One Night With a Santini (9 page)

“I didn’t hit you.”

That much was true. Brando glanced at the stairs wishing Kaitlin would hurry up. He looked at her brother and sighed. He took his seat again. “Hit me.”

“Believe me, I would like to hit you. More than once, but my sister would be upset.”

“Are you going to ask me if my intentions are honorable?”

Declan studied him for a moment. “No, I don’t think I need to. Just so you know, I get to make the wedding cake.”

He smiled. “Deal.”

* * * *

“Well?” Wendy asked from the other side of the door.

Shoot, shoot, shoot. She was staring down at the little window and the definitive proof that she was pregnant.
Damn
.
Damn. Damn
. Her heart tripped a few beats. She opened her mouth a couple of times, but only a squeak came out.

She opened the door and Wendy saw her face.

“Oh, boy,” she said.

Kaitlin walked over to the bed and sank down on it. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Brando knew something was wrong. Throughout Saturday, Kaitlin had been as sweet as usual, but he knew she had worries. It was as if she were going through the motions. He hoped that it had nothing to do with him or with his interaction with Declan.

Truth was, Declan was on his side. He didn’t know the man too well, but the moment he told him he wanted to marry Kaitlin, Declan had treated him like one of the family.

His worry now was that Declan had told someone else in the family. If her family was anything like the Santinis, there was probably a lot of gossiping. He would hate it if Kaitlin found out from someone else in her family. He knew there was a chance she was skittish about marriage. With one failed engagement behind her, she might not be that keen on marriage. He was going to do his damnedest to make sure she would reconsider marriage.

He glanced over at her, studying her face. She was still pale, but she didn’t look quite as sickly as she had the morning before. When he remembered how little she had eaten at breakfast, worry knotted his stomach. She kept telling him she was fine, but he knew something was on her mind.

“Did you want to go do something today? It seems really nice.”

She smiled at him. “It is. My brothers have a rugby game today. Well, three of them will be there. I thought we could go watch. It’s up in Baltimore.”

He nodded. “Did you want to get something to eat?”

Her smile faded as she swallowed. “No.”

Worry gnawed at his gut. Was she sicker than she let on? Had she called Wendy to talk about it? Thinking she might be sick bothered him even more than she was hiding something from him. He couldn’t take it anymore.

“Kaitlin, tell me what’s wrong.”

She studied him for a long moment. The longer she stared at him, the more his worry increased. Kaitlin had never been a woman who hid her emotions, but he had a feeling she had been doing that since her brother had been there the day before. It was almost as if she were going through the motions. The only time she had been truthful with him had been in bed. There she could not hide her emotions.

“I have something to tell you, and I’m not sure how you are going to take it.”

Before he could encourage her to say anything, his cell phone went off. When he saw his Aunt Joey’s number, he wanted to curse. There was no way he could ignore her call.

“I’m sorry. I have to take this. Give me a second?”

She nodded.

He stood and walked into the kitchen. “Hello, Joey.”

“Hello, Brand. You have been here for almost forty-eight hours, and you have not been down to see me.”

He rolled his eyes and Kaitlin smiled at him. Just that simple little grin had his heart skipping a beat. Damn, the woman was scary. The fact that his happiness was tied into hers was a little too much to accept—but he was helpless to fight it.

“Brand?” Joey said.

“Sorry. I’ve been just a little busy.”

“I thought you would be here for dinner.”

“Today? I am kind of tied up today.”

“Yes, I heard you were busy. You need to bring her over so I can meet her.”

That sounded like a nightmare. If his mother could be a CIA interrogator, Joey Santini could be the head of the division.

“Uh, no.”

“Excuse me?” she asked in a way that made most Santini men run for the hills.

“Listen, it is a delicate situation.”

“Are you implying that I can’t help you with that delicate situation?”

He opened his mouth to argue back, but the phone jostled. There were definitely sounds of a struggle on the other end. He heard Joey in the background.

“Vicente Santini, you are not too old for me to bend you over my knee.”

