Chapter Nineteen
"Valentina!"
She was just sitting down on set to wait for filming to begin when Smith's sister Lori called her name and came to sit next to her.
"It's so nice to see you again," Valentina said, meaning it. She'd had such a great day at the spa with Smith's sisters a week ago.
"You too," Lori said, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "I've been dying to get an update on the guy you're having the super hot I-don't-want-this-to-encourage-you sex with. Is he still putting in his best effort for your heart? Or has he given up yet?"
Before Valentina could answer - or slap a hand over Lori's mouth - Smith was standing in front of them...looking like he'd just heard every word his sister had said.
"Hey Naughty, glad you could drop by," he said as he gave Lori a hug. But his dark eyes were on Valentina the entire time, refusing to let her look away.
"Me too," Lori said beaming up at the brother she clearly adored.
Valentina was almost blinded by the beauty shared by the two siblings. Were it not for the kindness in their eyes, and the smiles that so naturally played around their mouths, the Sullivans would have been a very intimidating clan, indeed.
Tatiana came by just then to say hello to Lori, which left Smith's focus too much on Valentina for comfort. She tried to shoot him a look that said, I'll explain what Lori just said later, okay? Just don't do or say anything we're going to regret. Please, can we save this for when it's just the two of us?
But she could see the frustration in his eyes, the same darkness that had been there after their first night together when he'd pinned her to the bed in the morning and refused to let her leave, the same end to his patience that she'd felt at the holiday party when she'd given him the puzzle of Alcatraz.
God, just the memory of the lovemaking they'd shared had her insides clenching with heat. She could have sworn a hundred times over that she wasn't running so that he could chase her...but her body disproved that lie each and every time.
"Valentina." His low voice thrummed over nerves stretched taut. "Those files you asked for are in my office."
"Great," she managed in what she hoped was a calm, even voice. "I'll get them from you - "
"Now."
There were no files. And even if there had been, she certainly could have waited to get them until after he and Tatiana finished shooting their next scene. But something told her it was either follow Smith into his office now...or risk him doing something in front of everyone on set later that would have eyebrows rising and tongues wagging.
She could see he wasn't in the mood to wait too long for her to make her decision, so she quickly said, "We'll be right back," to their sisters and led the way to his office. She could feel his eyes on her, the subtle sway of her h*ps feeling more pronounced beneath the heat of his gaze, every sensitive area of her body already responding to him without so much as a touch.
She'd barely stepped into his office when she heard the door close - and lock - behind them.
"Smith." She slowly turned around to face him. "Lori never would have said that if she knew you were the guy I've been - "
He waited, one eyebrow raised...and her stomach twisted at the sure knowledge that no matter what she said, she was only going to hurt him again.
She couldn't say they were just sleeping together, because she couldn't deny that what they had shared had been more than that. So much more. Even though she'd been trying as hard as she could to convince herself that it wasn't.
"I don't know what to call what we're doing," she said softly. "Actually, I tried to find you this morning in your office so that we could talk." God, she hated admitting it, but he had to know. "I don't know how to handle how fast everything has been moving between us. And even though every day I tell myself it's the last time, things between us just keep getting - "
"Strip."
The word worse - or was it better? - was halted on the tip of her tongue by his rough-edged command.
Day in and day out she watched him dominate his cast and crew on set. However smoothly he did it, Smith was always completely in charge of everything around him. With her, however, he'd invariably been gentle. Even that morning in his bed, he'd been careful not to push her too hard or too far.
Until now.
"Strip."
Valentina knew she should be irritated with him for making such a command. Not to mention frustrated by the way he always steered her away from taking measures to shut down their affair.
She should be feeling anything but immediately warm and loose - and desperately wanting - just from the possession in his voice. And from his sure knowledge that she was not only going to obey his sensual command...but was going to absolutely love every single second of it.
