I Only Have Eyes For You
Sophie & Jake ~ The Sullivans # 4
© 2012 Bella Andre
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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Sophie Sullivan, a librarian in San Francisco, was five years old when she fell head over heels in love with Jake McCann. Twenty years later, she’s convinced the notorious bad boy still sees her as the “nice” Sullivan twin. That is, when he bothers to look at her at all. But when they both get caught up in the magic of the first Sullivan wedding, she knows it’s long past time to do whatever it takes to make him see her for who she truly is...the woman who will love him forever.
Jake has always been a magnet for women, especially since his Irish pubs made him extremely wealthy. But the only woman he really wants is the one he can never have. Not only is Sophie his best friend’s off-limits younger sister...he can’t risk letting her get close enough to discover his deeply hidden secret.
Only, when Sophie appears on his doorstep as Jake’s every fantasy come to life—smart, beautiful, and shockingly sexy—he doesn’t have a prayer of taking his eyes, or his hands, off her. And he can’t stop craving more of her sweet smiles and sinful kisses. Because even though Jake knows loving Sophie isn’t the right thing to do...how can he possibly resist?
Chapter One
Sophie Sullivan surveyed the final wedding preparations with satisfaction. In less than two hours, her brother Chase and his fiancee, Chloe, would be saying “I do” beneath rose-covered arches with three hundred guests looking on. The Napa Valley vineyard owned by her oldest brother, Marcus, was not only the perfect backdrop for the wedding, but was also where Chase and Chloe had first met and fallen in love.
The bride and the other bridesmaids were already in the guest house having their makeup and hair done. Sophie should have been there half an hour ago, but she’d wanted to make sure everything outside was perfect first. She was a librarian, not a wedding planner, but she’d leapt at the chance to help plan Chase’s wedding, and it had been so much fun. Well, apart from all those meetings with—
“Hey, Nice, looking good.”
Every muscle in Sophie’s body tensed at the low drawl from behind her.
Jake McCann.
Her brother Zach’s closest friend...and the object of twenty years of her unrequited love.
Of course, not once in those twenty years had she ever been anything more to him than Zach’s little sister.
“My name is Sophie, not Nice,” she said, without turning to face him.
She felt him move closer, his innate heat searing her even from several feet away. She’d always been overly attuned to him, instantly alert to his presence in a room. As a little girl, she’d made excuses to hang out with her older brothers just to be near Jake, keeping extra quiet so no one would remember she was there while they played pool in the basement and made off-color jokes.
The urge to turn and drink him in, to lose herself in the spark of wicked in his chocolate-brown eyes, was so strong she almost gave in. Instead, she kept her gaze trained over the wedding layout and the rolling hills of grapevines and mustard flowers as if she didn’t care one way or another if he stayed to talk to her.
“Hard to believe the day has finally come.” He paused, and she could hear the humor mixed with a faint disdain in his voice as he said, “A Sullivan is actually taking the plunge.”
Sophie was known as the clear-headed, soft-spoken one in the family, the one who always thought things through before taking action. She’d never been prone to violent outbursts...or to giving in to crazy inner urgings. That was her twin sister Lori’s territory, which was why Lori’s nickname was Naughty and Sophie’s was Nice. But Sophie rarely felt level-headed anymore around Jake. How could she when her heart always beat too fast at the thought of what it would feel like to be in his arms...or because he was making her mad with some macho comment? Usually both at the same time. Just as he was doing right now.
Her fingers curled into fists as she lost the battle with self-control and whirled around to face him. Unfortunately for her traitorous hormones, Jake was more gorgeous than ever in his tuxedo. His crisp white dress shirt opened up just enough at the neck for her to see the dark hair curling up at the vee of his chest. His tattoos were covered up, but just knowing they were hidden behind a thin layer of fabric always sent a kick of forbidden desire rushing through her.
“Chase and Chloe are in love,” she told him in a sharp voice made even sharper by her disappointment with herself for not being even the slightest bit impervious to Jake’s good looks. “Their wedding is going to be beautiful and perfect and incredibly romantic.”
