Tempted by Her Innocent Kiss

by Maya Banks

  After rubbing his icy hands on his jeans, he stuck them into his pockets to keep them from freezing. Walking around the house, he strolled over to her car, opened the door and found the candy bars, chips and…Girl Scout cookies, he noted, lifting a brow. She hadn’t mentioned them, and he saw they were her favorite kind, as well as his. He quickly recalled the first year they were married and how they shared the cookies as a midnight snack after making love. He couldn’t help but smile as he remembered that night and others where they had spent time together, not just in bed but cooking in the kitchen, going to movies, concerts, parties, having picnics and just plain sitting around and talking for hours.

  He suddenly realized that one of the things that had been missing from their marriage for a while was communication. When had they stopped talking? The first thought that grudgingly came to mind was when she’d begun bringing work home, letting it intrude on what had always been their time together. That’s when they had begun living in separate worlds.

  Dane breathed in deeply. He wanted to get back into Sienna’s world and he definitely wanted her back in his. He didn’t want a divorce. He wanted to keep his wife, but he refused to resort to any type of manipulating, dominating or controlling tactics to do it. What he and Sienna needed was to use this weekend to keep it honest and talk openly about what had gone wrong with their marriage. They would go further by finding ways to resolve things. He still loved her and wanted to believe that deep down she still loved him.

  There was only one way to find out.

  Eight

  Sienna glanced around the room seeing all the lit candles and thinking just how romantic they made the cabin look. Taking a deep breath, she frowned in irritation, thinking that romance should be the last thing on her mind. Dane was her soon-to-be ex-husband. Whatever they once shared was over, done with, had come to a screeching end.

  If only the memories weren’t so strong…

  She glanced out the window and saw him piling wood on the back porch. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought her day would end up this way, with her and Dane being stranded together at the cabin—a place they always considered as their favorite getaway spot. During the first two years of their marriage, they would come here every chance they got, but in the past year she could recall them coming only once. Somewhere along the way she had stopped allowing them time even for this.

  She sighed deeply recalling how important it had been to her at the beginning of their marriage for them to make time to talk about matters of interest, whether trivial or important. They had always been attuned to each other and Dane had always been a good listener, which to her conveyed a sign of caring and respect. But the last couple of times they had tried to talk ended up with them snapping at each other, which only built bitterness and resentment.

  The lights blinked and she knew they were about to go out. She was glad that she had taken the initiative to go into the kitchen and scramble up some eggs earlier. And she was inwardly grateful that if she had to get stranded in the cabin during a snowstorm that Dane was here with her. Heaven knows she would have been a basket case had she found herself up here alone.

  The lights blinked again before finally going out, but the candles provided the cabin with plenty of light. Not sure if the temperatures outside would cause the pipes to freeze, she had run plenty of water in the bathtub and kitchen sink, and filled every empty jug with water for them to drink. She’d also found batteries to put in the radio so they could keep up with any reports on the weather.

  “I saw the lights go out. Are you okay?”

  Sienna turned around. Dane was leaning in the doorway with his hands stuck in the pockets of his jeans. The pose made him look incredibly sexy. “Yes, I’m okay. I was able to get the candles all lit and there are plenty more.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Just in case the pipes freeze and we can’t use the shower, I filled the bathtub with water so we can take a bath that way.” At his raised brow she quickly added, “Separately, of course. And I made sure I filled plenty of bottles of drinking water, too.”

  He nodded. “Sounds like you’ve been busy.”

  “So have you. I saw through the window when you put all that wood on the porch. It will probably come in handy.”

  He moved away from the door. “Yes, and with the electricity out I need to go ahead and get the fire started.”

  Sienna swallowed as she watched him walk toward her on his way to the fireplace, and not for the first time she thought about how remarkably handsome he was. He had that certain charisma that made women get hot all over just looking at him.

  It suddenly occurred to her that he’d already got a fire started, and the way it was spreading through her was about to make her burst into flames.

  Nine

  “You okay?” Dane asked Sienna as he walked toward her with a smile.

  She nodded and cleared her throat. “Yes, why do you ask?”

  “Because you’re looking at me funny.”

  “Oh.” She was vaguely aware of him walking past her to kneel in front of the fireplace. She turned and watched him, saw him move the wood around before taking a match and lighting it to start a fire. He was so good at kindling things, whether wood or the human body.

  “If you like, I can make something for dinner,” she decided to say; otherwise she would continue to stand there and say nothing while staring at him. It was hard trying to be normal in a rather awkward situation.

  “What are our options?” he asked without looking around.

  She chuckled. “An egg sandwich and tea. I made both earlier before the power went off.”

  He turned at that and his gaze caught hers. A smile crinkled his eyes. “Do I have a choice?”

  “Not if you want to eat.”

