He was amazed at how smoothly she’d told the truth, while also deftly saving him from having to admit to his sister that he was a jerk who had flat-out refused to help her.
“Interesting,” Mia said in a tone that told Ian precisely how interesting she found the whole situation. Far too much for his peace of mind, which was already teetering on the edge of sanity simply from being this close to Tatiana. “Did you learn anything yet that you’ll be able to use for your role?”
Tatiana’s eyes held his for a brief but heated moment before she turned to smile again at his sister. “Only that CEOs are busy. So busy that their sisters have to come and make sure they leave the office at a reasonable hour on a Friday night.”
Mia shot him another pointed look. “You did invite her to dinner at Mom and Dad’s tonight, didn’t you?”
“I’m afraid I didn’t exactly let him get that far,” Tatiana said, saving him from his sister’s wrath yet again. “Besides, I should really spend tonight going over the new changes the screenwriter made.”
“Come to dinner with us, Tatiana.” Even to Ian’s own ears, his request came out sounding like gravel was coating his vocal cords, so he tried again. “Our parents would really love to have you there.”
“We would all love it,” Mia corrected, her disapproval over the way he was handling himself around Tatiana coming through louder and clearer with every passing second. “And I refuse to take no for an answer, so the changes to your script will just have to wait a few more hours.”
With that, his force-of-nature sister linked her arm with Tatiana’s. As they headed toward the elevator, Mia called over her shoulder, “Hurry up, Ian, otherwise people are going to realize their rock-star hero is sitting outside in the car waiting for us and then we’ll be really late to Mom and Dad’s.”
In London, Ian had been in charge of not only one hundred percent of his business, but of his personal life, as well. He’d barely been back in Seattle for a week, and already his family was meddling. But only, he reminded himself as he grabbed the bouquet of flowers he’d bought for his mother, because they loved him.
Which meant he’d better brace himself for a whole lot more meddling tonight at dinner.
Especially if he wasn’t able to hide his reaction to Tatiana any better than he had so far…
CHAPTER TWO
Ian’s office had looked just the way Tatiana thought it would. Perfectly ordered, with everything exactly where it should be and, most of all, everyone working hard to please him.
She smiled at that thought, knowing just how easy it was to feel that way. Heck, she didn’t know him very well beyond their one meeting at Marcus and Nicola’s wedding in Napa and what she’d heard about him through her sister and the other Sullivans...and yet she already found herself wanting to do something, anything, that would put a spark of approval into his dark eyes. Eyes that seemed to be full of so many mysteries—and so much barely banked heat—that every time she looked into them she couldn’t help but be completely and utterly drawn in.
Again, she smiled, but this time, entirely different kinds of sparks were the reason. The kind that had made her feel warm and flushed and tingly all over every time she’d thought about Ian Sullivan during the past few months.
She’d wanted to know if her memories of the instant connection she’d felt between them in the vineyard had been real. After only fifteen minutes with Ian in his office, she knew the answer.
Yes, the sparks were real...and getting hotter by the second.
Especially after he’d said his terse No to her request, and she’d moved closer to ask him why. Maybe, she acknowledged, it was a little bad of her to get such a kick out of provoking him. But how could she resist the way his eyes lit with heat and emotion that he couldn’t seem to contain around her? Her appearance had clearly shaken up his otherwise neatly ordered life. Even her red heels and sparkly earrings had seemed to grate on him, as if bright colors were expressly not permitted in the Sullivan Investments headquarters.
During the first couple of hours she’d been waiting in his office, she’d pulled up her script on her phone and read through it another two times. After having gone over it more than a hundred times already, she’d hoped to finally find the clue to her character’s soul that she’d been looking for. Alas, the glorious aha moment she so badly needed remained elusive. Frustration at spinning her wheels had her closing her script in momentary defeat and turning on one of Nicola’s pop songs in her headphones that never failed to lift her spirits.
She hadn’t planned on Ian finding her listening to music, but perhaps it had been the perfect way to greet him, she thought as he opened the back passenger door of Ford’s Tesla for her. Sexy as sin in his dark suit, he somehow managed to look rough and rugged even beneath perfectly tailored wool. Plus, he smelled amazing, like a pine forest in the cool of night. But what had sent her heart racing even faster was when he’d put his arms around his sister and held her tight, pressing a kiss to the top of Mia’s head, his expression one of pure love. Now, as he slid into the backseat beside her, she realized he was carefully holding the bouquet of flowers that had seemed so out of place in his office, obviously intended for his mother.
“Look who I was lucky enough to find in Ian’s office,” Mia said to her fiancé as she got into the front passenger seat beside Ford and gave him a kiss on the lips.
“Tatiana,” Ford said as he turned to greet her, “it’s great to see you again so soon. Have you started filming your new movie already?”
“Not quite yet. I’ve got a couple of weeks until we begin, so I’m still in character-research mode.” But since she didn’t want to admit that she’d just run into the first role she couldn’t figure out, darn it—and her brain wasn’t exactly working at top speed anyway with Ian sitting so close—she asked Ford and Mia, “How are things going for the two of you?”
She relaxed in the supple leather backseat while Ford and Mia quickly filled her in on what they’d both been up to since she’d last seen them. Throughout, however, Ian sat stiffly beside her. She wouldn’t be surprised if he was still irritated by her request to shadow him, but something told her she wasn’t the only reason for his unease.
Tatiana had personally been witness to the horribly awkward moment when Ian had first met Ford. The rock star had been secretly making out with Mia in a storage room at Marcus and Nicola’s wedding. Tatiana would never forget the fury she’d seen on Ian’s face when he’d thought Ford was taking advantage of Mia. Things had continued to be strained when they’d all been seated at the same table during dinner and toasts, and just as she had on that day, Tatiana wanted to try to help smooth things over with everyone. The problem was, she didn’t yet know Ian well enough to do whatever would have helped to set him at ease.
In order for Tatiana to do her job well in front of the cameras, she not only needed to look deep into other people’s personalities, she also had to look inward at her own. As a result, she knew herself to be both curious and impulsive. Which meant that, in the months since meeting Ian at the wedding, she simply hadn’t had the self-control to keep her curiosity about him at bay. A few quick online searches had been enough for her to learn that his marriage to Chelsea Adrienne, a flawlessly beautiful blonde even by Hollywood standards, had ended several years ago. Since then, he’d been photographed with a series of equally stunning women at various events, all of them tall and dark-haired and willowy, with cool expressions.