Holding the babies in her arms had completely erased their horrible morning with photographers and fights from which she’d been so sure she and Smith could never recover.

But, amazingly, they had.

Later, they would figure everything else out. Now, they would celebrate new life...and their love for each other.

This time she was the one pressing her mouth to his skin, first to the short, dark stubble that covered the lower half of his jaw, then to the strong, steady beat of his heart at the side of his neck. She’d never let herself be sure of a man before, and Smith was the last man on earth with whom she should have been looking for that certainty.

But how could she even think of looking anywhere else when he was all she could see?

She was so happy for him, you’d have thought it was her own sister giving birth, even though she’d only met Sophie a couple of times. Now, even with Valentina’s nearly naked body wrapped around him, heated and ready for anything he wanted, he didn’t make a move to take off his clothes. He simply continued to stare down at her.

All she could hear was the sound of her heart—and his—beating in time with each other.

And all she knew was that she was deeply, truly, madly in love with him.

Not because he was the most physically beautiful man she’d ever known. Not because he was famous or rich. Not even because of the way she felt when he was kissing her, touching her, making her cry out his name in pleasure.

But because of the way he loved his family, his mother, his sister—and now, the babies—with every last piece of his heart.

Heat and wild desire had always pulled them together, even when she’d tried so desperately to stay away. Now, there was so much she wanted to tell him, and yet all that she could manage was his name on a whisper.

“Smith.”

“I love you, too.”

They shared a kiss full of joy and passion, happiness and desire—everything she’d always wished for, but had never truly believed she would ever have. Dreams, reality, passion, affection, all melded into the perfect sensual combination as she began to strip him of his shirt and then his pants and boxers. They made short work of the rest of their clothes until they were naked and reaching for each other the second Smith put on protection.

Together, they tumbled into each other, strong and soft, wild and steady, as he moved into her in one beautiful thrust. She urged him deeper as she arched into him, her head falling back against the pillows while he ran his hands down her back to cup her hips and pull her tighter against him. Everything she gave he took, everything she craved he offered, as finally, neither of them held anything back.

In the exact moment that Valentina began to crest the wave, Smith took her mouth in a kiss so soft, so sweet, so full of love, that the tears she never let herself shed began to slide down her cheeks one after the other, faster still as the tremors of release wracked them both. The tears were still falling as Smith began to press soft kisses over her closed eyelids, her cheeks, her chin, everywhere that was streaked with wetness.

And when the waves of pleasure finally settled down, Valentina knew that she had never been so sated, so well loved in all her life...or so shocked by what had happened to herself while in Smith’s arms.

A part of her felt born again, as if she’d been baptized by her own tears. But those same tears had been her last defense against the pain she’d refused to acknowledge. Even her own sister had never really seen her cry.

Only Smith.

Finally, when he’d kissed away every last hint of her tears, he lifted his head to look down at her. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to when she could read everything in his eyes: the love, along with the lingering desire fueled anew by the soft kisses he’d never stopped giving her.

“I love you,” she said, the first time she’d ever said the words directly to him.

As joy suffused every inch of Smith’s face and as she said it again and again between his kisses, Valentina realized that as amazing as it had felt to hear Smith say “I love you,” it was not only a million times better to say it to him...it was also easy. Sweet.

And oh-so-perfect.

As she whispered the three little words she’d been so afraid to even feel against his mouth, he whispered it back before he curled her into his arms, her head on his chest, her legs still entwined with his.

All she wanted to do was close her eyes and rest for a short while, knowing Smith was there with her to hold her all through the night. She didn’t know how many hours it had been since they’d abruptly left the set, and for as long as it had taken Sophie to have her babies, Valentina hadn’t cared about the responsibilities she was ignoring. But now that it was just her own pleasure on the line, didn’t she have to drag herself back into the real world? No matter that it was the very last thing she wanted, that all that seemed to matter anymore was Smith and the joy she’d felt every single moment she’d ever spent with him.

As if he could read her mind, Smith pulled her closer, and said, “The world will keep spinning without us for a little while.”

The last thing Valentina felt was the press of his mouth against her forehead as she finally let herself lean all the way into him...and dropped every last defense around her heart as he whispered, “I love you so much,” one more time before sleep claimed her.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Valentina woke to the fantastic smell of pepperoni pizza with her stomach grumbling. As she pushed her hair back from her face and sat up against the pillows, she noted the sky outside the windows was black.

The lights were on in the room, but dim enough that she had to carefully scan the large bedroom for Smith. His eyes were on her from where he stood in the sitting area, obviously having just laid out food for both of them on the coffee table.

She’d worked with him for long enough now to recognize when he was in Director mode, almost as if he were framing the scene with her on the bed with the intention of pulling out a camera to shoot it. She began to move off the sheets to go to him, but her name on his lips held her captive where she was. A flush of heat spread slowly, and then faster, across her skin as he drank her in from across the room, until she was the one saying his name in a voice made slightly hoarse both by sleep and by the way she’d been calling out his name earlier.

“I love seeing you in my bed.”

“I love being in it.”

Moments later, he was standing in front of her and pulling her up to her knees, the covers completely sliding away from her naked body as she wound her arms around his neck to press her mouth against his with a passion that never seemed to abate, but only grew hotter, bigger, deeper, with every kiss.