Chapter Thirty-one
In the middle of the night, when the tower grew too cold for their pile of blankets to keep them warm enough, Ford had carried a sleeping Mia down to the master bedroom.
“My prince,” she’d murmured against his chest. “Just like I always knew you were.”
His heart had been so full, he’d nearly had to wake her to tell her, again, just how much he loved her. But he’d kept her up late enough as it was, and considering his last show was in less than twenty-four hours, he’d known it was a good idea for him to get some sleep, too.
Now, as he lay with Mia soft and warm against him in his bed, he was glad they’d slept, and not just because they’d both needed the rest. Having her breathing softly and steadily in his arms was nearly as good as the way he was planning on waking her up.
Letting the fingers of one hand play through her soft hair over the pillow, he slowly splayed the fingers of his other hand across her stomach. Even if he hadn’t felt her breathing change pace immediately, he would have known she was awake from the little wiggle of her bottom into his erection.
He’d loved everything about their fast, fierce lovemaking so far, but now he wanted sleepy and slow. Pressing his lips to the curve of her shoulder, he slid his hand up from her stomach to cup the soft underside of one breast.
The little sound of pleasure she made shot right through him, making him even harder than he already was.
“Good morning,” she murmured as she put her hand on his hip, scoring his skin lightly with her fingernails.
From the first moment she’d ever touched him backstage in Seattle all those years ago, he’d been rocked by the intensity of their connection. To have gone without her for so long—and then to come back together in a full week of endless, erotic foreplay—had built up an unquenchable hunger in Ford. Finally making love with Mia last night hadn’t doused the madness, the obsession...
No, the more he had of her, the more he needed to have of her.
“Every day, Mia,” he growled between the kisses he ran up the side of her neck. His fingertips found her ni**les hard and waiting for his touch. “I want to wake up with you like this every single day.”
“Yes,” she said as he squeezed the taut tip of her breast. “God, yes. Just like this. Every day.”
He’d never been a morning person, and his years on the road had only solidified his nocturnal habits. But with Mia na**d and warm against him beneath the thick bedcovers, he could suddenly see the beauty of the early sunrise hours. He loved the way her skin heated up even further with every kiss, every caress over her curves. There were so many fantasies he wanted to live out with her, and he was impatient to experience every one of them.
“Last night, you showed me how you played with yourself, how you made yourself come. And I loved it.” He shifted his hand to her other breast and the achingly hard nipple that was begging for his touch, and as she shuddered against him, he asked, “But do you know what I want this morning, baby?”
Lord, she was responsive, her h*ps moving even closer to his erection and her thighs opening as if to take him inside even before he told her what he was planning to do. “Please,” she said in a voice still husky with sleep, but also drenched with desire, “just take me, Ford.”
He’d never been more tempted by a woman, but after the way he’d taken her the previous night, he needed to savor. To linger. To adore.
And, he thought with a slow grin, to tease.
“Soon,” he promised her. But not until he’d given her another taste of the wicked and naughty future they were going to have together.
“Tell me what you want,” she urged him as she moved her hand from his hip to surround his erection. “Tell me and I’ll give it to you.”
“I know you will,” he said on a low, dark chuckle against her soft hair. Just as he would always give her anything she wanted. He moved his hand away from her breast, and she made a soft sound of protest, one he intended to quickly turn into a gasp of pleasure. “Roll over onto your back.”
Moving with innate sensuality, she slowly shifted her weight on the bed so that she was lying flat on her back, her hands gripping the sheets at her sides, her eyes big and full of anticipation as she waited for him to say what he wanted next.
But instead of speaking, he simply took her hands in his and lifted them up above her body, so that she could reach the headboard. He curled her fingers over the cool iron bars.
“No matter what I do to you, I want you to keep holding on.”
He loved the way her eyes dilated even further and her chest rose and fell in faster and faster beats. Her skin flushed a deeper rose as he let his gaze slowly roam over her perfect br**sts to her waist and then back out to the gorgeous flare of her hips. He pushed the covers completely out of the way so that he could admire the damp, already aroused flesh between her thighs.
“What are you going to do to me?”
