ASantiniinLoveMelissa Schroeder (7 page)

Madison paced the floor of her bedroom. Her heart rate was still up, her nerves frazzled from the night’s events. Charlie was with her, walking beside her. Every now and then, he would rub his snout against her bare leg.

She shoved a shaking hand through her tangled hair, wincing when one of her fingers caught on a particularly nasty knot.

“Damn.”

She heard the floor creak outside of her door.

“Madison?”

Dante.

Having him in her house wasn’t the best thing to help her relax. She was anxious and embarrassed. Or anxious because of being embarrassed. She kept most of her OCD issues at bay, but tonight…it was too much to ask of her. He didn’t say anything or react in any way. He acted as if nothing had happened. Nor did he mention the multitude of nightlights she had around the house. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

“What?”

He hesitated. “I thought I heard you say something.”

She rolled her eyes. Since he’d forced her to bring him home with her, he’d been all up in her business. The man just didn’t know how to accept she could take care of herself. And he wouldn’t quit kissing her. He really needed to stop doing that.

“No. I didn’t say anything.”

He hesitated. “Okay. Call if you need anything.”

She listened to his bare feet pad down the hallway to the living room. The idiot wouldn’t even take the guest bedroom. He had insisted on sleeping on her couch.

Damned Santini. They were all stubborn and irritating and…well, she hadn’t met one of the men who wasn’t straight up sexy and charming. And she had one sleeping on her couch. Most heterosexual women would kill for the chance. Hell, most of them would call her an idiot for not inviting him into her bed. Maybe she was….an idiot One thing was for sure, if she had, she’d have worked some of her nervous energy away.

With a sigh, she sat on her bed. Charlie jumped up beside her. She ran her hands through his fur. It was an odd feeling having someone watch out for her. At the hospital, her parents had visited, briefly. They had come once and while she was sure her mother had wanted to come back, her father had been too busy to visit his only daughter.

She pressed her palm against her chest trying to loosen the tightness that always seemed to appear when she thought of her parents. It wasn’t something she could solve, especially since her father refused to engage with her on the matter. She had failed him and he had moved on.

With a sigh, she pushed those depressing thoughts away. The night had been filled with too much excitement, good and bad. Thinking about her issues with her father wasn’t going to help her sleep.

At least, she knew for one night, she had someone watching out for her on her couch. She couldn’t stop her lips from curving. The man was really a pain in the ass, but how could she fight him? He was right. He was charming and—
dammit
—an excellent kisser. He would make sure she would be okay through the night, both physically and mentally.

Of course, she wasn’t sure who would protect her from him.

Pushing that thought away, she slipped under the covers. Charlie lay next to her as she settled her mind and tried to get some sleep. All her worries could be dealt with tomorrow.

CHAPTER NINE

The doorbell rang just after nine in the morning. Dante growled and tried to ignore it. He shifted from one side to the other trying to get comfortable. Then, he rolled over. He lost his balance and landed on the wooden floor, his face smacking against the hard surface.

“Freaking hell.”

There was a dog barking, and he realized it was Charlie. He lifted his head and looked around. His head was still spinning as he placed his palms on the floor and heaved himself up.

Knocking started next.

Irritated, and in pain from sleeping on the couch and falling on the floor, Dante stomped to the front door. Without looking to see who it was, he unlocked it and yanked it open. Then he blinked.

His sister stood next to JT on the stoop. The bright light seared his eyes and, dammit to hell, he wasn’t in the mood for humans—especially one that could get under his skin better than anyone else.

“What?” he said.

It was their turn to blink.

“Dante?” Elena asked, pulling off her sunglasses. She definitely looked like she was suffering from a hangover. “What are you doing here?”

Before he could answer her, Madison stepped up behind him.

“Why don’t you just let them in and we can explain everything?”

He didn’t want to. He wanted to close the door and tell them to go to hell. But, he saw the speculation in his sister’s eyes and knew he had no choice.

