Come a Little Bit Closer: The Sullivans (33 page)

Her name was on his lips. She knew it would be so easy to turn into him, to let him kiss away her ugly memories. And she would. But not yet.

Not until she’d bared herself to him. Fully. Completely.

And not until she’d risked everything for him so that he could do the same for her.

“His name was Bryan. I thought I’d seen it all, thought I was so smart when it came to picking a boyfriend, a man to finally give my virginity to. He had a good job working with computers. He wasn’t creepy or scary. He was nice. He didn’t treat me like I was stupid, or worthless because of where I came from.” She sighed, remembering how naïve she’d been. “I didn’t get pregnant on purpose. I don’t know what happened. Maybe the condom broke. But when I went to tell him, I knew I couldn’t do it. Not because I didn’t want to trap him into having to stay with me.” She swallowed hard. “I didn’t tell him because I couldn’t trap myself.”

She didn’t realize she was crying until she tasted the tears on her cheek, nor did she realize Graham had turned her in his arms so that he could kiss them away, one by one.

“There had to be more. I knew there
was
more.”

The sunlight had come up just enough in the room by then that when she lifted her eyes to his, he would see everything she felt for him. And she wanted him to.

“I love you. And I’m not saying that to trap you into staying with me for any longer than you want to.”

Now, he was the one brushing the hair back from her forehead as he said, “Marry me.”

She sucked in a shaky breath, knowing the only reason she could keep the slightest bit steady was because he was holding her. There was nothing she wanted more in the world than to belong to this man.

Nothing, except for him to trust her with his pain, so that she could help him the way he’d helped her a thousand times over.

“Yes,” had to come first, because she couldn’t bear to keep him guessing if she wanted to share his forever. There was nothing she wanted more.

The kiss they shared after she accepted his proposal was sweet, and could so easily have turned into something even sweeter, but she hadn’t been afraid to come to San Francisco with five hundred dollars in her pocket and a baby growing inside of her...and she wouldn’t be afraid now.

“I don’t want your money.”

“I know.” And he did, knew that he could lose every last one of his billion dollars and she would remain at his side without so much as blinking an eye.

“I don’t even want you to be less domineering or bossy,” she said with a little smile that had his mouth curving up too as he stared down at her. “All I’ve ever wanted is a family.”

“I want to be Leah’s father. Legally.”

She reached up and touched his face, the sunlight starting to stream over them now like a spotlight, knowing he’d understood her perfectly, but had deliberately tried to deflect her request.

“We’re both yours. Always. I want you to be my husband and Leah’s father.” He was closing the distance to kiss her again when she said, “But we also want a grandmother. A grandfather. We want uncles. And aunts.”

He stilled above her, his eyes shuttering, but she was young and strong.

And not the least bit afraid of a fight with the powerful man levered above her.

“It was my job to protect my sister.” Each word of the emotional confession she hoped he’d finally feel safe making with her was raw. And filled with unbearable pain. “Leanora was the baby of the family. She used to tell me I was her hero, and I believed she was right, that I was invincible, that there was nothing that could touch me. Or her.” He was looking right at Jo but she knew it wasn’t her he was seeing. “I was busy screwing some woman whose name I can’t even remember when the call came in. I didn’t get it until the next morning, didn’t know that they’d found her with some punk, both of them overdosed. His heart was still beating. But hers—”

This time she was the one wiping away his tears, putting her arms around him, soothing him with words that meant nothing, and everything, all at once.

She was surprised when his hand moved to her stomach. “She was pregnant. I was the only one in my family that she’d told. I told her I thought it was a good idea that they weren’t going to get married. I told her I would take care of her. I read every book on pregnancy, on being a single parent. I promised her I’d be there for her when she told the rest of our family. I thought she knew we loved her, and that she didn’t need to keep her pregnancy a secret. I thought I was still her hero, the one she could depend on for anything.”

This time, when his eyes met Jo’s he saw the woman he loved with everything he had, with every last piece of his heart.

