The Santini Collection 1-4 (23 page)

For a few moments, he said nothing. He studied her as if she were a puzzle he wanted to figure out. He walked up to her, grabbed her and slammed his mouth down on hers. “I was not just passing the time.”

Then he marched out of her house. Drained, she collapsed on the couch. Her phone rang with Colin’s ringer. She wasn’t in the mood, but she knew he would just keep calling until she answered.

“
What do you want?”

“
Oh, that doesn’t sound good. I guess I can wait on the news.”

“
Great, more news. What now?”

He sighed. “That’s not important. What happened now? You sound like you’ve been crying.”

“
I had a fight with Marco.”

“
About what?”

“
He said that I had been hiding things from him.”

“
And? Have you?”

She closed her eyes. “No. Yes. Maybe.”

“
Honey, I know that you think you need to protect yourself from him, but you don’t. That man wouldn’t hurt you.”

She felt a tear trickle down her cheek and she brushed it away refusing to give in. The fear that she had from the time she was eighteen bubbled up.

“
He’ll leave. Everyone leaves.”

“
No, they don’t. I’m still here.”

“
But…”

“
I think I need to make a trip to the mainland and kill that bastard. At least I know where he is.”

“
Colin, really. Stop talking about beating Pete up. He’s going to have enough worries now that he’s the pretty man in prison.”

He chuckled. “Still. I want to kick his ass for making you doubt someone like Santini.”

“
That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“
What then?”

She sighed. “When Pete left, I was hurt, but it was my pride more than anything else. It wasn’t my heart. I realize that now. But, with my folks…” She took a moment to gather herself. Otherwise she would be crying on the phone to Colin. “Everyone leaves sometime.”

He sighed. “You have to take a risk, Alana.”

“
But, I could get hurt.”

She hated to admit she was afraid. Afraid of being so in love with a man who risked his life for a living. One who would never give it up. And she couldn’t ask him to do that because it was so much a part of him. It was one of the things she admired about him.

“
Part of the reason you love the man is because he is so committed to what he sees as his duty.”

“
I know that. Don’t you think that I know that?” She shouted into the phone. “It’s what makes him so wonderful.”

“
He’s a good man, Alana. And I’m pretty sure he loves you.”

“
He’s never said it.”

“
Have you told him you love him?”

She said nothing.

“
Pot meet kettle. Take a risk, tell him, love. Don’t let him get away.”

She hung up and stared out the window again. She did love him. From the beginning she had known she would fall hard and she had tried her best to resist that. It was more than the sex. It was the way he made her laugh. And every now and then, he would look at her, just a look. It made her heart feel like it was turning over in her chest.

With a sigh, she decided to take that chance Colin talked about. When she thought of never seeing Marco again…of being a stranger to him…that hurt worse than even thinking he wouldn’t be there all the time.

A few minutes later she was frowning. His car was gone. He had run off. Damn him. If he didn’t come soon, she might lose her nerve and it would be all his fault. When she realized she was crying again, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes. If he was going to be like that she would use different tactics. She marched back to her house. She had a plan and when that man got home he would have to answer to her.

Chapter Ten

Marco was pissed. Beyond pissed. He wanted to smash something, to beat people up. But, he couldn’t. Part of the reason was because it was his own fault for upsetting Alana. Part of the blame was hers, but he shouldn’t have pushed her. He pulled into the driveway and forced himself not to look at her house. When he parked in front of his cottage, he saw a light on. He thought he had turned it off, but then, he wasn’t in the best frame of mind.

Marco walked up the stairs to the front door, but it was unlocked. He frowned and opened the door. She was sitting there in his kitchen. Just seeing her there made his heart ache.

“
I don’t think you’re allowed in my kitchen without my permission.”

She gave him a nasty look. “I own the house.”

Oh, so that’s how it was now. “What are you doing here?”

“
I came to talk to you, but you had ran away like a little girl afraid to fight.”

“
And so you decided to break the lease and come into my house without my permission?”

“
Maybe for my next tenant I’ll add a clause for when he acts like a coward.”

For a second, he didn’t know what to say. First, she was yelling at him. And she was pissed. He didn’t think he had ever seen her pissed before this. Where was the sweet woman he fell in love with?

“
I did not.”

She stood up then poked him in the chest. “Yes. You. Did.”

Damn, that hurt. He rubbed his chest. She had some damn strong fingers for a woman.

“
And another thing, Santini, I am not in the mood for you to be telling me I’m holding things back from you. Do you realize how much you hide from me?”

“
There are things I can’t tell you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Or what? You’ll have to kill me?”