His oldest cousin was laughing when he came on the phone. “Hey, Brand. We’ll try and contain her. Dad said he’d try his best, but you better make your way down here next weekend.”

“Gotcha. How’s Jules and the baby?”

“Oh, they’re fine. Both of them are running me ragged.”

He heard a female voice in the background.

“It wasn’t mean. It’s the truth.”

Brando laughed. “Tell Joey I’ll be there for Sunday dinner next week. Tell her to text me the time.”

“Sounds good. Do you have a place lined up?”

“I’m staying with a friend.”

Kaitlin smiled at that.

“Yeah, I heard.” The tone in Vicente’s voice told him he knew it was a woman, and there was more than just a friendship going on.

“Damn.”

“I am pretty sure even the English side of the Santinis knows about it right now. You better decide what you’re doing before they converge on you. That’s never pretty.”

“Never is. Kiss that pretty wife for me.”

“Get your own wife.”

“Working on it, cuz. Working on it.”

He hung up the phone and found Kaitlin watching him. “That was your aunt and cousin?”

“Yeah. She wanted me to come over for dinner tonight.”

“They live close?”

“Warrenton, Virginia. About an hour or so from here.”

She nodded.

“Would you go with me next weekend?”

“Maybe, but I think we need to talk.”

Oh, shit. Had Declan told her what he had planned? If he did, there was a good chance he might have to kill her brother. Panic coiled in his gut.

“Did you talk to Declan?”

She shook her head.

He released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. His nerves settled just a little.

“Oh, okay.”

She drew in a deep breath and then blurted out. “I’m pregnant.”

For a second, he didn’t know how to react. He just stared at her. He heard the words, but they weren’t computing in his brain.

“I promise I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Kaitlin said, panic threading her tone.

He blinked and felt slightly light-headed. He stumbled and sat down hard on the chair.

“I have no idea how it happened. We used protection every single time. I mean
every single time
.” She stepped closer. “Brando?”

He looked up at her and noticed that she was crying. He took her hand and pulled her onto his lap. “Oh, baby, don’t cry, we’ll work it all out.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I know you didn’t do it on purpose. So, that’s why you’ve been sick?”

She nodded. “I didn’t add it all up until yesterday morning. I’d felt a little off the last few days, but I’ve been busy and worried about you getting here.”

“So, that’s why Wendy was here yesterday morning.”

“Yeah. You’re not mad at me?”

He looked her in the eye. “How could I be mad at you? You’ve given me the most precious gift.”

He kissed her then. His heart was filled with joy and his mind was still spinning. She was pregnant with his child.

He slipped her off his lap, then stood.

“Are we going to talk about it?”

He nodded. “Later.”

He took her upstairs, leading the way. Laying her down on the bed, he took his time, teasing her, loving her. With his hands and his mouth, he took her over the edge over and over, before he joined her. As they lay there, the late afternoon sun leaving the room in golden glow, Brando sent a silent prayer up to heaven for giving him the best gift a man could ask for.

* * * *

“I think my bones have dissolved. Or at least melted,” Kaitlin said. It was nothing but the truth. He had been amazing. She had never felt so special in all of her life.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

She rolled over and rested her chin on his chest. “You should. I don’t know if I will be able to walk.”

He smiled as he brushed her hair off her face. “So, when are we going to tell our parents?”

“I need to go to the doctor first to make sure everything is okay. I don’t want to tell everyone. You never know what is going to happen. Until I get an exam, I want to make sure.”

“Well, my folks will be thrilled. I mean, Dante’s wife is expecting right now too, so my mother is going to be over the moon that there is another Santini on the way. We’ll have to pick a date really soon. Not sure if Nando or Anthony will be able to make it back though.”

“Pick a date?” She blinked trying to follow his line of conversation. “Make it back?”

He smiled at her. “For the wedding. I know you want to have it here, and that makes sense because your family is here. We will have to work in a honeymoon, but with my teaching schedule, we might have to wait until Christmas break.”

