It Must Be Your Love: The Sullivans (6 page)

But her feet still weren’t listening, because instead of taking her further from him, they were moving her closer, then closer still, until he was right there within kissing distance.

“One kiss,” she found herself agreeing though she knew better. “And when you realize that it, and you, mean absolutely nothing to me—” She shouldn’t need to pause, shouldn’t feel even the slightest hesitation in stating what she
knew
needed to happen. “—you’ll promise never to come near me again.”

He didn’t so much as blink before agreeing with a husky, “You have my word.”

And then he cupped her face in his hands and lowered his head to hers...

Chapter Five

Ford had never been much of a planner, had always chosen to follow passion, instead. Then again, this much had never been on the line before. One kiss to decide if Mia would remain in his life...or if he’d have to give her up forever.

Only, even if he’d thought to plan the kiss carefully by playing off all her sensual trigger points, Ford wouldn’t have had a chance of following that plan. Because the instant she agreed to the kiss, the desperation to touch her again ripped through every other thought, every other sense, every other need.

Just being near her tore his control to shreds.

The entire world thought Ford Vincent was the ultimate ladies’ man, and that there wasn’t a woman alive who had the power to bring him to his knees. But the world was wrong. Dead wrong.

Mia was the only woman who had ever truly marked him. Not just his body, but his heart...and down deeper than that, even. He’d never felt passion like this for anyone else.

He felt her breath hitch in her chest as his thumbs brushed gently over her cheekbones, his fingertips lightly caressing her jaw and the very tips of her earlobes. Earlobes he knew to be extremely
sensitive. All he’d had to do when they were together before was score one of her lobes with the edge of his teeth and she would start begging him to take her.

She’d had on a fresh coat of lipstick when she first walked into the tower, and though it was mostly gone now, a faint stain of red pigment remained. Her eyes were still open, but her lashes were fluttering in her fight to keep them from closing.

The breath from her lips was warm, and so damned seductive against his as he tried to prolong the moment. But Ford just didn’t have it in him to draw out the anticipation any longer, not when he was dying to taste her again.

Finally, with her name on his lips, he closed the final distance between them.

There was no way he could have held back his groan of pleasure at how good the simple touch of Mia’s lips was against his. He felt almost drunk from the press of her curves, though she was trying to remain stiff and unyielding against him.

Shifting his hands up into her hair, Ford slicked his tongue in a slow path along her lower lip. For all his memories of how good kissing her had been, memories had never tasted this good, nor made his heart race nearly out of his chest.

Her hands had come up to press against his chest, as if to push him away. But as his tongue made a second trip over her upper lip, ducking into the bow in the middle before tracking a damp path to the sensitive corner, he could feel her warring with herself. Staying cold and unmoved by his kiss had been her intention upon rising to his challenge. And she’d clearly believed she could pull it off.

But when her fingers began to clench on his shirt, and all it would have taken was one slight shift to push him away and end the kiss before it really even got a chance to begin, she grabbed the cotton, instead, to drag him even closer.

Thank God.

* * *

Mia had mentally braced herself for pleasure. She had physically prepared herself for heat.

But it wasn’t until Ford actually touched her skin with calloused fingertips, then waited for her to have no choice but to respond to his sinfully sweet caresses before finally dropping his mouth to hers, that she remembered just how enormous his powers of seduction were.

Worse still, as if the mere press of his lips over hers wasn’t already enough to start melting her from the core outward, he’d dragged his tongue over her lips. And that was when her memories became even clearer.

Because Ford had never simply seduced
her. He had demanded her passion, instead. Right from that first moment when he’d been on stage and she’d been in the audience, he’d forced her to face what was already between them. It hadn’t mattered that they were two complete strangers, because with nothing more than a look, and a song, she’d been his. Just as he was making her his again with this kiss, even as she tried to remind herself that she should be keeping him from touching any part of her, body or soul.

But as his tongue stroked against hers once, then twice, then three gorgeous times, sending shivers through her, head to toe, and her hands involuntarily clutched the fabric of his shirt even harder, their kiss deepened the way it always had. From nothing to
everything
in the span of one heartbeat, one breath.

And now that his heat, his strength, were beneath her hands and pressed hard against the length of her body, Mia couldn’t help but give in to the need that she hadn’t wanted to admit had been bubbling away inside of her for the past five years.

As the years fell away and her memories were replaced with shockingly potent and dizzying real-life pleasure, Mia also couldn’t possibly deny that this kiss trumped every one of their previous kisses. Not just because they’d both obviously been waiting five long and painful years for another one, but because everything was different now.

She’d been a girl then, caught up in dreams and fairy tales, and though she still looked much the same on the outside, their breakup had changed something inside her forever. Ford had barely been more than a boy himself when he’d broken her heart. Now he was not only a man, but also a superstar who had the entire world at his feet. Mia had always believed she was a strong woman, but even so, she’d wanted Ford so badly at twenty-three that she’d nearly given up her entire life for him.

If he’d nearly been able to take everything from her then, what would he take now if she were stupid enough to let him?

“Jesus,” he said in wonder against her lips, “even in my wildest memories, I never remembered anything this hot.”

Though his shirt was still in her hands and her body was urging her to yank him closer, she suddenly realized that if she didn’t put every wall back up, and make every last effort at resistance, then Ford might have the power to actually break her this time, rather than just bruise her.

Gathering up every possible ounce of determination she possessed, she pushed him away, hard enough that her fingers had no choice but to break free of their hold on him. Her move was so sudden that one of his hands tangled in her hair and left her scalp stinging as they finally came all the way apart.

