Chapter Fourteen
“Hi, I’m Tatiana. We met briefly last night at the party.” Tatiana Landon seemed a little nervous as she said, “You’re Ian, right?”
Ian Sullivan looked down into a face so beautiful it actually made his chest ache just to look at her. Ian had met Tatiana’s older sister, Valentina, at his cousin Gabe’s wedding in Lake Tahoe. Valentina and his cousin Smith had just become engaged over the holidays and Ian had been surprised that his movie-star cousin had managed to find true love in the middle of his Hollywood world filled with paparazzi and online gossip columns. Last night, Ian had finally met Tatiana when she’d arrived late to Nicola’s bachelorette party. They’d been quickly introduced before the girls had pulled her over to their side of the barbecue. He’d shaken plenty of hands last night, but the feel of hers had stuck with him for some reason he hadn’t wanted to dissect.
Did she really think there was a chance in hell that he wouldn’t know who she was when the Oscar buzz around her performance with Smith Sullivan in Gravity was so big that even a guy like him—who very rarely made it out of a conference room and into a movie theater—could miss it? Or was this just some cute little act the starlet put on with strangers?
Not for the first time, Ian thought how different Tatiana and her sister, Valentina, were. Smith’s fiancée was long and lean, with an exotic air about her. Valentina’s younger sister, on the other hand, was small and curvy, with an air of innocence that had a guy wanting nothing more than to see what it would take to get her to sin. Even the dress Tatiana was wearing was understated, as if she was trying to make sure she didn’t draw any attention away from the bride. Of course, as a movie star, she obviously craved the spotlight, so he figured she must have another reason to dress so conservatively. No doubt it was another of her actress tricks to try to convince people that she didn’t have a huge ego so that they’d be even more likely to give her whatever she wanted. He’d learned plenty of those tricks the hard way, living with his ex-wife.
Ian made sure none of his speculations were evident as he said, “It’s nice to see you again today, Tatiana.”
“It was such a beautiful wedding, wasn’t it?”
The dreaminess in her eyes told him that she believed wholeheartedly in love and forever. Ian had also believed in it once, until his own marriage had gone straight down the tubes. He was happy for his cousins, for his brother Rafe, and he hoped his other siblings all found great people to fall in love with, too. But for himself, Ian couldn’t imagine a world in which he’d willingly marry again.
“Marcus and Nicola are both good people.”
Tatiana’s eyebrows went up. “I take it you’re not a big fan of love?”
Well, this wasn’t what he’d expected from the beautiful star. Not even close. He figured she’d be so busy positioning herself in the best possible light that she wouldn’t notice anything about anyone else.
Intrigued despite himself, he said, “I have no doubt that the two of them are in love.”
“So if it’s not love that bothers you, it must be marriage?”
Ian couldn’t think of the last time anyone had been this in his face about love and marriage. His business associates and male friends never talked about relationships. And with the women he casually saw, he deliberately kept to no-strings pleasure.
Rather than directly answering her intrusive question, he asked her one to which he could already guess the answer. “How old were you the first time you dressed up in a wedding gown?”
Her answering smile was so bright, and pretty, that he could have sworn the sun had been behind a cloud until now—even though rationally he knew that the Northern California sky was as blue and cloud-free as ever.
“I was probably four or five. My mom had the most amazing wedding dress with lace and satin and sparkles. Even though I could have ruined it, she always let me play in it.” Her smile widened. “Plus, she had satin-covered shoes, a tiara, and long white gloves with ribbons that ran from the inside of the wrist to the elbow. Well, her elbow, but my shoulder.” Tatiana gave a happy little sigh, as though the memory was precious to her. “It was awesome wearing her wedding dress, like being in a fairy tale, except for the fact that my dog never turned into a prince when I kissed him.”
As he listened to her tell him about her childhood, it was nearly impossible to remember that she was a movie star with the entire world falling at her feet. Still, she’d asked him point-blank for his thoughts about love and marriage, and he hadn’t yet finished making his own point.
“How often do you think those fairy tales come true?”
She tilted her head and thought about it for a few moments. “I hope,” she said in a soft voice, “that they come true all the time.”
Very few people had ever made Ian speechless, but Tatiana Landon had just done it inside of five minutes. Ian could break down his life into a handful of moments when everything had turned on a dime. The day his father had told their family he’d lost his job. The day Ian found out that everything his now ex-wife had said to him had been a big lie.
And, strangely, right now, as he stood in the middle of his cousin’s vineyard with a young, stunningly beautiful movie star.