So sure, in fact, that he didn't wait for her to start taking off her clothes before he began to remove his own. Unfortunately he was right about her, because desire grew more and more inescapable as she watched him shrug off his jacket and then undo one button after another on his shirt.
She could barely swallow by the time he reached for his belt buckle, but somehow managed to croak, "They're going to be looking for you on set soon."
"Then we'll have to make this quick, won't we?"
His shoes and socks were off a moment later and then his pants until he was clad only in boxer briefs that did nothing whatsoever to hide the state of his arousal.
"Our sisters are going to wonder how your clothes got wrinkled," he murmured as he advanced on her.
He was right. If she wasn't going to muster up the strength to leave his office, she needed to get her suit off, and fast. With desire holding her so tightly in its grip that wild horses couldn't have dragged her away, she reached for her jacket with shaking fingers. But Smith was close enough already that he was sliding his hands into her hair and kissing her.
Her hands fluttered from her jacket to his broad shoulders. Right when she should have been saying no and pushing him away, all she could do was say yes over and over in her head as she pulled him closer. And then his hands were shoving her jacket off and he was undoing the buttons on her blouse and unzipping her skirt as deftly and efficiently as he'd removed his own clothes.
When she was standing in front of him wearing nothing but her heels and another set of the beautiful lingerie he'd given her, the breath came out of his chest in a heated rush.
"I wish I could spend the next ten hours appreciating you," he murmured as his lips and teeth came down over the tendon that connected her shoulder and neck, "but since we've only got ten minutes..."
Before she realized what he intended, he lifted her onto his desk, not so much as blinking when her h*ps shoved a stack of papers and a stapler to scatter all over the floor.
"I've never wanted anyone or anything the way I want you. You're making me cross lines, break my own rules to have you. I need you, Valentina. So damn much it's tearing me apart."
When they were like this, when he was stroking her skin and searing her with his heat, when she could feel just how much he wanted her, she couldn't hold anything back from him. Besides, she was clearly just as messed up as he was, because it was more than just sex that was driving her to be with Smith again and again.
It was the need to be close to him.
To let herself be held.
To be intimate.
To be needed.
They were all the things her mother and father shared...and that had torn her mother apart after her father died.
But just as she couldn't possibly turn away from his need, there was no way she could deny her own. "I need you, too."
Her admission had him taking her mouth again on a growl of possession as he stepped between her legs. He drew back just enough to say, "Lift your hips," then pulled off her panties. A second later his boxers were gone and he'd found a condom to roll on over his thick length.
The very last thing they should be doing was ha**g s*x on Smith's desk while his sister, and hers, and the crew were waiting on set for him to film an important scene. And yet, as he took her ankles and wrapped her legs around his hips, as she twined her arms around his neck and held on tight, as he thrust into her on a desperate groan, there was nothing in the world she wanted - or needed - more.
They may have had only ten minutes, but what a glorious sixth of an hour it was as Smith took her over, body and soul, his h*ps moving in time with hers, his mouth pressing sucking, biting kisses over the upper swells of her breasts.
It didn't matter how many times they made love, she could never get enough of Smith's warmth, his passion, the way he so fully embraced not just life, but her, too - sharp edges, soft curves, and everything in between as he sent her flying up over another peak of pleasure, before following her over a second later with one more hard thrust that had the desk skidding with a loud screech over the floor.
She was still trying to catch her breath while asking herself exactly how everything had spiraled off so fast from his sister's innocent question - to Smith beckoning her into his lair, then to being thoroughly, and wonderfully, ravished in his office - when he pressed one more kiss to her lips and stepped away to put his clothes back on.
How, she wondered, unable to do anything but stare at his beautiful face and body with helpless longing, was he able to make passionate love to her one second and get back in character again just seconds after? It was one of the reasons she'd never wanted to be with an actor. She couldn't stand the idea of just being another scene he was playing to the best of his ability.
