Kissing Under The Mistletoe: The Sullivans (Contemporary Romance) (15 page)

She stared into his eyes, and what he saw in
hers made his chest clench with love again, even tighter, even
stronger this time. “Claudia and Max are waiting for me to bring
him out.”

Reluctantly, Jack let her hand go and watched
her sit gently on the bed beside Ian. She stroked his hair back
with a soft touch so that the little boy wouldn’t wake too quickly,
and Jack wasn’t surprised when the first thing his nephew said
after finally opening his eyes was, “Pretty.”

Mary smiled down at him. “Your mommy and
daddy miss you. Can I take you to them?”

When the little boy held out his arms and
Mary lifted him up and buried her face against his warm, soft body,
Jack’s heart skipped more than just one beat.

The night was so clear that the stars seemed
to be putting on a show in celebration of the beautiful San
Francisco winter weather. Mary couldn’t remember the last time
she’d enjoyed an evening so much, and she didn’t want it to be over
yet.

After saying goodbye to his family, Mary
turned to Jack with a smile. “What do you say we walk off some of
that pasta?”

She’d never felt so comfortable—or so
completely alive—with anyone else. It was just as natural to laugh
and talk with Jack as it was to enjoy the quiet night as they made
their way down the city sidewalk.

“Your family is wonderful,” she said as she
linked her fingers with his.

“They obviously feel the same way about you.
Claudia was clearly thrilled about no longer being the odd woman
out with all of us boys. And she'll never forget that you made
dinner so that she could put her feet up for a little while.”

“Your brother and his wife seem so happy
together.”

“They definitely are now, although like
Claudia said, it was a pretty big mess at first. Max was a basket
case, falling in love with her while she was engaged to his best
friend. He was pretty badly torn up about it. I spent more than a
few nights closing down the bars with him back then.”

While all of the Sullivan men had the same
rugged good looks, each of the brothers she’d met tonight had very
different personalities. Max had been the easygoing one. Ethan was
sharper, darker somehow. And Jack, well, not only was he brilliant
and focused, but he was also the only one who made her heart beat
hard and her lips tingle with pleasure even before he’d pressed his
mouth to hers.

She’d loved seeing how close Jack was to his
brothers. And despite the differences and the disagreements four
brothers that close in age must have had over the years, it was
clear that they’d do anything for one another. What’s more, tonight
she’d felt as if he’d welcomed her into his family without any
reservations whatsoever…whereas she’d been so afraid to let him do
more than kiss her.

“They’re all so proud of you.” Every time his
invention had come up during dinner, his family had been extremely
supportive and excited.

“My brothers have all been really successful
with their careers, but they never tried to get me to leave my
dusty garage. I guess they figured if my vision didn’t end up
working out, they knew I could come to them for help.”

“That’s why you never needed to,” she
marveled, “because you really did know they’d always be there for
you. No matter what.”

“Always.”

“When I was a little girl I thought that,
too, about my own family. But—” Not wanting to ruin a perfect
evening with self-pity, she tried to brush away her comment.
“Listen to me, sounding like I’m still that little girl when it’s
been long enough for me to have gotten over it by now.”

Jack squeezed her hand. “We all want our
families to approve of us and the dreams we’re chasing.”

“Why aren’t you married already, Jack?”

Mary gave a slightly embarrassed laugh. She
hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but when he kept saying such sweet
things, she simply couldn’t understand why he hasn’t already been
snapped up.

“That didn’t come out quite right. I just
meant that not only have you got two great examples of happy
marriages between your parents and your brother, but, at this
point, most men would be running away as fast as they could from
their weepy dinner date who can’t seem to get over something that
happened when she was a teenager.”

“Even though I can see that my brother Max is
happy, and that my parents have something really special with each
other, it never occurred to me to look for a wife or to start a
family. Not when work always came first.”

