First North American Publication 2002. Copyright © 2002 by Kate Walker.
All rights reserved.

The Hired Husband

Kate Walker

Synopsis:

Sienna Rushford desperately needs to claim her inheritance from the
father she never even met - but his will states she must be happily
married! The only man Sienna can turn to is Keir Alexander. She knows he
needs a short-term business loan, so she proposes a deal: in return for
her financial help, they will marry, temporarily. But Keir, not content
with being a "hired husband," has a proposition of his own - that for
the next year their marriage is real....

5

'You want what?' His expression said it all, Sienna reflected unhappily.
He didn't have to speak a single word. Shock, disbelief and sheer
antipathy to her suggestion were stamped clearly onto Keir Alexander's
hard features, leaving her in no doubt as to how he felt. 'You want
what?' he repeated now, the edge in his voice sharpening on every word
as his deep brown eyes glared into her anxious blue-green ones. 'I-I
want you to marry me.' It sounded so much worse the second time around.
Starker, more incredible, more impossible. She couldn't believe she'd
ever had the nerve to ask him once, let alone manage to reiterate her
request in the face of his reaction. If she could have taken it back she
would have done so at once, but she had no alternative. She'd tried
every other approach, considered every possible answer, but none of them
would work. It was Keir or no one. He was her last chance; and if he
didn't agree to help her then she was lost. Finished. 'No way, lady!' It
was hard, inflexible, adamant. 'No way at all.' 'But-, 'I said no!'
'But, Keir... But she was talking to the back of his head, and a moment
later to empty air as the door slammed to behind him. Keir had walked
out on her, rejecting her and her proposal outright, not even sparing
her a backward glance. Closing her

6

eyes in despair, her sigh a deep, helpless sound of defeat, Sienna sank
down into the nearest chair. So what did she do now? she asked herself,
shaking her dark head despondently. There was nothing she could do. No
answer presented itself. No fairy godmother appeared to wave her magic
wand and put everything right. When she opened her eyes everything was
the same as before, the future stretching ahead dark, bleak and with no
light at the end of the tunnel. It had been the worst year of her life
so far, and it was still only July. First Dean, and then the loss of her
job as an aromatherapist when the beauty salon in which she had worked
had closed down. That had been followed by the discovery that her
mother, who had clearly been unwell for some time, was in fact suffering
from multiple sclerosis. And then, to cap it all, the landlord who owned
the small flat she and her mother rented had informed them that he was
selling the building. The new owners planned to turn it into a set of
offices and they would have to move out- soon. Oh, it wasn't fair!
Sienna slammed one fist into the palm of the other hand in a gesture of
frustration and distress. Her mother had to have a home. Somewhere she
could live in the comfort and security she needed. The perfect place was
available-was hers for the asking. But only if she could meet the
conditions laid down. And with Keir's rejection of her proposal her last
chance of doing that had been destroyed. She doubted if she would ever
see him again. She didn't know how long she sat there, lost in her
misery. She had no idea how much time had passed before the sound of the
doorbell pealing through her flat jolted her out of her unhappy reverie.
At first she was tempted to ignore it, but when it became obvious that
whoever was outside had put their finger firmly on the button and
intended keeping it there until they got a response, she forced herself
to her feet, dashing down the stairs and wrenching open the door. She
couldn't believe the Sight that met her eyes. Keir Alexander stood on
the doorstep, dark head held high, his jaw tight, every muscle in his
tall, strong body taut with resistance. 'All right,' he said, his voice
cold and hard as a sharpened knife. 'Start talking---convince me.'
Sienna talked as she never had in her life before. She couldn't believe
that she'd been given a second chance, but she was going to grasp it
with both hands, do everything she could--anything she could-to ensure
it didn't get away from her. 'I know this isn't the way either of us
would have done this,' she began, even as they were still climbing the
stairs to the first floor where she and her mother lived. 'Not in an
ideal world, anyway. It's certainly not the way I ever dreamed of
marrying, but beggars can't be choosers. It's the only way I can think
of for getting out of a very tight corner indeed, and if you don't agree
to help then there's no one else I can turn to.' She couldn't look at
him as she led him into the small sitting room that he had stormed out
of such a short time before, painfully conscious of the fact that it was
only a few short weeks since the first occasion on which he'd visited
her home. Just two months or so since the party at which they'd met.
'You know how ill my mother is-and that it can only get worse. I need to
find somewhere for us to live so that I can look after her properly,
so...' 'So naturally you want your father's house?' Keir put in harshly.
'Yes. Sienna's voice was low and shaken, still carrying the echoes of
the way she had felt when a solicitor had contacted her out of the blue.
She had been stunned to discover that her father, the man who had
abandoned her mother before Sienna had even been born, had had a belated
attack of conscience and decided to acknowledge her as his daughter.

8

As his wife had died some years before, and he had had no other
children, he had left her everything he owned in his will. But there was
a catch. 'If my-if Andrew Nash hadn't left me all that money, I don't
know what I'd have done. And if he hadn't put in the condition, then I
wouldn't be forced to involve you in this.' At last she turned to face
Keir, her heart quaking as she saw the heavy lids that hooded his eyes,
hiding his thoughts from her. His hands were pushed deep into the
pockets of his dark trousers, his shoulders stiff, his very stance
declaring hostility and opposition to everything she said. 'The
condition being that you have to be married, I presume?' 'That's right.
In his letter he said that he'd lived his life wishing he'd chosen
differently all those years ago. That he'd realised too late that the
love my mother and I could have brought him as a family was more
important than the wealth he kept by staying with his wife. And so he
made it a prerequisite of my inheritance that I had to be married-
happily married---before I could inherit.' 'Happily married,' Keir
echoed cynically. 'And who's to be the judge of that?' 'My ... I Sienna
couldn't get her tongue round the word 'uncle'. After twenty-five years
of believing she had no family at all, it was too much to accept that
she now had an uncle, particularly one who held her future so securely
in his hands. 'His brother, Francis Nash, is to have the final say in
seeing that his wishes are carried out. But he knows nothing about me.
He's never even seen me. It shouldn't be too hard to--to convince him
that... that...' 'That you and I are madly in love and desperate to get
married?' Keir finished for her when she couldn't complete the sentence.
'That's right.' It was barely more than a whisper and once more her eyes
skittered away from the coldly assessing stare that fixed her like a
specimen on a laboratory slide, awaiting analysis. 'W-would you like a
drink? There's wine...' 'I think I'd better keep a clear head for this,'
Keir returned dismissively. 'I wouldn't want anything to muddle my
thinking.' Did that mean he was actually considering the idea? Sienna
didn't dare to allow the thought to enter her mind. 'So you want me to
play the devoted groom?' He made it sound like the most repellent task
possible. As if he would rather put a gun to his head-anything other
than what she had asked of him. 'To lie? Don't you know that lies have a
nasty habit of breeding more lies? Before you've time to think you're
tangled up in them so tightly that you can't get free and they're
dragging you down...' 'But we're not going to lie! Not really. People
already know us as a couple. We've been seen out together often enough.
It wouldn't be all that different from what we have now. It wouldn't!'
she declared vehemently when he expressed his disagreement in a harsh
sound of disbelief. 'You're here almost every night as it is. What if
I'd asked you to move in with me?' 'I'd think you were taking a lot for
granted, lady.' 'Keir, it's only supposition!' Desperately Sienna tried
to make up the ground she realised she'd lost. 'We both know that our
relationship isn't on that sort of footing---that it will probably never
be. But we're the only ones who know that. And what we do have is good,
isn't it?' Keir's stony face gave her no encouragement and it was all
that she could do not to give up in despair. ' If we decided to say,
after a year, that we knew it wasn't working, then we could split-both
go our own ways-and it wouldn't matter. There'd be no frayed ends, no
regrets, no complications.' 'But this arrangement comes weighed down
with complications,' Keir pointed out with cold reason. 'It can't not do
that. A marriage certificate complicates things, darling.'

10

'But it's only a temporary solution, you must see that!' she pleaded
with him. 'It won't mean anything to either of us, so you needn't worry
about getting trapped in something you don't want! There'll be no
commitment beyond that one year-just a twelve month period and then
we'll go our separate ways.' 'You make it sound so simple...' 'It is
simple! It couldn't be anything else. After all, it's not as if you're
madly in love with me, or vice versa. And...' Her voice faded into
silence as Keir snatched his hand away from her and moved to stare out
of the window, affecting an intent interest in the cars going by in the
street. 'It might work,' he said slowly. Was it possible that he was
going to agree? Sienna was past knowing whether she hoped for his
agreement or feared it dreadfully. She was so caught up in her own
disturbed thoughts at the prospect that she jumped like a startled cat
when he suddenly whirled round to face her. 'And what, exactly, would I
get out of the deal? Because I presume you were going to offer me
something-some remuneration for my co-operation, some compensation for
the loss of my freedom by entering into this agreement.' 'Of course.'
Sienna swallowed hard. She had expected this. Had known it must come
inevitably. But she hadn't thought he would be quite so cold-blooded
about it. You fool! her heart reproached her. What had she expected?
That he would declare that of course he would do it, that he would do
whatever she wanted and not expect anything in return? Of course not.
She had known she would have to offer Keir something in exchange for his
agreement to help her out. It was just that she hadn't been prepared for
the way his demand made her feel that it was that compensation that
mattered and not her. 'So?' Keir prompted harshly when she couldn't find
the voice to answer him. 'You-You remember what you told me about the
shares in Alexander's?' She had been frankly surprised that he had
opened up about so much of his life to her. Keir was the sort of man who
kept things very much to himself, limiting the conversation Only to
uncomplicated, unemotional topics that didn't call for much involvement
on either part. But just three nights earlier he had revealed something
of the problems he had been having with the haulage and transportation
company of which he was part owner and managing director. Problems that
had been caused by his stepmother, his late father's second wife.
Alexander's was a family firm. Originally owned by Keir's father, Don,
it had been an ailing, small-scale enterprise when, at twenty-one and
fresh from university, Keir had taken it by the scruff of the neck and
dragged it forcibly into the late twentieth century. In the following
twelve years he had turned it into a huge international success. It was
now impossible to travel anywhere in Europe or beyond without seeing one
of Alexander's distinctive red and green vehicles somewhere en route.
'Did you manage to raise the amount you needed to buy your stepmother
out?' Keir's expression gave her the answer before he spoke, a dark
cloud of anger shadowing his face. 'I raised it, but then she upped the
stakes again. She says she has another potential buyer in the offing. If
that sale goes through then Alexander's as a family firm will cease to
exist.' 'And that's so important to you?' The look he turned on her
scorched her from head to toe with its impatient contempt for the
stupidity of her question. 'Alexander's is mine, Sienna-mine! I'm not
prepared to see it the subject of some hostile take-over and swallowed

12

up, becoming just part of another company. I promised my father that,
and I'll keep my promise if it kills me.' 'But if your stepmother keeps
asking for more?' Keir's scowl was blacker than ever. 'She knows how
much I've invested in modernising things--buying new vehicles,
computers, everything over the past year. Given time, that investment
will pay off, several hundredfold, but right now it's stretched me to my
limit. And Lucille knows that, damn her!' 'How much time would you
need?' 'Twelve months, maybe less...' Sienna knew almost to the exact
second the moment that realisation dawned. She saw the subtle changes in
his expression, and those dark, knowing eyes slid to her own face,
fixing on it in intent appraisal. 'That's what you're offering.' It was
a statement, not a question, absolute conviction ringing in his tone,
and she could almost hear his astute brain working, weighing up pros and
cons, subjecting the idea to shrewd and careful analysis. 'Keir, my
inheritance will make me wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. I'll have
more than enough to keep myself and my mother in comfort. And I'll be
able to help you out too. Oh, don't say no!' He was going to. She knew
it just by looking at him. And now that what she hoped for, what she'd
prayed might happen, was actually within reach, she couldn't believe
that fate would be unkind enough to snatch it away again, right at the
last minute. 'Keir, please don't say no! You can pay me back if you
like. But I can give you the money you need, and you can help me. I need
this-we both do!' Just what was going on inside that handsome head of
his? What was that keen, calculating brain thinking? She felt like the
accused in some terrible trial. As if she was standing in the dock with
Keir acting as both judge and jury, very definitely counsel for the
prosecution, about to attack her verbally. For perhaps thirty of the
longest seconds of her life she watched and waited. Watched him
consider, debate with himself, accept certain ideas, then just as
swiftly reject them. At long last he drew in a deep, uneven breath. 'Two
conditions. . .' he said slowly. 'Anything! Anything at all, if you'll
just say yes!' 'Condition one...' Keir marked it off on one long finger
of his left hand. 'We have a proper wedding. All the trimmings. A church
ceremony, flowers, candles, the lot.' 'Whatever you say.' It was almost
impossible to get the words out. Her pulse- was racing so fast that her
heart seemed to pound against her ribcage, leaving her unable to breathe
properly or keep her voice in any way steady. 'And--and condition two?'
'After the proper wedding we have a real marriage. I won't stand for
anything else. For one thing, there's no way we'll convince anyone that
this is the love-match you're supposed to have by the conditions of your
father's will if we don't look really together. It's all or nothing.'
All or nothing. Almost from the moment that they had met she had known
that Keir wanted their relationship to be a physical one. He had made no
secret of the desire he felt for her, and she had been the one trying to
apply the brakes. 'Trying' being the operative word, she acknowledged
uncomfortably. Because she couldn't deny the effect he had on her. From
the first moment that he had kissed her, an irresistible, potently
sensual chemistry such as she had never known before had sparked between
them. It had swept her off her feet, turned her world upside down,
taking with it every long-held belief she had ever had about who she was
and how she behaved. It was all the more difficult to cope with because
she had never felt like this with Dean. Dean whom she had loved,

14

believed in, trusted. Dean to whom she had given her heart, but even
then had never felt the same dangerous, wild excitement that Keir could
inspire with simply a look, a touch, a brief caress. She had never
understood how she could feel that attraction for a man she barely knew,
let alone cared for in the deepest sort of sense. But perhaps that same
excitement would be the saving of her now. Perhaps the unnerving
response she felt towards Keir would be enough to turn the fiction of a
marriage she was proposing into something that would convince all
observers it was actually fact. But that still didn't make it easy to
answer. Her throat closed over a knot of powerful emotions so that all
she could do was nod silently, unable to speak a word. 'You agree?' Keir
demanded, still in Grand inquisitor mode. 'I-I agree-' It was only as
she formed it out that comprehension dawned, bright and vivid, blinding
her with its brilliance. She couldn't believe it. Could it possibly be
true? 'A proper wedding!' she gasped, struggling to collect what
remained of her scattered thoughts. 'A real marriage after a proper
wedding! Keir--do you mean--are you agreeing to my proposal?' The look
he turned on her had such a scorching intensity that it seemed to sizzle
through the air, sending electrical impulses along every nerve in her
body. It spoke of hunger and conquest and passion. But most of all it
was redolent with a desire so carnal it seemed positively indecent in
the cold light of day. 'Yes, Sienna.' Hearing his voice, Sienna blinked
in disbelief. Suddenly that blazing sensuality was gone, wiped from his
face as if it had never been. His tone was emotionless, totally
controlled, as blank and indifferent as his eyes, which could have been
carved from dark marble they were so cold an lifeless. 'Yes, I'm
agreeing to your proposal. Under those conditions, then, yes, I will
marry you.'

