The Last Santini Virgin

by Maureen Child

  “Look,” she said, coming to a stop and facing him. “I’m sorry if this is difficult for you, but I need this job. If Cecelia likes what I do, then maybe some of the other wives will offer me work, too.”

  More jobs on base? Oh, perfect. Now he could look forward to seeing her not only in his dreams but here, at Pendleton? It was getting to the point where a Marine wasn’t safe anywhere.

  Still, looking down into her eyes, he could see how much this meant to her. And who the hell was he to try and stop her from making a living? He would only be stationed at Camp Pendleton for another eighteen months. How hard could it be?

  Damn hard, he knew. He just wasn’t sure if it would be more difficult to see her or to not see her.

  “We don’t necessarily have to run into each other,” she pointed out. “It’s a big base.”

  “One of the biggest,” he agreed.

  “So you don’t have a problem with this?”

  Oh, he had a problem all right. But it had nothing to do with whether or not she threw parties for Marines and their families. His problem stemmed from the fact that he was beginning to care too much about her. He thought about her too often. Looked forward to seeing her. Somehow or other, Gina Santini had crept past the defenses he’d erected across his heart. Now all he had to do was figure out if he was willing to let her the rest of the way in.

  “I guess not,” he said, and lifted one hand to smooth a stray lock of hair back from her eyes. Eyes that haunted him waking and sleeping.

  She shivered as his fingertips slid across her temple.

  “Nick…”

  He let his hand drop to his side, and wondered where the hell all of his willpower was, now that he was standing right in front of her. He hadn’t wanted to care for her. But blast if she hadn’t made him care, anyway. “Damn it, Gina,” he said tightly, “I miss you. I miss seeing you. Kissing you.”

  “Don’t, okay?” she said, and backed up a step as if she didn’t trust herself to be too close to him.

  But a moment later she looked up at him and admitted softly, “I miss seeing you, too.”

  Everything inside him went on full alert.

  What had happened to all of his fine notions about keeping his distance? Right now all he could think about was getting her out of the Colonel’s backyard and to somewhere private where he could kiss her until neither one of them could draw a breath.

  “Gunnery Sergeant? Gina?” Cecelia called from the house. “The Colonel’s home, won’t you come inside and have a drink before you leave?”

  Gina’s gaze shifted from his as she quickly started for the house. He thought he heard her whisper, “Saved by the bell.”

  Nine

  Gina kept busy. So busy she wouldn’t have time to think. To remember. To want.

  And it didn’t help.

  Her early-morning shift at the catering company crawled by while she helped to inventory a veritable mountain of supplies. Everything from tablecloths to silverware to champagne flutes had to be counted.

  From there she stopped at a half dozen party supply outlets and carefully picked through every kind of decoration known to man. From leis to stuffed gorillas to aluminum men from Mars, she saw it all, running from place to place, searching for just the right items to make Cecelia Thornton’s barbecue a stellar success.

  And when that was finished, she headed straight for school and the philosophy class she had no interest in attending.

  Now she sat at the back of the class, half-asleep and trying to keep the grumbling of her stomach from drowning out the professor.

  “Gina,” the guy sitting next to her whispered.

  She blinked, turned her head to look at him and forced a smile. Mike Gilhooley was a nice kid. But that’s just how she thought of him. A kid. With his surfer-blond hair, pale-blue eyes and year-long tan, he looked every inch the California Babe.

  Was it his fault she mentally compared him to a tall Marine with a no-nonsense military haircut and steely blue eyes? Heck, compared to Nick Santini, most men would come in a slow second.

  “What?” she whispered, and winced when her stomach growled again. Heavens, she wished she was carrying a sandwich in her purse tonight. She hadn’t eaten a thing all day, and she was as hungry as she was tired. Which was saying quite a bit.

  Mike grinned and winked. “I thought maybe by the sounds of your stomach, I could talk you into going for a hamburger after class.”

