Kissing Under The Mistletoe: The Sullivans (Contemporary Romance) (14 page)

“Pure luck.” Jack still marveled over it.
“Somewhere along the line, I must have done something right.”

“That’s just how I felt the day I met
Claudia,” Max said, looking across the room at his wife with love
in his eyes. “And I’ve felt that every day since.”

Jack had never tried to fight what he felt
for Mary, not when it had been so strong and clear from that first
moment they’d met in Union Square. But when he realized she was
becoming more important to him than the work that had held his
focus for over a decade, he thought he should at least try to apply
to the two of them the same arguments and calculations that he had
always lived by.

But it had taken him less than ten seconds of
watching her read to his little nephew to realize that all the
brilliant analysis in the world didn’t mean a damn thing when it
came to love.

People had often called Jack Sullivan a
genius. Now he’d finally prove they were right by being smart
enough to listen to what was in his heart.

Jack wanted Mary as more than another
business colleague. He wanted her as more than a stunningly
beautiful woman who made his blood simmer.

He wanted
her.

He wanted the woman who laughed so easily
with a toddler. He wanted the woman whose skin was so soft, whose
arms were so strong even as he tried to turn them to rubber with a
kiss. He wanted the woman who possessed so much intelligence behind
her shockingly beautiful face. He wanted the woman who took care of
three young models so that their mothers would know they were
safe.

Claudia put Ian into his arms. “It’s your
turn to keep him out of trouble while I make good on my promise to
put together something for us all to eat tonight.”

Mary ran a hand over Ian’s soft, dark hair,
then followed Claudia into the kitchen.

Mary drew Jack like a magnet, so he turned to
Ian and asked, “Want to follow the pretty ladies to see what they
have for us to munch on before dinner?”

Ian grinned at him, four sparkling white
teeth in a mouthful of gums. “Want candy.”

Jack laughed and gave the little boy a kiss
on his forehead. “Let’s see what goodies we can find hiding in
Uncle Ethan’s kitchen.”

Maybe he should have been surprised to find
Mary with her hands in flour and eggs at the kitchen counter while
Claudia sat with her feet up on a chair, but he wasn’t. Yes, she
was a gorgeous, successful model. But first and foremost, she was a
woman who clearly enjoyed children and food.

“Mary offered to make fresh pasta,” Claudia
told him as she sipped a club soda and relaxed deeper into her
seat. “I assumed it would be too difficult to make at home, so I’ve
always bought pasta at the store. Where did you learn to make it,
Mary?”

Mary deftly brought the flour and eggs into a
ball, then began to knead it on the kitchen counter. “I was barely
older than Ian when my grandmother showed me how. Homemade pasta is
a tradition in Italy.”

“Is that where you’re from? I thought I heard
the slightest hint of an accent.”

“You should have seen how hard I worked to
get rid of it when I moved to New York City.” She laughed at
herself. “I was so desperate to look and sound like everyone else
back then.”

“Are you kidding? I would have loved to have
had an exotic accent like yours. I’m sure if I had,” Claudia joked,
“the men would have been lining up around the block for me.”

“You’re beautiful,” Mary said in her
unaffected manner. “I’m sure the men were already lining up.”

“Have I mentioned how much I like you yet?”
Claudia shot a meaningful glance at Jack, one that he could see
clearly asked,
Have you convinced her to be yours
yet?

He shot his sister-in-law back his own clear
message:
Trust me, I’m working on it.

“I’d love to know how you and Max met,
Claudia.”

“I was dating Max’s best friend, actually. It
was all very scandalous, and we both tried to fight what we felt
for each other for a long time, because we didn’t want to hurt
anyone. But eventually, neither of us could fight what was meant to
be. Even if it meant hurting someone we both cared about.”

As Max and Ethan came into the kitchen,
Claudia told them, “I was just telling Mary how we met.”

“Have you gotten to the stolen kisses part
yet?” Max asked as he leaned down to give her one.

“I love hearing tales of true love,” Mary
said with a small smile. “My mother and father are like that.
There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for each other. Nothing they
wouldn’t support each other in.”

