Page 7 of Rock My Girl

Yet I'd been trying to push myself out of my comfort zone. That's why I took the assistant job with Tom. Having some kind of relationship with an incredible man like Ford would definitely teach me a lot.

Like why my knees grew weak just from the pressure of his hands on my shoulders.

He gave me a reassuring pat on the back, then went over to a mixing board. After testing the volume of my headphones, he ran the track, and I sang along into the microphone. When I finished, I turned to see Ford smiling as if he had just won the lottery.

"That was awesome," he said. "Come over and listen."

I sat beside him as he adjusted the volume of my vocals in a few places. Watching the screen, I followed along, noticing how my voice was just one of many tracks, and how he could change the volume and effects on each one individually.

It was fascinating. But it was also intriguing how he kept finding an excuse to tap my knee, touch my arm, or sit extra close.

When Ford was finished with his adjustments, he slung his left arm over the back of my chair, trailing his fingers along my shoulder as we listened to the completed song. Then he saved a backup and turned to me with the sweetest smile I'd ever seen.

"What do you think, Cassie?" he asked softly, picking up a piece of my hair and twirling it in his fingers.

"I think it's a great song, with or without my input."

He smirked. "It's much better with your voice on it and you know it. It brings balance. Texture."

I wasn't sure whether I should say it, since he was obviously over ten years older. But he’d asked for honest. "I think it sounds a bit more modern, maybe?"

He nodded. "Exactly."

Ford leaned closer as I realized my entire body was gravitating toward him. "You're so beautiful, Cassie," he murmured. "I’ve wanted to kiss you from the split second I saw you. But if you're not interested, we could still have a wonderful time collaborating on the rest of the songs."

Our eyes flicked up and down as we both stared at each other's lips. Then we inched slowly forward until his mouth met mine.

Warm, soft, and so very sweet...Ford's kiss was perfect. Everything about him felt natural and easy. I would have thought that a rock star might be aggressive, but he seemed as dazzled by our first tentative kiss as I was.

Ford pulled away, lifting my hand to kiss it gently. "I know it's too soon to say that we're going to make beautiful music together in many different ways," he murmured softly. "So I won’t. I'm just going to think it really hard and hope that you hear me."

Laughing, I realized that I couldn't wait to kiss him again.

I had no idea how things worked, but we clearly had a connection that ran far deeper than it should for the time we had spent together.

I already knew that we were destined for something great.

Well, it was too soon to know. But I was hoping very hard.

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