Come a Little Bit Closer: The Sullivans (4 page)

Marcus’s smile was warm as he said, “It’s nice to meet you, Valentina.”

Knowing that her cheeks were still flushing, she was glad for the distraction of Smith handing out the margaritas. She hadn’t been planning to have anything to drink tonight, not if she wanted to keep her head perfectly clear, but she didn’t want to be the sole party pooper for whatever it was they were celebrating.

Smith remained by her side as he turned his focus back to his brother and Nicola. “I’d like to raise a toast to your engagement. I couldn’t be happier for both of you.”

Valentina’s eyes widened as she realized what she’d just walked into. Not an orgy, but a family celebration. No wonder there was such obvious love between Marcus and Nicola, and that both of them were absolutely glowing with happiness.

“Thank you,” Nicola said with a pretty smile. “After all, Smith, you were the one who gave Marcus and me a place to spend our first night together. Even if,” she said with a wicked little glance at her new
fiancé
, “your brother wouldn’t do anything more than give me one teeny tiny little kiss, no matter how much I begged.”

Valentina felt her eyes go even wider despite herself. Nicola had begged Marcus to do more than kiss her their first night together? And he’d resisted?

“Really?” Smith said, drawing the word out with pure curiosity as he leaned forward to coax more dirt from Nicola about his brother. “Tell us more.”

But before she could, Marcus covered her mouth with his. When they finally pulled apart he murmured, “Good thing I know how to keep you quiet with my teeny tiny little kisses.”

He certainly did, Valentina thought, because Marcus’s kiss had quite clearly made Nicola lose the train of her earlier thoughts. The sparks between them were practically singeing her from across the kitchen island. She could tell just how much in love the two of them were.

She hoped they knew just how lucky they were to have found each other.

“Congratulations,” she said. “I’m so happy for you both.”

Nicola’s eyes were a little glassy as the four of them lifted their glasses and clinked them together. Valentina was amazed by how right it felt in that moment to be there with them. And how surprisingly normal it all was, considering two of the people in the room were bona fide celebrities.

So normal, in fact, that as they all took a sip and Nicola’s hand flashed with brightly colored jewels, Valentina couldn’t resist saying, “Your ring is beautiful.”

Nicola all but leapt around the kitchen island to show off her engagement ring. It wasn’t a standard diamond solitaire, but a stunning grouping of multicolored stones in a unique hammered-gold setting.

Clearly, Valentina thought as she admired the ring, Sullivan men did nothing by halves.

What, she suddenly found herself wondering, would it be like to belong to one of them? And to know that a strong, beautiful Sullivan would always be there for you?

It was far harder than it should have been to shake the silly questions out of her head as she and Nicola finally rejoined the brothers. Surely, she thought as she reached for her glass again, a couple more sips wouldn’t make her lose her head.

Only, when she realized Smith’s dark eyes were on her as she took a sip, she suddenly knew that if anything was going to make her lose her head, it wouldn’t be the drink.

It would be
him.

She was about to put her glass down and excuse herself from the impromptu family celebration out of sheer self-preservation when Nicola asked, “How are you liking San Francisco?”

It was a perfectly easy question, one that should have been simple to answer. Only, with Smith standing mere inches away, his eyes holding a tight focus on her as he waited for her response, simple became nearly impossible.

Valentina could feel her heartbeat fluttering against her pulse points, along the inside of her wrist and on the side of her neck, and knew her skin had started to flush with the heat she always felt when Smith was close.

She hadn’t wanted to sense his interest, had told herself she didn’t want it directed at her, but after their conversation in his trailer the week before, and the way she’d caught him looking at her on set with a dark, hungry gaze more than once, she could no longer deny it. Nor could she deny that it felt like he was trying to see behind her conservative clothes and tied-back hair, that he wanted to look deeper into her than she wanted him to see.

“I love San Francisco. Although it’s been warmer than I expected.” The sun had just set, but she suddenly felt so overheated in Smith’s kitchen that she had to unbutton her suit jacket and slip it off her shoulders.

