I Only Have Eyes for You (The Sullivans #4)(17)

No wonder everyone always said men were stupid. He wouldn’t know the “right thing” if it hit him between the eyes...which she had been more than a little tempted to do with one of her heels when she’d seen him flirting with attractive female wedding guests.

“Sophie and I have it covered, Jake.”

“Okay, then.” He nodded in their direction. “Good night.”

He left without hugs or handshakes for either of them and Smith immediately started in with, “I know you don’t want to hear what I have to say.”

“Then don’t say it.”

“He isn’t the right man for you.”

“How can you say that about one of your best friends?”

“That’s exactly why I can say it.” Smith reached for her hand and when he made her look at him, with the moon shining down on the only two people left in the vineyard, she didn’t see the movie star everyone else saw. Instead, Sophie saw a father figure who had cared for her—and loved her—every moment of her life. “Let him go, Soph.”

“I know he’s been with a lot of women, but—”

“More than you could ever add up, but what I’m talking about goes way deeper than that.” He ran his free hand through his hair. “He can’t love you back.”

Smith’s words resounded with a forceful premonition of doom, of pain, of loss. She was almost frightened by the expression on her brother’s face.

His phone rang just then, an urgent beeping that had him cursing and pulling it from his pocket. “Damn it, it’s my director in Australia.”

Smith was executive producing his new big-budget movie, and she knew it had been nearly impossible for him to carve out these hours for the wedding. And yet, not once all night had he picked up his phone.

He turned his back on her as he told the director, “I can’t talk right now, James. I’m in the middle of something important and I’ll have to call you back. You knew what she was like when you hired her. We all warned you. I’m leaving for the airport at first light. I’ll deal with it as soon as I can.”

But by the time Smith disconnected the call, Sophie was gone.

Chapter Seven

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Sophie was standing on the front step of Jake’s Napa Valley rental house, as if he’d conjured her out of thin air.

“I came to see you, Jake. To talk. To figure things out.” Her gaze dropped to his mouth before she whispered, “And to kiss some more.”

Jake had thought about Sophie every second since their kiss in the vines. Working behind the bar all night, it had been torture watching her dance with an endless stream of men. Even knowing many of them were old family friends didn’t stop the bile from churning in his gut and his hands from turning into fists. He was an old family friend and look at what he wanted to do to her: rip her clothes off and take her again and again.

Working to ignore the way his body was responding to her nearness, he stepped out onto the front step and closed the door behind him.

“There’s nothing to talk about. Nothing to figure out. And we’re not going to kiss again. Ever.”

She should have run at his harsh tone. Instead, she moved closer. Close enough to mess with whatever brain cells were still functioning in the bloodless zone of his brain.

“Jake, if you’ll just let me come in—”

“I could have been in bed with someone else.”

She couldn’t hide her flinch at his harsh words, at the reminder that he had specifically not chosen to take her to his bed tonight. But instead of backing off, he watched as she pushed her shoulders back and her chin up.

“But you aren’t...are you?”

“No.” Damn it, he should have been. That would have showed both of them that all he needed was a warm, willing body, instead of wanting Sophie with an urgency that was nearly driving him insane. “But that doesn’t mean I was waiting for you.”

The corners of her mouth moved up at the words waiting for you. “Stop trying to deny what happened between us, Jake. You’re not going to convince me that our connection isn’t real.”

She was right—the sparks between them had practically set the vineyard on fire. Convincing her he didn’t want her wasn’t going to work. He’d have to make her run a different way.

He’d kill anyone who harmed even one hair on Sophie’s head. Already, he knew it was going to be a very long time before he forgave himself for that kiss...and for what he was about to do to her now.

Just because pushing her away was a necessary evil, didn’t mean it wasn’t evil, damn it.

He purposely raked his gaze down her body, lingering on her br**sts and hips far longer than he needed to. “You’re too innocent for me, princess. Why don’t you leave before something happens that you’ll regret?”

It was partly that innocence that drew him to her, of course, but she didn’t need to know that. Not when he was on a mission to get her to leave before his control shattered.

But instead of rising to his taunts, she simply smiled at him. “One of the perks of being a librarian is endless access to books.” She licked at her lower lip, slowly, deliberately. “All kinds of books.”

Suddenly, Jake couldn’t get past the image of Sophie poring over the Kama Sutra, memorizing all those variations on lovemaking with her big brain. It was wrong. So damn wrong.