Only, when he looked into her eyes, she realized with stunning clarity that although he was again wearing his character's clothes, Smith wasn't the least bit in character. Because instead of the billionaire from the film staring at her, instead of Smith Sullivan the movie star, or even Lori's brother, the man who stood before her was one hundred percent her lover.
Hers.
The realization of just how completely he'd given himself over to her left her staggered even as he said, "Since I know my sister's going to want her answer before she's through with you, you can let her know that your guy is definitely still putting in his best effort for your heart."
With yet one more possessive kiss, he left her half-naked on the edge of his completely askew desk, still shaking not only with lust, but also with sweet emotion she couldn't keep at bay no matter how hard she tried.
Because, in the end, what amazed her most of all - so much more than the hot, head-spinning sex they'd just had - was that she'd given Smith every reason to give up on her.
But he hadn't.
Valentina's heart was still racing, her legs still trembling as she put her clothes back on and did what she could to fix her makeup. Without a brush and blow dryer at hand, her hair wasn't nearly as neat as it had been before, which meant that as she returned to the set just as filming was about to commence, she could have sworn that Lori looked at her with a very assessing expression on her face.
Valentina worked to focus every ounce of her concentration on the scene starting to play out in front of her. Fortunately, it wasn't long before she was completely lost in the story.
Jo sat feeding her baby daughter Leah in a luxurious nursery. The walls were bright yellow, the pictures on the walls sweet without being cloying. Six months ago she would have been furious with a man for taking control of her life like this...but pride, she'd quickly learned, had very little place in a mother's life.
Graham had given her and Leah a gift she couldn't possibly have given herself. He'd moved them out of her crappy apartment in a bad part of the city and into a beautiful one across from a park where happy children played every morning and afternoon. If Jo had to work the rest of her life to pay him back for it, she would do so. Happily. And without resentment.
Well, she thought as she heard the doorbell ring and adjusted her top, without too much resentment at the way Graham seemed to always be there for her, anticipating her needs almost before she herself could.
Every night, he brought her the most delicious, nutritious dinner any new mother had ever eaten, and she was too tired - and too grateful that she didn't have to use up what was left of her energy - to turn him or the yummy food away. She was also too polite to turn him away after he was kind enough to give so much of his busy schedule to her and the baby.
And in truth, it wasn't the apartment or the food that she resented.
No. It was something far more insidious, far more potentially dangerous that had her lying in bed at night tossing and turning when she should have been trying to squeeze in sleep while her daughter finally dozed.
It would have been easier, and so much safer, to hate him. Even to fear him. But everything had changed with the birth of her daughter. And she could no longer deny that in the strange in-between of trying to push him out of her life when he would come to the coffee shop every day, up through these nightly meals together in her cozy apartment, the two of them had become friends.
And she wouldn't ever forget the hours when she'd been giving birth to Leah. He'd been there beside her every single second, never letting go of her hand, and it had been instinctive for her to let him hold the newborn.
Graham's gentleness had been so evident. So sweet. So pure. And everything she'd believed to be true about him, everything she'd tried to tell herself was real, was turned on its ear, until she wasn't sure about anything anymore.
Nothing except for how safe she felt with him...and that he was the only other person on earth that she could trust with her daughter's life.
These past weeks, she didn't even try to deny that she looked forward to his visits, especially since he didn't poke at her past and she didn't poke at his. All of it might have continued to be okay - the food, the friendship, the fact that he adored her baby - were it not for one other issue. One even scarier than actually becoming friends.
She was attracted to him. More and more with every passing day. And she wasn't young enough, or blind enough, not to see that he was attracted to her, too.
Neither of them were each other's types. And yet, it didn't seem to matter that she'd always had an unfortunate predilection for rocker types, or that she was the polar opposite of the Amazonian blondes that she'd seen pictured with him the couple of times she hadn't been able to stop herself from going to the computer to look him up.