“You and your sister must have brought the sun with you, because last month we were all wearing our ski gear to go get the mail in the thick fog,” Nicola said with a laugh that lit up her already stunningly pretty face.

No wonder Smith’s brother was smitten. Not only was Nicola talented, but she was clearly a very nice person as well.

“I’m all for fog,” Marcus said as he pressed a kiss to his new
fiancée
’s cheek, “especially if it means it’s up to me to keep you warm.”

Valentina didn’t know much about the music business, but she guessed that at Nicola’s level of pop stardom, it wasn’t too different from being a movie star. And yet, somehow she’d managed to find love with a man who clearly didn’t want her for anything other than herself.

Why, Valentina wondered, hadn’t her mother been that lucky with any of the actors she’d dated? If only one of them had had a heart of gold, everything would have been different. Better.

Unfortunately, the only gold had been in the rings on their wandering hands when they thought her mother wasn’t looking. Valentina had learned a few simple, but effective, defensive moves in her early twenties. At the very least, she’d learned how to take care of herself and her sister.

“What parts of the city have you had a chance to see so far?” Marcus asked.

Valentina shook off her thoughts as she smiled and said, “Just the best movie set in the world.”

“Smith knows this city better than all of us,” Marcus told her. “He’d be a great tour guide.”

“Tell me, Valentina,” Smith said so smoothly she almost wondered if the three of them had scripted the setup before she walked in, “what San Francisco landmark would you like to see most?”

During the past few minutes, Valentina had realized that the problem with seeing Smith be
so easy, so comfortable with his family, was that she almost forgot to keep her walls up around him. It reminded her of the way she was with her sister.

Good thing she’d locked her heart up tight against actors a long, long time ago. And it was with maximum-security prisons in mind that she gave him her one-word answer.

“Alcatraz.”

Only, instead of getting the very clear message in her response and backing off, Smith’s eyes were full of laughter. Neither Nicola nor Marcus did a great job of hiding their own laughter behind a couple of choked coughs, either.

In the end, even Valentina found herself unable to hold back her own smile.

Which was when she knew she needed to leave immediately. Because she was getting too comfortable with Smith and his family, feeling too warm and cozy and
right
with them.

“Thank you so much for including me in your celebration,” she said with a warm smile for Marcus and Nicola, “but I should probably be going. I’ll let Tatiana know that we’re rescheduling our meeting, Smith.”

Only, before she could lift her bag back onto her shoulder, Marcus was saying, “Actually, we were just dropping in for a few minutes to share the good news with Smith. My mother is expecting us for dinner tonight.”

The next thing Valentina knew, she was shaking the happy couple’s hands, they were both hugging Smith goodnight, and she was standing all alone in his kitchen as he walked them out. The sound of the front door closing caused her heartbeat to quicken once again behind her breastbone.

There was no reason to panic just because they were alone. And if the fact that he was clearly so close to his family and so happy for his brother had softened her a bit, well, she could handle that softness.

Couldn’t she?

Chapter Four

After that first day on set, when Valentina had pulled Smith into his office and warned him not to mess with her sister, she’d made sure to steer clear of him, and had been perfectly polite when they met in a group to discuss an issue with the script or wardrobe or Tatiana’s schedule. Even when she was watching them shoot a scene, she held perfect focus on Tatiana.

Too perfect.

Only, if her plan had been to try and fade out of his sight, she hadn’t succeeded. Because it didn’t matter how many times he reminded himself that he didn’t have time to focus on anything but his movie.

He just couldn’t get Valentina out of his head.

It wasn’t just because of her incredible legs or exotic beauty. In Hollywood a great figure and pretty face were a given. But after seeing her with Nicola, and the genuine pleasure Valentina had shown over the stunning engagement ring and their happy-ever-after, he was reminded of just how much family meant to her. She was all business on set—and with him—but as soon as her sister needed her for anything even remotely emotional, she immediately stopped being a business manager to transform back into a sister. One whose love ran so deep that she didn’t hold anything back.

“My brother is one seriously happy guy,” he remarked as he walked back into the kitchen and found her standing with her glass in her hand, staring out the window at the city lights.

