CHAPTER 10
“I’ve never owned this many clothes in my life.” Sarah stared at the seemingly mile-high stack of clothing that occupied every inch of the bed in Dante’s guest room. “What was he thinking?”
“Hey, I picked you out some very nice stuff,” Emily Sinclair protested, picking up another hanger from a stack on the floor. She cut off the tags from a brand-new pair of jeans before she hung them in the closet. “I had a very large budget to work with,” she told Sarah in an amused tone.
Randi sighed as she folded some sinfully soft lingerie and put it in the dresser drawer. “I think I want a Sinclair brother,” she whined jokingly.
“Take Jared. Please,” Emily cajoled, taking another garment from the pile. “Maybe he’ll settle down and date a woman more than once.”
Randi wrinkled her nose. “Not my type.”
Sarah started putting shoes away, dismayed by the designer brands. She might be a doctor, but she was on a strict budget, paying off student loans her first priority. Randi and Emily had arrived at Dante’s home with several teenage boys, all of them carrying boxes and bags. Having canceled their get-together at Brew Magic, Emily and Randi decided to just move the location of the party to Sarah, bringing along a new wardrobe Dante had asked Emily to select, and lattes from Brew Magic. Sarah had wanted to go meet Randi and Emily, but Dante had refused. Adamantly. Even though they hadn’t seen any signs of John still being in the area in the last several days, he was being cautious.
“Do I even want to know how much he allotted for the clothing?” Sarah asked hesitantly. She was going to have to pay him back. They’d stopped at a discount store the day after the incident—one of the few places Dante had allowed her to be in public—and she’d picked up some essentials and a few outfits before he’d hurried her out the door. He’d mentioned that he’d have Emily pick her up some more clothing, but this was ridiculous. It looked like her friend had bought out several stores.
“Probably not,” Emily replied with a mischievous smile. “He’s clueless, and threw me the same kind of budget Grady would. In fact, I’m wondering if the two of them consulted.”
Sarah’s head started to spin, knowing exactly how generous Grady Sinclair could be. If Emily wanted anything, Grady was likely to give her a small fortune for a new pair of shoes. “Was it a lot?” Sarah squeaked, not quite certain that her friend wasn’t drunk or on latte overload. How much could it cost for some new clothes? Her knees got weak, and she sat down in the chair beside the dresser. “Please tell me you didn’t spend everything he gave you. I’ll have a hard time paying it back.”
“You’re not paying it back. Dante didn’t even want me to tell you how much I spent. It’s a gift from him. He wanted to do it. And believe me, he’s loaded. He won’t even miss the money,” Emily said conspiratorially.
“Oh, God,” Sarah groaned. “Tell me you didn’t spend everything he gave you.”
“I didn’t.”
Sarah released a sigh of relief.
“She had enough left to buy the coffees tonight. It was Dante’s treat,” Randi added chirpily.
“You spent a small fortune on clothes?” Sarah was having palpitations. How anyone could spend that much on something to cover their body, she definitely didn’t understand.
“I told you it was nice stuff,” Emily replied, the grin on her face growing larger. “Sarah, stop stressing. Dante and his brothers are incredibly rich. I didn’t live in that kind of world, either, but I’m getting used to it. I still don’t go out buying anything I want, but after what happened to you, you deserve this.” Emily put her hands on her hips and stared at Sarah. “He insisted that I spend every penny, and I did. The only other thing he insisted on was that there is at least one beautiful red dress in the wardrobe. I didn’t quite get that. But I got a lot of red. I know you like it, and it will look gorgeous on you.”
“He knows red is my favorite color,” Sarah answered shakily. “God, he’s driving me insane. I suppose you two didn’t even notice the piano.”
Emily and Randi shook their heads silently.
“Well, he decided that he might want to learn to play someday, so he bought one of the most expensive grand pianos on the market. It’s in the far corner of his living room. And of course I can play it anytime I want.” Sarah expelled a frustrated breath. “He has no intention of learning to play. He bought it so I could play. His excuse was totally contrived just so I didn’t miss being able to play.”
“Oh . . . that’s so sweet,” Randi gushed.
“It’s very pricey,” Sarah retorted, but she thought it was pretty damn sweet, too. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the point. “And it doesn’t make any sense. What is he going to do with the piano when I go back home? I think he’s trying to make up for the fact that I had an atypical childhood. And now this . . .” Sarah motioned to the monster pile of clothing and accessories. “He has to stop. I can’t ever pay him back for all of this.” Sarah was feeling almost distraught. She appreciated Dante and his kindness. But she was an independent woman who wasn’t used to getting gifts of any kind. She really felt like she needed to pay him back, regardless of how much money he had. Just looking at the new wardrobe almost made her nauseous. How much had he spent, and how many decades was it going to take her to repay him?
