The Last Santini Virgin. Maureen Child

didn’t.

      “Why are you being so nice?”

      “I can’t be nice without an ulterior motive?”

      “I don’t know.”

      Well, hell. Good to know she thought he was a complete jerk. “Look, why don’t we call a truce for the duration of the lessons?”

      “A truce?”

      “Yeah. You know, a cease-fire.”

      “I know what it is, I’m just not sure why you’re offering one.”

      He inhaled sharply and let the cold ocean breeze reach down inside him and quench his budding temper. Even when he was trying to be agreeable, she fought him. “We both want to learn these damned dances, right?”

      “Right.”

      “We don’t have to like each other. All we have to do is dance together.” There. He couldn’t make it plainer than that. “Deal?” He held out his right hand.

      She stared at it for a long moment as if it were a snake in striking distance. Then she slipped her hand into his and said, “Deal.”

      Warmth skittered up from their clasped hands, and Nick released her quickly. Then she flashed him a million-watt smile, and he had to firmly remind himself that it would be easy to resist her charms.

      “As long as we’re being so friendly,” Gina said as they started again for their cars, “maybe you’d like to reconsider entering that competition.”

      He snorted a laugh. A private truce was one thing. Announcing publicly that he was taking dancing lessons was quite another. “Not a chance, princess.”

      “So much for a truce,” she muttered.

      “I’m not entering that contest.”

      “But we’re really getting good,” she argued.

      “No way,” Nick said and shook his head for emphasis.

      She took his arm and stepped in close. “You could at least think about it.”

      Her perfume drifted to him, and he inhaled it deeply. Light, flowery, it seemed to fill his head with images of summer nights. Her hand on his arm felt warm and entirely too good. He didn’t dare risk a look at her. No doubt she was wearing her patented, “pouting for prizes” expression. And as much as he’d like to pretend he could easily resist it, he knew darned well it would be tough.

      “Gunnery Sergeant Paretti?” A woman called out to him from off to their left.

      Nick glanced her way and simply stared at the woman. Good Lord. The new Colonel’s wife. A thousand thoughts ran through his head in an instant. Would she know that he and Gina had come from the dance studio? No, he told himself. Close by, there was a theater, the Bayside Seafood Restaurant, an art gallery and a drugstore. They might have been in any of them. Nope. He was in the clear. Relaxing just a bit, he smiled and said, “Mrs. Thornton, ma’am. Good evening.”

      “Hello,” she said and walked closer, smiling warmly at both Gina and him.

      Gina.

      Oh, man. How could he silently tell his dance partner to keep quiet about what they’d been up to?

      “Mrs. Thornton, Gina Santini,” he said, unable to avoid introducing the two women.

      “Nice to meet you,” Gina said.

      “Thank you.” The Colonel’s wife smiled at the two of them again before saying, “My, what a lovely couple you make.”

      Nick almost choked.

      Gina actually chuckled.

      “Taking in a movie?” The other woman asked.

      Gina opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Nick said, “That’s right.”

      Gina frowned up at him, but he ignored her and slipped his arm around her shoulder. If the Colonel’s wife believed he and Gina were a happy couple, then he’d just play along. It was certainly a better option than letting her know the truth.

      “Well, I’m so glad I ran into the two of you,” Cecelia Thornton said.

      “Ma’am?” Hurriedly, Nick tried to think of a way to get Gina and him out of there. But there was no polite way to leave the Colonel’s wife standing alone in a parking lot, so he could only hope to escape this meeting unscathed.

      “As you know, we’re new on base…”

      “Yes, ma’am.” He shot a glance at Gina. What was she thinking?

      “The Colonel and I will be hosting a small get-together at our house in a couple of weeks for the staff NCOs and their wives. A barbecue, if the weather looks fine enough.”

      Nick nodded. It was customary for a new officer to get to know the noncoms in his command.

      “I look forward to it, ma’am.” He’d already heard about the coming party and had been planning on making an appearance and then leaving as soon as politely possible. Just like every other single Marine he knew. The married guys always stayed longer at these things, mainly because their wives were enjoying themselves too much to leave.

      “I hope you’ll attend as Gunnery Sergeant Paretti’s guest, Gina,” the Colonel’s wife was saying, and Nick’s breath knotted in his chest. Okay, he hadn’t expected that. Maybe trying to look like a couple hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

      “Well…” Gina stalled as she looked up at Nick.

      Silently he attempted to tell her to say “thanks, but no thanks.” Giving her shoulder a hard squeeze, he tried to give the appearance of a solicitous boyfriend all the while, wiggling his eyebrows and scowling slightly in warning.

      She knew what he wanted her to say. He could see it in her eyes. Naturally, though, she didn’t say it. Instead, she leaned into him, laid one hand on his chest and smiled at the Colonel’s wife. “Thanks so much for inviting me,” she said. “Nicky and I are looking forward to it.”

      Nicky?

      His mind blanked out briefly while he enjoyed the play of Gina’s fingers against his chest. Oh, she was really burying herself in the part, he thought as she cozied into him. And damn if it didn’t feel good, too.

      A few more minutes passed while Gina and the Colonel’s wife chatted aimlessly. He didn’t even hear what was said. Nick’s mind whirled with thoughts of murder while he continued to play the good boyfriend.

      When the other woman finally strolled off toward the drugstore, Nick grabbed Gina’s arm and turned her around to face him. “What was that all about? Didn’t you get that I was trying to tell you to say no to the invitation?”

      “Of course I got it,” Gina said, and pulled away from him with a smile. “You’re not that hard to read.”

      “Then why?”

      “Because, Nicky,” she said, “something suddenly occurred to me.”

      “Yeah…?” Oh, this didn’t bode well for him at all. She looked entirely too sure of herself.

      She grinned up at him and pushed her dark-brown curls out of her eyes. Devilment shone in their chocolaty depths, and he knew he was in for it.

      “You didn’t want her to know you were taking dance lessons, did you?”

      Shoving his hands into his back pockets, he said shortly, “No, I didn’t.”

      “That’s what I thought,” she said, nodding slowly.

      “Now, why’d you agree to go the party?”

      “So that I would have a good position to bargain from.”

      Here it comes, he thought, and tried to brace for whatever was coming. Hell, he’d been in combat. Surely