Valentina quickly turned her attention back to the soft little package in her arms and Smith did the same, both of them murmuring how pretty and handsome and strong the babies were.

The obstetrician knocked on the door, and poked her head in with a grin. “Just want to let you know, your other brothers and sister are about to mutiny out there if they don’t get some face time with the little ones soon.”

Smith very reluctantly relinquished the baby boy to his sister. “You’re amazing, Soph. Anything you need,” he looked at Jake, too, “I want you both to call me. Day or night.”

Valentina clearly was having just as hard a time letting go of the sweet little bundle in her arms. “Bye-bye, pretty girl.” Soon, however, she gave the baby back to her father and hugged both Jake and Sophie.

Her eyes still held all of that softness as he put his arm around her and they headed out of the room to let his siblings know Sophie, Jake, Smith, and Jackie were ready for more visitors. Lori went next, along with Marcus and Nicola, and even though Smith loved spending time with his family, he also knew there were other things he needed more right now.

He pulled Valentina toward the exit.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Smith pulled Valentina out of his car and his mouth was on hers less than a heartbeat later and then she was in his arms and he was kicking the car door shut and carrying her into his house, just as he had their first night together after Alcatraz.

His kiss was full of passion, but also something so soft and sweet that she melted in his arms as she wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back just as passionately. Every time she’d been with Smith, she’d wanted him, but never more than in this moment.

Want. Need. Desire.

None of those words, none of those emotions, were big enough to hold everything she felt for Smith.

For his family.

For the way they’d included her in one of their most special moments.

And, most of all, for the chance to hold a miracle in her arms.

Smith laid her down on the bed, never breaking their kiss, not even for a second, as his hands found the zipper on her skirt and pulled both the metal teeth and then the fabric from her hips. With only her panties and the thigh-high stockings he’d bought for her covering her lower body, she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him in tighter. Moments later, Smith slipped open the buttons on her blouse and pushed the silky fabric open. The front clasp on her bra was next and then her sensitive flesh was in his hands and she was arching into the warm scratch of his palms and fingertips on a gasp of pleasure.

Moment by moment, her skin grew more heated, her bones seeming to liquefy with every kiss, with every caress, with every thrust of his clothed hips into hers. And yet, instead of their kiss growing more out of control, Smith’s mouth gentled on hers.

Amazingly, the whisper of his lips over hers only intensified her emotions, her needs, her passions, so that by the time he finally lifted his head to gaze down at her, she didn’t have a prayer of holding back anything from him, even if she’d wanted to.

“The babies, Smith.” Her mouth felt swollen and hot from his kisses and she sighed at the extreme pleasure of it. “Weren’t they just the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”

“They were beautiful,” he agreed in a low voice that rumbled over her skin and brought up thrill bumps over every inch of her. He lifted a hand to her cheek and brushed it over her full lower lip, which trembled at his touch. “And so are you.”

Holding the babies in her arms had completely erased their horrible morning with photographers and fights from which she’d been so sure she and Smith could never recover.

But, amazingly, they had.

Later, they would figure everything else out. Now, they would celebrate new life...and their love for each other.

This time she was the one pressing her mouth to his skin, first to the short, dark stubble that covered the lower half of his jaw, then to the strong, steady beat of his heart at the side of his neck. She’d never let herself be sure of a man before, and Smith was the last man on earth with whom she should have been looking for that certainty.

But how could she even think of looking anywhere else when he was all she could see?

She was so happy for him, you’d have thought it was her own sister giving birth, even though she’d only met Sophie a couple of times. Now, even with Valentina’s nearly naked body wrapped around him, heated and ready for anything he wanted, he didn’t make a move to take off his clothes. He simply continued to stare down at her.

All she could hear was the sound of her heart—and his—beating in time with each other.

And all she knew was that she was deeply, truly, madly in love with him.

Not because he was the most physically beautiful man she’d ever known. Not because he was famous or rich. Not even because of the way she felt when he was kissing her, touching her, making her cry out his name in pleasure.

But because of the way he loved his family, his mother, his sister—and now, the babies—with every last piece of his heart.

Heat and wild desire had always pulled them together, even when she’d tried so desperately to stay away. Now, there was so much she wanted to tell him, and yet all that she could manage was his name on a whisper.

“Smith.”

“I love you, too.”

They shared a kiss full of joy and passion, happiness and desire—everything she’d always wished for, but had never truly believed she would ever have. Dreams, reality, passion, affection, all melded into the perfect sensual combination as she began to strip him of his shirt and then his pants and boxers. They made short work of the rest of their clothes until they were naked and reaching for each other the second Smith put on protection.

Together, they tumbled into each other, strong and soft, wild and steady, as he moved into her in one beautiful thrust. She urged him deeper as she arched into him, her head falling back against the pillows while he ran his hands down her back to cup her hips and pull her tighter against him. Everything she gave he took, everything she craved he offered, as finally, neither of them held anything back.

