Chapter Fifteen

Clearly, neither Mia nor the scumbag who was holding her had heard the door open or Tatiana’s gasp of shock at finding them wrapped around each other like that. The horrible picture of the guy pawing and drooling all over his little sister was seared into Ian’s brain. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to forget it.

“Ian? Tatiana?” Mia’s skin was flushed, and her eyes remained slightly unfocused. Until, suddenly, she seemed to realize just how bad things looked.

He was halfway to lunging across the storeroom to wrap his hands around Ford’s throat, when Mia pulled out of the guy’s arms and grabbed Ian. With surprising strength, she dragged Ian away from both the storeroom and the guy whose face he wanted to rearrange with his fists.

“I can’t believe you just did that!”

She looked furious and embarrassed, but Ian was so lost in his haze of fury that he couldn’t stop himself from shooting back, “I can’t believe you were in there with that scumbag!” He worked to pull away from her grip. “You and I are going to have a long talk about just what the hell you were doing later. After I tear him to pieces.”

“No!” She yanked harder on his suit jacket, until they both heard a seam begin to tear. “I can handle him myself.”

“That was handling him?” He cursed, one harsh word that landed between them like a stone. “Did you want him to kiss you?”

She paused just a little too long before sighing and saying, “You know what, I actually think I did.”

“Damn it, Mia, it’s my job to protect you. You’ve got to let me—”

“If you do one more thing to embarrass me like that again, I’ll never forgive you.”

His sister had always been full of fire, but he’d never seen her quite this worked up.

“You know I’d never do anything to hurt you,” he tried to explain in a calm, reasonable voice, “but I can’t let anyone else hurt you, either. And I’ve known guys like him. They’re too rich, too famous, to think they need to play by anyone else’s rules. You’ve got to understand that.”

Now that they were standing behind a large hedge of roses, she’d relaxed her grip on his jacket. “I do understand. And you’ve been the best big brother ever, but what happened between me and Ford isn’t something I want anyone to know about until I’ve figured out exactly how I feel about him. This reaction you’re having is exactly why I didn’t tell you about him five years ago.”

Ian’s blood pressure shot all the way back up as he asked, “You didn’t just meet him here today? What the hell, Mia? How could you keep a secret like this from me?”

“Because if you’re acting like this when I’m a twenty-eight-year-old woman who runs her own very successful business, how do you think you would have reacted five years ago if I’d come to you and said, ‘Guess what, big brother, I’m dating a rock star. Can I have your blessing?’ Would you have actually given it to me?”

He had to admit, “I would have hunted him down.”

“Exactly. And the thing is, you’ve always let me make my own mistakes in business, but never with love.” She put her hand on his arm more softly now. “I know you don’t ever want me to get hurt, but what if falling in love sometimes means risking enough to royally screw up a few times along the way?”

Intellectually, Ian knew his sister was an adult. But there was a big difference between respecting her business acumen...and accepting that she could lose her heart to some douchebag without his being able to protect her.

“So you’ve been together with him for five years without any of us knowing?”

“No. It was just one week. I didn’t see him again until a couple of days ago.”

“What does he want now that he’s back?” She’d never been able to lie to him, and he knew how difficult it must have been for her to keep her relationship with Ford a secret for so long. “Apart from the obvious,” he added in frustration.

“A fresh start.”

Ian wanted answers to a dozen other questions, but there was really only one that mattered. “Are you in love with him?”

His sister sighed again, and there was so much pain in the sound and in the expression on her face that Ian put his arms around her.

“Once upon a time I thought I was, and then I was sure that I wasn’t.” She laughed against his chest, but there was no humor in it, only frustration. She pulled back to look up at him. “Have you ever wanted to punch and kiss someone at the same time?”

He grimaced. “Please don’t remind me of that kiss again if you want me to keep my fists from changing the entire shape of his face.”

“Does that mean you’ve agreed to stay on your side of the ring today?”

This time he was the one sighing. “For today,” he agreed against his better judgment. “But no promises come twelve-oh-one.”

She laid her cheek against his chest and snuggled against him the way she always had from the time she was a baby. When their mother hadn’t been able to get her to stop crying as a little girl, all Claudia Sullivan had to do was hand Mia over to Ian and she’d immediately settle.

They’d always been so close that he hated to think she’d kept something from him because she thought he couldn’t handle it. Then again, he’d never really talked with her about his marriage, had he? Both of them had kept secrets from each other, and even now that she’d told him hers, he was still keeping his.

