Ink Lust Jayne Kingston Leni Brewster should have been disappointed when her twin sister had to bail on holding her hand during her first tattoo, but going to her appointment solo means time alone with the sexy-as-hell tattoo artist who falls into the Do Not Touch category. Only Jamie Rodriguez isn’t as off-limits as Leni thinks. Privately single for months, Jamie finds himself more than looking forward to having the hot little librarian in his chair. And when she accidentally reveals a naughty secret about herself, he can’t get his hands on her fast enough—he has to know what else she’s hiding under that buttonedup exterior. What he discovers sets his blood to boiling, igniting a burning determination to test every single one of the boundaries, both personal and physical, that she’s set for herself.
INK LUST Jayne Kingston
Jayne Kingston
Chapter One “You ready for me?” Leni looked up at well over six feet of lean, muscled and tattooed man, bit the inside of her bottom lip and thought, More than you’ll ever know, buddy. “You bet,” she answered, giving Jamie her sweetest smile as she sent the text she’d been writing to her sister, tucked her phone into her purse and stood. “Are we still going with the rib cage?” he asked, leading her out of the tattoo shop’s busy waiting area and through the hall to his room at the back of the building. “It’s a tough spot for even the most seasoned aficionado. You think you can hang getting it there your first time out?” She caught the small smirk on that beautiful mouth of his, the glint in his mossygreen eyes. He was fucking with her. “You calling me a wimp?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at him. “All right.” He shook his head, his tone dripping skepticism. He stepped aside and swept his arm through the open door to his room, motioning for her to go first. “We’ll find out what you’re made of when it gets down to it. Are you all right with me locking the door so no one walks in on us?” “Please do.” She nodded and felt the first shiver of nerves. Whether it was from the long hours she had ahead of her in the chair or being locked in a room with a man she’d started fantasizing about long before her love life went to hell, she couldn’t be sure. Jamie Rodriguez was off limits. Way off limits. Leni lived by the rule “you don’t do your ex’s friends or your friends’ exes”, and Jamie fell woefully into the category of the former. Which was a big, big shame. Just the sight of him made her feel all warm and gooey inside.
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She loved the contrast of his purposely mussed black hair and olive skin with his deep-green eyes. More rugged than outright handsome, he had an edgy look that intimidated some people, and with good reason. He’d more than earned his reputation for being tough when the situation called for it, but he was also the kind of guy who’d do anything for the people he held closest to his heart. On top of that, he had a warm, wide, readily available smile that was absolutely breathtaking. Factor in his tall, athletic frame, arms tattooed to the wrist on both sides— she had no idea how far they went under his shirt as she’d sadly never seen him without one—and the man was sex on two very long legs. Since she didn’t “do” boyfriends, fiancés or husbands either, the fact that he had a longtime girlfriend helped to reinforce her willpower, but not by a whole lot. She knew that crushing on rock-star types at almost thirty years old was just sad, especially after suffering so much humiliation at the hands of the last rock-star type she’d been involved with, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. “No sister to hold your hand?” he asked, moving around the tattoo chair standing at an angle in the middle of the compact room. He reached between his legs and centered his rolling stool under himself as he sat. “Frankie came down with a cold, and Jo didn’t want to leave her,” she said, meaning her eight-month-old niece and twin sister, as she turned in a little circle and reacquainted herself with his room. She liked Jamie’s space, with its dark blue walls and lush spider plants hanging in front of the small frosted-glass windows set high up on the wall. His black lacquered bookcases were filled with all sorts of odd statues, knickknacks and an amazing array of books that ranged from glossy picture books of all kinds to odd curiosities that were fun to flip through. The walls were covered in framed photographs of him with various celebrities he’d met and/or tattooed mixed with small paintings of his. “Poor little critter.” He made a sympathetic face as he pulled on a pair of black nitrile gloves. “You sure you want to do this without her?” 5
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It was Leni’s turn to get the matching trio of tiger lilies—one orange, one pink and one red—she and Jo had decided to get both in honor of their mother and their bond as sisters. Their mother had raised them on her own without help from their father, his family or hers from the time they were infants, and the three of them had always been extremely close and fiercely protective of each other as a result. The orange lily was for their mother. The field behind the house she’d raised her girls in was full of them. Her father—Leni and Jo’s grandfather—used to cut them out of the ditch in front of her childhood home and burn them every year, calling them weeds. It broke their mother’s heart, so when she had a place of her own, she filled her yard with them and let them run wild. When she had her girls, she planted huge numbers of pink and red lilies to the field—pink for Leni, her quiet, happy girl and red for Jo, her little spitfire. “It takes forever to get back on your books if I cancel.” Not that he didn’t already know that. Jamie was one of the best tattoo artists in the area, and in high demand. His books were filled months in advance year round. “She insisted I come without her,” she added. She put her purse on the small chair in the corner of the room and tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “I’d have cleared my schedule for you,” he told her, his gaze steady on hers. She pressed a hand to her stomach as it dipped dangerously at the look in his eyes. “Any day, anytime.” His eyes never left hers, even as he stepped on a pedal under the chair. A motor hummed to life and the back and leg rests started to lie flat, making it look more like a flat table than a dentist’s chair. “Any way, anyhow,” he added, so serious he left no question about whether he was messing with her or not. The heat rising in her stomach burst and spread in a molten wave through her. “Good to know,” she breathed, crossing her arms to hide that her nipples had come quite fully to attention. “Are you ready for me?” His answering smile was positively wicked.
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“Ready, Freddy,” he said, gesturing to the small rolling table at his right. He’d already set everything up before she’d arrived. All of his supplies stood ready like neatly organized soldiers. Colored inks in little bottles that made her think of grade school art class stood in a line at the back of the sterile covered table. The spray bottle of skin cleanser and the tattoo gun were both already wrapped with plastic to protect both her and the machine. The stencil he’d apply to her side and use as a guide had already been prepped and was taped to the edge of the table. All she had to do now was take off her shirt. “All right.” He held his hands palm up and made come-on motions with his fingers. “Let’s see ’em.” Her eyebrows went up and her mouth went dry. “Kidding.” He smirked, rotating on the stool to face the opposite wall. “Does that ever work for you?” she asked, turning her back to him even though she was sure he wasn’t looking. Cripes, she didn’t know why she was being so modest. How many times had she thought about showing him her tits, and the newish nipple rings she now wore with pride? Between the heavy gauge earrings he had in both ears and the rumored Prince Albert, she knew he’d like them, maybe admire and—please, please, please, oh please— want to touch them. Not like Aaron the Asshole Hypocrite, who was both pierced and fairly heavily tattooed, but hadn’t “allowed” Leni to do either for herself. The nipple piercings had been a gift from Jo to celebrate her finally leaving Aaron three months earlier. She wanted to show them to someone, damn it. No, she thought as she pulled her shirt off, she wanted to show them to Jamie. “Now that you mention it, it rarely works on the women I want it to,” he answered. She gave him a look over her shoulder but he missed it. His back was still to her. “I’m sure you don’t have the slightest trouble getting women to take their shirts off for you.”
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“Again with the emphasis on the right women.” He looked at her finally and won himself lots of points for looking right at her eyes without detouring to her chest even though she was standing there in nothing but her bra. She unhooked it when he looked away again and tossed it next to her purse, covered her chest with her shirt and bravely faced him. “Ready,” she announced. He was all business when he spun around again. “Come around here.” He held his arm to the side so she’d go around the chair toward him. “Are we going on the right like Jo?” he asked, pulling her close so she had to stand between his knees. “Yes, we are.” She lifted her arm to expose her side to him. And shivered when he ran his glove covered hand over her skin, looking at her like a painter would look at a new blank canvas before starting to work. The feel of his fingers traveling over her ribs like that, in a place no man had ever really touched her since they invariably seemed to go only for the obvious—tits, ass, twat—was intimate, almost erotic. Jeez, it had been way too long since she’d gotten laid. “I don’t usually like to do the same piece twice, but I liked this one in particular. This is going to be cold,” he warned, a bare fraction of a second before he sprayed her rib cage with cleanser. He grinned up at her when she gasped. “See?” “You’re a funny guy,” she told him around her arm. “I have my moments.” He wiped her side dry, sprayed her again and reached for a disposable razor. “Or at least I like to think I do.” He popped the cap off the razor and started clearing her side of any fine body hair that might complicate things while he worked, or get infected and cause problems later. “Jesus, that tickles,” she said through her clenched teeth. “You need me to go higher while I’m here?” He moved her arm slightly to peek into her armpit. “Nope. Looks like you’re clean.”
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She narrowed her eyes. Jamie chuckled quietly as he tossed the razor into the trash. He sprayed and wiped again, this time leaving her skin a little damp. He reached for the stencil, turned back and eyed her side. “Can I move this until I get the stencil on?” he asked, tugging gently on her shirt. “Sure.” She made sure her arm was across both her breasts—easy to do since they were on the small side—and let him pull it out of her grip. Her nipple ring clicked against one of the rings on her hand as the fabric came free. Jamie’s eyes flicked to where her hand covered her breast and then quickly up at her, pupils dilated and nostrils flared like a predator catching the scent of his prey on the wind. There was a long moment when neither of them seemed to be breathing, eyes locked, each silently daring the other to make the first move. Leni struggled with the urge to drop her hand, expose herself to him once and for all, see where it would take them. He was right there, at just the right level. Liquid heat pooled between her legs and her nipples drew up tight at the very idea of that mouth of his on her tits, licking, sucking, maybe even biting, driving her slowly out of her mind. But he was very, very taken. He cleared his throat, and just like that the moment passed. He was quiet as he lined up the stencil and smoothed it over her rib cage. She ventured another look at him under her arm as he peeled the paper aside, but he’d slipped back into professional mode. He tilted his head to one side, then the other. “Check it out.” It took a moment for her legs to move her toward the full-length mirror on the back of his door. The outline was perfectly placed. Leni caught her reflection, noticed the flush in her face. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for her to be alone with Jamie, even though the situation was purely professional and about to hurt like hell. For a split second she thought about leaving—just grabbing her things, making her apologies and taking him up on the offer to reschedule for a time when her sister could
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come with her. She looked at the outline on her side again and was reminded of why she was there. She could handle a few hours of resisting the urge—the want building toward a heated need—to get sexually aggressive with her tattoo artist and exboyfriend’s friend if it meant having the same tribute to their mother that Jo lovingly, proudly, wore for the rest of her life. Odds were pretty damn good she’d forget all about what she wanted to do to him, and him to her, once he started working and the pain took over anyway. “What do you think?” he asked. “Let’s do it.” He puffed up his cheeks and let out a breath that sounded suspiciously as though it was full of the same frustration she was feeling, reached into a cabinet for a pillow covered in a plastic pillowcase and dropped it onto the head of the chair. “Come on then,” he said, spreading a clean towel over the pillow and giving the smooth black surface of the chair a pat. “Hop on up.” Leni stretched out on her side with her back to him and covered her chest with her shirt when he returned it to her. It was going to be a long few hours.
