“That’s why you never needed to,” she marveled, “because you really did know they’d always be there for you. No matter what.”

“Always.”

“When I was a little girl I thought that, too, about my own family. But—” Not wanting to ruin a perfect evening with self-pity, she tried to brush away her comment. “Listen to me, sounding like I’m still that little girl when it’s been long enough for me to have gotten over it by now.”

Jack squeezed her hand. “We all want our families to approve of us and the dreams we’re chasing.”

“Why aren’t you married already, Jack?”

Mary gave a slightly embarrassed laugh. She hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but when he kept saying such sweet things, she simply couldn’t understand why he hasn’t already been snapped up.

“That didn’t come out quite right. I just meant that not only have you got two great examples of happy marriages between your parents and your brother, but, at this point, most men would be running away as fast as they could from their weepy dinner date who can’t seem to get over something that happened when she was a teenager.”

“Even though I can see that my brother Max is happy, and that my parents have something really special with each other, it never occurred to me to look for a wife or to start a family. Not when work always came first.”

“That makes sense,” she agreed. “The timing has to be right—otherwise you could end up losing the woman you’re supposed to be with, like Max almost did.”

“You know what?” Jack stroked his thumb over her palm, sending shivers through her that had nothing to do with the cool night air. “I don’t think bad timing is the entire answer anymore.”

Her senses came completely alive as she asked, “It isn’t?”

“Now I know that when I meet the right woman, I won’t have any problem at all making time for her. In fact,” he said as his gaze locked on hers, “it will be the most natural, easy thing in the world to put her first.”

Her heart fluttered in her chest as she realized they were standing at the base of her front steps. And as she drank in Jack’s rugged beauty in the winter moonlight, Mary couldn’t stop thinking about what Claudia had said: “We both tried to fight what we felt for each other for a long time. But eventually, neither of us could fight what was meant to be.”

Why, she had to ask herself, was she still fighting so hard against what she’d felt for Jack Sullivan from the first moment she’d set eyes on him?

What if they were meant to be?

“I don’t want to say goodnight yet,” she whispered.

“Neither do I.”

Jack put his arms around her and pulled her in tight to him so that his face was buried in her hair and her cheek was pressed to his broad chest. She could have stood in the circle of his strong arms until sunrise.

But she wanted more.

Which meant that she would finally have to be brave enough to risk not only her body…but her heart, too.

Lifting her face from his chest, she remembered what he’d said to her the first and last time he’d been to her home: Next time you invite me in, I’m going to make love to you. A shiver of need ran through her as she looked up at him.

“Come inside, Jack.”

His dark eyes flared with heat and so much desire it took her breath away. But he didn’t make a move for the door.

“The campaign isn’t over yet, and I made you a promise.”

“I love that you’re willing to stick by the promise you made to me, no matter how hard it is to do that. But I don’t need that promise tonight, Jack. I just need you.” She’d made the rules, and now she was the one tossing them away, at least for one night.

Despite how much he obviously wanted to come inside and make love to her, he didn’t move from the step he was standing on. “Be sure, Angel, because once I come inside and your front door is closed, there's going to be no turning back tonight.” His hands tightened on her. “Not for either of us.”

She could have tried to lie to herself by believing this was all just about sex, that she and Jack were simply going to take the night to let their attraction come to its inevitable conclusion. But Mary had never been a convincing liar…and deep inside, a voice that had been silent for far too long told her that making love with Jack would, instead of being an ending, be the beginning of something so much better, sweeter and more amazing than she’d ever dreamed.

“After watching you with Ian—” Emotion swept through her again as she thought about how sweet Jack had been as he’d held and played with the toddler. “You were so good with him, and he obviously trusts and loves you so much.

“Watching you with my family had me feeling the exact same things. Wanting you, needing you has kept me up every night since we met.” She could nearly taste his lips on hers, but instead of kissing her, he said, “But you need to know that I’m going to want more than just one night.”

Yet again, he was the most honest, straightforward man she’d ever known. Instead of sweet-talking her into rushing to open her front door so that they could fall into bed, he was giving her every reason to push him away again by asking for too much, too fast.

“Let’s start here,” she said softly. “With tonight. Please, Jack, come inside.”

She held her breath as she waited for him to decide if what she was offering was enough for him.

Finally, he lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them. “Let’s go in.”

Nerves fought with heady anticipation as she led him up the steps. He might spend all day working on computers in a dusty garage, but Mary knew just how dominant, how alpha Jack could be. She’d felt it in every stolen kiss, in the hard press of his body against hers when she’d sworn that getting tangled up with him wasn’t what she wanted. But tonight she sensed he wanted her to lead him only as far as she was comfortable going…even if it was a distance she honestly couldn’t yet calculate.

Her house was so quiet she wondered if he could hear how hard and fast her heart was beating. He helped her off with her coat, and even though she was still fully dressed, she felt as if she was already standing naked before him in her foyer.

