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 from 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.