Iron & Bone (Lock & Key #3)

I was blowing apart into little bits and never coming back the same.

My one hand went between us and stroked my clit and the other squeezed a breast. I was greedy.

He sucked in a hiss of air. “My fucking dirty girl.”

“That’s not so dirty.”

“Baby, on you, it fucking is. Trust me.”

My head fell back. “I want to be dirty for you.”

Boner’s jaw tightened as his beautiful lean body worked its glorious magic over me. His long dark hair hid part of his face from view, but I could see his brilliant eyes. They smoldered a hole through my heart, a hole that I knew only he could fill.

Only him.

His shoulders bunched with every intense movement. My insides surged as the drumming pulse of our shared pleasure overwhelmed me, echoing through every vein and every hollow in my soul.





“YOU NEED HIGHLIGHTS, LAYERS, THE WORKS. You’ve got such great color, Jill, but you haven’t touched it in a while, and it needs something. How about a dark red color along the bottom half?”

“No, I’m not into that ombré look. Anyway, Nina, when you’re pregnant, you can’t go dying your hair with the usual crap, you know.”

Nina had insisted on taking me to the beauty salon in Meager, and I’d let her because I really wanted some kind of makeover. I was gaining the inevitable baby weight, and now that Boner and I were together, I wanted to be the best I could be—and maybe surprise him in good ways, too.

He had this wicked smile that blew holes through my heart. Actually, Boner had two sorts of smiles—sweet wicked and bad wicked. Either one would do a dangerous number on my insides, like it had earlier at his house when I’d ripped his towel off him.

I’d gone over to see him to apologize for having made him uncomfortable by talking about his past. I had also planned on finally telling him about Catch’s threat, but amazing sex had gotten in the way of that conversation. It was stupid to keep it from him, plus it was eating me up inside. Catch would always be a part of my life, and I had to trust Boner to handle him wisely or there was no moving forward in this new relationship of ours.

“This is the salon where Alicia comes, right?” Nina asked.

“She only comes here. Grace, too. I got a mani-pedi here with Grace and Tania not too long ago. Very nice. It was called Danielle’s Beauty Shop, before. They just changed the name.”

“When Boner gets back from his little trip out of town, he’s gonna be thrilled,” Nina said as we walked through the door of the new Danielle’s Day Spa.

Sy, the prospect, leaned against his bike, drinking a soda, right outside the door.

“Why did Sy have to come with us today? What’s going on at the club? Boner didn’t say.”

“This gun got stolen from the club meeting room. It belonged to someone called Dig, Butler said. They’d kept it in a locked display case and everything.”

My stomach hardened. “It got stolen?”

That was Dig’s gun, the one he’d used when he rescued me.

“Yep, it’s gone.” Nina shrugged. “They were really upset about it.”

You have no idea.

“The men might have a lead,” she continued. “That’s probably why they took off today.”

“Welcome, ladies,” said the receptionist at the front desk, interrupting the flow of ice through my system.

“We have an appointment for highlights and a cut and style for my friend. Also, a bikini wax for both of us,” said Nina.

“Okay.” She scanned her appointment book. “Right on time. Follow me.” The woman gestured toward the interior of the salon. “Waxing first. Sorry about the temporary rooms. Our renovation is taking longer than we expected.”

“No problem,” I said.

Nina leaned into me. “Remember, take it all off. All of it. Make him speechless. Works every time. Speechless is real good.”

Nina left me in the curtained off room.

The waxing technician washed her hands and then turned and smiled at me. “Hi, I’m Trina. Why don’t you get undressed and lie down and let me see what we have. Are we taking it all off today?”

“I’m not sure. My boyfriend likes my landing strip. A lot.”

“My boyfriend” sounded so lame coming out of my mouth. He was something more.

I got undressed, got on the therapy table, and she inspected me. My toes curled.

“Why don’t we give him a really pretty strip?” asked Trina.

“I’d like that.”

Trina carefully performed her torturous craft, and I held my breath and grimaced as she did so.

“What do you think?” she said as she patted baby powder over me.

A delicate and very thin strip of short blondish-red curls remained between my legs. The rest of me was perfectly clean and bare. “I love it. I really do.”

“Good.” Trina smiled as she cleaned up her tools.

Another waxing session was going on in the adjoining temporary room, separated from mine only by curtains.

“I’ll let you get dressed, so you can come back out and head to your haircut.”

“Great. Thanks, Trina.”

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