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Chapter Two Aaron letting luscious Leni Brewster get away only reinforced Jamie’s opinion that the guy was an absolute moron. While he’d never quite been sure how Aaron managed to land someone like Leni, who seemed to have her head screwed on straight despite her poor judgment when it came to her boyfriend, Jamie knew how he’d fucked it up. Aaron was a bullshitter of the highest caliber. Jamie had seen him hitting on countless girls both at the shop and the bars since Leonardo, the shop’s full-time body piercer, brought him around and introduced him as his band Grind’s new bass player. Jamie had been stunned to find out he also had a fairly long-term girlfriend, and then floored when he’d met and then got to know her over the past year. He’d run into Leni out and about a handful of times—at the bar on the weekends, in the clubs were Grind played, at the shop on the rare occasion when Aaron brought her in with him. And if he was going to be honest with himself, he’d even started checking books out from the main branch of the library downtown because she worked at the circulation desk, and he got a kick out of chatting her up when she wasn’t busy. He liked her. She was intelligent, well educated and highly opinionated about the political goings-on in the world, had a keen-eyed interest in art and was very well read. And she had that whole sexy librarian thing going on, with her straight blonde hair almost always pulled back into a low ponytail or tidy knot, and her big blue eyes framed by those studious rectangular black-frame glasses. He saw her wearing little vintage-looking sweater sets, either with jeans or tight to-the-knee pencil skirts that invariably gave him a half chub. And fuck if she didn’t have her nipples pierced under all that. He stepped off the pedal and set the needle aside, shifted his hips to accommodate the stirring in his cock and decided he’d better finish up for the night. 11
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“How you holding up?” he asked. She’d gone into that quiet place clients invariably went after being in the chair for a long time, but he wasn’t sure how long she’d been there. Once conversation between them had lagged, he’d lost track of time and his thoughts in the work. He checked the clock on the wall. It was coming up on eleven o’clock, which meant she’d been sitting for nearly five hours. “Leni?” He rolled closer and leaned across her so he could see her face when she didn’t answer right away. She was pale except for a bright red splotch on her cheek. He considered biting her shoulder—it was right there under his nose, all pale-skinned and looking incredibly soft—but opted for peeling off one of his ink-stained gloves and shaking her instead. “I’m good,” she said, rolling toward him slightly, her eyes heavy-lidded when she did finally open them. For a moment he had a very clear picture of what it might be like to have her beneath him, buried balls-deep inside of her, her looking up at him with that exact flushed, foggy-eyed expression as she came down from a screaming orgasm. “I bet you are.” He smiled and tapped the glasses lying on the pillow near her head. “Can you see without those?” “I can see close up without them. You’re clear but the bookcase is a little fuzzy.” “You want to see how far we got before I cover you up?” he asked, reaching for the bottle of soapy water. “Of course I do.” She put her glasses on and adjusted the shirt that had been slipping while she’d gone into her Zen place. “We got pretty far.” He wiped her off carefully, then waited a minute to see if she was still going to bleed anywhere before he snapped off the other glove, dropped it into the garbage can and helped her sit up.
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It was a big piece that was as long as she was from just under her armpit to her waist and close to eight inches wide. He’d gotten the outline, the shading and quite a bit of the color on her since she’d sat so long. All she’d need the next time she sat was another layer of color and maybe a touch-up after that, depending on how well she healed. She swayed against him when he helped her to her feet. For a moment she leaned on his chest, the arm still covering her tits and her forehead the only parts of her touching him while she got her legs under her. Jamie wrapped a steadying arm around her naked back, held her free arm with his other hand, and damn if she wasn’t even softer than he’d imagined she would be. “Sorry.” She looked up and leaned back. “I guess I’m a wimp after all.” “I’ve worked on body builders that couldn’t sit longer than an hour or two,” he said, still holding her arm as she moved toward the mirror. “You made it five, sweetheart.” “Wow,” she breathed, looking at her brand-new forever art in the mirror. “I know it looks just like Jo’s, but wow, Jamie.” “It’s different when it’s you, isn’t it?” He took in the picture they made in the mirror, her fair and him dark—the stuff romance novels and good porn were made of—and shook his head at himself. The ink was barely dry on his single-signature mortgage and here he was thinking all kinds of dirty thoughts about Leni. Although it wasn’t as if she was just any random female acquaintance of his. She was Leni—that beautiful enigma who managed to somehow be bookish and scorch-your-fingers hot at the same time. And it wasn’t as if it hadn’t taken months to get Amber into the bank to sign off on the mortgage. He taped a temporary dressing over his work and busied himself with cleaning up his table while she tucked her bra in her purse and pulled her shirt back on. Out of the corner of his eye he caught it when she swayed again as she tried to stand. 13
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“Shit.” She sat down hard on the edge of the chair and touched her fingers to her temples. “This didn’t happen to Jo.” “How long has it been since you ate?” he asked, getting a can of Coke out of the small refrigerator in the corner. “I don’t know.” She took the soda when he held it in her line of sight, thanked him. “Jo didn’t get light-headed because she probably listened to me when I told her to eat before she came in. I’ll take you home. Just give me a minute to finish here.” “I’ll be all right,” she said, sipping. “You’re not driving like this,” he insisted. She gave him an arch look over her shoulder but didn’t argue with him. That was more like it. “Do you drive all of your fainters home?” she asked, leaning back when he raised the head of the chair for her. “Only the ones I think I might be able to take advantage of once I get them there.” He went back to cleaning up without letting her know he was joking. He’d never driven any of his clients home. Leni being, well, Leni, he wasn’t opposed to making an exception for her. “Most first-timers don’t come in alone, by the way.” He changed the subject. “And those who do get all swoony at least have someone to call.” “I have someone I can call. Several of them, in fact.” “You also have me, and I’m on my way out the door in a minute, so sit tight.” He gave her another look. “All right?” It didn’t take him long to get his room back in order. The shop was quiet except for the receptionist sweeping the empty waiting area when they came out of the hall. She gave them a wave, reminded him of his first appointment on Tuesday morning and locked the door behind them as they stepped out.
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Leni was quiet on the short ride to her apartment. She didn’t refuse when he offered to help her upstairs and inside. He made her a piece of toast while she ate a banana, chatted with her about the painting above her couch and scanned the huge number of books she had while she started to come back to herself. Her place was warm, decorated in earthy greens, browns and golds with splashes of deep purple here and there. A rather heavy Indian influence touched everything from the patterns in her throw pillows to the baskets and candles that seemed to be everywhere, to the Buddha statue on top of one of the bookcases. “Would you like a beer?” she asked after she’d regained some of her normal color. No, he didn’t want a beer. He wanted the full tour of her apartment, ending with her bedroom and her naked and writhing below him. Or above, he wasn’t picky. Both and several other positions, all equally appealing, ran through his head in a flash. “I’ll take a rain check on the beer,” he said, knowing what he really needed to do was get away before he did something one or both of them might regret later. “But if you find me some soap and a couple of towels I’ll help you get that dressing off and that new tattoo washed before I go.” “Deal.” She disappeared down the hall and came back a minute later with a couple of towels and a half-full bottle of Dr. Bronner’s castile soap. “Perfect,” he said when she held up the soap for his approval. “It’s so late,” she observed once he’d gotten her positioned on the kitchen counter, perched half over the sink with a towel tucked into the waist of her jeans so the water could run freely down her side. “And on a Saturday night. I’m sorry if I’m keeping you from something.” “Some of the guys from the shop were going to the bar tonight, but I hadn’t told them I’d go one way or the other.” He carefully pulled the paper tape from her side. “Amber won’t care that you’ve been hanging out with me for an hour after working an extra hour on my tattoo?”
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“Amber and I broke up a couple of months ago,” he said, dropping a spot of clear liquid soap into his palm and spreading it evenly over her side. She looked up from watching what he was doing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” He shrugged. “I didn’t advertise it.” They were quiet while he gently worked the soap into her skin. “Do you mind me asking what happened?” He drew in a breath, puffed out his cheeks as he blew it back out. “It was time.” “Mm,” she hummed. “Very specific.” He glanced up at her dry tone and she pursed her lips, hiding a smile. The sudden urge to crush her sweet little mouth with his and the resulting rush of blood to his cock made him dizzy for a moment. “We’ve been growing apart for a long time.” He went back to what he’d been doing. “She still wants to party all weekend long, and I’m tired of it.” He cupped a handful of water and added it to the soap. “She also doesn’t ever want kids, and I had to stop kidding myself about her changing her mind someday.” “So you want them?” “Oh, yeah.” He smiled. “A whole litter of ’em.” “Really?” She sounded more than a little incredulous. “Men want kids too, you know.” He looked up, felt an unfamiliar kick to the gut as he looked straight into her cornflower-blue eyes again. “I come from a big family,” he added, using handfuls of water to carefully rinse the soap from her side. “Being the second of seven was a great time. If I got sick of playing with my older brother Diego, I’d go find Steve or Andre and hang out with them for a while. And when my sister Tammy started bringing her friends around to the house in high school…” He blew out a whistling breath. “Instant dating pool, baby.” She laughed softly and shook her head at him. “What about you? Any other brothers or sisters besides Jo?” 16
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“No.” She lifted her arm up higher, pulled her raised shirt aside, exposing the bottom curve of her breast. “And there was really no getting sick of her. We had our little spats every once in a while, but nothing major. Not knock-down, drag-out fights over clothes or shoes. No poking at each other in the car, driving our mother crazy.” “Sounds like a real drag.” He delicately touched her side, checking for any traces of soap he might have left behind, turned off the water when he didn’t find any. And heard the unmistakable sound of metal on metal as she lifted her shirt higher in an effort to better see her side and her nipple ring clicked against the ring on her finger again. The sound raced straight to his cock. He wanted to see them, touch them, taste them on his tongue like nothing he’d ever wanted before. “How long have you had those?” he asked, holding a clean towel against her side without moving out of her way so she could get down from the counter. “Three months.” Her eyes were so big, so innocent when she looked up at him. “Why did you do it?” A little frown flickered between her eyebrows, disappeared. “Why not?” “I mean, did you want them for show? Are you the buttoned-up proper girl on the outside, kinky sex kitten behind closed doors kind of girl?” He nearly groaned as he realized the untapped potential lying just beneath the curiosity in her expression. She didn’t really seem to know why she’d done something so extreme to such a sensitive part of her body. It was more than likely she’d done it for show, to be rebellious, without understanding the potential now that she had them. And damn if he didn’t want to be the one to open her eyes to the possibilities. Jamie moved before he took the time to think about what he was doing. He slipped his free hand under the edge of the shirt she was still holding up, pinched the ring piercing her left nipple and pulled—slowly, gradually, firmly. Her mouth fell open further as she drew in a deep breath, her eyes glazed while he watched and she sighed. The sound might as well have been her hand stroking his dick.
