Hot Ticket
Page 35

After changing into jeans and a T-shirt, Aggie grabbed her leather jacket along with Jace’s and then met him at the curb. He sat on his bike, gazing up at the sky. She touched his arm gently, and he started.
“Do you always think that hard?” she asked, handing him his jacket. He slipped into the worn leather garment.
“Mostly.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere.”
So he was back to answering her questions with as few words as possible.
“Do you want to go someplace quiet where we can be alone? Or crowded where we can have a lot of fun?”
“I don’t like crowds.”
“Then let’s just ride.”
“You’d like that?”
“Yeah.”
He smiled, and her heart melted. “Me too.”
He took her hand and helped her climb onto the bike behind him.
“Aggie?”
“Yeah?”
“I really like you too.”
She slid her arms around his waist and put her chin on his shoulder to try to see his expression under the light of the corner street lamp. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Jace, but what brought it on all of a sudden?”
“You told your mom you really liked me, and I didn’t say it back.”
She kissed the edge of his ear. “You were probably too uncomfortable to form words.”
“Kinda.”
“I know my mom is overbearing, and I’d like to say she means well, but I don’t think she does. Sometimes I think she’s trying to make me into her. And I don’t want to be like her. I’m not her.”
“I had a father like that.”
“Had?”
He started the bike, and they headed out of town. He never answered her query.
They picked up some takeout Chinese food and headed to the desert. Sitting on a huge rock in the middle of nowhere, they ate quietly, enjoying the sunset on the horizon.
“How long have you done what you do?” Jace asked.
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.”