
trying to speak to her calmly, but he’d started to see red. “I’m telling you,
he got the point tonight.”

“You had no right telling him anything about us.” Her hands
curled into fists. She thumped them against his chest, shoving him backward.
“You had no right to stake your claim to me that way.”

His eyebrows went up. “Oh, so I’m not your boyfriend now?
Because I clearly remember hearing you call me that just this evening. Or am I
only your boyfriend when it’s convenient for you?”

“Leo—”

“Where I come from it’s the boyfriend’s duty to make sure
other men back the fuck off and leave their woman alone when they got too
pushy.”

She pushed him again. “Get out.”

He caught her wrists and pulled her to him. “Goddamn it, Joy,
I did it because I love you and I want that cocksucker to stop making your life
hell,” he told her through clenched teeth.

“No.” She shook her head in a crazy, frantic kind of side to
side twitch. “I did not ask you to help me with this. I have not asked you to
help me with any of this.” She pulled her arms out of his grip with a rough
jerk. “Go. Now.”

He stood his ground. “I’m not leaving you. Not like this.”

“Yes you are.” She moved around him, snatched his duffel bag
off the floor and started shoving his clothes into it before closing it with a
decisive zip. “You’re going to get the hell out of my life right now before you
fuck things up for good.”

She shoved his bag at him, but he didn’t take it.

“I’m not leaving until you listen to me.”

“There’s nothing else to say.” She pushed the bag into his
chest. “Out.”

“I will not walk out of your life.” He took the bag and
threw it aside. “I can not walk away from you, period.”

“Forcing what you want on me makes you no better than him.”

She might as well have jammed the pointy toe of her shoe
into his balls.

“You’re not listening to me.” He took a step toward her.
“I’m telling you that he’s not going to do anything to you while I’m in your
life. Do you hear me?”

“You don’t know that.” She bit down on every word, teeth
bared.

“Any more than you know that he’s going to follow through
with his threats,” he countered, moving toward her until he had her backed
against her dresser again.

She was shaking, but he could see it wasn’t from fear. There
was still plenty of fire in those eyes of hers. “Why won’t you just leave me
alone?”

The idea of leaving and never seeing her again made Leo’s
stomach tighten with the worst kind of fear. It just wasn’t feasible at this
point. Not for him.

“Can’t you see? There is no leaving you alone. There is no
leaving you.” He took her face in his hands and pressed her to the dresser with
his body. “I can not physically walk away from you. Not now. Maybe not ever
again.”

She dug her nails into his wrists and her face fell. “Just
leave,” she whispered.

The tears welling up in her eyes were going to kill him.

“Is that what you really want?” he asked gently, face angled
close to hers.

One of her hands swung around to hit him hard on the arm,
then the other.

“Goddamn you,” she snarled, right before she gripped his
hair painfully and brought his mouth to hers in a crushing kiss.

His head reeled from with the heat that burned through his
body. Her mouth scorched him. Her hands in his hair were pulling hard, but he
wanted, no needed, the pain. His heart hammered erratically in his chest.

The buttons on his shirt went flying as she ripped it open.
Her nails scraped across his skin as she shoved his undershirt up high and went
for his piercings. Leo gripped her wrists and stopped her before she got there,
because if she touched him there, he was going to lose it before he could get
his dick out of his pants.

The fight in her eyes and her mouth, wide open and panting,
as he pinned both of her hands to the dresser top behind her only fueled the
inferno raging through his bloodstream. He jerked her skirt up around her hips
with one hand, ripped off her thong panties with an easy snap, and freed his
cock.

She was whispering “Oh fuck” and “Oh God yes” when he kicked
her legs open wider and pushed into her with a growl that came up from deep
within his core.

Fucking hell. Her cunt was as soaking wet as he was
rock-hard from the fight.

He let go of her hands and her arms flew around his neck,
holding him tight as he lifted her onto the dresser. He got his arms behind her
knees and braced his hands on top of her dresser, spreading her open wide. Her
head fell back and she moaned deeply as he thrust into her ruthlessly.