“He doesn’t expect you to pay him back,” Emily answered, her voice now low and comforting. “The Sinclair brothers were raised with wealth. I know Dante hasn’t really spent much money because he was so involved in his job, but he has it just like the rest of the Sinclairs. I think giving gifts is in their DNA. Grady is the same way.” Emily waded through a pile of clothing to kneel at Sarah’s feet. “Don’t chastise him, Sarah. Dante is trying to right something he perceives as wrong. All of the Sinclair men are that way, even Jared. It’s one of the wonderful traits every one of them has. They’re protective and giving with people they care about.”
“It’s . . . overwhelming,” Sarah answered honestly. “Nobody has ever done anything like this for me.”
“I understand,” Emily said knowingly. “Grady gave me a brand-new truck and he didn’t even know me. He also didn’t ask. I was furious when he replaced my old clunker without asking me first.”
“What did you do?” Sarah asked curiously.
“I caved eventually because the gift was coming from a place of love, because he was worried about the condition of my vehicle, and Grady can be . . . persuasive,” Emily confided.
“Bossy, you mean?” Sarah corrected.
Emily nodded her head. “Sometimes he is. But I know it’s coming from the heart, because he wants me to be safe and happy. I let him know when he steps over the line.”
“And you don’t think Dante is stepping over the line? He’s not my husband, or even my boyfriend.”
He just made me have a few spectacular orgasms.
“It’s pretty obvious that he has a thing for you. The Sinclair men can be astoundingly possessive when they’ve finally met the right woman.”
“He doesn’t want that with me, Emily. He’s not even going to be here for much longer,” Sarah denied.
“We’ll see,” Emily said knowingly, rising to get back to her task of putting away clothes. “I recognize the look and the behavior.”
“So you think I should take all of this in stride? I don’t know if I can. I feel like I’m taking advantage. Dante has done so much for me already.” Sarah got up and started putting away more shoes. “Just the fact that he’s let me stay in his home, putting himself at risk, means a lot to me.”
“Here,” Randi chimed in as she tossed Sarah a shimmery garment. “Wear this for him and he’ll think it was worth every penny.”
Sarah caught the red teddy as it flew over her head. The top was fitted with spaghetti straps to hold it up. It was marbled red and black on the top and very fitted, designed to plump up her cleavage. The bottom was solid red silk and lace, and so short it would stop at her upper thigh. She stroked the soft material of the barely there nightgown absently. “We don’t . . . do that.” Well, they pretty much didn’t. After he’d cuffed her to his bed and made her scream with ecstasy, he hadn’t touched her except to cradle her by his side every night or kiss her. He’d obviously taken her seriously when she’d refused to let him injure himself.
“Then you should start doing it,” Randi teased her. “Dante is seriously hot, and completely devoted to protecting you.”
“He’s injured,” Sarah argued.
“Then you have something to look forward to when he heals,” Emily retorted, winking at Sarah. “Admit it. You like him, and you have the hots for him.”
Oh, Sarah had no problem admitting that. It was the truth. “I do.”
“Then go after what you want. Your childhood seriously sucked. You were nearly killed by a madman just because you were doing your job, and you never do anything just for fun or because you want it. If you want him, take him. I don’t think he’s going to resist,” Emily chortled. “You don’t need to analyze it or rationalize the attraction. It’s never going to make any sense. Take my word on that.”
There was no doubt that Sarah wanted Dante, and that her desire for him was illogical. “He’s a good man. But we come from totally different worlds.”
“Does that matter if you really care about him?” Emily asked solemnly.
Did it matter? Sarah was wondering the same thing herself. The more she got to know Dante, the less it seemed to matter that they were so different. The only time she was really reminded of his wealth and status was when he did something crazy—like buying her a fortune in clothing. “He does take it well when I beat him at chess,” Sarah joked, but honestly, she was touched by what a good sport he was, and how little his ego played into his actions sometimes. Dante never wanted her to give the game anything but her best, and she did, trouncing him repeatedly. But Dante said it made him think, challenged him to get better. He wasn’t intimidated by her, and it didn’t hurt his male ego to get beat at an intellectual game by a woman. That just made her like him that much more. Of course, he could destroy her at video games, something she’d recently been learning from him. He did crow over every win, which made her determined to get better at the games.
Strange. Maybe he was on to something.
Still, Dante constantly amazed her. For a man who seemed to have an overabundance of testosterone, he was secure in his masculinity all the time. Even when she bested him, he looked at her with pride rather than annoyance.
“You have to appreciate a man who is secure enough to not care if you’re better at something than he is,” Randi commented candidly.
“I appreciate a lot of things about him,” Sarah admitted to both women. In fact, Dante fascinated her.