Her breathless question had him nearly giving in to the urge to kiss her full lips, shiny and wet where she was licking them in heady anticipation. But he knew what that one kiss would lead to...way the hell faster than he wanted it to.
“I’m going to make you feel good.”
“How good?” He loved the challenge in her eyes just as much as he knew he was going to enjoy rising to meet it.
“Better than you’ve ever felt before.”
She shivered at his promise, her fingers tightening on the iron bars as if to show him just how closely she was planning on following instructions.
“Close your eyes, baby.”
This time she didn’t hesitate, didn’t question him. She simply trusted him...and it meant the entire goddamned world to him that she did. Every minute of every day that they’d been together this past week, his goal had been to earn her trust. Now that he had it, he vowed never, ever to break it. No matter what he had to do to prove himself worthy of her.
Every last inch of her body was so beautiful that he could hardly decide where to start. As if in answer to his silent question, she shimmied her upper body, and watching her full, natural br**sts move made his mouth water. And yet, while he wanted nothing more than to cup the oh-so-soft flesh in his hands and lave her ni**les with his tongue, he knew it would be even better for her if he took his time to get there.
Leaning forward, he slowly licked between her two lowest ribs, first on one side of her chest and then the other. “You taste so good,” he told her before he moved up her ribcage. He wanted to savor every inch of her, but he was enough of a realist to know he wouldn’t last nearly that long this morning. Not when being this close to her na**d, gorgeous body already had him hovering on the verge of madness.
At least, he thought as he pressed a kiss to the sweet patch of skin directly below her left breast, he wasn’t the only one having a hard time restraining his need. Because from nothing more than a few wet swipes of his tongue, Mia was already gripping the iron bedpost so hard her knuckles were turning white.
Especially, he noted a moment later, when instead of moving all the way up over her br**sts to take the taut peaks into his mouth, he shifted his attention down from her ribcage to her hip bones. He came closer and closer with each flick of his tongue and brush of his lips to the parts of her that were begging for his attention...but deliberately never quite made it all the way there. But though she continued to hold on to the bed frame, that didn’t stop her from shifting her torso and lower body to try to get his mouth to go where she wanted it to.
Another time, he’d take the game to the next level by making her stay still, too, but this morning he knew that wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Not when they’d both waited so long to be together again like this. In fact, Ford suddenly decided, it was long past time to reward them both.
Without giving her any warning, he slid his hands up and over her br**sts at the exact moment that he covered her sex with his mouth. His name erupted from her lips on a scream of pleasure as he opened her wide for his tongue and slid inside her clenching heat. Her skin was damp beneath his palms, her ni**les hard beneath his fingertips, her arousal sweet against his tongue.
No doubt about it, lifting his mouth and hands from her a moment later was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. Even harder than it had been for him to stop at goodnight kisses all week.
“Ford?” His name was more gasp than word. “Why did you stop?”
“Shh,” he whispered as he moved up over her to press a soft kiss against her neck. Her mouth was still a no-go zone if he wanted to have even the slightest prayer of prolonging their pleasure. “We’re almost there.”
With her eyes still closed, she didn’t see that his hands were shaking as he sat up to slip on a condom. Or that it took every last ounce of his self-control to position himself between her legs without thrusting into her gorgeously slick heat.
“Open for me, baby.” She was so turned on, so ready for him to love her, that his heart nearly stopped as she did what he asked. “Wider,” he urged, barely above a whisper, needing more even as he knew that he’d never get enough of her.
As she shifted her thighs apart even farther, a little moan fell from her lips, and he had to reach up to rub his thumb across them as if to soothe her. Her tongue sneaked out to lick at him. She sucked his thumb all the way into her mouth, scraping her teeth over it in a way that made him pulse inside the condom without his erection even touching her yet.
Taking his hand away from her mouth, he put it on her hip to hold her still. Seeing that her eyes were about to flicker open, he said, “Remember, hands on the bars and eyes shut.”
He could see her warring with herself for a few moments, but then, she obviously decided it was in her best interests to keep following his sensual orders. And he damn well planned to make sure that she didn’t regret it as he curved his hands around to cup her h*ps and lift her slightly off the bed so that she was even more open to him. He used his other hand to prop himself up on the bed beside her...and then he slid the full length of his erection against her sex.