The longing on her face had Jack nearly
moving to pull her into his arms and kiss her, too, in front of
everyone. And he might have if Ian hadn’t poked at his cheek and
said, “Thirsty.” Knowing that kissing Jack in public—especially in
front of his family—was the last thing Mary would want to do, Jack
knew it was something he had to resist…for now.

Meanwhile, Ethan was leaning against the
doorjamb looking extremely cynical about the scene in front of him.
His divorce had been finalized last year, and since then, he had
been burning even more midnight oil on the road looking after his
business.

“Too bad William isn’t here tonight,” Ethan
said. “He and I could raise a toast to the happily single.”

The implication was clear: Everyone thought
Jack and Mary were dating. Her eyes met his and, instead of
clarifying things with his family, she let her mouth curve up just
the slightest bit at the corners. The air was knocked straight out
of Jack’s lungs.

Did this mean she was finally ready to be
more than friends who stole kisses from each other at every
possible opportunity? And if so, what had changed her mind?

Mary changed the subject as deftly as she
rolled out the dough. “The four of you must have been quite a
handful for your mother.”

Max grinned. “Mom looked so delicate and
pretty, but she never let us get away with a damned thing.”

“I got away with plenty,” Ethan countered.
Although, a moment later he rubbed his right ear and admitted, “I
still get phantom pains sometimes from the way she would drag me to
my room.”

“What about you?” Mary asked Jack.

He gave her an innocent look. “I was an
angel.”

Her blue eyes flared with heat for a split
second at his use of the endearment that always spilled from his
lips when he was kissing her, but then she shook her head and said,
“I doubt that.”

“You’ve got this joker figured out,” Ethan
said with a laugh as he sat down at the table with his brother and
sister-in-law. “How many times did you nearly burn the house down
with one of your inventions gone wrong, Jack? The way I remember
it, the fire trucks used to patrol our street on a regular basis,
just in case.”

Ian looked up at his uncle, his voice solemn
as he informed Jack, “Fire trucks are red.”

He kissed his nephew on the nose. “They sure
are. And what do you want to bet that’s the same color your shirt’s
going to be after we eat spaghetti tonight?”

Spending time with Ian when he could during
these past eighteen months had made Jack realize how much he liked
kids. But it wasn’t until he’d met Mary that he’d begun to wonder
what it would be like to have his own children.

“Spaghetti!” Ian bounced in Jack’s arms as he
shouted out the word, and all of them chuckled, the boy’s happiness
contagious.

A short while later, Mary cut the pasta she’d
rolled out into thin slices and dropped them into the water already
boiling on the stove. Max sat down to give his wife a foot massage.
Even though she looked as if she was in heaven, Claudia said, “Are
you sure you don’t need any help with dinner, Mary?”

“I love to cook. It’s one of those things I
didn’t get to do enough of, bouncing around from hotel room to
hotel room over the years.”

Mary started on a simple sauce by quickly
cutting up the fresh tomatoes Claudia had brought over. Jack’s
sister-in-law asked, “Do you have any exciting projects lined up
after your campaign with Jack comes to an end?”

“Actually,” Mary said as she lifted her gaze
to Jack’s, “I’m trying to figure that out as we speak. I’ve been on
the move for so long that I'd like to set down some roots for a
while.”

“The exotic destinations. The clothes. The
shoes.” Claudia sighed with just the slightest bit of envy. “It
sounds so glamorous.”

“Yes, I have been really lucky to have seen
the world and to have worked with some truly amazing photographers
and designers and makeup artists. It was what I always wanted.”

Jack could see that Mary didn’t want to
disappoint Claudia with the truth that he saw more of every time he
watched her work. The hours were long, the lights were bright and
hot, and she had to be beautiful on command every single day
without fail, regardless of what was going on in the rest of her
life. So while her job had more glitz and glamour than most, that
didn’t mean it wasn’t hard work.

Knowing she’d never say any of that, he told
his family, “Mary is so good at what she does that she makes it
look deceptively easy.” Never having been in a TV studio before,
Jack had been fascinated by the process, the machines, and the
people who ran them, and he explained what he’d seen to his
family.