“Then give him a break and try on some of these clothes. He’ll never miss the money, and he’ll be ecstatic if he thinks they made you happy.” Emily tossed her several outfits, and Sarah caught them reflexively.
Sarah stopped trying to reason out anything that involved her feelings for Dante. He was a good man, and really, that was all that mattered. He was an enigma, so she was trusting feminine instincts that she hadn’t realized even existed until Dante. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt his feelings, and she knew instinctively that rejecting a gift from him would hurt him.
With a deep sigh of resignation, she reached for a pretty coral-colored ensemble and tried it on.
Downstairs, Dante was having a hard time controlling his frustration. “Joe and I haven’t turned up anything significant. It’s like the asshole just disappeared,” he told Jared and Grady as they all sat in the living room having a drink.
Right now he was having a hard time even having Sarah out of his sight. But he wanted her to have her privacy with her friends. He knew she was going stir-crazy, and that she’d been disappointed when he hadn’t wanted her to go out in public to meet her friends at Brew Magic. Dammit, he didn’t want to stifle a growing process that had started before he’d ever met her. But he didn’t want her to be a target, either.
“He’ll turn up,” Jared commented, taking a gulp from his bottle of beer before setting it on the table beside his chair. “He’s obviously not going to just go away.”
Jared was right. Dante knew that someone who had so much rage inside of him was not going to just slip away. He would surface eventually. The only question was . . . when and where?
“How’s Sarah handling all of this?” Grady asked quietly.
“She hates not being able to walk and be outdoors. Otherwise, she’s dealing with it incredibly well.” Dante knew Sarah was scared, but she tried not to show it, doing what she had to do to stay safe. As smart as she was, he knew she’d weighed everything out in her mind and had come to the conclusion that she’d have to live with the situation until her attacker was caught.
“Are you screwing her?” Grady asked bluntly.
Dante turned his furious expression toward his brother. “That’s none of your business, Grady.”
“It is my business. She’s a friend,” Grady answered calmly. “I don’t want to see her get hurt.”
“Her? What about me?” Neither of his brothers seemed to get the fact that he was losing his mind over Sarah’s safety right now.
“I appreciate that you want to protect her, and you’re definitely the best qualified to do that right now, but Sarah is . . . different,” Grady replied.
“Fuck! Do you think I don’t know that? She’s lived a life that most people can’t understand. She was never a child; she was a curiosity to be examined by the scientific community. Not one single person has ever cared that she’s a kindhearted, warm woman who wants the same things that other women want. They hear the way she speaks, the way she tries to reason everything out. Or they listen to her talk about something that goes right over their head, and they ignore her, shut her out. Nobody has ever tried to get to know her. They were too goddamn insecure and intimidated to want to befriend her.” Grady raised an eyebrow at Dante and he added, “She’s made friends here, and I know Emily and Randi care about her, but that’s new to her. She’s happy here. She might be a genius, but she’s also still naive and innocent in a lot of ways. She never had a chance to learn normal things. But underneath, there’s a woman who just wants someone to care about her. And dammit, she deserves that.”
“You are fucking her,” Grady stated with a small grin. “You care about her.”
“Hell, yes, I care. I wouldn’t be protecting her if I didn’t. And I haven’t been in shape to get that physical. I have to heal so I can protect her if necessary. But do I want to? Fuck, yeah. I want her more than I’ve ever wanted a woman before.” Dante’s body was tense, and he glared at Grady. “I’m so damn possessive and protective that I can hardly stand myself. She drives me crazy, but she also makes me feel like I can fly. How screwed up is that?”
Jared shook his head as he said gravely, “You have it bad. I don’t think there’s any woman in the world worth getting this worked up about.”
Dante looked at Jared, but his younger brother wouldn’t meet his eyes. What the hell had happened to him? When they were boys, Jared had been the more sensitive, artistic brother. Now he was jaded, almost like he was bored with life. Okay, maybe he wasn’t bored, but he was definitely cynical. Dante wondered if there was more to Jared acting like a man-whore than just apathy. He seemed almost bitter, and he hadn’t always been that way.
From his seat on the couch, Dante could see Coco waiting patiently at his feet. The damn dog actually liked him. He wasn’t sure why, but he had a feeling it had to do with the fact that he snuck Coco human food occasionally, when Sarah wasn’t looking. The dog really was kind of pathetic, and Dante hated seeing that expectant look on the mutt’s face. He patted his thigh, and Coco sprang onto his lap almost immediately. She circled twice and then settled into his lap, laying her head on his thigh with a contented sigh like she belonged there. “Damn dog,” he grumbled, but his statement had very little conviction. He stroked her silky head as he looked over at Grady.
