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He swam over to the second waterfall, submerged himself beneath it and headed for his underground lair.

  Once he entered the apartment, he pushed his hair out of his eyes and grabbed a towel. Images of Sophie were playing in his mind from the night of the masquerade, when he’d brought her here. Now on this moonlit evening he was alone, sulking like the phantom that inspired the mask he’d worn.

  Everything reminded him of Sophie: his house, his music, his family, his childhood. She’d been a part of nearly every aspect of his life. If she left town, he didn’t know what he was going to do without her.

  He went to the fridge and grabbed a sparkling water, uncapped the bottle and took a bubbly swig.

  Sophie was obviously hurting over him. He was hurting over her, too. He ached inside, his emotions twisting him in two.

  He kept saying that he was going to write an album about his affair with her. But the songs would only be mournful ballads. Because, really, who was he trying to kid by saying that he didn’t know what being in love felt like?

  Sophie had always been the number one person in his life, and he could barely function without her.

  He’d been with scores of other women over the years, but he’d never gotten attached to any of them. With Sophie, the two of them had been joined at the hip. At the heart. At the soul.

  What they shared was more than physical, and the equation added up to love. Tommy loved her, pure and simple.

  No, he thought. There was nothing pure or simple about it. If he went to her this very instant, offering to make a commitment, to marry her and raise their child together, he would also be asking her to accept the results of the paternity test, regardless of the outcome.

  If Kara’s baby belonged to Tommy, there was no denying that the press would chastise him for having two kids with two different women. And if Sophie chose to stay with him, she would get dragged through the mud, too. The internet trolls would criticize her at every turn. It wouldn’t be easy on the kids, either. He knew from experience what having a famous father was like. Yet in spite of that, Tommy had sought fame and fortune, too.

  He frowned at the water bottle in his hand. He understood why Sophie was fighting her feelings for him. Regardless of how deep their attraction was, he’d never had the qualities she’d yearned for in a man. She’d refused to date him in the past because he didn’t know how to settle down. Because he was too restless, too wild, with too many women around.

  Only things were different now. He loved Sophie, and he didn’t want anyone except her. She was it for him, the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

  But with how precarious everything else was, how was it going to work between them? Not just with the Kara situation, but with his job, too. How would Sophie cope with him going back out on the road? Would she expect him to alter his career and stay home with her?

  Tommy had a lot to think about, so many jumbled things tormenting his mind and making a mess out of his heart.

  * * *

  On Thursday afternoon, Sophie got a text from Tommy asking if she would come to his house. He’d received the paternity-test results, but he didn’t want to open the envelope unless she was with him. She assumed he was too nervous to do it alone, so she agreed to meet him in his garden. For her, it was a neutral location. She couldn’t bear to return to his suite. Being in the vicinity of his bedroom would only make her ache more than she already did. She missed cuddling in his arms at night. She missed him during the day, too. She just plain missed him.

  What choice did she have, except to leave Nashville? She needed to find a way to survive without being consumed by him, without his mansion being nearby, without everything that reminded her of him.

  She’d taken the week off from work, but she hadn’t given her notice yet. She hadn’t put her house on the market yet, either. But as soon as this meeting with Tommy was over, she would be doing both of those things.

  Sophie cut across the lawn and took the garden path. She passed the tiger statue and headed to the koi pond, where Tommy was supposed to be waiting for her.

  She spotted him soon enough—tall and long and lean in his slim-fitting jeans and black vintage Western shirt. Sometimes he favored those old styles. This one had red-rose embroidery and white piping. She was familiar with the design. She’d given it to him on his last birthday, but she hadn’t expected him to be wearing it today.

  He turned in Sophie’s direction, and her heart skipped anxious beats. He was holding the unopened envelope, the yet-unknown paternity results, in his hand.

  “Hi, Soph,” he said, once they were close enough to speak.

  She sucked in her breath and repeated his greeting. “Hi.”

  They sat beside each other on an ornate iron bench. When he folded the envelope and tucked it into his shirt pocket, she got confused.

  She said, “I thought you were going to open that once I got here.”

  “I don’t want to know the results just yet. First I want to talk to you about something.” His leg was jittering, bouncing up and down.

  She considered putting her hand on his knee to help calm him, but she didn’t. She was too antsy herself. “If I was in your position, I would want to know right away.”

  “I’m prepared for either outcome. But what I’m not prepared for is losing you.”

  Her pulse went haywire, was now even jumpier than his leg. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about the pain I’ve been in since you moved out. And now you’re talking about leaving Nashville. With everything going on, I keep coming back to that. I’ve never felt pain like this before.”

  “I know that it probably seems cowardly for me to run away. But I can’t just hang around here and be your friend. It hurts too much, Tommy.”

  “But that’s what I’m saying. I can’t live without you, and I finally understand what that means. I love you, and I want us to have a life together, you and me and our baby. But I’m worried about how it’ll affect you if the other child is mine, about how the press will treat the situation and the emotional impact it will have on you. There are other things to consider, too, like me going back out on the road. I came up with a partial solution to that, but it still might not be right for you.”