“She never told me about the drugs. And I never guessed. Because I didn’t want to guess, I didn’t want to see it. I should have seen it.”

Jo wasn’t going to pretend she didn’t know the story—at least up until the part where it turned out his sister had been pregnant—or that she hadn’t read about it on the Internet once she’d realized who he was.

But all this time she’d thought it was grief that had hardened him. Finally, she realized it wasn’t just grief that tore him apart every hour of every day.

It was blame. For himself.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

His head was on her chest and she was holding him just as steadily as he’d held her moments before.

“I should have been there for her. I should have protected her.”

“No,” she argued. “You should have loved her. And you did.” She rocked him as she rocked her baby girl so much of every day and night, the baby that he’d asked her to name after the sister he’d loved so much. “You did.”

Chapter Thirty

In near perfect silence, the entire crew had watched the final scenes being filmed. In the very last one, Smith-as Graham introduced Tatiana- as-Jo to the family he’d walked away from two years earlier. Everyone on the cast and crew had to reach for tissues, especially when the prim and proper matriarch of Graham’s family had taken Leah onto her lap, kissed the child’s soft hair, then softly said to Jo, who still had the streaks of pink in her hair,
“Thank you for bringing my family back together, and for joining it.”

Even hours later in her rental house, it was only the fear of ruining her perfectly applied mascara that kept Valentina from blubbering like a fool over the movie’s end. Thankfully, she hadn’t had to say her goodbyes to the friends she’d made on the set this afternoon. The wrap party tonight would give them all time to hug and laugh and reminisce and drink just a little too much together.

Over the past weeks, Valentina had begun to adjust to the spotlight, a little bit at least. She was used to holding Smith’s hand in public, she’d absolutely loved spending Thanksgiving at his mother’s house with Tatiana and the rest of his family, and she’d even accepted that stories and pictures of the two of them snapped by strangers in San Francisco would often end up on blogs and in newspapers.

But tonight was different.

The Maverick Group, a multinational corporation made up of a group of powerful billionaires who had a golden touch when it came to business, was the main investor in Smith’s film. They were throwing the wrap party for
Gravity
tonight.

Most women, she knew, would be thrilled to put on a stunning couture dress made by one of the top designers in the world and to slip their feet into heels that cost more than the average month’s rent in most places around the country. Valentina had never been like other women, though. Even as a girl, she’d been just a little more serious, far more likely to get excited over a book than a pop star.

Fortunately, Tatiana knew her inside and out. Her sister had gone out of her way for the past two hours to make it seem like they were simply having a fun makeover day together. Instead of going to a fancy salon for a blow-out, manicure, and makeup, Tatiana had suggested they make each other up, instead.

Of course, her sister didn’t need Valentina’s help. Tatiana was such a pro after all she’d learned over the past few years, that if she ever decided to give up acting, she’d have no problem launching her own hair, nails, and makeup line.

Now, Valentina tried not to see the panic in her own eyes as she looked in the mirror. Tatiana had a blow dryer in one hand, the other smoothing Valentina’s hair.

“There,” her sister said as she finally turned off the dryer. “Perfect.” She didn’t give Valentina too much time to study herself before pulling her out of her seat and handing her the shockingly gorgeous dress.

“Time for the finishing touch.” Tatiana smiled as she looked down at the dress Valentina hadn’t yet taken from her. “Smith has some seriously great taste. I can’t wait to see it on you.”

The large dress box had been yet another gift waiting on her desk this week. She loved that he hadn’t stopped surprising her, and she knew he never would.

Her sister was right about his taste. The soft yellow fabric was elegant while somehow hugging all of her curves at the same time, and the bodice glittered just enough to make the dress something special. In fact, it would have been the perfect dress if not for the long slit up the side of the leg.

She took a deep, steadying breath as her sister all but shoved the dress into her hand. Telling herself to stop being such a baby, Valentina quickly slipped off Smith’s button-front shirt that she’d been wearing while Tatiana did her hair and makeup, and stepped into the dress, putting her arms through the spaghetti straps. After Tatiana zipped her up, Valentina slipped her feet into the stunning heels.