“I have to agree. You do have it bad. But I obviously disagree that no woman is worth it,” Grady stated flatly. “Emily was worth it. She changed my entire life, accepted me exactly as I was. I realized that the world hadn’t shut me out; I had shut out life. It took meeting Emily to make me realize there was so much more than just work, and that not everybody was like our father.”
At that moment, Dante hated himself for not staying closer to his brothers and his sister, Hope. He didn’t know what had happened to Jared, and he hadn’t realized that Grady had isolated himself so much. “What happened to us?” Dante asked in a harsh, loud whisper. “We were all close as kids. What happened? I can count on one hand the times we’ve actually all been together since we left for college. ”
“We were all self-involved assholes?” Jared suggested. “Well . . . except for Hope.”
“We were all involved in our careers. But we still could have been there for each other,” Dante responded angrily.
“We’re here now, Dante,” Grady mentioned soberly. “I think that you almost getting yourself killed was a slap in the face to all of us. Hope and Evan call me almost every single day.”
“They call me, too,” Dante answered.
“And Jared has no business here in Amesport, but he’s still around,” Grady added, looking over at Jared and holding up a silencing hand. “Don’t give me your crap about not having anything else to do. You have a business to run. You were worried and you still are.”
Jared shrugged. “Nothing that needs my immediate attention. Now that Dante’s playing the hero again, I just want to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed.”
Dante smirked, knowing Jared was completely full of shit. “I think I can handle myself if you need to go.”
“I’m staying,” Jared grunted, grabbing his beer and taking a large gulp.
“I could tell you not to mess with Sarah, but I don’t think it will sink into your thick head right now,” Grady told Dante. “I think you’re too far gone.”
“What do you mean?” Dante frowned at Grady.
“How would you feel if another man took Sarah out on a date?” Grady questioned sedately.
“I’d kill the bastard. She’s mine,” Dante growled. “Who is he?”
Grady grinned. “It was a hypothetical question. I haven’t seen her date anyone since she got to Amesport. And I just got my answer.”
Dante’s body had gone rigid and the little dog on his lap looked up at him in alarm, as though sensing he was pissed off. The tension in his body drained away, but he glared at Grady. “That wasn’t amusing.”
“I thought it was hilarious,” Jared drawled.
“You would,” Dante snarled at Jared.
“So what is Joe doing about catching Sarah’s attacker?” Grady asked, changing the subject.
“He’s done everything he can do,” Dante explained. “Nobody has sighted him.” Dante had made damn sure that the police were doing everything they could, but they couldn’t produce a suspect who was hiding out. “We just have to wait. I don’t think for a minute that he’s left the area. He’s biding his time, waiting for an opportunity.”
“Eventually, you may have to give him one or you’ll never catch him,” Jared said thoughtfully.
“No,” Dante said emphatically. “I’m not putting Sarah out there as bait.” He couldn’t stand the thought of her being in harm’s way. Joe had suggested the same thing, but Dante couldn’t stomach it.
“Is that what we need to do? I’ll do it.” Sarah’s voice was close. “I’d rather take the risk than live afraid forever.”
Dante’s head jerked to the right to look at her standing at the bottom of the stairs. “Not happening,” he insisted as his eyes devoured her. He gaped as he took in the minuscule dress she was wearing. It was a nautical blue-and-white-striped dress with a halter top and was fitted to her body like a glove. Her long, slender legs were revealed to her upper thighs. “New dress?” he croaked, his eyes narrowing as he realized she wasn’t wearing a bra. In that dress, the halter bodice made it impossible for Sarah to wear one.
“Yes.” She smiled at him, turning in a circle so he could see the dress. “I love it. It’s so comfortable.”
Holy shit! “Where is the back of it?” Dante’s eyes almost popped out of his head as he noticed the dress was nearly backless, and it showed a large expanse of her creamy skin because it was cut clear down to the small of her back.
“It’s a summer dress. Emily said she really couldn’t notice my shoulder scars. Are they showing?” she asked nervously.
“No.” It wasn’t her scars he was worried about; it was exposing that slender, shapely body for every other man to ogle.
“Isn’t it cute?” Emily exclaimed as she and Randi came down the stairs and stood next to Sarah.
Dante broke out in a sweat and his cock came to immediate attention as Sarah slowly walked into the room. God, she was beautiful. He was hard-pressed not to grab the blanket from the back of the couch and cover her up, but the last thing he wanted to do was squelch her newfound confidence with uncovering her scars.
“Are all of the clothes like this?” Dante looked at Emily desperately as he spoke.
Emily smiled brightly. “A lot of them. The styles this year look fantastic on her. She’s so tall and elegant.”
“Oh, fuck, I’m screwed,” Dante blurted out, his voice pained.
He heard the sound of Grady’s laughter as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the couch with a tortured groan.