He said nothing. His head still couldn’t function. She was yelling at him like he had done something wrong.

“
You know what? When you get the nerve to be truthful with me, you get back to me, okay?”

With that, she brushed past him and stomped out of his house. He stood there stunned, trying to figure out just what happened. He had been the one mad because she had been mean to him. Not mean, but secretive. Okay not that. But…shit, he had no idea why he was mad now.

One thing he did know was that she had no right to be mad at him. Wasn’t that just like a woman? Irritated he strode out of his house and made his way to hers. Then, he heard her walking down to the beach. He should probably wait until she got back, but he was too irritated to listen to his better judgments. He followed her and found her with her arms crossed and frowning out at the ocean.

“
I have a bone to pick with you, woman.”

He ignored the interested looks from bystanders. People in the area knew Alana, and there looked to be a few locals hanging around. He didn’t care.

“
Go away.”

“
No. I don’t feel like it. I want to have this out. You think I hide things from you. What? You know my family, you know me.”

“
You don’t talk about work, ever. You don’t tell me what’s going on, or that you might have to deploy at sometime. You act like I can’t know anything.”

He hadn’t talked about work because he had worried that she would run the other direction. Women weren’t always comfortable knowing what being involved with him would be like. For a lot of spouses, men and women, it was a bit too much to take. So, to protect himself, he had kept it from her. And now, he realized she was right. He had been as bad as she.

“
Alana.”

“
No, I don’t want to talk right now.”

She still sounded mad, so he was completely undone when he stepped in front of her and found her face soaked with tears.

“
Oh, baby, I’m sorry.”

“
I said, go away. I don’t want you to apologize because you feel sorry for me.”

He stared at her. The woman had no idea what he saw in her. “Feel sorry for you?”

“
Yes,” she said. “I won’t have it.”

“
Why should I feel sorry for a woman who lives in a multimillion dollar home, fills her life with things that make her happy?”

She looked away from him.

“
Not gonna touch that, are you?”

She still said nothing. He hated the silent treatment, especially when it was done on him. He had always been the master of the silent treatment growing up, but it was pretty shitty to have someone use it back on him.

“
So, you’re feeling sorry for yourself because we had a fight.”

“
You said I hid things.”

“
You do.” She gave him what she called her stink eye and he had to fight the urge to laugh. Her eyes were swollen, her face was smeared with tears and dammit she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him. “But, I know I do too. I’ll be honest with you.”

“
That would be nice.”

“
I’m not used to sharing things with other people. With a family like mine…I love them but there were times when they could be overbearing. Add in my job and I am just used to observing. But it’s who I am and I can’t change some aspects of it.”

She must have picked up on what he had been talking about. “I would never ask you to give up your job, Marco. It’s who you are, and one of the reasons I love you.”

Happiness exploded. “Yeah.”

She smiled. “Yeah.”

He stepped closer. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

She shook her head.

“
You’re gonna have to marry me, woman.”

For a few long seconds she studied him. Then, she grinned. “Name the time and place, SEAL.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She opened her mouth willingly and pressed her body against his. For a moment, everything faded away and it was just the two of them.

They were interrupted by a cheer. When he pulled back, he noticed the crowd had watched the whole argument and his proposal. He glanced at Alana and found her blushing.

He leaned down, lifting her into his arms.

“
Marco.” She giggled and he realized that as long as he could make her laugh, everything was going to be okay.

He turned toward their audience and said, “Next show’s in about five minutes, folks, but it’s just for private viewing.”

Then, he turned to walk back to her house.

“
I love you, Marco,” she said as she laid her head on his shoulder.

“
I love you too, Alana.”

And he planned on making sure she knew that every day of their lives.

Epilogue

Marco’s phone rang in the middle of the night with his mother’s ringtone. He shot up in bed and answered it immediately. If his mother was calling at this time during the night, there was trouble.

“
Marco?” Alana asked.

He looked at her, shaking his head and turning on his phone.

“
What’s wrong?” he asked.

Only one of them was deployed and that was Gee.

“
It’s your brother. He’s okay, so don’t freak out.”

His mother’s voice was thin as if it had been a long night.

“
It doesn’t sound like it.”

She sighed. “Gee is okay. They had to set down hard and so he has a concussion. Luckily, he only has two weeks left so they are sending him home. He’s coming here.”

Oh, that didn’t sound good. Not that he doubted his mother’s recitation of the facts. That he believed. For a PJ, there were a lot worse injuries he could have sustained. They dropped into war zones to save lives. Some of them ended up fighting for their own in the end.