“Yes. We can.”
I furrow my brow. “No. We won’t.”
“Zach.” She frowns, running her hand through my hair. “I love you, but you don’t know a damn thing about copyright law. He’s the bigger name. He’s a bully. I’m just some unknown girl with no track record. Roddy has industry connections. We’d never win against him.”
My heart races, and I heat up as I rehash her words. “What on Earth did you just say?”
“I said, ‘We’d never win.’ We’d have to—”
“No. Before that.”
She looks up. “Not sure what you mean? Oh.” She swallows. “You mean, the ‘I love you.’ That just kind of came out.”
“Do you?”
“Love you?” She clears her throat. “Zach, I don’t want to put any pressure on you . . . And it’s been so quick. You don’t have to say anything. Shit, that was weird.”
My heart runs a race and I run my hand along her jawline. “It wasn’t weird.”
Her eyes follow my hand as it traces a line from her neck to her breasts.
“Oh, God, Zach.”
She unbuckles my jeans, and her hand slides down the front of my pants. I rip her skirt and panties off, and I rub her clit while she grips the base of my cock.
We kiss passionately, prisoners of our desire for each other.
“Goddamn, I need you right now, Harm.”
“Then stop teasing me and fuck me,” she whispers back in my ear.
I scatter kisses down her neck. I’m sitting right next to her, and my cock stands straight up. It’s Harmony’s whisky-cherry scent. It’s her good-girl front and her bad-girl behind. I’m so damn aroused that my cock is as hard as a steel rod.
Her lips hang open and her eyelids quiver. I run my finger over her slick clit and I can feel how consumed with desire she is.
I bite my lip, smirking as we make eye contact.
Nodding toward my erection, I say, “Do you know how to ride one of these?”
She smiles, shakes her head, and punches me playfully on the shoulder. “Fuck you, seriously. That’s the corniest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I can teach you if you don’t know.”
I hear her start to utter another complaint, but it’s stifled by a moan.
Silently, she climbs on top of me and eases down onto my hard length. She clenches around me.
My skin burns hot and my world condenses to just the two of us. I run my hands over her hips, her back, and I thread my fingers through her hair as she moans and comes for the first time.
Desire explodes through me as she rides me, leaning back and letting me hold her hips.
Goddamn, I love this woman.
The words shoot through my mind like a plane flying over a city. Fleeting—but I know them to be so damn true.
Concentration eludes me, though, and all I can focus on is her feminine smell. Her tasty lips as I kiss them. The softness of her breasts under my fingers.
She comes again and I bite into the flesh of her neck.
“I’m fucking coming, Harm.”
She clenches hard around me, and my entire body is set on fire.
Yes. This is desire.
This is so right.
This is . . . love?
She wraps her arms around my neck as I soften inside her. But she doesn’t get off.
“Where’d you learn to ride like that, baby?”
She giggles. “I learned from the best.”
Three words linger on the tip of my tongue.
I should say them. Just let them out.
But then my mind runs through the last time I told a woman I loved her, and how that worked out.
I never saw her again.
Our flesh sticks together.
Harm finally lifts off of me and goes to the bathroom.
Naked, I walk to the refrigerator and get us a couple of glasses of water.
She comes out, a faint smile on her face.
“Want some water?” I ask.
“Sure.” She shrugs, still naked. I hand her a glass, and we whip around at the sound of the door opening.
Andrew walks in and sees us standing there, stark naked.
His jaw drops. “Uh, home early, guys.”
“Give us a minute, will you?”
He nods.
Harmony and I gather our clothes and head to our room.
After we brush our teeth and get ready for the night, she chugs a second glass of water.
“Well, that was awkward,” she says.
I shrug. “I don’t know. I don’t think he minded the show.” I wink. “Although, I do like having you all to myself.”
“I mean, it’s not like he has a problem with the ladies liking him. I’m sure he’s getting with lots of them.”
I scrunch up my face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She purses her lips. “He’s an attractive guy. Just doesn’t seem like he’d have a problem getting girls. That’s all.”
I swallow. “I guess you two haven’t talked much.”
“We have, a little. But he never talks about girls.”
“Andrew hasn’t been with a woman in years. He’s like me. Scared of them, I guess.”
“Holy shit, seriously?”
I nod. “Maybe I can set him up with one of my old college friends. A few of them still live in Nashville.”
“Sure. Why not?”
Harmony takes a pull of water and turns the light off.
“Thanks for the water,” she says. “Really needed it after our—you know.”
“You’re welcome,” I return, and kiss her goodnight.
As we fall asleep, I can’t shake the vague feeling that I’m missing something.
But I’m happy she’s not talking about her song being stolen. As I doze off, I think of the only high-powered lawyer I’ve ever known.
Justice must be served.
And how I have to figure out how to tell Harmony I love her. Those words are hard for me to say, though.
Chapter 24
Harmony
Smiling, our server puts a plate of bacon, eggs, and kale sweet-potato hash in front of me.
I flash a smile back and grab my fork.
“Everything okay?” my friend Fiona asks.
It’s been forever since I’ve seen Fiona. We were classmates in music theory freshman year. I’d been so immersed in playing music and with my relationship with Zach that I’d let my old Nashville friendships go by the wayside and hadn’t really reactivated them yet.
“I’m fine,” I say, pushing my eggs around. “Thanks for inviting me to breakfast. This is a good idea.”
I let out a deep sigh as I take a tiny bite of bacon.
“Really? You don’t look fine. You look like you need to go back to sleep.”
I frown. “The truth is that everything is not fine. Last night was completely ruined by Roddy, in more ways than one.”
I give her a rundown of last night.
“Not only did he steal my song, but he got to me so much, I didn’t even have the guts to get back on stage! And then, of course, there was the fact that I told Zach I loved him and he said nothing back.”
Relief pours through me as I get this off my chest. She drops her jaw. “Oh no. That’s the same thing Roddy did.”