Come a Little Bit Closer: The Sullivans (22 page)

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.

Chapter Twenty

It always took Valentina a few minutes to come back to the real world after a scene wrapped, but as the emotions dug deeper with every scene Smith and Tatiana shot, resurfacing grew more and more difficult, especially now that she’d sent her screenplay off to George and hadn’t yet started a new one to pour her emotions into. Although, over the past few days, she hadn’t been able to get the Alcatraz forbidden-love story that she and Smith had discussed out of her head, and knew she’d be putting words to paper soon.

Thankfully, she wasn’t the only one who needed to take a deep breath and shake off the fictional world, because Smith’s chatty sister seemed just as dazed by what she’d seen play out on the set in front of them.

“Oh my God,” Lori exclaimed, “I think my heart just broke into a million pieces and then glued itself back together all at the same time.”

“It’s been like this since the first day of filming,” Valentina told her.

Lori turned to her. “Is Tatiana ready to become a massive star? Because she will be after this comes out.”

“I hope so. All I want is for her to be happy.”

Lori nodded. “I feel the same way about Smith. So many of the things ordinary men take for granted, like picking up a cup of coffee or going out on a first date, are so hard for Smith to do without people freaking out when they realize it’s him. But I’ve never heard him complain about it, even though it’s got to totally suck sometimes.
Everyone thinks being a star is so glamorous, but that’s just a small part of it. Sometimes when I look at Smith’s life it just seems like long hours, super hard work, and a horrible loss of privacy.”

Valentina couldn’t agree more. Some actors were in it for the fame. Others continued giving their best in spite of it. Smith was definitely in the latter camp, as she’d never seen him do one single thing to try to make sure his name appeared in the press. And f
rom the past weeks she’d spent with him, she knew his sister was right—he was doing an amazing job of dealing with an often impossible situation.

Guilt churned inside her at the way she’d made being normal even harder for him. He’d wanted to take her on a date; she’d immediately said no without giving him a chance. He’d wanted her to spend more than just the one night with him after Alcatraz; she’d been too afraid that her sister, and then everyone else on set, would find out. He’d tried to show her a dozen different ways that he cared; she’d tried to pretend a dozen different times that she didn’t, when the truth was, she cared more and more with every passing second. Yes, she had her reasons, even knew he understood them to some degree, but it still didn’t make the situation any fairer for either of them.

Lori held Valentina’s gaze, her expression uncharacteristically serious. “Smith has been the best big brother in the world, and has loved me and my siblings and my mother with everything he has.” Her eyes softened. “He doesn’t know how to love any other way. None of us Sullivans do.”

Lori wasn’t accusing her of anything, but Valentina suddenly wanted to beg for forgiveness, wanted to tell Smith’s sister that she didn’t mean to toy with Smith’s heart, that she’d done everything she could to keep him as a friend, despite the attraction—and desperate need—that raged between them like a wildfire.

But before she could blurt out any of that, Lori’s arms came around her in a warm hug. “I’m so glad I got to see you again today, Val.” She grinned, the mischievous spark back in her pretty eyes, as she said, “Now it’s time for me to go harass my big brother.”

Valentina met Smith’s gaze over Lori’s retreating back and the flash of heat—and emotion—that ran through her told her no amount of burying herself in work for the rest of the evening could possibly help her forget what had happened in his office that morning.

Or just how much she wished she could give him everything he so rightfully deserved. But that would mean changing who they both were...and she already knew that neither of them would want to do that to each other.

* * *

Lori and Smith were heading over to his office when she grabbed his arm, grinned widely, and said, “You’re Valentina’s mystery guy that she can’t shake, aren’t you?”

Knowing Lori was clearly beside herself with glee at realizing he was Valentina’s un-boyfriend, Smith muttered, “This is making your day, isn’t it, Naughty?”

“Are you kidding? This has just made my year!” she teased before adding, “Valentina’s beautiful, but not at all your usual type.”

Lori was right. He usually went for women who looked more like Valentina’s younger sister. Small and soft, not tall and lithe.

“There’s nothing typecast about Valentina,” he told Lori, both drawn and frustrated by that fact. “I’ve never met anyone like her before.”

As they walked into his office, Lori immediately took in the mess on his desk and the floor where the papers and stapler had fallen that morning, along with the fact that the desk was now sitting at a strange angle in the room. It couldn’t have been more clear what he and Valentina had been up to.

“First woman you’ve ever really cared about, and the best you can do is drag her in here to have a quickie on your desk?” Lori shook her head in disgust. “No wonder she’s still way up on the fence about you.”

Damn it, he hated that he had to agree with his sister’s annoying analysis of the situation.

Winning Valentina over was proving to be really, really difficult. Outside of the bedroom, anyway. It was far more tempting than it should rationally be to keep her naked and panting with him until he could get her to finally agree that they were having more than just a film-fling.

But since sex wasn’t the problem, clearly
more
sex wasn’t going to fix it.

He knew Valentina trusted him with her sister...but still, the bigger questions remained: not only how to get her to trust him with her
own heart, but also how to make her believe that between the two of them they could figure out a way around the spotlights.

“I like Val,” Lori said. “A lot. So much, in fact, that I wouldn’t mind hanging with her at family functions for the next forty or fifty years.” His sister pinned him with a razor-sharp look. “Which is why I seriously hope you have a better plan than just more of that.” She gestured to his desk again with another disappointed shake of her head.

He pulled off the tie his character Graham always wore and scowled at himself in the mirror. He hated that there was so much wisdom in what Lori was saying, in forcing himself to keep his hands off Valentina until he convinced her to actually date him with everything out in the open, rather than the two of them skulking around the set in a clandestine affair.

But as he threw his character’s suit jacket over his office chair, he absolutely refused to give up those precious moments when Valentina let down her walls and let herself be open and connected to him. Just as he’d told her that afternoon, he wasn’t giving up on finding that still-hidden pathway to her heart.

Lori moved behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Trust me,” she said with a commiserating sigh, “if anyone knows how you’re feeling, I do. Love sucks, doesn’t it?”

“No,” he told the little sister for whom he wanted nothing but the best, “love’s the good part.”

Somehow he’d figure out a way to deal with the rest of it.

* * *

It was dark and stormy in the city by the time Smith left his final meeting. The battery on his phone had died a couple of hours ago and although he figured there had to be a couple dozen messages and emails waiting for him, he headed neither for his office, nor his house, to recharge it.

Instead, he drove the dozen blocks to the rental home Tatiana and Valentina were sharing.

All afternoon, his talk with Lori had grated on him. She was right about him playing things wrong with Valentina. Increasingly, as the days turned into weeks, he’d grown more and more frustrated.

Idiot.

That’s what he was for not knowing she would be stronger than any of his attempts to woo her. After all, her strength was one of the things he’d fallen for, right from that day when she’d all but skewered him with the message that he’d better treat Tatiana right, or else.

Each sexual encounter he and Valentina had was hugely physically satisfying, but they weren’t getting him much closer to stripping away her other layers. Not when what he wanted for both of them ran so much deeper than just desire.

Sure, any number of women would have fallen at his feet. But he wanted
her
.

And she was worth however hard he had to work to get her.

As he rang her doorbell, the hard rain splattered his clothes and shoes. He couldn’t fight the rush of disappointment when Tatiana opened the door instead of her older sister.

“Great, you got my message,” Tatiana said with a wide grin as she stepped aside to let him in. “I’m pretty sure Valentina’s about to roll up the script and start hitting me over the head with it.”

Looking past Tatiana, he caught the quick flash of pleasure—and desire—in Valentina’s eyes at seeing him in her house before she quickly masked it with a polite hello.