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Her huge blue eyes dropped to his mouth and the very last thread of his willpower snapped. He released the little metal ring, brushed his fingers over her long, taut nipple, dropped the towel he was still holding against her side to cradle the back of her head and covered her mouth with his. His cock, which had been at some stage of hard from the moment she’d first taken her top off at the shop, hardened even more when she whimpered, then groaned as he pushed his tongue deep inside her warm, sweet mouth. He found hers eager to spar, moved his hips between her legs when she spread them for him, found the elastic holding her hair and pulled it free so he could bury his fingers in it. Her arms came up around his neck as she buried her hands in his hair and opened her mouth wider as he demanded more. She groaned when he tightened his grip on her and pressed his erection against her stomach. He felt her stomach muscles pull tight, gripped her by the backs of her thighs and helped her wrap her legs around his waist. The desire for her should have felt wrong and he knew it. They’d both just gotten out of bad relationships, and the last thing he needed was to get tangled up with another woman. But the feel of her hands on him, her body wrapped around him, the hot, wet slide of her tongue against his didn’t feel wrong at all. He wanted her, plain and simple, and the want was blinding. She clung to him, her legs tightening around his waist as he slid one hand up her back and fisted it in her hair. Her eyes were dark and her breath was coming quick when he pulled her head back, breaking the kiss. “You’d better tell me stop now if you don’t want this,” he warned. Doubt flickered through her eyes and he could have kicked himself ten times over in the moment it took her to decide, then whisper, “Go.” Then immediately, “Wait.” It was going to be a long drive home if she changed her mind now. “Which is it, babe?” “I don’t have any condoms,” she added in a shy whisper.
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Fuckshitfuck. He hadn’t exactly been expecting this to happen either. “Getting pregnant isn’t a problem. I was only in one relationship where I wasn’t careful, and that was years ago.” She blushed hard. “I was always careful with, you know…” She meant Aaron. At least the cocksucker had the decency to protect her since he hadn’t been faithful. “I’ve had two long, monogamous relationships and never had sex without a condom between them,” he told her truthfully. He watched her consider what he’d said, felt her relax in his arms, lost it when her eyes dropped to his mouth again and her arms and legs tightened around him. “Okay, continue,” she said. He growled as he took her mouth, harder this time, fully intending to devour her as he picked her up and headed toward the open door to her bedroom. She clung to him as he stretched out over her on the bed, was careful not to hurt her with his belt buckle as he shifted his hips and ground his cock against the fiery apex of her legs. She groaned and arched her chest into his hand as he pushed her shirt up, finally giving him a clear view of her incredible tits. “Jesus, Leni,” he breathed, stopped by the sight of the heavier gauge hoops, held closed by a matched set of dark-red glass balls, through her taut nipples. The girl was not messing around with some skinny-ass “for show” jewelry. She meant business. Even if she didn’t really know she meant business yet, and he had a feeling she didn’t. “You like?” she asked, her stomach trembling slightly as she started to breathe in short, panting breaths. He cradled one firm breast in his hand, raising her nipple higher as he squeezed none too delicately, and shifted down her body. He licked the hard little nub of flesh and she gasped, covered it with his mouth and flicked it with his tongue and she groaned. He hooked his tongue under the ring, bit down on the metal and raised his head slowly until her nipple pulled impossibly far from her body and he was rewarded with an unmistakable cry of pleasure laced with just a little delicious pain. 19
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The sound raced through his veins, through every single nerve ending in his body and called to his eager cock. He needed to see her naked, needed to drive her body to orgasm, needed to hear, taste, smell her, feel every inch of her skin under his hands, against his body, around his dick as he fucked her until the neighbors called the cops because she was screaming wildly. “I like.” He spoke against her sensitive nub and she shivered, then groaned deeper as he shifted his attention to her other breast. She dug her fingers into his hair, arched her back toward his mouth, rolled her hips underneath him, grinding against him until he was sure he’d come before either of them were naked. God, he couldn’t wait another second. He stood next to the bed and unfastened her jeans. Her belly flexed as she rose up to pull off her shirt and put her glasses on the nightstand while he pulled both panties and jeans off at the same time. Son of a bitch. There wasn’t a single hair on her pussy either. She came up on her elbows to watch as he took his own shirt off, toeing off his boots as he did. He unbuckled his jeans and let them drop to the floor, watching her eyes go big as his cock fell free. The only thing better than that reaction was going to be the one he got when he finally got to slip inside her tight, wet cunt.
Leni swallowed hard. “What is that?” she breathed, a slight twinge of fear adding a whole new dimension to the heat, the desire coursing through her body. She’d seen pictures of a Prince Albert piercing before. What Jamie had was not a Prince Albert. There were two silver balls a little bigger than pea size each attached to the thick head of his long cock, one on top and one below, which meant one thing— there was a bar connecting them through the middle. “Apadravya,” he said, stepping out of his clothes. “Yes, it hurt like a motherfucker to have it done.” He spread her knees open and knelt between them. “No, it doesn’t hurt now.” He ran his hands up the insides of her thighs, over her sex and up her 20
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stomach. “And yes,” he hissed, planting his hands on either side of her head as he lowered his face close to hers, “you’re going to like it.” He was so beautiful, all dark and dangerous, long lines and rolling, muscled planes. The tattoos on his arms spread up and over his shoulders and disappeared down his back. The gorgeous expanse of his chest was untouched by ink and hairless to the sexyas-hell line of black hair that led the way from belly button to groin. His equally ink-free stomach was washboard tight and that amazing cock of his, hard as hell and all the more enticing for the piercing, had her trembling in anticipation. How the hell had she gone from resigning herself to never having the chance with him to naked in her bed in such a short amount of time? Doubt flickered through her thoughts and then was wiped out the moment he lowered his body to hers and took her mouth, hard and possessive, again. And then she didn’t think. Her heart was beating too fast and she wasn’t sure she was ever going to be able to catch her breath again. All she knew at that moment was she was a bundle of urgent, primal need and Jamie was the only man on the planet who was going to able to satisfy it. She wrapped her legs around his, ran her hands down the long line of his back and over his taut ass. She trailed her fingers from the tip of his spine along the crease, heard him grunt as she dug her fingers into his firm flesh, spreading him apart slightly as she angled her hips and pulled him hard toward her. “Oh God,” she gasped when he sank his teeth into her bottom lip and slipped the silky, swollen head inside her. Her body’s first impulse was to resist. The pressure of her sex closing tight around his cock and the barbell running through it made both of them breathe out hard. “Oh God,” she repeated when he pushed just the first couple of inches in deeper, sliding the top ball of his piercing back and forth over the right spot within her body. She could feel the bubble of heat swelling to bursting within her. Electricity hummed out from her core and washed through her fingertips, her toes. 21
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Her back arched and she turned her head to try to catch her breath when he thrust all the way inside her. She could feel his mouth on her earlobe, hear the control in the pace of his breathing. She shivered as his tongue slid hot and wet down her neck, gasped sharp and high when he pulled his cock nearly all the way out of her and nipped her shoulder as he pumped in to the hilt. “Leni, Leni, Leni,” he murmured into her neck, moving his hips in a tight circle so his pelvis rolled over her clit. He lifted his head and looked down at her, his hands tightening in her hair, turning her head so she had to look up at him. “Look at me, baby. I want to watch you when you come,” he said, kissing her softly, the light press of his mouth incongruous with the burning heat of the moment, adding an erotic flavor. His eyes rolled closed when she drew her knees up, gripped his waist with her thighs and clamped her knees tight to his rib cage, tightening her sex around him. “Make me come then,” she challenged when he opened them again. His nostrils flared as the smallest of smiles touched his mouth. He tensed his arms and stomach, bringing his weight up off her body slightly, and pushed into her even further. His eyes had gone nearly black, his pupils were so wide with arousal, but he never wavered from watching her as he drove her body, steady but quick, to the brink. She lost sight of him when she lost herself completely, when her body arched and bowed of its own will. Her head turned and her teeth ground together, her fingertips dug into his skin and her hips bucked with the intensity of the orgasm that had her crying out in a way, at a volume, she’d never experienced before in her life. She was still coming when he buried his face in her shoulder and let go of the control he’d been holding on to so beautifully. The sound of the raw growl that rolled up out of him and into her as his hips snapped and he came inside her spurred her on even further. She sank her teeth into his shoulder and bit down hard as another more powerful wave hit her so hard she was sure it jarred her bones loose.
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Chapter Three Jamie Rodriguez was quite possibly the wildest ride Leni had ever been on. And she didn’t just mean the sex. In the span of a few hours she’d gone from resigned to never being more than friends with him to the elation of finding out he was no longer living with Amber, to the low of hearing he wanted lots of children, to being fucked exactly the way she’d often imagined being fucked by him—fast, hard and quite thoroughly. For once though—maybe for the first time ever—reality had blown those naïve fantasies of hers clear out of the water. “Are you all right?” he asked, his voice low, rough. She opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling for a long moment before turning toward him, frowning slightly. “Do you really need reassurance?” The smirk that touched his mouth told her no, he didn’t. “I mean your side. How does it feel?” She laughed, embarrassed, and clapped her hands over her face. “My side feels like I scrubbed it with sandpaper now that you mention it,” she said, dropping her arms to her side. “Until you asked I’d forgotten all about it.” His smile spread and her stomach dipped. There was that roller coaster drop again. “That was my plan all along.” “Good plan.” She smiled back and he laughed. “Does that mean, as part of my aftercare, that I can come to you and you’ll make me forget all about it whenever it starts hurting?” She rolled onto her side toward him and he did the same to her. 23
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“It’s an exclusive, only-for-you perk of getting tattooed by me,” he said, kissing her. She narrowed her eyes at him, feeling foolishly happy that he’d phrased it that way. “You don’t say that to all the girls, do you?” He shook his head. “Absolutely not. Let me see.” He propped himself up on one elbow and she moved her arm out of the way so he could look. “Well, it doesn’t look like we did any damage.” He kissed her under her arm, above her tattoo and just below her armpit, and gave her goose bumps from head to toe. She looked down at the three four-inch lilies on her side, her breath taken away by how beautiful they were, even though they were not quite finished. “They’re stunning.” “Then they do the woman wearing them justice,” he said, giving her another thrill. He ran his hand over her hip and shifted so their bodies were touching again. His cock, which hadn’t gone all the way soft while they’d recovered from round one, stirred and hardened against her stomach. Her face heated with a mixture of embarrassment and arousal. “You don’t have to say that, Jamie. I’m already naked.” She knew she wasn’t the hot twin. She’d come to terms with it years ago. While they both had their mother’s blue eyes, Leni had their father’s straight blonde hair and Jo had their mother’s rich, dark curls. Jo was a little taller, a little leaner through the arms and legs and a lot fuller in the chest and ass. She turned heads and nearly caused accidents when she walked down the street in the short, snug dresses she liked to wear in the summer. Leni barely turned heads. But Leni loved Jo just as unconditionally as Jo loved her back. There was no competition. She was proud of her for the great marriage she’d built with her husband Gabe and her decision to be a stay-at-home mother. She adored Jo’s feisty ways, which had only gotten feistier now that she was a protective mama bear. And Leni appreciated it on the several occasions her sister had intervened when bullies in school, stupid bitches in bars, whoever, had tried to prey on her, the sickly, meek twin.
