Come a Little Bit Closer: The Sullivans (3 page)

“Your sister has already signed the contracts.”

Instead of backing off at what many people would have construed as a warning, Valentina came closer to him, so close that he could smell the lavender in her shampoo.

“I asked around about you before we signed on for this movie. Everyone told me you were different.” Her eyes slid again to the phone numbers on his desk, then back to him. “But you’re just the same as everybody else, aren’t you?” Fire leapt to new heights in her eyes as she told him, “I don’t give a damn what she’s signed. If you do one single thing to hurt my sister, if you dare toy with her emotions or her body, I’ll—”

“Damn it, Valentina,” he said in a voice loud enough to break through to her, “I’m not going to seduce your sister!” He had to work to gentle his voice as he said, “Tatiana is young and beautiful and I’m going to work like hell to make sure she wins an Oscar for her performance in my movie. But I don’t
want
her.”

And yet, even as he reassured her about his intentions toward her sister, there was no way for him to keep the silent words
I want you
from hanging in the air between them.

He was sure that was what had her taking a step away from him as she said, “I saw the way you grabbed her and kissed her after the scene. And I saw the way she looked at you—like you hold the key to the secrets of the universe.”

It was because he had two sisters and a mother he loved that he realized just how badly he’d misplayed this situation with Valentina. Instead of going on the defensive and throwing the signed contracts in her face like the big bad movie star who only had to snap his fingers for the world to fall at his feet, he should have done whatever he could to reassure her that Tatiana was in safe hands.

“Your sister did such a great job with the first scene that I got excited, and I wanted her to know how thrilled I am to be working with her. But I honestly don’t think she took my enthusiasm for her performance in the way you thought she did.”

He could see that Valentina was still wary, but she took a deep breath and finally backed down enough to say, “I sure hope not.”

He’d thought her eyes were a dimmer green than her sister’s, but now he could see that they were a beautiful hazel, a clear green on the inside, deep brown on the outside. Smith had never been much interested in perfect, even less so after so many years in Hollywood where people hired doctors to rip them open and put them back together until they looked like the dolls his sisters had played with as kids.

He was also finally close enough to see the slightly dark smudges beneath the delicate skin under her eyes.

“It’s got to be exhausting being your sister’s watchdog all the time.”

“I’m not her watchdog. I’m her sister and I love her. I—” She sighed, letting her exhaustion come through for a moment. “I just need to make sure she’s safe. Always.”

“Your sister is lucky to have you to protect her, Valentina. But who’s protecting you?”

Her eyes met his again, wide with surprise...and an answering desire that she could no longer effectively mask as her hazel eyes dilated until the green near her pupil pushed out all of the brown along the rim.

Hot damn if he didn’t want to kiss her beautiful mouth as she lifted her chin and her eyes flashed at him one more time.

“I don’t need anybody to protect me.”

She walked out of his trailer without a backward glance.

* * *

“Val, there you are!”

Valentina could see that Tatiana was still glowing from both her excellent performance and Smith’s praise, but she was also clearly concerned about why her business-manager sister had yanked the executive producer and directing star of her new movie into his trailer after the first big take.

“You were fabulous,” Valentina said as she put her arms around her younger sister.

Where she was lean, her sister was curvy. While she was tall, her sister was small. She’d never been the beauty that Tatiana was, but Valentina had never wanted that. Not when she knew just how much responsibility came with great beauty—and how much pressure shone down through every spotlight.

“Do you need anything before you do close-ups?”

“No, I feel great,” Tatiana said, before adding, “Is everything okay?”

“Yes.” Valentina smiled. “Better than okay.”

And it was, at least where Smith’s designs on her sister were concerned. The last thing she wanted for her sister was to end up in a Hollywood relationship. Miraculously so far, it hadn’t been a problem with any of the men Tatiana had worked with, but Smith was at least a thousand times more charismatic than any of her other co-stars.

Still, for all his charm and good looks and power, Valentina had believed him when he’d said he wasn’t going to seduce her sister. Yes, he was an amazing actor, but every instinct she had told her he hadn’t been acting when he’d said that.

Unfortunately, those instincts also told her other things.

Like how merely standing in the same room made her heart leap around in her chest as if she was a crushed-out teenager.

And how just the sound of her full name on his lips—everyone else called her Val, why did he have to be the one person on earth who always said
Valentina
?—made her long to hear him whisper it against the curve of her neck right before he kissed the sensitive skin there.

Valentina wasn’t angry with him for those things. How could she be? But she was angry with herself for being so much weaker than she’d ever thought she was. Because when she’d moved close to him in his trailer and made the mistake of looking into his eyes, she’d been hit with such a hard rush of desire it actually stole her breath away.

Smith Sullivan looked great on screen, but in person, he was even more arresting. She could have been blindfolded and known that he was in the room. He had that much presence.

There was inherent sensuality in every look, every movement. Smith didn’t try to attract people. He just did.
Everything from the masculine shape of his jawline to the way the cords in his neck moved as he turned his head made him, hands down, a shockingly beautiful man.

At the same time, she wasn’t foolish enough to just write him off as a pretty face who’d been lucky. No question, he was a natural actor. And yet, she’d seen again and again throughout rehearsals just how hard he worked to get every nuance of a scene just right.

Clearly relieved by her response that everything was fine, Tatiana looped an arm through hers as they walked back over to the set. Smith was already there, discussing something with the Director of Photography.

“Did you know that before we started shooting this morning, he told me again how excited he is to work with me?” Tatiana asked. “And that if there’s ever anything I’m uncomfortable with, I should tell him right away.”

“That’s great.” And far kinder than any other actor or director her sister had worked with before now.