17

'WELL, we did it!' Sienna's voice was breathless with a mixture of
triumph, relief and something coming very close to panic that she prayed
the man beside her wouldn't be able to detect. The same emotions were
mirrored in the sea-coloured brilliance of her eyes as she turned on him
a smile edged with a tension that, try as she might, she was unable to
erase completely. 'We did it,' Keir echoed gravely, no answering smile
lighting the darkness of his own gaze as it locked with hers. 'But did
we get away with it? That's the real question.' 'Oh, don't be silly!'
Sienna made the reproof as careless as was possible when her heartbeat
and breathing refused to settle down into anything like their normal
rhythm. 'Of course we got away with it! Why wouldn't we? And don't say
that-you make it sound as if we've done something wrong.' 'And we
haven't?' At his tone, the precarious euphoria that had buoyed her up
evaporated in a rush, leaving her feeling disturbingly limp and
deflated, like a pricked balloon. 'No, we haven't!' Infuriatingly, she
couldn't give the words the conviction she wanted; a quaver she couldn't
suppress took all the certainty from her declaration. 'Are you so sure
of that? There are those who might label what we've done as fraud, or at
the very least an attempt to swindle money from the Nash estate.' 'I'm
not swindling anyone! I am a Nash, remember? By blood, at least, if not
by name. And the only person who might feel defrauded of anything is my
father, or rather he might if he was still alive. But, seeing as he
never took any interest in my existence from the day I was born, I very
much doubt that anything I do now is going to trouble him in the least.'
Moving impulsively, she laid a hand on Keir's arm, her fingers white
against the deep colour of his superbly tailored suit as she looked up
into the hard-boned strength of his face. 'Don't tell me you're having
second thoughts at this late stage?' 'Not second thoughts, no.' Keir
pushed one strong hand through his hair, ruffling its gleaming darkness.
'But if we're strictly honest we are pulling a fast one on all those
people in there.' A slight inclination of his head indicated the door at
the far side of the room through which the buzz of a hundred
conversations could easily be heard. 'Especially your mother.' 'It's
because of my mother that I'm doing this,' Sienna reminded him in a
vehement undertone made necessary by the need to avoid being heard as
the door swung open, revealing the crowded room beyond. 'And you--' But
there was no chance to finish the sentence, because at that moment a
loud, stentorian voice broke through the noise, silencing it
immediately. 'Ladies and gentlemen-pray silence for the bride and
groom!' 'Oh, Lord!' Taken by surprise, Sienna lurched into a nervous
flurry of activity. A hasty glance in the huge, ornately framed mirror
over the fireplace reassured her that her veil was still securely
anchored, the delicate silver headdress holding it firmly in place in
the brown curls of her hair, a couple of shades darker than Keir's. Her
make-up, carefully applied some four hours before, was still almost
perfect: a soft wash of beige shadow emphasising

18

the almond shape of her eyes, the long, thick lashes enhanced by a
single coat of black mascara. Perhaps the warm pink on the full softness
of her mouth had faded just a little, and there seemed to be a
surprising lack of colour across the high, slanting cheekbones, but
there was nothing she could do about that now. She could only hope that
their guests would put her pallor down to excitement or belated wedding
nerves. Patting her cheeks lightly, in an attempt to bring some blood to
the surface of her skin in order to make its ivory tones look a little
healthier, she turned back to Keir. Meeting his darkly watchful gaze,
she switched on what she hoped was a convincing smile, supremely
conscious of the fact that it was distinctly ragged round the edges.
'Ready?' he asked, and held out his hand to her. Sienna could only
manage an inarticulate murmur that might have been agreement as she
smoothed down her long skirt with uncertain fingers. Made of the finest
lace over a delicate silk lining, the dress had originally been her
grandmother's, worn on her wedding day almost fifty-five years before.
Carefully preserved, wrapped in tissue paper to protect it from the
yellowing effects of the light, it had been handed down from mother to
daughter in the hope that wearing it as a bride would pass on something
of the love that had made the older woman's marriage such a happy one.
But for Sienna's mother, Caroline, there had been no such happy ending.
There hadn't even been a wedding ceremony, her daughter reflected
bitterly. Her father had already been married. He had had no intention
of leaving his wife for the naive twenty-two-year-old who had been
foolish enough to let herself get pregnant as the result of what had, to
him at least, been just a pleasant holiday dalliance, with no commitment
whatsoever. 'Sienna...' A note of reproof sharpened the edge of Keir's
voice, dragging her from her reverie. 'Our guests are waiting.' The hand
he held out moved imperiously, the gesture demanding her instant
obedience. For a brief moment the idea of rebellion flared in her mind,
but almost immediately she dismissed it. For now she had to observe all
the conventions, play up to everyone's belief that this was the love
match of the century. Keir and Sienna, second only to Antony and
Cleopatra, or Cathy and Heathcliff in the lists of the all-time great
love stories. Out there, in the elegant dining room beyond the great
double doors, was Francis Nash, her late father's brother and only
surviving relative. If he was not convinced by their marriage and the
whirlwind romance that had apparently preceded it, then the game was
well and truly up. One false move and her chance of making sure that her
mother spent the rest of her days in the comfort and security she so
needed would be ruined. And so she forced herself to smile again, with
rather more success this time, drawing herself up to her full five foot
nine as she placed her hand in Keir's. 'I'm ready,' she declared. 'Let's
go.' Hard fingers closed tightly over hers, though whether in
encouragement or warning not to take any more risks she couldn't be
sure. 'Come on, then,' Keir said, his voice unexpectedly roughened and
tight. 'Let's get this show on the road.' Not giving her time to think,
he swung her round and, with her hand held high between them, marched
her forcibly across the room, leaving her with no option but to follow
him. It was either that or be dragged embarrassingly in his arrogant
wake. In the doorway Keir stopped suddenly, dark head held high, deep
brown eyes scanning the elegantly dressed crowd before him as a murmur
of interest greeted their appearance. Surprised by his unexpected
stillness, it was all Sienna could do to avoid cannoning into the broad,
straight line of his back.

20

Automatically her free hand came out to balance herself, closing over
the tight muscles in his arm as she came to an uncertain halt at his
side. 'Perfect,' Keir murmured softly, threading the word through with a
dark cynicism that she had never heard from him before. 'Now we look
just like the model bride and groom on the top of that ridiculously
over-decorated cake you insisted on.' Sienna began but her muffled
protest was ignored as Keir, having caught the eye of the waiting mattre
d', gave a swift, curt nod as a signal to proceed with the reception.
'Ladies and gentlemen ... may I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Keir
Alexander?' But that was too much. Sienna's head came up sharply,
turquoise eyes flashing repudiation of the announcement. 'Mr. Keir
Alexander and Sienna Rushford!' she pronounced, against the flurry of
applause that had greeted the announcement. 'I-' But the rest of her
words were silenced, forced back down her throat, as, with a muttered
expletive, Keir caught her in his arms, hauling her up against him as
his dark head lowered, his mouth coming down hard on hers. 'Keir!' His
name was a spluttered sound of protest against his lips. It was all she
could manage before he kissed her again, with even more ruthless
determination. 'Looks like Keir's got a tiger by the tail, all right.'
On the borders of her awareness Sienna heard one of Keir's adolescent
stepbrothers make the comment in an aside that was obviously meant to be
heard, pitched as it was in a tone that carried clearly in spite of its
apparent restraint. The malicious amusement in his voice was impossible
to miss. 'Let's hope he's not bitten off more than he can chew.' Against
her slender length Sienna felt the tension that stiffened Keir's hard
frame, tightening every muscle into an unyielding wall that seemed to
bruise her just to be pressed close to it. So it was almost impossible
to equate what all her senses were telling her with the apparently
sensual indolence with which he slid his mouth away from hers, trailing
it softly over her cheek until his warm breath teased the delicate
curves of her ear. 'Do you want this to work or not?' he whispered
silkily, his words meant for her hearing alone. 'Of course...' 'Then
kiss me!' 'Keir ... ?' Confusion clouded her eyes, made her voice just a
shaken thread of sound. 'Kiss me.' With a raw, uncontrolled sound in his
throat, he closed hard fingers over her chin, wrenching her face up to
his once more. But this time when his mouth touched hers it was with an
unexpected, beguiling gentleness, a voluptuous tenderness that made her
senses swim, her heartbeat slow to a heavy, languorous thud. Against her
back, the strength of his arm was all that held her upright. Without its
support she felt that she would melt away completely, sliding into a
warm honeyed pool at his feet. Her whole body glowed, heating the blood
in her veins until she felt as if she was flooded with molten gold, a
burning spiral of very primitive need uncoiling deep inside her. She
wanted to feel Keir's mouth all over her skin, not just on her mouth;
she longed for the caress of his hands on parts of her body too intimate
to be appropriate on this public occasion. It had been like this from
the start, she acknowledged hazily with the little rational thought that
was left to her. With Keir she no longer knew herself. She became a
stranger even in her own eyes. In her place was a woman who had her own
slender height, delicate oval face and thick fall of long dark brown
hair, but who acted in ways she had never seen before. That Sienna
rushed into situations that only months before she would have fled from,
screaming in panic.

22

Situations like this travesty of a marriage that was only for show, with
no real foundation in fact. It was several long drawn-out seconds before
the realisation that what she had believed to be distant thunder, or
even the crazed pounding of her heart echoing inside her head, was in
fact another, louder round of appreciative applause from their audience.
A couple of the younger guests even added enthusiastic wolf whistles to
the chorus of approval. With carefully feigned reluctance, Keir broke
the embrace and turned a slightly rueful smile on her heated face. To
the onlookers, it must have appeared quite genuine, but Sienna had
sensed the careful judgement that had had him ending the kiss the full
space of several heartbeats before he'd lifted his head. She had seen
the calculating look he had directed into her glazed eyes, the
triumphant twist to that wide mouth as it had abandoned hers, leaving
her aching for more. Straightening fully, Keir slung a possessive arm
around her waist as he turned to face the assembly of friends and
relations. 'I'm afraid my wife-' a chorus of cheers greeted his use of
the word for the first time since the completion of the marriage
ceremony '--has strong feminist views that mean she insists on using her
own name instead of adopting mine. Some of you may find that rather
unromantic, but personally I have no problem with it. After all, when
she indulges my every whim in everything apart from this...' A careful
emphasis on the words 'my every whim' left no room for doubt as to
exactly what other things he had in mind. 'Who am I to deny her this one
wish for independence if it means so much to her?' Milking the situation
for all it was worth, he smiled down into Sienna's flushed face, his
appearance to all intents and purposes every inch that of the doting
husband. 'Don't be embarrassed, darling,' he reproved softly. 'You're
amongst friends here. Everyone knows how we feel about each other.'
Struggling against a crazy desire to kick him hard on the ankle, in
order to let him know exactly how she felt about the charade he was
acting out, Sienna forced herself to swallow down the anger she couldn't
afford to reveal. Painfully conscious of Francis Nash, standing just a
few feet away from her, watching Keir's fooling with an intently
speculative air, she managed a rather sickly smile. But she knew that
the curve of her lips wasn't matched by the look in her eyes, which were
flashing furious reproof and a warning of later retribution into Keir's
mocking face. He really was taking things way too far. Nothing like this
had been mentioned in their agreement. But Keir appeared totally unmoved
by the silent rage in her eyes. Instead, taking advantage of the fact
that a waiter carrying a tray full of glasses of champagne had just come
within reach, he appropriated one of the crystal flutes and held it
aloft, dark eyes smiling knowingly down into hers all the time. 'If
you'll indulge me,' he declared to the surrounding audience, 'I'd like
to propose a toast. To Sienna-my beautiful bride, and the woman who has
made me the happiest man in the world by becoming my wife today.' The
man really was incorrigible! In spite of herself Sienna found it
impossible to hold back a disturbed squawk of protest at this blatant
lie. If Keir didn't stop, someone was going to see right through his
over-the-top performance and to start to wonder what the real truth was.
'Keir!' she protested softly, knowing that any further show of anger or
impatience would only make him worse, drive him to even more dangerous
extremes. 'You're embarrassing me.' Immediately he was apparently all
repentance. 'I'm sorry, darling. You're right. 'There's a time and a
place for this, and that's not here and now. We'll finish later...'
Deliberately he let his voice drop a couple of octaves,

24

so that it became a husky purr, rich with sensual promise. 'When we're
alone.' Which earned him yet another cheer of enthusiastic appreciation
from the spectators, all of whom completely misunderstood the reasons
behind the burning colour that suddenly flooded the bride's face. 'I'll
look forward to that,' she shot back in swift retaliation. 'But for now
we have our guests to see to. Please, everyone--help yourselves to
drinks. I'm sure you're ready for them. Lunch will be served in half an
hour. In the meantime ... ' She directed her attention back to Keir, her
voice and her expression hardening as she did so. 'I think you and I had
better circulate-talk to a few people... I'll take this half of the
room...' She had nerved herself for further play-acting on his part,
perhaps even a downright refusal to do as she asked, but surprisingly it
didn't come. Instead Keir simply lifted his glass in a silent, mocking
toast before turning and strolling off in the opposite direction from
the one she had indicated. Silently Sienna watched him go, small white
teeth worrying at the fullness of her lower lip as she did so. It would
all have been so much easier if she could have been in love with Keir,
even just a little. After all, that shouldn't have been too hard. He was
the sort of man almost any woman with red blood in her veins would have
fallen head over heels for. Tall, strong, impossibly good-looking, with
the sort of potent hardcore sexuality that turned susceptible female
brains to jelly, leaving them incapable of thought. He was successful
too. A self-made man. A man she could be proud to have at her side,
proud to call her husband even for such a strictly limited time. But he
would never have her heart. That wasn't hers to give. She had already
lost it to someone who had proved every bit as unworthy of her love as
her father had been of her mother's lifelong devotion. No, she mustn't
think about Dean. Sienna's teeth dug in harder as she fought against the
tears that burned in her eyes. She had thrown in her lot with Keir, and
that was the way her future lay-at least for the term of their contract
together. It was an arrangement that she had been convinced could work
so well for both of them. But today Keir had behaved in a way she'd
never seen before. Sienna's sea-coloured eyes went to where Keir stood,
his dark head thrown back, his face alight with laughter at something
his companion had said to him. Suddenly she was brought up hard against
the truth of just how very little she actually knew about this man who
was now her husband. If looks could kill, Keir thought wryly, catching
that turquoise glare from the opposite side of the room, then he would
surely have fallen down dead right on the spot, shrivelled into ashes by
the force of Sienna's anger. She hadn't liked his teasing earlier, and
clearly the thought of it still rankled. He hadn't realised just how
volatile his new wife's temper could be. His wife. Carefully he tested
the word inside his mind, not yet sure exactly how he felt about it.
'Keir!' A powerful handshake was accompanied by a hearty slap on the
back from a tall man with a bushy dark beard and laughing hazel eyes.
'Congratulations, mate! I never thought I'd see the day that you joined
the ranks of married men. This Sienna really must be some woman.'
'Believe me, she is.' Keir could only pray that his words didn't sound
as insincere spoken out loud as they did inside his head. Richard Parry
had been his friend for over twenty years now, ever since they had first
met up at secondary school, and if anyone was likely to smell a rat at
his sudden decision to marry then Rick was that person. 'She has to be.
I was really beginning to wonder if you were married to that company of
yours. You seemed to spend every waking hour of your life in the
office.' 'There have been some problems.' The muscles in Keir's jaw
tightened, making his reply sound clipped and distant.

