Chapter 11

11

Elena splashed some water on her face. Her hands were still shaking as she tried to get over the near encounter. Her heart wasn’t beating out of control and she wasn’t really scared anymore. She was pissed. Just because some ass wanted to get around her, he had almost killed her.

There was one thing she couldn’t accept, and that was treating life so frivolously. Santinis understood how precious it was, especially after almost losing Carlos when he was shot on his last deployment. Playing around on a highway was unacceptable. She had been so shaken up that she had forgotten to get the car tag. And without it, there really wasn’t much she could do. She would call and file a report, but past that, she knew nothing would come of it.

Wiping off her face, she pushed away the rest of her worries. She’d wait until JT got home and she would talk to him about it. He’d probably tell her she should call the police, if only to report reckless driving.

She hung up the towel and was contemplating dinner when her cell phone rang. She wanted to ignore it, knowing that JT should be there soon, but a certain dark knight’s heavy breathing told her it was her mother.

“Hey, Mama,” she said, thankful her voice didn’t shake.

“Elena, do you still have that horrible ringtone?”

“No,” she said, easily lying to her mother.

“Hmm, I have a feeling you’re not telling me the truth.” But apparently she wasn’t going to push it. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. Although, I had a long boring day.”

Her mother laughed. “So, no flying?”

Her mother knew her too well. It was one of the reasons she had been very careful the last couple of times they’d talked on the phone. She knew after the wedding, her mother had been really worried. Marcella Santini knew that if her daughter wasn’t eating, there was something wrong. And, just like all the other mothers in the Santini family, she felt it was her right to pry.

“No. But I should get to fly tomorrow, so that’s all good. Now why don’t you tell me why you are calling?”

“I just wanted to hear your voice.”

She sighed and decided her mother would keep dancing around the subject. “Please, quit checking up on me.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed. “You aren’t even being subtle. Carlos has called three times this month. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to him so much—even when we lived in the same house. Brando was the worst houseguest. If I didn’t take him out, he expected me to cook for him. And we both know that idiot can cook better than I can. He whined and complained the entire time he was here. There is a good chance if he had stayed one more day, I might have killed him. Or, gotten him drunk and shaved off one eyebrow while he was sleeping.”

Her mother didn’t say anything for a moment. That meant she was probably trying to decide whether to keep lying or come clean.

“I’ve been worried about you.”

Her heart squeezed tight. As the only females in the family, they had always been close. They saw themselves as the embattled females and, thanks to her mother, Elena knew just how to push back when it came to all men, her brothers included. She was still one of her closest confidants, but she couldn’t tell her exactly why she was doing well, but she wanted to reassure her.

“I know you have, but things are going better.”

“Good. I hear it in your voice.”

“You do?” she asked, still always mystified by her mother’s ability to ferret out that her children were having problems.

“Yes. At the wedding, you were unhappy.”

She frowned, hoping that other people didn’t think she was upset about Madison and Dante marrying. Nothing made her happier than seeing them get married.

“I was not. I was so happy for Madison and Dante.”

“Oh, I know you were happy for them, and you hid it well.” She sighed again. “No one else could tell, but I am your mother. I know when you are hurt.”

“I wasn’t hurt.”

Another pause. “Lonely then. Missing someone.”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“But that seems to be solved now.”

The door opened and JT came in. He was smiling until he saw her face. It slowly transformed into a concerned frown. He looked so cute like that. Granted, she was pretty sure, he looked cute doing anything, but when he was concerned about her, he was irresistible.

“Elena?” her mother asked, concern in her voice.

Slowly, her lips curved. “Oh, yeah for sure.”

“Who is it?” JT whispered.

“It’s Mom.”

“You have company,” her mother said.

Well, she couldn’t hide it and, truthfully, there wasn’t anything weird about JT being at her apartment. He’d been part of their family for so long that it was actually expected.

“JT is here.”

A pause. “Oh. Let me talk to him. He didn’t call me when he returned.”

She smiled, knowing that JT was going to get yelled at.

“Mom wants to talk to you,” she said handing him the phone.

He took it with a frown on his lips. Elena just grinned at him.