Her gasp of surprised pleasure tore at him, making him want to give up the sexy game and slam all the way into her in the next breath. Only, knowing he could make Mia feel this good, and that she trusted him to take her to exactly the place she needed to go, gave him the strength to hold on to his original intention.
To make her feel better than she ever had before.
Again and again, he slid back, then forward, and she moved with him, lifting her h*ps from the bed so that they were as close as two people could be without actually making love.
“I have to look,” she pleaded. “Please let me look.”
She was right, it wasn’t fair that only he had the pleasure of watching their bodies slip and slide against each other like this. “Open your eyes.”
On a deeply relieved exhale, she lifted her lids and immediately locked her gaze on his erection as he slid once again up against the slickly aroused vee between her legs. “Oh God, Ford. You’re so beautiful.”
“So are you,” he told her. “The most beautiful thing I’ve ever known.”
He held out for as long as he could, teasing both of them just like that until her abdominal muscles began to tighten and he knew she was right on the edge of release. Ford wrapped his hands around Mia’s and together they held onto each other and the bed frame as he finally slid hard and deep inside her.
With both of them racing together toward ecstasy, just as her body began to pulse and pull at his, he lowered his mouth to hers to tell her how much he loved her in every possible way he could.
* * *
A little while later, Mia sat on a stool at Ford’s kitchen island sipping the coffee she’d made and wearing one of his long-sleeved shirts with nothing on underneath it. He’d pulled on a pair of boxers, which rode low across his hips. With nearly every last inch of skin and muscle and tattoo on display, she was definitely hungry. Only, not nearly as hungry for the yummy smelling breakfast he was making her as she was for him.
“Wow,” she said as he quickly mixed batter together and poured it onto the sizzling waffle maker, then began to beat the six eggs he’d pulled out of the fridge, “I didn’t know you could cook.”
“Living on a tour bus for as long as I did, you get pretty good at figuring out a few things you can make without having to go into another greasy spoon or eat out of another to-go box. Turns out that waffles and eggs work for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you need them to.”
On the one hand, she could see that life on the road hadn’t always been glamorous, regardless of how fancy his bus had been or how much money he had to pave his way from city to city. But on the other, even as he talked about being tired of greasy spoons and too many takeout boxes, it was obvious that he hadn’t really minded the downsides of his career all that much. And, after all, didn’t every job have a few difficult aspects? Being a Realtor, for instance, meant that her weekends were usually busy with showings, where most people took Saturdays and Sundays to relax with friends and family. But she enjoyed what she did enough that taking Mondays off instead of Saturdays never bothered her.
After liberally covering the waffles with butter and syrup, he carried one big plate of food over to the table.
“You planning on sharing any of that?”
He sat down and patted his lap. “Come here and you’ll find out exactly what I’ve got planned.”
Despite the fact that he’d just blown her mind in a half-dozen different ways in bed, her body instantly revved up for another round. His cotton shirt scratched against her sensitive br**sts in the sexiest possible way as she slowly walked over to him, then lifted one leg over both of his so that she could straddle him on the chair.
Their mouths came together at the same instant, his erection growing bigger and hotter against the vee of her legs as she rocked closer to him.
“Jesus, Mia,” he said as he finally drew back, “I swear I was planning on feeding you breakfast.”
Unfortunately, just as she was about to tell him breakfast could wait a little while longer, her stomach let loose a loud growl of hunger. Clearly determined now to get some food into her, he carved off a large piece of waffle with his fork and popped it into her mouth.
“Mmm.” She closed her eyes to appreciate his culinary skills...and the feel of his deliciously hard body beneath hers. “So good.”
He pushed another piece against her lips and she opened to take it in, and then a few seconds later, the next one he offered her. Soon, they settled into the sexiest breakfast in history, with both of them eating off the same fork, half of each piece of waffle going into her mouth and half into his. And yet, beneath the endless desire she had for him, was something even sweeter than the syrup he’d been so liberal with. She felt his love not only in the way he touched her, in the way he wanted so badly to give her pleasure, but also in how he wanted to make sure she was well fed and happy.