Forcing down his frustration at not being able to deal with Ford the way he wanted to, Ian gently brushed her hair back from her forehead. “Looks like they’re ready for pictures with you now.”

Mia stepped back and smoothed a hand over her dress. “Do I look okay?”

“You’re absolutely beautiful, as always, little girl.”

“And you’re devastatingly handsome, as always, big brother.” As the two of them headed toward the area where the wedding photos were being taken, she said, “I wonder what Tatiana is thinking after what she saw?”

Damn it, he’d left her behind with Ford. But when he turned to look back at the storeroom, he didn’t see either of them nearby.

“Why were you and Tatiana together, anyway?” Mia wanted to know.

“She was looking for you.”

He thought he’d been careful to speak about Tatiana with absolutely no inflection, but when Mia shot him a sidelong glance heavy with curiosity, he knew he’d blown it.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she? And so nice I keep forgetting to be awed by what a great actress she is. Hey,” she said when he didn’t immediately respond, “wouldn’t it be amazing if Valentina married Smith and then you and Tatiana—”

“She’s not my type.”

Mia actually laughed at that one. “Are you kidding? She’s everyone’s type. Heck, I’m not the least bit into women, and I can barely keep from drooling over her every time we’re together.” She patted his hand as if he shouldn’t blame himself for already being a lost cause. “I want to see you happy, too, you know.”

With that, she pressed a kiss to his cheek, and left him to go be in the pictures.

* * *

“Any chance you can fill me in on what just happened there?” Ford asked.

Tatiana had a feeling she looked just as shell-shocked as Ford. Not because she’d been particularly stunned to see him and Mia kissing, but because she had wanted to pull Ian Sullivan into some other private room on the property and kiss him just like that.

She’d never felt that kind of electric attraction to anyone before. His eyes were such a deep brown she’d gotten lost in them, even as she’d felt as though he was looking all the way down into her soul. Men had always come a distant second to acting. She rarely dated, and when she did, she often wished she was alone with a script or spending time with her sister. But for the first time in her life, she understood the kind of desire that could drive people to do crazy things...like wanting to head back out into the throngs of wedding guests to find Ian again so that she could give him a kiss that would, hopefully, blow both of their minds.

“Mia’s brother was looking for her.”

“No wonder he looked like he wanted to kill me. I’m surprised he hasn’t come back to tear my heart out through my throat.”

Tatiana felt she should be honest with him. “Actually, based on the way he was acting when he found out you two might be together, I’m kind of surprised, too.”

“I knew I was going to have deal with her brothers soon, anyway. But it’s a small price to pay if she’ll have me.”

Wow, he was going to willingly offer himself up to Ian, Adam, Dylan, and Rafe, who were all tall and full of muscles and had grown up wrestling with each other? Tatiana sighed at how sweet it was that Mia obviously meant that much to him.

“I’m Ford, by the way,” he said as he reached out to shake her hand. “I’ve seen your last couple of films. Great work.”

She smiled at him. “I like your work, too.”

There wasn’t even a speck of attraction between them. Only the immediate bond that she sometimes felt with other people who were also in the public eye. Life for people with their kinds of careers was great in lots of ways, of course, but could be difficult, too, when simple things like going out to get a cup of coffee could be a trial. Sometimes Tatiana felt like a hermit holed up in her house because it was easier to order in than put on makeup and an outfit and do her hair just to go out to pick up some milk.

“I don’t think he’s got anything against you personally,” she said, wanting Ford to understand. “It’s more that he wants to protect his sister against all men.”

“Smart guy.” He took off his hat and left it on a rough wood shelf. “Care to join me in what could very well be my last drink if Ian Sullivan gets a hold of me?”

Laughing, she took the arm he held out to her as they stepped into the very bright sunlight. “I’ve seen you on stage. You’re pretty fast. I think you could outrun him if you really needed to.”

“How about you distract him so I can get a head start? Maybe drag him into a dark corner and kiss him senseless before he realizes I’ve gotten away?”

The deep flush that took over her cheeks instantly gave away just how much she liked that idea.

“Ah,” he said in a gentle voice, “so that’s the way the wind blows.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Ian and I just met last night. And we’ve only spent fifteen minutes together today.”

“Sometimes,” he said very seriously, “fifteen minutes is all it takes for your entire life to change.”

But before he could say anything more, a large group of wedding guests finally realized they had a rock star in their midst, and he was completely surrounded by fans.