Steel Lust Read Free Page A

looking between
them.
    “I’m going to warm my coffee.” Jamie stood, shaking his head
at them.
    “My twin sister and I have matching tattoos,” Leni offered
without further prompting. “Jamie did both of them, but mine is a little different.
I’d show you, but it would require practically taking my shirt off, and I’ve
been asked to stop flashing people in public places.” She said the last bit
with a warm look in Jamie’s direction.
    “We can have a look when you come to Chicago for your engagement
portraits.”
    And she could not wait for that to happen. As a couple Jamie
and Leni were going to be amazing in front of a camera together—the tall, dark,
tattooed tough guy and his fair-haired, sweet-faced librarian.
    Joy swiveled on her chair toward Leonardo and crossed her
legs so the toe of her boot hooked around the leg of his chair.
    “And you?”
    His eyes shifted a second before he turned his head and gave
her his full attention.
    The barest of smiles touched his lips. “What about me?”
    “Your significant tattoo,” she prodded.
    The smile stretched a fraction of an inch. “I have one.”
    They were playing a game, were they? Okay. She liked games.
    “Just the one, or one that’s significant?”
    “Just the one. It’s significant.”
    She laced her fingers together, resting her hands in her lap
as she looked him over.
    “And it’s top secret?”
    “Password protected,” he said with a single nod.
    “What happens if I guess the password?”
    He gave her a one-shoulder shrug and grinned playfully. She
wondered if he’d accept her ripping off his clothes in lieu of guessing,
because she was absolutely willing.
    Right then. Right there.
    And then his phone rang. He excused himself and crossed to
the coffee shop’s double set of entrance doors in long, easy strides.
    “I think I’d want to hang out at the shop all the time if I
lived here.” Joy turned her attention back to Leni. “How do you handle it? I
feel like I’m going into sensory overload sitting here with the two of them.
They’re both so gorgeous.”
    Leni gave Joy a knowing look. “Yes, I hang out there as
often as possible. Between these two and Oz, there’s no shortage of eye candy
in that shop.”
    When Joy tipped her head to one side, not understanding,
Leni grinned.
    “You haven’t met him yet. His real name is Oscar, but
everyone calls him Oz.” She sipped her coffee. “He can be a little surly, but
he has that black-eyed gypsy look about him. Even with the full beard he wears,
he’s beautiful.”
    He sounded intriguing, but her thoughts were stuck on the
tall blond in the foyer, leaning against a rack of shelves holding messy stacks
of local freebie newspapers and flyers, listening to whoever was on the other
end of the phone without speaking.
    “I have to confess something.” The words were out of her
mouth before she could stop herself. “I probably shouldn’t because I like you,
and frankly it could jeopardize you giving me this job, but I have to tell you
I tried to take your fiancé home with me after he tattooed me in Chicago.”
    Leni nodded, unfazed. “I know.”
    That surprised her. “He told you?”
    “I got a feeling when he was telling me about you, so I
asked.” She hunched one shoulder. The gesture was casual. “It happens all the
time. Women love him.”
    Joy blinked at her a moment, caught off guard once more. “It
doesn’t bother you?”
    “It did at first. Then I was supposed to meet him for dinner
one night months ago, but I was running late for whatever reason. As I was
walking up to the restaurant I could see him through the front windows, waiting
for me at the bar. There was a really beautiful woman sitting next to him, and
she was obviously flirting, so I watched them.
    “I’m not proud of myself, but I’d just come out of a bad
situation with someone else, so I did it.” She wrapped her hands around her
coffee cup. “He was being friendly with her, but I could just… tell