The Price of Passion

by Stephanie Morris

  “You said you were buying stuff for the nursery?”

  “I purchased a blanket for the crib and a stuffed toy.”

  “What kind of toy?”

  “A Santa Claus,” she stated. “So that out child will always believe, too.”

  “With a mom like you, how could our baby not believe?”

  Together, they made their way upstairs and added her purchases to the nursery they’d started to redecorate. He hadn’t protested once when they looked at wall paper samples, lamps, furniture, even clothes.

  When she suggested they do anything that had to do with their baby, he always agreed. If her first husband had cared a fraction as much, she would have never left him.

  “While I was in town, I also stopped by the shop.”

  His hands tightened around the blanket.

  “Eve is overwhelmed.”

  “And?”

  “I’m thinking of going back to work.”

  “I’d prefer if you didn’t.”

  “This is a partnership,” she reminded him, shoving her hands into her pants pocket and finding his lucky button. “Not totalitarian rule.”

  “Damn it, Sierra, I don’t like it.”

  “I’m sorry, Kaden. I really didn’t think you’d like the idea.”

  “But that’s not going to change your mind?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  * * * *

  A hundred thousand different emotions raced through him. He didn’t want her running herself into the ground. She worked diligently at the clothing story, carrying cumbersome things, standing on her feet all day. No. He definitely didn’t like it.

  “This is how it all started,” she added softly, “with Tim.”

  “Don’t go there,” Kaden warned, the words a harsh grumble from the pit of his stomach.

  “This is important to me,” she said. “It’s my business, something I enjoy doing. If you mean it, that this is a partnership, then you have to understand I can’t just walk away from the store without looking back.”

  “I’m not asking you to. You can return to work after the baby is born if you’d like.”

  “Kaden, I can’t stay home all day. I’ll go insane.”

  “Then work for me.”

  “What?”

  “You can do the accounting, take over ordering supplies, help with the administrative side of operating the ranch.”

  “Kaden—”

  “Sierra, look—”

  “In our marriage vows, you said you wouldn’t ask me to give up who I am. Remember?” Without another word, she left the room.

  He heard her on the stairs, then the sound of her shutting him out of their bedroom.

  Kaden just prayed it wasn’t the beginning of her closing him out of her life, the way Leah had done. This time, he wouldn’t turn a blind eye to the truth. With Leah, he’d been wrapped up in making the ranch successful, working sixteen hour days, dropping into bed exhausted. He hadn’t paid attention to the time she left or the time she returned. The more she was gone, the more he’d detached himself, until she ended up in the arms of another man. He wouldn’t let that occur with Sierra. Their marriage meant too much.

  So how did he learn to concede without losing?

  Taking her something to eat was a good place to start, he decided the following day.

  He returned to the ranch house around lunchtime, shocked to notice how quiet it was without her. How desolate it was without her.

  Desolate?

  Hell, it wasn’t desolate. He’d never been lonely his entire life. Wasn’t about to start now. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t married.

  He drove into town, stopping by a local diner, hoping to sweet talk Maggie into making him a picnic basket to go.

  “Men! Think they can get a woman to do anything if they ask nicely enough.”

  “Does it work?” he asked optimistically.

  “I supposed it does,” she mumbled. “Now, if there is a next time, I’d like a little bit of a notice. I do have other customers, you know.”

  When she handed him the basket, he shocked both of them by kissing her on the cheek.

  She waved a spatula with a bright smile. “Get on out of here, now.”

  When he arrived at Sierra’s shop, it was to find Sierra speaking with a customer, a fake smile on her exhausted face. She’d slipped off her shoes and her shoulders were slightly hunched.

  Gritting his teeth, he remained silent.

  When she looked up and saw him, her fatigue disappeared. She grinned, and it lit her eyes with green flecks. A physical response tightened his insides, making him instantly ready. Several moments later, he was alone with his wife.

  “Brought you some lunch.”

  “How did you know I’d be famished?”

  “Lucky guess.”

  “There’s a break room in the back. We can eat there.”

  She didn’t even get to take a few bites before the bell on the front door jingled.

  “Can’t people make their own damn clothes?”

  “Kaden! Mind yourself. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  Unenthusiastically, he waited. “Your shirt is starting to get snug across the front,” he observed a few minutes later.

  “Guess I’ll need to purchase some new clothes.”

  “New bras and panties, too?”

  “Didn’t I tell you to mind yourself?”

  “Me? I was just offering to take you shopping, as long as you’re willing to model.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  He smiled. “Yes. Now sit and eat.”

  She took the chair across from him, and he reached for her feet, pulling them onto his lap and rubbing them. Closing her eyes, she sighed blissfully.

  “New shoes are a good idea,” she added a few minutes later.

  “Maybe pants, too. When do you want to go?”

  “Shopping?” she inquired, still nearly humming with pleasure. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Of course I am.”

  “Men don’t like to go shopping,” she said.

  “I’ll pick you up at three.”

  “I get off at six.”

  “I’ll pick you up at three,” he repeated.