26

'My father's death was so unexpected that it left a lot of things
unresolved...' 'But that was-what?----eighteen months ago? Surely you've
sorted things out now?' 'Just about.' Keir nodded slowly, his eyes
darker than ever as he thought back over the past year and a half.
'There's one last complication I have to deal with, and then everything
will be just how I want it.' In his business world at least. His
personal affairs were quite a different matter. But right now all he
could think of was the relief that that one 'complication' had been
lifted from his shoulders. It had been the bane of his life for ten
years, and he hadn't been able to wait to see the back of it. Only now
did he feel free to turn his attention fully to the vexed question of
his reckless marriage. 'And when can we expect to hear of a whole new
generation of Alexanders?' It was Richard's wife who spoke, her voice
soft and gentle as her nature, bringing her husband's head round to her
at once. 'Give the poor lad a break, Jo! He's barely put the ring on her
finger! Let him at least enjoy the honeymoon before you wish the joys of
parenthood on him. Not everyone wants to be plagued with the sort of
brood we've got.' The laughter in Richard's voice was belied by the way
his eyes lingered on the swell of his wife's stomach, evidence of how
close he was to becoming a father for the fourth time. 'But you always
said you wanted children, didn't you, Keir? And I think you'd make a
wonderful father-if the way you get on with Sam, William and Hannah is
anything to go by.' 'Your children are like their mother, Joanna.' Keir
smiled. 'They'd get on with anyone at all without any trouble. But I
don't think you should look for the chance of a couple of playmates for
your gang at any time in the near future. Sienna and I haven't even
talked about having kids...' What would be the point when this charade
of a marriage they had embarked on wasn't meant to last much longer than
a full-term pregnancy anyway? But he couldn't admit that to Rick and
Joanna, who were so blissfully happy in their own union that they would
find it hard to understand the convoluted reasoning that had led to his
taking Sienna as his bride. 'Now if you'll excuse me ... I'd better
rejoin my wife.' Coward! Keir reproved himself as he turned away and
began to weave a path through the crowd to where Sienna stood on the
opposite side of the room, pausing occasionally to shake a hand,
acknowledge congratulations and good wishes. But his mind wasn't on what
he was doing. He knew he couldn't have faced any more of Joanna's gentle
questioning without blurting out something that might have given the
game away completely. The trouble was that Rick and his wife had known
him for too long. They had been there all those years before when, under
the influence of rather more wine than had been wise, he had declared
with impassioned certainty that he would never marry unless he knew it
was for ever. That only the conviction that the relationship would last
for a lifetime, nothing less, would get him up the aisle and put a ring
on his finger. So how had he ended up doing just that, in the certain
knowledge that what he had entered into was just a temporary contract?
Stopping dead abruptly, Keir looked down at the thick gold band now
encircling his wedding finger, twisting it round and round in an uneasy
movement. How come he had compromised all his ideals in this way?
Because he was so much older now--and he would say wiser. He knew that
such ideals were nothing but fantasies, impossible to achieve. He had
been hit over the head with a strong dose of reality that had driven all
the dreams from his mind. These days he was realist enough to know that
sometimes a pragmatic compromise was the best you could come away with.
'Keir, darling, I'm so glad to see you...'

28

This time the hand on his arm was much smaller, finer, totally feminine.
Adorned with an extravagant display of gold and diamonds, the slender
fingers were tipped with long, pointed nails painted in a violent shade
of red. As Keir stiffened instinctively a wave of some heavy, musky
perfume assailed his nostrils, turning his stomach. He would recognise
that overpowering perfume anywhere, just as he would recognise the sound
of her voice and that false-toned 'darling' that they both knew she
didn't mean in the slightest. She only used it for the benefit of
everyone else around, in order to maintain the illusion-in reality they
had never felt anything other than total hatred for each other.
'Lucille.' He bit the word out, her name leaving a foul, bitter taste in
his mouth. Lucille Alexander. The stepmother from hell and his own
personal demon. The woman he had described with deliberate
understatement as the one last 'complication' he'd had left to deal with
in order to be free of all the problems that had been weighing him down
over the past ten years. The woman whose greedy demands had forced him
into this marriage that was not a marriage but a purely business
arrangement. And as he turned slowly to face her the wave of revulsion
he couldn't control left him in no doubt that the prospect of getting
her out of his life once and for all made the pretence and subterfuge
totally worthwhile.

29

'IS SOMETHING Wrong?' 'Wrong?, Keir's voice was distracted, his
attention obviously elsewhere, and the dark-eyed gaze he turned in his
wife's direction was hooded, shaded with hidden thoughts that she
couldn't begin to understand. 'Why should anything be wrong? After all,
we're both now going to get exactly what we want.' What had put that
cynical note into his voice, roughening it until it scraped her already
over-sensitive nerves raw? But the truth was that ever since Keir had
come back to her side at the start of the formal wedding lunch it had
been clear that his mood had changed dramatically. The playful teasing
that had so disturbed her had vanished, replaced instead by a darker,
brooding distance. 'Well, you could at least act as if you were just the
slightest bit pleased to be married to me,' Sienna hissed in the whisper
necessitated by her determination not to be heard by her mother at her
side and Keir's best man at his. 'If you continue to stare at your plate
as if it was poisoned, and push the food around without tasting any of
it, people will begin to wonder just what's wrong with you!' Especially
those who had just witnessed his Oscar-winning performance as the most
lovelorn and devoted husband of the century. 'Right now you look more
like the condemned man who can't even bring himself to eat his last
meal...' No, anger was the wrong approach entirely, drawing a disturbing
response from him. Seeing the rejection that flared in his eyes, the way
that one long-fingered hand

30

clenched over the starched white damask of his napkin, Sienna hastily
adjusted her tone and expression in the hope of appeasing him. 'It won't
be long before this is all over,' she tried soothingly. 'There's just
the traditional speeches and cutting the cake and then we can call it a
day.' Thankfully, she hadn't given in to the urgings of her friends and
planned an evening party to round off the celebrations. She had been
unable to square the idea with her already uncomfortable conscience,
seeing it as taking bypomsy way too far. And with Keir in this mood it
would have been more like a wake than any sort of revelry. 'We'll soon
be able to be on our own again.' 'And that will be so much better, will
it?' Keir snapped coldly. 'Mr. and Mrs. Keir Alexander--oh, I'm sorry, I
forgot. You want this marriage so little that you don't even think it's
worth changing your name. So I see very little reason why you should be
looking forward to our being alone...' Sienna was astonished at how much
his words stung. They were largely the truth, after all, so there was no
reason for the sudden twist of pain she was experiencing. With a
sensation like the slow trickle of icy water creeping down her back, she
found herself once more in the grip of the appalling unease of earlier
that afternoon. It was as if some alien had moved in, taking over the
shell of the person she had thought was Keir and replacing him with a
total stranger. But he was a stranger she was now legally tied to. For
better for worse. For richer for poorer-in their case, definitely for
richer, unless something went terribly wrong. Which it might do if she
couldn't jolt him out of this black mood. Already interested eyes were
turning their way, obviously made curious by their absorbed
concentration on each other, the muttered conversation that was so
clearly not made up of words of love. There was just one way she knew to
get through to him. 'Keir...' Deliberately she gentled her voice, making
it softly sensual. 'Darling, don't be like this...' She wasn't sure
which startled him the Most. The murmured endearment or the gentle hand
she laid on his. But she couldn't be unaware of his reaction, seeing it
in the sudden widening of his dark eyes. It was there under her
fingertips too, in the tension that stiffened his muscles against her,
the threat of rejection that he only just controlled in time. She knew
how tempted he was to repulse her gesture in a response that would be
totally inappropriate to the impression they were trying to create, and
she knew just as surely exactly when he decided not to use it. 'I'm
Sorry.' It was a low, deep sigh. 'I'm just a bear with a sore head
today.' 'A sore head!' It was Sienna's mother who had caught the
comment, her laughter-warmed tones lightening the atmosphere
dramatically as she echoed his words, leaning forward to smile into
Keir's dark, shuttered face. 'Would that be the result of rather too
exuberant a stag night last night, son-in-law?' she asked teasingly. 'I
would have thought you and your friends'd have more sense...' 'Now don't
blame me!' James, the best man, joined in on a note of amused protest.
'Whatever Keir got up to last night, he did it on his own! And as for a
stag night, all we had was a very sedate meal together at the beginning
of the week, SO YOU can't hold me responsible for the way he's feeling
today. Unless you had some sort of debauched evening that You didn't
invite me along to, you rogue,, he added, with a none too subtle dig of
his elbow into Keir's ribs. 'Nothing of the sort,' his friend returned,
switching on a grin that even came close to convincing sienna, though
she was well aware of how very far from genuine it actually was. Along
with the grin went a belated attempt to look affectionate, by turning
his hand on the table top until his strong

32

fingers enclosed hers completely, his grip warm and firm. The slow,
deliberate movement of his thumb against the sensitivity of her palm
dried her throat, the softly sensual circles he was drawing setting her
heart thudding and heating her blood. Keir's wicked, slanted glance in
her direction told her that he knew exactly what he was doing. That he
had turned her own weapon of the potent effect they had on each other
back on her with devastating results. 'I'm afraid what was occupying me
last night was business. pure and simple,' he confessed ruefully, his
voice revealing nothing of the emotion that Sienna knew would shade hers
if she tried to speak. 'A deal that needed finishing-' 'The night before
your wedding!' James was obviously disbelieving. 'Keir, man, couldn't it
have waited?' 'No way.' The shake of his dark head that accompanied the
flat statement was as firmly emphatic as the words. 'I wanted this
particular matter behind me once and for all, so that I was free to
concentrate on my bride. It's just that negotiations went on much longer
than I had expected...' Lucille had been as difficult as it was possible
for her to be, damn her, Keir reflected grimly. She and her lawyer had
held out for every penny she could get away with, and then some. There
had been times when he had come close to giving up on the whole thing
and walking out, but then, just when he had been about to declare that
he had enough, that she could forget it, she had finally capitulated and
signed on the dotted line. 'I didn't get to bed until well after
midnight, and then I didn't sleep too well.' 'What was the problem?'
Sienna inserted rather tartly, the sensual haze that had enclosed her
evaporating with a rapidity that left her shaken and disturbingly on the
edge of tears. It was his comment about being free to concentrate on his
bride that had changed her mood. She was only too well aware of the fact
that it had been inserted solely for the benefit of their audience. It
had no grounding at all in reality. In fact the real truth was that,
crazily, she didn't even have the faintest idea what they were going to
do once the wedding was over. 'Wedding nerves?' 'Something like that.'
'Oh, come on! That's the bride's prerogative, not the groom's!' She
couldn't believe that Keir-strong, independent, determined,
cold-blooded, heart-free Keir Alexander--had lain awake worrying about
the coming day. Refused to even consider that he might have felt as
apprehensive as she had about the marriage ceremony and what they were
getting themselves into. Not Keir. He was the one who had been as cool
as the proverbial cucumber all the way through this. Once she had
convinced him it was the answer to both their problems, he had taken
every single thing in his stride, handled each detail, every small
hiccup, with the cool assurance that was so much a part of his nature.
'Are you saying that a man can't feel unsure and apprehensive on the
night before his wedding--overawed by the prospect of what's ahead of
him--the responsibility he's about to take on?' 'N-no...' The look in
his eyes disturbed her. They were darker than ever, shadowed by
something she didn't understand. And now that she looked more closely
she could see smudges of weariness underneath them, marks that she had
never noticed before. The faint lines that fanned out from the corners
of his eyes looked more pronounced too, as if etched there by strain and
worry. 'Or are you claiming that if I'd rung you when I couldn't

