“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 hips 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 climaxed…while the one surprisingly perfect chord she played rang out as the soundtrack to their lovemaking.

Chapter Thirty-two

Mia loved being in Ford’s audience with her parents and brothers. Considering how much Ford meant to her, it was strange to realize she’d only ever seen him play one show—the night they met. He hadn’t had any more tour dates that week they’d holed up in the hotel, and then after they’d broken up, she couldn’t bear the thought of watching him play. As excited as the capacity crowd clearly was for him to take the stage now that the opening act was over, Mia knew no one’s anticipation could match her own.

Her parents had arrived not long after she’d emerged from his dressing room. Her mother gave Ford a hug and her father’s handshake was warm and totally welcoming. Dylan had arrived next, looking like he’d come straight from one of his boats again. But where, Mia wondered, was Adam?

Reading her mind, her mother put a reassuring arm around Mia’s shoulders. “He’ll be here. Don’t worry.”

As though those were the magic words, Adam suddenly appeared. He was trying to act cool about their special boxed-off seats right at the front of the stage, but Mia knew it was his rock ’n roll dream come true.

Tempted to punch him again for making her worry that he was still upset about her dating Ford, Mia handed him her Slushie instead. If their positions had been reversed and her brother was falling for a woman whom she wasn’t sure would stick around through thick and thin, Mia knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut, either. They loved each other too much to stand by quietly while someone hurt them.

Adam took the peacemaking drink from her and after a long sip where he demolished half of it, the lights on stage and throughout the stadium went completely black. The hooting and hollering began in earnest alongside the chanting of Ford’s name.

And then there he was, her beautiful rock star, standing in the middle of the spotlight, effortlessly commanding the attention of the massive crowd.

From the first note he played on the same electric guitar that she’d held in his dressing room while he made love to her, Mia was utterly spellbound. His songs, his musicianship, his humor, his intensity—every single aspect of Ford’s show was simply mind blowing. Add in the fact that he singled her out in the huge crowd and sang all of his love songs straight to her, and Mia ended up so lost in the music that ninety minutes later she was more than a little surprised when the lights suddenly went up for intermission.

After her parents and Dylan told her how great they thought Ford was, then left to go pick up some T-shirts for everyone before he came out to play his second set, she knew Adam had stayed behind because he wanted to say something to her.

“You were right,” he grudgingly admitted. “Ford’s a good guy. “

She grinned, thanking God that her brother didn’t have the faintest clue what Ford had done to her in his backstage dressing room two hours earlier. “I know. And I want you to know that you shouldn’t feel too bad about the way you behaved through most of dinner, because I’m planning on being just as tough when you finally fall in love.”

Clearly intent on ignoring her sisterly threat, Adam gestured toward the massive crowd behind them. “I don’t know many people who would give all this up the way Ford said he’s going to. He really does love you, Mia.”

She knew her brother was only trying to finally say the right thing and let her know that he approved of her relationship, but instead of relaxing her, the reminder that Ford intended to give up shows like this for her made her chest clench tight.

Adam was leaving their box just as Natasha stepped into it. “I’ve never seen Ford perform like this. Honestly, it’s one of the best rock concerts I’ve seen in my entire life. I knew you’d be good for him, Mia, but I had no idea that the change would be this big. He was amazing before, but now...” The filmmaker grinned. “Well, I don’t need to tell you. You were here. You saw it for yourself.”

And she had. She’d seen how happy he made people. How deeply he inspired them.

She’d told herself that she needed to see for herself whether he was truly giving up touring because of her, or if he was ready to retire from shows anyway. Now she knew the truth.

Ford should be nowhere close to retiring.

Right when she had finally admitted to both herself and Ford that she loved him with every last piece of her heart, Mia had to face the painful truth: He didn’t belong stuck in a waterfront house in Seattle with her trying to keep himself busy with projects while she ran her real estate business.

He belonged to this.

Natasha pressed her finger to her earpiece and listened carefully for a moment before nodding her head and saying, “Sure, I’ll let her know.” She looked at Mia. “Ford would like you to come backstage before he goes back on.” Natasha laughed and rolled her eyes. “Typical rock star stuff, right?”

Mia made herself laugh along with the other woman, even though she could no longer ignore the twisting of her gut. And the snippets of conversation she heard from Ford’s fans as she walked past them to get to the side of the stage only reinforced what she now knew she’d need to do.

“I’ve been sober for five years, ever since I saw Ford play live and I told myself all I needed to do was make it from one show to the next.”

