Tobias had hoped to slide unobtrusively back into his seat, but that wasn’t happening. He’d waited until a small intermission, but people still managed to shake his hand and comment on the performance, though the only person whose opinion he cared a bit about was Liddie. She wasn’t saying anything, but her eyes were bright and she was looking him in adoration, and yeah, that high came right back. She clenched his hand, he squeezed hers, and they sat with their fingers intertwined until the last award of the night.

In general, Tobias didn’t really care if he won an award or not. He was purely happy to be recognized, to be nominated. Tonight, he had a knot in his stomach as the two announcers switched off reading the list of nominees. He gripped Liddie’s hand tighter when he heard his name reverberate over the sound system. Liddie put her other hand over his as they got ready to read the winner’s name, and Tobias closed his eyes.

“Songwriter of the Year goes to . . . Tobias Harper!”

Tobias didn’t hear anything else because Liddie was shrieking in his ear and grabbing him around the neck in a hug and giving him big, sloppy kisses on the side of his face. He kissed her full on the mouth and then made his way to the stage, accompanied by his music, to accept his award.

His speech was a variation of those he’d made earlier in the evening, the difference being they allowed him time to actually thank people by name. He ran down the list of usual suspects: Mick, Marty, his brothers. But then he cleared his throat and stared at the heavy cut-glass award in his hands.

“I won the first one of these when I was twenty, for a song I first recorded when I was eighteen and wrote when I was sixteen. They say good things come to those who wait. I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but I think they might be right. I waited thirty years for Liddie Hopewell to come back to me, and if my luck holds out, I’ll have another thirty years to be a pain in her ass, whoops, excuse me, butt.” He could hear the audience laughing, but his eyes were riveted on one person. “So I wanna thank whatever force brought Liddie back into my life, and I wanna thank Liddie for putting up with me. I love you dearly. You’re my muse, and my heart.”

He held the award over his head and took a step back for the emcee to close the show. He saw Liddie blowing him kisses, tears running down her face. He knew without a doubt that she would always be in his life. He just had to make absolutely clear that he wanted her to be his partner, because she was already his muse and she’d never not been in his heart.

The house lights came on, and people started filing for the exits as Tobias bounded down the steps to get to the seats where he and Liddie had been seated. There was a knot of people gathered around Marty, who was handing out cards and generally schmoozing with his newfound potential clients. Someone was talking with Liddie, who caught his eye and beamed. Her wide smile alerted the group that Tobias approached, and he spent the next ten minutes or so being congratulated, expressing his thanks, and trying to resist the urge to knock everyone out of the way and pluck Liddie from the crowd and carry her out like some sort of caveman would.

He resisted, but only barely. Marty could sense his agitation, so he directed everyone to give him their contact information, allowing Liddie and Tobias to escape out the side door and into a waiting town car.

“To the Mercury after-party, sir?”

Liddie cocked an eyebrow at him, and he could read her mind. The after-party location was only a few blocks from where they were staying. They could pop into the after-party, make an appearance to satisfy Marty, the press, and the academy, and then scoot out, probably without being noticed.

“Yes, that sounds good. But I do have a request: take the long way.”

“Yes, sir.” The driver raised the barrier and set off slowly, finally escaping the snarl of cars outside the venue. Liddie gave Tobias a wicked grin before sliding into his lap and straddling him with her knees on either side of his hips.

“Congratulations on your wins, Toby,” she whispered, her breath tickling his ear.

“Thank you, Liddie darlin’. The fact that you came up here and shared this night with me? That was a score beyond my wildest dreams.” Her smile grew wider, and Tobias covered her mouth with a hot, hard kiss.

“You need to get busy if we’re gonna do it in the back of a limo,” she murmured against his mouth.

“I guess I’d better do something, then,” Tobias said with a laugh. And then he did.

´*•.¸(*•.¸ *¸.•*´)¸.•*´

Liddie was very conscious of Tobias’s hand on her backside as she stood next to him while people jockeyed for his attention. He was surprisingly relaxed and affable as he chatted with people as he sat beside her, but then again, he’d been doing this a long time and knew how to handle himself, though she supposed the orgasm he’d had on the limo ride to the after-party hadn’t hurt.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I thought we’d be able to slip out sooner,” he murmured in her ear. “I’ll make it up to you.”

