Kissing Under The Mistletoe: The Sullivans (Contemporary Romance) (13 page)

Today they were back in the studio to film a
TV commercial for the campaign. The moment he walked in the door,
Jack did a quick scan of the studio looking for Mary and saw her in
conversation with a tall woman wearing all black, with thick,
black-framed glasses.

My God, Mary was beautiful in the casual
jeans and green sweater they’d all agreed she’d wear for the shoot,
but not in any kind of artificial way. Her hair was loose and
glossy, her mouth was the same shade of rose as when he’d kissed
her, and her laughter could have easily fueled him through another
week of sleepless nights.

Mary moved to go to her dressing room, and
that’s when she saw him. She paused at the doorway and blinked hard
several times, as if she was working to get her bearings again.
Jack was glad to know he wasn’t the only one who got knocked off
balance simply from being in the same room. Giving him a slightly
flustered smile, she disappeared into her dressing room.

Although he wanted to go straight to Mary,
Jack headed toward the director to introduce himself. “Thanks so
much for working with us.” He held out his hand. “I’m Jack
Sullivan, one of the engineers who created the Pocket Planner.”

“Georgina Callem.” The director had a firm
handshake and a serious face as she took her time studying him.
“I’ve known Mary for almost a decade. I would do anything for
her.”

Jack didn’t check himself before saying, “So
would I.”

The woman’s stern mouth cracked just the
slightest bit. “Good. Now stay out of my way today, and I think
we’ll get along just fine.”

No wonder Mary appreciated Georgina so much.
He imagined that as a very successful model, she would have quickly
grown tired of having people pandering to her. Clearly, she liked
straight shooters.

Finally, Jack went to see the woman he
couldn’t stop thinking about. “Good morning.”

She was standing in the middle of the room
looking as if she’d forgotten why she’d come in here in the first
place. But the light in her eyes as she turned to face him told him
that she was as happy to see him as he was to see her.

“Good morning.”

The air around her shimmered differently
today, and as he searched her face for clues, his heart leaped as
he realized what it was: Much of the wariness she sometimes had
around him seemed to be gone.

“Did you sleep all right after you got home
last night?”

She seemed to war with herself before shaking
her head. “No.”

“Neither did I.”

“The girls have all gone home for the
holidays. It was too quiet.” Then, as her pretty skin flushed, she
added, “But that wasn’t the real reason I couldn’t sleep.” Honest
desire reflected in her eyes. “You are.”

Lord, he’d never wanted anything as badly as
he wanted to pull her into his arms to kiss the fresh lipstick off
her gorgeous mouth.

In a low voice, he said, “The only reason I’m
not kissing you right now is because Georgina will skin me alive if
I mess you up in any way. I’m not too proud to admit that she
scares me.”

Mary’s lips curved up as she took a step
closer anyway and reached behind him to close the dressing room
door. “I’m really good with makeup. I can fix it.”

He would have had to be superhuman to resist
that invitation and, since Jack was just a flesh-and-blood man, a
split second later she was in his arms, and he was kissing her
senseless.

Sweeter every time he tasted her, her scent
and the feel of her soft curves in his arms had him nearly
forgetting where they were as he spun them around so that she was
pressed up against the door and her hands were in his on either
side of her head.

Dragging his mouth from hers, he looked into
her eyes to see they were soft and fuzzy with pleasure. “One of my
brothers called this morning. Ethan is unexpectedly back in town
for the weekend, and it turns out my brother Max and his wife and
son will be here from Seattle, too. Unfortunately, William can’t
make it in from the East Coast due to other commitments. Come with
me after the shoot. I want you to meet them.”

“That’s very sweet of you to ask.” Her lips
curved up into a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “But
you’ve already been spending so much time with me. I’ll be fine on
my own tonight.”

His hands reflexively tightened over hers as
she tried to let go. “There could never be enough time with
you.”

Her eyes widened and he silently cursed
himself for saying too much too soon when the depth of his feelings
was bound to scare her off instead of bring her closer. Somehow, he
managed to slip his fingers from hers and take a step back to give
her some personal space.