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Jamie put space between their bodies and simply looked at her for a moment. “Let me show you something,” he said, getting off the bed. He took her hand, helping her as she stood, and turned her to face the wide fulllength mirror hanging on her bedroom wall. She looked so small and fair with him looming tall, broad and dark behind her. “Look at yourself.” She did. Her hair was a tangled rat’s nest, there were bright-red splotches on her cheeks and her swollen bottom lip looked as though she’d been punched in the mouth. “Now see what I see. Silky blonde hair, blue eyes a guy could absolutely drown in, a mouth wet dreams are made of.” He smiled when she rolled her eyes at him. He stepped closer and wrapped an arm around her. The sight of his arm and the stark contrast of all those vivid waves of color against the white of her skin had her nipples pulling tight again. “You are absolutely perfect,” he said, his eyes on hers in the mirror. He ran a hand over her shoulder, fingers spread out over her collarbone, trailed just the tips up her neck to cradle her jaw and lift her chin high, as if she was proud. Heat surged through every part of her as their eyes met in the reflective glass. He turned just his head as he held her gaze and touched his mouth to her earlobe. “Watch me touching you, Leni,” he whispered, releasing the hold he had on her chin, his fingers dawdling in the hollow at the base of her throat for a minute before heading for one of her breasts. “Look at how absolutely amazing you are.” She couldn’t have looked away if she’d wanted to, even if she didn’t exactly agree with his adjectives. She was mesmerized by the novelty of watching what was happening to her body, by his hand, while it was happening. He tightened the hold he had on her ribs, pulling her against his chest and pressing the long, hard line of his cock against her ass. His fingers brushed lightly over her nipple as though he was aware of how overly sensitive they were after he’d been a little
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rough with her earlier. The shock went straight to her sex. A little groan escaped her when he licked the tip of his finger and her head fell back against his shoulder when he circled her nipple with it. She pulled her legs together and tightened the muscles in her thighs, needing to put pressure on her pussy as it filled with heat, burned to be touched. A smile spread over his face. “You like that?” he asked, arching a dark eyebrow at her. His hand left her breast and moved between their bodies. She groaned when his cock slid between her legs. He was hard as hell again. The wet tip bumped against the hooded front of her sex and she gasped. “Look what you do to me, sweetheart,” he murmured against her neck. That fucking piercing rubbed against her clit and she nearly came on the spot as she watched the reflection of the head of his glorious cock push through her soaking wet folds. He used the fingers of one of his hands to gently toy with one of her nipples while the other pushed against the mound of her flesh over her pubic bone, increasing the pressure of his cock rubbing against her. She couldn’t watch, tried to turn her head as her eyes grew wild, heat spread in furious red splotches over her chest and neck and her hips began to rock back against him. But the hand on her breast left, planted between her shoulder blades and pushed so she had to quickly brace herself against the wall or fall forward. “Watch me make you come,” he insisted, his voice rough as he wrapped the length of her hair around his hand and jerked just hard enough to get her attention. Her eyes met his in the mirror again. “Watch,” he repeated, using one leg to spread hers open wide. She watched. He buried his fingers deeper between her legs and pressed them against her clit as he slid his cock back, found the entrance to her sex and plunged deep. Leni’s back
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arched, her mouth fell open and she cried out long and loud as the first wave of her orgasm rocked her. She cried out again when he plunged deep a second time, the combination of his thick, long cock filling her up with a delicious pain that wasn’t quite pain and his fingers sliding over her clit, driving her body at a breakneck speed. “More,” she heard him grind out as he thrust again. “Let me hear you.” She didn’t have any choice but to oblige. Long, agonized sounding cries poured out of her throat as he pumped hard and fast. The heels of her hands banged against the wall, rattling the mirror. The weight of her body jewelry tugged on her nipples with every thrust, causing a sensation the likes of which she’d never felt before. She didn’t care how much noise they were making or who heard them making it as pleasure overtook every last bit of self-control she had. She came up on her toes as he slammed into her one last time and buried himself deeper than she thought would be possible, his groan tearing through her body as he dug his fingertips into her hips to the point of pain and he came inside her. She thought she was going to fall when he eventually pulled out of her on a hot rush of come mixed with her own wet. How he had the strength to pick her up after that, she didn’t know, but she was glad he did. She was pretty sure it was going to be a long time before her legs worked properly again. He carried her the three steps to the bed and she pulled back the covers before he laid her on the mattress, crawled over her and flopped down beside her. “Jesus.” He slid an arm under her neck and moved in close, facing her on his side. “My thoughts exactly,” she whispered, kissing him as she turned toward him. She wrapped her free arm around him as he pulled her even closer, moved so he could slide one of his legs between hers and tucked her head under his chin. She knew she was going to wake up chilled in the middle of the night, but she didn’t have the strength to keep her eyes open let alone reach for the blankets to cover them. She took in a deep breath of Jamie, of his salty scent mixed with the heady smell of sex their bodies made together, and blinked out of consciousness. 27
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***** Leni’s room was filled with sunshine and the sound of kids playing in the courtyard behind her building when she woke up. And she was alone. She lay listening for any sign that Jamie might still be in the apartment, then got up and headed straight for the shower when she didn’t hear him. Not sure what she’d expected, she swallowed the disappointment that threatened to well up inside her as she shampooed and conditioned the knots out of her hair. Had she thought he’d stick around after he’d gotten his way? Aaron never had, even after they’d supposedly been in a relationship for a while. And when it came right down to it, weren’t all bad boys the same? But was Jamie really a bad boy? Two monogamous relationships, he’s said. He hadn’t even curled his lip in disgust on the word monogamous like most men she knew did when they said it. Come to think of it, she’d never once heard anything in their small circle of mutual friends that he’d ever been anything but faithful to Amber. And the way he’d smiled when he’d said he wanted kids, well, it made her sigh wistfully, and she was not the kind of girl who sighed wistfully very often. She braced her hand on the wall and turned her face into the shower spray as the bottom dropped out of her stomach again. How many times had it done that since she’d stepped into the shop for her appointment yesterday? How many times had it done that in the weeks since she’d made her appointment, or during the hours she’d sat holding Jo’s hand, talking to him while he worked on her sister? “Stop being ridiculous,” she scolded herself, snatching up the bottle of shower gel and grabbing her scrubbie off its hook. She finished showering quickly, reluctant to wash his smell off of her skin, but not exactly wanting to advertise she was back on the old sex horse, especially not to her sister just yet. Not that Jo wasn’t going to know the second she saw her later that day. 28
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As she turned off the water and reached for a towel, she realized there was another smell in the air besides the coconut of her body wash—bacon. She looked around the bathroom, wide awake now, and saw the evidence she’d missed when she’d come into the room half asleep. The second toothbrush from the two-pack she’d just bought was standing next to hers in the holder and the empty package was in the garbage. A damp towel hung on the hook she never used on the back of the bathroom door and, sure enough, the bottle of Dr. Bronner’s—the least girlie-smelling soap she had—was back in its place in the caddy hanging from the shower head. She wrapped her hair in a towel and her body in a bath sheet, stuck her glasses on her face and headed for the kitchen. “Morning.” Jamie, shirtless and barefoot in jeans, smiled at her. “I hope you’re hungry. There’s bacon in the oven and I started pancakes. I figured they were a safe bet since you have three kinds of syrup in the cupboard and two more in the fridge.” Have mercy, he was breathtaking. Even his feet were gorgeous. And when he turned his back toward her for a moment she caught her first glimpse of the words “Life is Beautiful” scripted from shoulder to shoulder above a Diego Rivera-like mural that covered the entire expanse of his back to below his waist. “I didn’t realize you were still here,” she said stupidly. “I was reading while I waited for you go wake up. You were sleeping so soundly I didn’t want to disturb you. Although,” the positively wicked look he gave her made her stomach flip again, “keeping my hands off you after last night was no easy feat.” He put the bowl down, pulled her close and kissed her softly. She realized as she melted into him that she didn’t have a fighting chance at not falling for him if he kept treating her this way. Hell, knowing her experience with men, she didn’t stand a chance even if he didn’t keep treating her this way.