It was even more beautiful and perfect and romantic that Chloe was pregnant and absolutely glowing. Sophie couldn’t wait to babysit, to endlessly spoil her niece or nephew.
“It’s going to be one hell of a party, at least.”
What was wrong with him? Sophie wondered for what had to be the thousandth time in twenty years. How could he look at a lifetime of love and only see a party?
Then again, given the fact that he blew through women at a shockingly fast rate, it wasn’t hard to guess that he was one of those imbeciles who didn’t believe in love. A rich, good-looking guy like Jake McCann would just be in it for the sex.
Sophie was neither a virgin nor a prude, despite what people might otherwise assume about librarians. On the contrary, if people knew just how well-read she was on the subject of sex, they would likely be shocked. Especially Jake. Wouldn’t it be something to shock someone who thought he was so utterly unshockable?
But she knew better than to let her fantasies run away with her where Jake was concerned, even if her body had stupidly fallen in lust with him from the first stirring of teenage hormones. Even now, she couldn’t help but breathe in his scent, a faint hint of hops and something she’d never been able to categorize beyond night and darkness.
She moved to straighten an already perfectly straight chair. “I checked over the bar setup earlier and it looks like everything is in place.” She grudgingly had to admit, “You’ve done a good job with it.”
She could feel his dark eyes on her as he said, “You sure I can’t hire you to run my pubs? We could use someone like you to whip the business into shape.”
A burst of pleasure at his compliment shot through her, warming her all over. That was the problem with Jake. Even when she was irritated with him, even though he’d never return her feelings for him in a billion, kazillion years, she couldn’t help but be charmed by him.
Still, knowing she’d never forgive herself if she melted into a gooey puddle of lust in the middle of Marcus’s vineyard, she simply told him, “I’d miss my books too much, thanks.” All her life, Sophie’d had stacks of books in every room, beside her bed, and in the kitchen. She loved the way her new e-reader fit in her purse.
Knowing that prolonging their close proximity in this uber-romantic setting would only mess with her head, she said, “I’d better get over to the guest house.” But just as she was turning to go, a sudden gust of wind whipped her hat off her head.
Jake reached out and caught it before she even had time to react. “Got it.”
He moved in front of her and slid a lock of hair that had caught on her mouth back under the hat as he settled it into place. Her cheek tingled from the gentle brush of skin on skin and she nervously licked her lips.
His hands stilled on the brim of her hat, his dark eyes turning almost jet black as his gaze held on her mouth. Neither of them moved for several moments, but then, suddenly, he was stepping back from her, the slightly cool wine-country air pushing in where his heat had been just seconds before.
His frown was deep, heavy, as he tore his gaze away from her mouth and quickly scanned her outfit. “You’re not wearing that to the wedding, are you?”
Still working to catch her breath from the shock of his touch, it took far longer than it should have for her to register what he’d said. She couldn’t miss the mocking tone, however.
Months ago, when Jake had volunteered to run the bar at Chase and Chloe’s wedding, she’d impulsively decided to teach him a lesson about his arrogance, along with the way he insisted on continuing to look at her as little more than a child, rather than a full-grown woman. She’d planned to make him want her, to somehow figure out a way to make him desperate with longing...before she scorned him, leaving him high and dry for the first time in his life.
Only, had she made good on those big plans to attract and then reject Jake in the past four months?
Ha!
“Of course this isn’t what I’m wearing for the wedding,” she finally replied, her words a hard snap of breath and teeth. “I’m one of Chloe’s maids of honor, with Lori.”
The perfect planes of his face shifted again from frown to scowl, before settling back into indifference. “You’d better go get pretty then, shouldn’t you, princess?”
Jake’s harsh words landed with a hard thud between them. She didn’t know if he’d intended to hurt her with his words, with the implication that it would take some time, along with a good amount of effort, to pretty her up...but whether or not that had been his intent, that was exactly what he’d just done.
A few minutes ago she’d felt proud of what she’d accomplished with Chase and Chloe’s wedding. Now, that pride was all but erased by the way Jake looked at her and found her so wanting, so utterly devoid of female allure. Because even though she knew better than to care, even though she knew better than to give him the power to hurt her, a handful of his careless words did more damage than her twin’s hair-pulling ever had.
