16 Marsden Place

by Rachel Brimble

  “True. You’ll have to pay business rates and other bits and pieces, but I still think it will work out a hell of a lot cheaper for you. I’m just not sure about you opening your home to the public this way.” Kelsey reached across the desk and gestured for Sienna’s hand.

  “What?”

  “Your mum phoned me.”

  “Do you think I didn’t know that? I know my mother like I know myself. She’s as worried about this as you are. She wants me to ship out of Potterford and get a career in London.”

  “Is that such a bad idea?”

  Sienna pulled her hand from Kelsey’s and rolled her eyes. “Not you as well.”

  “Come on. I’m worried about you.”

  “Why? Because I want to stay in my hometown? Does that make me some kind of freak or something?”

  “No, it’s the reason you’re staying here that’s the problem.”

  “What do you mean? Why aren’t you in London making a fortune? Why are you staying here? God, why is the fact I want to stay in the place I grew up such a problem? What’s the point in moving to a city where I don’t know anyone?” Sienna leapt from her chair and turned her back. The painted landscape on the wall blurred, and she blinked hard in an effort to dispel the threat of tears when Kelsey moved behind her.

  “Sienna, look at me.”

  Sienna counted to five and turned around. “What?”

  “Your dad died in the most heroic yet violent way. Something like that has never happened in Potterford before, and I hope to God it never does again. But there was nothing you could have done to protect him, so you cannot put your life on hold to look after everyone else instead. There’s your mum, me, every other person in town…who’s next? You’ll burn out. You need to have some breathing space. Have some fun; go on a date.”

  Jack Beaton’s face appeared in Sienna’s mind, and she closed her eyes as if that could shut it out. The wall clock ticked away the seconds as she fought the panic swelling hard and fast behind her ribcage like a balloon nearing explosion. She was better off alone. Isn’t that what she’d been telling herself the last two years?

  “You’re wrong, you know,” she said.

  “Am I?”

  “Yes. This isn’t just about Dad.”

  “Then what? Talk to me.”

  “I’m scared, okay?”

  “Scared of what?”

  Sienna opened her eyes. “Scared of all of it. Losing Mum. Losing you. God knows I’d love to get close to someone, but…” Her breath caught.

  Kelsey pulled her into her arms. “Okay. Okay, I get it.” She sighed. “Fine. You live your life as you want, but shutting down isn’t going to change the past. Getting on with it will. Take some time away from here at least. I’ll look out for your mum.”

  Sienna pulled back. “I need to be here, Kelse. Now, are you going to help prevent my business from collapsing after everything I’ve put into building it or not? Moving it to my place makes absolute sense. This way I’m completely my own boss. Mum can come and go as she pleases—”

  “Why, yes, she can, along with me and half the women in town. Coming and going from the privacy of your home so you can continue to fulfill everyone’s needs while ignoring your own.”

  “I thought you understood.”

  “I do.”

  “No, Kelse. You don’t.” Sienna stepped back and whipped her bag from Kelsey’s desk. “From a business point of view, it makes sense for me to move the shop home: yes or no?”

  “Sienna, sit down. I’m only trying to help you find the escape and self-indulgence you need. Tell me the last time you had a day at the spa or even a cappuccino and wedge of strawberry cheesecake with me? Tell me the last time you let a guy take you out for dinner?”

  Sienna opened her mouth to protest, but sexy Blue Eyes came into her mind once more. Damn it. “Look, I’ll get the business moved, let all my customers know about it and the date I’ll reopen, and then you and I will go away for a couple of nights, okay? We’ll have a spa weekend with cheesecake and cappuccino and everything.”

  Kelsey smiled. “Are you serious?”

  Sienna raised her hand as though she was taking an oath. “I promise. Now draw up everything I need to get the ball rolling.”

  Kelsey wrapped her arms around Sienna in a boa-constrictor-strength hug. “A whole weekend, girlfriend. Pamper by day, predators by night. I’m telling you something right now: use it or lose it. Start living by what you preach, Missy, or your customers will start thinking you’re a fake.”