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“I like this look on you.” He unwound the towel from her hair and let it fall to the floor. “Maybe we could put breakfast off a little longer,” he suggested, one hand cradling the back of her head as he kissed her neck. Her whole body came raging back to life as he pulled her tighter against him. She spread her hands out over his chest, loving the feel of his skin under her fingers, her palms, the feel of his soft, masculine mouth as he worked his way up to her earlobe. Then, as if on cue, her stomach growled. “Oh Lord,” she groaned, dropping her hands. “All right, fine.” He sighed, kissed her softly again and released her. “We’ll wait until after breakfast. Are you free to spend the day with me?” She just blinked at him again for a long moment, then snapped to attention when he raised his eyebrows at her. “I promised Jo I’d sit with Frankie for a little while today.” She glanced at the clock hanging above the sink. It was already close to noon. “And I’m supposed to be at her house in an hour.” “But you have time to eat?” he asked, pouring batter on the hot skillet. “Yes.” Even if she had to risk a speeding ticket by racing the three miles to Jo’s house, she wasn’t missing a breakfast of pancakes and bacon, her absolute favorites, made for her by Jamie Rodriguez. “Just give me a minute to get dressed.” “Only if you have to,” he called after her as she disappeared down the hall. A bra wasn’t an option with her side as tender as it was. She applied the barest amount of ointment to her side and layered two tank tops under a t-shirt to put a couple of extra layers of fabric between her piercings and the general public’s eye. Thank goodness for small breasts, she thought, not for the first time in her life. She didn’t have to worry about bobbing about when she walked down the street, drawing unnecessary attention to herself. She pushed her chest out, making sure no one would
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be able to see the piercings, and when she was satisfied, found her favorite denim capris. She knew she should wait until after breakfast to brush her teeth, but she did it anyway. It was the least she could do to lose the dragon breath just in case he kissed her again before she finished eating. She combed the last of the tangles out of her hair, clenched and unclenched her fingers a couple of times to try to stop them from shaking and gave herself a stern look in the mirror. “You can do this,” she told herself, only slightly convinced she was right. “Even if he’s only being nice because he got in your pants last night, just fucking relax and enjoy it while it lasts.” He’d made two plates and the door to the balcony was open by the time she joined him in the kitchen again. She could see he’d already set the little outdoor bistro table with silverware, napkins, glasses of ice water already starting to sweat in the midsummer warmth, the butter dish from her refrigerator and all five bottles of syrup. “I thought we could eat outside since it’s not too hot yet,” he said, kissing her again as he handed her the glasses of orange juice he’d poured. “What do you think?” “I think I feel a little spoiled,” she answered. Her heart rattled out a dangerous, erratic beat at the smile that earned her. “Good,” he said, and kissed her again before handing her the glasses of orange juice he’d poured for them. “What were you reading while you waited,” she asked, following him outside. “Anansi Boys.” He put the plates on the table and sat across from her. “I read it years ago, but I couldn’t resist picking it up again when I saw it on your shelf. You’re going to need a library of your own for all the books you have.” “I’d love a house with a big formal library.” She bit into a piece of bacon and her eyes rolled shut. She didn’t realize exactly how ravenous she was until that moment. “In one of those huge Victorians in the Old West End,” he added.
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Her eyes popped open. Despite it being smack in the middle of some of the worst crime areas, she loved Toledo’s Old West End. It was the cultural art center of the city, home to artists of all types, musicians, writers. It was close to the museum, some of the city’s best dining and nightclubs, the Mudhen’s stadium and her job at the library’s historical main branch. “You’d raise kids there?” He shrugged one gorgeous, naked shoulder. “Sure. I was raised there. Not every kid that comes out of a tough neighborhood turns out to be a thug. And it’s not like I’m not free to work my schedule around school drop-off and pickup, homework, ball games, whatever.” For a moment she couldn’t breathe, and then she was reminded about what her mother always said about things that seemed too good to be true. “An enormous attack dog would be mandatory, of course.” He grinned at her as he poured syrup over his pancakes. “How long are you going to be babysitting?” She blinked at the change of subject. “Just a few hours. Jo just wants to get her weekly shopping done. I volunteered to watch Frankie since she’s sick and Jo’s husband Gabe is out of town this weekend.” “Call me when you’re done and I’ll swing by on my bike and pick you up. We could go for a ride, stop somewhere for some pizza and a beer?” She stopped pouring syrup over her pancakes. “You mean go on a date?” He arched an eyebrow and drawled out, “Yeah.” Her stomach tightened. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” That little frown flickered between his eyebrows again and stayed. “Why not?” She took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to phrase it. “It’s just…with you and Aaron being friends and all.” She blushed. “Friends?” He snorted a derisive laugh. “Since when have Aaron and I been friends? I tolerate him because Leo seems to like him, and I don’t think Leo even likes 32
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him very much. Forgive me if there’s any love lost between you, but the guy’s a dick. Especially after what he did to you.” She didn’t know whether to laugh or hang her head in shame. “So, wait.” She set her fork down, suddenly not hungry as something dawned on her. “Does everyone know he was running around on me behind my back?” He frowned at her. “Who’s everyone?” “Everyone at the shop.” He shrugged. “I don’t get involved in shop gossip, so I have no idea.” Leni pushed her plate away and folded her hands on the table in front of her. “But you knew.” He looked at his plate, sighed and set his fork down. “That he was cheating on you? No. I didn’t get involved in his business so I didn’t know for sure. Not that it would have taken a rocket scientist to figure it out.” “Great.” She pushed her chair back, needing to get away. “I’m a fucking asshole.” “Wait, wait, wait.” Jamie slid away from the table as he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his lap. “No one thinks you’re an asshole,” he assured her. “I’m sorry. What I said came out wrong. I was not calling you stupid.” He tucked a wayward strand of her hair behind her ear, pinched her earlobe gently. “You know, the way you dumped him was the talk of the shop for days afterward.” The day she showed up to Aaron’s apartment and found a girl just leaving, she’d gone straight back her apartment and packed up the few things of his that had accumulated there. He’d already gone to the tattoo shop by the time she caught up with him later that day. She’d gone in, told him she wanted him to look at something on her car, then handed him his box and drove off without another word. “No screaming or making a scene, just snip,” Jamie scissored his fingers in demonstration, “and walk away. It was really beautiful.” She narrowed her eyes. “You just told me you don’t pay attention to shop gossip.” 33
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“Once in a while I get a whiff of something worth paying attention to.” She shook her head and looked at her hands in her lap. “It’s still going to be awkward with Amber and Aaron still hanging around the shop.” He looked at her for a long moment. “So you’re not over him yet.” “Of course I am.” She deflated. “It’s practically ancient history.” “Then why are you getting all pissed off about whether I knew he was whoring around or not?” He chuckled when her eyes went wide and she bristled. “Listen to me.” He tightened his grip on her so she couldn’t wriggle out of his grasp. “You have to know something. I’ve always liked you, even when I could only like you as the cute little bookworm that I occasionally ran into here and there. And when you agreed to let me bring you home last night, I could hardly believe my luck. Most importantly—are you listening?” The smile that spread over his face when she rolled her eyes and nodded made her heart knock so hard against her ribs she was sure he could hear it. “I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks of us dating.” She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his. “So.” He touched her mouth with his. “How about a motorcycle ride later?” She took a deep breath and resisted the urge to pinch herself. And nodded. “You know, pancakes are my favorite food of all time,” she said. He smiled against her lips. “Then you’d better go eat before they get soggy in all that syrup you dumped on them.” “Mm,” she hummed, leaning into him. “In a minute.”
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Chapter Four “You have a date with Jamie tonight?” Jo’s mouth fell open. “How did this happen?” “You don’t have to look so surprised.” Leni took one of the bags from the counter to Jo’s refrigerator and started helping her put groceries away. She’d caught a break earlier when Jo had been too distracted by getting her errands started so she could get back home to Frankie as quickly as possible. Spending a couple of hours with her niece had been calming, even if the baby had slept through the last half of that time. “I’m not surprised he asked you out,” Jo clarified. “He falls all over himself whenever you’re around.” “He does not.” Leni rolled her eyes. They both paused when the baby monitor picked up a sound from Frankie’s room. “Oh, right,” Jo said when it was clear her daughter wasn’t awake yet. “I’m sure it’s hard to notice something like that when you’re too busy picking yourself up off the floor every time you’re in the same room together.” Leni wrinkled her nose. “Is it that obvious?” Jo wrinkled hers back and nodded. “I’m surprised he’s over Amber so fast. They were together a long time.” “You knew they’d broken up?” “Gabe’s mom came over and shooed us out of the house so she could have a little alone time with Frankie a couple of weeks ago. We just went to the bar for a couple of beers. Amber was there with some new guy.” She shrugged. “She looked really happy.
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Told me she and Jamie had broken up months ago, maybe even before you finally dumped Aaron. Who knew?” “He said he hadn’t really told too many people.” “Yeah, I hadn’t heard a peep. And how many times had you and I been to the shop since it happened?” Jo’s eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms. So much for staying under the radar for a moment. Jo’s distraction with her sick child had bought Leni a little time, but not much. “Wait a minute,” she said. “How did you manage to get it out of Mr. Strong and Silent if he’s been so tight-lipped about it all this time?” “My appointment ran later than scheduled. I was asking if I’d kept him from anything.” She was going for casual but the heat was starting to creep up her neck. “So, he was working on your tattoo and just blurted out ‘Hey, guess what. Amber and I have been broken up for months. Want to go out?’” She stifled the smirk that threatened to give her away. “We might have been in my apartment at the time.” Jo’s eyebrows rose. “And how did you manage to get him there, you little vixen?” Leni ran through an abbreviated version of the night, from the swooning when she got up off the table to the point just before he’s slipped his hand under her shirt. “Halle-freakin-lujah,” Jo said, arms raised to the sky, when Leni finished her story. “It’s about time someone good came along, honey. Enjoy this.” Her belly felt as if it was full of lead all of a sudden. “While it lasts.” “Don’t do that,” Jo warned. “He wants kids.” “So?” Jo shrugged again. “Promise me you’re going to enjoy yourself for a change.” “Did you know that apparently everyone who works in the shop thinks Aaron is a complete asshole?”
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“Honey, I think he’s a complete asshole.” Jo handed her the gallon of milk and a bottle of orange juice. “Well, I know that now.” She put both things in the fridge, then a half gallon of ice cream when Jo passed it to her. “Why didn’t I see it?” “He was hot and he was in a band. You were in a bad place at the time and he, being the dog he is, could smell the desperation on you and took advantage.” “You’re making me feel so much better,” Leni deadpanned. “So glad we’re talking about this right before I’m supposed to go on a date with the hottest man ever.” “Look at how far you’ve come.” Jo took her by the shoulders. “You dumped Aaron the minute you found out what he’s really made of. No crying, no scene, just cut him right out of your life and did your mourning in private. My sister of even a year ago wasn’t that strong.” Calling Aaron out to her car and just handing him the box of his things had been the hardest, most degrading thing she’d ever done in her life. “That doesn’t make the fact that everyone knew about him and no one thought enough of me to tell me any easier. Or that they all see me as an idiot.” Jo released her and began folding up her reusable shopping bags. “Obviously no one of any importance knew what he was up to, or someone would have told you. And you’re forgetting that you were the talk of the shop and the bar for weeks after you broke up with him the way you did. All anyone could talk about was how coolly you handled him.” She stopped and gave her a look. “It’s not like this is high school, Leni. Why do you care what anyone thinks now?” “I don’t know.” She sighed, wishing she could just get some perspective on why she was still feeling so unsettled. “I was trying to tell Jamie I wasn’t sure us dating was a good idea because he and Aaron were friends. The way he made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he and Aaron were not friends just made me feel stupid.”