She closed her eyes for a moment before turning to face her sister.

Tatiana’s eyes were wide. “Val.” Her pretty mouth curved into a huge smile. “You look
amazing!”
Her sister grabbed her hand and took her over to the full-length mirror. “Look!”

Valentina stared in the mirror with surprise. She’d expected to see a stranger. But even though she’d never been done up like this before, the woman looking back at her was the same one she saw every morning and evening in the bathroom mirror when she brushed her teeth with Smith standing right there beside her.

Granted, her hair had never looked quite so glossy or well styled, and her eyes had never seemed so smoky and mysterious, nor her mouth quite so plump and red.

A knock came at the door, followed by Smith’s deep voice asking if he could come in. Tatiana called out for him to enter, which was good because Valentina’s throat had gone completely dry.

She stood perfectly still as he walked in.

“Valentina.”

Tatiana slipped out unnoticed as Smith stood where he was in the middle of the room and stared at Valentina. “My God, you’re beautiful. I’m never going to get used to it, am I?”

Despite her own worries about how the evening was going to go, she couldn’t doubt for even one second that he meant what he said. Even the best actor in the world couldn’t have seemed that genuine if he hadn’t really believed every word.

“Thank you.” She tried to smile, but her lips had a hard time moving up at the corners.

This wasn’t her first Hollywood party by any means. She’d been to dozens with her sister over the years. The difference was that she’d always been in the background, just one of the support staff for her sparkling, beautiful sister. No one had ever noticed her. She’d been as invisible as the ice sculptures melting in the middle of the vegan buffet.

Tonight, she wouldn’t be invisible. And not just because of the dress, the shoes, the hair and makeup.

She’d be with Smith. On his arm. As much a target for dissection as the actors and actresses who had willingly signed up for a career in the spotlight. Yes, they’d already been in plenty of tabloids, blogs, and magazines, but this event was on a whole different level.

Before she’d met him, she’d been utterly certain that this kind of life was crazy, and that any woman who walked willingly into a relationship with a man like him was a fool. Now, Valentina was one hundred percent certain that he was worth being crazy and foolish for—worth even the terror that rode her.

And still, her heart raced and her palms dampened just thinking about all those…

She was stunned out of her frantic thoughts by the sound of the door being locked by Smith. By the time she got her brain functioning at least halfway as fast as it should, he was moving toward her and taking her hands in his. He lifted them to his gorgeous mouth, pressed a kiss to each of her fingertips, then gently turned her to face the wall while lifting her hands up to put her palms flat against the cool painted plaster.

She stood there, turning her face from the wall to look at him over her shoulder. “Smith, what are you—”

Her question slid away on a gasp as he easily found the long opening along the right side of her dress that ran from ankle to mid-thigh. It was the one part of the dress that had given her pause, more than a hint of sexy on an otherwise perfectly elegant dress. She loved how sexy she felt any time he kissed her, touched her, whispered how good she felt in his arms, relished how natural it was for her to let go whenever they were making love. But it was one thing to let her inner sensual self out in the privacy of his bedroom...it was another entirely to let the rest of the world see it.

But now, as his warm fingers ran a devastating path up her sensitive skin, she gave silent thanks for the cut of the dress. He didn’t rush as he lightly caressed the skin on her upper thigh, first on the outside and then in toward her inner thigh.

From the first touch of his lips on her fingertips, her arousal had spiked. And as his hand slid over the thin lace of her thong and he cupped the sensitive flesh between her legs, she couldn’t think, or worry, or even remember how those thoughts got there in the first place. All she could do was arch her hips into his in a silent plea for more.

Her name was a heated whisper against her neck as he answered her plea by slipping his fingers under the edge of silk and into her. His tongue traced the curve of her neck as she rocked into him, the delicious—and oh-so-unexpected—pressure quickly sending her straight into a heady climax.