Come A Little Bit Closer (The Sullivans #7)(33)

He’d known from the first time they’d kissed just how responsive she was, but he found himself stunned all over again by the way she reacted to his touch, as if he were the first man who had ever stroked his hands across her beautiful skin.

But even touching her shoulder was making it too hard for him to remember that Billy was only a dozen feet away upstairs at the helm. Smith forced himself to slide his hand from Valentina’s skin and into hers instead.

Only, if he’d thought that would cool the fire raging inside him, he was as wrong as he’d ever been about anything. Because just holding her hand, turning her palm upward so that he could stroke his thumb across her skin, was the hottest foreplay of his life.

She lifted her eyes to meet his and the unmasked desire he saw on her face nearly undid all of his good intentions to wait until they got home. He couldn’t trust himself to kiss her, but he had to brush his other thumb over her lower lip.

Her eyes closed on a soft moan of pleasure, similar to the way she’d appreciated the dinner he’d had brought in, only this time she wasn’t working to hold him at bay anymore.

No, this time she was pure, sensual woman against him.

And when the tip of her tongue slipped out to lick the pad of his thumb, he was the one groaning and pulling her even closer, until she was all but sitting on his lap.

Beneath the blanket he’d draped over both of them, his hands moved lower to cup her hips, and just as he’d known she’d be, Valentina was a perfect fit in his palms. He loved having one of her hands held in his, the other splayed across his chest, over the heart that beat hard and fast for her.

“We’ll be docking soon,” he said to try to remind himself that he could make it. He’d never wanted a boat ride to end so quickly. He felt like he was holding his breath waiting for the moment when they approached the dock.

“Good,” she said in an equally breathless voice. “Until then maybe we should talk.”

He nodded. “Talking’s good.” But his mind was empty of everything but her.

“Tell me about the rest of your family,” she suggested. “I know about Marcus and Nicola. And you’ve told me a little about Sophie and her pregnancy. But I don’t know much about the others yet.”

His siblings’ names and faces all mixed up in his head for several seconds. Finally, he pulled a name out of thin air. “Chase.” Smith forced himself to concentrate. “He’s a photographer. He’s married to Chloe. They have a baby. Emma.”

He knew his words were coming out staccato, that he wasn’t putting any color whatsoever into his description, but damn it, it was all he could do just to keep from pushing Valentina down onto the couch and ripping off her clothes.

“How old is their baby?”

“Three months.”

Valentina’s eyes lit up and went soft all the same time. “She must be so beautiful.”

God, if he hadn’t already fallen for her, right then and there he would have known just how beautiful her soul was, just by the way she reacted to the thought of a three-month-old baby.

“She is. None of us can get enough of her.”

Valentina’s eyes moved to his mouth, then back up to meet his gaze, and he could almost taste her lips before she quickly said, “Tell me about everyone else.”

Damn it, she was right. They needed to keep talking, to keep doing anything but making out again. Because this time if they started, neither one of them was going to be able to stop.

“Sophie’s a librarian and has been invaluable not only with this film, but with helping me research my roles for the past ten years.”

“I’m sure she loves to help,” she murmured.

“Zach is into cars. He just got engaged to Heather. She trains dogs.”

“The dogs from the puzzle, right?”

He nodded. “Plus Summer’s poodle. My brother Gabe is going to be her stepfather soon, when he marries Megan on New Year’s Eve. Gabe’s a firefighter.”

“I love the fact that you and your siblings all do such different things,” she said, and then, “I’ve chatted with Vicki a few times when she’s come to drop off another new sculpture. She’s engaged to your baseball-playing brother, isn’t she?”

“Ryan and Vicki are the newest engagement in the family.” He had to reach out and brush a lock of hair back from her forehead, for no other reason than that he couldn’t resist touching her.

“Is anyone else but you free?”

Free? He wasn’t even close to free, and was only now realizing that he hadn’t been since the day he’d first seen her, first talked to her, first tasted her lips and held her in his arms.

“Just Lori. She’s Sophie’s twin. A great choreographer. We call her Naughty to Sophie’s Nice.”

Valentina grinned. “Naughty, huh? What does she think of that?”

He grinned back. “She loves causing trouble and making sure she lives up to it every day of her life.”

“Of every one of your siblings, I think she’s the one I’m jealous of.” Valentina looked down to where her hand was still splayed out over his chest before lifting her eyes back up to his. “Getting to be naughty, knowing it’s okay just to let go, sounds so wonderful.”

Oh hell. He’d known there was passion simmering just beneath Valentina’s cool and collected surface, but hearing her say it aloud sent him all the way to the edge of his control.