Come A Little Bit Closer (The Sullivans #7)(46)

“You really don’t,” Lori said, grinning at her while wiping the water from her face and brushing her damp hair back from her forehead. “Because I can already see from the look on your face that sex with the guy you’re ‘not encouraging’ is awesome.” Sophie was clearly about to drench Lori with more water when her twin held up her hands in mock surrender. “Okay, I’ll stop. I promise.”

But her promise came too late, because a water fight was soon going in earnest, with Vicki and Sophie ganging up on Lori until Valentina had to join Lori’s team to keep the battle even. When Tatiana found the four of them after her facial, they were all completely drenched and laughing together like old friends. Tatiana easily slipped into the water with them and joined in on the fun without missing a beat.

Chapter Seventeen

Monday afternoon, Smith found Valentina in the set parking lot just as she was about to get into her car. “I’m glad I caught you.” He slid into the passenger seat of her Lexus before she could protest. “Tatiana said she thought you were heading out to Union Square. I could really use your help with picking out gifts for the holiday party this week, if you’ve got a little time to spare.”

God, she was pretty, he thought as she turned to face him, her expression clearly wary about the excuse he’d just given her. Saturday morning when she’d been in his bed had been too long ago, and he couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to touch her at least in some small way by running his hands through the ends of her ponytail.

“I’m happy to help you pick out gifts for everyone,” she told him in a voice that was anything but happy, “but you and I already know that this—” She gestured between the two of them. “—isn’t a good idea.” The only sign that being near him was affecting her was the slightly breathy tone of her otherwise beautifully modulated voice.

She was right. The two of them weren’t a good idea.

They were a great one. And when he slid his hand down from her hair to her arm, then down the soft leather of her jacket to her hands, he could feel just how right he was in the way she trembled beneath his fingertips. He slid his fingers through hers.

“I missed you the past two nights. Badly.”

He’d hated sleeping each night without her, hated just as much not being able to take her hand like this today on set. The Sullivan family was an affectionate one and Smith wasn’t used to keeping his feelings to himself. Especially when they were this strong.

Valentina sighed, but fortunately, it seemed that her desire was stronger than her will to resist him. So instead of kicking him out, she simply slid her hand from his, turned the key in the ignition, and started her car.

Smith settled back into the leather seat, his long legs stretched out in front of him, enjoying just being with Valentina. Her scent, the way the pulse raced at her neck, the fire that leapt in her skin even as she tried to hold it—and him—at bay…there wasn’t a part of her that didn’t interest and attract him.

A short while later they were walking out of the parking garage and into the heart of Union Square. Her eyes grew wide as she looked at the holiday lights in the trees and on the buildings that surrounded the square, which looked so different now than they had when they’d filmed the opening scene of the movie here weeks ago. Ice skaters held court in the rink at the center of it all.

“It’s like a winter wonderland.”

She was gazing at the skating couple twirling in each other’s arms with such longing that he wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to grab her and kiss her beautiful mouth were it not for a group of teenage girls who spotted him and ran over.

“Oh my God, it’s Smith Sullivan!”

Their squeals got the attention of dozens of other people, all of whom suddenly pulled out their phones to take pictures and text their friends. He wasn’t surprised when Valentina moved out of range of the camera, but when he took a pen to start signing autographs, he greatly appreciated the way she offered to take his fans’ pictures with him so that all of them could be in the picture at once. Clearly, she’d been through this more than once with her sister, and yet again, he was glad to know that his world wasn’t at all foreign to her.

Couldn’t she see that if anyone could withstand the unique pressures of dating a movie star it would be her? To his mind, it was the perfect test for how well they would do if this were more than a simple shopping trip, and she had agreed to be his girlfriend.

Ten minutes later, when the last of the crowd seemed to have had their fill, Smith asked her, “Have you ever been to Gumps?”

She gave him such a cute look as she asked, “What’s a gump?” that he couldn’t resist stroking her cheek, which was flushed from the cold air—and, he hoped, from being with him.

“It’s that way,” he said with a grin that she, fortunately, couldn’t seem to stop herself from returning. “Let’s see if we can get out of here before the next group descends.”

“I should have rethought my plan to come downtown with you,” she said in a slightly apologetic tone, as if it were in some way her fault that his fame had just slowed down her shopping trip. “Although,” she said with a wry twist of her lips, “I’m not sure there’s anywhere remote enough that you wouldn’t be recognized.”

“Cities tend to have the most enthusiastic fans. A few months ago I was in a little town in Kansas, and no one even gave me a second glance.”