34

sleep I'd have found you wide awake too, sharing the same sort of
feelings?' 'Well-no, I wasn't.' The truth was that, worn out by rushing
around here there and everywhere for the past five weeks, she had fallen
asleep as soon as her head had touched the pillow. Even the last minute
butterflies in her stomach at the prospect of the day ahead had been
overcome by the thought that tomorrow, finally, all her worries would be
over. 'I didn't think so.' Suddenly the thought that had crossed
Sienna's mind a moment before came rushing back with a new and worrying
force. Once she had convinced him. Keir hadn't wanted this marriage.
When she had first proposed the idea he had rejected it outright. It had
only been when he'd made it a condition that they had a proper marriage,
complete in every way, that he had been persuaded to agree to her
proposal. 'Sienna!' Her name in Keir's voice held a note of warning that
dragged her back to the present. The best man was getting to his feet,
ready to make his speech. Somehow Sienna found the self-control to
appear to be listening. She turned her head in James's direction,
focused her eyes on his face, and even, forewarned by the ripples of
laughter from other parts of the room, managed to smile at the jokes he
made. But the truth was that she heard little of the witty address, and
registered even less. Deep inside, her stomach was just a twisting mass
of nerves, a knot of fear that made her stomach heave nauseatingly. What
had she done? She had actually asked this man to be her husband. To live
with her, share her home, her life, her bed. For the next year, at
least, she would have to make it appear that she and Keir were deeply in
love. That they were no longer two individuals but that indefinable
thing known as 'a couple'. What had seemed so simple just a few days
before now seemed impossible, unendurable, fraught with pitfalls and
traps to catch the unwary. The twelve months that had once appeared such
a short space of time now stretched endlessly ahead, three hundred and
sixty five days of it, and she had no idea how she was going to live
through it. Fear pounded inside her head, beating at her temples, so
that she had to fight against the impulse to push her chair back and run
from the room. She had chosen this path, knowing she had no alternative.
Married to Keir she would inherit her father's money, and with it all
the security and comfort it could bring. Without him she would be once
more alone and desperate, with her mother totally dependent on her. The
speeches were over, the toasts completed. At last she was free from the
obligation to stay in her seat. The feeling caused a rush of relief that
brought her swiftly to her feet, unable to keep still any longer. She
had no idea where she was going, thinking vaguely of heading for the
huge French windows, now flung open in the late summer heat, of getting
some much needed fresh air. Perhaps some deep, cooling breaths would
calm her racing pulse, ease the pressure inside her head. But...
'Sienna...' Keir said abruptly, reaching for her. 'Wait...' His grip on
her arm felt like a steel manacle, imprisoning her. Panic flared afresh
and, reacting purely instinctively, she tensed, pulling back, away from
him, earning herself a dark, disapproving glare. 'What the ... ? Sienna,
just what's got into you? People are looking!' The savage undertone was
somehow more disturbing than if he had actually raised his voice to
express the anger he was clearly barely holding in check. The blaze in
his eyes terrified her, and suddenly the ground no longer seemed steady
beneath her, the duck red carpet shifting unnervingly under the soles of
her white satin slippers. 'I won't go with you!' It was a desperate
whisper. 'I can't!'

36

'Sienna, have you taken leave of your senses? Might I remind you that
this is our wedding day?' Remind her! As if she could forget! 'We have
guests ... people we should speak to.' Speak! Sienna's tongue felt as if
it was glued to the roof of her mouth, preventing her from forming a
word. But with Keir's strong hand still clamped on her wrist, the other
pressed firmly against the small of her back, she had no option but to
follow him out into the room, somehow managing to acknowledge the
greetings of the people they passed. Her face seemed frozen into an
expression of feigned happiness, the muscles around her mouth aching
from smiling too many false smiles. All she wanted was to get away, be
by herself, find peace and quiet in which to try to come to terms with
what she'd done. But Keir was unrelenting in his determination that they
should greet everyone. Ignoring her murmurs of protest, her obvious
reluctance, he steered her from group to group, covering her awkwardness
with the smooth ease of his own conversation. 'For God's sake!' he
hissed in her ear. 'Now you're the one who looks like the condemned man!
Smile, damn you! No one will believe you're madly in love with me if you
look at me as if I was some deadly poisonous snake about to strike.' 'I
am smiling,' Sienna retorted through clenched teeth. 'And as to looking
as if I love you-I'd manage that much better if you didn't frogmarch me
round the room as if I was either drunk or insane. I can manage to stand
on my own two feet, you know. If you'd just let me go...' 'Be my guest!'
She was released so abruptly that she staggered awkwardly, afraid she
might actually fall. Instinctively her hand went out to steady herself,
and to her total surprise she found it taken by someone new. Soft
fingers closed round hers, supporting her. 'Steady!' a female voice
cautioned. 'You nearly took a tumble there.' 'Th-thank you.' With her
balance restored, Sienna managed to turn to her rescuer with a smile
more genuine than anything she had managed before. 'Not to worry,' she
was assured. 'Those long skirts can be so very difficult to walk in when
you're not used to them.' 'That's true!' The woman's perfume was rather
cloying and overpowering, but Sienna struggled not to reveal her
response to it. At last she felt something of her earlier panic
receding, evaporating in the warmth of this new companion's smile. 'I'm
sorry, I don't think. . .' She didn't recognise the face. This must be
someone Keir had invited. Someone she hadn't yet met. 'Keir, won't you
introduce me ... ?' But Keir stood at her side, stiff and withdrawn, his
face appearing to have been carved out of the cold, immobile marble that
formed the statues out on the terrace. Even his eyes were blanked off,
revealing no emotion. Why had this had to happen now? Keir asked himself
furiously. If he had tried to think of the worst possible moment for
Lucille to finally meet up with the woman he had married, then it would
have been hard to imagine one that beat this. Sienna had already been
behaving like a nervous thoroughbred fearful of being handled for the
first time, so he could just imagine how she was going to deal with this
additional development. The problem was that his new wife couldn't lie
to save her life. She had come up with this ridiculous scheme of their
pretend marriage, presenting it as the answer to all his problems as
well as hers, but the truth was that she didn't know the half of it. She
didn't know how appallingly Lucille had behaved-the sort of damage she
was still capable of wreaking if given half a chance. And if his
stepmother so much as suspected the true reasons behind this hastily
arranged wedding, then she was more than likely to pounce

38

on the information like some ecstatic predator. She would use it quite
cold-bloodedly to her own advantage, especially if she could work on his
own destruction at the same time. 'Keir...' Just one word from the other
woman's lips, but it had a dramatic effect on him. His head jerked round
swiftly, his eyes narrowing to mere slits above his high, strong
cheekbones. 'You want to be introduced? Well, fine. It had to be done
some time, so I suppose now is as good an occasion as any. Sienna,
darling, this is Lucille, my stepmother...' He spat the word out as if
it left a foul taste in his mouth. 'Lucille, obviously this is Sienna,
my wife.' Lucille. Sienna couldn't believe what she was hearing. This
was Lucille, the stepmother Keir so detested that he had finally agreed
to their marriage solely because it offered him a way of getting rid of
her, expelling her from his life once and for all? This was the monster
who, like Medusa, had turned his heart to stone in the moment he had
first seen her, and had never let a single redeeming chink of light into
it since then. But this woman was nothing like the one she had imagined.
In her thoughts, influenced by Keir's own feelings, she had created a
vicious harpy, cold-faced and cold-eyed, not this smiling, bright-eyed
creature. And Lucille Alexander was so much smaller than she had
anticipated, smaller and lovelier, with her peachy skin, green eyes and
red-gold hair. But what rocked her back on her feet, threatening her
balance again for a moment, was just how young Keir's stepmother was.
She had anticipated some woman in her late forties, early fifties. This
Lucille looked barely five or so years older than Keir himself.
'Sienna...' Lucille was holding out her hand. 'It's wonderful to meet
you at last. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get to see you at
all. But now that I have I can quite understand why Keir wanted to keep
you all to himself.' 'I doubt if you understand anything at all,' Keir
put in with biting cynicism. 'And if I'd had my way you would never have
been invited to the wedding. But Sienna wanted all my family here and,
much as I hate to acknowledge it, you are family, if only by
marriage...' 'Keir ... !' Sienna put in reproachfully. But Keir ignored
her, his attention still fixed on Lucille. 'But, seeing as you are here,
perhaps it's just as well. There's a small matter of business we can get
out of the way. If you'll just follow me.' Once again he clamped his
hand over Sienna's arm, forcing her to go with him as he turned and
marched towards the door. It was either that or be dragged inelegantly
and embarrassingly in his wake. He didn't pause to look back and see if
Lucille had followed them, apparently totally confident that she would
do just that. And it appeared that his confidence was not misplaced.
When he finally came to a halt in the small private room the hotel had
put aside for the bride and groom's use, Lucille was only seconds behind
them. She was barely through the door before Keir kicked it shut,
blocking off the noise and bustle of the reception. 'Now...' Releasing
Sienna abruptly, he reached into his inner jacket pocket, pulling out a
long white envelope that he dropped onto the highly polished surface of
a nearby table. 'This is what you're really interested in, dear
stepmother. Oh, it's all right...' he added, seeing Lucille's curious
glance in Sienna's direction. 'My wife and I have no secrets from each
other. Quite the contrary. As a matter of fact, it's Sienna, not me,
who's buying you out, at the price we agreed last night. Darling...' It
took Sienna the space of a couple of uneven heartbeats to realise that
Keir was now speaking to her. And even when she had registered that fact
she found herself staring at the fine silver pen he held out to her,
unable to comprehend just what he had in mind.

40

'Sienna,' Keir urged softly. 'I need your signature. The document's all
prepared. All you have to do is sign.' And then it finally dawned on her
just what he meant. Of course. This was what she had promised him in
return for his agreement to go through with the wedding, his name on the
marriage certificate. But she hadn't expected him to hold her to her
promise quite so soon. The ring was barely on her finger, the ink on
that certificate barely dry, and already he was pushing her to complete
her half of the bargain. She was quite unprepared for how much that hurt.

'Sienna,' Keir urged again, more forcefully this time. 'Sign it please.'
For a second or two Sienna was tempted to rebel. let him wait for his
money! He hadn't done anything to earn it! But then Lucille spoke, and
suddenly Sienna found that her mood had changed dramatically. 'So the
little bride is bailing you out, is she Keir, darling? What a generous
wedding present-I only hope she thinks you're worth it. But I'm sure you
will be-in one important area of marriage at least.' Her lascivious
tone, the way her eyes gleamed, her pink tongue positively licking her
lips, made it only too plain exactly what area she meant. Sienna could
only stare, transfixed, unable to believe her eyes. It seemed as if the
Lucille she had first met had vanished and another woman entirely had
taken her place. This was the real stepmother, then, and she was
beginning to understand just why Keir detested her so. 'You always did
give great value there, didn't you, dearest? But I did wonder what had
persuaded you to sign your freedom away like this...' 'I'm not signing
anything away.' Belatedly, it appeared that Keir had remembered the part
he was supposed to be playing. Moving behind Sienna, he looped his arms
around her waist, fastening his hands together under her breasts and
pulling her back against him. 'On the contrary, I'm gaining everything I
ever wanted. A beautiful wife, a new life with her, the prospect of a
wonderful future...' The sensual magic of his touch was working its
spell all over again. Already Sienna could feel her body respond to the
warmth of his, to the strength of his arms around her, the faint crisp
scent of his cologne, so subtle and clean in contrast to the
overwhelming reek of Lucille's perfume. Instinctively she laid her head
back against his shoulder, feeling his lips brush against her cheek as
she did so. In this moment she could almost believe Keir had meant what
he'd said. Could almost imagine that this was a real marriage, not the
cold-blooded business deal Keir had just proved it to be. 'And naturally
you're besotted with him.' Lucille turned a look of scorn on her. 'Well,
I just hope you think you've got a good deal on this--that he's worth
what you're paying him.' Behind her, Sienna felt Keir's hard body
stiffen in swift rejection. But his face showed no sign of what he was
feeling and his hands continued their warm caresses over her arms and
tracing the delicate lines of her neck. 'I'm not paying him,' she
managed, her voice rather breathless as a result of the heightened,
erratic beat of her heart. 'Nor am I bailing him out. What I'm doing is
making our partnership a financial one as well as a personal one. An
investment for our future.' She must have sounded more convincing than
she had hoped, because against her back she felt Keir's chest move in a
silent, secret laugh of triumph. For the first time Sienna felt a sense
of unity with him. A feeling that they were both in this together,
united against a common enemy. The sensation sent her spirits soaring,
and impulsively she twisted in his grasp so that she could brush a kiss
against the softness of his mouth. 'Give me the pen, darling, and show
me where to sign. I

42

want the business side of things over with so that we can concentrate on
more personal matters.' In a haze of euphoria she signed her name with a
flourish, folded up the document and thrust it back at Lucille, feeling
a sense of exhilaration as the other woman took it and deposited it in
her smart cream handbag. 'Well, I'll wish you every happiness together.'
Lucille's tone implied exactly the opposite. 'You're obviously made for
each other.' It was as the door swung to behind her that Keir moved
suddenly and unexpectedly. Sienna found herself gathered up into his
arms and enclosed in a bear hug that drove all the breath from her body.
'Brilliant! You were quite perfect! You even had me convinced that you
were crazy about me.' 'I did, didn't I?' The warmth of his approval was
doing strange things to her. The light in his eyes, the smile that
curved the wide sensual mouth were as intoxicating as the fine champagne
she had drunk earlier. She felt as if she was bathed in the warmth of
the August sun outside, her skin glowing, her blood heating in response.
It was a heady, thrilling sensation and she wanted more of it. 'And
believe me, sweetheart, if you can convince my dear stepmother you can
convince anyone. We might actually get away with this charade after
all.' Charade. Just one single word but it had an effect like the dash
of icy water in her face. Sobering immediately, she felt herself come
back down to earth with a sudden and very painful thud. His approval
hadn't been for her, but for the performance he believed she had
delivered. Charade. Just for a second she had allowed herself to believe
there was something else between them, some unity other than the one
that linked them as partners in a scam to enable her to collect her
inheritance. Something that would make the coming twelve months easier
to live through. But she had only been fooling herself. Keir obviously
wanted no such thing. 'So, now that's out of the way we can move on to
the next stage...' 'The next stage?' Sienna's uncertainty showed in her
voice. 'What next stage is that?' 'Really, Sienna, isn't it obvious?'
The look he turned on her was one of sardonic mockery, mixed with a
strong dose of frank disbelief. 'We're married, darling. The wedding's
over, the reception's coming to an end. What's the logical next move?'
'You don't mean ... ?' Sienna could only shake her head in disbelief. He
couldn't mean what she thought. 'We do what everyone else does,
sweetheart We go on honeymoon.'

