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to clear his dry throat.
“A girl.”
    “Ah.” She smiled perceptively. “There’s always a girl.”
    “I wasn’t in love with her by any means, but I liked her a
lot. Enough that I was willing to quit my groupie-loving ways and ask her to
live with me.”
    He paused, but Joy didn’t seem to be bothered by what he’d
said.
    “I was a twenty-eight-year-old alcoholic with a business
degree I wasn’t using. I was working as a body piercer and making good money,
but had nothing to show for it. The tiny apartment I was living in was a filthy
flophouse and the car I drove at the time sat dead in the parking lot more than
it ran.
    “The girl, she laughed when I asked her to move in with me.
She didn’t think I was serious. It was a huge joke that I’d even asked. And
when I went to my mom Linda, who is the voice of reason itself, she asked me if
I blamed her for laughing. Then she had the nerve to ask me if I took myself
seriously.”
    “That’s what prompted you to quit?”
    “Eventually.” He smiled at the memory, something he’d just
recently learned how to do. “I didn’t talk to Mom for a whole week and a half,
then I called and asked her to take me to rehab. She was thrilled to do it.”
    “And look at you now, with a great house and a nice car.”
    She showed him that killer smile of hers when he laughed.
    “It’s amazing how much money a person can save when they’re
not spending it showing all their friends a good time,” he conceded. “The shop
I was working out of at the time wasn’t the best environment for staying sober.
Jamie wasn’t happy where he was working either so we decided to put my business
degree to good use, called Oz to see if he wanted in on it and opened a place
of our own.”
    “A shop that’s thriving.”
    “It helps that Oz and Jamie are both big names in the tattoo
universe.”
    Her smiled faltered just a little. “And the groupies?”
    “I haven’t touched one in as long as I haven’t had a drink.
Gave them both up for good.” He picked up her hand and pressed her palm to his
mouth, eyes on hers. “Before last night I hadn’t touched a woman, period, in a
long, long time.”
    She tipped her head to one side just a little. “Why me?”
    “Why you?” he asked, incredulous. “How long do you have for
me to answer that question?”
    She flushed beautifully.
    He pushed his chair away from the table and tugged on her
hand.
    “Let me show you why one more time before I have to go
home,” he said, slipping his fingers under the hem of her loose shirt as she
straddled his lap. “Wha’d’ya say?”
    She gave him a playfully skeptical look even as she raised
her arms and let him pull her shirt off over her head. “You sure you have
another one in you?”
    Leo shifted toward the edge of the chair and settled her
over his hardening cock.
    “I guess you do.” She laced her fingers through his hair and
wiggled her hips, teasing him through their clothes. “Are you sure you have to
go back today?”
    He teased one of her nipples into a tight peak. “I might be
persuaded to stay.”

Chapter Seven
     
    “So, I heard you went all alpha stud rescue hero on some
photographer yesterday.”
    Leo had shown up at Lust for Life late Sunday evening,
thinking he and Norma Jean were going to have the place to themselves. The shop
closed at six on Sunday and wasn’t open on Monday. He thought he’d be able to
catch up on the paperwork he’d blown off by driving Joy home and then spending
the rest of the weekend with her, but he’d found Eva in his office instead.
    “Superman,” he corrected, dropping his messenger bag onto an
empty chair. “You mean I went all Superman on some photographer
yesterday.”
    She sat up from the ear rub she was giving Norma Jean and
gave him an impish look that was distinctly Eva. “I would like to see you in
the tights some time.”
    “Well, if you weren’t my best friend’s baby sister I’d be
happy to show you.”
    Eva was youngest