Author: Bella Andre

Still, she needed to try to keep it together right now. At least until Sophie had her babies.

“Did Mary say how Sophie was doing?” Valentina couldn’t help but worry that the sweetest, softest Sullivan was dealing with something more difficult than she could bear. Especially when she knew that Smith and Sophie shared a special closeness. “Is she in a lot of pain?”

“Sophie is far tougher than she looks,” he told her, but Valentina could see how worried he was for his younger sister. “For all her big talk, Lori’s the pussycat. Sophie can hold her own.”

She could hear the tension in his voice, tension that was only partially due to his concerns over how Sophie was doing.

They’d been so close that morning…and now?

Valentina took a breath that shook through her, hard enough that Smith turned his intense gaze to her for a moment. It hurt too bad to think about what had happened to them between last night and this afternoon.

Somehow she managed to think clearly enough to ask him, “Tell me about Sophie and her husband. How did they meet?”

Smith paused for a long moment before answering. “Jake is a family friend. As far back as I can remember, he was always in the house. Sophie fell in love with him when she was just a little girl.”

When he said the word love, for a moment, Valentina felt like she was going to shatter.

Especially when he said, “They were so different, Valentina. Too different, it seemed,” and his smile fell away. “She’s a librarian. He owns pubs. She’s quiet, calm. He’s loud, came from a rough background, is covered in tattoos.”

Valentina’s throat was so tight she could hardly get words out. “But they made it work.”

Smith pulled into the hospital parking lot and turned his dark gaze to her. “He loves her just as much as she loves him. So, yeah, they make it work.”

* * *

Stepping into the waiting room was like walking into a Sullivan family party. All of Smith’s brothers and sisters were there, ready and excited to meet two new additions, hopefully tonight.

The only thing that could possibly dim their happiness was the concern he could see etched on all their faces. Everyone was worried about him. Because he’d never even come close to punching out a photographer before.

Marcus and Nicola greeted them first with hugs. Smith hadn’t been too sure about them as a couple the first time he saw them together. In fact, he’d warned his brother away from getting too close to a pop star because he hadn’t thought her lifestyle would suit the most low-key and serious of all his brothers. But he’d been wrong. They were perfect together. Just like Sophie and Jake were, despite his reservations when he’d heard that Jake had gotten Sophie pregnant after a one-night stand.

Smith knew he and Valentina had been perfect together, too. Until his glittering world had come crashing down onto them and blown their new, too-fragile connection to pieces.

When Nicola moved to hug Valentina, Marcus shot Smith a look that was easy to read.

What the hell is happening to you?

Smith shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about it now, didn’t want to let all the crap that came with his fame overshadow one of the biggest, most important moments in their family. He knew his brothers would have happily hunted down the paparazzi and kicked their asses to protect him, that they hated not being able to protect and defend one of their own. But he also knew they would continue to respect his wishes that they not engage, or get themselves into trouble on his behalf. He was the one who had chosen this career, not them.

Damn it, it was just the reason why he needed to let Valentina go. He was trying so hard to do what was right for her…even if nothing had ever felt so wrong.

Ryan’s fiancée, Vicki, and his sister Lori greeted Valentina as if she was an old friend, and he loved them all so much for making her laugh, especially after the way her voice had broken in the car that morning when she’d said his name.

But then, another woman in labor was pushed past them in a wheelchair, moaning in pain as she gripped her stomach, and suddenly, all Smith could think of was Sophie.

He tried to be an honest man, with others and himself, but until this moment he hadn’t really wanted to think too hard about the reality—and the risks—of Sophie giving birth to twins. And even though she’d insisted to him a hundred times over as he’d checked in with her at least twice a day that she was the healthiest pregnant woman on the planet, he found himself spinning off into worries he could no longer control.

Damn it, why hadn’t he seen Jake making his move on his sister? Maybe then he could have stopped all of this from happening and she wouldn’t now be in the hospital where anything could go—

“Smith.”

He hadn’t seen Valentina move in front of him, was surprised to hear her say, “I think this is the perfect time to use your infamous movie-star charm to convince a nurse to let you check on Sophie so that you can see for yourself that everything is going to be fine.”

Her calm broke through the fog clogging his brain like the beam from a lighthouse. It was another reason why they were a perfect match: If he ever started to go off the rails—which was pretty damn easy to do in his line of work—he could count on Valentina to lovingly, but firmly, bring him back to the center of the tracks. He’d seen her do the very same thing at least a dozen times with her sister during filming, so in tune with Tatiana that she always honed in on just when her sister needed her most.

How could he let her go? Even if it was the right thing to do for her? Even if she’d have a better life without him?

The flash of a camera came through the waiting room’s glass door. A split second later, Valentina was saying, in a voice laced with fury, “You all need to stay here for Sophie. I’ll handle this.”

* * *

“This isn’t okay.”