“It’s just that I wouldn’t want them to get
the wrong impression,” she said softly, “or to think that I was
leading you on, especially since I keep telling you we should keep
our distance for the rest of the campaign. And then, at the same
time, I can’t seem to stop asking you to kiss me.” Guilt flickered
in her eyes.

“You’ve been completely honest with me from
the first moment we met,” he reminded her. “And I’ve been honest
with you, too.” He ran a rough hand through his hair. “So let’s be
honest one more time, okay?” When she nodded, he said, “I’m not
going to deny that I’d love to be able to tell them you’re my
girlfriend. I hope to do that in the very near future. But, for
tonight, I’m asking you to come meet my family as my friend. My
very, very good friend whom I love to steal kisses from.”

This time when her lips curved up, her smile
was entirely real. “I would love to meet your family.”

They were interrupted by a hard knock on the
door that had them both jumping away from it a split second before
it flew open. Georgina shot both of them an irritated look.

“You,” she said, pointing to Mary, “had
better fix your hair and makeup, or people are going to think we’re
shooting a love story rather than an electronics campaign. And
you—” Jack was instantly reduced to feeling like a naughty little
boy as the woman pointed out the door “—need to do a better job of
staying out of my way today.”

Barely resisting the urge to salute, Jack
caught Mary’s eye as the director stalked out, and he was glad to
see her gaze filled with barely repressed laughter.

* * *

Later that evening as they stood on Jack’s
brother’s doorstep, Mary couldn’t wait to meet Jack’s family so
that she could find out where a man like him had come from. He
wasn’t only intelligent and sexy and wonderfully straightforward,
he was also a gentleman who walked her home and noticed when she
was getting tired in front of the camera. She had been invited to a
half-dozen glitzy entertainment industry Christmas parties and she
hadn’t wanted to go to any of them, so Jack’s invitation was
perfect in so many ways.

Ethan Sullivan opened the door to his
tricked-out bachelor pad with a grin. He shook Jack’s hand, and
Mary loved the easy way it automatically turned into a hug.

“Ethan, I’d like you to meet Mary.”

Just like Jack, Ethan was an extremely
good-looking man. Tall, dark, and handsome obviously ran strong in
the Sullivan gene pool. But where she was sure most women’s hearts
probably beat a little faster for the wealthy man in the sharp,
tailored suit, Mary felt nothing more than healthy female
appreciation.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Ethan.”

“Same here. Come on in. Max and Claudia will
be here soon with their little guy. They would have been here
earlier, but they called and said something about a diaper
emergency.”

“How long are you home this time?” Jack asked
his brother while he poured drinks for them at the bar in the
corner of the living room.

“Depends on how the deal I’m working on
shakes out over the next couple of days.” Ethan handed Mary a glass
of white wine. “You must do a lot of traveling.”

“I do. Or rather,” she amended, “I have in
the past.”

He raised an eyebrow in question, his gaze
moving between Mary and his brother. “Have you made a change of
plans recently?”

“I’ve been planning to move away from being
in front of the camera for a while now,” she explained. “San
Francisco seems like the perfect place to set down some roots and
explore a few new directions.”

She didn’t say that when she’d been looking
at her options, she’d never for a moment thought that a man might
factor into them. Because in the space of one short week, Jack
Sullivan—and his incredible kisses—had started to change
everything….

The sound of a laughing child came from
outside Ethan’s front door. “I’ll get it,” Jack offered.

Jack and his brother from Seattle hugged and
when they came into the living room, Jack was holding an adorable
toddler. “Mary, this is Ian the Incredible.”

Her heart melted as she looked at the
gorgeous, dark-haired toddler. No question about it, Ian Sullivan
was going to be a heartbreaker when he grew up.

“Hi, Mr. Incredible. It’s nice to meet
you.”

He looked at her with his big brown eyes and
reached out to touch her hair. “You’re pretty.”

Mary was blushing at his very sweet comment,
when Jack said, “You got that right, little guy.”

