Ford had held his temper all night long with Mia’s brother. Now, he let it fly as he leaned forward and growled, “Your sister is beautiful. She’s intelligent. She’s fiercely loyal to her friends and employees and family. And I wouldn’t hesitate for even one second to give up everything I have if it meant getting to be with her for the rest of my life.”
The three men were silent for several long beats as they studied him to feel out his sincerity. Finally, her father said, “The day Mia was born, even though I’d already had four kids, I knew I was in for it. I could see not only the spunk and intelligence in her eyes, but also just what a beauty she was, and I knew how easy it would be to live in fear of her being taken advantage of, getting hurt by men who only saw her beauty and wanted to claim it as a prize.”
Five years ago, Ford had been at least partly guilty of that, but he’d already confessed his idiocy to her family, so he remained silent as her father continued.
“I promised myself that day that I would trust Mia to make the right decisions, and to teach her by example to always insist on the best and the most powerful love.” Max Sullivan raised his glass across the table. “I’m not saying it will be easy to let my little girl go, and to know that I’m no longer the first man she’ll turn to, but if anyone is going to take my place, I’m glad it’s you, Ford.”
Before Ford could begin to express how much Max’s faith in him meant beyond clinking their glasses together in a quick toast, Mia and her mother came back in carrying a huge, warm apple pie and six forks. And as everyone dug straight in, Ford knew that even if Mia’s father hadn’t just said he approved of their relationship, he would have known it by the way her family assumed he’d fight for his pieces of apple from the center of the pie just like the rest of them...and then by the way Mia leaned over, mid-bite, and kissed him in front of the people she loved most in the world.
Ford caught a glimpse of Max and Claudia Sullivan smiling at each other right before he closed his eyes and kissed Mia back.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Mia wasn’t normally in such a rush to get out of her parents’ house after a Friday night dinner, but tonight, as soon as the final apple had been scraped out of the pie pan, she jumped out of her seat and yanked Ford up with her.
“Thanks for dinner. It was amazing. I promise to do all the washing up next time!” She let go of Ford’s hand just long enough to kiss her mother and father and hug her brothers goodbye. She barely gave Ford a chance to say his own thank-yous before she dragged him out of the dining room and through the living room to the foyer. “Love you guys, and we’ll see all of you tomorrow night at the show.”
Before anyone in her family could do or say anything to delay their departure, she opened the front door and pushed Ford out of it, slamming it shut behind them.
“Hurry!” she urged Ford as she moved as fast as she ever had in her heels to throw herself into the passenger seat of his car. He was barely behind the wheel when she grabbed the front of his shirt and planted a crazy hot kiss on him. He tasted like apples and beer and Ford. “Even though I know my entire family is standing at the front window watching us right now, if you don’t start the car in the next couple of seconds, I’m going to jump you anyway.”
His grin was at once brilliantly happy and darkly sensual as he started the engine. By the time he pulled out onto the road, she had half the buttons on his shirt undone.
He put one hand over both of hers and held them firm against his chest. “Tell me where there’s a dark place to park. And make it quick or we’re both going to get arrested for public indecency.”
Every inch of her thrilled at the sensual threat in his voice and the hard-rock beat of his heart against her hands. “Turn right here. Left there. Now right again.” With every turn he made, there were fewer houses and streetlights, until they reached the end of the neighborhood and the trees grew thicker as they entered a forest. “Now go straight until we come to the end of the road.”
They were completely shrouded in darkness when Ford turned off the engine. She leapt across the stick shift onto his lap, and though it was a tight fit between the steering wheel and his seat, she relished the hard press of his muscles against her curves.
She loved how hard he was between her thighs, how hungry his hands were as they roved from her br**sts to her hips and then back again in a rough and restless pattern of lust. Though it was already pitch black in the car, she closed her eyes as she rocked her pelvis against his to focus every ounce of her concentration on the pleasure that was coming over her in waves.
Her hands were in his hair, her cheek pressed to the side of his as her skirt bunched up beneath his hands—when he stopped cold and gripped her hips hard to hold her still.
“Mia.”
Beyond pleased that he’d just discovered her bare skin, she informed him, “I took my panties off right before dessert.”
“You,” he said as he slowly moved his hands beneath her skirt to caress her naked hips, “are a very bad girl.”
The sinful feel of his fingertips grazing the sensitive skin at her inner thighs made her laugh husky as she urged him, “Be bad with me, Ford.”
“It’s gotten to the point,” he replied in a voice made raw with both emotion and lust, “where I’m coming up with a new fantasy about you every goddamned minute of every day. How I’m going to strip off your clothes. How you’re going to beg me to kiss you, to touch you. But—”
“All week long you’ve teased me,” she growled against his mouth before nipping hard at his lower lip. “I’m done, Ford.”
“Done with what?”
There wasn’t enough light from the moon above them for her to see his eyes, but she could hear the tension—and the hope—in his question.
“Done with doubting you.” She held his face in her hands and turned it slightly so that she could press a kiss to one cheek. “I’m done with being scared of what I feel for you.” She kissed his other cheek. “And I’m done falling in love with my best friend.”
“Tell me what you’re saying.” His words were rough, instead of gentle. “Tell me exactly what you’re saying, Mia.”
“I know we can’t erase our past, but there was enough good about what we had during that first week before it all imploded that I don’t think I’d want to erase it even if we could. This past week has shown me what a future with you could look like.” God, yes, she was desperate for more of him—all of him—but she wanted all the little things, too. “Falling asleep in your arms, feeling safe and loved. Waking up with you beside me in the morning, knowing I’ve finally found my other half. Spending our free time during the day laughing, and loving you more with every second, even when you’re pushing all of my hot buttons.” Threading her fingers through his, she said, “And you should know you have my mother’s stamp of approval, too.”