Needed: One Convenient Husband(33)

Before she could swallow the lump in her throat to ask, he crossed his  arms over his broad chest, intensified his glare and said in that too  sexy voice she knew so well, "I thought that was your car parked  outside, Sienna. What are you doing here?"                       
       
           



       





Chapter 2

Dane wet his suddenly dry lips and immediately decided he needed a  beer. Lucky for him there was a six-pack in the refrigerator from the  last time he'd come to the cabin. But he didn't intend on moving an inch  until Sienna told him what she was doing there.

She was nervous, he could tell. Well, that was too friggin bad. She was  the one who'd filed for the divorce-he hadn't. But since she had made  it clear that she wanted him out of her life, he had no problem giving  her what she wanted, even if the pain was practically killing him. But  she'd never know that.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" she asked smartly, reclaiming his absolute attention.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have asked," he said, giving her the same  unblinking stare. And to think that at one time he actually thought she  was his whole world. At some point during their marriage she had changed  and transitioned into quite a character-someone he was certain he  didn't know anymore.

She met his gaze for a long, level moment before placing her hands on  her hips. Doing so drew his attention to her body; a body he'd seen  naked countless times, a body he knew as well as his own; a body he used  to ease into during the heat of passion to receive pleasure so keen and  satisfying, just thinking about it made him hard.

"The reason I'm here, Dane Bradford, is because your attorney sent mine  this nasty little letter demanding that I remove my stuff within ten  days, and this weekend was better than next weekend. However, no thanks  to you, I still had to close the shop early to beat traffic and the bad  weather."

He actually smiled at the thought of her having to do that. "And I bet  it almost killed you to close your shop early. Heaven forbid. You  probably had to cancel a couple of appointments. Something I could never  get you to do for me."

Sienna rolled her eyes. They'd had this same argument over and over  again and it all boiled down to the same thing. He thought her job meant  more to her than he did because of all the time she'd put into it. But  what really irked her with that accusation was that before she'd even  entertained the idea of quitting her job and embarking on her own  business, they had talked about it and what it would mean. She would  have to work her butt off and network to build a new clientele; and then  there would be time spent working on decorating proposals, spending  long hours in many beautiful homes of the rich and famous. And he had  understood and had been supportive...at least in the beginning.

But then he began complaining that she was spending too much time away  from home, away from him. Things only got worse from there, and now she  was a woman who had gotten married at twenty-four and was getting  divorced at twenty-seven.

"Look, Dane, it's too late to look back, reflect and complain. In  twelve days you'll be free of me and I'll be free of you. I'm sure  there's a woman out there who has the time and patience to-"

"Now, that's a word you don't know the meaning of, Sienna," Dane  interrupted. "Patience. You were always in a rush, and your tolerance  level for the least little thing was zero. Yeah, I know I probably  annoyed the hell out of you at times. But then there were times you  annoyed me, as well. Neither of us is perfect."

Sienna let out a deep breath. "I never said I was perfect, Dane."

"No, but you sure as hell acted like you thought you were, didn't you?"





Chapter 3

Dane's question struck a nerve. Considering her background, how could  he assume Sienna thought she was perfect? She had come from a  dysfunctional family if ever there was one. Her mother hadn't loved her  father, her father loved all women except her mother, and neither seemed  to love their only child. Sienna had always combated lack of love with  doing the right thing, thinking that if she did, her parents would  eventually love her. It didn't work. But still, she had gone through  high school and college being the good girl, thinking being good would  eventually pay off and earn her the love she'd always craved.

In her mind, it had when she'd met Dane, the man least likely to fall  in love with her. He was the son of the millionaire Bradfords who'd made  money in land development. She hadn't been his family's choice and they  made sure she knew it every chance they got. Whenever she was around  them, they made her feel inadequate, like she didn't measure up to their  society friends, and since she didn't come from a family with a  prestigious background, she wasn't good enough for their son.

She bet they wished they'd never hired the company she'd been working  for to decorate their home. That's how she and Dane had met. She'd been  going over fabric swatches with his mother and he'd walked in after  playing a game of tennis. The rest was history. But the question of the  hour was: Had she been so busy trying to succeed the past year and a  half, trying to be the perfect business owner, that she eventually  alienated the one person who'd mattered most to her?                       
       
           



       

"Can't answer that. Can you?" Dane said, breaking into her thoughts.  "Maybe that will give you something to think about twelve days from now  when you put your John Hancock on the divorce papers. Now if you'll  excuse me, I have something to do," he said, walking around her toward  the bedroom.

"Wait. You never said why you're here!"

He stopped. The intensity of his gaze sent shivers of heat through her  entire body. And it didn't help matters that he was wearing jeans and a  dark brown leather bomber jacket that made him look sexy as hell...as  usual. "I was here a couple of weekends ago and left something behind. I  came to get it."

"Were you alone?" The words rushed out before she could hold them back  and immediately she wanted to smack herself. The last thing she wanted  was for him to think she cared...even if she did.

He hooked his thumbs in his jeans and continued to hold her gaze. "Would it matter to you if I weren't?"

She couldn't look at him, certain he would see her lie when she  replied, "No, it wouldn't matter. What you do is none of my business."

"That's what I thought." And then he walked off toward the bedroom and closed the door.

Sienna frowned. That was another thing she didn't like about Dane. He  never stayed around to finish one of their arguments. Thanks to her  parents she was a pro at it, but Dane would always walk away after  giving some smart parting remark that only made her that much more  angry. He didn't know how to fight fair. He didn't know how to fight at  all. He'd come from a family too dignified for such nonsense.

Moving toward the kitchen to see if there was anything of hers in there, Sienna happened to glance out the window.

"Oh, my God," she said, rushing over to the window. It was snowing  already. No, it wasn't just snowing... There was a full-scale blizzard  going on outside. What happened to the seventy-two-hour warning?

She heard Dane when he came out of the bedroom. He looked beyond her  and out the window, uttering one hell of a curse word before quickly  walking to the door, slinging it open and stepping outside.

In just that short period of time, everything was beginning to turn  white. The last time they'd had a sudden snowstorm such as this had been  a few years ago. It had been so bad the media had nicknamed it the  "Beast from the East."

It seemed the Beast was back and it had turned downright spiteful. Not  only was it acting ugly outside, it had placed Sienna in one hell of a  predicament. She was stranded in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains with her  soon-to-be ex. Things couldn't get any more bizarre than that.





Chapter 4

Moments later, when Dane stepped back into the cabin, slamming the door  behind him, Sienna could tell he was so mad he could barely breathe.

"What's wrong, Dane? You being forced to cancel a date tonight?" she  asked snidely. A part of her was still upset at the thought that he  might have brought someone here a couple of weekends ago when they  weren't officially divorced yet. The mere fact they had been separated  for six months didn't count. She hadn't gone out with anyone. Indulging  in a relationship with another man hadn't even crossed her mind.

He took a step toward her and she refused to back up. She was  determined to maintain her ground and her composure, although the  intense look in his eyes was causing crazy things to happen to her body,  like it normally did whenever they were alone for any period of time.  There may have been a number of things wrong with their marriage, but  lack of sexual chemistry had never been one of them.