As he started the water running, his hands roamed over her skin, his mouth playing at the curve where her neck met her shoulder. She arched into him and there was barely twelve inches of water in the bottom of the tub when he said, “I need you again, Valentina.”

“Yes,” she said as she slid with him into the shallow water. “Again.”

Somehow he found a condom and had it on just in time for her to come down onto him at the exact moment that he plunged inside. She’d have thought this second time would be wonderful, but not anywhere near as special as their first time.

And yet, when he pulled nearly clear of her before driving in so deep and fast again that she had to cling to him tighter, and as she cried out with pleasure at gentle bite of his teeth and the sweet pull of his lips over her br**sts, along with the tight hold he had on her hips with his big hands, Valentina knew that their lovemaking could never become ordinary, nor simple.

Not even if they had decades together in each other’s arms, instead of only one night.

Afterward, when they were both clean and dry again, and she felt more exhausted than she ever had before, Smith gently brought her back to the tangled sheets on his bed, tucked her in, and pulled her against him.

She had never slept well while sharing a bed with anyone, not even her sister on the nights when Tatiana had had childhood nightmares and climbed in with her. And Valentina’s decision to spend the night with Smith hadn’t included sleeping like this with him. Only sex.

But with Smith’s strong, warm arms around her, and one of his hands wrapped around hers so that both rested on top of her heart, she simply didn’t have it in her to fight the darkness of sleep...or the sweetness of being with Smith like this.

Chapter Fifteen

More asleep than awake the next morning, Valentina curled into the warm body beside her and sighed with pleasure. It wasn’t until she felt a hand stroke over her hair and soft kisses pressed to her closed eyelids that she finally woke all the way.

Oh God, she thought as she tried to keep her body from going instantly stiff against Smith’s, what had she done?

No, she hadn’t forgotten that she’d slept with him. She’d made that decision with a clear mind and didn’t regret it, wouldn’t ever let herself regret the most sweetly sensual hours of her life. But as morning light shone in through his second-story bedroom windows, she did regret breaking one very important rule: She’d stayed the night.

She was a flesh-and-blood woman full of hormones and desires. One hot night of sex was okay. Great, even, especially if it meant she could stop spending all her time and energy wondering about how it would feel to make love with Smith, and turn her focus back to her real life.

But waking up in his bed, having breakfast, sharing the part of her day with him when she was the most vulnerable...that was most definitely not okay.

Somehow she needed to figure out how to get out of his bed and his house without making a big deal of the one night they’d shared together.

Only, as he softly kissed her eyebrows, then each cheekbone, the tip of her nose, and then her chin, the last thing she wanted to do was leave his bed. Desire rose again, fast and hot, and she wanted so badly to thread her hands through his soft hair and drag his mouth to one of the places she really needed it.

So many rules she’d already broken for this man...so many more she knew she might not be strong enough to keep from breaking as, instead of turning away from him, she started to turn deeper into his arms, her leg moving to slide against his as she arched into his touch, silently begging him for more.

Until the harsh sound of a cell phone yanked her out of the sensual fog.

Her eyes flew open, her hands going flat on his chest. “Your phone—”

“—can keep ringing.”

But she was too well trained by her sister’s schedule to lose hold of an important calendar item, even as deep in the sensual fog as she’d been. Shock hit her that she’d come this close to forgetting. Clearly, making love with Smith had muddled her brain in a serious way.

“You and Tatiana have a phone interview with Entertainment magazine this morning.”

The words were barely out of her mouth when Valentina’s phone began to buzz with the ring tone that meant her sister was calling. Tatiana had spent the night at an event for up-and-coming young actresses in Los Angeles, so she not only wouldn’t know Smith had spent the night in bed with Valentina, she definitely wouldn’t guess that he was with her right now. Still, it made sense for her to try Valentina to see if she could reach Smith when he hadn’t called in for the interview.

Smith might be able to ignore his phone, but she couldn’t. Especially not when it was her sister calling. She scooted out from beneath him and tried not to feel shy about her nakedness as she hurried over to her purse across the room.

“Hey, T.” Please, Valentina silently prayed, don’t ask me any questions that I’ll have to lie to answer.

She all but dove under the covers with her phone to her ear, as Smith watched her with still-hungry eyes.

“I’ve got Beth from Entertainment magazine on hold,” her sister told her. “She keeps asking me when Smith is going to call in. Did he say anything about canceling to you last night when you were at Alcatraz?”

“No, he didn’t say anything about not being able to do the interview. Maybe he’s just running a bit late. I’m sure he would never want to put you in an awkward position with an upset journalist because he didn’t show.”

Only, instead of leaning over to pick up his phone, Smith put an arm around her waist and dragged her up against his naked body—his very hard, very aroused naked body—surprising her even further with a soft kiss to her mouth.

A half-gasp, half-growl left her lips and her sister asked, “Val? Is everything okay?”

“I’ll see if I can reach him,” Valentina promised her sister, before, for the very first time ever, she hung up on her.

Glad for the rush of frustration that was quickly replacing desire, she was about to lay into Smith when he finally picked up his phone from the side table and started dialing.

“Beth, sorry to call in so late.”

But instead of letting Valentina go so that he could focus on the interview, he pulled her in even closer to him, his arms holding her firmly around the waist, one of his legs a heavy weight over both of hers.

“How’s your son doing? Still tearing up the soccer field?”

Close enough to hear the woman’s cheerful answers, Valentina tried not to make a sound. God forbid either the journalist or her sister could tell that Smith was in bed with a woman.