She wanted all the same things for him...wanted more than anything to know that he was happy.
“I can’t wait to see your show tonight.”
He popped another bite of waffle into her mouth. “The last time you were in the audience, I gave the best show of my life.” He grinned as he bent forward to lick a drop of syrup from her chin. “You’ll never know how happy I am that you’ll be there for my last big show. I’m planning on blowing the doors off for you tonight.”
Last night, this morning, had been fairy-tale perfect. Not just the amazing sex, but knowing that Ford loved her as much as she loved him. But now, as he spoke about giving up his touring for her, all of the worries she’d told herself it was okay to push away for a little while longer rose up inside of her. “Ford—”
But before she could express her concerns, he was saying, “I wished you were in the audience a thousand times, Mia. Hell, for months after we split up, I kept thinking I saw you in the crowd. But I knew better, knew you would never be out there.”
“Actually,” she said as she decided it was long past time to come completely clean with him, “while you’re right that I wasn’t in the audience at any of your live shows, I might have watched a couple of your performances that were streamed over the Web.”
She could still remember how much it had hurt to see him again, how impossible it had been for her to stop looking at her computer screen. And, despite how badly he’d hurt her, she’d been helplessly spellbound by his performance.
At his look of surprise, she said, “You’re amazing on stage. I’ve never seen anyone sing a song the way you do, with your heart and soul in every note, every line. Even when I told myself I couldn’t stand the sight of you, I couldn’t look away...and I couldn’t stop falling even more in love with you.”
He kissed her once, twice, then again and again until all the other things she’d been planning to say to him about not feeling right that he was giving up his passion for her spun right out of her head. Only the sounds of their simultaneously ringing phones could have brought them up for air.
“Speaking of shows,” she gasped as she worked to get her breath back, “I’ll bet that’s Carol wondering where you are.”
“And Orlando reminding you of all the people who need you to find them the perfect home today. Which means I should probably let you go, shouldn’t I?”
“I guess so.” She wrapped her arms even tighter around his neck, even though he was right that she had a handful of very important showings scheduled that day. “Although now that I’m done with breakfast, I do need to take a shower. You know, a little soap,” she teased as she thought back to their super-sexy shower on his tour bus in Oregon, “a little shampoo.”
Less than a heartbeat later, he was pushing back from the table and carrying her out of the kitchen and into the large and luxurious master bathroom. “I almost can’t believe I’m going to finally get to watch those bubbles roll down over your na**d skin.”
“Those waffles you made us for breakfast were so good,” she said as she looked up at him with a grin that promised to match his wickedness from their lovemaking earlier that morning, “I may even let you watch even more than that.”
His groan—and then his kiss—told her exactly how much he liked that plan.
* * *
By that afternoon, when Billy let him know that Mia had arrived at the back entrance to the stadium, Ford felt like he’d been waiting forever for her to show up. He was surrounded by his crew and Natasha and her cameramen, but when Mia walked in wearing that little silver dress, everyone but her instantly ceased to exist.
“Mia.”
He had to kiss her once, twice, and then again a third time before he could even begin to pull himself together. He was so proud of being able to finally call her his girlfriend as he introduced her to everyone...but at the same time, it nearly killed him to have to wait any longer to be alone with her again after the endless hours he’d endured without her since this morning.
Natasha’s grin was that of a triumphant matchmaker, and all the guys in his band and crew were giving him a “way to go, man,” look. But the second she shook the hand of his last crew member, he made the world’s crappiest excuse for dragging her into his dressing room, and didn’t give a damn that everyone knew exactly what the two of them were about to do.
He was a rock star, wasn’t he? Might as well live up to the hype for once in his life and do something dirty in his dressing room...especially when he had the prettiest, sexiest woman in the world to do it with.
As soon as they stepped into the small dressing room and Ford locked the door behind them, Mia made a beeline for his guitar. She ran her hand over it, admiring its curves and hollows, then picked it up from the stand and lifted it over her head.
“I’ve always wondered what this feels like.” She stroked the dark and shiny mahogany reverently before looking up at him with a naughty grin. “No wonder you like holding it so much. It feels good. And sexy, too.” She ran a nail over a string and seemed surprised when sound rang out from the large amp beside her.