  “Thanks,” she said, tossing a glance toward the podium where the professor was outlining his lesson plan for the rest of the semester. “But I’m too tired. Think I’ll just go home and crawl into bed.”

  Mike’s blond eyebrows lifted, and he gave her his practiced smile. “Is that an invitation?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head and smiling. He’d been trying to get her to go out with him for the past few weeks, and she just wasn’t interested. Still, she gave him points for tenacity.

  He shrugged good-naturedly and turned his attention back to the professor. Gina, too, looked straight ahead, but she wasn’t listening. Instead, her mind wandered where it had been far too often lately.

  Right to Nick.

  Running into him at Cecelia’s house yesterday hadn’t been easy, but she’d better get used to it, she thought. If she intended to get more jobs out on Pendleton, then chances were she would be bumping into Nick once in a while.

  Her eyes drifted closed as the professor’s voice droned on and became nothing more than a monotone of white noise. Snatches of images and half-realized dreams drifted across her mind, and Gina slid deeper into the mist.

  “Hey! Gina!” A shake on her arm brought her upright so quickly, she slammed her knee into the metal bracket of her desk and winced at the quick stab of pain.

  Looking up at Mike, she blinked vaguely at his broad grin. “What are you doing?”

  “Waking you up,” he said, standing and hitching his full backpack onto his shoulder. “You’ve been asleep for the last half hour.”

  “Oh, great,” she whispered, and gave a fast look around her at the emptying classroom. No one but Mike seemed to have noticed her little nap, for which she was grateful.

  “No problem,” he told her, smiling, “you didn’t miss anything, anyway. Professor Johnson regaled us all with stories about his last trip to Nepal.”

  “Yippee…?” A nap sounded way better than that, even though she hadn’t slept nearly long enough. Everything looked a little blurry and out of focus. She reached up and rubbed her eyes. They felt as dry as a couple of stones in a desert.

  He laughed. “Exactly.” Then he stopped smiling long enough to really look at her closely and ask, “Are you okay to drive home? I mean, I could give you a lift….”

  One thing she didn’t need was to encourage Mike in any way.

  “No, I’m fine. Thanks, though.” She stood and gathered up her books and purse.

  “You don’t look fine,” Mike said.

  “Thanks again,” she quipped, mentally forcing her tired muscles to deliver another smile. “Really. It’s not far. I’ll be okay.”

  “Okay…” He didn’t look convinced.

  With good reason, Gina told herself, since just the thought of having to walk all the way out to the parking lot was enough to make her want to lie down. But that was understandable since she’d hardly gotten more than a couple of hours sleep a night lately. And even those few hours had been restless…filled with images of Nick and the memory of his hands on her skin, his body filling hers, his kiss, his voice, his eyes.

  Oh, God. How had this happened to a nice girl like her?

  Before Mike could start in on her again, Gina headed for the door. Concentrating, she managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other, focusing all of her will on first reaching her car and then home.

  Nick stood in the grassy square outside the Humanities building. Leaning one shoulder against the trunk of a winter-bare tree, he kept his gaze locked on the main entrance, sparing only a brief glanc
e at his wristwatch to make sure of the time.

  Nearly ten o’clock. Her class should be over by now, he thought, letting his gaze drift slowly across the well-tended campus. Even this late at night, pools of light studded the walkways and grassy areas. But there were enough shadowy spots that the Marine in him rose to the surface, wanting to recon the whole place, making sure it was safe. Damn. This is just what he needed, thinking about Gina wandering through a dark campus out into a dark parking lot.

  But even as he thought it, he knew Gina would call him a Neanderthal again and tell him in no uncertain terms that she was able to take care of herself. And maybe she was. But that didn’t stop a man from worrying.

  Hell. He didn’t want to worry about Gina. He didn’t want to care. Straightening up from the tree, he shoved his hands into his pockets and reminded himself again just why he’d come to meet her at school.

  They needed to get a few things clear. They needed to set some boundaries. If he could, he would post an armed guard around his heart.