  They say the truth hurts, and Sienna could only presume the lash that had just struck her chest like a whip had the word guilty etched on its tip. She shrugged from Kelsey’s embrace. “New premises. New life. We’ll go away, and when we get back, I’ll think about looking for a new man, too. How’s that?”

  Kelsey took her elbow and steered her toward the door. “I would so like to believe you, but I don’t. You’ve had men ask you out, but you haven’t said yes to one of them in over a year.”

  “Maybe nobody has sparked my interest for a while.” She winked. “Things change when you least expect it.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Kelsey narrowed her eyes. “Have you met some—”

  “See you later.” Sienna pressed a kiss to Kelsey’s cheek and scooted through the door, slamming it rather succinctly on her friend’s question.

  Chapter Three

  SIENNA PULLED INTO HER DRIVEWAY feeling a million times more optimistic than she had before she’d met with Kelsey. She’d only just cut the engine when an ear-splitting scream came from outside the car. Sienna sat bolt upright.

  “Bloody hell.” She pressed her hand to her racing heart and looked through the windshield.

  The sight that greeted her didn’t bode well for the quiet night she hankered for.

  Yet a traitorous smile tugged at her lips. Why did those twins have to be so cute? Sienna watched Holly and Katy run back and forth across the front yard, and a burst of laughter bubbled in her throat. If her guess was right as to which twin was which, it was Katy who screamed hysterically in one continual stream of terror while Holly chased her with what looked suspiciously like dog poo on the end of a stick.

  “You’re a little firecracker, my girl,” Sienna said, laughing. She then turned to see Blue Eyes was also in the yard, and she groaned. Now that was just cruel.

  Clearly, Jack Beaton possessed the same unfathomable gift all parents of young kids seem to have—the innate ability to completely zone out to the chaos erupting all around them and walk about as though they’re alone in a silent meadow. But it wasn’t the way Jack calmly steered a wheelbarrow around the lawn that made Sienna’s heart race, nor the way he stopped and held up a rather raggedy-looking tulip bulb and smelled it, as though checking what it was.

  What injected lust into her loins like liquid aphrodisiac would be his half-naked state of undress. His back made a perfect triangle, tapering down to a hard, buff ass encased in what surely had to be tailor-made Levi’s. A film of perspiration glinted along the length of his naked, golden spine as muscles rippled beneath the skin in all their sinewy glory.

  Sienna sighed. It was pointless to deny he caused sensations in her that hadn’t been stirred for a mighty long time. She ran the tip of her tongue over dry lips and squeezed her thighs together to stem the throbbing. Why did a man who looked like that have to move in next door when she had so many problems? Damn, if she hadn’t already felt as though her entire existence teetered on a precipice, she might have even tried to get used to the idea of kids for some up-close and personal time with a guy like that.

  As if to put Sienna out of her misery, Jack abandoned his gardening, picked up a box from his driveway, and carried it inside the house.

  Sienna stepped out of her car and closed its door as quietly as possible. Maybe she could get inside her house before he walked back out for another box and noticed her—God only knew how she’d manage to maintain eye contact with him looking the way he did. She e
dged to the front door.

  But when she glanced toward his yard, she stopped. The driveway looked as though a bomb had exploded in the middle of it. Boxes and crates were strewn all over the place; crockery, pots, and pans spilled from their tops like a multi-colored river of household necessity. A blender, a portable heater, and a million other bits and pieces were scattered everywhere, as well as three or four mobile racks filled with clothes. It was as though a moving van had pulled up outside and just dumped its cargo at the curbside. Jack would be there until nightfall getting everything inside the house, let alone putting it all into some kind of order.

  Sienna shook her head. Typical that a man should first turn his mind to gardening, or preferably digging a damn hole, when he didn’t have as much as a kettle to boil water in once he got inside. Which, judging by the current state of the yard, would be approximately four hours from now. He had two little girls to feed, bathe, and get to bed as well.

  “Damn it.” Sienna exhaled, plastered a smile on her face, and sauntered to the picket fence separating their driveways. “Hi, girls.”