  “What about those Girl Scout cookies I found in your car?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “They’re off-limits. You can have one of the candy bars, but the cookies are mine.”

  His mouth broke into a wide grin. “You have enough cookies to share so stop being selfish.”

  He turned back around and she made a face at him behind his back. He was back to stoking the fire and her gaze went to his hands. Those hands used to be the giver of so much pleasure and almost ran neck and neck with his mouth…but not quite. His mouth was in a class by itself. But still, she could recall those same hands, gentle, provoking, moving all over her body, touching her everywhere and doing things to her that mere hands weren’t suppose to do. However, she never had any complaints.

  “Did you have any plans for tonight, Sienna?”

  His words intruded into her heated thoughts. “No, why?”

  “Just wondering. You thought I had a date tonight. What about you?”

  She shrugged. “No. As far as I’m concerned, until we sign those final papers I’m still legally married and wouldn’t feel right going out with someone.”

  He turned around and locked his eyes with hers. “I know what you mean,” he said. “I wouldn’t feel right going out with someone else.”

  Heat seeped through her every pore with his words. “So you haven’t been dating, either?”

  “No.”

  There were a number of questions she wanted to ask him—how he spent his days, his nights, what his family thought of their pending divorce, what he thought of it, was he ready for it to be over for them to go their separate ways—but there was no way she could ask him any of those things. “I guess I’ll go put dinner on the table.”

  He chuckled. “An egg sandwich and tea?”

  “Yes.” She turned to leave.

  “Sienna?”

  She turned back around. “Yes?”

  “I don’t like being stranded, but since I am, I’m glad it’s with you.”

  For a moment she couldn’t say anything, then she cleared her throat while backing up a couple of steps. “Ah, yeah right, same here.” She backed up some more then said, “I’ll go set out the food now.” And then she turned and qui
ckly left the room.

  Ten

  Sienna glanced up and smiled when she heard Dane walk into the kitchen. “Your feast awaits you.”

  “Whoopee.”

  She laughed. “Hey, I know the feeling. I’m glad I had a nice lunch today in celebration. I took on a new client.”

  Dane came and joined her at the table. “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.”

  She took a bite of her scrambled egg sandwich and a sip of her tea and then said, “It’s been a long time since you seemed genuinely pleased with my accomplishments.”

  He glanced up after taking a sip of his own tea and stared at her for a moment. “I know and I’m sorry about that. It was hard being replaced by your work, Sienna.”

  She lifted her head and stared at him, met his gaze. She saw the tightness of his jaw and the firm set of his mouth. He actually believed that something could replace him with her, and knowing that hit a raw and sensitive nerve. “My work never replaced you, Dane. Why did you begin feeling that way?”

  Dane leaned back in his chair, tilted his head slightly. He was more than mildly surprised with her question. It was then he realized that she really didn’t know. Hadn’t a clue. This was the opportunity that he wanted, what he was hoping they would have. Now was the time to put aside anger, bitterness, foolish pride and whatever else was working at destroying their marriage. Now was the time for complete honesty. “You started missing dinner. Not once but twice, sometimes three times a week. Eventually, you stopped making excuses and didn’t show up.”

  What he’d said was the truth. “But I was working and taking on new clients,” she defended. “You said you would understand.”

  “And I did for a while and up to a point. But there is such a thing as common courtesy and mutual respect, Sienna. In the end, I felt like I’d been thrown by the wayside, that you didn’t care anymore about us, our love or our marriage.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “And why didn’t you say something?”

  “When? I was usually asleep when you got home and when I got up in the morning you were too sleepy to discuss anything. I invited you to lunch several times, but you couldn’t fit me into your schedule.”

  “I had appointments.”

  “Yes, and I always felt because of it that your clients were more important.”

  “Still, I wished you would have let me know how you felt,” she said, after taking another sip of tea.

  “I did, several times. But you weren’t listening.”

  She sighed deeply. “We used to know how to communicate.”

  “Yes, at one time we did, didn’t we?” Dane said quietly. “But I’m also to blame for the failure of our marriage, our lack of communication. And then there were the problems you were having with my parents. When it came to you, I never hesitated letting my parents know when they were out of line and that I wouldn’t put up with their treatment of you. But then I felt that at some point you needed to start believing that what they thought didn’t matter and stand up to them.

  “I honestly thought I was doing the right thing when I decided to just stay out of it and give you the chance to deal with them, to finally put them in their place. Instead, you let them erode your security and confidence to the point where you felt you had to prove you were worthy of them…and of me. That’s what drove you to be so successful, wasn’t it, Sienna? Feeling the need to prove something is what working all those long hours is all about, isn’t it?”

  Eleven

  Sienna quickly got up from the table and walked to the window. It was turning dark but she could clearly see that things hadn’t let up. It was still snowing outside, worse than an hour before. She tried to concentrate on what was beyond that window and not on the question Dane had asked her.