  But since that was impossible, he’d come to the conclusion she’d been right. The only thing left for them to do—the only safe thing—was avoid each other. He would stop taking those damned lessons, first off. He’d learned enough to keep from hurling Majors’ wives into punch bowls. And he would talk Gina out of that stupid contest idea, too. For her sake, of course. Why make it harder on her than it had to be.

  The glass doors opposite him opened, and a few students trickled from the building and wandered out into the quad, their laughter and conversations sounding overly loud in the night. Right behind them came dozens of others, each of them hurrying out of class and on to the real business of a Friday night.

  Something inside him quickened, and he refused to explore the sensation. He had a feeling he wouldn’t like what he found. One or two of the girls glanced his way briefly, but Nick hardly noticed. He was too busy scanning the faces passing him, searching for the one face he wanted to see.

  Anticipation pulsed within him. Almost like a kid on Christmas morning.

  And then she was there suddenly, pushing through the doors, smiling up at a tall kid who looked as though he could pose for a Come to California Beaches ad.

  Frowning to himself, he studied the pair of them. Nick’s hands fisted in his pockets as he fought down an unfamiliar swell of jealousy. Hell, he used to laugh at the idiots who simmered and boiled because their women smiled at another guy. Now that the shoe was on the other foot, though, it wasn’t comfortable.

  He didn’t much care for the way the blond guy hovered over Gina. And he wasn’t real fond of the way she was smiling at him. It shouldn’t matter to Nick, though, should it? Gina was a free agent, wasn’t she? Damn it.

  Stepping onto the sidewalk directly in front of them, he gave the beach boy a quick glare, then turned his gaze on Gina.

  “Nick,” she said, and even in the weird lighting he could see how tired she was. “What are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for you,” he said, letting his gaze shift meaningfully to the kid still standing too close to her. “We have to talk.”

  She shook her head and stepped around him. “I’m just too tired for our kind of ‘talk’ tonight.”

  She was kidding, right? He’d been standing out in front of her classroom for an hour and she was going to blow right past him? “Gina,” he said.

  “Is this guy bothering you?” the boy asked.

  “Look, kid,” Nick started, though a part of him had to admire the guy’s guts.

  Gina stepped in between the two of them and held up one hand to the blond beachcomber. “It’s all right, Mike,” she said quickly. “Nick’s a…friend.”

  A friend?

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah,” Nick told him, irritation coloring his tone. “She’s sure.”

  The kid didn’t look convinced, but he moved off, anyway. Ordinarily Nick might have given the younger man points for trying to protect a woman. Tonight, however, he wanted nothing to interfere with his conversation with Gina. Besides, if there was any protecting to be done, he’d do it.

  As to the “friend” remark. Well, it was better than being an enemy, he supposed.

  Once they were alone on the shadowy path, the other students’ voices a low rumble in the distance, Nick looked down at her and reached for her books.

  She almost refused him, he could see it in her eyes, but apparently she was too tired to argue the point. She gave them over to him and started walking toward the parking lot. Nick fell into step beside her.

  “How’d you know where to find me?” she asked.

  “Stopped by your house. Talked to your sister.”

  “Angela.”

  “Yeah,” he said, remembering the taller, thinner version of Gina he’d spoken to earlier. Angela might have made a great Marine. She’d given him a hard look and had him practically filling out a questionnaire before she would tell him where her sister was. Not a real trusting soul, but then again, why should she trust him? She didn’t know him from Adam.

  “Well,” Gina said, and brought his attention back to her, “why are you here? Change your mind about not minding me doing parties on base?”

  “No,” he said, though it would be a helluva lot easier on him if she wasn’t.

  “Then what?” she asked, digging into that purse of hers and pulling out her key ring and the flashlight he’d seen before. Flicking it on, she turned the narrow beam onto the sprinkling of cars dotting the parking lot. Obviously, she’d done this a lot, since she seemed to have a pattern. First shining the light toward the closest cars, covering the ground around and behind them where someone might crouch in ambush.