Panic clutched at her heart and had her stomach flip-flopping. She knew it had more to do with the conversation than any kind of morning sickness.

“What are you talking about?” she asked sitting up. She had to keep moving or she might do something stupid—like completely panic. She slipped out of bed and grabbed her robe.

“What do you mean? Don’t you want to go on a honeymoon?”

“When did we decide we’re getting married? I mean, I don’t know you.”

“Yes you do. We’ve known each other for years.”

“No. I knew you in college. Now we are both different.”

He frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“I am definitely not the same little woman I was then. And you are different.”

His eyes narrowed. “What are you saying here, Kaitlin?”

“I don’t want to get married. Probably ever.”

He blinked.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“But you were engaged when I met you.”

Oh and he just had to bring that up. The biggest mistake of her life and he threw it at her as a weapon.

“And I never got married, but you never asked why.”

“Yes, I did. You told me he lied, then he cheated on you. I am not a liar and I am definitely not a cheater.” Anger now simmered just beneath the surface of his words. She didn’t care if he was mad at her. She wasn’t getting married just because she was pregnant.

“He was cheating on me with the woman I thought was my best friend. I decided then I wasn’t made out for marriage.”

“Because Glen was an asshole?”

“No. He was just third in a line of men who could not stay faithful.”

“Not every man cheats,” he said, biting out each word.

“Yes, men are faithful, but they aren’t with me. I’m not going to be the little wife sitting at home while you go running around.”

His expression darkened. “I do not run around. When we take our vows, we
will
be faithful. All Santini men are faithful.”

She started to waver. There was one thing she could say about Brando—other than he was sexy, sweet, and the best kisser she had ever met—was that he said what he meant. He would stay faithful, but would he be doing it for the sake of being faithful, or the fact that he wanted to?

“Stop being pushy.”

“I’m not being pushy.”

“I am not marrying you. Just get used to it.”

He opened his mouth, but then it snapped shut. His eyes had turned cold. He said nothing as he stood and dressed. “I’m going to go out right now because I need to cool off. We are not finished.”

Brando turned to leave, then he stopped and turned toward her. Before she knew what he was doing, he grabbed her and slammed his mouth down on hers. By the time he pulled back, her head was spinning.

“We’ll discuss that when I get back.”

Determined, he stomped out of the room, down the stairs and out the door. She stumbled over to the bed and fell back on it. The tears she had held back started to cascade down her face.

There was a small part of her that was thrilled that he proposed. He was the man of her dreams, the one she had fantasized about from the day she met him. She knew he would be faithful. There was one thing about Brando she understood and that was he had a strong streak of honor that ran through him. He just wasn’t a man who would cheat.

But, what happened if they married and realized they only did it for the baby? It would kill her if their marriage became something of a nuisance…a chore. She had seen it a few times with friends and it always hurt so see the pain between the couple. If that happened to her and Brando, she was not sure what she would do.

Minutes ticked by and she couldn’t really seem to accept what had just happened. She didn’t know how long she lay there before her front doorbell rang. She scrubbed her face and hurried downstairs, hoping it was Brando. When she opened the door and found Wendy there, she started crying again.

“Well, that’s rude,” Wendy said.

“I’m sorry,” she said between sobs. What the hell was wrong with her? She never cried like this. “I messed things up really bad.”

“What happened?”

Wendy shut the door and ushered Kaitlin to the couch.

“I told Brando I was pregnant.”

She frowned as she sat down beside Kaitlin. “What did the bastard do to you, and what should we do to make him cry?”

“He proposed.”

“Why that…wait, what?” Wendy shook her head. “You want to explain that to me again, sister?”

“First, he got kind of freaked out I think, then we made love, then he proposed. No he didn’t. He just assumed we were getting married.”

“What happened then?”

“I told him I wasn’t getting married.”

Wendy rolled her eyes. “Why did you do that? If there was a woman who was made for marriage, it is you.”