She’d pressed her mouth to his to stop him from saying anything more. Filming sex scenes was part of his job. And since she hadn’t managed to keep her walls up around him these past weeks, then she was just going to have to find a way to deal with it, wasn’t she?

When she’d finally drawn back from his sinfully delicious mouth, he’d simply smiled his breath-stealing smile down at her, and said, “You make me very, very happy, Valentina.” He’d kissed her once more and then was gone a moment later, back to the guest room he hadn’t used for a quick shower, and then out the front door a short while after that.

Valentina finally realized she’d been daydreaming with her computer still in her hands for God knew how long, and gave herself a firm mental shove before briskly walking across the parking lot to her sister’s trailer. Pausing outside, she took a steadying breath and worked on her smile before knocking.

Her sister opened the door wearing a blue silk robe. Valentina’s breath caught in her throat. Tatiana had never looked lovelier, or more fresh and innocent at the same time that her sensuality had been played up with professional makeup and clothes and hair.

“You look beautiful, T.”

Her sister bit her lip. “Filming today is going to go okay, isn’t it?”

Oh God, what could she do but put her arm around Tatiana, smile as if it were no big deal, and say, “Of course it will. You’re two professionals doing your job. You know everyone always says that filming a love scene is not that different from filming a fight scene. One arm here. One leg there.”

“You’ll be there the whole time, right?”

The set was the very last place in the world Valentina wanted to be today. Just the thought of Smith’s mouth, his hands on her sister, had her stomach on the verge of emptying out the nothing she’d eaten. It was a closed set, and only the most essential members of the cast and crew would be there.

“Of course I will,” she promised. “And I won’t move an inch until you’re done.” But when she could see that her sister still wasn’t totally at ease, she said, “I’m sure it will be just like Smith said—you’ll probably feel like all you’re doing is playing Twister together.” Valentina made herself joke, “Little does he know how cutthroat us Landons are about our Twister games.”

When Tatiana laughed and grabbed her script to sit down with it for a few more minutes, Valentina breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Now all she needed to do was figure out a way to believe her Twister comment was true as well. Valentina had been trying to pretend this day wouldn’t come. But ignoring it hadn’t made it go away.

When Tatiana had first wanted to be an actress, Valentina had made her sister agree to one hard and fast rule: no matter how big the incentive from a studio or producer, she would never film any sex scenes as a minor. If she couldn’t legally drink, she wouldn’t take her clothes off in front of a set full of strangers and roll around naked on a huge screen for millions of viewers to salivate over.

Valentina didn’t expect—or even want—her sister to be a little girl forever. On the contrary, she celebrated what an incredibly lovely young woman she had become, despite the pressures from Hollywood to turn her into a carbon copy of every other actress out there.

The only problem with the fact that Tatiana could now order a glass of wine at a restaurant was the fact that sex scenes were no longer off the list.

Valentina also recognized that no one would ever call the sex scene in Smith’s movie gratuitous. Rather, it was a crucial part of the plot and character development for Jo and Graham as they moved from friends to lovers.

Still, she had no idea how she was going to deal with watching him make love to her sister. And worse still, considering it had to be one of the most terrifying moments of her sister’s career so far, how could Valentina ever forgive herself for caring more about her own feelings than Tatiana’s?

When the production assistant came to get Tatiana, thankfully, her sister looked as relaxed as if she were about to film a toothpaste commercial.

Whereas Valentina knew she must look like she was heading in for a root canal...without anesthesia.

* * *

Smith still remembered the first sex scene he’d ever shot. He’d been cast as a bitter son who seduced his father’s new wife for revenge. The actress had been ten years older than he and he’d been nervous, yet desperate not to show it. Fortunately, his co-star had been as kind as she was beautiful. Not to mention happily married.

She’d made the experience so easy for him that he’d gone out of his way to make it easy on the co-stars he’d had over the years. Not all of them had wanted to keep things strictly professional, and he hadn’t exactly complained during the projects where going from his co-star’s screen bed into her real one had been the natural progression of things.

But Tatiana was different. For all of the intense onscreen attraction that they were both manufacturing for their roles, in real life he couldn’t imagine actually making love to her. There was less than no chance that anything they portrayed today for the cameras would ever actually happen. It was all fantasy. Nothing more than make believe.

From a screenwriting and directing standpoint, the sex scene was simply part of the story being told. Still, he understood how difficult it was for actors of both sexes to open themselves up in such a physically intimate way in front of a dozen crew members and cameras that picked up even the slightest movements.

Over the past few weeks, he’d made sure to take the scene apart and look at it from every angle. He’d created a shot list that was by far the most technical of any so far. He knew exactly how the scene would play out, that the core deep sensual connection wasn’t only coming to its ultimate conclusion between Jo and Graham, but was in fact a new beginning for both of the characters as they realized just how much they needed each other to fully come back to life.

And yet, the truth was that he hadn’t been turning the scene into a technical exercise just for Tatiana’s benefit.

He’d done it for himself, too.

Sex scenes had never been an issue for him before. Until now...when he’d finally learned the true power of lovemaking in real life.

Because when he touched Valentina, when he kissed the bare skin at the curve of her shoulder, when he slid into her and felt her gasp of pleasure all the way down deep in his soul, sex became something so much bigger, so much more important than just pleasure and orgasms.