It Must Be Your Love (The Sullivans #11)(30)
Compliments were a dime a dozen for Ford. But hearing Mia call him remarkable meant more than a million accolades from fans ever could.
“My parents dislike every single song I’ve ever written and performed,” he said with perfect certainty. “Rock music breaks every rule I was bred to follow. Hell, even bringing an oboe into a string quartet is pushing it for them.”
Her mouth tipped up a teeny bit in each corner as she said, “And you love breaking those rules, don’t you?”
He smiled back at her. “I first picked up an electric guitar to hurt them the way they’d hurt me. And the honest truth is that the first time I turned that amp up to eleven and hit the A chord so that it shook the walls all the way down the hall to the formal dining room where they were having a dinner party, is still one of my favorite memories. I had no idea music would save my life by finally giving me something to love. But even though it saved me for so many years, I realized too late that it isn’t enough.”
“You have millions of fans. Everyone around the world loves your songs. How can that not be enough?”
“Because music can’t tell me when I’m being a self-obsessed jerk. Music can’t light up my day with nothing more than a smile. Music can’t love me back. And—” He paused to gently caress her cheek. “—music will never be you.”
Back when they were lovers, Ford had been amazed by the way Mia could let herself be strong in one moment, then soft and pliable the next. Today, with her emotions running high from the wedding, he sensed that he could easily push her into not just another kiss, but so much more. Ford desperately wanted to feel her bare skin against his, needed so badly to hear those beautiful, breathless sounds she made when she came apart in his arms.
But he needed a future with her more than he needed a few fleeting moments of pleasure that would surely end with all of her walls back up.
“I want us to start over fresh, Mia.” He reached out to tip her chin up with his finger so that she had to look him in the eye. “No ultimatums this time. I know you’re going to need time for me to convince you that I can be the man you need me to be.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” She looked truly shocked by her realization that he meant every word he’d said to her since Friday morning. “You actually didn’t set up the showing at the tower house to mess with me for a laugh, did you?”
“I’ve never been more serious about anyone or anything in my life, Mia. I want you back.”
“Why do you keep pushing when I’ve already said no so many times?”
“Because what I see in your eyes, and what I feel in your touch, have both told me something else entirely.”
She turned her cheek into his palm for a brief, beautiful moment, before she drew herself away from him. “I heard what you said about giving me time to think about things, but I know you. You’re like a dog until you get your bone. And I can only imagine what you’ll do to make your case once we’re both out there at the reception. So since I really don’t want anyone in my family to know that we were once a very, very brief item—because then I’ll be bombarded with a trillion questions I don’t want to answer—how about we make a deal?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Now that I know you’re truly serious about buying a home in Seattle, I’ll agree to be your Realtor again. As a bonus, it means we’ll have a bona fide reason to know each other outside of this wedding, because I really don’t want to have to lie to my family about not knowing you at all when I’m pretty sure they’ll all see right through that.”
“Won’t they wonder why today is the first time you’ve mentioned that we’re working together?”
“I’ll tell them we had a client confidentiality agreement, which, considering you came to me as an anonymous client, I’d say we did. And that I just cleared it with you that it’s okay for me to talk publicly about our business arrangement.” She poked him in the chest. “But if you don’t stop looking at me like that in public, they’re going to figure out that there’s more than business between us.”
He’d just told her he wouldn’t push too hard, that he wouldn’t give her ultimatums. God, though, it was hard not to reach for her again, not to kiss her to prove to her exactly how good they were together.
“How am I looking at you?”
“Like I’m Little Red to your big bad wolf.”
“Well,” he said slowly, “I do want to eat you.”
She was half-laughing as she shook her head at his completely distasteful joke. “Do we have a deal or not?”
If he hadn’t noticed the wicked gleam in her eyes growing brighter and hotter during the past few minutes they’d been verbally sparring, he would simply have agreed with her initial suggestion. But he knew neither of them would be satisfied with that.
“One kiss, Mia.” He let his words—and the heat that came with them—sink in before he added, “One kiss and I’ll be your dirty little secret. Although, once you agree to marry me, you’re probably going to have to tell a few people eventually.”
“See, I knew you’d do this. That you’d tell me you weren’t going to push in one breath, then immediately start talking about my marrying you in the next.”
Bella Andre's Books
- Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (Summer Lake #2)
- Bella Andre
- Reckless In Love (The Maverick Billionaires #2)
- Now That I've Found You (New York Sullivans #1)
- All I Ever Need Is You (The Sullivans #14)
- I Love How You Love Me (The Sullivans #13)
- Just To Be With You (The Sullivans #12)
- Kissing Under The Mistletoe (The Sullivans #10)
- The Way You Look Tonight (The Sullivans #9)
- One Perfect Night (The Sullivans #8.5)