Author: Olivia Cunning

She glanced at him, surprised he was the one to break the comfortable silence between them. “Which part?”

“All of it.”

“A long time. I started hitting men in my teens and decided to apprentice under another dominatrix about eight years ago to become pro. I worked in a sex club with a few other dommes for several years and then went out on my own. But first I needed to buy a house, so I started dancing to earn extra money. I never meant for it to become a permanent career, but I do enjoy it.” She chuckled. “Well, most of the time. And it does make it easier to find clients.”

Jace scowled.

“I never would have met you if I wasn’t dancing.”

“I guess.”

She pressed on. “My grandmother taught me to sew and do embroidery when I was seven. I’m sure she never thought I’d use that skill to make leather corsets. She had a stroke when I was nine and died. Then my mother took over raising me.” If what her mother did counted as raising a child.

“You make corsets?” he asked.

She nodded, noting how he always avoided conversations about family. “It’s mostly a hobby. I started out making them for myself, but people see me wearing them and ask where I buy them. When they find out I make them, they want me to make one for them. I like doing it. It’s fun.”

“You mean you make those corsets you wear by hand? The ones with the designs on them.”

She nodded.

“Wow, babe, you’re really talented. Artistic.”

She felt herself flush. Or maybe it was the desert heat. “It’s just a hobby.”

“Don’t hobbies make the best careers?”

“Yeah. My first hobby was making men cry.” She leaned over and kissed his temple. “So what’s your family like?”

He erected a reinforced emotional barrier between them so fast, she feared she’d suffer whiplash. “Wanna go to a hotel?” he asked.

She wanted to know more about him. She already knew he was good in bed. “I thought we were going to talk.”

“How about some pillow talk?”

He stole a kiss, and she decided they could talk some other time. A month without Jace’s intoxicating touch was a month too long.

Chapter 15

It was almost ten when Aggie’s cell phone rang. She smiled when she saw Jace’s name on the caller ID. Her plane had landed safely in San Francisco a few minutes ago and was sitting on the tarmac waiting for an open gate. She couldn’t wait to see Jace in concert the next night and tonight she had big plans for him in their hotel room.

“Hello.”

“Aggie, I know I’m supposed to be picking you up at the airport right now.”

“Supposed to be?”

“Could you do me a huge favor?”

“How huge?”

“Bail me and Eric out of jail.”

Jail? She dropped the phone in her lap. Picked it back up. “Why are you in jail?”

“Because Eric is an idiot.”

“How in the hell was I supposed to know that was illegal?” some guy said in the background. “How soon can she get here? That guy is looking at me again.”

“Are you in Los Angeles?” Aggie asked. “That’s a long way from here. I haven’t even gotten off the plane in San Francisco yet.”

“No, we’re downtown. In San Francisco.”

“I can’t believe you got arrested when you’re supposed to be picking me up from the airport,” she grumbled. “It would serve you right if I let you rot in there.”

“I know. I don’t have a problem with a night in jail. Eric seems to think he’s going to be raped.”

“You saw the way that drunk guy keeps looking at me,” the same guy, apparently Eric, said in the background.

“He’s trying to figure out why your hair is green.”

“Not all of it is green. Just one little section. Besides, my hair is not on my ass.”

“You sure about that?”

Aggie shook her head, wondering why Jace had called her if he was going to argue with Eric the entire time. “Don’t you have someone closer who will come get you? I don’t even know where to pick you up. This is my first time in San Francisco.”

“There’s no one else. When Eric called Brian and Trey, they just laughed their asses off.”

“And Sed is having the orgy of his life on a sailboat with Jessica,” Eric added.

“Neither of us has any family or friends around here, and the roadies have been threatened with job loss if they bail any of us out of jail. Ever.”

“So is she coming?” Eric asked.

“I dunno. Shut up.”

“We should have called Jerry,” Eric said.

“Jerry will string us up by our balls. You know that.”

“Jace,” Aggie interrupted.

“Sorry. Eric is freaking out. He’s driving me crazy. He’s driving the cops crazy. And he’s driving six or seven pissed-off drunk guys crazy. He does this pacing-yelling thing when he’s upset. If it was just me, I’d say forget it, but—”

“I’ll see what I can do. Why are you in jail anyway?”

“So we could win a bet.”

Well, that explained everything. Not!

“Defacing public property and disturbing the peace!” Eric called. “Nothing worth getting raped over, I tell you that.” Apparently, he was listening in on their conversation.

“Eric, will you shut up?”

“No, but I will kick your ass, little man. That’s what I will do.”

Jace sighed heavily. “If you can’t come, Aggie, I understand. But if I beat him to death with his own shoe, it’s going to be on your conscience.”

She sighed with resignation. “Where do I go to get you bailed out?”

He handed the phone to a police officer who explained the process. She jotted down some notes. She could probably catch a taxi to the courthouse without a problem, but so much for the delicious night she’d planned with Jace between her thighs.

Jace got back on the phone. “Thanks, baby. I owe you one.”