45

HONEYMOON. The word swung round and round inside Sienna's head as she
lingered over a glass of wine on the terrace of the villa, enjoying the
cool of the evening after the warmth of the day. Above her head,
swallows swooped through the air in pursuit of midges, the swish of
their wings the only sound in the silence that surrounded her. 'We do
what everyone else does, sweetheart. We go on honeymoon.' She had been
frankly stunned by her own reaction to Keir's declaration. It had been
the last thing she had expected. The nature of their arrangement was so
businesslike and unemotional that she had never even dreamed there would
be any place in it for of the conventional pleasures that were supposed
to follow immediately after the celebration of a wedding. So the
realisation that they were actually to have a honeymoon had left her
quite breathless and surprisingly excited. Somehow the thought of such a
holiday had made her feel like a bride. A real bride, she corrected when
hard common sense had reminded her that she was actually Keir's bride,
even if it was only a pretence at a love match. 'On honeymoon!' she
exclaimed, looking up into Keir's dark face in wide-eyed surprise. 'But
where ... ? What ... ?' A strong finger laid across her lips silenced
her effectively. 'That's my secret,' Keir told her with a grin. 'Isn't
that what the groom's supposed to do? Organise everything and keep the
destination a mystery until the last minute?' It was more usual that the
bride and groom chose the honeymoon together, poring over brochures and
travel articles before deciding on some place they both wanted to visit,
Sienna reflected, something of the euphoria that had lifted her spirits
fading slightly. Of course there would be nothing like that for herself
and Keir. Discretion warned her that it would be best to make no comment
about that. It would only spoil the new warmth that had developed
between them. A warmth she very much needed. The last remnants of her
earlier panic still lingered in her thoughts, clinging like sticky
cobwebs to the corners of her mind, and she wanted desperately to drive
them away. 'I didn't think we were having a honeymoon. If I'm honest, it
never even crossed my mind.' 'A proper wedding, I said,' Keir reminded
her. 'One with all the trimmings.' 'Yes, but this... I mean, can you
afford it?' Big mistake! Bad mistake. It was obvious that he didn't like
what she'd said at all. The curve to his lips vanished at once, his face
hardening ominously. The dark brown eyes took on a dangerous glint that
warned her she had overstepped some invisible but firmly defined line
that he had drawn around his private affairs. Swinging away from her, he
moved to stare broodingly out of the window into the spectacular garden
beyond. 'I may have been forced to into needing a temporary injection of
funds in order to meet Lucille's unreasonable demands, but I am still
very far from penniless,' he snapped out, so sharply that Sienna found
herself taking an involuntary step backwards, away from him. 'And even
if I am only a temporary husband, hired for the period of our contract,
I trust I know what my duties are-'

'Keir, don't! I didn't mean that the way it sounded!' 'Why not?' he
flung over his shoulder at her. 'We both know you wouldn't have proposed
marriage to me if you hadn't been desperate.'

46

'And you wouldn't have accepted if it hadn't suited your business
plans!' Exactly.' 'You make it sound so sordid-so cold-blooded!' With an
abrupt, savage laugh Keir turned back to face her again, hands pushed
deep into his trouser pockets, one black brow raised in taunting
mockery. 'That's what business deals are, my lovely,' he told her
harshly. 'Rational, hard-headed, and as cold-blooded as possible.' If
only that were really true, he reflected bitterly. If only he could have
made this decision as coolly and unemotionally as he handled every other
problem that he came up against in his working life. But in this
situation his natural control had totally deserted him. And the reasons
for that were twofold. Both female. When it came to dealing with either
Lucille or the woman now standing before him, the woman he had just made
his wife, it seemed that common sense or rational thought went straight
out of the window, leaving him uncharacteristically unsure of which way
to turn. As a result he had acted on the sort of impulse that he would
have thought was totally alien to him, deciding to act before thinking
things through to their logical conclusion. Only time would tell whether
that decision would prove to be the best or the worst of his life. 'Why
do you look so shocked?' he went on, seeing her big sea-coloured eyes
darken in distress. 'You know I'm only speaking the truth. Those are the
facts, so why should it worry you to hear them put into words?' Sienna
could only shake her head, unable to find an answer. She couldn't deny
the truth of what he had said. But it still disturbed her to have it
stated so baldly, in the flat, emotionless voice Keir had used to
deliver them. 'Conscience problems, sweetheart?' he questioned softly.
'Does it trouble you to discover that you might be every bit as
cold-blooded and demanding as I am after all? That when you see
something you may want you go for it with all the determination and
ruthlessness you can muster up? And that in pursuit of your dream you
can drive a harder bargain than anyone?' His cynical words caught Sienna
her on the raw, taking her breath away and making her want to lash out
unthinkingly. 'If that was the case then you wouldn't be here right
now!' she flashed at him. 'Believe me, if I could have what I really
want, you wouldn't be the man with a wedding ring on his finger! And if
I was to achieve a dream, then I would have married-' 'I know. Your
precious Dean. The man whose shoes I couldn't possibly fill.' The
temperature in the small room suddenly seemed to have plummeted
dramatically, making Sienna shiver convulsively in spite of the late
August sun summing in through the windows. She felt as if Keir's snarled
words had been formed in freezing blocks of ice that had fallen brutally
onto her delicate skin, chilling her where they landed. With an effort
she brought her dark head up, her face pale and her eyes clouded with
remembered pain. 'Leave Dean out of this!' 'I would if I could,' Keir
shot back, 'but you seem determined to keep flinging him in my face. I
know that he's the one you really love, and that if you could have
married him you would have done. Let me remind you of another truth,
lady. One you obviously don't wish to face any more than all the rest.'
Keir's voice lowered suddenly, dropping to a low, dangerous whisper that
was all the more menacing because of the softness of its tone. 'You
haven't married Dean-you married me. As you just pointed out, I am the
one with a wedding ring on my

48

finger, not your precious lover-boy, who must be cursing his bad
judgement in not staying around a little longer.' 'Judgement? Staying
... ?' Sienna frowned her confusion. 'I don't understand.' 'Oh, come
now, darling, you understand only too well. You're not trying to claim
that if dear Dean had stayed long enough to discover just how wealthy a
young woman you are he wouldn't have had second thoughts about turning
his back on you after all?' Not for the first time, Sienna was thankful
that she had never told anyone the full story of Dean's betrayal, but
had kept the secret hidden away from prying eyes, especially Keir's.
'You think he would have married me for my money? You couldn't be more
wrong.' 'I'm damn sure that he would never have been able to resist the
lure of your inheritance, and he couldn't have turned down the
opportunity of sharing it with you.' 'As you couldn't...' It was a low,
despondent whisper. 'As I couldn't.' Keir confirmed brutally, his
narrowed eyes dark and hard as jet, no face of light showing in them.
'But there's one thing you must remember, my Sienna. One fact that
differentiates me from the man you loved and lost and puts me here, with
you, when he is who knows where, with God knows who. And that is that
you proposed to me. You came to me with your idea of a marriage
contract. Me. No one else. And we both know why you did that. Don't we?'
Sienna found it impossible to meet that cold, obsidian gaze. Nervously
she dropped her eyes to stare at the floor, fixing them on the highly
polished toes of Keir's handmade black shoes, planted firmly on the
thick red carpet. But she couldn't block out the ruthless, inimical
tones of that softly insistent voice as, seeing she was incapable of
speech, Keir answered his question for himself. 'Of course we do. You
wanted someone to act as your husband long enough to convince your newly
discovered uncle that you were head over heels in love and to ensure
that every penny of your inheritance was paid over. You needed someone
who people would believe you might actually want to marry, someone who
wouldn't disgrace you in public. But most of all you needed someone who
you could bear to have in your bed...' 'No...' It was a purely
instinctual response, weak and thready, a protest against the grasping,
avaricious picture he was painting with his words. 'Yes,' Keir connected
gently. 'Oh, yes, my darling. Any number of men would have married you
for the price you were prepared to pay, but you asked me. It's easy
enough to guess why.' Transfixed, frozen into stillness, Sienna saw
those shiny shoes come closer to her, Keir's footsteps silent on the
soft, rich pile of the carpet. Unable to move away, she felt the soft
brush of his skin against hers as his hand slid under her chin, his palm
warm and hard as he impelled her face upwards. When she would have
fought him he simply applied a little more pressure, overcoming her
resistance as if it had never been, until her rebellious blue-green eyes
blazed into his, stubborn rejection of what he was about to say stamped
into every line of her face. 'This is what you want from me...' His
gentleness was what took her by surprise, defusing her protest before it
even had time to form. His kiss was the softest drift of his lips across
her cheek, barely grazing the edge of her mouth in a way that had her
moaning in involuntary disappointment. Because even that featherlight
touch was enough to spark off the hunger inside. Carefully calculated to
awaken need, but not feed it, it was as unsatisfactory as it was
enchanting. Involuntarily Sienna's eyes closed, her head turning in the
direction of that tormenting mouth, seeking more, wanting a proper kiss,
the sort that spoke of urgency and craving, communicating wordlessly the
passion that flickered around

50

them like the build up of static before a violent thunderstorm. Close to
her ear she felt Keir's warm breath, heard his softly triumphant
laughter before she was rewarded with another kiss, only slightly more
definite this time. His lips touched against hers, then danced away
before she could respond, dropping brief, unfulfilling caresses on her
cheek, her forehead, her closed eyelids and finally the dark silk of her
hair. 'This is what burns between us, what neither of us can fight or
deny. This...' 'Keir!' The protest was torn from her, forming on her
tongue before she had time to create any sort of coherent thought. 'What
is it, sweetheart?' Amusement threaded through his voice, making it warm
and teasing as once more those tormenting lips came close, then paused,
only provocative inches away from her own. 'Tell me what you want and
I'll give it to you.' Determinedly keeping her eyes shut, Sienna still
couldn't escape the scent of his skin, the faint sound of his breathing.
It was more than she could bear, her self-inflicted blindness making
every other sense excruciatingly sensitive to everything about him. She
had never been more aware of the warmth of his body, the soft brush of
his hair against her forehead as he leaned closer. 'Tell me!' he urged
again, and the scent of his breath against her face was more than she
could bear. 'Keir!' In spite of herself, her eyes flew open, clashing
with the dark intensity of his gaze so very close. Drowning in those
chocolate-brown depths, she could no longer listen to the voice of
common sense inside her head, heed its warnings, its reminders of the
need for self-preservation. 'Kiss me, damn you! Kiss me properly before
I go completely out of my mind.' 'Your wish is my command,' Keir
muttered roughly, and the next moment she was enclosed in iron-hard
arms, hauled up against the wall of his chest and kissed with a
thoroughness that made her head swim. Without the strength of Keir's
hands, clamped tight against the small of her back, she feared she might
actually keel over, falling in a swooning heap on the carpet. She was
incapable of supporting herself, clinging to the broad, straight
shoulders under the fine cloth of his elegant jacket in a desperate
attempt to keep herself upright. Willingly she accepted the hard
pressure of his lips, the teasing provocation of his tongue. With a
sensual groan her mouth parted to welcome the intimate invasion, her
body coming to life under the knowing caresses of his hands. 'Oh, Keir!'
she sighed, snatching in a swift, much needed breath. Her blood was a
hot, bubbling stream that spread into every corner of her being, making
every nerve, every cell spring into wild, yearning life. She felt that
heat pounding against her skull, pulsing down her throat and along her
spine, coiling around her heart and making her pelvis throb with molten
need. When his hard fingers curved over the swell of her breasts, their
warmth searing into her sensitive flesh through the delicate lace that
covered them, she writhed against him, her hunger spiralling as she felt
the powerful evidence of his arousal. Beneath the soft silk that lined
her dress, her sensitive nipples tightened, hardening in matching
response. Simply knowing that he needed her as much as she wanted him
made her thoughts spin off into a whirlwind of sensation. Before I go
out of my mind! Sienna thought when finally the room stopped swinging
round and she slowly resurfaced from the depths of sensuality into which
she had fallen. She was there already, she admitted to herself. Totally
crazed and incapable of rational thought where this man was concerned.
She didn't care if she was confirming everything he had

52

said about her reasons for marrying him. Couldn't care, because after
all it was nothing more or less than the truth. In the first moment Keir
Alexander had kissed her he had sparked off a conflagration of desire
that was still blazing at white-hot intensity months later. She needed
only a look, a word, a caress, or, as now, the touch of his lips against
her skin, and she was lost. drowning in a sea of sensation with no wish
at all to come up for air. 'Oh, lady, you drive me out of my mind,' Keir
muttered against the soft skin of her arched throat. 'You make me forget
everything I ever learned about civilised behaviour or gentlemanly
conduct. When you're in my arms I feel as primitive as any caveman. I
just want to drag you off to my bed, or push you against the wall, or
down onto the floor...' And she would let him, too, Sienna realised
hazily. With the taste of his skin on her lips, the scent of his hair in
her nostrils, the ragged sound of his breathing in her ears, she had
completely forgotten who or where she was, and why. Her own need, urgent
and demanding as his, would meet and match any move he made. Already,
her impatient hands were under the elegant jacket, tugging avidly at the
buttons on his shirt, anxious for the feel of his warm flesh underneath
their seeking fingers. 'Sienna...' Keir too needed more. His hands were
under the fall of her veil, fumbling awkwardly with the tiny pearl
buttons at the back of her dress, his actions made uncharacteristically
clumsy with need. 'Sienna, you're mine-mine. You could never be with
anyone else, never marry anyone else...' Both so intent on each other,
so absorbed in the elemental force that had them in their grip, they
didn't hear the approaching footsteps or register that the door was
slightly ajar until a voice they both recognised penetrated the burning
mist that filled their thoughts. 'I've no idea where they are! But I've
looked everywhere else, so perhaps they're down here.' Mother!
Realisation hit Sienna in the same moment that Keir's head came up, wide
dark eyes looking straight into her stunned aquamarine ones as they both
froze into absolute stillness. 'Caroline!' In instinctive reaction Keir
jerked away from her as if he'd been stung, his hands coming up
automatically to smooth down his clothing, fasten the buttons she had
wrenched open. It was only now, seeing him a short distance away, that
Sienna realised just what damage she had inflicted on his usually
immaculate appearance. The sleek dark hair was wild and ruffled, his
shirt pulled half out of the waistband of his trousers, his elegant tie
totally askew. Hot colour suffused her cheeks at the thought of what she
had done, of how close they had come to being caught, the scene that
might have met her mother's eyes. 'What's the problem, darling?' Keir
had caught her response. 'Why are you so embarrassed.' 'You know why!'
Sienna whispered, her hands twisting together in uncomfortable unease.
'If we hadn't heard... If she'd come in...' 'She'd have known that I was
kissing you. So what?' Keir's shrug dismissed her concern as utterly
unimportant. 'Kissing!' Sienna rolled her eyes in exasperation at the
understatement. 'Keir, we were more than kissing...' 'And that's such a
crime? Sweetheart, we're married! We're supposed to kiss-and more. In
fact, I'm sure that's what your mother's expecting-why she's been
careful to give us plenty of advance warning. Why do you think it's
taking her so long to get down the corridor? I've never known Caroline
bump into so many things, even if she does walk with a stick.' Of
course. Now that Sienna was able to think more clearly, she had to admit
that her mother was making heavy weather of her progress towards them.
And she was chattering at the top of her voice as she came.

