Come A Little Bit Closer (The Sullivans #7)(85)

Before she’d met him, she’d been utterly certain that this kind of life was crazy, and that any woman who walked willingly into a relationship with a man like him was a fool. Now, Valentina was one hundred percent certain that he was worth being crazy and foolish for—worth even the terror that rode her.

And still, her heart raced and her palms dampened just thinking about all those…

She was stunned out of her frantic thoughts by the sound of the door being locked by Smith. By the time she got her brain functioning at least halfway as fast as it should, he was moving toward her and taking her hands in his. He lifted them to his gorgeous mouth, pressed a kiss to each of her fingertips, then gently turned her to face the wall while lifting her hands up to put her palms flat against the cool painted plaster.

She stood there, turning her face from the wall to look at him over her shoulder. “Smith, what are you—”

Her question slid away on a gasp as he easily found the long opening along the right side of her dress that ran from ankle to mid-thigh. It was the one part of the dress that had given her pause, more than a hint of sexy on an otherwise perfectly elegant dress. She loved how sexy she felt any time he kissed her, touched her, whispered how good she felt in his arms, relished how natural it was for her to let go whenever they were making love. But it was one thing to let her inner sensual self out in the privacy of his bedroom...it was another entirely to let the rest of the world see it.

But now, as his warm fingers ran a devastating path up her sensitive skin, she gave silent thanks for the cut of the dress. He didn’t rush as he lightly caressed the skin on her upper thigh, first on the outside and then in toward her inner thigh.

From the first touch of his lips on her fingertips, her arousal had spiked. And as his hand slid over the thin lace of her thong and he cupped the sensitive flesh between her legs, she couldn’t think, or worry, or even remember how those thoughts got there in the first place. All she could do was arch her hips into his in a silent plea for more.

Her name was a heated whisper against her neck as he answered her plea by slipping his fingers under the edge of silk and into her. His tongue traced the curve of her neck as she rocked into him, the delicious—and oh-so-unexpected—pressure quickly sending her straight into a heady climax.

Still braced against the wall with her hands, her neck arched back into his mouth as a brilliantly colored fireworks display shot off inside of her.

“Beautiful.” Smith’s teeth found the lobe of one ear as she came apart with him pressed tightly against her back, his hand moving in a perfect rhythm between her thighs as he kept her release going on and on. “So damn beautiful.”

By the time she remembered to breathe again, it came out in hard, fast pants. Everything inside her was spinning, twisting, buzzing.

His large hands were gentle on her bare shoulders as he turned her to face him. She licked the spot on her lower lip that she’d bitten into when he’d sent her reeling and his eyes were hungry as he gazed down at her mouth.

“You were worrying,” he said in answer to the question she hadn’t been able to ask. He lifted his hand to brush the pad of his thumb across her lower lip. “I’ve decided that any time I see you overthinking things, or if you start panicking over the Hollywood circus, that’s what I’m going to do.” His gaze darkened even further with sensual intent. “I won’t care where we are, or what we’re supposed to be doing. You come first, Valentina. Always.”

She believed him, knew he never said anything he didn’t mean. But she also knew that it was going to be a long time before she could figure out how to keep from freaking out about being in the Hollywood spotlight alongside him. If ever.

Only, instead of the usual panic that accompanied that thought, a shudder of sweet anticipation came at Smith’s incredibly sexy promise about how he would help her cope with the pressure.

But it wasn’t until he pressed a soft kiss to her mouth and began to step away from her that she realized the only thing he’d been concerned with was helping her, not taking his own pleasure, too.

Thank God her brain had started functioning well enough by then for her to take his hands in hers and ask, “What if I’m still worrying?” When renewed concern moved across his beautiful face, she quickly put his hand on her hips and brought her mouth a breath away from his to whisper, “What else will you do to make me stop?”

She felt his answering grin right before he said, “This,” and took her mouth in a possessive kiss.

He deftly slid down the zipper along the back of her dress and helped her step out of it, before carefully laying it across the back of a soft chair in her bedroom. He stood holding the yellow silk in his hands, his gaze filled with awe as he took in her naked body, now clad in only a silk thong, thigh-high, lace-edged stockings, and heels.

And then he was threading his hands into her hair and lowering his mouth to devour hers in a deeply passionate kiss. He rained kisses over her face, down her neck, her shoulders, before finally laving the peak of one breast with his tongue, and then the other.

She loved the rough scratch of his jacket against her bare br**sts as she pulled him down over her, using her calves to pull him even closer even as he slid her panties off. And this time she was the one kissing him with the passion he revealed within her more and more every time they made love. If they had more than a few stolen minutes, they might have kissed for hours, until both of them were utterly, completely desperate for more.