Chapter 5

5

Three hours later, Madison had to fight the urge to peel the label from her beer bottle. It had been a long night. She should have remembered when the Santinis got together, they always argued. Elena and Dante were the worst. Until they parted ways after Annapolis, they had spent so much of their time together. Worse, they both remembered it differently. She couldn’t remember how many arguments the two of them had in her presence.

The alcohol didn’t help either.

“I say that you were hitting on that freshman and you lost her to Fernando,” Elena said giggling. Fernando was the youngest of the Santinis and known for being kind of a dog with women.

“I did not.” Dante turned his head to look at Madison directly. “Did you know that in high school, Elena had a crack problem?”

For a second or two, she couldn’t respond. Her entire thought process broke down because he kept his gaze locked with hers. They were sitting only inches apart and every time he moved, she could feel his leg brush against hers. Now, he was staring at her with those amazing chocolate eyes of his and every brain cell seemed to evaporate.

“Did you?” he asked again.

“Did I what?”

He gave her a lopsided smile and blinked. She’d never seen a man with such long eyelashes in her life.

“I think Madison has had too much to drink,” he said. “Kind of a lightweight with just a light beer in ya.”

JT took pity on her apparently. “First of all, according to Anthony, you did lose the girl to Fernando. Secondly, I doubt very much that super pilot here would be able to get into the top twenty at Annapolis if she had a crack habit.”

“Aw, isn’t that sweet,” Elena said. She slung her arm over JT’s shoulders and gave him a loud, sloppy kiss on the cheek. “He called me a super pilot.”

Madison looked between the two of them and everything clicked into place. Elena had known JT a huge chunk of her life, and he was a bit older than Elena. But, from the look on his face, Madison didn’t think that the man had brotherly feelings towards Elena. His face flushed and his eyes darkened when he turned to face Elena. Madison was pretty sure he would have kissed Elena back if she and Dante hadn’t been there.

The waitress returned with another margarita for Elena and food for the entire table. Madison had insisted on getting food when Elena had started her second margarita. This being her third drink could end badly for all of them. It wasn’t that Elena was a mean drunk, but she was a persuasive drunk. She liked to get others to do reckless things right along with her. With her innocent smile, Elena usually could convince her companions everything would turn out okay. It never did.

She made a note to talk to Elena tomorrow about JT as she dug into her nachos. It hadn’t been a healthy choice for dinner, but she had figured she would live dangerously for one night.

“You’re gonna share some of that, aren’t you?” Dante said, his breath hot against her ear. She shivered and tried to ignore the heat pulsing through her body.

“I don’t think so,” she said.

He ignored her and grabbed a chip off her plate. She smacked his hand.

“Hey!”

“Hey, yourself. You should know better than to mess with my food, Santini.”

He smiled again. Heat doubled, pulsing through her veins. He leaned closer and for a moment, she couldn’t breathe. All the air backed up in her lungs as he continued to stare at her. Then, a waitress dropped a glass on the floor. The crashing sound had him pulling back with a strange look on his face. He said nothing else as he applied himself to the mammoth burger he’d ordered. Uneasily, she picked up another chip and tried to forget the strange moment.

Dante Santini was starting to be a really hard man to ignore. But in the next instant, the brother and sister started to argue about some incident when their father had been stationed at Quantico MCB, and she pushed aside her worries.

Three hours later, they finally escaped the bar. By that time, Madison wanted to just crawl under the covers. The one thing that kept her from doing it had been Charlie and—well, her own damned will. She would be able to report to Dr. James that she had succeeded in one night out with friends. Well, one friend at least.

They made their way over to her Jeep. “I think you need to stay with me tonight, Elena.”

“Maybe.”

Elena had something planned and Madison didn’t think it was a good idea, but she didn’t know what to say. She looked over at Dante. He shook his head.

“I came with JT.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Which it was. Dante wasn’t as bad off as Elena, but he was still a bit tipsy. “Then tell her to come home with me.”

Elena gave her a sloppy smile. “I don’t wanna go home with you. I want to go home with JT.”

There was a long strained silence. She looked at JT, who seemed to flush red again. The former Marine and now NCIS agent was blushing.

“What?” Dante asked, apparently oblivious to what was going on between the two.

Elena shrugged. “We live closer to one another. I want to sleep in my bed tonight.”

“I can take you,” Madison offered. With what she had figured out over the course of the night, it wasn’t a good idea sending Elena home with JT. “We can stop by my house, grab some stuff and your bag, then head down.”

“You would have to drive all the way back here because you can’t stay the night. That is a silly waste of time, Mad.”

“Mad?” JT and Dante said at the same time.

“Old nickname. Mad Madison Baker,” Elena said, giggling.