54

But she would be here in a moment. 'Do I look all right?' she asked,
suddenly painfully aware of the way Keir had restored his former elegant
appearance and was looking totally composed and in control while she
still felt flustered and distraught. 'You look fine.' Keir turned a
casually assessing glance on her, sliding from the top of her head down
past her over-bright eyes and glowing cheeks and onto the square-cut
neckline of her gown, where her struggle to regain control of her uneven
breathing showed in the frantic way her breasts rose and fell. 'You look
quite perfect-just as a newly married bride should be.' Then, just as
Sienna vented a deep sigh of relief, he added with a wicked grin. 'You
look thoroughly kissed, sensually aroused, and bitterly frustrated at
having your lovemaking session interrupted-' 'Oh, you... Frantically she
whirled round, hunting for a mirror to assess the damage, but too late.
Behind her she heard Keir's soft laughter blending with the sound of her
mother's voice calling her name. 'Sienna, darling! Keir?' The door was
pushed open and Caroline's thin form appeared in the doorway. 'Ah, there
you are! I rather suspected as much. You wanted a little privacy-.and
who could blame you?' Her smile in Keir's direction was warmly
conspiratorial. 'But your guests are getting a little restless,
wondering where you are. I think it's time to cut the cake.' 'We were
just coming.' Sienna supposed she should be grateful for Keir's
unruffled equanimity. She found herself unable to speak, to form any
sort of coherent answer to her mother's questions. And when she turned
to face the new arrival any chance of even thinking straight was driven
from her mind. For behind Caroline, his bulky frame dwarfing her
completely, stood Francis Nash, the man for whose benefit this whole
pretence of a marriage had been staged. Her thoughts a blur, Sienna's
eyes went automatically to Keir, instinctively seeking help. He stepped
into the breach at once, moving to her side with a smile that was every
bit as loving and devoted as she could have wished as he slipped an arm
around her waist and drew her close. 'We're just coming. I'm sorry if
you thought us rude, slipping away like that, but I had something to
tell Sienna, and I wanted to do it in private.' 'Of course! The
honeymoon!' Her mother's response so startled Sienna that at last she
found her tongue was free to speak. 'You knew!' 'Of course she knew.'
Keir's tone was softly indulgent. 'How else do you think I could arrange
for your bags to be packed and your passport ready for us to leave at
the end of the reception?' The look he turned on Francis Nash was
jokingly conspiratorial-men of the world together. 'I've arranged a
surprise trip for my bride--one she knew nothing about. When I told her,
she became rather emotional and--over-enthusiastic in her appreciation.
I hope you don't feel neglected.' 'Er, not at all... I've been well
entertained.' Francis returned, all the earlier suspicion Sienna had
seen in him melting away in the warmth of Keir's deliberate charm
assault. 'But now, my love, we have to go back to the reception. As your
mother says, we've neglected our guests long enough.' He was directing
that charm at her now, the dark coffee-coloured eyes gazing deep into
her stunned turquoise ones as if they were once more alone together.
Hidden from the couple at the door by the bulk of his body, Sienna
glared her feelings straight into his smiling face.

56

Rather emotional and over-enthusiastic indeed! How dared he? 'But
first,' Keir went on sweetly, ignoring her silently communicated fury,
'I think perhaps a little repair work would be a good idea.' Pulling an
immaculate white handkerchief from his pocket, he tenderly wiped it
around the curves of her mouth. It was only when he lifted it again and
she could see that it had come away stained pink that Sienna realised
how badly her lipstick had smudged in the heat of their shared passion
just moments before. The knowledge of what a mess she must have looked,
and just how deliberately Keir had neglected to warn her of the fact,
added fuel to her already burning anger. Struggling against the impulse
to administer a smart, reproving kick to his ankle, she had to content
herself with glaring even more fiercely at him as he considered his
handiwork. 'There, now you look quite perfect.' Bending to brush a soft
kiss against her temple, he whispered with laughter warming his voice,
'Don't glower so, darling. You'll ruin the good impression we've already
made. Uncle Francis is totally convinced that we just can't keep our
hands off each other.' 'And when I next get my hands on you...' Sienna
hissed out of the corner of her mouth, only to find that her fury made
him laugh even more. 'Promises, promises!' he returned, dropping
another, casual kiss onto the tip of her nose. 'But I'm afraid you'll
have to wait until we arrive at our honeymoon destination. Now, don't
embarrass me in front of your family.' Embarrass! This time Sienna did
kick out at him, only to find that Keir had perfectly anticipated her
reaction and, moving surprisingly quickly and neatly for such a big man,
easily dodged out of reach. Caught off balance, she was forced to grab
at his arm for support, knowing only too well that he was thoroughly
enjoying her discomfiture. Embarrass! The man didn't have an
embarrassable bone in his body, damn him! Her already ruffled mood was
made all the worse by the fact that Keir had deliberately raised his
voice on the last words, so as to make sure that her uncle and Caroline
had heard his laughing comment too. 'It had better be somewhere I like!'
she managed through clenched teeth. 'Oh, you'll love it!' her mother put
in enthusiastically. 'Keir has been so thoughtful... He's chosen the
perfect place.' The warmly approving look she turned on her son-in-law
sobered Sienna up in a rush. All anger seeped away from her, leaving her
feeling unsettled and prey to disturbing thoughts. This obvious
affection that her mother had developed for Keir, the high esteem in
which she so evidently held him, was a complication she couldn't
possibly have anticipated when she had started out on this plan of a
pretend marriage. But it had happened and there was nothing she could do
about it. She could only wonder just how it would affect her mother
when, in a year's time, she had to announce the uncontested divorce
which was the way they had agreed this farce would end. 'Come on,
sweetheart.' Keir's arm around her waist once more urged her out through
the door. 'The sooner we get this cake cut, the sooner we can get out of
here. It won't be long before we can be on that plane and alone
together.' Alone together. Sienna sat back in her chair, breathing in
the warm night air. She and Keir were alone together now. Alone in this
villa-this Italian villa. Now she knew why her mother had been so
excited, why Caroline had so obviously approved of Keir's choice of
honeymoon destination. Sienna herself hadn't had the faintest idea where
she was going. Knowing she had no option but to do as he said, she had
followed Keir blindly to the airport. Exhausted by the stress of the
day, the strain of having to pretend to everyone, to put on a show, even
in front of her own mother, she

58

had simply slumped in her seat, too tired, too drained even to ask or
make any other effort to find out where they were heading. It had only
been when their flight was called that she had had the first inkling of
where she was to spend her honeymoon. 'Pisa!' she'd exclaimed, turning
to stare at Keir in amazement. 'We're going to Italy!'

'That's right-Tuscany, to be precise. I thought you'd like to see the
place where your mother met your father- the place you were named after.
I've rented a villa just outside Siena.' She had thought that things
couldn't get any worse, but it seemed that fate had had this one final,
ironic twist in store for her. Here, in the heart of the Tuscan
countryside, where her father had met her mother, seduced her and
abandoned her, leaving her pregnant, she was finally alone with the man
she had to call her husband-at least for the next twelve months. A faint
movement, a flash of white, caught her vision at the corner of her eye.
He was there. Keir had come out of the villa and was walking towards
her. Slowly Sienna lifted her head and turned to face her husband. Here,
where her mother had fallen hopelessly in love and been left alone and
heartbroken, her own travesty of a marriage was to begin.

59

HE HAD been watching her for some time. In the shadow of the doorway,
out of sight and unobserved, Keir had been standing silently, his long
body leaning against the wall, just watching this woman who was now his
wife. God, but she was beautiful! With her long dark hair now loosed
from the elaborate style that had confined it throughout the long day
and tumbling down her back, her high cheekbones and full, softly sensual
mouth, she made him think of the first time he had seen her. Then, he
had anticipated that her eyes would be as dark as his own. It had only
been when she'd turned, and he had seen with a sense of shock their
soft, sea-washed colour, that he had fully appreciated the singular
nature of her particular loveliness. And that appreciation had grown as
he had come to know her. As he had come to know her! Keir laughed
silently, sardonically, at his own foolishness. He didn't know her at
all. All he really knew was that instant, blazing physical attraction
that had brought them together in the first place. An attraction that
showed no sign of palling but which grew stronger with every day that
passed. Simply standing here, just looking at the delicate purity of her
carved profile, the sensual curves of her body in the soft lilac dress,
was enough to make him feel as he had been kicked hard in the gut,
driving all the breath from his body and making him ache with need. But
as to what was going on inside that exquisite head of hers---there he
was truly groping in the dark. That was why he had determined on this
honeymoon. He

60

had known that she hadn't expected it, that she had believed they would
simply go from their wedding to his home until the house she had
inherited could be adapted for Caroline's use. And it had been that
element of surprise that he had been aiming for, deliberately
wrong-footing her. He had brought her to Italy in the hope that here, on
neutral ground, far away from home and the pressures that had driven
her---driven both of them-to start out on this counterfeit marriage, he
would finally begin to find out just what made this wife of his tick.
But some slight sound he hadn't been aware of making, a movement he
hadn't controlled, had alerted her to his presence. Her head had turned;
he had no alternative but to join her. 'What were you doing, lurking
there in the shadows?' 'I wasn't lurking,' Keir returned cagily. 'I was
simply watching you.' 'Watching me?' It was clearly not what she had
expected. 'Why?' 'Because I like looking at you. Why not? Can't a man
look at his wife?' Sienna reached for the wine bottle on the table in
front of her, her movements edgy and uneven, like her voice. 'We're not
the normal sort of man and wife. Some wine?' 'Thanks...' He took the
glass with deliberate slowness, letting his fingers linger on hers for a
couple of seconds, meeting her wary gaze head-on. 'So it's not normal
for a man to find his wife beautiful?' he asked quietly, lifting his
drink to his lips. Sienna had been about to sip from her own glass, but
now she set it down with a distinct tremor that had her hastily reaching
to steady it before it fell over, spilling its contents onto the stone
flags. 'Of course that's normal! I simply meant that you don't have to
put on the big romantic act just because we're on honeymoon. After all,
we both know it isn't real.' 'Who said it was just an act? I do think
you're beautiful and I want you to know it! And as for romance---we're
in Italy. One of the most romantic countries in the world-'

'Not for my mother,' Sienna cut in sharply. 'I doubt if she thinks of
her time here in that way. I mean, all it led to was betrayal and
heartbreak-'

'You couldn't be more wrong.' 'Oh, so now you know my mother better than
I do?' 'Have you talked to her about it?' Keir set his glass down with
rather more care than she had used earlier. 'Really talked? I think
you'll find that her memories are much happier than you imagine. They're
of a time was she was in love and loved in return...' Sienna's cynical
snort of disbelief made it only too plain what she thought about that.
'Okay-she thought she was loved. And even though it ended unhappily she
doesn't regret having had that experience.' "'Better to have loved and
lost than never to have loved at all"?' Sienna quoted satirically.
'Exactly.' 'You'll have to forgive me if I disagree.' 'You don't believe
that having known Dean was worth it?' Keir enquired, with a deceptive
mildness that Sienna privately felt hid a very different frame of mind.
'That having known love, even if only once, was-' 'I don't think that
anything about Dean was worth it!' Sienna snapped, anxious to cut off
that line of questioning once and for all. 'In fact, I truly wish I had
never, ever met him!, She didn't like the look he gave her, or the way
one dark straight brow lifted slightly, questioning the truth of her
overly vehement declaration. 'And I don't want to talk about him or
anything to do with him. Does my mother really have happy memories of
Siena?' she asked, because she couldn't help herself.

62

Keir's dark head nodded slowly as he swallowed another mouthful Of wine.
,one of the most memorable times of her life, she told me. She also said
that it was impossible to have anything but good thoughts about a time
and a relationship that resulted in her having you.' 'You have talked,
haven't you?' The words came out jerkily, made that way by the
unpleasant sensation of unease that was pricking at her, rather like
mental pins and needles. 'Your mother is very easy to talk to, and our
conversations are always wide-ranging and stimulating. I like Caroline,
and I think she likes me.' god ... Hastily Sienna reached for her glass
again, burying her nose in it so that the dark curtains of her hair fell
down on either side of her face, hiding her expression from him. It was
impossible not to think of the way her mother had looked at Keir as
they'd left the wedding reception. The warm approving smiles, the
obviously genuine emotion in the hug she had given him as they'd said
goodbye. A hug Keir had been only too keen to return, she now recalled.
All her anxieties about Caroline's affection for her new son-in-law and
the potential problems that might result from that came rushing back in
a distressing flood, making her shift uneasily in her seat. 'I wish you
wouldn't.' 'Wouldn't what? Talk to your mother? Sienna, I am her
son-in-law.' 'Temporary son-in-law. What-?' She looked up in shock as
Keir's glass in turn was slammed down on the table top. 'Well it's
true!' she protested sharply. 'You know it's true. I know it's true.'
The statement was cold and clipped, and Keir's eyes, gleaming
disturbingly in the moonlight, were hard, distant and unapproachable.
'But I thought the whole idea was that no one else should know--that
everyone should believe our marriage was the genuine thing. It's going
to look pretty damn strange, not to mention unconvincing, if I don't
even try to make an effort to get on with your mother, especially if
she's going to live with us.' Put like that, there was no denying how
right he was. The very reasonableness of his tone made her feel all
sorts of a fool for even having raised the subject. ,it's just that I
don't want her hurt. She's had enough pain in her life, and now that
she's ill I don't want her to put up with any more.' 'I can understand
your concern, but really there's no need for it.' Leaning forward, Keir
took hold of her hand where it lay on the table, curling his warm,
strong fingers round it. 'Believe me, I would never hurt your mother,
Sienna. You must know that.' 'I-I know...' Sienna wanted to believe that
the unsteadiness of her reply was the result of his touch. That the
simple contact had sparked off the usual mind-blowing physical response
that she experienced with him. But to her consternation she found that
the truth was much more complicated. I would never hurt your mother. She
had no hesitation in believing that. But would he offer the same
assurance for Sienna herself? Would he be able to say, with the same
conviction, I will never hurt you? And the fact that she was even
considering the problem was the most disturbing part of it. She would
have said that nothing Keir could do could ever hurt her. After all,
wasn't that why she had chosen him? Because in their relationship there
were no unwanted complications, like emotional involvement of the sort
that, after Dean, she was determined to avoid like the plague? So how
could anything he did affect her badly enough to cause pain? 'Why the
big sigh?' To her horror she had betrayed the way she was feeling,

64

and Keir had caught it. Immediately she jumped onto the defensive, too
shocked by her unexpected thoughts to try to explain them even to
herself. 'I was just thinking of my mother, and-Andrew Nash. I still
can't think of him as my father.' 'That's hardly surprising. After all,
you never even saw him. And a father is so much more than someone who
plays a physical part in your conception. Andrew Nash forfeited his
right to that title when he walked out on your mother twenty-six years
ago. A belated bequest in his will doesn't alter anything. Did I make a
mistake, Sienna?' 'A mistake?' Sienna frowned her confusion as much at
his change of tone as at the question itself. Keir had lowered his voice
until it was a softly husky whisper, a sound that brushed over the ends
of her nerves in a way that made her shiver in disturbed response. 'In
bringing you here? Did I make the wrong decision when I chose Italy for
our honeymoon? Would you have preferred France, or perhaps somewhere
exotic-a beach and palm trees?' 'No!' Sienna hastened to reassure him,
amazed to find that he sounded as if it actually mattered to him. 'No,
it wasn't a mistake. Mum's talked about Tuscany so much, and I've always
wanted to see it for myself.' Feeling suddenly disturbed and restless,
she got to her feet, moving to lean against the stone wall that edged
the terrace, staring out into the countryside, now completely dark
except for a few scattered lights. 'Which way is Siena? North or south?'