  Sophie was still reeling from his initial admission, let alone having the ability to focus on the rest of it. “You love me? Since when?”

  “Since the beginning, but I didn’t know it, not until I was losing you. I just took it for granted that you’d always be there for me, and I was wrong to expect that from you. You deserve better than someone like me.”

  “So what are you saying? That you want us to be together, but you don’t think it’ll work?”

  “I just don’t want to make life harder for you. I want to be the man who makes you happy, not the guy who creates agony and stress.”

  “It matters that you love me.” It mattered more than she could say. She never, ever thought she would hear those words from him.

  “Is there a chance you feel the same way, too?”

  She nodded, barely able to contain her emotion. “Yes. My God, yes! But I’m still scared of the things you said. Are you sure that you want to be with me, Tommy? It’s not just about the situation with Kara and with our baby?”

  “I’m positive about how I feel. But that doesn’t change the hardship that us being together might cause you.”

  The look in his eyes was so deep and sincere, she wanted to cry. “No one said love was supposed to be easy.”

  “I know, but I’m just about the worst catch there is. Who in their right mind would want me as a husband?”

  Her heart leaped to her throat. “Is marriage on the table?”

  “It is, if you want it to be. But you’d have to be sure, more certain than you’ve ever been about anything in your life.”

  In spite of the anxiety still swir
ling around them, she actually laughed. “That’s the most troubling proposal I’ve ever heard.”

  He laughed, too. “I know. I’m sorry. But I’ve been up all night stressing about this.” His expression turned serious. “I want to fight for you—I want to convince you that I’m the man of your dreams. But how can I be your dream man if I’ve never been the type of guy you wanted?”

  “I always wanted you. I just didn’t want to share you with a zillion other women.”

  “There’s never going to be anyone ever again. It’s just you, Soph. It’ll always be just you from now on.” He looked longingly at her. “Commitment used to scare me, but it feels right with you. Do you believe me? Do you trust me?”

  “Yes.” He wouldn’t have asked her to marry him if he didn’t mean it. Tommy knew better than to toy with commitment, especially with how disloyal his father had been to his mother. “I trust you.”

  “But what about Kara’s baby?” He took the envelope out of his pocket. “If this child is mine, it’s going to affect you, too. The media will tear me apart for having two kids with two different women, and people will slam you for being with me.”

  She refused to back down. “I’ll just have to learn to handle what they dish out.”

  “It’ll be tough on the kids, too.”

  She put her hand on her tummy. “I wouldn’t allow either baby to be hurt. Kara’s son would be mine as much as he would be yours. And I would hope that Dan would be protective of both babies, too, regardless of who fathered them.”

  He gazed at her as if she was the most amazing person on earth. “You really mean all of that, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I do.” She didn’t want to run away from him anymore. She wanted to stay and fight for the love between them. She took the envelope from him, but she didn’t open it. She tucked it into her pocket, giving them time to finish their conversation. “Now first tell me about the partial solution you’ve come up with to you going back out on the road.”

  He smiled softly, a bit shakily, and was still giving her an awed look. “I was thinking that I could take the reality-show deal so I could stay here with you and our baby for the next few years. Then when it’s time for the Music Mentors tour, I was hoping that you and Peanut could travel with me. I know you never wanted to haul a kid around on the road, but touring is part of my job. And if we did it as a family, maybe it would be a nice adventure.”

  “That sounds like a beautiful compromise.” She recognized the sacrifices they would both be making. But Sophie wanted nothing more than for her and Tommy and their child to be a family. She reached into her pocket and removed the envelope. “Should I open this? Or do you want to do it?”

  “You can do it.”

  She tore open the seal and removed the results. She glanced at the paper and revealed what it said. “You’re not the father, Tommy.”

  He only stared at her for a second. “I’m not?” He took the paper from her and read it himself.

  Then he reached for her, and they held each other, warm and tight.

  His mouth sought hers, and they kissed, the two of them wrapped in love and commitment. And friendship, she thought.

  Tommy was still her oldest and dearest friend, only now he was going to be her husband, too.

  * * *

  Tommy took Sophie’s hand and led her to the mansion. Where she belonged, he thought, where they could be together.

  They ascended the private staircase that led to his suite. He was so anxious for the future to unfold that he wanted to start planning their wedding right away. But first they needed to get properly engaged.

  Once they were inside his room, he said, “I have something to give you.” He went to his nightstand and opened the drawer. He removed the ring he’d bought her from its case and turned to face her. He hadn’t brought it outside with him because he’d been afraid to presume that she would marry him. So he’d kept it here, shrouded in hope.

  Her eyes went wide, and he went down on bended knee. “I love you, Sophia Marie Cardinale, and I’m going to do everything in my power to be the best husband and father I can be.” He released the breath he’d been holding. Making it official, he asked, “Will you marry me?”