Dante looked back over his shoulder and lost the ability to talk. Madison’s hair was a tangled mess of golden brown curls, her eyes were still heavy with sleep. His gaze dropped. The unrelieved arousal came rushing back to him at the sight of what she was wearing. A tiny pair of boxers gave him a great view of her long legs. The blue tank top left little to the imagination…and he had a fantastic imagination. Of course, she wasn’t wearing a bra.

“Dante?” his sister asked, splashing cold water on his thoughts and any ideas he’d had.

If he didn’t tear his gaze away from Madison soon, he would definitely embarrass himself. With an irritated sigh, he stepped back and let his sister walk by. JT gave him a knowing smirk.

Shit, this was going to make the rounds of the Santini family by the end of the weekend. When he said JT was an honorary Santini, he wasn’t kidding. One call to one of the others and he’d be dealing with his mother.

Damn. Needing a break, he glanced at JT. “Make yourself at home.”

Then he headed to the guest bath to clean up. If he was going to deal with speculation, he would at least have some clothes on.

* * * *

“What the hell is going on here?” Elena asked the moment they were in Madison’s room.

“I could ask you the same thing,” she said, stepping into the walk-in closet.

She looked down at her clothes. Great—boxer shorts and a tank top. Not really all that sexy. Not that she wanted to look sexy for Dante. She closed her eyes and tried to get her thoughts in order. Of course she wanted to look sexy for Dante. He stirred feelings within her she wasn’t sure she was ready for. Opening her eyes, she decided to get on with the interrogation Elena had waiting for her. Madison had one for Elena herself. She stripped out of the boxers and tank, and then grabbed a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt.

When she stepped back out into her room, Elena was sitting on the bed, her legs crossed and completely at home. From the moment they met at the age of eighteen, they’d been friends. It was as if she had heard a click when they introduced themselves. It wasn’t easy for Madison to make female friends and Elena had understood. Raised by a father who had wanted boys, Madison had been a tomboy. Elena had spent her life being the only girl amidst five boys. No matter when they got together, in person or on the phone, it was always as if no time had passed.

Madison had always thought if she had a sister, she would be exactly like Elena.

“What do you mean you could ask me the same thing?” Elena asked.

“You and JT?” Elena held her gaze for a moment, then dropped it. “You are
not
a morning person, and you are here with him at nine in the morning. What gives?”

She picked at the quilt. “He brought me back so I could get my car.”

“Really?” Madison crossed her arms. “Is that why he’s wearing the same clothes he had on last night?”

Elena muttered something under her breath. “Don’t tell Dante.”

“Your brother isn’t stupid. He’s going to notice.”

Elena sighed. “The one thing is that he probably won’t say anything. We made an agreement a few years ago to stay out of each other’s personal sex lives. I wish he would get the others to listen to him.”

That made sense. The two of them were probably closer than most male/female siblings. Being twins, they dealt with the same life experiences at the same time, and being military probably made that an even bigger microcosm. The other four Santini brothers probably didn’t have a problem being nosey. She remembered Elena’s story on how they frightened her prom date so badly, Elena claimed she’d been back at the house before ten-thirty.

“So, that means you should ignore what you think you found here this morning.”

Elena snorted. “Fat chance. What gives?”

Damn. Elena was tenacious when she wanted to know something. “Dante wasn’t here for anything like that. I saw something last night that upset me.”

Elena’s smile dimmed, concern darkening her dark blue eyes. “What?”

Madison sighed and sat down next to her. “I thought I saw a woman get murdered after I dropped your brother off. Of course, he’d just scrambled my brains with a kiss, so maybe that was it.”

“Wait, what?”

“I saw a woman get murdered. I should say shot because I have no idea if she was dead.”

Elena shook her head. “No, backtrack. My brother kissed you?”

“I tell you that I saw a woman get murdered and you want to talk about your brother kissing me. You are a very strange family.”

