by Bella Andre
Though Ford slid his long legs over the edge of the bed, walked over to poke his head into the bathroom and the closets, and said, “Looks good,” she couldn’t escape the feeling that he was barely holding himself in check...or that his testing-out-the-bed escapade wasn’t even close to the full extent of how far he was going to try to push her today.
Extremely glad to get out of the master suite, she took him up the stairs to the second floor, and when they reached the landing, she said, “In addition to the master suite on the ground floor, there are three other bedrooms upstairs.”
“Only three, huh?” He went into one of the smaller bedrooms and picked up a soccer trophy that the home stager had put out on a boy’s desk. “Well, I guess the kids could share rooms.”
“Kids? Sharing rooms?” She shook her head, wondering how on earth he could possibly have kids she didn’t know about. Because no matter how much she’d wanted to keep her head buried in the sand whenever his name came up on TV, on the radio, or in a magazine over the years, it had simply been impossible. He was too famous. “Whose kids are going to live here?”
“Hopefully, mine, one day. You had five in your family, right?” Still reeling from the brand-new information that he was clearly planning on having a big family, she couldn’t manage anything more than a nod. And when he asked, “Didn’t you say one of your uncles had six?” she immediately corrected him with, “Eight.”
“Wow, eight kids.” He grinned at the thought of it. “Must have been a pretty fun house for them, growing up with all those kids in it.”
“It was,” she agreed, before she realized just how strange a direction their conversation had taken.
“Your uncle and his wife must have really been into each other, given all those kids they couldn’t help but make.”
“My uncle died when I was little, but from what my mother and father say about Uncle Jack and Aunt Mary, they were crazy in love with each other.”
“Crazy in love,” he said in a low voice that sent warmth rolling through her, head to toe. “I know just how that feels.”
Wait...what was she doing telling him all this personal stuff? And why on earth would she ever have been stupid enough to bring up love in his presence, when he was the last person who could possibly understand what real love was?
“Let’s head out to the grounds.” It would be good to get out of the house. Because even as big as it was, standing in the same room with Ford had been way too close.
Directly off the back patio was an incredible rose garden. Between the tower, the roses, and the water view, this property always felt close to heaven. Even when she was doing a showing, she couldn’t resist stopping to smell the roses. But the last thing she expected was for Ford to do the very same thing.
“I’ve only seen this October Moon rose in a handful of places outside of Seattle.” He inhaled their sweet scent, then said, “It’s your favorite, isn’t it?”
During their week together, they hadn’t often emerged from his luxurious hotel suite—particularly the king bed—but on one of their few spontaneous outings, he’d asked her to take him to her favorite place in Seattle. She’d brought him to the Rose Garden at Woodland Park Zoo and together they’d smelled every rose in the garden. By the time they’d returned to his hotel, ravenous for each other again after less than two hours out of each other’s arms, she’d learned that when Ford had stepped away in the garden to make a quick phone call, it hadn’t been to discuss business. He’d ordered buckets of roses to be delivered to his hotel room while they were out.
Long into the night, he’d brushed the soft petals over her skin until she was begging for more than just the petals touching her.
With the potent memories washing over her, she couldn’t lie, couldn’t do anything but nod. All these years, Mia had forced herself to bury the good memories of being with Ford. But with the scent of her favorite rose perfuming the air, it was nearly impossible to push away the heady visions of the two of them laughing and loving together. He’d thrown her off balance by appearing unannounced as her anonymous client. But it was the sweetness of these memories that were really throwing her off.
Badly wanting to shift things away from their past and back toward the house, as they headed toward the pool patio, she asked, “So how do you like this house so far?”
“How do you like it?”
Telling herself it wasn’t that strange a question to parry back at her—clients often wanted to know if she thought a house was a good investment before getting attached to it—she said, “It’s well designed, well built, and in an exceptional location. And even though the tower is unique, it manages to add to the property rather than being something that would turn off future prospective buyers.”
“But can you see a family living here?”
Mia had never done anything but her very best for a client, so she made herself push away her personal feelings for Ford and take in the house from the standpoint of a woman with a husband and kids.
“Yes,” she told him as they walked around the pool. “I can see how much fun it would be for kids to run and play on the grass, and to use the tower as a secret playhouse. And even though it’s a big property, I think it’s just the right size for a parent to make sure no one’s getting hurt or being too nuts with their brothers and sisters.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want a place where people felt like they had to worry about breaking things, or where I’d need a staff to run it.”