Valentina walked right up to the men and women holding the cameras. They had obviously been tipped off as to where she and Smith were going when they left the set. Or maybe, she thought, they’d gotten here first but had been lying in wait for the perfect chance to take pictures of the whole family when they finally emerged into the more public area of the hospital. The hows didn’t really matter, though, not when the only thing that mattered was that they leave.

“I know he’s a star, that his picture sells papers and advertisements, but can’t you at least give him this? Just a few hours to be alone with his family?”

The cameras kept clicking as she spoke and she knew she was feeling just what Smith had that morning on her doorstep. Like she’d do anything she had to if only she could get them to leave.

“Please.” She hadn’t had the words earlier when Smith had needed them from her, wasn’t sure she had it in her to sacrifice her privacy, or to sign up for the circus that would likely always be his life. Now, even though it was too little, too late, nothing could stop her from saying, “Tell me what you want so that you’ll leave the Sullivan family alone today. Tell me and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you have it.”

She didn’t even have time to take her next breath before the first question came. “Is it true that Smith has been dating both you and your sister secretly?”

“No.”

“Then who is he really with?”

“Me. Just me.”

“How long have you been with Smith?”

“Four weeks.”

“Were you dating in secret?”

“Yes.”

“Did your sister know?”

“No.”

“Does he love you?”

She shook her head, knowing tears were going to start falling soon. “I don’t know.”

“Are you in love with him?”

Tears began to fall down her cheeks, one after the other. “Yes, I love him.”

And with that, she knew she’d given them exactly what they wanted. A clear shot of the endless depth of her love for Smith...and the fear and uncertainty that came right alongside it.

“Now, please,” she asked them, “go.”

Amazingly, they did, but she still stood right where she was to make sure they didn’t change their minds at the last second. When she finally turned around, she walked right into a hard chest.

“Smith?”

“I don’t deserve you.”

He cupped her face in his hands and looked down at her, his eyes blazing with dark, intense heat, and she realized he must have seen and heard everything.

“I know you deserve more than this,” he told her. “You deserve better than to be thrust into my crazy life, but I’m too much of a selfish son of a bitch to let you go.”

His mouth came down on hers, crushing her lips in a kiss that held nothing back. And just like every one of their kisses that had come before, she couldn’t hold anything back from him, either.

“I love you, Valentina. I love that you’re here with my family. And I can’t wait to remind you how stunned you looked that day I told you I loved you, too, while we were standing in a hospital waiting room, surrounded by bright fluorescent lights and cheap blue plastic chairs.”

“Smith Sullivan?” a middle-aged nurse called. “I’m ready to take you back to see your sister now.”

He gave her one more breath-stealing kiss and then he was heading into the maternity ward to make sure his sister was okay.

* * *

The swinging doors had barely closed behind Smith and the maternity nurse when Lori moved to Valentina’s side.

“I knew it.”

Valentina still felt so stunned, so overwhelmed by what Smith had told her not just once, but three times in a row, and by what she’d told the photographers—“Yes, I love him”—that she couldn’t have made her lips form a response to his sister for the life of her. Smith’s brothers and their significant others weren’t nearly as overt, but she could tell they were all paying rapt attention to the way things would play out from here.

But for all of Lori’s energy and enthusiasm, she clearly wasn’t without empathy, because she linked her arm through Valentina’s and said, “Anywhere I am waiting for something important, if there’s a coffee machine, I make sure to buy a cup. Kind of a little superstition, I guess. Want one?”

A minute later, Valentina was holding a cup of truly disgusting-looking coffee. Looking down at the watery sludge, then back at Lori, she said, “Thank you.”

Smith’s sister smiled at her. As beautiful as he was, each member of his family held a different shade of that beauty. Lori’s beauty, however, was so stunning upon first glance, that Valentina was suddenly reminded of her sister and mother and had to wonder if Lori’d had a difficult time moving past her looks.

Suddenly noticing how tired Lori looked and that she was wearing tights, a sparkly skirt, and ballroom dance shoes, Valentina asked, “Would you mind if we sat down for a few minutes?”

As Lori gratefully sank into the one of the chairs, Valentina thought she saw more than tiredness on her pretty face. There was sadness there, too, all but rippling outward to Valentina as Lori momentarily dropped her perky cover. For all that she was reeling from Smith’s declaration a few minutes ago, Valentina found herself wanting to reach out to Lori.

“Is everything okay?”

Lori’s eyes widened with surprise and for a moment it looked like her face was going to crumple. But then she was shaking her head and saying, “I’m just thinking about Sophie. You know, the whole twin connection and her pain is my pain, and all that.”

Valentina didn’t doubt that Lori was, in fact, very concerned about Sophie’s wellbeing...but she also didn’t fully believe what Smith’s sister had just said.

Only, before she could let Lori know that she was happy to listen anywhere, any time, if she had something she wanted to talk about, Lori sipped at her coffee and made a face.