“Hey, Mrs. S, how is everything going with you?”

Elena stepped closer and slid her arms around his waist. God, it always felt as if she had been starving for affection when she went longer than an hour or two without some kind of contact. She needed this, the warmth of his body and the vibration of his chest as he talked on the phone. She just needed him.

“I’ve been kind of busy.”

She smiled as she kissed his throat. Her mother was definitely giving him hell. Elena could hear the rapid-fire questions thrown at him by her mother and figured he deserved it. They all knew they needed to call when they returned. Hell, even when she took a trip, she had to call when she arrived. Marcella Santini didn’t like missing her children.

“Yes, yes, I know you worry.”

Elena dragged her teeth over his flesh, and he shuddered.

“No. I don’t want you to worry about me anymore. I promise to call when I return from assignments from now on.”

More talking on the other end. Her mother was still asking him all kinds of questions. Elena lifted her head to kiss him along his jawline.

“No. No, we’re just going out to eat,” he said, his voice deepening.

Elena pressed against him and had to fight a moan. He was already hard beneath his jeans. She had always had a healthy sex drive, but JT had her behaving as if she were a sex addict. She couldn’t keep her hands off him if he was in the room.

“Yeah, yeah, I promise. Did you want to talk to Elena?” JT asked, as he closed his eyes.

Elena slipped her fingers beneath the waistband of his jeans, and he sucked in a breath. Her fingers brushed the tip of his erection. She glanced up and found him glaring at her.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

He clicked her phone off. The look he gave her told her she was in trouble. Oh, damn. He was so sweet when he was mad like this. And delicious.

She removed her hand from his pants and took a step back from him.

“You are in so much trouble.”

Two seconds ticked by, then she screamed and ran. He caught up to her easily, and they fell on the bed together. Worries about work and family dissolved as they came together…beneath the setting California sun.

* * * *

Marcella stared out the window looking at the desert landscape, trying to come to terms with what she just heard in her daughter’s voice. She blinked back the tears. Her baby girl was in love, and with a man Marcella respected. When she had heard JT, she knew there was more than just going to dinner. The two of them might think they were fooling her, but they weren’t.

There had been a lot of close calls in the last few years, but she had always known Elena was waiting for someone. While her daughter had been content with some of her boyfriends, none of them had ever made Elena sound the way she did just now. There was so much happiness in her voice, Marcella could feel it over the phone.

Memories of the last couple of decades danced through her mind. She had known her daughter had a crush on JT for a long time, but somewhere, the stupid man had finally realized Elena was now a woman. And he was in love. He might not realize it, but Marcella knew that Jethro would never have slept with Elena if he wasn’t in love with her.

Since she hadn’t heard from any of her sons about this, she assumed they didn’t know. Well, except Dante. Twins had a different view of sibling relations. As a mother of two sets, she knew that was true. They shared confidences, even with Dante and Elena being different sexes.

Elena and Jethro. Oh, they were going to be a wonderful couple, if they didn’t screw it up. Of course, Jethro was a man, so there was a good chance he would. She had raised Elena to think for herself, so Marcella was certain that she would make sure JT fixed whatever he messed up.

“Hey,” Tony said as he stepped into her home office.

Her heart did a little dance when she saw him. It had been that way for over thirty-five years, and she knew it would be the same until the day she died. He had a few more lines around his eyes, and his hair was half gray, but he was still the sweet man who had made her believe in love again.

“Is there something wrong?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I think we need to make a trip soon. Check up on Dante and Elena.”

“We were just up there.”

“I know, but I think it’s important to pop up there. Truthfully, we both know we’re lucky to have both of them so close at the same time.

He cocked his head to the side. “Something you want to tell me about?”

“No.”

He smiled and pulled her into his arms. “I do have my ways of finding out what you’ve got going on up in that head of yours.”

She shook her head. “I think you are too sure of yourself.”

“Is that a fact?” he asked wiggling his eyebrows. With ease, he bent down and picked her up into his arms.

She laughed. “Put me down.”

“I will when I find a flat surface.”

She laughed as he carried her out of the room. The worries about her daughter could wait for now.