Liddie rolled her eyes. “Please, Tobias. This is a huge night for you. If you can’t be the center of attention now, when can you be? Jeez. What is that look for?”

He placed a sweet kiss on the side of her mouth. “You are amazing. Absolutely amazing.”

She shook her head in wonder and smiled at him. “I’m just glad I could be here.”

“God, we need to get out of here so I can properly thank you.”

Marty wandered by and muttered, “Piranha Party coming up on my left. Fair warning.”

Tobias’s colorful expletive caused Liddie to raise her eyebrows in curiosity, but his scowl made her worry.

“What’s going on, Toby?”

He groaned and gave her a pained expression. “There was a group of women who were friendly with Candy. Marty always called ’em piranhas because they were all toothy and ate men alive.”

He seemed surprised when she cackled.

“Oh, I think I met them in the restroom earlier.” Liddie rolled her eyes. “They were charming.”

Tobias’s forehead creased. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

She waved him off. “I cleared up some misconceptions. It’s all good.”

“Yikes.” He snickered. “Man, I would have paid cash money to see that. I’m gonna say it again: you’re amazing.”

“I think you’re pretty nifty, too.” She gave him a light smooch on the forehead before sighing contentedly.

“Fuck it—let’s get outta here.” Tobias sprang out of the chair and, following another kiss, pulled Liddie close to his side and went over to Marty. “We’re headed out, Marty. I’ll give you a call tomorrow or the next day, okay?”

“Sounds good.” Marty clapped Tobias on the back. “Congratulations, man. This has been a long time coming. Liddie, thanks for keeping this idiot in line.”

“Oh, the pleasure is all mine,” she said with a giggle that grew into a laugh when Tobias’s cheeks flamed at her sassy comment.

She felt rather than heard the rumble of Tobias’s growl. “Come on, Liddie. Let’s make this party private,” he said in a low voice. “Marty, see ya.”

Liddie could hear Marty cackling as they walked away.

They walked toward the ballroom doors, arms looped around each other’s waist, not talking but simply enjoying one another’s presence. They’d just reached the door when a hard thump made Tobias stagger and sent Liddie sprawling.

“You bitch!”

Liddie had just gotten back on her feet when Candy shoved her again, hard.

“Why did you have to come back?” Candy screamed in Liddie’s face. “Why couldn’t you just stay in California?”

Afraid she was going punch Liddie, or worse, Tobias grabbed Candy’s upper arm, realizing he’d made a mistake. The second his hand touched her skin, he let go, as if her skin was capable of burning him.

“Now you’re going to lay hands on me, Toby? Even though you would barely touch me when we were married? Huh?” Candy tried to shove Tobias, but because he was a mountain of a man, she simply couldn’t make him budge.

“Whoa, dial it back, woman.” Tobias had his hands up, fingers spread.

“Excuse me, Candace,” Liddie spit. “You do not get to lay your hands on anyone, especially Tobias.”

“Oh, give me a fucking break, Liddie. Always so put upon. Liddie, who has a dead mother. Liddie, whose father is an overbearing hypocrite. Liddie, with the faggot uncles. Jesus. No one needs you to protect them, certainly not Tobias Harper.”

Liddie blew out an irritated breath. “You exhaust me, Candy. Why don’t you go with your little friends, Tiffany and Amber, or whoever they are, and cry into your twenty-dollar Lemon Drops about how you can’t find any decent men? I’ll give you some advice, though—because I bet you find decent guys all the time, guys like Toby—maybe it’s you that’s not decent; maybe it’s you that’s the piece of shit. But I think you already know that. I think you know that you screwed up and lost the best thing that ever happened to you because you were a selfish, greedy bitch.”

Tobias took Liddie’s hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “Come on, baby. Let’s get out of here.” Liddie was still staring a hole through Candy, her eyes blazing, and for just a moment, he thought Liddie was going snap and beat the ever-loving crap out of Candy, but she didn’t.

She ended up blinking a few times and then giving him a brilliant smile and saying, “Yes. Let’s get out of here.”