The Price of Passion

by Stephanie Morris

  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Kaden move toward the stereo and slide in a CD. One of the songs they’d danced to at Andy and Hillary’s anniversary party drifted through the air, a slow Sugarland ballad that tugged at every single one of her emotions.

  She finally found the bravery to peek at Kaden again.

  He gave her that lopsided grin. “May I have this dance?”

  Her eyebrows drew together. “You know I’m a terrible dancer.”

  “At the party, Andy told me I’d be a fool if I didn’t ask you to dance.”

  Her scowl eased. Tim had told her she was an awful dancer, and she’d believed him.

  “Come on, Sierra, what harm can it do? Unless you don’t feel up to it.”

  She knew all too well what harm it could do.

  She could use the excuse that she needed to rest. But it wouldn’t be the truth. Honestly, a big part of her—the uninhibited and inquisitive part of her that she thought she’d had under wraps—yearned to be in Kaden’s arms.

  He offered his hand. She was lost.

  His fingers encircled hers, and he pulled her to her feet, drawing her near until she stood only inches from him.

  “Place your arms around my neck.”

  She did, but the move practically left her standing on her tiptoes. At least at the party, she’d had on heels, reducing the difference in their heights, making him a lot less intimidating.

  Now she was entirely too cognizant of how small in stature she was compared to him.

  “I won’t step on your toes,” he promised, his hands at the small of her back, drawing her closer.

  She felt him, all of him, firm and masculine, pressed against her body.

  In the beginning, she moved awkwardly. Languidly, through the combination of the meaningful words of the song and his comforting sway, she relaxed.

  Logs in the fire crackled, and she didn’t know if the warmth she felt came from it or from the way Kaden held her. The latter, she figured, her breath stuttering out when one of his hands moved further down her back.

  Greedily, he persuaded her to come in even closer.

  Domination.

  That’s what it was, no question about it. She’d made a vow to herself to never be controlled by a man again. But pressed against him so intimately, willpower went out the window. She rested her head on his chest, giving into temptation.

  “I could hold you in my arms like this all night,” he whispered.

  The man was an expert. When it benefitted him, he could leave her weak in the knees. He held her the right way, spoke in the right seductive voice, moved in perfect rhythm with her, making it appear as though she could really dance. Kaden dissolved her ideas of elusion and replaced them with desire. He’d done it to her once before in the exact same manner.

  She knew better now, but it didn’t matter.

  “Penny for your thoughts.”

  Sierra didn’t want to go there. “Too cheap.”

  “Okay, I’ll make you a counteroffer. How about an entire night without me pestering you?” he offered.

  “You have a deal.” With a smile, she leaned her head back to look at him. “I was thinking I shouldn’t be doing this with you.”

  “Oh?”

  “It’s not wise of me.”

  Something indecipherable flashed in his eyes. Brightened by firelight, his eyes seemed to bore into her, searching for her secrets.

  “I know better. You seduced me—”

  “Is that how you think it happened?”

  Her steps wavered. Immediately, he adjusted until they once again moved in harmony.

  “I recall it another way,” he murmured. “I remember seeing you standing in the corner, all alone. And that dress.”

  She’d made it especially for the occasion, on a dare from her cousin. Black, satin, form-fitting and cut low in the back, it was unlike anything Sierra had ever made and worn before. The reason she and Eve almost had more orders than what they could keep up with.

  “I wanted to see you out of it. But that wasn’t the reason why I asked you to dance. I wanted to see your eyes looking into mine.”

  My eyes?

  “I’d noticed your eyes before. At the post office. You were dropping off a box at the post office.”

  “Package, Kaden. Not a box, a package.”

  “Box, package, whatever. Bottom line is, I was captivated by you.”

  He held her tighter. They continued to move and sway against each other. A part of her wished this moment would never end.

  “I was shipping a dress for a customer.”

  “Have you always wanted to be a seamstress?”

  She smiled, and when he bestowed upon her one of his own, her steps faltered.

  He hesitated, too, and the music continued in the background.

  “No. I just sort of discovered I had a knack for it. I actually made a lot of my own clothes back in high school.”

  With a small amount of pressure on her spine, he started to move again. She followed his lead. If only their lives could be this easy. The issue was, in most areas of her life, she didn’t want to follow his lead.

  “Do you like what you do?”

  “I love it,” she responded without hesitation.

  “Good. As I was saying, I noticed your eyes. You were holding the package tightly. Your eyes sparkled with happiness. But that faded when you saw me staring at you. It was as though a veil dropped over them, as if you were scared to have me watching you so intently. Wasn’t that a short time after you moved back to town, after your divorce?”

  She felt faint. He knew too much about her, she realized.

  “Unfavorable topic?”

  “I just prefer to leave the past in the past,” she mumbled.

  “So why the same expression now?”

  “The same expression?”

  “You’re practically frowning. Your mouth is drawn tight, and your eyes are darker than they were before. It’s the expression that says back off, the one you’ve used to keep most of the male population in this town from making a beeline to your door.”

  She tried to move away, but he tightened his grip.