Finally, she felt like she was getting to know something about the real Ford. Too late, yes, but still interesting, despite herself. “Honestly, while the house is great, what you’re really paying for is the location. I actually know a lot of local families who live in similar houses and I definitely don’t think it’s too fancy for a handful of messy kids to feel perfectly comfortable tracking mud into the kitchen.” Thinking about how often she and her brothers had done that, much to the consternation of her parents, she grinned. “When we were kids, the amount of mud on the floor was directly equivalent to the amount of fun we had playing outside.”
Before she could remember why they shouldn’t be smiling at each other, Ford was heading across the bricks to a slight grassy rise on the side of the house that looked out over the water and was completely surrounded on the other three sides by tall, leafy shrubs.
“This spot reminds me of that day we found that small park with the great view,” he said. “Do you remember?”
How could she ever forget? Blue skies had turned to drizzle by the time they’d laid out a blanket in Kerry Park behind the thick shrubbery that hid them from the rest of the neighborhood, but Ford had kept her warm with his body over hers. She’d believed his was the love she’d been waiting for, and that no other man could thrill her the way he did.
Unfortunately, while she’d been wrong about the love...she’d been dead right about the thrill. No other man had ever come anywhere close to making her feel so wild or so good.
She shook the memories away as she kept her gaze focused on the water at the edge of the property. “The view here really is beautiful.”
“You were a thousand times more beautiful that day than the view could ever be,” he said, each of his softly spoken words landing right in the heart around which she’d momentarily forgotten to keep up her guard. “You still are, Mia.”
“No.” She backed away from him, from his sweet yet loaded words and the way they made her feel things that she could never again let herself feel for him. “We already agreed that you can’t talk to me like that.”
“The hardest thing I’ve ever done is not touch you during the past hour.” He dropped his gaze to her lips. “No, that’s not true,” he said almost to himself as his eyes darkened further with desire. “It’s been a hell of a lot harder not kissing you.”
Five years ago, she hadn’t known any better than to let him sweep her off her feet so that she forgot everything but him. But now, even though she did know better, she still badly wanted his fo
rbidden kiss.
“You think I don’t know your game? Showing up as an anonymous client to catch me off guard, brushing up against me when you go through a doorway, toying with me with your hot glances and sexy words? We both know it’s what you do, Ford. You’re a master at making women want you. You don’t need to try to reel me back in to prove that.”
“There’s only one woman I want to want me, Mia.”
Determined not to let anything he said or did affect her from here on out, she rolled her eyes. Honestly, at this point, it was ridiculous to think that she could look for a house for him in any kind of professional way. “I’m sure I’m supposed to be flattered that you thought one look at you standing in the tower like the conquering hero come home would make me drop to my knees and unzip you with my teeth.” She laughed out loud to let him know what she thought of that vision, praying he believed she was actually disgusted at the thought of being with him again. Her heart and mind were, of course—it was just her body that was busy trying to betray the rest of her. “Scrubbing the kitchen floor with a toothbrush sounds a thousand times better than that.”
“So,” he said with deceptive ease, “just to be clear, you’re saying you’re not interested in me anymore?”
“Not the slightest bit.”
“And you haven’t felt any sparks jumping between us the way they always did?”
“Nope.” She shrugged as if the answer to his question were totally obvious. “Nothing.”
“Funny, I was thinking just the opposite was true.”
“Then you were thinking wrong.”
“How’s this, then? You let me kiss you, and if you’re right and there’s nothing between us after all, I’ll stop pushing you where you don’t want to go. But if there is—”
“Do you really think I’m going to fall for some stupid dare where you’re going to declare afterward, no matter what happens, that there are sparks between us?”
“You’re the one who’s saying I leave you cold.” He hadn’t taken his eyes from hers, and in the span of a handful of words, they’d grown darker, more intense. “One kiss, Mia. Surely you can walk away from that.”
What had she done to deserve his return into her life? She’d packed up every beautiful moment, every sweet and sinful memory of being with Ford, and had buried them all in the deepest, darkest part of her heart. She’d worked so hard to put the past to rest. She’d been over him.
He couldn’t just come back like this, couldn’t make her want him like this, couldn’t send her emotions into turmoil with nothing but a dark look and a few tossed-off words in his deep, mesmerizing voice. Heck, she had a date tonight with a really great guy who could very well end up being the one.
But now, after less than an hour alone with Ford, she was grappling with all of her old demons.
She needed to take a step away from him, and then another and another until she was far enough that she couldn’t see him anymore, couldn’t smell him, couldn’t reach out to find out if his skin was still as hot to the touch as it had once been.
Pride be damned, she was going to have to let him win this round by running from him...if only to make sure he didn’t win back the one thing that really mattered.
Her heart.
Or worse, her soul.
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.