Had she imagined that hunger, the longing, in his eyes? Or had she simply wanted to feel those sparks so badly that she’d manufactured a split-second connection that would never actually be there between them?
Oh, how she hated the way he’d just talked to her—like she was still a little girl rather than a fully grown, successful, adult woman. Princess. He’d called her princess.
Somehow that was worse than Nice. At least her family nickname had been born of love.
In one fell swoop, all the resolve she’d had such a hard time holding on to where Jake was concerned gathered up inside her, settling in just over her breastbone. What she wouldn’t give to shock him, to show him that he didn’t know a darn thing about who she really was, that the “nice” girl he’d seen grow up was more than woman enough to run him in circles.
Growing up in a family of extraordinary siblings, Sophie had known better than to try to compete with them. She’d never glide across a dance floor like Lori, or lead a team to a national championship like Ryan. She didn’t save people’s lives on a daily basis like Gabe. She’d never be passionate enough about photography or cars or vineyards to turn them into successful careers and businesses.
But as she stood with Jake in the middle of Marcus’s vineyard barely an hour before Chase and Chloe’s wedding, Sophie couldn’t have been happier that she’d read thousands of novels. Enough, she hoped, to pull together a quick plot that would give Jake a taste of his own medicine...and at long last, a run for his money.
“You’re right,” she said softly, “I should leave soon to get pretty.” The words tasted like grit on her tongue and she could have sworn he almost winced as she repeated them back to him. “But there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you first.”
“What’s that?” he asked in an easy voice. One she thought sounded a little too easy.
“Well,” she said slowly, “I just found out that an ex-boyfriend is one of Chloe’s last-minute guests.”
It was true, she’d dated the guy—Alex—for a few months last year. Neither of them had been particularly serious about the other, however. She hadn’t even slept with him.
Still, that didn’t stop her from spinning the truth a bit for Jake’s benefit. “He’s someone I’d really like to make jealous.” She slowly lowered her eyelashes as if she still wasn’t over the pain of being left so callously.
Although she’d only been in the chorus of a handful of elementary-school stage productions, she tried to channel the way she imagined Smith would play this scene onscreen. With pathos. And a faint hint of shame at the way she’d never managed to be good enough for her ex no matter what she did. She waited a beat before lifting her gaze to Jake’s again.
“Would you help me?”
He stared down at her, clearly unable to believe what she was proposing. “Hold up a second, Nice. You want me to help you make some loser ex-boyfriend jealous?”
She gritted her teeth at his use of her nickname—and the fact that he immediately assumed any boyfriend of hers had to be a loser—but forced herself to let it go. For now.
“You didn’t bring anyone to the wedding, right?” A few weeks ago he’d told her he was coming stag so that he could keep watch over his staff at the bar. Sophie figured it was also a good way to make sure he had his pick of hot single guests for an after-party in his bed. She forcefully tamped down the surge of jealousy at that vision as she said, “Please, Jake, will you help me?”
But he was already shaking his head. “No one will ever believe it. And your brothers will kill me if they think I’m looking at you that way.”
Damn his bad reputation and her crystal clear one.
And damn her brothers for being so protective.
Jake was right. They would tear him to shreds if they ever thought he’d so much as had an impure thought about her or Lori. But she refused to give up now, not with his disdainful, “You’d better go get pretty then, shouldn’t you, princess?” still running through her head.
“Are you kidding?” she said with a laugh. “Of course none of them would believe it. You?” She laughed harder. “And me?” She shook her head as if the whole idea were utterly preposterous...even though she’d written their love story a thousand times in her dreams. “We’ve all seen the kind of girls you go for. I would be surprised if half of them can even spell their own names.”
When he scowled, she belatedly realized she might have gone too far.
Oops.
“Don’t worry,” she reassured him, “we’ll make sure none of my family or friends sees us. Just my ex.”
“Does this guy have a name?”
The way Jake looked right then, like he was going to tear her ex apart with his bare hands, she didn’t think it would be fair to give him Alex’s name.
Thinking fast, she said, “I don’t like saying it aloud.”