She’d had too much to drink, that was for sure. Madison wasn’t comfortable with the situation. “You can’t—”

“I’ll make sure she gets home,” JT said. “But then, you have to take care of the other Santini who will have no way home.”

“I’ll take a cab,” Dante offered.

She looked at him. It would be easier on her to just send him on his way. She was having an issue with being out so late. Keeping her schedule was very important. Of course, she passed her bedtime an hour or so ago. And, he was a fellow Marine. If the roles had been reversed, he wouldn’t hesitate to take her home.

She sighed. “I’ll take you.”

“That sounded so sweet,” Dante said.

“Hey, man, beggars can’t be choosers,” JT said. He gave Madison a leveled look. “I’ll take care of her, I promise.”

“He’s an honorary Santini,” Dante said.

JT nodded and she realized he understood the situation, and he would not take advantage of it. “Come on, Elena. Let’s get you home.”

She watched as JT led Elena away to his truck. She still wasn’t too sure about sending her off with him. He might not take advantage of her friend, but that didn’t mean that Elena wouldn’t convince him to stay the night.

“Text me when you get home,” she yelled out. Elena held her hand up in the air indicating she heard Madison.

Dante was already sitting shot gun in the Jeep smiling at her. She looked down at Charlie.

“He stole your seat.”

Charlie wagged his tail and then hopped up into the Jeep. He sat in the back seat, a big stupid doggie smile on his face. She sighed again, then slipped into the driver’s seat.

“Thanks for giving me a ride home, Mad.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t call me that again if you don’t want me to drop you off on the side of the road.”

Then, she turned the key, revved the engine and took off.

Dante enjoyed having the fresh night air whip through Madison’s jeep. Charlie was laying in the back seat, relatively quiet.

“I don’t know if letting your sister run off with JT was a good idea,” she said, pulling into his driveway.

“Aw, he’s like a brother to her. He’ll make sure she gets home okay. Besides, if anyone tried anything on her, even a little tipsy, she would be able to kick their ass.”

“Hmm,” was all she said.

“Thanks for the ride home, Mad Madison.”

“I already said that.” Then she chuckled. “I can’t believe that girl calls me that still.”

She was smiling and it was like that first day he met her. She was his sister’s roommate and she’d been so cute…and sexy. So fucking sexy.

“What?” she asked.

“It’s just…”

Before she could stop him, he leaned forward and brushed his mouth over hers. She stilled. He pulled back and licked his lips.

“What did you do that for?”

“I’ve been wondering what it would be like since the first time I saw you.”

“You have not.”

He closed his eyes and pictured her that day. “You had your hair up in a ponytail, all sassy and curly. You were wearing an old high school t-shirt, black and gold, and a pair of worn jeans that hugged your hips.”

He opened his eyes. She looked stunned. “Oh, hell, I left Madison Baker speechless.”

He leaned in again and deepened the kiss this time. Raising his hand, he cupped her face and slid his tongue against the seam of her lips. She hesitated then opened her mouth. He dove inside, enjoying the warm, wet comfort of her mouth. She moaned, the sound of it vibrating against his tongue and through his body. Hell, he felt it in his soul. He leaned closer still, pressing his body against hers. He was seriously thinking of inviting her into his house when she leaned against the horn. The blaring sound was like cold water. They both pulled back.

He opened his eyes slowly. She raised her hand to her lips and brushed them against it.

“I think we might need to explore this new development,” he said.

She was shaking her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Dante. I have issues.”

He snorted. “That sounds like an excuse.”

“It is.”

“Let’s just say that you like to kiss me. I like to kiss you and maybe we need to explore this whole new thing between us.”

“No.”

He leaned in and stole another kiss. “Yeah, I think so, but I’ll let you sleep on it.”

He slipped out of the car before she could argue with him. He made it up his walk easily, but when he tried to unlock the door, he dropped the keys on the stoop. It wasn’t because he was drunk. His hands were still shaking from that kiss.

He unlocked the door and turned to wave at Madison. She waited to leave until he closed the door. He watched through the front window as she backed away slowly, and then headed off down the street.

Walking to the kitchen to grab a water, he tried to get his heart to settle down. It had been a long time since a simple kiss had affected him so deeply. There was something so sweet, so sexy about her response. If he were smart, he would avoid her. She was right. She had issues and came with baggage, but truth be told, he liked her better now than he did back in the day. He liked that she was different and that she wasn’t so sure of herself.

Dante chugged the water down trying to quell the heat now threading through his body. He drained the bottle and threw it in the recycle bin and shook his head. She had barely kissed him and she had him tangled up.

What was she like when she gave in all the way? She might just kill him.

As he made his way to the cold shower that was calling his name, he made a decision to swing by her place tomorrow.

It was time to get to know Mad Madison Baker just a little bit better.