  “You’re being impractical again.”

  “You wouldn’t know what to do with me if I wasn’t.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” she agreed.

  He was glad he returned at three. Tiredness had drained all her color, and her smile was more strained than before.

  “I’m taking my wife home,” he told Eve.

  “I told her to go home when I got back from lunch. She’s hard-headed.”

  “Never noticed.”

  “Thought we were going shopping,” Sierra said when he headed for the ranch instead of the main part of town.

  “Thought it would be better if you relaxed.”

  “Anyone ever tell you you’re pushy?”

  Kaden grinned. “Maybe a time or two.”

  By the time they arrived home, she was battling to keep her eyes open.

  “We can eat in the family room,” he stated.

  “What do you want me to fix for dinner?”

  “I got it covered,” he replied. “A simple green salad and ham sandwiches.”

  “Sounds wonderful. You’re a man after my heart, Kaden.”

  Maybe he was. And he wondered if he’d ever get it.

  “You don’t need any assistance?”

  “Told you I could cook,” he said.

  “But you never said you were a gourmet chef.”

  He grinned. If he’d intentionally been choosing a woman to have his child, he couldn’t have done a much better job. After dinner, her eyelids fluttered, giving clear proof of her fight to stay awake, and he sent her off to take a bath.

  Kaden gave her a few minutes of privacy before restlessness surged through him. He knocked on the door, and without waiting for an answer, entered.

  Sierra lay in the tub, and now that she
’d washed her makeup off, he saw the dark shadows under her eyes. She was working too hard, damn it, and he didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do about it.

  He’d never felt more inefficient, and that led to irritation. What he wouldn’t give to enclose her in a safe haven of relaxation and rest. Instead, he did what he could, pushing aside his normal—pushy—urges.

  “Sit up a little,” he said, reaching for the bar of soap. “I’ll wash your back.”

  “You’re overindulging me.”

  “You deserve it.”

  She exhaled softly, and he noticed the way a damp tendril had escaped the haphazard ponytail she’d fashioned. As if enthralled, he lifted the curl and kissed the shoulder it had rested upon.

  “Oh, Kaden.”

  He adjusted the front of his jeans. Just touching her turned him on. He drove back the insistent voice that told him it went beyond physical attraction, that it was something deeper than her carrying his baby that attracted him to her.

  “Time for bed,” he whispered.

  “I thought I was already there.”

  Kaden chuckled. He grabbed a fluffy towel from the closet. Holding it with one hand, he reached for her with the other.

  “I could get used to this.”

  “So could I,” he agreed. “So could I.”

  Instead of just wrapping her in the terry cloth, he dried her. Her breath hitched in her throat when he ran the material across her nipples. Immediately, they reacted, hardening, thickening, reaching toward him. With a gentle squeeze, he closed his forefinger and thumb around a responsive tip.

  “Are you going to breast feed?”

  “I want to.”

  The thought of his child suckling at her with complete trust took his breath.

  “What do you think?”

  “Me?”

  Heat flooded her cheeks. “You helped to make this baby, too.”

  “If you wanted just to bottle-feed, I would be okay with that, too.”

  “But?”

  With gentleness, he cupped her breasts, excited by their feel, the weightiness, the changes his child brought to her body. “I thank you for wanting to do that for our child.” He kissed her breasts, but when she trembled, he knew he needed to dry her completely before things got out of hand.

  He toweled her stomach, noting that it was growing rounder. “You’re showing more and more.”

  “You sound—”

  “Pleased. Contented.”

  “We’ll see if you feel that way in a few months when I’m too big to put my own shoes on.”

  “More so,” he responded. “And I’ll put them on for you.”

  Crouching down, he dried her between her legs, then there, making her shudder

  “I wasn’t aware—”

  He stared up at her.

  “—that getting dried off could be so arousing.”

  He hadn’t either.

  He hadn’t known how much he liked taking care of another person either. After Leah left, taking Jacob out of his life, he’d vowed he’d never be susceptible again. Now, he wasn’t so certain.

  “Time for bed,” he said again.

  “But the sun hasn’t even gone down.”

  “And you’re not exhausted?”

  She tugged the band from around her hair, letting her curls fall around her face. “Just a little,” she confessed.

  In their room, he took out her nightgown while she finished braiding her hair. When she finished, he helped her into it.

  “You don’t want to make love?” she asked around a yawn.

  “To you? Always.” Just her asking the question had him hardening behind the zipper of his jeans. “But later.” He wondered when he’d become so charitable.

  He helped her into bed, and he swore she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

  Abundant energy raged inside him and he went outside, saddled a horse, and rode out toward the open field, letting the setting sun lead him. He waited to feel the familiar comfort of the land, but it didn’t come.

  Instead, images of Sierra surrounded him—the scent of her, vanilla with a hint of cinnamon. The sound of her orgasm, short bursts of breath, his name spoken softly in his ear. And the way her body responded to his caress, her legs quivering and her hands grasping for him.

  She made him thankful to have found her.

  And she made him harder than the dirt on his land.