'That way...' Keir came to stand beside her, pointing away to their
right. 'And Florence is in the opposite direction, back on the road we
drove along on our way here from Pisa.' 'I can't wait to see the
countryside in the daylight. Everyone I know who's been here tells me
it's spectacularly beautiful.' 'It is.' Keir's response was distracted.
This was like making polite conversation with a stranger, he thought
uncomfortably. They were pussyfooting around each other in a way that
only made his already unsettled mood worse. This was not at all how he
had expected to feel on his wedding night. What had he expected? When
his mind threw the question at him he had no idea how to answer it. If
the truth was told, he was working completely in the dark, unable to see
what move to make next. But one thing he had anticipated. He had thought
that by now he would be feeling a great sense of freedom. That with
Lucille off his back, the debt of honour paid to his father, he would be
experiencing a sort of release from the problems that had bmt him that
would be close to euphoria. Instead, he felt low and flat, in a way
that, combined with the restless unease that had assailed him ever since
he had woken, made him as jittery as a cat on a hot roof. Instead of
experiencing a sense of liberty, his mood was dark and oppressive, as if
he had exchanged one form of obligation for another. And right now he
wasn't at all sure that he wouldn't prefer the uncomplicated financial
contract with Lucille to the one that he was subsequently tied to.
'You've been here before?' 'A couple of times. The last holiday we had
as a family was in Tuscany. That was the year before my mother died.'
Perhaps it was because of the gathering darkness, but the bleakness of
his tone sounded disturbingly clear, making Sienna wince inwardly. 'That
was when you were how old?' 'Nineteen. I'd just finished my first year
at university, and I wasn't at all keen on the idea of going away with
my parents. I took a lot of persuading, but I'll always be grateful that
I went along in the end. Six months later, she discovered

66

she had leukemia. Four months after that, she was ,dead.' 'Oh, Keir...'
It was the first time he had ever talked about his mother's Ucally early
death, and Sienna found that she was deeply touched that he had opened
up in this way. "I'm so sorry.' Instinctively her hand went out to cover
his strong fingers where they lay on the stone parapet. This would
partly explain the warmth of his relationship with her mother. Having
lost his own parent so early, he must feel the need to revive something
of the relationship they had shared with Caroline. And perhaps it also
went some way towards clarifying why he had agreed to her proposal in
the first place. He would know how it felt to have a sick mother. Know
the feeling that you would do anything at all to make her life easier.
'And how long was it before your father married again?' 'Four years.'
His mood had obviously darkened. Asking about Lucille had been a
mistake. But Sienna's curiosity got the better of her. 'She's much
younger than I ever expected.' 'Barely forty.' Keir nodded. 'Only seven
years older than me.' Something bleak and disturbing shaded his voice,
sending a shiver down Sienna's spine in spite of the warmth of the
evening, 'Sish-'

'Leave her out of this, Sienna,' Keir commanded. 'I don't want my
stepmother intruding on my wedding night.' 'Your wedding night!' In
spite of herself, Sienna took a small step backwards, unable to control
her instinctive response. In her excitement at actually being in Italy
she had managed to forget why they were there. She had been able to push
from her mind all thought of what was ahead of her, but that possessive
'my wedding night' had brought it rushing back in a way that made her
heart jerk in nervous reaction. 'Yes, of course.' To her horror she
realised that he had caught the whisper she hadn't been able to hold
back, the sudden sharpening of his tone making her mouth dry nervously.
'What is it, Sienna? You're not planning to back out of our agreement,
are you?' 'N-no. It's just...' She couldn't complete the sentence, her
throat closing up around the words. It was one thing to agree to the
conditions he had imposed in the heat of desperation, when the date of
the wedding had still been in the future and the idea of actually going
to bed with him had only been just that-an idea, not fully founded in
reality. It was quite another to accept that she had used up all her
waiting time, that Keir had called in his account, and that right here
and now was when she had to start paying. 'Hey!' Keir's voice was
surprisingly soft. 'Don't look so panic-stricken. I won't hurt you.'
'I-I know!' Sienna cursed the quaver in her voice. She had told herself
she could do this; convinced herself that, when it came to it, the
blazing physical response she felt whenever he touched her would burn
away all her fear, all restraint. But that was when she had pictured
Keir literally sweeping her off her feet. When she had imagined him
gathering her close and kissing her stupid, driving all thoughts from
her mind except the fact that he was a man and she was a woman, and that
the need that had brought them together was as old and as elemental as
time. But Keir was making no move to do anything of the sort. Instead of
taking her in his arms, he had actually moved a couple of steps
backwards, away from her. Ins of the blazing passion she had
anticipated, hoped for, there was a cool, unnerving distance, a
perturbingly detached sense of circumspection about him. Those dark eyes
narrowed thoughtfully, subjecting her to an emotionless scrutiny that
made her shift uneasily from one foot to another. 'Do you think I'll
force you, is that it? Damn it, Sienna,

68

don't you know me better than that? I've never bullied a woman into my
bed, and I don't intend to start now.' Perhaps it would be easier if he
did, Sienna found herself thinking weakly. At least that would heat the
blood that seemed to have frozen in her veins, break through the ice
that surrounded her like sheets of plate glass. She could see Keir's
strongly carved face, the softness of his hair stirred by a faint
breeze. She could hear his words, blurred slightly by the pounding of
her pulse inside her head. But she couldn't make herself move to bridge
that gap between them. 'Sienna!' Her name hissed in between clenched
teeth in a sound so expressive of impatience and obdurate demand that
she shivered involuntarily. But almost immediately his mood changed
again. 'Oh, hell! Look, Sienna, it's been a long day. You're tired. I
want you in my bed, yes, but I want you willing. We have twelve
months---that's more than enough time.' 'Enough time to take what you
want and tire of me?' Sienna couldn't catch the impetuous, unthinking
words back, even though she wished she'd never spoken as she saw his
proud head go back, brown eyes flashing in bitter anger. 'That really
rather depends on you,' he flung back. 'But I for one am not prepared to
rush...' Shaking his head, he raked both hands through the darkness of
his hair. 'It's been a stressful day. If you want a little time--a
breathing space-I understand. This villa has four bedrooms. If you'd
rather sleep alone for tonight, then choose whichever one you want.'
'What?' Sienna knew she was gaping at him, her confusion and disbelief
clear on her face. Did he mean ... ? Could he mean ... ? A tiny, craven
part of her mind wanted to grasp at the opportunity he offered. To take
the chance to sleep alone for one last night. But, even as she let the
thought slide into her mind, another, more worrying one replaced it. For
tonight, Keir had said, with a deliberate emphasis that left her in no
doubt that one night's grace was all she was going to get. Tonight he
might be feeling indulgent, orenerous to a fault because he'd got what
he wanted, but tomorrow, and every other night that followed would be a
very different matter. After the proper wedding we have a real marriage.
Those had been Keir's terms. There was no way he was going to free her
from their arrangement, not without completely retracting what he had
promised. To delay would only make matters worse. The apprehension she
felt now would never diminish, only grow worse with every second that
passed. And so she drew herself up, plastered on a smile that she hoped
looked more convincing than it felt. 'Don't be silly, Keir!' Her lips
felt stiff and wooden, forming the words with difficulty. 'We can't
sleep alone. We're married! On honeymoon.' 'But as you've already
pointed out, this isn't exactly the normal sort of honeymoon.' Dark eyes
probed hers, seeming to reach deep into her very soul, to try to read
what was there. Sienna was sure that he must be able to see the way her
heart seemed to be turning somersaults inside her chest, making her
breath come in rapid, uneven gasps. 'Though I have to admit I'm forced
to wonder just what constitutes "normal" under these circumstances.'
Sienna tried to speak, found it impossible, and ran a nervous tongue
over her parched lips in order to moisten them. 'I'm sure that any
husband would expect to-to sleep with his wife on the first night of
their married life. And y-you more than most.' 'And why me more than
most, my lovely Sienna?'

70

His tone had changed, darkened, the emphasis on that 'why me' ominously
dangerous. 'We had a bargain. You'll want to claim what you're owed.' In
the gathering shadows it was almost impossible to read his expression
clearly. But she couldn't be unaware of the black scowl that distorted
his features, menacing as a thundercloud gathering on the horizon. 'You
make it sound as if I'm collecting on a bad debt. And besides, you've
already given me most of what you promised, so I can afford to be
generous.' Most of what you promised! The words slashed at her like a
blunt knife, leaving a raw, bleeding wound. She could be in no doubt as
to what he had meant. He had wanted the money she had promised him to
pay off his stepmother, and she had already guaranteed it Hadn't he had
the document waiting, ready to be signed just as soon as their marriage
vows had been spoken? Did she need any further evidence of just how
little she meant to him? A real marriage, indeed! He meant no such
thing! What he wanted was the best deal he could get. His coldly
calculating mind had assessed what she had offered him, weighed it
against what she was asking in return, and decided he could agree to her
terms. There was no emotion involved, not even the passion she had been
foolish enough to assume. His financial acumen had recognised a good
deal when it was offered, and the sexual opportunist in him had added
the urge to gain some easy physical pleasure from the arrangement; that
was all. Of course he could afford to be generous! He had her right
where he wanted her--and that was very much in second place to his damn
business! The realisation was like a rush of adrenaline in her mind,
surprising her by the sense of freedom it brought. If Keir's emotions
were so totally involved in their arrangement, then surely she could
match him step by step. She could use him as he planned to use her,
aging the sexual pleasure their union could provide and giving nothing
more. And at the end of the year she would walk away, as heart free as
he was. 'Yes, you have been generous.' Even in her own ears, her voice
sounded cold and stilted, bringing the temperature around them down by
several calculated degrees. 'After all, you have signed away your
freedom in order to help me.' She knew by the way that the long body
before her moved restlessly that he had caught her reference to
Lucille's comment at their wedding. Heard it and hadn't liked it at all.
'But we had an agreement, Keir, and I intend to fulfill my part of that
deal. That way, no one can ever claim they were short-changed.' 'Oh, I
would never claim that, sweetheart.' Keir's tone matched hers ice for
ice, making every tiny hair on her skin lift in response. 'So far you've
been scrupulous in complying with the letter of our contract.' There was
a distinct bite of acid on the last words that Sienna struggled to
ignore. 'And I intend to deliver what I promised.' 'In that case...'
Hard face unsmiling, brown eyes totally lacking in warmth, Keir held out
his hand to her. 'Shall we go upstairs?'

73

IT TOOK every ounce of courage that Sienna possessed to put her hand
into his. The feel of his hard fingers closing around hers made her
think of a trap snapping shut, and it was all that she could do not to
start nervously, snatching it away from him as if she had been burned.
Without a word he led her into the house and upstairs, to the large,
oak-beamed, simply furnished room which, on their arrival, he had
declared would be where they would sleep for the duration of their stay.
The shutters were fastened over the windows, making the room shadowy and
dark, and the cool of the air-conditioning was almost shocking after the
warmth of the evening outside. Within seconds, Sienna's skin felt
chilled and clammy, and she had to struggle not to shiver openly. To do
so would be to risk Keir thinking that her response was one of fear, and
she was determined to hide her inner misgivings from him. The maid had
long ago unpacked their belongings and put them away. But some
appallingly sensitive instinct, or, more likely, some instruction from
Keir himself, had warned her that this was more than a simple holiday,
but was supposed to be a honeymoon. And so, as Sienna followed Keir
through the door, the first thing that caught her eye was the careful
drape of her white silk nightdress, long-skirted, with a delicate lace
bodice and shoestring straps, over the pillows on one side of the bed.
The double bed, she registered, her heart slapping a painful beat, A bed
that, with its soft blue cotton cover, seemed to totally dominate the
whole room, making it impossible to look anywhere else. Just the sight
of it made her head spin her legs weaken beneath her, and unthinkingly
she tightened her grip on the strength of Keir's hand. 'Steady, my
lovely.' His low voice gentled her as if she was some nervous,
thoroughbred mare he feared might bolt The thought of doing just that
had flashed into her mind. Into it, and straight out again, driven away
by a mixture of careful rationalisation and fierce, determined pride.
Running away would do no good at all. It would only delay the
inevitable. And the thought of the humiliation of being pursued, caught,
and dragged back to this room again was more than she could bear. She
had made her bed, Sienna thought, gritting her teeth against an impulse
to near-hysterical laughter. Made it and must now resign herself to
lying in it, with Keir at her side. 'There's no need to be nervous. We
can take this as slowly as you'd like. We have all the time in the
world.' Sienna's free hand, clenched into a tight fist, went to her
mouth, crushing back the whimper of distress that almost escaped her.
How could she tell him that time was not what she needed? That the last
thing she wanted was for this to be slow? Time would give her too much
opportunity to think. To register what was happening to her and know
that there was no way out. Time would leave her in no doubt at all that
this was a business deal and nothing more, offering her no comforting
emotions like love or passion to smooth away the rough edges, soften the
hard truth of this cold-blooded seduction. What she needed was the
whirlwind of sensation that had assailed her whenever Keir had kissed
her in the past. The heated tornado of need that had taken possession of
her mind, leaving her incapable of thought, able only to feel, to
hunger, to yearn. Blinded by that storm of emotion, she could get
through this. Any other way and it might destroy her. But Keir still
seemed strangely reluctant to touch her.