“Did he hurt you?”
She was glad she hadn’t had too much to eat for breakfast, otherwise it would have threatened to come back up as she moved her hand over her heart and said, “Only here,” in an overly theatrical way.
Sophie was certain anyone else would have seen through her terrible acting job, but Jake was so bound and determined not to notice anything about her it looked like she was actually going to get away with this.
Knowing it was make-or-break time, she played her final card. “Please, Jake. You’re the only one I can ask to help me get a little revenge on a big jerk.” She leaned in close to his ear and said in a hushed voice, “It will be our little secret.”
God, he smelled good, so good she wanted to rub her lips over the faint stubble on his cheek. Instead, she forced herself to shift her weight away from him.
Finally he said, “Fine. If you’re that desperate, I’ll do it. Although I still don’t think this plan of yours has much of a chance of working.”
“Oh,” she said softly, the word desperate grating along with princess and Nice, “it will work all right. I’ll make absolutely sure of it.”
* * *
What the hell had just happened?
Jake McCann knew how he was supposed to feel about Sophie Sullivan. He was supposed to love her the way a guy loved his little sister, to watch over her, to make sure she was safe and happy. He was supposed to be blind to the way Sophie had filled out over the years.
He shouldn’t have been appreciating her curves beneath her clothes as she’d stood in the middle of the vineyard and surveyed the wedding preparations. And when he was putting her hat back on her head and her eyes had gone all dreamy, he sure as hell shouldn’t have felt the crazy urge to drag her against him and kiss that soft mouth.
But he couldn’t take his eyes off her as she walked away, couldn’t stop thinking about how soft her cheek felt against the pad of his thumb and the way her hair slid like silk through his fingers.
Damn it.
How long had he worked to deny the way he felt about Sophie? How many years had he told himself it was nothing he couldn’t work out of his system with other women? Women who were good for a few hours in the sack, but who didn’t have an ounce of Sophie’s natural elegance. Her brains. Her gentleness.
How was he going to make it through an entire wedding with Sophie when his self-control had slipped a little more each time he saw her over the past months? Sitting close to her as she ran through the wedding plans with him, breathing in her sweet scent, wondering if she would taste just as sweet against his tongue, had been slowly driving him crazy. Day by day she’d crept into his thoughts, his dreams, more and more.
Standing in the middle of Marcus’s vineyard with Sophie near enough to pull her into his arms, he’d been caught between two impossible choices. Reach out and finally claim her the way he’d fantasized about taking her for far too long...or push her away for her own good.
His chest clenched with regret as he remembered Sophie’s wounded expression after he’d made those cracks about her clothes and needing to be made pretty for the wedding. She was the last person in the world he wanted to hurt, which was exactly why he’d made sure to keep his distance as much as possible over the years.
Jake hated to think that some guy she’d dated had done a number on her, and actually had the nerve to show up at her brother’s wedding. She deserved to be with someone who would give her everything. A house in the suburbs and a white picket fence. A handful of cute kids with big brains like their mother.
He knocked his knuckles hard into his sternum to physically shove away the tightening at those images of Sophie being picture-book happy with some other guy. Jake wasn’t sure about her plan to make her ex jealous, but he was already planning to get the guy alone and teach him a lesson about what happened when somebody messed with a Sullivan.
Just then, Chase stepped out onto Marcus’s terrace and called Jake’s name, jolting him out of his thoughts.
Chase’s brothers were all groomsmen with Marcus officiating the wedding. Jake was the only non-Sullivan to be given the honor of standing up with Chase, even though he had plenty of cousins who could have been chosen.
The ninth Sullivan. It was always how they’d made him feel, like he was one of them. All those years he’d hung out at their house, Jake had pretended he was home. And the truth was, Mary Sullivan’s house had been the only real home he’d known until he bought his own place with the profits from his Irish pubs.
Jake was happy for Chase. Sure, he was surprised by the way his friend had fallen so quickly, and by how happy he was about the whole husband/father thing being dropped into his lap, but just because Jake wouldn't ever let himself get caught up in that ball and chain, he would always support a Sullivan.