More than once over the years, Valentina had asked her sister to explain why she wanted to be an actress. Each time, the reasons Tatiana gave—she loved to entertain and make people happy and forget about their lives for a while—made intellectual sense, and yet Valentina still couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to live their life under a microscope. Because when Tatiana became a really big star like Smith, that’s exactly how her life would be: every move would be made in the spotlight, captured by thousands of cameras, and detailed in newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

Just the thought of living a life like that made Valentina shiver in horror.

Tatiana gave a sigh that bordered on worship. “He’s amazing, isn’t he? I still can’t believe I get to work with him.”

Valentina tried to read whether there was anything more than professional appreciation beneath her sister’s simple statement. Because, really, how could there not be? Smith was gorgeous, talented, kind—

She cut herself off at
kind
. It was one thing to acknowledge his looks and acting skills. It was another entirely to start rhapsodizing about what a fantastic person he was when she barely knew him.

Fortunately, her sister didn’t have time to wait for her reply regarding how amazing Smith was or wasn’t, because she was called back in front of the cameras.

For the next few hours, Valentina watched her sister do her job with a deep sense of pride. Valentina had not only never let an actor emotionally hurt her sister, she had also made it a point never to let people treat Tatiana like a pretty airhead. It was a large part of the reason they picked her roles so carefully, rather than always just taking the highest financial offers.

Perception, Valentina knew, was everything in Hollywood. And no one would ever have a chance to whisper that the Landon women were easy or bubbleheaded.

At least, not the current generation, she thought as her cell phone buzzed in her pocket and she looked down at the screen to see that her mother was calling. She’d been wondering when Ava Landon was going to request a visit to the set.

Or, more to the point, to meet Smith Sullivan.

Valentina sighed as she pushed the phone back into her fitted jacket pocket. Her mother wasn’t a bad person, she just had a weakness for good looking, famous men who made their living in front of cameras.

Valentina may have shared her mother’s love of chocolate ice cream, sunsets on the beach, and fifties singers...but she absolutely refused to let genetics pull her down the same path with men.

One day, when Tatiana’s career was a bit more on autopilot, Valentina planned to meet a nice man and fall in love. He would be good looking, intelligent, with strong hands and a ready smile.

And he’d have absolutely, positively nothing to do with the entertainment business. Popcorn and Red Vines on a Saturday night would be as close to the movies as her future husband would ever come.

Chapter Three

One week later, Valentina paused on the front step of Smith’s house and took a deep breath that was perfumed with the scent of flowers. Beautiful, and not always easy to grow, lily of the valley was sprinkled all along his wide front drive. They were an unexpectedly soft touch for such a powerfully masculine man.

She’d spent the past ten years attending meetings similar to this one—stars often liked to show off their homes—so there was no reason to feel so off-kilter. Besides, her sister would be here shortly, so it wasn’t like Valentina was going to be all alone with Tatiana’s co-star for very long.

She’d decided over the past few days of filming that the best way to think of Smith was as
Tatiana’s co-star
. It de-personified him, made him almost a prop.

God forbid she forget herself and let herself think of him as a man, just as she’d caught herself doing a couple of times during the past week. If only she’d remembered two days ago when they’d filmed the scene where he was working out without a shirt on, she would have made certain to steer clear of the set. Her mouth had dropped wide open when she caught sight of his tanned, muscular shoulders, his well defined biceps, triceps, and washboard abs. Boy, had it been difficult to turn away from all that incredible male beauty. So difficult, in fact, that she hadn’t actually managed it.

Unfortunately, she was pretty sure Smith had caught her drooling over him, judging by the knowing look in his eyes when he’d moved from the weights to the monitors to watch playback.

Clutching her leather bag tightly, Valentina finally rang the doorbell. She was surprised when a pretty woman with a radiant smile opened the door.

“Hi, come in. I’m Nicola. You must be Valentina. Smith said you would be here any second now.” Valentina automatically shook the woman’s hand as she said, “The boys are in the kitchen whipping up a batch of celebration margaritas.”

It took Valentina a few very confused seconds to realize that Nicola was actually Nico, the pop star whose songs were all over the radio.

Why was Nico here?

Who were
the boys
?

And what were they celebrating?

Had Smith mixed up his plans and she’d just accidentally walked into some sort of celebrity orgy about to begin?

Only, as she followed Nico—or Nicola, as she’d introduced herself—through Smith’s foyer to the kitchen, it sure didn’t look like the other woman was dressed for an orgy. Not in skinny jeans and a hip-length sweater.

Smith looked up from behind the blender with a smile that set her heart to pounding even faster.

“Valentina,” he said, savoring her name just a little too much for her comfort. “Perfect timing. I can see you’ve already met Nicola. This is my brother Marcus.”

If she hadn’t only had eyes for Smith, she would have noticed the man standing next to him. Marcus was also extremely easy on the eyes, if a little bit older than Smith. As Nicola tucked herself under Marcus’s arm and leaned into him, he brushed his knuckles down the side of her face as if she never stopped pleasing him.

Valentina’s chest squeezed with something she refused to admit was longing. She was trying not to stare, but it was hard to look away from such deep—and pure—affection.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” she said, feeling awkward and out of place in this small family gathering in the suit she’d been wearing all day on set, while everyone else was casual in jeans and sweaters. Smith had kicked his shoes off and she was disgusted to realize she even found his bare feet sexy. And when he reached up to hold the top of the blender in place and it whirred to life, the sheer sensuality of watching the muscles and tendons flex slightly in his arms held her momentarily spellbound.

It should take more than a dozen inches of skin showing on each of his arms to set her heart to racing and the heat pooling low down in her belly.

Really, though, it was ridiculous for a man’s arms to be that sexy.

And she was being even more ridiculous by making a complete twit of herself—as if she’d grown up in some weird puritanical household where she’d never seen a man’s bare arms before.