The pain as she dug her nails into his scalp and assaulted
his mouth with hers only spurred him on to fuck her harder, faster. Bottles of
perfume rattled together, then fell. A lamp went toppling to the floor, landing
on its shade with a sickening crunch. The mirror banged dangerously against the
wall, but he kept pounding into her.

She bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, then broke free
with a deep intake of breath as the strong muscles of her thighs started to
shiver and shake. Her hips bucked, her pussy began to throb around him. Her
head fell back and the wail that poured out of her sent a chill down his spine.

Leo drew in deep, ragged breaths as he waited, so close to
coming himself but nowhere near ready to be finished. She felt too good, and he
needed her too much.

He slipped out of her carefully when she started to go limp
and got his arms around her, picked her up and carried her to the bed. The
fight was out of her eyes, replaced by something distant and almost dreamy. She
didn’t help him undress her, simply lay there watching him from beneath heavy
eyelids as he peeled off first her clothes, then his. She said nothing when he
got a condom from the nightstand, but she wrapped herself around him when he
stretched his body over hers.

“I’m yours, you know,” he whispered, connecting their bodies
more gently this time, finding her almost unbearably hot from what they’d just
done. He kissed her swollen lips gently. “Whether you like it or not, I’m
yours.”

She nodded but didn’t answer, simply closed her eyes and
brought his head back down to hers for a kiss. Her body was so right with his,
her hands on his skin gentle instead of demanding as they found an easy rhythm
together. He couldn’t get enough of the way she sighed against his neck,
punctuating her moans with kisses to his skin as the pressure built to a
delicious ache.

It didn’t matter how deeply he tried to push inside her—she
took him. All of him. She spread her legs wider, rocked her hips in time with
his, squeezed him tight when he seated himself deep and reduced him to a
shuddering, moaning heap of bones and flesh when his orgasm finally poured out
of him in long, pulsing waves.

As they lay entwined afterward, he found himself wanting to
tell her he loved her again, make sure she heard it, but the timing felt
incredibly wrong.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you’re going on the road?” she
asked quietly.

She was lying with her head on his shoulder, one leg draped
over his with her fingers tracing a lazy circle around his bellybutton. He
couldn’t see her face.

“Why did I have to hear it from Leni when she announced it
at the table tonight instead of from you?”

“I meant to tell you yesterday, but you were so upset when I
got here that I forgot.” He stopped her hand on his stomach and laced his
fingers with hers. “Then there was the hip roll thing, and then we were eating
and watching a movie.” When she said nothing else he gave her hand a little
squeeze. “I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet.”

She pulled her hand free, laid it over his chest and propped
her chin on it.

“How long will you be on the road?”

“For most of July and half of August.”

Her eyes closed. “That’ll be great,” she said, not sounding
pleased at all.

He got his arms around her and rolled, pinning her to the
bed when she started to move away from him. “Come with me.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can’t just drop everything to go
with you.”

“Why not? Have camera, will travel.”

He had no idea what it would be like to be on the road for
more than a few days, but the idea of having her with him sounded ideal.
Grind’s drummer Kenton always brought his wife whenever they went on the road
and she had a great time.

“I have a book to work on this summer,” she protested.

“Think of all the tattooed people you would meet on the
road, the musicians and the roadies. The fans. I’m telling you coming with me
would be a goldmine of material.” He turned to kiss her palm when she laid her
hand on his cheek. “You’d have all those hours when we’re travelling and
rehearsing and doing sound checks. And you would be with me at night.”

She smoothed his hair back from his face and said nothing.
There was a sadness in her eyes he didn’t understand. “Make love to me again,”
she whispered.

He looked at her for a long moment. “Promise me you’ll think
about it.”

But she didn’t answer. She wrapped herself around him,
rolled him onto his back and started touching him in places she knew would
drive him to distraction.

And when they were once again lying breathless but still,
tangled together with their heads at the foot of her bed, he lay awake for a
long time wondering just how wrong a turn he’d taken with her earlier that night.