“I love weddings,” she finally said. “Big ones. Small ones. If it’s about love, and forever, you’ve got me. Right here.” She put her hand over her chest, then looked at her siblings. “Growing up in this family, it wasn’t always easy being an incurable romantic.” Her brothers and twin grinned along with the rest of the guests. “But if I’d ever been even close to being cured,” she paused and faced Chase and Chloe, “the two of you made me believe in love all over again.” She raised her glass to the couple. “I’d like to make a toast to my beloved big brother, Chase, and my brand new sister, Chloe, for writing one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever known.”
Everyone got to their feet again and she didn’t bother to stop her tears from coming as she beamed at her brother and his bride.
And then, finally, it was time to give the microphone to her mother. Mary Sullivan kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “Absolutely perfect, honey,” before she took the mic and faced the happy couple.
“I can’t count the number of times people have remarked on how hard it must have been raise eight children, but I’ve always thought I was the luckiest person in the world.” She reached up to her head. “Even if I had to start coloring my hair in my thirties to cover up the grays that seemed to come in by the second.” The laughter was mixed with sniffles already and Sophie was utterly enraptured by the love flowing around and around the room, wrapping them all up together in a soft cocoon.
“Although today I’m officially welcoming Chloe into my family, she’s been in my heart since the very first time Chase spoke of her and I heard the love he felt for her even across the telephone lines. I love you both.”
Just as Sophie had planned, the music started at the tail end of her mother’s toast. Smith pulled her up out of her seat and into his arms. Her big brother was a fantastic dancer and she’d always loved dancing with him, since the time she’d been a little girl, standing barefoot on top of his shoes as he twirled her around the living room.
She’d cried more today than she had in years, but they had all been good tears. Tears of joy, of pure love. Now she was laughing, feeling so light, so full of that love, as her brother dipped her and then drew her out for an extended twirl that left her breathless.
Especially when she landed straight in Jake’s strong arms.
Chapter Six
Jake had never seen anyone more beautiful than Sophie Sullivan. If he’d been charmed by the purity of her emotions during the wedding ceremony, her reaction to her siblings’ speeches had to be the sweetest thing he’d ever witnessed.
But it was her laughter as she danced with Smith that took him over the edge, straight to a place he knew damn well not to go.
Sophie was simply irresistible. Not just because of her curves and her gorgeous face, but because of the very thing that should have had him heading as fast as he could in the opposite direction: She couldn’t even begin to know how to hide her emotions.
No other woman had ever felt this right in his arms and when the song slowed and she put her head on his shoulder, he had to pull her closer, had to breathe in her soft scent, a hint of champagne and flowers.
Jake could feel Smith’s gaze on him, hard and threatening, but in that moment Jake simply didn’t care if he was going to pay for his transgressions with Sophie. She was too warm. Too soft.
And too damn sweet for him to figure out how to let go of her, yet.
“Oh, Jake,” she whispered in his ear as they moved to the music, “this is so perfect.”
He was so attuned to the soft press of her breasts against his chest, to the feel of her breath over his earlobe, he didn't hear the warning bell in his head until several beats had passed. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to pull away, needed to make it clear that
perfect
was never going to be in the cards for the two of them.
But, Lord, all he wanted was to steal a few more short moments with the first—and only—girl who’d ever looked at him with love in her eyes. He was amazed to realize that her feelings hadn’t gone away with the years. Instead, they’d grown so big that he’d felt it in her kiss, in the way she held onto him like he really was a hero, instead of typecast for the villain.
He knew better, though, and even though his gut twisted at what he was about to do, he made himself say, “You threw a great party. Got everyone wrapped up in the fantasy of happy ever after.” He put his hands on her waist and tried not to think about how good, how right, she felt against him. “But that’s all it is. Just a fantasy.”
She stiffened in his arms. Only she didn’t bite as quickly as he wished she would. “Jake, please, you don’t have to do this. I know you’re concerned about how my family would take our relationship, but—”
“We don’t have a relationship, princess. And we’re not going to.”
She blinked at his low words, her body going even stiffer against his. Still, she didn’t walk out of his arms. “I know why you’re trying to push me away, but you’re wrong. I could have never fallen for you if you weren’t worth it.”
Too late, he realized what he’d done. He’d let Sophie tell herself one lie after another about him over the years. He should have made sure she knew the truth a long time ago.
“I’ve done things that would make you physically ill,” he told her. Not just all the back-alley fights he’d been in as a teenager, but the fact that he’d had to hold a knife up against his father during a drunk beating that couldn’t have ended any other way. And then there was the secret he’d kept from everyone but her brother Zach, who would take it with him to his grave. He could never make the mistake of allowing her close enough to uncover it.
“Jake, you don’t have to be afraid to share your past with me. I lo—”
“
Never
.” He had to cut her off before she said the fatal word. “That’s
never
going to happen.”
He wrapped his hand around her wrist and dragged her back to Smith, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the two of them since they’d started dancing together.
“What about how you were going to help me make my ex jealous?”
“We both know there is no ex.”
He waited for her to insist there was, almost wishing she would keep up the charade. But that wasn’t the girl he’d known nearly all his life.
“You’re right,” she said softly. “I did date someone here, but he isn't at all important to me. I’m sorry I lied to you. I didn’t know any other way to try and get your attention.”
Why couldn’t she be cold and calculating like other women? What was he supposed to do with that honesty? Other than crush it flat...along with the spark he hated to see extinguished in her eyes.
Smith’s face was carved in granite by the time Jake and Sophie made it off the dance floor. “Sorry to interrupt your dance, Smith. I’ve got to man the bar the rest of the night. She’s all yours.”
Jake turned on his heel and forced himself to walk away from Sophie, straight through the throng of dancers, not caring who he knocked into as he made his way over to the bar. But her scent was still on him, and he couldn’t shake the phantom feel of her curves pressing into him as they’d danced.
He didn’t need to look back to know that Sophie was staring after him with those big, beautiful eyes. Eventually, she’d realize he’d done the right thing—for once—by walking away from her. One day soon, she’d find some perfect guy and they’d all be standing around toasting true love while she beamed back at them in a white wedding dress.
Smith had looked like he wanted to kill Jake.
Jake wished he would give it his best shot...and put him out of his misery, already.
* * *
Hours later, Sophie was exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time. The wedding had been absolute perfection and Chase and Chloe were spending the night at the guest house before heading to the coast of Thailand in the morning. The catering crew had cleaned nearly everything up and she, Jake, and Smith were the only ones left on site.
She knew what her brother was doing. He was babysitting her, making sure she didn’t do something stupid with Jake, and upset what Smith thought the balance of relationships should be in their family. If her brothers had their way, she would still be an untouched virgin.
Jake shoved the final keg into the back of his black van. “That’s it for me. Unless you guys need anything else?”
She wasn’t fooled by the way he referred to her as one of the “guys” and she didn’t think Smith was, either. The only one with the wool pulled over his eyes right now was Jake, and that was only because he was so desperate to “do the right thing.”
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 breasts 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.
And yet, his body seemed to think it was impossibly right.
“Reading about sex doesn’t mean a damn thing, princess.” He forced the sneer, hating himself more with every word out of his mouth. “It’s what you’ve done,” he dropped his gaze to her incredible breasts again, “and what you’re willing to do that counts.”