“That makes sense,” she agreed. “The timing
has to be right—otherwise you could end up losing the woman you’re
supposed to be with, like Max almost did.”

“You know what?” Jack stroked his thumb over
her palm, sending shivers through her that had nothing to do with
the cool night air. “I don’t think bad timing is the entire answer
anymore.”

Her senses came completely alive as she
asked, “It isn’t?”

“Now I know that when I meet the right woman,
I won’t have any problem at all making time for her. In fact,” he
said as his gaze locked on hers, “it will be the most natural, easy
thing in the world to put her first.”

Her heart fluttered in her chest as she
realized they were standing at the base of her front steps. And as
she drank in Jack’s rugged beauty in the winter moonlight, Mary
couldn’t stop thinking about what Claudia had said:
“We both tried to fight what we felt for each other for a long
time. But eventually, neither of us could fight what was meant to
be.”

Why, she had to ask herself, was she still
fighting so hard against what she’d felt for Jack Sullivan from the
first moment she’d set eyes on him?

What if they were meant to
be?

“I don’t want to say goodnight yet,” she
whispered.

“Neither do I.”

Jack put his arms around her and pulled her
in tight to him so that his face was buried in her hair and her
cheek was pressed to his broad chest. She could have stood in the
circle of his strong arms until sunrise.

But she wanted more.

Which meant that she would finally have to be
brave enough to risk not only her body…but her heart, too.

Lifting her face from his chest, she
remembered what he’d said to her the first and last time he’d been
to her home:
Next time you invite me in, I’m going
to make love to you.
A shiver of need ran through her as she
looked up at him.

“Come inside, Jack.”

His dark eyes flared with heat and so much
desire it took her breath away. But he didn’t make a move for the
door.

“The campaign isn’t over yet, and I made you
a promise.”

“I love that you’re willing to stick by the
promise you made to me, no matter how hard it is to do that. But I
don’t need that promise tonight, Jack. I just need you.” She’d made
the rules, and now she was the one tossing them away, at least for
one night.

Despite how much he obviously wanted to come
inside and make love to her, he didn’t move from the step he was
standing on. “Be sure, Angel, because once I come inside and your
front door is closed, there's going to be no turning back tonight.”
His hands tightened on her. “Not for either of us.”

She could have tried to lie to herself by
believing this was all just about sex, that she and Jack were
simply going to take the night to let their attraction come to its
inevitable conclusion. But Mary had never been a convincing
liar…and deep inside, a voice that had been silent for far too long
told her that making love with Jack would, instead of being an
ending, be the beginning of something so much better, sweeter and
more amazing than she’d ever dreamed.

“After watching you with Ian—” Emotion swept
through her again as she thought about how sweet Jack had been as
he’d held and played with the toddler. “You were so good with him,
and he obviously trusts and loves you so much.

“Watching you with my family had me feeling
the exact same things. Wanting you, needing you has kept me up
every night since we met.” She could nearly taste his lips on hers,
but instead of kissing her, he said, “But you need to know that I’m
going to want more than just one night.”

Yet again, he was the most honest,
straightforward man she’d ever known. Instead of sweet-talking her
into rushing to open her front door so that they could fall into
bed, he was giving her every reason to push him away again by
asking for too much, too fast.

“Let’s start here,” she said softly. “With
tonight. Please, Jack, come inside.”

She held her breath as she waited for him to
decide if what she was offering was enough for him.

Finally, he lifted her hands to his lips and
kissed them. “Let’s go in.”

Nerves fought with heady anticipation as she
led him up the steps. He might spend all day working on computers
in a dusty garage, but Mary knew just how dominant, how alpha Jack
could be. She’d felt it in every stolen kiss, in the hard press of
his body against hers when she’d sworn that getting tangled up with
him wasn’t what she wanted. But tonight she sensed he wanted her to
lead him only as far as she was comfortable going…even if it was a
distance she honestly couldn’t yet calculate.

