Come a Little Bit Closer: The Sullivans (31 page)

Moment by moment, her skin grew more heated, her bones seeming to liquefy with every kiss, with every caress, with every thrust of his clothed hips into hers. And yet, instead of their kiss growing more out of control, Smith’s mouth gentled on hers.

Amazingly, the whisper of his lips over hers only intensified her emotions, her needs, her passions, so that by the time he finally lifted his head to gaze down at her, she didn’t have a prayer of holding back anything from him, even if she’d wanted to.

“The babies, Smith.” Her mouth felt swollen and hot from his kisses and she sighed at the extreme pleasure of it. “Weren’t they just the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”

“They were beautiful,” he agreed in a low voice that rumbled over her skin and brought up thrill bumps over every inch of her. He lifted a hand to her cheek and brushed it over her full lower lip, which trembled at his touch. “And so are you.”

Holding the babies in her arms had completely erased their horrible morning with photographers and fights from which she’d been so sure she and Smith could never recover.

But, amazingly, they had.

Later, they would figure everything else out. Now, they would celebrate new life...and their love for each other.

This time she was the one pressing her mouth to his skin, first to the short, dark stubble that covered the lower half of his jaw, then to the strong, steady beat of his heart at the side of his neck. She’d never let herself be sure of a man before, and Smith was the last man on earth with whom she should have been looking for that certainty.

But how could she even think of looking anywhere else when he was all she could see?

She was so happy for him, you’d have thought it was her own sister giving birth, even though she’d only met Sophie a couple of times. Now, even with Valentina’s nearly naked body wrapped around him, heated and ready for anything he wanted, he didn’t make a move to take off his clothes. He simply continued to stare down at her.

All she could hear was the sound of her heart—and his—beating in time with each other.

And all she knew was that she was deeply, truly, madly in love with him.

Not because he was the most physically beautiful man she’d ever known. Not because he was famous or rich. Not even because of the way she felt when he was kissing her, touching her, making her cry out his name in pleasure.

But because of the way he loved his family, his mother, his sister—and now, the babies—with every last piece of his heart.

Heat and wild desire had always pulled them together, even when she’d tried so desperately to stay away. Now, there was so much she wanted to tell him, and yet all that she could manage was his name on a whisper.

“Smith.”

“I love you, too.”

They shared a kiss full of joy and passion, happiness and desire—everything she’d always wished for, but had never truly believed she would ever have. Dreams, reality, passion, affection, all melded into the perfect sensual combination as she began to strip him of his shirt and then his pants and boxers. They made short work of the rest of their clothes until they were naked and reaching for each other the second Smith put on protection.

Together, they tumbled into each other, strong and soft, wild and steady, as he moved into her in one beautiful thrust. She urged him deeper as she arched into him, her head falling back against the pillows while he ran his hands down her back to cup her hips and pull her tighter against him. Everything she gave he took, everything she craved he offered, as finally, neither of them held anything back.

In the exact moment that Valentina began to crest the wave, Smith took her mouth in a kiss so soft, so sweet, so full of love, that the tears she never let herself shed began to slide down her cheeks one after the other, faster still as the tremors of release wracked them both. The tears were still falling as Smith began to press soft kisses over her closed eyelids, her cheeks, her chin, everywhere that was streaked with wetness.

And when the waves of pleasure finally settled down, Valentina knew that she had never been so sated, so well loved in all her life...or so shocked by what had happened to herself while in Smith’s arms.

A part of her felt born again, as if she’d been baptized by her own tears. But those same tears had been her last defense against the pain she’d refused to acknowledge. Even her own sister had never really seen her cry.

Only Smith.

Finally, when he’d kissed away every last hint of her tears, he lifted his head to look down at her. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to when she could read everything in his eyes: the love, along with the lingering desire fueled anew by the soft kisses he’d never stopped giving her.

“I love you,” she said, the first time she’d ever said the words directly to him.

As joy suffused every inch of Smith’s face and as she said it again and again between his kisses, Valentina realized that as amazing as it had felt to hear Smith say “I love you,” it was not only a million times better to say it to him...it was also easy. Sweet.

And oh-so-perfect.

As she whispered the three little words she’d been so afraid to even feel against his mouth, he whispered it back before he curled her into his arms, her head on his chest, her legs still entwined with his.

All she wanted to do was close her eyes and rest for a short while, knowing Smith was there with her to hold her all through the night. She didn’t know how many hours it had been since they’d abruptly left the set, and for as long as it had taken Sophie to have her babies, Valentina hadn’t cared about the responsibilities she was ignoring. But now that it was just her own pleasure on the line, didn’t she have to drag herself back into the real world? No matter that it was the very last thing she wanted, that all that seemed to matter anymore was Smith and the joy she’d felt every single moment she’d ever spent with him.

As if he could read her mind, Smith pulled her closer, and said, “The world will keep spinning without us for a little while.”

The last thing Valentina felt was the press of his mouth against her forehead as she finally let herself lean all the way into him...and dropped every last defense around her heart as he whispered, “I love you so much,” one more time before sleep claimed her.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Valentina woke to the fantastic smell of pepperoni pizza with her stomach grumbling. As she pushed her hair back from her face and sat up against the pillows, she noted the sky outside the windows was black.

The lights were on in the room, but dim enough that she had to carefully scan the large bedroom for Smith. His eyes were on her from where he stood in the sitting area, obviously having just laid out food for both of them on the coffee table.

She’d worked with him for long enough now to recognize when he was in Director mode, almost as if he were framing the scene with her on the bed with the intention of pulling out a camera to shoot it. She began to move off the sheets to go to him, but her name on his lips held her captive where she was. A flush of heat spread slowly, and then faster, across her skin as he drank her in from across the room, until she was the one saying his name in a voice made slightly hoarse both by sleep and by the way she’d been calling out his name earlier.