  “It becomes clear when I’m getting too close, Sierra. You had that same look on your face before I got into the shower that morning. Later, I beat myself up for not reading you better. I won’t make that mistake again. So tell me, why did you agree to come home with me?”

  She knew he wasn’t referring to this afternoon and her heart began to race when she realized he held her firmly in his arms.

  Kaden had wanted answers since the morning she’d run away from him. Over the next several weeks, he’d left many messages on her answering machine at home and on her cell, had stopped by the store a half dozen times. Thankfully, she’d seen him coming every time and talked her cousin into lying to him, saying Sierra wasn’t there. The two times he’d come to her home, she’d pretended not to hear the doorbell or his knocking.

  “Huh?”

  He was right. He was too close. Men who got too close hurt her.

  The song ended, but another began.

  “I don’t know,” she finally whispered, unable to look away. She’d asked herself that countless times.

  “You were lonely,” he supplied.

  “No, well, yes.” At the anniversary party, she’d been thinking of all the people who were with their significant others, then thought of her large, empty bed.

  “This morning you were adamant that this is my baby, that you hadn’t been with another man.”

  “No other man, ever, except my ex-husband.”

  “Ever?”

  The single word sent a tingle down her spine, and so did the truthfulness he wanted. “Ever.”

  “So why me?”

  She shrugged. “At the time, you appeared to be harmless.”

  He arched a dark brow in her direction.

  “I wasn’t thinking straight,” Sierra admitted with a sheepish grin.

  “Weren’t you?”r />
  “I knew you didn’t allow just anyone in your bed,” she replied with certainty.

  “Excuse me?”

  Heat rushed up her neck, toward her face, filling her cheeks with her embarrassment. “It is well known that you are very selective about who you are intimate with.”

  He remained silent.

  “You didn’t have an unsavory reputation.” She wished the heavens would crack open and sweep her up.

  “You inquired?”

  “No, I heard,” she amended.

  She didn’t add that Eve had talked her ear off before the anniversary party, recalling how handsome Kaden had looked as the best man at the wedding. Eve had said quite a few nice things about him. Which was rare. Her cousin knew her history and rarely broached the subject of the opposite sex. Eve had even been the one who said she was positive Kaden had only acted the way he had during the end of his marriage and divorce because he’d been left without a choice.

  Eve’s words had drifted around in Sierra’s mind when Kaden had approached her at the party. “And I know if you were friends with Andy and Hillary, you couldn’t be too unsafe.”

  “And now?”

  “I realize toxins come bundled a lot of different ways.”

  He looked at her intently. “Did it work?” he questioned softly. “Us making love—did it cure your loneliness?”

  She didn’t even attempt to pull her gaze away from his, couldn’t pulled away from the grip he had on the small of her back, her neck, couldn’t stop herself from answering truthfully.

  “No. It didn’t cure my loneliness.” What she wasn’t willing to admit was it made it worse.

  “Then maybe I can erase it this time.”

  His hold tightened and he drew her against him. He lowered his head.

  Her heartbeat went into overdrive.

  Kaden was going to kiss her.

  Chapter Five

  When he’d asked her to dance tonight, he hadn’t planned to kiss her. But now that she was in his embrace, pressed against his body, he didn’t plan to release her without doing so.

  A wave of longing swamped him, undesired and unsought. It had taken him a long time to heal the wound Leah left on his heart. And on the day he’d tossed their wedding photos into the fire, he’d sworn he’d never again let a woman get close.

  But now...

  Now, he not only wanted Sierra close, he planned to keep her there.

  He didn’t like his own impassioned response to her. However, that didn’t stop him from moving. Cupping her neck, he held her still for his kiss.

  “Kaden?”

  He liked the way she said his name, with a quiver of desire that said she wanted his kiss, even if she fought that craving. “Yes?”

  “I—”

  Before she could get the rest out, he captured her bottom lip between his teeth. He softly swiped his tongue against the fullness of her lip, then suckled it.

  She released a pent up breath. Deep down, he expected her to pull away, but she didn’t.

  “I’m going to kiss you now, Sierra.”

  Her eyelids fluttered, and he caught a glimpse of her hazel eyes, the color lightened—by anticipation? He wondered.

  Not wanting to release her to make certain, he just forged ahead. Brushing his lips against hers, once then twice, he waited for her submission.

  She didn’t let him down.

  Gradually, she opened her mouth to him.

  As if he’d waited all his life for this, he took what she surrendered.

  Fierce and unrefined, need swelled within him.

  He deepened the kiss, his tongue seeking hers. With a tiny sound of need, she responded.

  He didn’t recall it being this way the first time. Back then, she’d been uncertain. But this, Sierra was asking for something in return.

  If he’d found her captivating before, now he found her utterly enchanting. She rocked toward him and he moved, placing one of his legs between hers for support. Leaning against him, she took over the kiss, and he felt her tongue against his, tasting, discovering. Her heat seeped into him, making him hard.

  Kaden knew it was too soon.