  Kaden didn’t know what the hell he was going to do about his Sierra. For the first time in his life, he had more questions than answers, and they all focused on one thing—how not to lose the most important person in his life.

  If he imposed his will on her, she’d see him as tyrannical and dominating, messing up any hope of a long-term relationship. But he couldn’t sit idle and watch her work herself into the ground.

  How could he make Sierra understand that he cared about her every bit as much as their unborn child?

  That thought nearly overwhelmed him.

  He reined in, clutching the leather with white knuckles. They wouldn’t be together if it wasn’t for the baby. Yes, she made his blood heat, but that was all. Other than great sex and their mutual responsibility, they meant nothing to each other.

  His horse neighed with what appeared to be skepticism.

  Kaden frowned.

  He never planned to develop feelings for Sierra, hadn’t wanted to care for anyone ever again. He’d had enough experience with that to last him a couple of lifetimes. But there it was, plain and clear, no matter how far or fast he tried to escape.

  He wanted his child, but he had feelings for Sierra, too.

  These realizations didn’t change anything. They just made his life more difficult. Sierra didn’t want a relationship. On more than one occasion, she’d made that perfectly clear.

  So that left him where?

  Baffled and bewildered, he determined, releasing a pent up breath. Somewhere along the way, things had gotten complex. No closer to an answer now than when he’d ridden out over an hour ago, he returned home to find Sierra awake and waiting for him. Quietly, she reached for his belt, then his zipper, then him.

  Liking this courageous side of Sierra, he told her with his body what he couldn’t with words—that he cared for her and didn’t intend to let her go.

  * * * *

  “I can drive myself to work,” she said, placing her cup of decaf tea on the table.

  “I know you can,” he said.

  After two months of marriage, Sierra was able to read him as if he were one of the magazines she loved so much. The angle of his chin told her she could debate back-and-forth with him all day long and it would get her nowhere. His mind was made up. Well, this time, so was hers.

  “Thank you,” she said, traveling across the room, stopping directly in front of him before caressing his jaw with her index finger. She paused at the corner of his mouth. “But I’m well aware of how much work you have to do.”

  His eyes narrowed and chocolate darts shot out at her.

  “Nice try,” he said, ensnaring her wrist by wrapping his hand around it. He drew her finger into his mouth and sucked on it.

  She should have known better, should have known nothing but truthfulness worked with Kaden. Now, with him suckling on her the way he’d drawn her nipples into his mouth last night, warmth suffused her womb, and arousal erupted.

  “We...” Where were the words and why wouldn’t her mouth cooperate?

  He arched a brow.

  “We should be, uh...”

  He released her finger. His voice raspy with passion, he suggested, “Be upstairs, making love?”

  “Going,” she struggled to get out. “To work.” How did he do that—make her forget everything, everyone, but him?

  “We?”

  She didn’t think she was capable of driving right now.

  Nodding, she reached for her purse and headed toward the door.

  His self-congratulatory laugh followed her down the hallway.

  “Thr
ee o’clock?” he asked her when pulled up in front of the clothing shop.

  “Six.”

  He arched a brow.

  “Six,” she repeated, sliding out and slamming the door before he could respond.

  “Your husband agitating you again?” Eve asked.

  “Isn’t he always?”

  Eve added a folded shirt to her stack. “Except for when he has you smiling like a clown.”

  Sierra scowled and turned to slide behind the counter. She didn’t have as much spare space as she had just a couple of weeks ago.

  “Same argument?” Eve guessed.

  “He’s a complete tyrant.”

  “And you aren’t?”

  Sierra crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Come on, Sierra, even I know you’re working yourself beyond the point of exhaustion.” Eve finished folding another shirt and put it aside. “We can hire more workers, take some of the duties off of you.”

  “I’m not quitting.”

  “No one suggested that you should. But you don’t have to be here from open to close.”

  “I’m part owner in the business, too. That wouldn’t be fair to you.”

  “But it doesn’t have to tire you out. Take some time off, take pleasure in having your husband.”

  That was part of the problem. Sierra did take pleasure in having her husband, to the point that it alarmed her. She’d given her heart once, only to have her hopes and dreams desecrated. She didn’t dare give into that weakness again.

  “Kaden’s not Tim.”

  “You’re right. He’s even worse.”

  Eve shook her head. “Anyone can see he’d head over heels for you.”

  “He wants his child. He’d made it clear that I can leave him, as long as I don’t take the baby.”

  “You don’t think he’d come after you to bring you back?”

  Sierra thought about Leah, the way he’d kicked her out and never looked back. “No.”

  “Then Sierra, you are clearly blind.”

  Eve’s words stayed with Sierra for the next couple of hours, until they became so busy she couldn’t think. She worked through lunch, nothing the stifling heat accumulating in the shop, as well as inside her.

  Lifting her hair from her neck, she pulled it back into a ponytail, then went back to helping customers.

  Sierra’s feet hurt, her pants dug into her expanding waistline, and sweat formed upon her brow. But she still had work to do when Kaden arrived.