Body Shots (Masters of Pleasure 2)

BODY RUSH

A Kensington trade paperback and e-book on sale now!

PROLOGUE

The loud music hit her the instant she stepped through the doors. Lydia loved it. Going to Charlie’s, her favorite hangout, after work on Friday night always helped her forget about the lawyers she worked for. There were three of them and they were all exasperating. Working at a law firm sucked in ways that most people couldn’t grasp. Her only escape from the stress came when she met up with her two best friends, Roni and Jeanette. They’d known each other since grade school. While everyone else had moved on and forgotten about their school pals, the three of them had stayed in touch. Sometimes she thought they were closer now than ever. Maturity maybe. Who knew the reason, all Lydia knew for sure was that she’d be lost without them.

As she moved through the crowded room, Lydia felt someone’s hand on her ass. She turned and glared at the man sitting with a group of men, all grinning like idiots. The hateful look she tossed his way must have worked because he pulled his hand back and started to scope out his next victim. Lydia spotted her friends sitting at a high round table at the back of the bar. Roni waved her over. Lydia smiled and headed toward her.

As she reached them she noticed her favorite drink, a fuzzy navel, ready and waiting. Roni moved to another chair, giving her the one on the end. “Why is it men think it’s cute to grab a woman’s ass? Do they really think it’s going to get them laid?” Lydia shouted in an attempt to be heard over the noise. She slid onto the chair and grabbed her drink, wondering if she’d look like an alcoholic if she downed half the glass in one gulp.

“I’ll never understand why men do half the things they do,” Roni tossed back with an angry edge to her voice. “Trying to figure them out is a waste of time.”

Jeanette leaned close and said, “There is one particular guy I wouldn’t mind grabbing my ass. The only problem is I don’t think he even knows I exist.”

Lydia and Roni both moved closer, their attention rapt. Lydia spoke up first. “Are you still hot for that motorcycle dude coming into your café?”

Jeanette’s gaze filled with unbridled lust. “If you saw him, you’d be drooling too. I’m telling you, he’s the yummiest thing I’ve seen yet.”

“You’ve lusted after this guy for what, a year?” Roni asked.

Jeanette laughed. “It feels that way sometimes, but it’s only been about six months.”

Lydia took a sip of her drink. Already she could feel herself relaxing, as if the last several days were a distant blur. She looked across the table at Roni and shook her head. She still couldn’t picture her sharp-tongued friend as a psychologist. On a good day she was hard to get along with. On the other hand, Jeanette’s job seemed to fit her to a T. Owning a quant little coffee shop seemed the perfect choice for her introverted friend.

“If you don’t ask him out, someone else will,” Lydia taunted, hoping to push her friend into making a move.

Jeanette bit her lip. “I’m so damn shy around him. He comes in with this black leather jacket and tight, faded jeans and I just want to jump him. All that dark hair and those dark eyes.” She sighed. “Every time I see him I think, this is it. I’m going to ask him out. Or at least find out if he has a damned girlfriend. But I just get all tongue-tied. Like I’m in high school again.” She clenched her fist around the longneck bottle of light beer she’d ordered. “It’s frustrating as hell.”

Roni piped up with her usual bit of sensitive logic. “He rides a motorcycle, he’s gorgeous as hell and he comes to your shop every morning. Get a clue, girl; he wants to fuck you!”

Jeanette rolled her eyes. “What makes you think he wants me at all? He comes for the coffee, not the owner.”

“Bullshit. He comes because you’re hot and he wants to lay you across the counter. He could get coffee anywhere. Hell, he probably doesn’t even live near your shop.”

Lydia could see her friend’s spirits perking up. “You really think so?” Jeanette asked.

Roni laughed and swallowed the last of her sex on the beach before waving the waitress over and ordering another. After the waitress had hurried off to fill their order, Roni said, “He’s just watching you squirm a little. Enjoying the way you blush and stammer. It’s a game. He’s wondering how long you can hold out.”

Jeanette started to peel the label off the beer. “I’ve never asked a guy out before. Usually they ask me. I’m not shy exactly, but I am a little old fashioned, I guess.”

Lydia spoke up this time. “I think Roni’s right. It’s a new world these days. Men like it when a woman is sure of herself. You shou

ld definitely ask him out.”

Jeanette’s eyes grew round. “This coming from the shyest one of all?”

Lydia shrugged. “I’ve been doing some thinking. It’s time we livened up our lives a little, don’t you think?”

Roni narrowed her gaze, as if suspicious all of a sudden. “In what way?”

“I don’t know,” Lydia admitted as she looked down at her half-empty drink. “It’s just that we come here every Friday and nothing is ever any different. We work all week, date boring men and then come here to bitch about it. I’m getting sick of it. I’m ready for a change.”

“You might date boring men, but that doesn’t mean we all do.”

Lydia knew that tone. Roni always got her back up when someone pointed out that she wasn’t perfect. “Oh, really? What about that guy you went out with last weekend? You said he took you to the opera and you wanted to sleep through the whole thing it was so boring.”

Roni slumped. “Men always think they’re going to impress me by bringing me to some expensive restaurant or some fancy theater. Or they go the opposite route and attempt to please me by playing on my kinkier side. Just once I’d like to go out with a real man. Someone who isn’t trying to impress.”