“I never would have picked up a guitar if I hadn’t wanted to play along to his songs and now I teach music in schools.”

“I was having the worst day before I got here tonight, and now it’s one of my all-time best.”

Natasha disappeared to join her film crew as soon as they found Ford. He was talking with his drummer, but when he saw Mia, he quickly closed the distance between them and picked her up to swing her in a circle.

“I love having you here tonight.”

Her throat felt tight as she said, “Your show is amazing, Ford. I didn’t forget how good you were, but seeing you on stage again is just mind blowing.”

He kissed her, then, and she poured all of her love for him into it.

“I love you, too,” he whispered against her lips. “Stay backstage for the rest of the show. Right here where I can see you, where I can come and kiss you anytime I need to. Like now.” He traced her lips with his tongue. “And now.” The gentle bite of his teeth against her lower lip made her knees even weaker than they already were.

His band had already launched into the opening bars of the first song of his second set when she whispered, “I would do anything for you.”

And a few minutes later, as she listened to Ford thank the crowd for all the great years they’d given him on the road, knowing it was his way of saying goodbye to them even if the audience members didn’t understand that yet, Mia knew that she would truly do anything for the man she loved.

Even if it meant letting him go...instead of letting him give up everything for her.

* * *

The rain was pouring down hard by the time they got back to his house and ran toward the tower. There was no shower in the tower room, but the heavy downpour had taken care of washing him clean.

Through their linked hands, Ford could feel how hard Mia was shivering when they reached the top of the tower stairs. He’d purposely gotten her wet the other night when he’d thrown her into his pool, but tonight, though her silver dress stuck to her every curve like a sexy second skin, he only wanted her dry and warm and in his arms. Maybe it would have made sense to stop in the master bedroom and bathe first to warm up and dry off, but without even needing to discuss it, it had been clear that they would bypass the house for their special room, high up in the Seattle sky.

Seconds after closing the tower door behind them and turning on the lights, he had her dress off and was wrapping her in a thick blanket. Again and again he ran his hands over her until she stopped shaking quite so hard.

“I promise I’m going to warm you up all over in a minute.”

Stripping himself down as quickly as he’d stripped her, he picked up another blanket to wrap around his damp body, then pulled her down onto his lap. Tonight, knowing they were going to begin their new life together, he’d stashed a little blue box under one of the pillows.

“I need you closer,” she whispered as she shifted on his lap to burrow beneath his blanket so that they were skin to skin, her chest pressed to his, her arms around his back, her legs wrapped around his waist. “I never want to let you go, Ford.”

For once, he didn’t have any protection on him, but he knew how much she loved family, and he couldn’t wait to start making one with her as soon as possible. Little girls and boys who would fill up their home with laughter and love.

“I never want to let you go, either,” he said as he lifted her slightly over him so that she could wrap her legs fully around him and sink down over his erection on a sigh of pleasure that shook through both of them. It was the first time he’d ever been inside of her bare, with nothing between them but damp skin and heat, and he knew nothing in the world would ever feel this good. Only making love with Mia.

“You’re still shaking,” he murmured against the crook of her neck. He was no longer sure if it was because she was chilled from the rain. Just in case she still had any doubts, he desperately needed to put them to rest. “Don’t you know I’d do anything for you? Don’t you know that I’ll always put you first?”

“I love you so much,” she said in a raw voice that shook just as much as her body still was, even as their lovemaking heated up more and more with every stroke of his body inside her. “More than I ever knew it was possible to love.”

And as they took each other over the edge of pleasure that was both sweet and sinful, Ford knew it was finally time to ask her to be his.

Forever.

* * *

Ford was stroking his hands over her back and Mia was trying to get her synapses to start firing logically again when he said, “The first time I saw you here in the tower, I wanted to ask you to marry me.”

Drawing back from the crook of his neck where she’d been resting her head, Mia watched Ford reach beside them to pull a little blue box out from beneath a cushion.

Oh God, he couldn’t do this now. He couldn’t ask her to marry him when she’d finally accepted just how much she loved him...and that loving him meant setting him free. She opened her mouth to try to stop him before her heart broke any more than it already had, but the sheer force of emotion in his dark eyes stole her words away.

“I look around this house, I walk through this city, and you’re everywhere. You haven’t just made music matter again for me, you’ve made everything matter.” When he opened his hand, there was a ring in it with a large sparkling yellow diamond in the center. “Marry me, Mia, and make me the happiest man on the planet.”

She hadn’t cried over him since that night in Miami, when she’d believed nothing they’d felt for each other was real. Now that she knew just how real their love was, her tears finally fell again.