“They both are,” she said as she turned her beautiful gaze back to him. “It was very sweet to see.”

“I wasn’t sure about the two of them at first,” he admitted, knowing he hadn’t exactly been encouraging in the early days of his brother’s relationship, “but somehow they’ve made the age difference and the demands of both their careers work.”

“Is Marcus also in the entertainment industry?”

“Nope.” Not even close. “He owns Sullivan Winery.”

“Wow, I wish I’d known he was behind some of my favorite cabernets. I would have liked to thank him for all the hours of pleasure he’s given me.”

She was clearly surprised by Marcus’s profession, and yet again Smith loved the fact that she knew next to nothing about his life, when any fan could have recited his siblings’ names and careers by heart. He also loved the way she spoke of pleasure...even if she was giving his brother the credit for it.

“Now I get what you mean about the demands of both their careers,” she said. “They really do live in different worlds, don’t they?”

Smith refilled up their drinks and carried them into the living room. “I don’t think it’s always easy to juggle her tours and his busy seasons in the vineyards, but they clearly love each other enough to make it work.”

When he set their drinks on the coffee table, he could see her surprise at finding a half-finished puzzle on it.

“I
love
puzzles,” she exclaimed. “Tatiana and I used to do them together all the time before we got so busy.”

She immediately sat down on the plush couch, picked up a puzzle piece and clicked it into place. Smith moved beside her and slid a piece into the corner of one of the dog’s ears while she filled in the nose on another. He was glad to see her forget to keep the distance she seemed to think was so damned necessary.

This easy companionship was precisely why he’d brought her over to the coffee table, where the puzzle of three silly dogs was halfway done...and it was yet another reason why he loved his brother Gabe’s soon-to-be stepdaughter Summer so much. The eight-year-old girl had taken the picture of the three dogs sitting crookedly with their ears blowing in the breeze and had turned it into a puzzle for him. His twin sisters had been great when they were eight, too. Heck, they’d been great at every age, and even if it sometimes seemed like his sister Lori—aka “Naughty” to Sophie’s “Nice”—grew to be more and more of a pain in the butt with every passing year, he wouldn’t have given them up for anything.

“Some picture, isn’t it?”

He loved the sound of Valentina’s laughter. “The absolute best. Where did you find it?”

“Two of the dogs belong to my brother Zach and his
fiancée
, Heather. The huge one,” he said, pointing at the Great Dane, “and the little one—” He popped a section of the Yorkie’s shoulder into place. “—fell in love first. Zach and Heather weren’t far behind them, though.”

“What about the poodle puppy?”

“The poodle belongs to my soon-to-be niece. Summer is eight-years-old and she brilliantly maneuvered her single mother and my brother Gabe together. They’re getting married on New Year’s Eve in Lake Tahoe. It’s where they fell in love last year.”

“Oh,” she said with a little sigh, “that’s just lovely.” Her eyes, her mouth, were soft as she practically brimmed over with emotion.

Smith had lit a fire earlier, and now, as they sat together working on the puzzle in front of it, it hit him that this was the first time in his life he’d ever experienced something this warm, this sweet, with a woman. Heck, now that he thought about it, this was actually the second time he’d tried to put this puzzle together. The last time it sat unfinished, the woman he’d mistakenly brought home had thought it would be sexy to swipe it off onto the floor so that he could do her on top of the coffee table. A while later, when the woman had gone to the bathroom to straighten her hair and clothes before he sent her home, he’d immediately picked up the pieces.

Doing a woman he’d picked up at a Hollywood event on top of his coffee table was something a movie star did.

Making a puzzle in front of a fire was something a couple did.

“Your family sounds incredible,” Valentina said, her words tinged with wistfulness as she reached for another puzzle piece and popped it into place. “Your parents must have had a perfect marriage for everyone to turn out so well.”

“They did seem to have a pretty great marriage, although to hear my mother tell some of her stories about my father, he had his moments.” Smith winced slightly at the tug in his chest that nailed him whenever he spoke about Jack Sullivan. Smith didn’t miss him every day, but when he did, the sense of loss could be overpowering. “He died when I was thirteen.”