  Nick scowled to himself as he realized that she was used to doing this. It was second nature to her to watch for all possible places of attack. And though he was relieved to see she was careful, it bothered him more than he could say that she was out here alone most of the time.

  But wasn’t that what he’d come about? Wasn’t he here to ensure that they went their separate ways?

  He didn’t have the right to worry about what she’d be doing or if she was protected. He was trying to cut himself out of her life, so he’d better get used to the idea that he would never know if she was safe or not.

  A twinge of something uncomfortable squeezed his heart. He could just see himself months from now, wondering about her—where she was, what she was doing. Who she was doing it with.

  His back teeth ground together.

  They reached her little compact car and she stopped at the driver’s side door. Looking up at him, she yawned, covered her mouth with one hand and said, “Say what you came to say, Nick, because I need to go home and go to bed.”

  Her stomach grumbled and she frowned.

  “You also need to eat,” he said.

  “I need sleep more.”

  She did look as though she was asleep on her feet. Maybe this wasn’t the time for his talk, after all. It had waited this long, it could wait another day or two. Besides, taking care of her seemed more important at the moment. She was in no shape to drive a car. She could fall asleep at the wheel and wrap her car around a tree. His insides quailed at the thought.

  “I’ll drive you home,” he said abruptly, and took her keys, pocketing them in his jeans. Then, taking her arm, he led her toward his car, parked a couple of rows over.

  She tried to pull free, but she just didn’t have the energy. “And what about my car?”

  “Leave it. You can come and get it in the morning. Have your sister drive you over.” At his car he opened the passenger side door.

  “No, I’m fine to drive,” she said and swayed just a bit, giving the lie to her words.

  “Yeah,” he said with a nod. Head like a rock. “I can see that. Get in, Gina.”

  “God, you’re bossy.”

  “I’m a Marine. Comes with the territory.”

  “Nope. You’re a man. Comes with that territory.”

  He sighed. “Whateve
r. Just get in the damn car. Please?”

  Pushing her hair back from her face, Gina sighed and surrendered. “I’m only doing this because I’m too tired to fight you on it.”

  “Hallelujah,” he muttered, and slammed the door once she was in. He walked around to the driver’s side, tossed her books onto the back seat and got in beside her. “Put your seat belt on.”

  Nodding, she grappled with the thing for a few minutes before Nick reached across her for the strap. His arm brushed her breasts, and she sucked in a gulp of air. He stilled for a long minute, then told himself to get a grip. Holding the belt, he pulled it across her chest and low over her abdomen then snapped it into place. She looked up at him, her face just a breath away from his.

  “Thanks.”

  “For doing up the seat belt?” he whispered. “No problem.”

  “For driving me home,” she said, and lifted one hand to touch his face, then reconsidered and let it fall back to her lap. “I guess I am too tired to drive.”

  “Yeah,” he said softly, disappointed that she hadn’t touched him. He craved the touch of her hand on him, despite knowing that he shouldn’t. Just being this close to her stirred him in ways he’d never expected. Ways he wanted to deny but couldn’t. “I know the feeling. Haven’t been getting much sleep myself lately.”

  Her gaze filled him, softening in the dim glow from the parking lot lights. He read dreams and worry and confusion there, along with the stubbornness that had first attracted him to her.

  “Silly, isn’t it?” she asked, letting her head fall against the seat back.

  “What?” Tearing his gaze from hers, he shifted in the seat, stuck the key in the ignition and started the engine. A low purr of well-oiled machinery rumbled into life.

  “We started out enemies, became lovers and now we’re—what?” she asked, turning her head to look at him.

  His eyebrows lifted. “You told Joe College back there that we’re…friends.”

  “Bothered you, did it?” she asked with a smile.

  He muttered under his breath.

  “What bothered you most, I wonder?” she whispered, more to herself than to him. “Seeing me with him or hearing me call you a friend?”