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 breasts 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.

Very reluctantly, Smith pulled his mouth from hers and his hands from her skin to undo his tie and the buttons on his dress shirt. Valentina knew better than to help him—she needed him so badly that she was in danger of ripping the shirt off him—and curled her hands into fists on the soft bedcover to keep from ruining his dress clothes. Fortunately, he was able to undress quickly enough that it felt as if he’d barely stepped away from between her thighs to kick off his pants when he was right back with her, a condom already rolled down his thick, hard length.

A heartbeat later his hands were once again threading into her once perfectly done hair, his mouth was kissing off her expertly done makeup, and he was sliding into her on a pleasured groan. Her skin was slick against his as they moved together, Smith going deeper even as Valentina opened herself all the way up to him.

As he rocked into her again and again, and her pleasure grew higher, sharper, she forgot all about Hollywood, about billionaires and cameraman and gossip rags.

She felt as though her entire body was tightening down around him when he lifted his head from her mouth and looked into her eyes.

“I love you.”

The simple vow was all it ever took to send Valentina hurtling over the edge, and Smith was right there with her, not only to catch her as she fell...but also to show her just how incredibly good it was to leap, knowing his strong, warm arms would be around her every single second.

Minutes later, as they both worked to catch their breath, and Valentina stroked Smith’s slightly damp hair from where he’d laid his head across her breasts, she felt wonderfully drained of nerves.

He pressed a quick kiss to her lips before pulling her up off the bed, stripping off her stockings and heels, and dragging her into the bathroom for the world’s quickest shower. He held her hair up out of the way of the spray as she soaped both of them up, his body responding again as if he hadn’t just finished taking her.

But even though she could see that he would have also been happy to do just that, she turned off the water and reached for a towel, handing him one before taking another for herself.

Smith had never used his fame as an excuse to hide, and she wouldn’t make him hide for her.

“Come on, slowpoke,” she teased as she purposely dropped the towel to the tiled floor and left the bathroom to put her dress back on. “Race you to the limo.”

She’d almost reached her dress when his strong arms came around her.

“I love you.”

His breath whispered against her neck as he once again said the three words that never ceased to fill her with awe. Not because she hadn’t believed it was possible for a movie star to love her, but because she hadn’t thought it was possible for love to find her at all.

She turned in his arms, the press of their nakedness forgotten as she put her hands on either side of his face. “I love you, too.”

A few minutes later, he’d zipped her back into her dress and she’d straightened the bow tie on his tux. Her hair was a lost cause and she’d had to settle for a quick lash of mascara and a swipe of lipstick, but when she and Smith finally went down to meet her sister who had been patiently waiting for them in the living room, Tatiana’s eyes widened as she looked at the two of them.

“You looked amazing before, Val, but now you’re simply perfect.” Tatiana grinned at Smith, one good friend to another after their long weeks of working together. “Nice work, Mr. Sullivan.”

He grinned back and as the three of them headed out to the limo outside, and Valentina slid in between the two movie stars who meant everything to her, instead of being terrified by the night they were about to have, Valentina felt happy.

Content.

And utterly, completely loved.

Chapter Thirty-one

New Year’s Eve

Gabe and Megan’s wedding

Snow was falling outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the large wood-framed building. The pine trees outside were covered in soft, cold flakes, while the forest floor was blanketed in thick white fluff, turning all of Lake Tahoe into a winter wonderland.

Gabe Sullivan and Megan Harris had fallen in love in Lake Tahoe last winter, with some help from Megan’s daughter, Summer, who had a brilliant knack for matchmaking. Today, the warmth of love surrounded Gabe, Megan, and Summer as two hundred family members and friends gathered to celebrate their wedding.

Smith held Valentina’s hand tightly as he watched another one of his brothers say “I do” to the love of his life. As Gabe slipped the ring onto Megan’s finger, Summer standing close to both of them with an enormous smile on her face, Smith played with the white-gold band on Valentina’s left hand.

His Christmas gift to her this year had been the easiest one in the world to pick out. Still, his heart had beat like mad as she’d opened the large box, then each one inside as they grew smaller and smaller. Until, finally, all that remained was one small velvet box.

She’d stared at it for a long moment, so long that his heartbeat had reversed from racing too fast to barely beating. He’d known how much he was asking from her, that being his wife would never be easy, simply because what he did for a living meant the world thought he was theirs.

“I’m yours,” he’d told her in a voice made raw with emotion. “Be mine, Valentina.”

And then, she’d smiled at him and the joy and love on her beautiful face had told him everything he needed to know, even before she said, “I’ve always been yours.”

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.”

“Excuse us, guys.”

His cousins gave him a look that said they knew exactly what he was about to do with his beautiful fiancée, and he knew they were more than a little jealous, too. A couple of them had brought dates, but he could tell that the women weren’t anything special to them.