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“Do you think he was trying to make you feel stupid? Because I’ve noticed he has a bit of a brutally honest streak in him.” “No, I don’t think he was trying. I just do.” “Oh. Well, stop it.” Jo held Leni’s face in her hands. “Little sister, you have a date with Jamie Rodriguez,” she said, squeezing her face for emphasis as she said his name. “Promise me you’re going to relax and enjoy yourself.” “I promise,” Leni said, unable to resist smiling. “Good.” She kissed her and let her go. “Okay, tell me real quick before I kick you out of here so you can go get yourself all dolled up.” She leaned on the counter and crossed her arms again. “How good is he in bed? I know it’s wrong to ask, but, well, I’m me and we tell each other everything.” Leni shook her head and laughed. There was no point in trying to deny it. They both looked at the baby monitor as Frankie started to make waking noises. “One word, Len. Sum him up in one word.” “She’s going to be happy to see her mama.” Leni pointed to the monitor. “She likes her Aunt Leni and all, but she missed you while you were gone.” Jo held up one finger. Leni hung her purse on her shoulder, smiled and said, “Unbelievable.”
***** He had to admit he was impressed. He hadn’t expected his naughty little librarian to own boots worthy of riding. In hindsight, he realized he should have. She was a seemingly bottomless well of surprises, and so far all of them were right up his alley. They’d still had enough daylight left for a long motorcycle ride out the Toledo side of the Anthony Wayne Trail to Grand Rapids, then back on the Perrysburg side before it got too dark to enjoy the scenery. He liked the way she’d felt perched behind him on the back of his bike, her knees on either side of his legs, his ass between those luscious thighs of hers. And when she’d hugged his waist tight and hid her face between his 38
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shoulders as they’d passed through a cloud of gnats during the ride back, he’d liked the way she’d felt pressed to his back that way as well. A lot. He liked so much about her, not the least of which was the way she went at a piece of pizza with lusty enthusiasm—picking off toppings with her fingers and eating two and a half slices instead of pretending to be stuffed after most of one. He liked that smile of hers, her bookish glasses, her hair a messy, windblown knot and her cheeks still pink from the ride. He liked the way she put her napkin in her lap even though the restaurant was casual and the way she talked with her hands. He liked the spark she got in her eyes when he pushed her buttons, playing devil’s advocate regarding the upcoming presidential election when he actually agreed with her on just about every point. And he loved the way she paused just before the long, slow blink she gave him when she caught the dirty innuendos he tossed into the conversation every so often. “You know, I don’t think you’re the demure pink lily at all.” Leni slid her beer out of the way and crossed her arms on the table in front of her. “No?” The last two slices of pizza sitting on the end of the table had long grown cold. He was grateful there wasn’t anything happening downtown on a Sunday night that might have given them a reason to linger late. He’d been antsy for the chance to get her alone again since leaving her apartment after pancakes and an especially mind-blowing goodbye kiss that afternoon. “No, you’re definitely the red lily,” he said. “I don’t care if your mom has known you since birth, or whatever.” She laughed. “Then you’ve obviously not spent enough time with my sister.” “I don’t need to.” He reassessed what he was trying to say. “Maybe I should say you’re not completely the pink lily. Sure, you’re all pink and proper on the outside, but under your clothes…” He whistled low, smiled when she blushed.
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“It’s a good thing no one can hear you,” she said, leaning just slightly more toward him. “My cover would be blown.” “Your secret’s safe with me,” he whispered conspiratorially. “But I’m telling you now, I’m adding red to your flower when you get back in the chair.” He could see it clearly. “Just a little red deep in the center, maybe some spots along the petals. Only you and I have to know what it means.” “I like it.” She smiled and the impact nearly knocked him off his chair. “Are you busy next weekend?” he asked, thanking their server when she rather intuitively brought the check he was about to ask for. “My mom and I are going up to visit my aunt in Charlevoix. It’s her birthday. We leave Friday morning and come back Sunday night.” “And I leave for L.A. Sunday morning.” When she tilted her head curiously he added, “I’m working in a buddy of mine’s shop next week while one of his top guys is on vacation. I usually sit in for him a couple of times a year.” “I haven’t been to the West Coast for years.” She smiled dreamily. “My sister and I went out before she got married and were beach bums for a few days. Came home sunburned and broke.” “I don’t see a whole lot of sun while I’m out there. The first day is usually wasted sleeping off jetlag, and then I’m booked from open to close the whole week.” “So you’re making a celebrity guest appearance.” The matter-of-fact way she’d said it made him smile. “A lot of times my book fills up for the next trip before I’ve left, but I’m not famous by any stretch.” “Mm. Modest without the slightest hint of irony. I like it.” “I almost forgot,” he said, reaching into the pocket of his riding jacket. “I have a present for you.” She looked at the small square box, then up at him, eyebrows raised. 40
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“A gift on the first date?” she asked, reaching for it tentatively. He hunched one shoulder. “Since we’re doing everything out of order anyway.” Her expression stayed neutral while she lifted the lid off the box. She stared at what was inside for the longest minute and then the most beautiful pink bloomed in her face. “I’ve had them for years,” he told her. “I think I bought them during a trip to Japan just because I thought they were kind of cool looking. They’ve just been in a drawer at my house since. It’s like they were meant for you.” Her eyes were glittering when she looked at him. “They’re not earrings.” He couldn’t help but laugh. “No, they’re not.” She lifted one of the nipple weights out of the box and looked at it more closely. To the casual observer, or nearby diner in their case, it looked as if she was holding an earring in her palm. But the silver clasp was a clamp, not an earring hook, and the heavy glass teardrop hanging from the inch-long chain was too heavy for a woman’s ear. And the red was the same shade as the beads on her nipple rings. They were more jewelry than torture devices, but Leni wasn’t looking to be tied up and whipped. He wasn’t the kind of guy who got into bondage anyway, but it did make his blood boil hot in his veins that she liked it more than a little rough around the edges. “You just had these lying around?” she asked, lips pursed in a dirty smirk. “Sweetheart, I have a whole collection of things I’d love to show you sometime.” She turned her bare wrist toward her face like she was checking a watch. “I happen to have some spare time now,” she said. Jamie pushed his chair back so fast it scraped on the floor. “Imagine that.” He took her hand and nearly dragged her to the door. “So do I.”
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Chapter Five “Wow.” Leni looked up at Jeannette, the main librarian in the children’s library, then looked toward the door to see what she was gaping at. Wow wasn’t the word for it. Her stomach dropped and her heart started racing at the sight of Jamie standing just inside the door. In a white button-down linen shirt that looked as though it had been made especially for his body and long legs in dark, very well-fitting jeans, his black hair purposely mussed and green eyes shining, he was beyond wow. “Can I help you?” Jeannette asked him. He broke the lock he had on Leni’s gaze and smiled at Jeannette. “Thank you, no,” he answered smoothly. “I’m here to see if your coworker has a lunch break coming up anytime soon.” Jeannette turned to Leni, eyebrows raised, then back to Jamie. “She’s free.” “You sure?” Leni asked. Preschool story time had just started. In theory she had plenty of time to take her thirty-minute break and be back before it ended, but if the volunteer mom on duty stopped reading early, as they sometimes did, Jeannette would be swamped by herself. Jeannette winked at her. “I got it.” Leni made her way around the corner of the desk feeling a little as if she was moving in slow motion. He couldn’t have been more than a few hours off his redeye flight into Detroit that morning. She was so surprised and happy to see him she wanted to fling herself into his arms and wrap herself around him, but the place was crawling with impressionable young children, of course.
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“How long do you have?” he asked, holding the door for her, waving to Jeannette. “Half an hour.” She took his hand. “Where are we going?” “What’s in here?” He walked past the elevators to the set of double doors opposite the children’s library. “It’s the auditorium. The doors might be locked,” she warned a second before he pushed them open. “Or maybe they’re not.” The room was dark except for the security light over an exit door at the other end of the room. He spun her in a little pirouette, pinned her to the wall and covered her mouth with his. Molten heat washed over her, setting her on fire from head to toe as she sank into his mouth, his kiss, his body. God, she’d missed him. They’d spoken on the phone at least every other day while he’d been gone. She’d been so busy with work and helping Jo with Frankie she’d hardly noticed how quickly time had passed. But now that he was there, solid and real under her hands, the taste of his mouth and the smell of his skin both familiar and foreign at the same time, she was struck with the force of just how much she’d missed him. “Jesus, Leni,” he breathed, loosening his grip on her only slightly. “I really just stopped by to see if I could take you to lunch, but the second I saw you…” His words trailed off as he pulled back just far enough to look into her eyes. It was good to know it wasn’t just her. “I like this dress,” he said, looking down the length of her body. She was wearing a long white sundress with big red poppies printed on it under a little black cardigan. “Any chance you can play hooky the rest of the day?” His hand slipped under her sweater, stroked the curve of her waist before moving down over the swell of her hip. “I can’t.” But, man, did she want to. “We’re really short-handed as it is.” “Then give me something to hold me over.” He was gathering the fabric of her skirt in his hands, raising it slowly. She wanted it like nothing she’d ever wanted before.
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“I’m at work,” she protested less than halfheartedly, her hands spread over the solid curves of his chest. She could see the rich olive of his skin and the colors of the tattoos on his shoulders through the fine fabric of his shirt. Her eyes closed briefly when his fingertips skimmed her bare thigh, sending a crackling heat along the entire surface of her skin. “I won’t leave any evidence.” He turned her around slowly until she was facing the wall and pulled her hips back. “I need to touch you, sweetheart,” he murmured, his erection, still confined by his jeans, pressing into the seam of her ass. She braced her arms on the wall and groaned as his hand passed over her stomach to her sex, covered by the plain cotton panties she wore to work. “Jamie, someone could walk in here any minute.” “Then I’ll make this quick,” he whispered against the sensitive skin behind her ear. He stroked her over the increasingly damp fabric, and she spread her legs for him. “I want more than quick,” she told him, gasping as he dipped his fingers beneath the elastic waist. “I want all of you—oh God!” Her groan echoed through the empty auditorium as he buried two fingers deep inside her. “All of what?” he asked, putting pressure on her clit with the heel of his hand, fucking her in small, circular strokes with his fingers. “You. Naked. Your body. Your cock in my mouth,” she whispered harshly, then nearly choked when he groaned deeply and curled his fingers into that magic spot within her body and teased. He touched the tip of his tongue to her earlobe. “What else?” She shook her head. She couldn’t think. He bit down on her ear just hard enough to get her attention. “What else, baby?” “I want… Oh shit.” Her voice was ragged, breathless. “I want you buried to the hilt inside me, Jamie. I want you to fuck me until I’m saddle-sore for a week.”