Being a groomsman at Chase’s wedding and running the bar was all part of giving back to the family that had helped raise him when his own family hadn’t given a damn.
“How’re you feeling on the big day?”
Chase grinned. “Good.” His grin widened. “Really good.”
Jake had seen Chase and Chloe together enough to know this was one seriously happy dude. Chase didn’t seem to have one regret about giving up having his pick of hot models.
“Have you seen Chloe?” Chase asked. “Do you know if she needs anything?”
As soon as Chloe had announced her pregnancy, Chase had become a carbon copy of every other overprotective dad-to-be. It was exactly the kind of crazy behavior Jake would never understand. Which was why he made damn certain none of his sexual partners could get knocked up.
“I was just talking with Sophie,” he told Chase. “Sounded like everything is under control with the girls.”
“Good.” Chase nodded, then grinned at him. “Come inside. Smith is telling us about an orgy he walked in on a couple of weeks ago. I’m guessing it’s a warm-up for his speech after the wedding.”
“So you’re really not going to miss giving it all up, huh?”
Chase didn’t hesitate before shaking his head. “Chloe is worth a thousand orgies.”
Jake could hear the Sullivans laughing as he walked inside. He loved that family as if they were his own, would take a bullet for any of them. Especially the dark-haired beauty he couldn’t manage to shake out of his head.
Or his heart.
Chapter Two
“We were just about to send out a search party for you.” Kalen, the makeup artist Chase usually worked with on his photo shoots, grabbed Sophie the second she stepped into the guest house. “Everyone else is putting on their dresses already. Fortunately, all you need is some light mascara and lipstick.”
Normally, Sophie would have agreed to keep her face close to bare. She’d never been all that comfortable in makeup. Lori had been the one who’d always liked to play with their mother’s eye shadows and powders. Sophie had been more interested in finding the books to tell her sister how to put it on, rather than playing mannequin.
“Actually,” she said, “I was hoping you could work a little of your magic on me.”
The woman raised an eyebrow. “Magic?”
Sophie nodded. “There’s this guy...”
Kalen gave Sophie a slow grin. “Well, in that case, I’d be happy to work a little of my magic on you. He won’t know what hit him.” She called out to the hairstylist friend she’d brought with her. “Jackie, can you come here for a sec?”
A few minutes of hushed conferencing later—in which Sophie made it clear that she didn’t want to look overly made up or trashy, just a whole lot sexier than she normally did—the three women had a plan.
Sophie sat back in her seat and tried to ignore her rapidly beating heart as they transformed her from Nice to something entirely different.
* * *
Thirty minutes later, after Kalen and Jackie had helped Sophie change into her bridesmaid’s dress without messing up her hair or makeup, Lori walked into the room and stared at Sophie in shock.
“What the heck have you done with my sister?”
The two of them hadn’t been getting along so well for the past year. Sophie hated to see the way Lori was letting that jerk she’d been dating in secret walk all over her. Everyone saw her twin as so fierce, so fearless, but Sophie knew Lori was simply better at hiding her emotions than the rest of them.
Every time Sophie had tried to bring up the situation, her sister had blocked her out of her life more and more. Lori was a master of sharp, sarcastic barbs, as Sophie knew all too well, and she’d been lashed out at one too many times in recent months. But beneath everything that had come between them in the past year, she loved her sister. How could she not, when they’d always been two halves of a whole?
Today was one of those days when Sophie needed her twin, the other half that should automatically understand everything on a DNA level, to reassure her.
In the heat of the moment, as she’d made the decision to shake things up, it had seemed so empowering to let Kalen and Jackie make her up, but for someone like her, who’d always been happy disappearing into the background, this hair, this makeup was a big departure.
What if people laughed at her?
What if Jake laughed?
She’d die. Oh yes, right then and there in the middle of Chase and Chloe’s special day, in front of three hundred people, she’d wither up and drop dead.
Lori moved closer, did a full circle of Sophie in her deep pink satin strapless dress. She’d been the last one to meet Chloe at the bridal store to pick out her maid of honor dress. Although it was definitely more conservative that Lori’s, Sophie had forgotten how well the satin hugged her curves, closer than anything else she owned, that’s for sure. It was classic movie-star style, a la Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress, with a long slit up one leg.
