The scratch of his teeth over her bare shoulder sent shudders through her. “Ford.”
“I’m not breaking your promise,” he murmured against her skin before pressing his lips over the slight ache he’d just created, then roaming with lips and teeth—but no tongue—across her collarbone to her other shoulder, where he took another nip.
She’d been so sure that abiding by her promise to keep tongues out of the kiss would also keep it from sending her senses into overdrive. But, oh, how wrong she’d been.
Because of all the kisses the two of them had ever shared, this one was quickly becoming the absolute hottest.
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.”