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“That’s my girl,” he breathed, increasing the pressure on her clit as he ground into her through their clothes from behind. And just like that her body exploded. She clenched her teeth and swallowed the cry that threatened to erupt from her throat. Her legs gave out from under her and she shook from the very core of her being outward. “Jesus, you’re like a Ferrari,” he whispered reverently against her neck, holding her tight around the waist. “Zero to sixty in no time flat.” She shivered through the last waves of her orgasm and turned her face to his. “I think it has more to do with the skills of the driver than the make of the car.” Her head fell back and she wrapped an arm around his neck, pulling him toward her for a kiss. She was losing herself in the slow slide of his tongue when he slipped his hand from her panties and let her skirt fall. He broke their kiss. Leni’s knees went loose again and she leaned into him, whispering, “Oh, my,” as she watched him suck first one and then the other of his wet fingers into his mouth. “See me later.” It wasn’t a question. He turned her around and fixed her skewed sweater while she steadied herself on her shaky legs. “Okay.” She nodded, fixing her ponytail as the reality of what she’d just risked settled in. On some level she knew she should feel guilty, or at least a little panicked, that she’d just put her job on the line for a few dirty moments with him. On another, more basic level, she instinctively knew he never would have put her in that kind of situation if he’d thought there was the slightest chance they’d get caught. “My place,” he added, kissing her lightly. “I’ll cook for you since I just took up most of your lunch time.” “You’d better. I’m going to be starving.” She smirked, sliding her hands up his chest to his neck, where she wrapped them around and buried her fingers in the back of his hair. “Although this was a whole lot more interesting than the PB and J I packed.” He laughed and touched his forehead to hers, his hands light on her waist now despite the fact that he had to be highly frustrated. 45
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She’d felt the size of his erection. He was full to bursting and she knew it. For a moment the temptation to drop to her knees and relieve the pressure for him was overwhelming. Having someone walk in while she was getting felt up under her dress was one thing. Having someone walk in while she was on her knees with her boyfriend’s cock buried balls-deep in her face was quite another. Her eyes blinked open at the thought. Boyfriend. That was getting way ahead of the game, now, wasn’t it? “I missed you,” he said. Her heart stuttered optimistically and she let it. She could hear her sister’s voice echoing through her head, reminding her to just slow down and enjoy. Reality could sneak in and crash the party later. For now she just wanted to ride out the high. She smoothed her hands over the wrinkles the pressure of their bodies had put in his shirt, looked up into those amazing green eyes and said, “I missed you too.”
***** Home. The word kept repeating through his mind over and over again. He was home. And that godforsaken Bryan Adams Spanish guitar song his sister used to listen to incessantly kept running through his fucking head. She was laying half cradled in his left arm, half sprawled wantonly over his body, her back to his chest. Sunlight coming through his bedroom window touched the fine sheen of sweat covering every inch of her skin, giving her an otherworldly glow. The sight of his dark hand on the pale skin of her throat, exposed by the way her head was thrown back over his shoulder, was intoxicating. He watched his fingers trail over the thin skin covering her chest, down the long line of her flat belly and over the inside of her thigh. He saw the goose bumps rise on her skin when he barely traced the taut muscle from the inside of her knee to where he was buried in her cunt.
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He kissed her neck and she arched her back so he could push deeper into her from behind. She winced and sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth when he spread his fingers over the soaking wet folds of her pussy, brushing over her swollen little hot button, indulging in the feel of her skin stretching to accommodate him. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life. And she was all his. He couldn’t bring himself to qualify the thought with “for the moment” either. She had to be his. The thought of her being with anyone else now that they’d been together made him want to kill with his bare hands. He wanted to spend as many Sunday mornings as he could just like this, making love to her, watching her lose herself in him—them lose themselves in each other. He fucking wanted to make her pancakes for breakfast every day for the rest of his life. It was happening so fast, this being overwhelmed, almost consumed by her. Two weeks ago she’d been sexy Leni from the fringes of his circle of friends. Now she was in his bed and undeniably under his skin in all the right ways. He kept thinking he should be nervous about the speed at which they were moving, but he wasn’t. No matter how he tried to rationalize slowing down, he just couldn’t. Jamie peeled her arm from around his neck, put her hand between her legs. “Feel what I feel,” he murmured against her neck. Her eyelids were at half-mast and her mouth was open when she looked at him over her shoulder. She was so far gone. He wanted to take her the rest of the way to pure, mindless physical pleasure, and he wanted to spend all day doing it. A fresh wave of electricity zipped down his spine, tingled at the base and pooled behind his balls as her hand moved under his, stroking both of them at the same time. He pulled her hand back just a little and curled her fingers into her clit. “Make yourself come,” he whispered against her mouth when she turned to him for a kiss. “I want to watch you touch yourself.” “Jamie.” She squirmed against him, hesitant.
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“Please.” He moved her fingers for her and pushed deeper inside her from behind. “That’s right,” he said when she breathed out a lusty “Oh!” and her eyes rolled closed. “Let me feel you.” She started moving her hand on her own, finding her own rhythm. He matched her pace, burned the movement to memory for future reference. He rolled onto his back so she was completely lying on top of him, used his knees to spread her legs open wide and dug his heels into the mattress. Holding her hips to support the natural arch of her back, he thrust up into her in time with her rocking back onto him. She writhed over him, her face turned into his neck and her breath coming in short, hot gasps against his skin as she reached her peak. Jamie held onto his own release by a thread as her back arched up high and she started to throb around him. He slid his hand between her legs again and she let out a little cry when he touched her pulsing sex. “Come with me, Jamie,” she panted, her teeth grazing his jaw. Not yet. He was so close, but not ready to let the moment go. He kissed her, dipping his tongue deep into her eager mouth while his hands roamed her relaxing body. And when she’d started to really let go and settle into him, he slipped out of her and laid her on the bed beside him. “I want more,” he told her, rolling onto his hands and knees over her. She was a goddess lying sprawled on his bed below him, her skin flushed and her hair a tangle around her head. Those blue eyes of hers glittered up at him. Her fingers trailed up his arms and she spread her legs wide. “Take as much as you like,” she said with a wicked little smile. “I’m all yours.” In that moment he felt himself fall, completely and without question.
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She wrapped around him as he sank into her, buried his cock to the hilt and took her mouth hard. Then there was nothing in the world but Leni and the rhythm of their bodies moving together—slowly at first, and then with a wild, frenzied pace. They could have been making love for seconds or minutes, he had no idea. All Jamie knew was by the time he was reduced to a shuddering heap, stars bursting in his peripheral vision as he pumped his release into her hot, eager little body, the deal was done.
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Chapter Six Jamie leaned over to Leni. “How about a game of pool?” “You know I’m good, right?” she asked, turning toward him until their noses were just about touching. He knew. While they hadn’t played each other before, he’d seen her play. “I bet I’m better,” he challenged. “I got a buck says you’re not,” she whispered back. “Oh, it’s on.” He pushed his chair away from the table and held his hand to her. She didn’t take it as she stood. “Bring it, son.” Damn, he liked the feisty side of her. It made him want to throw her down on top of one of the tables, hike up the short skirt she was wearing and take her right there in front of God and the whole bar, including the table of their friends and families. It was their first public outing of sorts. After a month of long motorcycle rides, leisurely dinners and many sleepless nights and long weekend afternoons in one or the other’s bed, they both felt that maybe it was time to come up for air and mingle. They’d found Leni’s sister Jo and Gabe, her husband, already had a table with Leo and his new girlfriend Marissa when they got to the bar. The first thing Jo did was throw herself at him and insist he add the red to the pink lily in her tattoo so she matched her sister. He’d finished Leni’s tattoo a couple of days earlier and was so happy with the way her lily had turned out, he was considering having one of the guys at the shop ink one onto him—right over his heart. “Son is it?” He narrowed his eyes. “You realize those are fightin’ words, right?” “You don’t scare me.” She slid him a sideways glance as she chose her pool cue. “I’m gonna show you no mercy, Brewster,” he whispered close to her ear. 50
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She turned her face toward him, slid her soft cheek against his as she pulled back just far enough to look up into his eyes. “Why would you start now, Rodriguez?” she purred. The sound rushed straight to his dick. He clenched his teeth, growled low and watched her shiver. She kicked his ass the first game, just flat-out cleared the table on her second turn behind the cue ball. They were running neck and neck the second game until she missed a difficult bank shot and he made his last two tricks and landed the eight ball. Then he spanked her on the third round. “Another beer?” she asked Jamie, handing her cue to Leo, who’d called winner midway through the game. “Oh boy, here we go,” Leo said, looking over Leni’s head to the door. They both turned to look. Aaron and the other two members of Grind were just coming into the bar. “What does that mean?” Leni asked Leo. He didn’t get a chance to answer her. Aaron spotted them and made a grand show of coming to the table, shaking Leo’s hand in an elaborate four-part handshake that ended with a hug and a back slap. Jamie just shrugged when Leni looked at him. He didn’t know what Leo meant either. He shook Aaron’s hand when Aaron extended his and said, “Cee Rod.” Jamie gave him an indifferent nod. “A-hole.” He winked at Leni when her eyes went big. Aaron, unfazed by their standard greeting and completely oblivious to the situation, angled himself between Jamie and Leni. “Hey, Len. You’re lookin’ good.” Jamie wanted to punch the fucker in the back of the head. “I’ve been meaning to call you,” Aaron continued, lowering his voice. “You think maybe we can step outside and talk a minute?” 51
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Okay, now he wanted to get him in a headlock and choke the life out of him. Leni looked over his shoulder to Jamie. “Beer?” she asked again. “Sure.” He grinned, admiring the cool, easy way she’d just handled that asshole. He would have kissed her if it wasn’t the equivalent of lifting his leg and pissing on her. He had Aaron’s full attention when he looked back from watching her walk away. “You and Leni?” Aaron asked. Jamie looked at Leo. “You ready to get your ass kicked?” “I don’t know, man.” Leo dug two quarters out of his pocket and put them in the slot on the table. “A girl just gave you a run for your money three games in a row. I don’t know how much ass you’re kickin’ today,” he added as the balls dropped. “I asked you a question.” Aaron slammed his hand over the ball rack when Jamie laid it on the table. “Aaron,” Leo warned. Jamie straightened and looked at Aaron. Aaron curled his lip at him. “You never struck me as the kind of guy who needed to go after sloppy seconds. Especially after that fine piece of ass you used to have.” From somewhere along the perimeter of his narrowing vision Jamie heard Leo mutter, “Oh fuck.” A small, cold hand on his arm was the only thing that kept him from popping the bastard in the mouth right then and there. “He’s not worth it,” Leni said. “You should go,” Jamie said to Aaron. Aaron shrugged, looked around the bar, spread his arms wide. “These are my friends too, Cee Rod,” he sneered. “I’ve got just as much of a right to be in here drinkin’ a cold one and chasin’ tail as you do.” “Not anymore, you don’t,” Leo chimed in. “Wrong choice of words, Aaron. You should go now. Let things cool down.” 52
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Aaron looked from Leo to Jamie to Leni. “You say one word to her, now or ever, and all bets are off,” Jamie said. He watched Aaron’s face contort. He looked back at Jamie then Leni once more. Jamie slid a look to Leo, who nodded. No sooner had Aaron pressed his lips together to call Leni a bitch than Jamie was on him, chest to chest, hands on his shoulders shoving him backward to the door. From behind him he heard Leni call his name and he knew Leo had stepped in and held her back to keep her out of harm’s way. He heard her call for him to please stop, but he was too far gone. “What the fuck?” Aaron protested as Jamie gave him another shove. Aaron tried to shove back, but Jamie pushed back harder. Aaron went crashing through the door and into the parking lot. Once outside Jamie grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt front and pulled him in close, stunning him into stillness for a moment. “Listen up, because this is how things are going to be from now on,” he told him through clenched teeth, his vision gone red and his entire body primed for a fight. “You’re going to turn around and walk away and you’re not coming back tonight. If you walk through those doors and you see either of us inside in the future, you are to turn around and leave, immediately.” He heard the door burst open behind him and Leo warn someone, likely Leni, not to get close. “If you ever so much as think a disrespectful thought about the woman I love, I promise you I’m going to know. And I will hunt you down and make you pay, you got it?” He held tight while Aaron struggled to get out of his grip. “I get it, you crazy cocksucker.” He pushed against Jamie’s chest and he let go. “You know what?” he said, looking from Jamie to the small crowd now gathered behind them. “Fuck you all. You assholes can have each other.”