Finally, Lori said, “You look amazing, Soph.”
Sophie breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
“But,” Lori added with a slight frown, “you don’t exactly look like you.” Her frown deepened. “Did Kalen convince you to try something new?”
“The makeup was my idea. So was the hair.”
Lori frowned again. “I don’t get it. You’ve never wanted to try anything new before.”
Sophie forced a shrug, as if it didn’t matter to her at all if her sister got it or not. Even though it did matter. So much. “I just wanted to see what it would be like to look different for one day.”
“Hmm.” Lori scanned her again, head to toe, and Sophie knew the exact moment the truth hit her sister. “Oh, no. You’re not actually going to try to get J—”
Sophie leapt toward her sister to cover Lori’s mouth with her hand before Jake’s name left it. She wished she could tell Lori her transformation had nothing to do with him, but she couldn’t lie to her twin.
“I know what I’m doing.”
Lori shook her head, yanking Sophie’s hand from her mouth. “You don’t have a clue what you’re doing. I love J—”
“Lori!”
“—him like a brother, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see his faults, Soph. Especially where women are concerned.” Lori pinned her with a hard gaze. “Don’t do this.”
She’d never thought to admit this to anyone, not even her sister, but now she found herself saying, “You don’t know what it’s like to be invisible.” She instinctively lifted her chin and pushed back her shoulders. “I’m sick of it.”
She wanted her twin to understand, but instead of encouraging her, Lori said, “You love to tell me when and where I’m screwing up.” Sophie tried to interject, but her sister put her hands on her shoulders and made her turn around to face the full-length mirror. “This time you’re the one who needs to listen. Don’t do this, Soph.” Lori squeezed her shoulders tight. “Don’t. Do. This.”
Sophie stared at the incredibly sexy woman staring back at her in the mirror. She’d never have been able to pull this together without professional assistance.
It was now or never.
“I have to.”
Lori looked as serious—and worried—as she could ever remember seeing her. “The boys are going to be beside themselves seeing you looking like that. I mean, they’re used to me playing up the goods, but you...Nope. They aren’t going to like it. Not one bit.”
“Too bad.”
Finally Lori almost smiled, but then she asked, “What’s going to happen if your plan backfires?”
Sophie’s heart stuttered in her chest at the thought of just how many things could go wrong with her brilliant plan to teach Jake a lesson for ignoring her all these years. Still, she thought she sounded confident and secure as she assured her sister, “It won’t.”
And even though she could still feel the heated imprint of Jake’s fingers against her cheek where he’d touched her, she told herself it was the truth. Because if there was one thing everyone knew about Sophie Sullivan, it was that she never, ever lied. Not to anyone else.
And certainly not to herself.
Ellen, Marcus’s winery manager, who had helped Sophie with plenty of the wedding details, popped her head into the room. “It’s time to give the bride her big send-off. You two are gorgeous.” She spent a few extra seconds looking at Sophie, a faint hint of surprise on her face, before saying, “Beyond gorgeous, actually. Are you ready?”
Sophie’s heart jumped in her chest at the thought of making her grand entrance. Of course she wasn’t ready...but she was as ready as she’d ever be.
She joined Lori, Marcus’s pop-star girlfriend Nicola, Gabe’s girlfriend Megan, and the other two bridesmaids, who were old friends of Chloe’s, on the porch. As co-maids-of-honor, Sophie and Lori had had a fierce match of rock-paper-scissors over which of them would walk out first with Marcus, the oldest Sullivan.
Sophie was certain that Lori had cheated. Her twin always did. But now she was glad that she wouldn’t be the first to enter the proceedings. It was even better that Smith was her partner for the walk down the aisle. Everyone would be oohing and ahhing over the movie star in their midst. At least long enough, she hoped, for her to settle a little better into her brand new sex-goddess persona.
* * *
Just as Lori had predicted, their brothers stopped and blinked at her in surprise as they walked onto the porch. Surprise, unfortunately, quickly turned into scowls.
“Sophie?”