Her house was so quiet she wondered if he
could hear how hard and fast her heart was beating. He helped her
off with her coat, and even though she was still fully dressed, she
felt as if she was already standing naked before him in her
foyer.

“So they girls are really all gone?” His warm
breath heated the bare curve of her neck as he remained behind her
with her coat in his hands.

Mary took both her coat and his from him and
hung them up before turning back and saying, “We have the place
entirely to ourselves.”

“I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you,
Mary. I didn’t think it was possible to want like this.”

He hadn’t yet reached for her, hadn’t yet
pulled her in for a kiss. But when he spoke, heat rolled across her
skin as if he’d done that, and more.

And yet, though she knew Jack was different
from the other men she’d been with, the hard lessons she’d learned
over the years had her wondering if it was just her face, just her
body, he wanted so badly.

“I’m sure you’ve been with plenty of
beautiful women before.” And, Lord, she prayed she could measure up
to them.

“Don’t you dare try to act like that’s what
this is about.” There was a fierceness in him now. “Yes, you’re
beautiful. And yes, your stunning face, your gorgeous body might
have been what first drew me to you, but that’s not why I’m going
to make love to you tonight.”

“Then why?”

“You could be at a glittering Christmas party
full of movie stars and moguls. You could snap your fingers, and a
dozen of the world’s most eligible bachelors would come running to
give you everything you desired and more. Instead, you spent the
night with my family and even made us dinner. You laughed with my
brothers. You put my sister-in-law at ease, and you played on the
floor with my nephew.”

Ever since Mary had become famous, the men
she’d met assumed she craved the glitz. The spotlights and
flashbulbs. Only Jack had ever seen the truth—that she’d take
spending time with a loving family over all of the fame and
flash.

Just like that, her nerves fell away, and she
reached for him. He’d remembered to shave that morning, but his jaw
was already dark with an evening shadow. Gently, she ran her
fingertips over his face as he slid his hands around the curve of
her hips.

“It’s my turn to steal a kiss from you
tonight,” she whispered as she ran her thumb across his lower lip.
He was so tall that she had to go on her tiptoes in her heels and
thread her fingers into his dark hair to pull his mouth down to
hers.

And as she kissed him, the breath Mary
realized she’d been holding since the moment she’d met Jack
Sullivan escaped her lips in a happy sigh.

Mary’s lips were so soft, her breath a
whisper of warmth across Jack’s mouth. Every kiss they’d shared had
been spectacular, but nothing could have prepared him for this.
He’d been stealing passion from her before, but now she was giving
him her boundless sensuality freely…and so damned sweetly that his
hands were shaking as he cradled her hips.

She drew back just far enough to murmur, “You
taste so good, like lemons and sugar and
you,”
and then she was kissing him again, slicking her
tongue over his lower lip. Meeting her halfway, his tongue found
hers, and she gave up a gasp of pleasure.

The small tastes of her that he’d had this
past week had made him ravenous for more than just a few fleeting
moments of heaven. He wanted to learn every inch of the incredible
woman in his arms. What made her pant. What made her plead. What
made her eyes flutter closed as she came apart in his arms.

Slowly, he slid his hands up her curves, from
her hips to her back and shoulders. She was trembling by the time
he threaded his fingers into her silky hair, and as he took their
kiss deeper, her hands clasped his shoulders as if she needed to
hold on to him to keep her balance.

Tilting her head back further, he began to
rain kisses over her jaw. Drawn like a magnet to the rapidly
beating pulse at the side of her neck, he covered it with his
mouth. Her skin was even softer here, and she shuddered when the
bristles from his evening shadow brushed over her. When she arched
back, he licked once into the hollow at the base of her throat,
before moving down to press his lips over the bare skin of her
collarbone where her sweater had pulled away.

In the heat of their passion, they’d moved so
that he was pressing her back against the front door, and as he
cupped her face to kiss her again, she lifted one leg around his
hips to try to pull him even closer.