Chapter Twenty

Ford was on a total high, the kind that only the stage—and being with Mia—had ever given him before. It had taken only a handful of hours for them to agree that the large warehouse half a block to the west of the EMP building was the best choice for the camp. Ford had asked Mia what a fair price for the building was, and when he promptly asked her to make a verbal offer to the seller, they accepted immediately.

Sure, everything was moving really fast, but it was all great stuff. A fantastic waterfront house in Seattle. The perfect space downtown for a camp for kids who could use music to get out of their shitty lives and into better ones.

And, he thought as he watched Mia going over the huge pile of contracts he’d just signed for the commercial property, the most beautiful woman in the world back in his life.

Since her employees had already shut down her office for the night, instead of heading there, Mia suggested that they print out and fax in all of the contracts from her condo. They’d ordered in Chinese and eaten it out of cartons while she took him through the seemingly endless paperwork—at least twice as much for the commercial property as there had been for the home he’d bought the day before.

She was all business while they did this, and while she was busy double-checking the final details of the contracts, he got up to study the photos that covered nearly every surface in her home. The windows of her condo were big and the ceilings were high, but there was so much color, life, and personality in her home that the large living room and dining room didn’t feel the least bit cold or hard-edged. The house he’d just bought was great, but he knew that if Mia shared it with him, she’d be the one who would bring real warmth to it.

Five years ago, when his fans had begun to multiply outside his hotel room, they’d decided it would be easier to disappear for a night to her place. Though her previous condo had been small, he’d loved it. She obviously had a knack for creating a comfortable home and because it was the first he’d ever really known, it had been a revelation to be surrounded by so many photos of her family and friends.

Perhaps, he admitted now, it had made him feel like even more of a loner, and that was yet another reason why he’d bolted the way he had at the end of that week.

He picked up a small frame that held a picture of Mia and her brothers from when they were kids. She was on her oldest brother’s shoulders and only one of her pigtails was still in, as if they’d been playing hard before the picture was taken. He looked at her over the top edge of the frame. Though her hair was glossy and perfect now, he could still so easily see the happy and carefree little girl she’d been in the gorgeous, polished woman she was now.

He put down the photo and picked up another of Mia and her parents, taken at her high school graduation. They were so proud of their daughter, and instead of looking like she wanted to bolt out of their hold, she was leaning into both of them as if there was no place she’d rather be.

It was nearly midnight by the time she announced, “All of the official paperwork is now on its way. Congratulations.” She held out her hand to shake his, and he used their grip on each other to tug her against him.

But the wickedly sensual thank you on the tip of his tongue dried up as he realized how stiff she was against him. Clearly, he now realized, her uber-professional behavior all evening hadn’t just been because she wanted to make sure she didn’t miss any details of the property transaction.

He brushed his thumb across her full lower lip. “Is everything okay?”

She hesitated for a moment before saying, “I should be asking you that. After all, you’re the man who just spent less time thinking over buying a major commercial property than most people take to decide what to have for dinner.”

Even though it didn’t escape him that she hadn’t answered his question, her mouth was so tantalizingly close that he lost the thread of anything but how good it felt to hold her...and how much he wanted to kiss her.

His mouth was almost on hers when he got a really good look into her beautiful eyes—eyes that were distinctly wary. And even though the blood was pumping dangerously hot in his veins, yet again he couldn’t dismiss the sense that she was much tenser now than she’d been in her office earlier in the day.

“Something’s wrong.” He didn’t phrase it as a question this time. “I need you to tell me what you’re thinking, Mia.”

“You do realize you’re the only man in all of history who has ever asked a woman to tell him what she’s thinking, right?”

“I’m probably the only one who’s ever meant it, too,” he agreed. “Look,” he said, trying to guess at what the problem might be, “I know I made this decision about making sure we’re friends before we have sex unilaterally. And I know you don’t like being given limits any more than I do. Is that what’s going on?”

“You’re right that I’ve never liked other people making decisions about what’s best for me. But,” she said with a shake of her head, “that’s not really the problem.” She turned her face away from his, as though she didn’t want him to witness her vulnerability. “All the years we were apart, I was so clear, so strong, so sure I didn’t still want you...and that I’d never be at risk of falling for you again. But today, when I was watching you talk to Natasha and her cameras about kids who need the magic of music in their lives, I was so proud of you for putting your energy and money into a camp that’s going to make such a difference.” She sighed. “And that’s when I realized just how full of it I was.”

Elation shot through him at her admission that she was falling for him again. Sure, he could feel it in her kisses, could see it in her smiles, but this was far more than she’d said yet with words. At the same time, he hated knowing that it worried her.

“Even now,” she added in a soft voice, “though I’ve been telling myself over and over that I should know better, and that you could be sharing a bed with any of those groupies we saw today out in front of the museum if you wanted to, I want a heck of a lot more than the goodnight kiss I’m sure you’re planning to give me so that you can stick to your friendship vow.”

She was right about the goodnight kiss, even though it would kill him to walk away from her again tonight, but he also needed her to know, “I don’t want them, Mia. You’re the only one I want. The only one I’ve ever wanted.”

“Then prove it to me,” she said in a husky voice that ripped through his system like a bolt of electricity.

He had her mouth crushed beneath his before she could finish her sentence, and the sweet taste of her was all it took for Ford to lose the extremely tenuous hold he had over himself. A heartbeat later he had her backed up against the wall and had lifted her so that her legs were wrapped around his hips. He needed to get as close as he could to her, and when he pressed his denim-covered erection against her and she gasped with pleasure, he immediately took advantage by sucking her tongue into his mouth.

He had been planning to give her a sweetly seductive goodnight kiss...not this sinful assault on every inch of her mouth, but when he tried to pull back, he found himself doing just the opposite. He tangled his hand into her long hair and roughly pulled her head back so that he could attack the soft skin along her neck with his lips, tongue, and teeth.

But he wasn’t the only one losing his mind, because Mia had her hands underneath his shirt, and she was raking her nails across his pecs. When he suckled her most sensitive spot—right where her neck turned the corner to her shoulder—she had to grip his shoulders to keep herself steady against him as she shook with pleasure.

Ten seconds. That was how quickly he could have their clothes off and be inside of her. She’d be so hot, and so wet, and so ready for everything he could give her that every clear thought in his head turned to static, until all he could hear was the hard throb of blood in his ears.

No, damn it. He wouldn’t lose their chance at forever for a few perfect minutes of rolling around on the floor na**d with her.

On a forceful curse that reverberated against all the floor-to-ceiling windows in her condo, Ford made himself take his mouth from her neck and put her down on the floor.

Her breath was heaving in her chest as she stared up at him, her skin rosy and gorgeous, her eyes bright with arousal. “I didn’t know a goodnight kiss could be like that,” she whispered.

He knew he should be taking one step away from her, and then another, but when she reached up to touch his face, he knew he’d stay if she asked him to. Every promise he’d made, every one of his good intentions would crumble in the face of his need to be with her right now, tonight, to take that taste of pleasure they’d both just had and multiply it a thousand times over.

“Go.”

Her eyes were dark with need, and he knew it cost her just as much to say that one word as it did for him to obey it. Somehow, he made his feet take him one step away from her, and then another and another, until the front door was at his back.