In the exact moment that Valentina began to crest the wave, Smith took her mouth in a kiss so soft, so sweet, so full of love, that the tears she never let herself shed began to slide down her cheeks one after the other, faster still as the tremors of release wracked them both. The tears were still falling as Smith began to press soft kisses over her closed eyelids, her cheeks, her chin, everywhere that was streaked with wetness.

And when the waves of pleasure finally settled down, Valentina knew that she had never been so sated, so well loved in all her life...or so shocked by what had happened to herself while in Smith’s arms.

A part of her felt born again, as if she’d been baptized by her own tears. But those same tears had been her last defense against the pain she’d refused to acknowledge. Even her own sister had never really seen her cry.

Only Smith.

Finally, when he’d kissed away every last hint of her tears, he lifted his head to look down at her. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to when she could read everything in his eyes: the love, along with the lingering desire fueled anew by the soft kisses he’d never stopped giving her.

“I love you,” she said, the first time she’d ever said the words directly to him.

As joy suffused every inch of Smith’s face and as she said it again and again between his kisses, Valentina realized that as amazing as it had felt to hear Smith say “I love you,” it was not only a million times better to say it to him...it was also easy. Sweet.

And oh-so-perfect.

As she whispered the three little words she’d been so afraid to even feel against his mouth, he whispered it back before he curled her into his arms, her head on his chest, her legs still entwined with his.

All she wanted to do was close her eyes and rest for a short while, knowing Smith was there with her to hold her all through the night. She didn’t know how many hours it had been since they’d abruptly left the set, and for as long as it had taken Sophie to have her babies, Valentina hadn’t cared about the responsibilities she was ignoring. But now that it was just her own pleasure on the line, didn’t she have to drag herself back into the real world? No matter that it was the very last thing she wanted, that all that seemed to matter anymore was Smith and the joy she’d felt every single moment she’d ever spent with him.

As if he could read her mind, Smith pulled her closer, and said, “The world will keep spinning without us for a little while.”

The last thing Valentina felt was the press of his mouth against her forehead as she finally let herself lean all the way into him...and dropped every last defense around her heart as he whispered, “I love you so much,” one more time before sleep claimed her.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Valentina woke to the fantastic smell of pepperoni pizza with her stomach grumbling. As she pushed her hair back from her face and sat up against the pillows, she noted the sky outside the windows was black.

The lights were on in the room, but dim enough that she had to carefully scan the large bedroom for Smith. His eyes were on her from where he stood in the sitting area, obviously having just laid out food for both of them on the coffee table.

She’d worked with him for long enough now to recognize when he was in Director mode, almost as if he were framing the scene with her on the bed with the intention of pulling out a camera to shoot it. She began to move off the sheets to go to him, but her name on his lips held her captive where she was. A flush of heat spread slowly, and then faster, across her skin as he drank her in from across the room, until she was the one saying his name in a voice made slightly hoarse both by sleep and by the way she’d been calling out his name earlier.

“I love seeing you in my bed.”

“I love being in it.”

Moments later, he was standing in front of her and pulling her up to her knees, the covers completely sliding away from her naked body as she wound her arms around his neck to press her mouth against his with a passion that never seemed to abate, but only grew hotter, bigger, deeper, with every kiss.

In the back of her mind, she noted how easy it was—and how easy it had always been—to allow herself to be innately sensual with Smith. For so long she’d worked to suppress that side of herself, to make sure no man ever “took advantage” of her need to be touched, kissed, held. But she’d always felt safe with Smith, despite the dangerous hunger that was so often in his eyes when he looked at her. Was it because she felt the hunger, too, that the danger seemed not only okay...but was, in fact, a shockingly lovely bonus?

He brought over the shirt he’d been wearing the night before. She slipped her arms through the long sleeves, but she didn’t button it, simply rolled up the sleeves and wrapped the fabric around herself as they went to sit on the couch together.

He didn’t reach for food and neither did she. Instead, he took her hands in his just as she was reaching for him.

“Hungry?” he asked her, his deep voice at once soothing and arousing.

She nodded in answer, but knew she wouldn’t be able to eat a thing until they talked. Even the biggest stars in the world needed food and sleep just like anyone else. But when it came to the ones those stars loved, and to the potential damage fame could do to their relationships, “normal” came to a crashing halt.

And yet, Smith made her want to believe. Not just in love—she already knew that was real, knew that what she felt for him couldn’t possibly be merely the result of close proximity and great sex—but that their love could withstand not only the pressures of life, but of his fame, too.

For so long, she’d thought being strong meant not letting herself be vulnerable. But all this time had she had it backward? Instead of being a weakness, was risking everything to love actually the strongest, bravest thing she’d ever do?