“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.