  The twins abandoned their hysterical screaming and ran toward her.

  “Is Daddy okay?” Sienna asked. “He looks as though he could use some help.”

  The one she thought was Katy—because she had less of a laser glare—stared at her with huge blue eyes, wide and sad. She shook her head. “He said we’re getting in his way. Daddy never says we get in his way. He’s sad.”

  Sienna glanced toward the house. “Do you know what happened to make him sad?”

  Katy opened her mouth to speak, but Holly got there first. She fixed Sienna with eyes that could bend metal. “He’s moody with Mummy.”

  Katy gasped. “Shh, don’t say that. He’s not thinking about Mummy.”

  “Yes, he is. He does all the time.”

  Sienna’s mind whirled into overdrive. Thinking about Mummy, huh? The question was, exactly how was he thinking about her? Did he still love her? Resent her?

  There was only one way to find out.

  “Does he miss her?” Sienna kept her voice as quiet as possible without actually whispering. If she whispered, her question could be deemed as snooping. She wasn’t snooping. She was just interested.

  A deep and very male cough made Sienna and the girls simultaneously jump. Sienna guessed her own eyes were as big as theirs and her cheeks equally red. Slapping on a smile that felt wider than the breadth of her face, she turned. Jack stood in the doorway of the house, his arms crossed.

  Sienna swallowed. The look on his face wasn’t that of the friendly, welcoming neighbor she’d seen two days before. More the face of a mad psycho who had missed the last three months of therapy sessions.

  “Hey, Jack.” She waved. “I thought you could use a hand.”

  He strolled toward her, his thumbs hooked into the pockets of his jeans. “That’s very kind of you.”

  The amused shine that had lingered so sexily in his eyes the other day had evaporated, leaving behind nothing but cool detachment. If there were ever any doubt as to the girls’ paternity, the need for DNA evidence would have been entirely unnecessary right then. The three pairs of eyes watching Sienna were identical, and more than a little unnerving.

  She rolled back and forth on the balls of her feet and stretched out her arms, steadfastly resisting the allure of Jack’s naked torso. “It looks like the fall of the Berlin Wall out here. I’ll come round, shall I?”

  “There’s no need. I’ve got it covered.”

  “Come on. You’ve got the twins to sort out, boxes all over the place—”

  “You think I can’t handle that by myself?”

  Sienna dropped her arms. “I was offering to help. That’s all.”

  He stepped closer. His eyes, darkened to almost midnight blue in the evening sun, bore into hers. “Me and the girls can cope just fine. There’s no need for you—”

  She held up her hands. “Fine, I was just being friendly. There’s a cold glass of wine and a hot bubble bath waiting for me inside. I’ll leave you to it.”

  Sienna had moved to walk away when Katy’s soft hand reached over the fence and gripped hers. “Please come. I want to show you my new bedroom.” She looked to her dad. “Daddy, please?”

  Sienna’s heart picked up speed, a little trepidation mixing with shock at Jack’s coldness. What had happened to this family to make him so defensive and his kids so sad? Couldn’t he see they wanted a little fun?

  Clearing her throat, she said, “I can give you half an hour. Why don’t you take me up on it before I change my mind?”

  His eyes narrowed as he stared, and though it made Sienna’s bravado seep from her veins to pool into a useless puddle at her feet, she willed herself to stare him down. His gaze wandered languidly over her face, altering as it did so. That shift might have gone unnoticed by someone else, but Sienna ran a shop specializing in sex. She noticed those subtle changes in a person, and she understood what they meant.

  She was also aware her nipples had tightened under the thin cotton of her T-shirt. As though attached to them by lengths of string, Jack’s eyes dipped to her chest. They widened for an almost imperceptible moment before he looked up.

  If she’d thought his intention had been feral before, it was damn near animalistic now.

  Dear God, the man had the uncanny knack of making her want to lift her skirt and flash her bits at him in some sort of desperate mating dance. Her heart beating hard, she willed him to help out and say no to her challenge. It would be much safer to flee to her house and bolt the door firmly behind her.