Her oldest brother’s face looked like thunder and she had to force herself to hold her ground in front of Marcus, rather than take a step back in retreat—and go running back inside to wipe the makeup off her face and brush her glossy, blown-out hair back into the style they were all used to.
“What the h—”
Nicola put her hand on Marcus’s forearm just in time. “Hey, gorgeous,” she teased, “I hear you own this joint.”
Thank God Marcus was powerless to resist his stunning girlfriend, especially when she was going up on her toes to whisper something into his ear that had him dragging her off to a private corner of the porch and kissing her.
Sophie made a mental note to do something really nice for Nicola in the future as payback for that quick save. Maybe a new e-book reader with a hundred fantastic books preloaded on it for those long hours on tour?
Too bad Gabe was only a beat behind with his, “Why are you wearing all that makeup, Soph?”
Megan, who had become one of Sophie’s closest friends after the two of them had reconnected a handful of months ago, shot Sophie a sympathetic look before moving into Gabe’s line of vision.
“Summer needs help with her basket of flower petals. She’s asking for you, Gabe.”
Sophie’s firefighter brother had fallen hard for her friend and her daughter after saving both of them from a deadly apartment fire. He didn’t stand a chance of holding focus on whatever Sophie was up to when Megan’s seven-year-old daughter needed him.
Too bad Ryan, Zach, and Smith didn’t have girlfriends on the porch to distract them.
Ryan looked between her and Lori. “You guys aren’t going to do that twin-switch thing again, are you?”
Zach just looked plain confused. “Whatever is going on here, I don’t want to know about it.” But then he added, “Swear to God, Nice, if anyone even looks at you crosswise I’m going to pound his head into the dirt until he’s fertilizer for Marcus’s vines.”
“What about if someone looks at me?” Lori asked, obviously trying to pull their brothers’ attention away from her twin by acting affronted.
“You can handle yourself,” he retorted.
“So can I,” Sophie said.
“Like hell you can,” Smith said.
Her second oldest brother, who just happened to be one of the biggest movie stars in the world, had been watching her silently until then. Although they were about as different as two Sullivans could be—he’d always thrived in the limelight and she wanted to steer as far from it as she could—she’d always been especially close to Smith.
He took her hand. “Let’s go practice our walk down the aisle.”
She’d been so steamrolled by her brothers, she finally realized who was missing. “Where’s Jake?”
“He had a last-second emergency with the drinks,” he replied and then, when they were around on the other side of the porch, he said, “You look beautiful, Soph.”
“Thank you.”
“What’s going on?”
She swallowed hard. “I wanted to look pretty for the wedding.”
“You were already pretty. Before—” He gestured to the hair, the makeup, the dress.
Her heart squeezed at the way her brother looked at her, as though she were a little girl he needed to keep saving. Didn’t he see? This was exactly why she needed to do this. So that everyone would stop thinking of her as sweet little Nice.
Little did he realize—little did any of her brothers realize—that they were only feeding her resolve more.
A part of her desperately wanted to confide in Smith, to try and take some comfort from her big brother’s strong arms. But she knew better. If she told him what she was doing, he’d likely lock her in the guest house until the wedding was over.
“I’m walking down the aisle on a movie star’s arm,” she forced herself to say. “Who knows where this picture will end up?”
Unfortunately, Smith didn’t even come close to believing her. “Since when did you care about any of that?”
Since never, but that was beside the point.
She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve missed you.”
She felt his kiss on the top of her head. She hadn’t had a father past the age of two, but she’d never felt that emptiness. Not with so much love all around her, not with Smith and Marcus and Chase to hug her, not with Zach and Ryan to tease her, not with Gabe and Lori to play and argue with.
“I missed you, too, Nice.” He pulled back, looked at her again. She wondered why it didn’t rankle when Smith used her nickname, but she wanted to deck Jake for saying it. “I just didn’t expect to come from Australia and see you’ve changed.”
“I’m still me,” she insisted in a soft voice.
