Come A Little Bit Closer (The Sullivans #7)(52)

“Great,” she managed in what she hoped was a calm, even voice. “I’ll get them from you—”

“Now.”

There were no files. And even if there had been, she certainly could have waited to get them until after he and Tatiana finished shooting their next scene. But something told her it was either follow Smith into his office now...or risk him doing something in front of everyone on set later that would have eyebrows rising and tongues wagging.

She could see he wasn’t in the mood to wait too long for her to make her decision, so she quickly said, “We’ll be right back,” to their sisters and led the way to his office. She could feel his eyes on her, the subtle sway of her hips feeling more pronounced beneath the heat of his gaze, every sensitive area of her body already responding to him without so much as a touch.

She’d barely stepped into his office when she heard the door close—and lock—behind them.

“Smith.” She slowly turned around to face him. “Lori never would have said that if she knew you were the guy I’ve been—”

He waited, one eyebrow raised...and her stomach twisted at the sure knowledge that no matter what she said, she was only going to hurt him again.

She couldn’t say they were just sleeping together, because she couldn’t deny that what they had shared had been more than that. So much more. Even though she’d been trying as hard as she could to convince herself that it wasn’t.

“I don’t know what to call what we’re doing,” she said softly. “Actually, I tried to find you this morning in your office so that we could talk.” God, she hated admitting it, but he had to know. “I don’t know how to handle how fast everything has been moving between us. And even though every day I tell myself it’s the last time, things between us just keep getting—”

“Strip.”

The word worse—or was it better?—was halted on the tip of her tongue by his rough-edged command.

Day in and day out she watched him dominate his cast and crew on set. However smoothly he did it, Smith was always completely in charge of everything around him. With her, however, he’d invariably been gentle. Even that morning in his bed, he’d been careful not to push her too hard or too far.

Until now.

“Strip.”

Valentina knew she should be irritated with him for making such a command. Not to mention frustrated by the way he always steered her away from taking measures to shut down their affair.

She should be feeling anything but immediately warm and loose—and desperately wanting—just from the possession in his voice. And from his sure knowledge that she was not only going to obey his sensual command...but was going to absolutely love every single second of it.

So sure, in fact, that he didn’t wait for her to start taking off her clothes before he began to remove his own. Unfortunately he was right about her, because desire grew more and more inescapable as she watched him shrug off his jacket and then undo one button after another on his shirt.

She could barely swallow by the time he reached for his belt buckle, but somehow managed to croak, “They’re going to be looking for you on set soon.”

“Then we’ll have to make this quick, won’t we?”

His shoes and socks were off a moment later and then his pants until he was clad only in boxer briefs that did nothing whatsoever to hide the state of his arousal.

“Our sisters are going to wonder how your clothes got wrinkled,” he murmured as he advanced on her.

He was right. If she wasn’t going to muster up the strength to leave his office, she needed to get her suit off, and fast. With desire holding her so tightly in its grip that wild horses couldn’t have dragged her away, she reached for her jacket with shaking fingers. But Smith was close enough already that he was sliding his hands into her hair and kissing her.

Her hands fluttered from her jacket to his broad shoulders. Right when she should have been saying no and pushing him away, all she could do was say yes over and over in her head as she pulled him closer. And then his hands were shoving her jacket off and he was undoing the buttons on her blouse and unzipping her skirt as deftly and efficiently as he’d removed his own clothes.

When she was standing in front of him wearing nothing but her heels and another set of the beautiful lingerie he’d given her, the breath came out of his chest in a heated rush.

“I wish I could spend the next ten hours appreciating you,” he murmured as his lips and teeth came down over the tendon that connected her shoulder and neck, “but since we’ve only got ten minutes...”

Before she realized what he intended, he lifted her onto his desk, not so much as blinking when her hips shoved a stack of papers and a stapler to scatter all over the floor.

“I’ve never wanted anyone or anything the way I want you. You’re making me cross lines, break my own rules to have you. I need you, Valentina. So damn much it’s tearing me apart.”

When they were like this, when he was stroking her skin and searing her with his heat, when she could feel just how much he wanted her, she couldn’t hold anything back from him. Besides, she was clearly just as messed up as he was, because it was more than just sex that was driving her to be with Smith again and again.

It was the need to be close to him.

To let herself be held.

To be intimate.