  The look vanished, and he faced Holly and Katy. “Half an hour, okay?”

  Katy nodded. “Okay. Quick, Sienna.”

  Damn. Sienna grinned with gritted teeth. “Great.”

  With her bottom lip trembling with the effort it took to keep smiling, Sienna stepped away from the fence and walked down her driveway and into his at a snail’s pace. Why, oh, why had they had to be outside? Why, oh, why did he have the cutest girls known to man? Why, oh, why did she have the urge to slam Jack Beaton down on the lawn and lie on top of him?

  Katy ran down the length of the driveway to greet her. She took the hem of Sienna’s T-shirt between her thumb and forefinger and pulled her forward to stand face to face with Jack. He held out a box of kids’ toys to her, his eyes glinting with satisfaction. Oh no, he wasn’t going to get her with those damn eyes and twitching mouth again.

  Sienna slid the box from his hands and winked. “Where do you want it, Daddy?”

  Jack watched Sienna from the corner of his eye as she unpacked wineglasses from newspaper and carefully lined them up in one of the kitchen cabinets. She intrigued him. The sexual prowess that came off her in near intoxicating waves was enough to make a man set up home in a cold shower. Fortunately, experience had made him wise to a woman with the body to turn men’s heads. There was little chance he’d fall victim to Sienna’s cocoa-brown stare.

  Been there, done that, and look where it had gotten him. Avoiding an ex-wife like the damn proverbial plague.

  Yet, it had taken him all of five minutes since meeting Sienna to ascertain she definitely wasn’t married. No wedding band, no sparkly engagement ring. Guessing her to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight, he knew a woman who looked like her was single by choice. With her long hair passing thick and lush over pert breasts and a waist a man itched to splay his hands around, she was one good-looking woman by anybody’s standards. So if he was so averse to such a package, why the hell was he still staring at her?

  Because she was beautiful. He’d be an idiot not to see that, but it was more than that irritating the hell out of him. It was her. The flashes she had of a temptress stalking her next prey reminded him of his ex-wife. Although, the big and noticeable difference with Sienna was how delicate she looked when she thought no one was looking. Almost fragile. When she’d spoken to Holly and Katy over the fence, with her brow furrowed and her cheeks flushed, she’d looked like a woman w
ho could nurture children and make a house a home.

  Then again, he’d made the same assumption about Martina. He wouldn’t fall into that trap again.

  Jack stole a direct glance at Sienna. When she noticed and smiled at him, he snatched his attention back to the blinds he’d been attempting to hang at the window.

  The sexual part of Sienna was hazardous enough, the softer side even more so. Stupidly, Jack had thought the “businesswoman” next door would rarely be home and that, when she was, she would be aloof. Sienna was the antithesis of that. Regardless, the impression he’d gotten so far was that, as a young businesswoman, Sienna ranked children far down on her list of priorities. So whatever that softness in her was, it wasn’t directed toward family life.

  Yet he was unable to resist another look at her. He stared down the length of her body, from her thick chestnut brown hair to the slim waist and firm little butt encased in black denim, down to her bare feet. And when she reached up into one of the higher cabinets, Jack inwardly groaned. The movement had revealed two or three inches of smooth, tanned stomach between her T-shirt and the waistband of her jeans. The temptation to touch her rippled through his fingers.

  She caught him staring again, and heat hit his face like an inferno.

  “Is this okay?” she asked.

  “Hmm?”

  “The glasses.” She laughed. “I don’t know how anal you are with this sort of stuff. If someone arranged glasses in my cupboards, I’d bite their head off.”

  Blinking his way out of his sexual coma, Jack smiled. “They look great. Whatever you think best.”

  She placed her hands on her hips. “Wow, you’re a real conundrum. Do you know that?”

  Her smile was infectious, and he couldn’t help laughing. “What?”

  “Well, take earlier, for example.” She arched an eyebrow. “You were touchy as hell. Now you’re happy for me to come into your house and take over the organizing. I’m sorry, Jack Beaton, but you don’t add up.”