“You’ll be making this up to me for years, baby.”

By the time she had Jace and Eric in her custody, it was well after two a.m. “Let’s get to the hotel and get some sleep.” Aggie knew she had a serious crankitude, but she couldn’t help it. What kind of idiots thought it was okay to ride a motorcycle down the pedestrian sidewalk on the Golden Gate Bridge and drape the national monument with enormous banners? Her boyfriend and his drummer friend apparently. It was pretty sweet of them to help Jessica propose marriage to Sed, but not smart.

“Sounds like a plan. I’m beat,” Eric said. He was tall and slender—good-looking in a rugged, crazy haircut kind of way. She vaguely remembered him being the guy who’d been escorted from the club by the bouncers the night she’d met Jace. Under normal circumstances, Aggie might have appreciated Eric’s graceful masculinity, but at the moment, she really wanted to kick him in the teeth.

“Uh, get your own room,” Aggie grumbled.

“The hotel is booked, and he doesn’t have any place to stay tonight,” Jace said.

“There’s a perfectly good park bench right there.” Aggie indicated a bench already hosting a sleeping, reeking man, who was snoring softly under a newspaper.

“Aggie,” Jace murmured close to her ear. “Why can’t he sleep in our room? It’s not like you’re going to let me touch you in the mood you’re in.”

“And why am I in this mood, Jace?” She hadn’t even let him kiss her yet.

Eric grinned. “Because he was supposed to pick you up from the airport and take you out for a nice dinner before you two trashed a hotel room in a lust-crazed frenzy of sex. I’m guessing none of that’s happening tonight.”

No argument. Aggie collapsed into the backseat of their cab and slid to the far side. “Fine. Eric can sleep on the floor. It will make it easier to stomp on him repeatedly in the morning.”

“Dude, your chick is hardcore,” Eric said to Jace.

Jace slid into the cab beside Aggie with a wicked grin affixed to his gorgeous face. “I like that about her.”

Eric folded his long form into the backseat. “She’s also a total babe. You’ve been holding out on me. So how did you like his new tattoo, Agster?” Eric sniggered. “Is it wicked awesome, or what?”

“I was just glad it was you who picked it out and not him,” Aggie said. “I wouldn’t want to think a guy I’m fucking has the taste of a total pussy.”

Eric licked the side of Jace’s forehead. “He does sorta taste like pussy.” Eric smacked his lips as he contemplated his palate. “A touch saltier than lady sauce, but not bad.”

Aggie tried to maintain The Cranky, but it was impossible. She burst out laughing. Jace wiped Eric’s spit from the side of his face, obviously annoyed. “You are paying to get my bike out of impound, jackass.”

“Uh, no, I’m not.”

“The whole Golden Gate Bridge thing was your idea.”

“You could have said no.”

Aggie took Jace’s hand in the darkness and gave it a squeeze. She knew that he couldn’t easily say no to Eric—what with the hero worship thing he had going on. Now that Aggie had met Eric, she understood Jace’s devotion to the guy even less. She had been expecting the mentorly type, not this crazy dude with the wacky sense of humor.

“You should pay half,” Jace said.

“I’ll pay half. Only fair.” Eric poked Jace in the side, a huge grin on his face. “At least we won the bet. What kind of tattoos should we make Brian and Trey get on their asses?”

“Smiley-faced daisies?”

“No way. That’s vintage Jace Seymour. I was thinking more along the lines of kittens and unicorns.”

“And rainbows?”

Eric’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, definitely rainbows. Good call, man. Good call.”

***

There were too many hands on Aggie’s body. She recognized the one tangled in her hair and the one resting on her back as belonging to Jace, but the one on her ass? Nope. Not familiar. Or perhaps a bit too familiar. She lifted her head from Jace’s shoulder and turned it to find Eric Sticks grinning at her.

“Good morning,” he said, blue eyes sparking with mischief.

“Is there a reason why your hand is on my ass?”

He removed it and winked. “It felt right at the time.”

“You’re supposed to be sleeping on the floor.”

“It’s hard on my back, and I have a concert to perform tonight. I knew you’d understand.”

“The only thing I understand is you getting out of this bed.”

“Shh,” Jace murmured, his arms tightening around Aggie. She’d used him as a pillow all night because Eric had insisted that he needed three pillows if he had to sleep on the floor. That left one pillow for Aggie and Jace to share. “Early…”

“We can get it on while Jace sleeps,” Eric whispered. “He doesn’t join the living until noon.”

“I did bring Jace’s favorite flail,” Aggie said. “It’s in my luggage. I’m sure you could use a good, hard beating.”

Eric’s eyes widened. “You’re joking.”

Aggie lifted her eyebrows. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

“Don’t worry. She won’t break the skin,” Jace mumbled.

“I think I’ll pass.” Eric scooted over a few inches and flopped onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. “I’m bored.”

Aggie snuggled closer to Jace. She was starting to think he could sleep through an earthquake.