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Leni wheeled on him the second they were inside her apartment. “Is that how it’s going to be every time we run into him, Jamie?” She was red-faced and angrier than she’d been when she insisted she wanted to leave the bar. “I knew this was a bad idea,” she said, hanging her head. “What’s a bad idea?” he asked, his voice mild even though he was still hot from the confrontation with Aaron. “Going out in public, or are you still hung up on what people think of us?” She pulled up straight and gave him a murderous look that set his blood boiling. He wanted to crush her body to his, kiss her hard and fuck her fast until they were both screaming with lust. “He isn’t going to stay away from that place,” she nearly yelled, pointing in the general direction of the bar dramatically. “Especially not since you just bullied him out of there. He’s going to be back.” “Not if he wants to keep that pretty face of his,” he said matter-of-factly. “No.” She put her hands up. “It’s not going to happen, so just forget about it.” “And who’s going to stop me?” he asked with a sneer he knew full well she didn’t deserve. “You?” Her eyes went wide and a split second flicker of fear passed through them. Her nostrils flared and it was gone, just like that. “Yes, me.” That did it. He pulled his shirt off over his head and went for his belt. Her expression went incredulous. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He was staking his claim once and for all, that’s what the fuck he was doing. “I will do whatever I feel is necessary, for as long as it takes, to make sure that fucker never disrespects you again. Ever.” He took one wide step toward her as his belt landed on the carpet with a heavy thud. He caught her by the back of the neck and pulled her against him. “Got it?”
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She simply looked up at him for a long moment, those beautiful blue eyes of hers wide and raging with emotion. Then she flung her glasses onto the nearby chair, grabbed him by the hair and came up on her toes. He snapped. She groaned long and low as he took her mouth, swept an arm under her hips and lifted her off her feet. She clung to him, arms and legs wrapped impossibly tight around him as he pinned her beneath him on the couch. His stomach pressed against her cunt, burning hot and soaking wet, and his head came up. She wasn’t wearing underpants. She reached between them and breathed, “Now, Jamie,” as she grappled with the zipper on his jeans. She pushed them down just far enough to free his cock and took him in hand, pulling on him roughly and bringing him instantly close to the edge. Her back arched and she groaned desperately as he plunged deep. She hooked one leg over the back of the couch and wrapped the other loosely around his waist, her hips coming up fast, matching him blow for blow. She groaned again, a lust-filled sound that buzzed along his spine straight to his cock, slipped her little hands under the back of his jeans and dug her fingers into his ass hard enough to make his teeth grind. “Oh fuck,” she panted as her hips jerked out of control. “Now, Jamie. Come now.” Jamie dug a booted foot into the arm of her couch and pushed as deep inside her as he could go, his own orgasm roaring out of him when she pressed her face to his neck, mouth open and breath hot against his skin, and moaned deeply. He rocked his hips against her, drawing it out as wave after wave of unspeakable pleasure poured out of him and into her body, clutching him tight. “Mine,” he whispered as he shuddered through the last. “You are all mine.” “Yes.” He caught the distinct hitch in her breath when she said the word. She turned her face away when he looked at her. Her nose was red and she was clearly trying not to cry. He repositioned himself onto his elbows and said her name. When she didn’t answer after a second, he took her face in his hands “What is it? Tell me.”
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“It’s silly,” she answered, trying to look away again. He didn’t budge when she tried to wriggle out from under him. He wasn’t ready to be disconnected from her just yet. “I bet it’s not.” She took a deep breath, appearing to summon a little courage, and said, “You told Aaron you love me before you said it to me.” Damn. He kissed her softly, thoroughly abashed. “I’m sorry.” She blinked and turned her face away again. “Leni.” He leaned into her line of sight. “I love you.” Her eyes met his. He watched the sadness shift out of them just a little. “I’m sorry you heard it first that way.” He could feel her relax a little beneath him, so he shifted, reluctantly disengaging from her body and giving her the space to get up and move away from him if she wanted. God, he prayed she didn’t want that. Her leg slipped from around his waist but her hands slid into his hair. “I love you,” he repeated, wishing he’d said it so much sooner. “I’ve been a goner since the first kiss. And can you blame me? It was some kiss.” Her lips pursed, hiding a smile. He kissed her and she softened further. “Tell me you feel the same.” She sighed and nodded. It unsettled him a little that she didn’t say it back, but he’d take the nod for the moment. “Let me take you to your room. We’ll get rid of the rest of our clothes, and I’ll make it up to you for fucking up royally today.” She sighed and said, “Oh, all right.”
*****
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She’d been sitting out on the couch, covered in a throw and ignoring the cup of tea going cold in her hands for an hour when he came out of the bedroom. She wondered if she would ever not be caught off guard by the sight of him. Even with his hair a chaotic mess, his eyes bleary with sleep and pillow marks on his face, he took her breath away. “You’re up early.” He lifted her feet and laid her legs across his lap as he sat near her. He narrowed his eyes and touched a hand to her cheek. “You okay?” “I think things have gone too far with us,” she said quietly. He frowned. “I didn’t realize we had a limit.” Leni took in a deep, shaky breath and steeled herself. It was like ripping off a BandAid—just grit your teeth and pull. Right? “We can’t be together, Jamie. I can’t give you what you want.” “I pretty much only require an occasional feeding, good conversation and a whole lot of smokin’ hot sex, and you’ve given me more than my share of all three so far.” She shook her head and pulled her knees up, tucking her toes against his leg. “Babies,” she said. “I can’t give you babies. Not one, let alone a whole litter.” His eyebrows went up slightly. “I was much smaller than my sister when I was born, with a whole host of problems. I was susceptible to all kinds of respiratory infections when I was little, and I only have one kidney and one ovary.” He angled himself toward her, but didn’t say anything. “When I was twenty-one I was hospitalized for an ectopic pregnancy that did irreparable damage.” She wrapped her arms around her legs. The pain of that day, of finding out she was never going to be able to have children of her own, had left her crushed and heartbroken for such a long time. She thought she’d put it far behind her, but it was still right there, just under the surface. She took a deep breath. “I can’t get pregnant. Not ever.” “And you think this is going to be a deal breaker for me?” he asked quietly. 57
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Her eyes swam with tears and she nodded. “I can’t keep going knowing this is going to end someday. I was trying to be careful with myself, with my feelings, but suddenly I’m up to my eyes in love with you—” “Just your eyes?” he interrupted. She tried to smile but her heart wasn’t in it. “I can’t see another way out except to just make a clean break, Jamie.” He shrugged. “So stop looking.” Her heart skipped. “If you don’t want to see me anymore, Leni, say the word and I’ll walk away, but there’s no such thing as a clean break for me at this point.” She just looked at him. Her head was spinning too fast to think straight. “You know just as well as I do that there are dozens of solutions out there, including adoption.” He peeled one of her arms free and held her hand. “I’d bet money that cool-as-shit sister of yours would gladly donate her eggs so you could carry a baby if you really wanted to try.” She laughed and swiped at the tears that rolled down her cheeks. “Do you always have an answer for everything?” “So far the questions have been easy.” He shifted her onto his lap. “Do you want me to walk away? Is that what this is about?” Her vision wavered again. “I don’t.” “Thank God,” he breathed, touching his forehead to hers. “Because I really don’t think I could at this point.” Leni wrapped her arms around him. She could feel his heart beating strong, and hear hers answering the call. She loved the strength and security she felt in his arms, and she loved the reaction her body had to his every time he touched her. “Listen to me.” He smoothed his hands over her hair and held her face. “I love you, and I’m in this no matter what.” 58
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She was pretty sure her heart was going to burst out of her chest. “I love you back,” she whispered, overwhelmed by the truth in the words. “So what do ya say,” he kissed her closed eye, “we spend some time just being Leni and Jamie,” his lips touched her cheek, then the corner of her mouth, “before we worry about the serious stuff?” he finished, his mouth on hers. “Deal,” she answered, sinking into his kiss. After a minute he broke it with a sucking pop and suggested, “We should go be naked Leni and Jamie some more.” But she was already scrambling off his lap. “Fantastic idea,” she said, pulling off her nightshirt as she jogged down the hall. “Hey.” She turned just inside the doorway. “You think one of these times you could be Leni and I’ll be Jamie?” He caught her up in his arms and growled low against her neck as they moved toward the bed together. “Anything you want, sweetheart.”
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About the Author Jayne Kingston was born, raised, and has always lived in the Northwest Ohio area. Her job gives her lots of free time to let her imagination run wild – it’s boring, but she rather likes that freedom of thought – and unlimited access to paper so she can jot down ideas as they pop into her head. (Seriously, the office supply nerd in her loves that part.) She’s an avid fan of erotic romance and erotica of all genres who’d been writing rather vanilla contemporary love stories for years. She hadn’t thought to combine the two elements in her own writing until asking herself the question ‘what would happen if she showed up and put her hand down his pants?’ helped un-stick the rather boring plotline of a short story she wanted to write. She was off and running after that.
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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Ink Lust ISBN 9781419940798 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Ink Lust Copyright © 2012 Jayne Kingston Edited by April Chapman Cover design by Syneca Photo: Jeff Thrower Electronic book publication July 2012 The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. 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. The publisher and author(s) acknowledge the trademark status and trademark ownership of all trademarks, service marks and word marks mentioned in this book. The publisher does not have any control over, and does not assume any responsibility for, author or third-party websites or their content.
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