Blushing from his compliment, Mary turned her
attention to the sauce simmering on the stovetop. Jack could tell
that his siblings were blown away by her. Not only because of her
stunning beauty—he still lost his breath every time he looked at
her and had come to realize he always would—but also because she
was as comfortable in couture as she was playing with a child and
making dinner for a group of people she’d only just met.

Even more amazing, she didn’t seem to notice
the effect she had on people. There was no vanity. No efforts to
impress. She was simply being herself.

And he was in love with
her.

Jack squeezed Ian a little too tightly as the
realization hit him hard in the solar plexus. The little boy tugged
on his hair to get his attention.

“Uncle Jack-Jack okay?”

He pressed a kiss to the little boy’s cheek,
then shifted his gaze to Mary, who had looked over at them when Ian
asked his question. “I’ve never felt better.”

“Hey, Jack,” Ethan said as he got up from the
kitchen table, “come help me set the table in the dining room.”

Jack passed Ian to Max, and when they were in
the dining room with the door closed, Ethan handed him a stack of
plates. “I'm still trying to work out how my engineer brother who’s
had his head stuck to a motherboard his whole life has landed one
of the foxiest models on the planet.”

Jack shot his brother a warning look, his
fingers curling hard around the edges of the plates. “Mary is a
hell of a lot more than just a foxy model.”

“Sure she is,” Ethan quickly agreed, “but the
fact is, she’s way out of your league. You might have gotten lucky
catching her eye, but you’re going to have to count on more than
luck to keep her.”

Nothing like family to rub in the truth, was
there? “Nice to know you’re on my side,” Jack muttered.

When he looked up, Ethan was grinning at him.
“Does she have any sisters?”

“No.” Thinking of the young models living
with Mary, he added, “And before you ask, I’m not going to
introduce you to any of her friends, either.”

“Times like this make me wonder why I ever
bothered to cover for you with Mom when we were kids,” Ethan said
as he dropped silverware beside the plates Jack had laid out on the
table.

But even as they continued to razz each
other, Jack could read the subtext of their conversation loud and
clear: Even if Ethan couldn’t understand how the engineer and the
model could fit so well together, his brother was happy Jack had
found Mary…and he hoped things would work out for the two of
them.

* * *

Spending time with his family had always been
Jack’s favorite pastime, especially when, as adults, his brothers’
jobs and moves around the country meant they didn’t get to see each
other nearly enough. But tonight, while he’d enjoyed catching up
with everyone, Jack realized he was looking for excuses to leave so
that he and Mary could be alone. And when she tried to hide a yawn
behind her hand and he realized how beat she must be from her long
day in front of the TV camera, not to mention making dinner for all
of them, he pushed back from the table.

“Time to call it a night, folks.”

Ethan looked around at his once-pristine home
in dismay. Between the meal and Ian’s fort made out of the cushions
on his couch, his place was a mess.

“What am I supposed to do with all of these
dirty pots and pans and dishes? My cleaning lady won’t be back for
another few days.”

Max grinned at him. “We’ll stack them real
neat by the sink for you.”

A while earlier, Claudia had tucked Ian into
the middle of Ethan’s big king bed with pillows propped up on each
side of him so that he couldn’t roll off and hurt himself. Claudia
began to slowly stand to go get him, but when Mary offered to rouse
him instead, Claudia nodded sleepily and tucked herself in tighter
against Max.

From where Jack was standing in the living
room, he could see Mary get to the master bedroom doorway then stop
in her tracks. Wondering what had her halting, he moved down the
hall.

“Mary?”

She held her finger to her lips, then pointed
to the bed. Ian was sprawled on his back, three of his four chubby
little limbs spread wide. His thumb had found its way into his
mouth, and his cheeks were pink from drying spaghetti sauce and the
exertions of sleep.

Jack had been careful all night long to keep
what was between them private. He hadn’t touched Mary. Hadn’t
dragged her against him for a kiss. Now, he threaded his fingers
through hers and lifted her hand to his lips.