“Okay, so he kissed you, you were on your way home and…”

Madison closed her eyes and the scene unfolded in front of her again. A chill stole through her blood. “I saw a man and woman struggling, then he shot her. I must have called out because he came after me. I didn’t know my way to the closest police station. The only thing I could think of was returning to Dante’s place.”

“So, what happened?”

“A police officer came over, took my statement.” Her stomach flip-flopped when she thought about the humiliating encounter. It was still hard to accept that people didn’t respect her opinion anymore. They saw the letters PTSD attached to her name and immediately thought she would end up on the top of a clock tower shooting people.

“And you ended up here with Dante?” Elena didn’t try to hide her disbelief.

She shrugged, thinking of the way he had insisted he should accompany her home. She had only wanted to get away from the embarrassing situation, but he had made it…well, easier on her by acting like a bullying ass.

“They couldn’t find a body or anything. I was freaked out and Dante tried to keep me at his house. I refused, so he slept on my couch.”

Elena leaned back and rested her weight on her hands. “That’s just like him.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s an ass, but you have to admit he’s a typical Santini. You know Mom would have read him the riot act if she had found out he let you go home on your own.”

Madison chuckled. “He said the same thing last night.”

“And if he had been in here with you, he would have been in a better mood when he answered the door.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Elena shrugged. “I always knew he had a thing for you.”

She opened her mouth but no words came out at first. “You did not.”

“Yes, I did. But, we had that nasty little agreement about not getting into each other’s business. I could see it though. When you weren’t looking at him, he gave you the eye. Plus, you irritated him.”

“And that’s how you knew he was interested?”

Her friend nodded. “He could have any woman. He’s a Santini and they have a rep at Annapolis. You know that. But even while he dated a lot, he focused a good deal of his energy on you. I assumed it had more to do with being attracted to you than the competition.”

Madison absorbed that for a few seconds before asking, “So, let me guess, JT is the one you had a crush on?”

She nodded. “Not sure what’s going to happen. He’s going back undercover.”

Irritation had her crossing her arms. “He told you this after you slept with him?”

She shook her head. “Before.”

Damn. That made it worse. The fact that he had been truthful made him honorable. From her own personal experience with Dante, she knew it would make him impossible to resist.

“Oh, Elena, you set yourself up for heartache, you know that?”

She leaned her head on Madison’s shoulder. “Either way it was going to hurt. At least this way I had a taste of heaven before it happened.”

With a sigh, Madison wrapped her arms around her friend knowing that there was a good chance she would have to make that choice in the very near future.

* * * *

When Dante had brushed his teeth and gotten dressed, he headed back out to the kitchen. JT was leaning against the counter with a mug of coffee in his hand.

“Made coffee.”

“Thanks,” Dante said.

“So, you want a ride back to your house?”

His first response was a no. It vibrated there on the tip of his tongue, but Dante knew he didn’t have a right to stay. And that irritated him for some weird reason.

“Yeah, that would be great. I need some caffeine though,” Dante said, pouring a cup of coffee for himself. “Let’s get some fresh air.”

He wanted to talk to JT about the things that went on the previous night. JT gave him an oddly apprehensive look, but he followed him out. He slid the door shut.

When he turned, Dante realized she had made changes to the backyard also. There was now a lush garden with walking paths, and a few water features. There was a relaxing quality to it. He could see her sitting here with Charlie as she drank her tea and watched the sunrise.

“So, last night,” he started.

“Yeah,” JT said, regret filling his tone.

“On her way home, Madison saw a murder.”

JT hesitated, then his shoulders relaxed. “A murder?”

“Yeah. She’s positive she saw a man and woman arguing, then the man shot the woman.”

“
Holy shit
. Who was the woman?”

He shrugged. “Police couldn’t find anything.”

“And you came here last night for what reason?”

He looked back at the door and stepped out into the yard. He didn’t want Madison to hear what he was telling JT.

“She was close last night. I know she keeps it under control most of the time, but last night pushed her. Add in that going out to a bar isn’t a common occurrence for her, this contributed to her stress. I just didn’t want her to go over the edge.”