  He’d only wanted to dance, nothing more. He’d wanted to wipe away her loneliness. He hadn’t expected the same feeling to overtake him, too.

  Until this moment, he hadn’t given loneliness a single thought. But this evening, the house no longer echoed with emptiness. When he’d gone back to the house after completing his chores, he’d known she was inside, waiting for him. For the first time in years, Kaden felt replete.

  Before he lost his self-control, he ended the kiss. His heart pounded, like the way it had when he’d snuck Phoebe Haswell into his room at the Dunn’s home.

  Replete.

  Yes, that was a good word for it.

  “You’re a great dancer, Sierra.” He stared down into her eyes. They were barely open, but green spikes across the rich hazel gave clues to her inner thoughts. “Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

  When she didn’t instantly pull away, he was astonished.

  “This isn’t going to work,” she whispered.

  “What isn’t?” He prayed she didn’t feel the effect she had on him.

  “This...”

  “Tell me.”

  “Kissing me won’t brainwash me into allowing you to control my life and not let me have a say.”

  No, but it might jumble his brain. “That’s not what my intent was,” he clarified.

  The glow of passion dissolved into a scowl of skepticism. It was back, her suspiciousness of him. Instinctively, his grip tightened. Inhaling deeply, he made himself relax.

  “So what were you doing?” she questioned.

  “Dancing with my future wife?”

  “Why?”

  “Why?” he parroted.

  She nodded.

  “Because I wanted to.”

  She laughed, a distrusting little sound.

  “Surely you can’t think I’m not interested in you?” His brows bunched together. “Let me guess,” he continued. “You think I was dancing you, kissing you, touching you because I want to influence you. So that you won’t show any resistance to my plan.”

  “That’s what it seems like.”

  “Sierra,” he said, gently, very, very gently. “I don’t know what your experience was like with Tim, but I don’t trick or play games with the woman I’m involved with. If I want to have something my way, I’ll tell you.” With his thumb and index finger, he turned her face toward his. “And when I kiss you, you can be damn certain it’s because I want to, because my blood boils for you.” He confirmed his declaration with another passionate kiss, leaving both of them struggling to breathe.

  “Now unless you want me to take you upstairs to my room and show you that this is about desire, a strong sexual attraction for you, I advise you to go to your own room now and lock the door.”

  With stiff shoulders, she turned quickly and practically ran up the stairs.

  The slam of her door rattled the forest painting on the wall.

  Kaden paced the living room, physical and emotional energy swirling in the pit of his stomach. It was about passion, as he told her. But he hadn’t been struck by this sort of feeling in more years than he cared to count. There was something else. He wanted her to crave him, like she had that night.

  Like she’d never yearned for another man.

  He wanted her, ring, marriage, baby and all.

  The quicker the better.

  It was going to be a long night with a tantalizing woman only a few doors down.

  * * * *

  “What about an engagement ring?” Sierra asked, her fingers clenching around her cup of decaf tea.

  “Women who are getting married typically wear one,” Kaden responded, leaning across the table toward her.

  “But—”

  “You said you are feeling well enough to go into the store,” he reminded her.

  “That’s different,” she counte
red. But she had a difficult time trying to stay on topic. This morning, only inches away from her, across the kitchen table, Kaden was even more appealing.

  He’d showered, and dampness still clung to the thick strands of his hair. As usual, his hair was tied back with a leather band. He smelled of spice and soap. The black denim jeans he’d chosen hugged his hips and lean muscular thighs.

  Worst of all, he’d left the top two buttons of his long-sleeved cotton shirt unbuttoned, giving her a glimpse of the smooth, muscular bronze skin beneath it. She remembered running her fingers across his chest, his back, and lower.

  She took a huge swallow of her tea, then winced when the heat stung her mouth.

  “Tell me how it’s different, Sierra. You feel good enough to go to work, but not shopping?” He pushed his coffee aside. “Are you trying to get away from me again, or is it my ring you don’t want branding your finger?”

  “Yes. No.” Surprised by his insight, she released a pent up breath. When she’d informed him she was ready to go back to work, she’d been hoping to get some time away from him. She wanted to be alone to sort a few things out. Even in the spare room, his closeness had nearly driven her insane. Every time she fell asleep, she’d dreamed of him. She hadn’t been able to escape.

  “Yes?” he prodded.

  “I thought I’d just wear a simple wedding band.”

  “If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a traditional sort of guy. Humor me.”

  As though she really had a choice.

  “If he’s available, we can talk to Vernon Miller while we’re in town. See when he can perform the ceremony.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut against the wallop of emotions. Kaden was moving too fast, like hurricane winds pummeling the eastern seaboard.

  “Unless you want to be married by a Justice of the Peace?”

  Shocked, her eyes snapped open. “You’re asking my preference?”

  He sighed, then placed one of his hands over hers. “I’ve told you I’m not a monster. This is just as much your wedding as it is mine. Work with me, Sierra.”

  His truthfulness set her off balance. When he was dominating, she could ignore him. But when he revealed his emotions, she couldn’t refuse him. “Being married by the Justice of the Peace seems less duplicitous.”