Come A Little Bit Closer (The Sullivans #7)(87)

He’d made love to her beneath the twinkling lights of their Christmas tree and they’d been lying naked in each other’s arms when she’d put her gift for him on his stomach. Feeling like a kid again, he shook the package and her laughter at his antics wrapped around him like a blanket. Finally, he’d ripped open the wrapping paper and saw that she’d given him a photo album from the Gravity set. Inside were dozens of pictures in black and white, and color too, of Smith and the cast and crew he’d just spent the best seven weeks of his life with. Laughing, working, eating, goofing around—everything was there. Including one final picture that he’d cherish forever.

Valentina had her arms around his neck, and his were around her waist. The two of them weren’t kissing, or even smiling. They were simply holding each other. There was no caption for this picture, but it didn’t need one. Not when anyone could see how close the man and woman in the picture were...so close that nothing could ever break them apart.

Carefully setting the album aside, he’d lifted her back on top of him, and loved her again.

They’d joined the rest of his siblings at their mother’s house later that day to open presents, and the margaritas had been flowing again as this time their engagement was the one being celebrated. Christmas with his family had always been special and full of love. With Valentina at his side, love ran deeper than he’d ever known it could.

Now, on New Year’s Eve in Lake Tahoe, everyone stood to applaud the bride and groom as they first shared a kiss with each other, and then with Summer, one smooch to each of the little girl’s cheeks, followed by one from her for each of them. Summer jumped up into Gabe’s arms and he held tight to her as the three of them began to walk back down the aisle hand in hand.

Valentina’s eyes were soft and dreamy with love as she looked up into Smith’s, her curves warm and sensual as he held her in his arms. “What a beautiful wedding.”

She was holding her free hand over her heart, and he covered it with his as he leaned down to press a kiss to her lips.

They’d already discussed the fact that their wedding would be small and private, but after seeing her reaction to his brother’s, he had to ask, “Do you want a wedding like this one? We can make it work, Valentina, if it’s what you want.” It wouldn’t be easy to pull off a large wedding given his level of celebrity, but he would move mountains for Valentina.

She smiled up at him. “All I want is you.”

If they’d been anywhere else, Smith might have forced himself to hold tight to his control. But these were his friends. Family. And he didn’t need to hold back in front of them.

Not when they knew that Valentina held not only his heart, but his soul.

Her mouth against his was as warm and soft as her eyes had been and, silently, he made every one of the vows to her that Gabe had just made to Megan...all the while knowing that Valentina was making them right back to him.

“I love you.”

They whispered the words aloud to each other and Smith knew it didn’t matter if they had a large wedding, or if it was just the two of them in front of a priest. Every time they laughed together, every time they kissed, every moment they spent with each other’s families, they became more and more entwined in each other’s hearts.

Hand in hand they walked out into the large reception room. The children, including Summer, had begged their parents to let them go play out in the snow before it was time for lunch to be served, and the sound of hooting and hollering warmed the already cozy space.

Smith had introduced Valentina to his cousins Rafe, Adam, and Dylan, who had all flown in from Seattle earlier. Their sister, Mia, was flirting with one of the guys from Gabe’s firehouse. Unfortunately, the oldest Seattle Sullivan, Ian, had his flight in from England cancelled and wouldn’t be arriving until later that night.

Smith whisked a tray of champagne from a pretty young server who blushed profusely at his thank you, then passed glasses around for a toast to the bride and groom.

“To love,” Smith said, grinning at the way his single cousins barely held back their eye rolls.

“And to what looks to be one heck of a snowball fight outside,” Rafe added.

Smith wasn’t at all surprised to see Summer kicking serious butt against some of the older boys. After all, he’d spent a couple of hours the previous afternoon teaching her everything he knew about snowball warfare.

Valentina squeezed his hand as she pulled his gaze over to the dance floor. “Look at how sweet that is.”

Chase and Chloe’s daughter, Emma, had crawled onto the empty dance floor and a boy who looked to have just learned how to walk had toddled up to pat her hair. The two babies plopped down in front of each other and began to have a wordless conversation of goo’s and ga’s that had everyone smiling.

Until the boy suddenly reached out a chubby little hand and gave Emma a shove.

The baby girl’s eyes went wide for a moment before she toppled slowly over onto her back. She was kicking up her heels in a wail just as Chase scooped her up into his arms.

“Poor thing,” Valentina murmured. “And she was having so much fun flirting, too. Now whenever she sees him, she’s going to be worried that he’ll do it again.”

“What about you?” he asked softly. “Are you feeling worried about anything?”

He could feel Valentina’s pulse quicken against the pad of his thumb where he was stroking her sensitive skin. She bit her lip, and he watched her channel her inner actress as she said, “A little.”