A Santini Christmas (18 page)
She turned around and found him easily on the other side of the dance floor. That erect posture made it easy. He always looked like he was standing at attention. Even in civvies, he looked like a Seal. The Hawaiian print polo shirt hugged his shoulders and was tucked neatly into his khaki dress slacks. He wasn’t the tallest man in the room, but he stood out. All that hard muscle, not to mention the blond hair and the to-die-for blue eyes, made him a gorgeous package. Everything in her yearned, wanted. Of course, he wasn’t looking at them. His attention was on the other side of the room. Probably on some damned stripper. Shannon turned back to her sister and May.
“
Are you drunk?” Shannon asked.
May rolled her eyes. "No, really he has. You know what those Seals are like. He can do surveillance without you knowing. It’s his job. But you should see the way he looks at you.”
She couldn’t help herself. "Like how?”
May hummed. "Like he wants to take a big, long bite out of you.”
She couldn’t stop the shiver that slinked down her spine or the way her body heated at the thought. Since she had met him five years earlier, she had been interested in him. He was quiet, unlike her brothers, and the way he moved…God, she knew for sure he was good in bed. But it was more than that. Kade was sexy, that was for sure, but there was something more to him than just a good-looking man. There was an innate goodness in him, one that made a woman know he would take care of her no matter what.
“
If I were you, I would make use of the event to get him in bed.”
Shannon snorted again, trying to keep herself from imagining it—and failing. "Please, May, tell me what you really think.”
“
Believe me, I know about waiting, and it isn’t worth it. I waited years for some idiot to notice me. I think of all the time we wasted dancing around like that.”
“
Did you just call your husband an idiot?” Jocelyn asked.
May rolled her eyes. "He overlooked me for years, then waited forever once he did notice me. Of course he’s an idiot. But in this situation, you have to be strategic. I saw Evan almost every day. This guy, he’s going to be gone again with that job of his. You have got to take advantage of the wedding and get him into bed. Get a little wedding booty.”
She should be mad, but it was hard to be. May looked so innocent with her sweet smile, and her voice sounded like something out of a movie. Shannon just couldn’t get irritated with her. Before May could say anything else, they announced the cutting of the cake. She turned to face the banquet table, and as she did, she caught Kade looking at her. It was the briefest moment, just a second, but even across all that space, she saw the heat, the longing, and felt it build inside of her. Her breath backed up in her lungs. In that next instant, he looked away.
It took all her power to turn her attention back to the event at hand, seeing her brother and her sister-in-law beaming at each other, she took another sip of champagne. May was right. She had to take a chance. If he said no, if he ignored her, then she could drink herself in a stupor and have months before she had to face him again.
But there was one thing Shannon Michele Dupree did right, and that was being bold. She chugged the rest of her champagne, set it on the table next to her, and headed off in Kade’s direction.
That man wouldn’t know what hit him.
Other Books by Melissa Schroeder
Harmless
A Little Harmless Military Romance
The Harmless Shorts
Prelude to a Fantasy
The Santinis
Semper Fi Marines
Tease Me
The Cursed Clan
By Blood
Once Upon An Accident
Leather and Lace
Leather and Lace—Print anthology
Texas Temptations
Hawaiian Holidays
Bounty Hunters, Inc
The Sweet Shoppe
Turning Paige
Connected Books
Saints and Sinners—print of both books
Cancer Anthology
Water—print
REISSUES
Tempting Prudence-The Sweet Shoppe
Coming Soon
Only For Him-A FREE Harmless Serial on MelissaSchroeder.net (December)
Angus: The Cursed Clan
Semper Fi: Tempt Me
Semper Fi: Touch Me
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