“I love seeing you in my bed.”

“I love being in it.”

Moments later, he was standing in front of her and pulling her up to her knees, the covers completely sliding away from her naked body as she wound her arms around his neck to press her mouth against his with a passion that never seemed to abate, but only grew hotter, bigger, deeper, with every kiss.

In the back of her mind, she noted how easy it was—and how easy it had always been—to allow herself to be innately sensual with Smith. For so long she’d worked to suppress that side of herself, to make sure no man ever “took advantage” of her need to be touched, kissed, held. But she’d always felt safe with Smith, despite the dangerous hunger that was so often in his eyes when he looked at her. Was it because she felt the hunger, too, that the danger seemed not only okay...but was, in fact, a shockingly lovely bonus?

He brought over the shirt he’d been wearing the night before. She slipped her arms through the long sleeves, but she didn’t button it, simply rolled up the sleeves and wrapped the fabric around herself as they went to sit on the couch together.

He didn’t reach for food and neither did she. Instead, he took her hands in his just as she was reaching for him.

“Hungry?” he asked her, his deep voice at once soothing and arousing.

She nodded in answer, but knew she wouldn’t be able to eat a thing until they talked. Even the biggest stars in the world needed food and sleep just like anyone else. But when it came to the ones those stars loved, and to the potential damage fame could do to their relationships, “normal” came to a crashing halt.

And yet, Smith made her want to believe. Not just in love—she already knew that was real, knew that what she felt for him couldn’t possibly be merely the result of close proximity and great sex—but that their love could withstand not only the pressures of life, but of his fame, too.

For so long, she’d thought being strong meant not letting herself be vulnerable. But all this time had she had it backward? Instead of being a weakness, was risking everything to love actually the strongest, bravest thing she’d ever do?

She looked down at their hands entwined together, and knew he already held so much more of her than she thought she’d ever be able to give him.

Now—finally—she wanted to give him even more.

She looked up into his dark eyes, so beautiful, and so full of love.
For her.
“I don’t want to be a mystery anymore. Not with you.”

His hands didn’t tighten on hers. Instead, his thumbs stroked over her palms, sending both warmth and shivers through her at the same time.

“I’m here, Valentina. Now and always.” He continued to stroke over her skin, slowly, surely, steadily. “All you have to do is let me in.”

He made it sound so simple.

And then, suddenly, she realized it was.

“My mother was different when my father was alive.” As she began to speak, he pulled her closer, so that her legs came over his and she could feel his heart beating from where he was holding her hands against his chest. “She was always beautiful, but she was warm, too. It wasn’t until my father died that I realized just how much of that warmth had come through him.” She made herself keep thinking back to those first months after her father had died. “And after he was gone, it was like she crumbled away, one layer at a time, until she was gone, too.”

“You lost them both.”

Smith’s gentle words surprised her, then a moment later, resonated, even as she said, “She was still there, just—” She took a shaky breath. “The first actor she dated was barely a few years older than me. That was weird enough, but then one time when she was taking a long time getting ready, he—”

She stopped and shuddered as Smith scowled.

“What did he do? Who is he?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. And no one. He was all talk, innuendo. But I think if I had been willing...” Disgust came at her now just as hard and fast as it had those times her mother’s too-young actor boyfriends had come on to her.

“Did you tell your mother what he said? What he tried to take from you?”

“No,” she said softly, “I couldn’t figure out how or what I would have said. And I didn’t want her to feel bad, not when she was just doing her best to deal with her own grief. It was easier—” She paused for a moment, hating to have to use that word, but she wouldn’t hide the truth from Smith anymore, not even for pride’s sake. “—
easier
just to pull back. And to focus on my worries about Tatiana, about all those strange men my mother was dating coming in and out of the house. My sister was so pretty even then, and so innocent, that it was a relief to leave school and the dorms to move back in with them and take over managing her business affairs so that I could get her to all of her auditions and jobs.” She reassured Smith, “No one ever tried anything with Tatiana. Honestly, the only reason I think they ever came on to me was because I was their age.”

“You know that’s not the only reason, Valentina. You told me once that I could have any woman in the world.” He stared into her eyes with such intensity that she couldn’t possibly look away. “I want you.”

Valentina couldn’t have possibly held back the words, “I want you, too. I just wish—”

Again, she knew it would be easier not to say any of this to Smith, but painful experience with her mother had taught her that easier wasn’t better. All trying to avoid pain in the short run did was make everything hurt worse later...and become pretty much impossible to fix.

Only, while her mother had flitted around her and her sister’s lives, Smith was right here, holding her hand, letting Valentina spill everything out.

“I would never ask you to change what you do, or who you are,” she told him. “I love you too much to even think of stopping you from sharing your incredible gifts with the world. But I’ve been on plenty of sets over the past ten years. And I’ve seen what happens, how inevitable it all seems when men and women who’ve professed their love to other people end up falling for their co-stars, how marriages happen too fast and then end even quicker once they move on to other projects on other sides of the world.”

“You’re right, my work is important to me,” he told her. “So are you. So important that I don’t want to make big life and career decisions all alone anymore. From here on out, I want to make them with you.”

Even as his words had warmth filling her from head to toe, she had to tell him, “But it scares me that we met on a film set. And that it all happened so fast. It’s so hard to keep a normal relationship together. I don’t know how many Hollywood relationships have ever really worked apart from Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe he could want her. She could no longer deny his desire for her, or hers for him. No, she was simply trying to make sure that both of them went into this relationship with their eyes wide open.