“I’m Claudia.” The petite blonde who held out
her hand was pregnant and glowing. “And this is my husband,
Max.”

Taking in the third specimen of Sullivan male
perfection, Mary couldn’t help but think how her agent, Randy,
would have salivated if he could see the brothers all together. As
she shook everyone’s hand, Ian wriggled down out of Jack’s
arms.

“We’re so glad you could be here with Jack
tonight,” Claudia told her. “All this testosterone in one room can
be a little overwhelming sometimes—even if,” she added in a lower
voice, “it is nice to look at.”

Mary couldn’t hold back her laughter. This
was all so normal, and she loved that Claudia wasn’t gushing over
her fame as a model. Instead, she was treating her just as she
would any other woman her brother-in-law might bring with him to a
family gathering.

Relaxing, Mary said, “When are you due?”

Claudia put her hand over her stomach. “Four
mon—” Before she could finish answering, she was shooting off
across the room to pick Ian up again before he could knock over a
vase. Seeing this near miss, Max told Ethan, “I’m going to put a
few things away before they end up in pieces on the floor.”

“Sorry about running off in the middle of a
sentence,” Claudia said to Mary when she came back, holding her
son. “Look,” she told Ian as she put a soft blue bag down on the
carpet, “Daddy brought in your toys.”

He gave Mary a blindingly cute smile.
“Play?”

Clearly, thought Mary as she grinned back at
him, the straightforward Sullivan gene had passed through to the
next generation, along with the good looks.

“I thought you’d never ask, Mr.
Incredible.”

Glad that she was wearing pants instead of a
dress tonight, she sat down cross-legged on the floor with the
toddler. He grabbed a puffy plastic book that she guessed did
double duty for teething and baths, and climbed onto her lap.

“Read this.”

He smelled so good she wanted to bury her
face in his soft hair. Instead, she read the title,
“The Sunshine Princess and the Stinky Dog.”

The little boy in her lap held his nose and
made a face. “He’s smelly.”

Mary’s heart turned over inside her chest.
She’d never wanted to be one of those girls in her village who
married in their teens and were pregnant nine months later. And
yet, for all her amazing experiences traveling the world, she’d
never had this.

She opened the book up and began to read.
“One day the Sunshine Princess was sitting in her bedroom looking
out the window at the gray and gloomy day.” For the next few
minutes, while adult conversation went on around them, she and Ian
got lost in the adventures of the stinky dog hiding from the
princess who needed to give him a bath. On every page, Ian would
point to something that made him laugh, and she was amazed by how
much he noticed about the illustrations and the story.

The moment the story ended, he scrambled out
of her lap, grabbed a cracker off the table and shoved it into his
mouth in one bite. Mary was just starting to get up when Claudia
gave her a hand.

“Thanks for reading to him. He really likes
you.”

“It was my pleasure. And I really like him,
too.”

“Ian is easy to like,” Claudia agreed. “Even
being pregnant with him was easy. This pregnancy is, too, actually.
I guess I’m one of those lucky ones, between Max, Ian and
baby-on-the-way.” She flushed. “I have a tendency to gush.”

“If I were you, I’d be gushing, too.”

They watched Ian repeatedly jump up to try to
reach a signed baseball Ethan had on display on a shelf, his face a
picture of concentration. “He really takes after his father,”
Claudia said with a laugh. “Easygoing until he decides he wants
something. And then there’s no changing his mind.”

“That sounds familiar,” Mary murmured.

“Does it?” Claudia looked extremely pleased
by that piece of information, but before she could say anything
more, she was dashing across the room again to stop Ian from trying
to climb up Ethan’s bookshelf as though it were a ladder.

Mary turned to pick up her glass of wine from
the coffee table and found Jack looking at her. She’d seen desire
on his face. She’d seen admiration and respect in his eyes. But
until this moment, she’d never seen such warmth.

So much warmth that, if she didn’t know
better, she would have said it looked like love.

“I never thought I’d see one of the world’s
most beautiful fashion models sitting on the floor letting a kid
drool all over her.” Ethan shot Jack an incredulous look. “How’d
you
meet her again?”