  “Sienna?”

  Moments later she turned back around to face Dane, knowing he was waiting on her response. “What do you want me to say, Dane? Trust me, you don’t want to get me started since you’ve always known how your family felt about me.”

  His brow furrowed sharply as he moved from the table to join her at the window, coming to stand directly in front of her. “And you’ve known it didn’t matter one damn iota. Why would you let it continue to matter to you?”

  She shook her head, tempted to bare her soul but fighting not to. “But you don’t understand how important it was for your family to accept me, to love me.”

  Dane stepped closer, looked into eyes that were fighting to keep tears at bay. “Wasn’t my love enough, Sienna? I’d told you countless times that you didn’t marry my family, you married me. I’m not proud of the fact that my parents think too highly of themselves and our family name at times, but I’ve constantly told you it didn’t matter. Why can’t you believe me?”

  When she didn’t say anything, he sighed deeply. “You’ve been around people with money before. Do all of them act like my parents?”

  She thought of her best friend’s family. The Steeles. “No.”

  “Then what should that tell you? They’re my parents. I know that they aren’t close to being perfect, but I love them.”

  “And I never wanted to do anything to make you stop loving them.”

  He reached up and touched her chin. “And that’s what this is about, isn’t it? Why you filed for a divorce. You thought that you could.”

  Sienna angrily wiped at a tear she couldn’t contain any longer. “I didn’t ever want you to have to choose.”

  Dane’s heart ached. Evidently she didn’t know just how much he loved her. “There wouldn’t have been a choice to make. You’re my wife. I love you. I will always love you. When we married, we became one.”

  He leaned down and brushed a kiss on her cheek, then several. He wanted to devour her mouth, deepen the kiss and escalate it to the level he needed it to be, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. What they needed was to talk, to communicate, to try and fix whatever was wrong with their marriage. He pulled back. It was hard when he heard her soft sigh, her heated moan.

  He gave in briefly to temptation and tipped her chin up and placed a kiss on her lips. “There’s plenty of hot water still left in the tank,” he said softly, stroking her chin. “Go ahead and take a shower before it gets completely dark, and then I’ll take one.”

  He continued to stroke her chin when he added, “Then what I want is for us to do something we should have done months ago, Sienna. I want us to sit down and talk. And I mean to really talk, to regain that level of communication we once had. And what I need to know more than anything is whether my love will ever be enough for you.”

  Twelve

  You’re my wife. I love you. I will always love you. When we married, we became one.

  Dane’s words flowed through Sienna’s mind as she stepped into the shower, causing a warm, fuzzy, glowing feeling to seep through her pores. Hope flared within her although she didn’t want it to. She hadn’t wanted to end her marriage, but when things had begun to get worse between her and Dane, she’d finally decided to take her in-laws’ suggestion and get out of their son’s life.

  Even after three years of seeing how happy she and Dane were together, they still couldn’t look beyond her past. They saw her as a nobody, a person who had married their son for his money. She had offered to sign a prenuptial agreement before the wedding and Dane had scoffed at the suggestion, refusing to even draw one up. But still, his parents had made it known each time they saw her just how much they resented the marriage.

  And no matter how many times Dane had stood up to them and had put them in their place regarding her, it would only be a matter of time before they resorted to their old ways again, though never in the presence of their son. Maybe Dane was right, and all she’d had to do was tell his parents off once and for all and that would have been the end of it. But she never could find the courage to do it.

  And what was so hilarious with the entire situation was that she had basically become a workaholic to become successful in her own right so they could see her
as their son’s equal in every way, and in trying to impress them she had alienated Dane to the point that eventually he would have gotten fed up and asked her for a divorce if she hadn’t done so first.

  After spending time under the spray of water, she stepped out of the shower, intent on making sure there was enough hot water left for Dane. She tried to put out of her mind the last time she had taken a shower in this stall, and how Dane had joined her in it.

  Toweling off, she was grateful she still had some of her belongings at the cabin to sleep in. The last thing she needed was to parade around Dane half naked. Then they would never get any talking done.

  She slipped into a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants she found in one of the drawers. Dane wanted to talk. How could they have honest communication without getting into a discussion about his parents again? She crossed her arms, trying to ignore the chill she was beginning to feel in the air. In order to stay warm they would both probably have to sleep in front of the fireplace tonight. She didn’t want to think about what the possibility of doing something like that meant.

  While her cell phone still had life, she decided to let her best friend, Vanessa Steele, know that she wouldn’t be returning to Charlotte tonight. Dane was right. Not everyone with money acted like his parents. The Steeles, owners of a huge manufacturing company in Charlotte, were just as wealthy as the Bradfords. But they were as down-to-earth as people could get, which proved that not everyone with a lot of money were snobs.