Fortunately, he’d had a chance to see Gravity and hadn’t even come close to forgetting the way Tatiana’s love scene with his cousin Smith had steamed up the screen. Sure, they were both great actors, but despite the fact that there clearly wasn’t anything between Smith and Tatiana in real life, it still meant that Ian couldn’t quite believe that Tatiana was as innocent as she seemed.
No virgin could drip with the kind of sensuality that he—and millions of viewers around the world—had witnessed in that movie.
She gave him another smile, one that was just a little bit crooked, an imperfection that only managed to make her more beautiful. “Actually, I didn’t come to quiz you on your feelings about love and marriage. I was wondering if you’d seen Mia. The photographer needs all the Sullivan girls together soon and since I’m not a Sullivan I volunteered to find her.”
Since he’d actually been looking for Mia, too—even from the far end of the pew he’d thought something hadn’t seemed quite right about his sister during the ceremony—he said, “I’ll help you look for her.”
The two of them headed toward a grove of oak trees, where the bartenders were doing a steady business in Marcus’s wine. A light breeze over the vineyard blew Tatiana’s scent to him. It was fresh, sweet, and so mouthwateringly tantalizing that he had to work to push back his arousal at simply being near her.
“Mia said you flew in from London for the wedding. When do you need to go back?”
“First thing tomorrow morning.”
“I only have today away from the set in Boston, too. But next time I’m in London, it will be nice to know there’s family there. Well, almost family, since as soon as Valentina and Smith say their own I do’s, you and I will be...” She scrunched up her gorgeous face and turned to him to ask, “What exactly will we be since I’m Valentina’s sister and you’re Smith’s cousin?”
It was hard to think of this gorgeous woman next to him as family. Just as hard as it was to remember that she was even younger than his sister. Both really, really good reasons for Ian to have absolutely no business mentally stripping her dress off her.
But, Lord, even those extremely rational reasons couldn’t stop him from wondering just how soft her skin would be...and if she would taste as good as she smelled.
“We’ll be cousins by marriage.”
They’d made it to the grove of oak trees by then, but neither of them could spot Mia. Ian looked out over the rolling, vine-covered hills. “She’s been to enough of these weddings to know pictures are about to be taken,” he mused aloud. “Where could she have gone?”
Tatiana touched his arm to get his attention. Their eyes met as undeniable electricity rushed between them. With the sun shining down over her, he could see her pulse beneath the skin on her neck. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted a woman this much. Not even the woman he’d so foolishly married.
Pulling back her hand from his arm, the heat from her touch remained as she asked, “Do you think she could be with Ford Vincent?”
“Ford Vincent is here?”
“He slipped in the side door right before the ceremony started and sat next to Mia. Didn’t Marcus mention he was coming?” When Ian shook his head, Tatiana said, “Nicola seemed pretty thrilled that Ford was able to rearrange his schedule to make it. I kind of figured he might come in incognito like that—with a hat on—since people can get weird about musicians.”
“Don’t people get weird about actors, too?”
“They do, but even the other engaged and married girls were freaking out last night about Ford coming today. He’s really popular. Even more than Smith is, I think.”
Worry for his sister was the only thing that could possibly have made Ian forget his attraction to Tatiana. Because, damn it, Ian could only imagine what moves the really popular rock star was trying to pull on Mia. He knew his sister wasn’t exactly innocent, but though Ian had taught her enough martial arts as a teenager to make sure she could fend for herself, he couldn’t risk leaving her alone with some guy who thought he was God’s gift to women...and likely acted accordingly.
Where, Ian asked himself, would he go if he were a rock star intent on getting some from a pretty girl he’d just met at a wedding? Especially if he wanted to get her alone before the rest of the guests discovered that he’d arrived and started making a fuss over him?
Ian scanned the grounds with narrowed eyes. It didn’t take him long to realize that the outbuilding beside the barn would be the perfect place for an impromptu post-wedding tryst.
“Over there.”
His long legs ate up the distance between the oak grove and the barn, but though Tatiana was at least a foot shorter and was wearing heels, she kept up with him. “Why do you think they’re in that small building?”
“I’m a guy. I know how to think like scum.”
She reached for his arm again as if she were trying to slow him down. “Wait. What if she is in there with Ford? Maybe we shouldn’t just barge in on them like that. I mean, if I were trying to steal a little private time with someone, I know I’d be upset if my sister interrupted us.”
It didn’t even occur to Ian that Tatiana could have a point, or that Mia could have made the choice to fool around with the rock star today. He yanked open the door to the storeroom so hard that it slammed back against the wall...to find exactly what he’d feared.
The bastard didn’t just have his hands all over Mia, but his mouth was on her too. Ian immediately saw red as any appreciation he might have had for the guy’s music disappeared.
“Get your filthy mouth off my sister.”