Free The Santini Collection 1-4 by Melissa Schroeder Page A

about you?” he asked, his temper getting the best of him.
    “ Because, you could use it against me.”
    She could have taken a knife to his heart and it would hurt less than those words. Did the woman not know him at all? After all their time together these last few weeks, she really thought he would use it to hurt her? Anger and pain surged, but he stuffed them down. If she wanted to fight dirty, he could do it too. One thing he wouldn’t do is fight naked. He hurriedly got dressed in silence.
    “ Where are you going?”
    He shook his head. “I don’t want to do this right now.”
    Leo was raised to respect women. He also knew when to step back from a fight that wouldn’t solve anything.
    “ Just like that you’re running away? Because I didn’t tell you I love you back?”
    “ No. I am not in the mood to fight with a coward.”
    The moment he said the words, he wanted to take them back. He didn’t normally fight that dirty with a woman. He opened his mouth to apologize but she shook her head. Color rushed back into her face and her eyes narrowed. “I’m not a coward.”
    “ Really? What do you think your abrasive personality tells people?”
    “ That I’m selective about who I spend time with. And apparently, I made a mistake with you. Just go.”
    He wanted to argue but she was standing on the opposite side of the room, her arms crossed protectively in front of her. She was not going to talk. Leo knew if he stayed, he would only make things worse.
    “ You made a mistake? I’m the one who should be pissed, Maryanne.”
    “ What the hell do you have to be pissed about?”
    “ You think I would use things I know and love about you against you. If you think I would do something like that, then you don’t know me at all.”
    He waited for her to deny it. Instead, she gave him a stony stare.
    “ I guess I have my answer.”
    He turned and walked out hoping he hadn’t just made a big mistake.
     
     

Chapter Nine
    Maryanne tried to focus on reading a report, but she felt her attention shift again. It had been that way for two weeks. Two very long agonizing weeks and she was getting worse by the day.
    “ Are you going to be bitchy for the rest of your life?” Freddy asked.
    She gave her friend a nasty look. “If I want.”
    Okay that was childish and he was her boss, so it probably wasn’t a good idea to snap at him. Maryanne just didn’t do well on no sleep. She wasn’t getting more than two to three hours a night. And dammit, she wasn’t eating. Even now she was sitting with a burger made just the way she loved it, and she couldn’t get into it. She nibbled.
    “ If this is the way you are going to treat your gay husband, I might seek a divorce.”
    She looked up at him and sighed. The worried look he gave her told her he was truly concerned about her behavior. “I’m sorry. I’m just not hungry.”
    “ Yeah, and you’ve dropped about ten pounds—not that you didn’t need it.”
    “ I have not lost that much and bite me.”
    He set down his burger and looked at her across her desk. “I wouldn’t have run all the way to Whataburger if I thought you were going to just stare at the food.” He took another bite and chewed it then swallowed. “Tell Freddy what the rat bastard did. Then we can go out and do margaritas and look at all the cute guys on the Riverwalk.”
    She chuckled, but it sounded more like a sob.
    “ Oh, dear,” he said in true Freddy fashion. “This is bad.”
    “ He told me he loved me.”
    “ I will hunt down the bastard and make him cry…Wait, what?”
    “ He said he loved me and I freaked. I mean, I didn’t think he meant anything because we had just had sex. And so I freaked and I told him he didn’t know me. Then he said horrible things about me, like I like flowers.”
    Freddy tsked. “Disgusting.”
    “ And how I like bubbles and crap.”
    There was a beat of silence, then a sigh. “Oh, honey, when are you going to accept that a man can love