She couldn’t do this, had known better than to step up to his carelessly thrown-out dare. No one but Ford had ever made her want like this, so effortlessly, so deeply, so passionately...so foolishly.

All these years she’d told herself that she would never be stupid enough to be susceptible to him again. But now she knew with one hundred percent certainty that it wouldn’t matter how many years passed.

She’d still be held in his thrall.

Both of them were breathing hard, and the way his chest rose against the thin fabric of his short-sleeved cotton shirt outlined his well-developed muscles against the fabric in a horribly distracting way. Denying their physical connection would just prove her to be an even bigger fool, so she didn’t bother to try.

“You’re right,” she agreed. “It was hot.” She made sure to pause a beat so that he wouldn’t miss her next words. “But you still mean nothing to me.”

“We both know that’s a lie.” He looked arrogant and beautiful as he told her, flat-out, “You’ve never been able to forget me any more than I’ve been able to forget you.”

“Stop it.” She backed up, but her path was blocked by a thick shrub before she could get any farther from him and the words she knew he intended to use in exactly the same way he’d used his kiss. Not to seduce, but to
demand.
“Don’t you dare look at me like that, like that kiss was special, like it mattered to you. Not when we both know it didn’t.”

For the first time since she’d seen him standing in the tower, anger flared in his eyes. “How the hell can you say that to me after that kiss? How can you act like you aren’t special to me, or that you don’t matter—when no one has ever mattered as much as you do? If I thought you’d listen to reason, if I thought you’d listen to my apologies, I would have started with those, but you’re so damned stubborn that I
had
to lead with the kiss just to get you to admit you feel anything at all.”

Hating the way her lips still tingled, how good the taste of him was even now, and worse, how desperately she suddenly wanted to hear his apologies, she gave up any final attempt at composure.

“You didn’t try to contact me for five years!” She was flat-out yelling now, but didn’t care anymore what he thought of her. “And then when you did, you tricked me with a call from a lawyer so I wouldn’t know it was you lying in wait for me in the tower. You are just as much of an egocentric jerk as you always were, because, clearly, it’s still all about what
you
want, and no one else’s life—or wishes—matter. So don’t you dare stand here and try to convince me I’m special or that you’re finally ready to give me some apologies that are going to make everything all better. We were good in bed together. That’s all there is, or ever was, between us. But do you know what the worst part of it is? I was almost stupid enough let you buy your way back into my life.

She reached into her jacket pocket, pulled out the check she hadn’t yet taken to the bank and ripped it in half. The two pieces of paper fluttered to the ground as she said, “Five years ago, you were the one who told me goodbye. Now, I’m saying it to you.” Head held high, she turned and walked away.

Chapter Six

The last thing Ford had time for right now was a house-hunting trip to Seattle. His touring crew and management team were in Los Angeles preparing for his Sunday night show at The Staples Center. He’d had half a dozen major interviews scheduled for today, but when his lawyer had confirmed that Mia was available, he’d had his PR team reschedule everything. Despite his fame, he’d never been a particularly high-maintenance client, so they’d been happy to take care of it because they figured something important must have come up. Tonight and Saturday were going to be pretty rough without any breathing room between the extra interviews they’d had to cram in.

As he boarded his private plane to head down to Southern California, his brain, his body—hell, every last part of him—was wrapped up in Mia. Yes, she’d been angry with him for showing up unexpectedly. And there was no question at all that she was still furious about the way things had ended between them.

But even bigger than her anger and fury had been the intensity and the heat of the sparks between them. Whether they were talking or kissing—sweet Lord, that kiss had completely blown his mind—their connection was undeniable. He’d prayed that the kiss would melt the walls of ice around her heart enough for her to listen to him. Instead, it was what had finally made her snap...and tell him to get out of her life forever.

And, damn it, she’d been right. He
had
acted like an egotistical ass by setting up the anonymous showing. Somehow he needed to figure out how to convince her to spend more time with him so that he could make her see that he had changed…and so that he could actually get things right this time.

But how was he going to pull that off when she was so determined to keep her distance? And how could he do it without acting like a self-obsessed jerk who thought he ruled the world the way he had today?

His phone rang and if it had been anyone but his personal assistant, he would have let it go. Carol Vale had worked for a hugely famous British musician for several years before she’d decided she wanted to be back in the U.S. to be closer to her kids. She wasn’t impressed by money or fame...and she was a freakin’ genius with details.

“How was the house?”

The house? He’d walked through every room and over much of the grounds, but all he could really remember about it was Mia. How beautiful she’d looked standing in the tower with light streaming in over her hair. The gorgeous flush of her skin when she watched him lay down on the bed in the master suite. The surprise on her face when he’d talked about wanting kids someday.

Then again, she hadn’t been the only one surprised by that. Especially since they hadn’t just been empty words...he’d actually been able to visualize kids running around the house. Kids who looked like an exact cross between him and her.

Finally, he replied, “It’s a killer place.”

Efficient as ever, Carol went over his interview and sound-check schedule. But before she signed off, she said, “One other thing—you wanted to attend Nico’s wedding this weekend, is that correct?”

He’d always thought Nico—or Nicola, as the well-known pop star preferred that her friends call her—was a great girl. He had to turn down most wedding invitations for one reason or another, but the two of them had become friends over years of criss-crossing tours, and a handful of weeks where they’d even toured together a few years back.

“Right,” he confirmed, “but I thought we couldn’t get the schedule to work out?”

“While I still need to do a little more juggling,” Carol said, “it’s looking like you could at least make the vows. Just as long as you remember that you’re going to have a show that night, so you probably shouldn’t enjoy too much of Sullivan Winery’s finest while you’re in Napa.”