“So they girls are really all gone?” His warm breath heated the bare curve of her neck as he remained behind her with her coat in his hands.

Mary took both her coat and his from him and hung them up before turning back and saying, “We have the place entirely to ourselves.”

“I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you, Mary. I didn’t think it was possible to want like this.”

He hadn’t yet reached for her, hadn’t yet pulled her in for a kiss. But when he spoke, heat rolled across her skin as if he’d done that, and more.

And yet, though she knew Jack was different from the other men she’d been with, the hard lessons she’d learned over the years had her wondering if it was just her face, just her body, he wanted so badly.

“I’m sure you’ve been with plenty of beautiful women before.” And, Lord, she prayed she could measure up to them.

“Don’t you dare try to act like that’s what this is about.” There was a fierceness in him now. “Yes, you’re beautiful. And yes, your stunning face, your gorgeous body might have been what first drew me to you, but that’s not why I’m going to make love to you tonight.”

“Then why?”

“You could be at a glittering Christmas party full of movie stars and moguls. You could snap your fingers, and a dozen of the world’s most eligible bachelors would come running to give you everything you desired and more. Instead, you spent the night with my family and even made us dinner. You laughed with my brothers. You put my sister-in-law at ease, and you played on the floor with my nephew.”

Ever since Mary had become famous, the men she’d met assumed she craved the glitz. The spotlights and flashbulbs. Only Jack had ever seen the truth—that she’d take spending time with a loving family over all of the fame and flash.

Just like that, her nerves fell away, and she reached for him. He’d remembered to shave that morning, but his jaw was already dark with an evening shadow. Gently, she ran her fingertips over his face as he slid his hands around the curve of her hips.

“It’s my turn to steal a kiss from you tonight,” she whispered as she ran her thumb across his lower lip. He was so tall that she had to go on her tiptoes in her heels and thread her fingers into his dark hair to pull his mouth down to hers.

And as she kissed him, the breath Mary realized she’d been holding since the moment she’d met Jack Sullivan escaped her lips in a happy sigh.

Chapter Twelve

Mary’s lips were so soft, her breath a whisper of warmth across Jack’s mouth. Every kiss they’d shared had been spectacular, but nothing could have prepared him for this. He’d been stealing passion from her before, but now she was giving him her boundless sensuality freely…and so damned sweetly that his hands were shaking as he cradled her hips.

She drew back just far enough to murmur, “You taste so good, like lemons and sugar and you,” and then she was kissing him again, slicking her tongue over his lower lip. Meeting her halfway, his tongue found hers, and she gave up a gasp of pleasure.

The small tastes of her that he’d had this past week had made him ravenous for more than just a few fleeting moments of heaven. He wanted to learn every inch of the incredible woman in his arms. What made her pant. What made her plead. What made her eyes flutter closed as she came apart in his arms.

Slowly, he slid his hands up her curves, from her hips to her back and shoulders. She was trembling by the time he threaded his fingers into her silky hair, and as he took their kiss deeper, her hands clasped his shoulders as if she needed to hold on to him to keep her balance.

Tilting her head back further, he began to rain kisses over her jaw. Drawn like a magnet to the rapidly beating pulse at the side of her neck, he covered it with his mouth. Her skin was even softer here, and she shuddered when the bristles from his evening shadow brushed over her. When she arched back, he licked once into the hollow at the base of her throat, before moving down to press his lips over the bare skin of her collarbone where her sweater had pulled away.

In the heat of their passion, they’d moved so that he was pressing her back against the front door, and as he cupped her face to kiss her again, she lifted one leg around his hips to try to pull him even closer.

Sliding his hand from her hair back down her body, he realized he’d never lost control this fast. He could barely focus on anything but how sweet her lips were, how soft her skin was, how good her hair smelled, how much he loved her soft moans of pleasure as she kissed him back with a desire that matched his. He knew that if they didn’t get into her bedroom soon, he was bound to take her their first time right here against her front door. He gave her one last, hot kiss, then swept her up into his arms.

He should have known she wouldn’t miss a beat as she drew his mouth back down to hers. Somehow he made it through the living room and down the hall to the door at the end of the hall without just dropping with her to the floor like a wild animal. Pushing her bedroom door open with his foot, he carefully walked through with Mary in his arms and laid her gently on top of her coverlet.

Wanting to remember every moment of their first night together, he took a step back from the bed and gazed down at the beauty before him. Mary’s long dark hair was spread out across the pillows, and her dark green sweater and gorgeous flushed skin were utterly enticing as she lay atop the red velvet bedcover.

“Come be with me, Jack.” She shifted up on the bed to reach out for him. “Please, I need you.”

As he went back to her, he made a silent vow to give her everything she deserved—not only more pleasure than she’d ever known before, but also the love he’d been keeping deep inside just waiting for the moment when she appeared in his life.