He had a sudden vision of Mia lying on his bed na**d with the guitar draped over her gorgeous curves. With the guitar still strapped across one of her shoulders, he lifted her up to sit on the amp it was plugged into and stepped between her legs. Their mouths met, hungry after their hours apart. Her hands tangled in his hair, he pulled her h*ps in closer to his, and though his guitar should have been in the way, he didn’t feel any rush to take it off her.
On the contrary, having the woman he loved holding on to one of his most prized possessions was a total rush.
His hands automatically roved up from her bottom to her waist and breasts. He wanted to pull down the slim strap holding up her dress, but while last night, and this morning, he’d given up all control, now he tried to find it again so that he didn’t overwhelm her.
“I know it’s too much,” he said as he buried his face in her sweet-smelling hair and tried to get a grip. “Even after I’ve had you a half-dozen times since last night, I still need you too much.”
“It’s not too much. It could never be enough.” Where his hands had stilled on the bodice of her dress, she moved hers to help him pull the fabric down. “I want you just as badly, Ford.”
She punctuated her words by giving a little wiggle from where she was sitting on the amp. When her br**sts popped out of her bodice and lay soft and perfect along the top edge of his guitar, all Ford could do was stare. Especially when Mia slowly began to slide her body and the guitar in opposite directions so that cool wood teased her ni**les the way his hands and mouth had just hours earlier.
“Wanna play me, rock star?”
“Hell, yes. But you need to be na**d first.”
Her eyes went wide for a split second before they darkened with the unquenchable lust he knew had to be mirrored in his own eyes. “I’ve been waiting hours and hours to get na**d with you again.”
If it had been any other dress, he would have ripped it off her. But this one represented too much of their history—past, present, and hopefully future—to ruin it in the heat of the moment.
His hands were shaking with need for her so she had to help him slide it down and over her hips. Wearing only little red lace panties, sitting on top of his amp with his guitar on her lap, she was every teenage boy’s fantasy—hell, every man on the planet’s fantasy—come to life.
Kneeling in front of her, as he reached behind his guitar for the lace, he pressed soft kisses to her calves, her knees, her thighs. “Lift your h*ps again, baby,” he urged her and quickly he had her panties off and balled up in his hand.
He tucked the lace into his pocket, then took a step back to look at and drool over her some more. She was already more than he could handle—the beauty of her flushed skin, the way she trusted him to strip her clothes off with dozens of his crew roaming around just outside the dressing room door—when, in one slow, seductive movement, she lifted one leg up onto the amp. With the guitar barely covering her, Ford knew he didn’t have a prayer of lasting much longer. Jesus, at this rate, he was going to explode without ever unzipping his jeans or touching her.
She licked her lips, then said, “I’m ready to be played now.”
On a groan, he quickly moved behind her. He grabbed a condom from his back pocket before shoving his pants down to his hips. He quickly slid the condom on before lifting her by the waist so that he was the one sitting on the amp...and she was sitting on him.
As he brought her down over him one hot inch at a time and she leaned her head back against him, her eyes fluttered closed.
“Watch us, baby,” he urged her. “Look how beautiful you are.”
He could feel how much effort it took for her to open her eyes, but that moment she caught sight of the two of them in the mirrors told him his request was exactly the right one.
“Oh God, Ford. This is so hot.” Her words rasped out of her throat. “I love it.” She held his gaze in the mirror. “I love you.”
“Hold on tight to the guitar,” he told her in a low voice, and as soon as she obeyed his heated instructions, he began to thrust his h*ps up against her, going deep, then deeper still as he used his hands at her waist to guide her body nearly off, then back down over his erection again and again.
Her fingers slipped and slid over the strings and the accidental music she made as he took them both closer and closer to the edge joined their moans and gasps of pleasure.
“Yes. Please. Harder.” Her eyes had closed again, but he knew she didn’t need to watch anymore, because both of them already had this perfect, sexy moment backstage burned into their memories forever. “Now!”
Burying his face against the nape of her neck, he thrust into her one last time, then held her tightly against him as she cl**axed…while the one surprisingly perfect chord she played rang out as the soundtrack to their lovemaking.