  Her eyes glistened with tears. “Yes, I absolutely will.”

  He slid the five-carat solitaire onto her finger and came to his feet. “When I told my jeweler that I wanted a diamond that shined as bright as a star, he said that the ancient Romans considered diamonds to be pieces of stars that had fallen to earth. So that’s what this is. A piece of one of the stars we named in Texas.”

  “It’s incredible.” She gazed at the ring. “I can’t wait to marry you. My father really liked you, Tommy. I think my mother would have, too. Dad always told me what a romantic she was.”

  “I wish I could have met her. That she could have lived to be part of your life, and mine, too. She’s going to be looking down on you on our wedding day. Both of your parents will be there.”

  “Is it okay with you if I ask your dad to walk me down the aisle? I’d like for him to fill in for my father.”

  “He’ll be thrilled, I’m sure. My mom will be jumping for joy that we’re getting married, too.”

  “We’ll have to figure out a way for her to be part of the ceremony, as well. We can’t leave her out of it.”

  “Should we do it here at the mansion? As soon as we can? I don’t want to wait or have a long engagement.”

  “Me, neither. How about a March wedding? That’s only four months away and should be just in time for my first ultrasound.”

  “That works for me. It’ll be a whirlwind, but we can pull it off.” Tommy had the money and the resources to make it happen in a quick and grand way. “Brandon can be my best man, and Matt can be one of my ushers.”

  She smiled. “I’ll include Libby as one of my bridesmaids. And Chance can be our ring bearer. I’m not sure about the flower girl. Maybe one of Mack and Jean’s daughters.”

  He put his hand on her tummy. “I’m starting to get the feeling that Peanut will be a girl.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “I don’t know. Daddy intuition, I guess.” He paused. “I want this to be a family-style wedding. I can enlist a nanny service to help with everyone’s kids. At some point, we’re going to need our own nanny, too, especially when we’re on the road. It wouldn’t hurt to have an extra set of hands.”

  She slipped her arms around his waist. “That sounds good to me. I’m just excited to become your wife.”

  “The next four months are going to be crazy, with the CMAs, Christmas, New Year’s and our wedding.”

  “I almost forgot about the CMAs.”

  “They changed the time slot, scheduling them a little later this year. I’m not nominated this time, but they asked me to be a presenter.”

  “Oh, poor boy.” She teased him. “You’ve won Record of the Year and Entertainer of the Year for the past two years. It’s time to give someone else a chance.”

  “Yeah, well, when I produce an album with songs about you and our baby, I’ll be winning all sorts of future awards for it. Yesterday I worried about how downhearted my new songs were going to be. But today, I know that they’re going to be my best ever.”

  She laughed. “There you go, boasting as usual. Call me crazy, but I love that side of you.”

  He grinned. “I just pretend to be conceited, remember? But I’m glad you love my ego as much as the rest of me.” He swept her off her feet and carried her to bed. He loved everything about her, this perfect woman who’d agreed to be his wife.

  * * *

  Tommy’s hands on Sophie’s body felt magnificent. So warm, she thought. So passionate. He removed her clothes, touching her in places that made her sigh and arch and purr.

  Whatever made her think that she could live without him? She was still aching from the need to be close to h
im, and he was right there. Tommy. Her Tommy. He belonged to her now, just as she belonged to him.

  He went down on her, lifting her hips and raising her bottom in the air. She gripped his shoulders as he did deliciously wicked things with his tongue. Soft and silky heat, she thought, and wild, wild wetness.

  The diamond on her finger shimmered in the light. He’d captured a piece of a star and given it to her. He was a star, too, she thought. A superstar who entertained millions of people with his music, and she was his biggest admirer.

  He gazed up at her, his hazel eyes changing colors. Sophie was trying to hold on, to make this moment last, but she was already spiraling toward an orgasm.

  He smiled like a mischievous schoolboy and pushed her over the edge, making her come.

  Shaking and shuddering, she closed her eyes and tugged on his hair, the short, stylishly messy strands slipping through her fingers.

  While the room seemed to spin, she felt him shift his weight. She opened her eyes and saw that he’d climbed on top of her, his face temptingly close to hers.

  She reached for him, and they rolled over the bed, kissing and caressing and making hungry sounds. She pulled open the snaps on his shirt and bared his chest. She shoved her hands down his jeans, too, giving him an even bigger hard-on than he already had.

  “Damn,” he said. “What you do to me.”

  “Likewise.” Her skin was tingling from her orgasm, her body still damp from where he used his tongue. “I want you inside me now.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He exaggerated his country charm and dragged his jeans past his hips.

  He didn’t take them all the way off, but she didn’t mind. It seemed hotter this way, the desperation between them turning her on. He thrust into her, and she dug her nails into the part of his ass that was exposed.

  He moved inside her, the friction from his pants abrading her bare legs. She curled her toes and keened out a moan. He kept going, deeper and deeper, every thrust more thrilling than the last. Flesh melded with flesh, twirling and spinning into a chasm of lust.