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 na**d 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 fiancee, 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.

Love made all the difference...and meant so much more than money, or success, or fame ever had. But he wasn't going to waste his breath explaining that to his cousins. Not when it would be so much more fun to let them suffer through figuring it out for themselves.

Fortunately, after all the clandestine sex he and Valentina'd had on set, he had the knack of scoping out the perfect spots for their trysts. Not to mention the fact that he knew just how much she secretly loved that tiny threat of discovery, of having to be extra quiet so no one heard them, and especially of knowing what they'd just been doing when everyone else had simply been going about their day.

Of course, he would never let anyone find them, would never let another man or woman ever set eyes on Valentina's na**d body, but that didn't mean he didn't get off on fulfilling her secret fantasies.

They'd gone to several industry events together during the past month and with every one, Valentina's nerves came with less force. Even though Smith liked to think that her confidence mostly had to do with his brilliant distraction technique of making sweet love to her right before they got dressed - and often after, as well - he knew the truth came from her inner strength, and her willingness to do whatever she needed to do to make their relationship work.

The linen room smelled of laundry detergent and was still warm from the dryers that had been recently running. Better yet, it had a lock, and was far enough off the main room that Valentina's sounds of pleasure would be for his ears only.

As they came together in each other's arms, clothes stripping off, hands and mouths wandering wherever bare flesh was revealed, even as Smith's passion for Valentina took him a thousand miles away from movie-star perfect, or from any semblance of control, he knew she was right there with him.

And she always would be.