Only, the truth was, she was barely an hour into her “transformation” and things were already different. She’d never had conversations like this with her brothers, for one. And while she wasn’t at all certain she’d ever try this particular look again, despite her worries over making a big fool out of herself in the slinky dress and towering heels, there was a part of her that liked the change. Heck, hadn’t the waitress at her favorite Thai restaurant even said to her the last time she was there, “Ordering the same old thing?”
Sophie suddenly realized she’d gotten stuck in a rut. A nice, comfortable rut.
Footsteps coming toward them had them pulling apart and Smith smoothing her hair back into place. “You really do look great, Soph. Different, but stunning.”
This time only pride shone from his eyes. And when the two of them obeyed Ellen’s instructions to follow Marcus and Lori down the steps of the porch, out through the vines to the rose-strewn aisle, Sophie didn’t have to fake her radiant smile.
Watch out, world, she thought, Sophie Sullivan is about to cut loose.
And, hopefully, Jake McCann wouldn’t know what hit him.
Chapter Three
Jake stepped out from behind the bar just as the wedding march started up and a cute blonde kid skipped down the aisle, tossing flower petals into the air. Charmed, the crowd laughed and admired Gabe’s girlfriend’s daughter. Marcus and Lori came next, the oldest Sullivan and one of the youngest. Lori took her place as one of the Maids of Honor and Marcus moved to the center in preparation for officiating the ceremony.
Yet again, Jake could hardly believe this day had come. There were a few things he’d always been able to count on in life.
Beer always tasted better from the tap.
His father had never been anything but a worthless drunk.
And the Sullivan boys weren’t going to be heading to the altar any time soon.
Ellen caught sight of him and waved him over to his place by the bridesmaid he’d be escorting. He hadn’t met her yet, but he hoped Chloe had good taste in friends. At this point, the only way he had even the slightest chance of working Sophie out of his system after a long day together at the wedding, was to make sure he ended it in bed with a gorgeous woman who was her polar opposite.
He was almost to the bridesmaid when his heart—and his feet—stopped cold.
What the hell had Sophie done to herself?
Jake blinked to try to fix his vision as Sophie and Smith rounded a row of vines and continued walking down the aisle. When he was still seeing things a few seconds later—crazy, insane things—he ran a hand over his eyes.
But nothing changed the fact that Sophie was looking like walking sex in a silky pink dress and high heels. She sure wasn’t wearing that sweater and skirt he’d been so rough on anymore. But the dress wasn’t the only thing different about her. What had she done to her hair? And why did her eyes look so big, her mouth so red?
His body reacted to the shockingly sensual picture of her before he could stop it, all of the blood that was supposed to feed a brain that knew not to ever look at Sophie Sullivan like that—especially in front of all six of her brothers—shooting south.
Ellen’s hand at his elbow jolted him. “It’s almost your turn to head up the aisle, Jake.”
He heard what she said, knew he needed to join the rest of the group, but even as he held out his arm for Chloe’s friend—he didn’t catch her name and didn’t bother to ask her for it again—he couldn’t take his eyes off Sophie.
The view from the back didn’t help his current problem, damn it. Sophie Sullivan had a perfect ass and right then she was showcasing it to three hundred people in that dress that slipped and slid over her curves so tightly he knew she couldn’t possibly be wearing anything under it.
An urge to drag her away from the wedding, away from all those hungry male eyes drinking her in, to make her change back into her normal clothes—clothes that covered her up the way she should be covered!—came so fast, Jake was hard pressed to ignore it. He couldn’t stand knowing dozens of guys in the audience were drooling right now, even the ones who were married and had no business thinking those kinds of thoughts about little Sophie.
Although...she didn’t exactly look young and innocent, didn’t seem quite so untouchable anymore, did she?
Ellen said his name again and he took it as his cue to start walking. Gabe and Megan, who were walking up the aisle in front of him, impeded his view of Sophie for a few seconds and he had to crane his neck to keep his eye on her as she took her place beside Lori beneath the rose covered arches.
A moment later, Sophie looked up and caught him staring at her. Jake tried to look away.
And failed.
The woman on his arm had to tug him to keep his feet moving in the right direction. The last thing Jake saw before taking his place beside Gabe in the lineup was Sophie’s soft mouth turned up into a sensual, utterly feminine smile.