She opened the front door and Graham's face immediately lit up when he saw that the baby was awake. He wasn't the only one happy, as Leah reached for him with a little gurgle of joy. But he would never take the baby without Jo's permission, and after he'd put the food down on her kitchen island, something bittersweet tugged at her as she made everyone happy by placing her soft bundle into his arms.
Her heart softened more and more with every one of the nonsense noises the powerful man in the expensive suit made to the happy baby as Jo laid out dinner on the small dining table. By the time she'd opened a bottle of beer for him and poured a glass of milk for herself, Leah had fallen asleep in his arms.
Jo reached for the baby, but Graham said, "Eat while it's hot. I'll just go tuck her in."
She knew she should be drawing thicker lines between him and her daughter. But she couldn't justify it, not when he clearly felt nothing but adoration for her. She'd never had a man in her life like that, one who loved her unconditionally. Jo couldn't take that away from Leah.
She asked him about his day during dinner and he made her laugh with stories about the people in his office, the investors he dealt with. He asked about her day, and she told him about her trip to the park so Leah could sit and wobble in the sand and watch the bigger kids play with big wonder-filled eyes. He asked her next about the online horticulture classes she was taking, but even as he got her to share more of herself with him, by what felt like tacit agreement, neither of them ever spoke about family, about mothers or fathers or brothers or sisters.
By the end of dinner, Jo's eyelids were falling, and even though she insisted on helping Graham clean up the table, when he gave her a brand new Encyclopedia of Flowers, she was thrilled to sink back into the couch to devour the pictures and flower descriptions, and dream of the garden store she would open one day. Finally, her exhaustion got the better of her.
Love was unmasked on Graham's face as he looked at Jo, fast asleep on the couch, her legs tucked up under her small, curvy body, her beautiful face resting on her hands. And when the baby started crying, he immediately went to the fridge to pull out a bottle of breast milk and got water heating on the stove for it before heading back into the nursery for the little girl he was absolutely crazy about.
Making shushing sounds against the baby's soft skin and stroking the cap of dark hair that so beautifully matched her mother's - apart from the pink streaks - he came with her into the kitchen just as the bottle was warm enough.
As the little girl greedily drank her fill, she stared up at him with big blue eyes. He told Leah what he was so afraid to tell her mother.
"I love you." The baby's little hand lifted to wrap around one of his fingers and he cuddled her closer, whispering, "I will never let anyone hurt you. Ever."
When the baby had finished eating, he rocked her gently in his arms, the lullaby he softly sang quickly soothing her back to sleep.
Jo had woken as Graham brought her daughter back into the living room, but it had been so nice, just for once, to stay in that quiet and serene half-sleep while he fed Leah. She'd been watching the two of them from under her lashes, and even though she knew how much he loved her little girl, hearing the sweet words of love fall from his lips, and then the lullaby, was a shock.
Even more so was the shock of just how badly she wanted to hear those three words for herself.
In her secret heart of hearts she knew she'd been falling for him for much longer than she had hated him. But tonight, as she watched him give his heart to the one person who meant absolutely everything to her, she not only fell the rest of the way in love...she realized she'd never had a chance of keeping her heart safe from him.
For the first time, instead of trying yet again to hide from her feelings, she decided it was long past time to act on them. Graham had helped her in a dozen special ways with both her pregnancy and the baby. Now she would do whatever she could to help him.
She had enough scars of her own to recognize how deep his ran. Not only had she never been able to forget his expression when he'd spoken of his sister that one time, but when she'd searched his name on the Internet, she'd learned of his painful loss.
Two years ago his sister had died. The stories she'd read on the Internet had called it an accidental death. But there was more than lingering grief in Graham's eyes.
Jo sat up and slowly, but surely, moved closer to him. He made a move to hand her the sleeping baby, but she shook her head and stilled him with a hand over his.
His eyes darkened as she moved closer, then closer still, until her mouth was barely a breath from his. The silent night wrapped around them, protecting three souls, as her lips finally touched his in a soft and sweet kiss that was just as much a declaration of love as any words could have been.