Liddie acted like she was smoothing the lapels of Tobias’s jacket, but really, she just wanted to touch him, and she thought maybe he needed a physical connection to her, if just for a few moments. They were in a hotel suite in Nashville, waiting for the car to take them to the Ryman, and Tobias was twitchy, nervous, and a little bit snippy.

“I think you need something to take the edge off,” she murmured.

Tobias grinned then. “Yeah, I do, but you look awfully pretty for me to get you all rumpled.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“What if I told you I don’t mind you getting me rumpled?” Liddie stretched up onto her toes and gave him a kiss back. “Unzip me.”

“Liddie . . .” His voice was unsure, but the twinkle in Tobias’s eyes told her he was interested.

“Unzip me,” she repeated and turned around. She held her hair up and felt Tobias’s warm hand on the back of her neck. He hesitated for a moment, then began to lower her zipper. She grinned when he sucked in his breath when he discovered she was wearing her new lingerie set as she stepped out of the dress. She carefully placed the layers of silk and organza over the back of a chair before turning back to Tobias and beginning to unbuckle his belt.

“Let me do this for you,” she said, knowing he was going to protest. “Please?” Then she sank to her knees and took him into her mouth.

“Holy!” Tobias exclaimed. He kept his eyes locked on hers. Her gaze never wavered as she pleasured him with her mouth, and soon he uttered a guttural yelp as he climaxed. She never took her eyes off of his. When he was finished, she placed a playful peck on the tip of his penis, winked at him, and stood up.

“I think the car will be here soon,” she said, and she stepped back into her dress. “Zip me again?”

“Sure thing, Liddie.”

Tobias drew the zipper up and fastened the hook-and-eye closure at the top of the dress. She turned around and beamed at him. “Better?” she asked and giggled when he blushed.

Tobias nodded, but then his forehead creased in confusion. “How the hell do you still have lipstick on?”

“A girl’s got to have some secrets,” she said as the phone rang. She answered, listened for a moment, and then said her thanks and hung up. “The car’s here.”

“Well then, I guess we got done just in time,” Tobias said with a laugh.

Liddie giggled again, and then she and Tobias made their way downstairs to get to the car.

´*•.¸(*•.¸ *¸.•*´)¸.•*´

The red-carpet entrance wasn’t as traumatic as she’d feared. She didn’t trip or fall, and Tobias had been on the scene long enough that people knew who he was and that he wouldn’t spend a lot of time trading banter with the red-carpet interviewers. Tobias introduced her, she smiled, and then he whisked her off to the next set of people. Liddie thought her face was going to be frozen in a smile by the time they ran the whole gamut, and when they got to their seats, she was out of breath.

“You okay, darlin’?” Tobias leaned over to her and gave her kiss on the cheek. “You handled everything like a pro. Now you can just sit back and enjoy the show, right?”

“Right.” She gave him a wink to let him know she really was all right, if just a bit overwhelmed.

Of course, there wasn’t a lot of “just sitting back,” because people kept approaching Tobias and congratulating him, and then he would introduce her, which would be followed by e some small talk. This was repeated about a million times, and she was ready to shriek. Her saving grace was Tobias, who had loosened up once they got to their seats, and while he stood to shake hands and greet various people, as soon as he sat back down, he had his arm around her or was holding her hand. It made all the difference.

Tobias squeezed her hand, and Liddie turned to look at him. “Thank you for coming with me,” he said, his face serious. “It really means a lot to me.”

“Well, it means a lot to me that you asked.”

A smile lit up his face, and then the house lights flickered on and off to signal the five-minute warning to the start of the ceremony.

“Here we go, you two. Hang on; I have a feeling it’s gonna be a wild ride tonight,” Marty whispered in a conspiratorial voice.

Tobias chuckled and squeezed her hand again, but for the first time that evening, he seemed nervous to her. It had to be nerve-racking, waiting to see if he won or lost, and then performing with people he wasn’t used to playing with added another layer of stress. Liddie didn’t know how he did it, but as she sat in the darkened auditorium, it hit home that if she was going to be in Tobias’s world, she was going to have to get used to it as well.