74

Instead, he led her into the middle of the room, dropping her hand and
turning to face her. 'Perhaps you'd like a while to yourself? Time
to...' the dark-eyed, sombre gaze went to the nightdress on the bed and
then to the door of the adjoining en suite bathroom ,...refresh
yourself. Get ready...' Too numb to speak, Sienna could only nod
silently. But as he made a move to walk away the panic that had been
twisting in her stomach rose to the surface, telling her in no uncertain
terms that this was the last thing she wanted. 'No!' It was a choked
cry, impossible to hold back, and, hearing it, Keir froze before
swinging round sharply. 'No?' 'No, I don't want to be left alone like
some virginal Victorian bride, while my groom goes downstairs for one
last drink, leaving me to get modestly into bed and lie there, waiting.
I don't want to bathe, brush my hair, perfume my skin, so that my
husband will enjoy taking his conjugal rights-taking me-making me his.
That might be appropriate if...' The words died on her lips, shrivelled
into nothing by the fierce blaze in his eyes, the smouldering fury that
was so near to the surface he was obviously having to exert all his
strength simply to rein it in. 'If this was a real marriage?' he
finished for her, with a clipped acidity that made her wince away in
misery. 'And you have been so determined to impress on me that it's not.
But it will be a real marriage, my sweet Sienna, at least for the period
arranged by our contract. A real marriage or no marriage--the choice is
yours. Are you saying that you want this marriage annulled, revealed as
the farce that it is?' Wide and clouded, Sienna's sea-coloured eyes went
to the silk nightdress on the bed. The nightdress that her mother had
bought for her, her thin face alight with happiness as she presented it
to her daughter as part of her trousseau, telling her to wear it on her
wedding night in order to be a beautiful bride for her wonderful
husband. If she called a halt now, how could she face her mother again?
And not just because of the inheritance that would then no longer be
hers. How could she disillusion Caroline, reveal to her that the
wonderful, fairy tale, happy-ever-after marriage that she had believed
in was nothing but an illusion, a fantasy dreamed up quite
cold-bloodedly for purely materialistic reasons? Not that those reasons
could be described as pure, she reflected miserably. 'N-no...' she said
hesitantly. 'That's not what I want.' 'Then what do you want? Come on,
Sienna,' Keir urged huskily. 'You've been so determined to let me know
what you don't want. Isn't it time you started coming clean about what
you do?' His eyes were so deep and dark that she couldn't look away,
finding her gaze instead drawn and held, transfixed as if she had been
turned to stone. This must be how it felt to be hypnotised, she thought
hazily. This feeling that she had no will of her own, but must wait,
quiescent and resigned, like a discarded marionette, until the man
before her Pulled the strings or issued a command that would tell her
what to do. 'Say it,' Keir said now, his whisper shivering through the
still air. 'Tell me what you want and it can be yours.' And suddenly it
was so easy. Suddenly she knew what she wanted, as if there was nothing
else in the world. There was only the hushed silence of the night, and
this room this man and herself, and a communion between them that was as
old and as primitive as time. It was there in the depths of his black,
enlarged pupils, in the streak of hectic colour high on the wide
cheekbones. It echoed through every uneven breath and in the rapid,
jerky palm of her own heart. And in that moment she knew that she had
stopped running and that everything she wanted was right here, right
now, in this room and nowhere else.

76

'I want you to kiss me.' Her voice croaked slightly, but it surprised
her with the strength and conviction she managed. But still she had to
repeat herself, so there could be no mistake. 'Keir, I want you to kiss
me...' 'I thought you'd never ask!' He moved so quickly that she barely
saw him. All she knew was that suddenly he was there, with her,
enfolding her, surrounding her with the warmth and strength of his body.
With one arm at her waist, another at her shoulders, he held her tight
up against him, her head bent back while his mouth plundered hers with a
fierce hunger that held an the wild heat of the fires burning deep
inside him. And it was just as she had imagined. Just as she had hoped.
There was no room for thought, only for feeling. Nothing in her mind but
sensation. Nothing in her heart but a flame that matched and outstripped
the blaze in his. Nothing in her body but the tempestuous, unbridled
hunger that made her shudder with need, her moan a feral, uncontrollable
sound expressive of a hunger so deep she had never been fully aware of
its existence. But she knew of it now. It was as if the floodgates
inside her had been flung open and she was powerless against the force
of the torrent that stormed through, sweeping everything else before it.
'I want you to kiss me,' she muttered again, her voice shaking with a
sort of desperation. 'I want you to hold me, and touch me...' She had no
sense at all of having formed the whispered litany of need, only that it
tumbled from her lips like a prayer. And that Keir obeyed every request
without protest or hesitation. 'I want you to caress me, stroke my skin,
make me want you, make me need you.' 'You've got it, darling...' Keir's
response was a rough, thickened whisper, his voice muffled against the
delicate skin of her throat where his lips blazed a burning trail down
towards the racing pulse at the base of her neck. 'Anything you want.
Everything you want.' His hands were at the back of her neck, where the
zip fastening of her lilac dress gave him far less trouble than the
buttons on her wedding dress had hours earlier. With a faint rustle the
delicate material slid down from her shoulders, paused for a moment
before she dropped her arms to free it, then slithered all the length of
her body to pool in a crumpled heap on the floor at her feet. This time,
Sienna's shiver was one of excitement and anticipation. All the
nervousness of moments before had vanished, burned up in the heat that
raged through every vein, every nerve-ending, making her skin glow as if
it was bathed in the heat of the Tuscan sun and not the cool, shimmering
gleam of moonlight. Her eyes were closed, her body trembling under the
onslaught of the sensations that ripped through her. Keir's touch now
seemed to be everywhere. On her face, on her arms, smoothing over the
rounded curves of her shoulders, sliding down to encircle and cup the
warm weight of her breasts. Against the hard heat of his hands, her
sensitised nipples peaked, pressing an urgent message of need into his
palms. And lower down, at the core of her most feminine being, the
throbbing sensation that started up was like a burning electrical
current, sending shockwaves radiating out into every other part of her.
'I want you to make me yours, make me forget about everything else,
anything else. I want you to make this into the experience I know it can
be. I want you to make it- make it real...' Make it real! The words
reverberated inside Keir's head as her voice choked off on a sigh of
delight at some particularly pleasurable touch of his strong fingers.
Make it real! Dear God, if she only knew! With his rational mind
scrambled by the beating, insistent clamour of every one of his senses,
totally at the mercy of

78

the hunger that throbbed inside him, tormenting the most sensitive parts
of his anatomy, he almost told her. He almost opened his mouth and
blurted out the truth, realising only at the very last moment that to do
so would be to ruin everything. Gritting his teeth with the effort, he
swallowed down the betraying words. 'Make it real, sweetheart?' he
muttered, his tone raw and uneven. 'I can't promise you that. But I can
promise you that what we have together will be very special. I promise
you a honeymoon you'll never forget.' 'Show me.' It was part request,
part command, part sigh of hunger. 'Show me what you-' The words were
crushed back down her throat as once more his mouth fastened on hers,
lips fusing hungrily together. Somehow he had shrugged out of the polo
shirt he wore, the heated silk of his skin smooth under her hands as she
writhed against him in pleasurable abandon. Each second piled sensation
on sensation, opening her mouth to him, adding that bit more fuel to the
fires of passion they had built between them. With confident ease he
stripped off the wisps of silk that were all she wore, tossing them
aside so that they floated like drifts of gossamer onto the polished
wood of the floor. Against the yearning sensitivity of her now naked
breasts the faint roughness of his body hair was a stinging delight,
making her gasp her response into his demanding mouth. She felt the
burning power of his arousal pressing against her, and instinctively
opened her thighs so that she could accept him into the cradle of her
hips. With a muttered curse Keir gathered her up into his arms, lifting
her completely off her feet and carrying her to the bed, where he flung
back the covers with a violent gesture, depositing her none too gently
on the soft linen sheets. Pausing only to discard his own remaining
clothing, he came down beside her, his long, muscular body dark against
the pastel bedding, his skin hot to her touch. 'I knew it would be like
this,' he muttered thickly. 'Knew it from the moment I kissed you.
You're so responsive to me, and that just blows me away. I can't think
straight.' Watching her intently, he dropped a swift kiss on one pink
nipple, then slowly encircled it with his tongue, laughing deep in his
throat as she squirmed in breathless, whimpering excitement. 'And
neither can you. Do you know what it does to me to see you out of
control like this?' 'I-I can see what it does. . .' Sienna managed on a
shaken laugh, turquoise eyes widening as she took in the full impact of
his powerful nakedness, the potent force of his masculinity. 'How could
I be unaware ... ?' Her fingers trembling slightly, she reached out to
touch him, laughing again, but this time on a note of triumph as his
powerful body convulsed at her touch, the shudders of delight that shook
him giving her an overwhelming sense of power. How was it possible that
this strong, cold-blooded man could be at her mercy like this? How could
she have brought him to this state, where each breath rasped into his
lungs so painfully, where his eyes were and glazed with uncontrollable
desire? 'You witch!' he reproved softly. 'Do that again and I won't be
answerable for the consequences.' 'Perhaps the consequences are exactly
what I'm after,' Sienna teased, her turquoise eyes gleaming
provocatively from behind the silken fall of her long dark hair.
'Perhaps I want-' 'I know exactly what you want,' Keir broke in on her.
'You want to know how you make me feel. You want to experience something
of the same. Well, when you touch me here...' Briefly he held her hand
against the slick, hard heat of him, then pushed her back against the
softness of the pillows, supporting himself on his elbows on either side
of her slender frame. 'It feels like this...' His dark, arrogant head
bent to take her right nipple into

80

his mouth, suckling hard. The warm breath of his laughter feathered over
her skin as, unable to control her response, she reared up against him,
shifting from side to side as a hot current of need seared along the
pathway from the stinging tip to the most sensitive point at the
juncture of her thighs. 'And at other times it's like this...' With his
mouth still at the tip of her breast, he let his hand drift downwards.
Lingering for a moment at the curve of her waist he traced a delicate
circle around the indenture of her navel, before sliding with practised
confidence into the hot, moist cleft hidden among the cluster of dark
curling hair. 'Keir!' His name was a raw, distraught cry of need, a
primal sound that she couldn't have held back if she had tried. The
wild, burning rush of pleasure that took possession of her pushed her
beyond the edges of her control and into a tempestuous, uncivilised
territory, where nothing she had ever experienced in the past mattered
any more. 'Keir, please!' Her arms curved around the powerful strength
of his back, frantic fingers clenching over his broad shoulders, her
nails digging into his skin in mute demand. She wanted him now. Needed
to feel him deep inside her, filling her, assuaging the white-hot hunger
that burned through every awakened cell in her body. 'Tell me what you
want, darling.' Keir's voice was rough with a hunger that matched her
own. 'I promised you-- anything you want ... whatever you want. So tell
me...' 'You know what I want!' Restlessly she adjusted her position so
that he lay between her thighs. So near and yet so far from giving her
what her hungry body craved. 'I want you.' But still he tormented her by
holding off. Still he waited, watching her face, glittering dark eyes
blazing down into hers. 'Say my name, Sienna,' he growled. 'Say it! Say,
I want you-Keir.' She would have said anything he demanded. And why hold
back now? After all, it was nothing less than the truth. 'I want you,
Keir.. '' The words broke on a soaring cry of delight as, with a
guttural sound of satisfaction, he moved swiftly, sheathing his strength
in her enclosing warmth. Sienna had barely time to register the glorious
sensation of his powerful body filling hers before he began to move. And
suddenly she was clinging to him again, beyond thought, beyond knowing
even who she was. Every atom of her being was concentrated on the
primitive thrusting rhythm that took her out of the known world and
lifted her high onto the edge of some undiscovered whirling vortex. She
reached the centire in an explosion of stars, and then suddenly she was
crying his name out loud and tumbling, spiralling in a crazy freefall of
sensation in which there was no time or space but only herself and Keir
and the shattering ecstasy they had created between them. Above her she
felt Keir's powerful body clench, heard his raw cry as he reached his
own release before he collapsed on top of her, his broad chest heaving,
slowly, slowly coming back down to earth. It was the start of a very
long night. A prolonged, repetitive cycle of awakening desire growing
into burning passion, and from there into a frenzied giving and taking
of pleasure in all the ways they could think of until at last, satiated
and exhausted, they slept in each other's arms, oblivious to the sun
coming up, the growing heat of the day. At that last moment before she
finally slid into the depths of sleep, Sienna stirred slightly, managing
to lift her head to look into Keir's dark, clouded eyes. 'I'll say one
thing for you, husband mine,' she murmured, stretching languorously
against him. 'There's no way I

82

could fault you in the performance of those particular conjugal duties.'
She was too tired, too replete, to notice the faint stiffening of the
long muscular body beside her. Unaware of the momentary effort he made
to bring his thoughts and feelings once more under strict control. 'I
aim to please,' he returned, with a carefully casual intonation. 'I
promised you a honeymoon to remember. You can believe me when I say that
I fully intend to keep that promise.'

83

'I CAN'T believe I'm really here!' Sienna exclaimed, staring round her
in amazement, her mind whirling with the effort of trying to take
everything in. 'I can't believe I'm actually in Siena at last.' Out of
the corner of her eye she saw how Keir's mouth twisted slightly, and
knew that he was clearly thinking along the same lines as her. There was
no way either of them could deny the fact that one of the reasons for
the delay between their arrival in Tuscany and the actual visit to Siena
itself was the way that they had found it almost impossible to get out
of bed. After that first passion-drenched night, in which they had
discovered the mutual delight that their bodies could share, they had
indulged again and again in the heady pleasures of the flesh. When they
hadn't been making love they had been sleeping off the excesses of the
night, just occasionally finding the energy and the inclination to seek
the necessary sustenance of food or a cooling, restorative swim in the
villa's pool. But that wasn't all the story. Along with the sensual
indulgence of the past ten days had gone Keir's determination that the
planned trip to Siena was not to be snatched at too quickly. 'You
mustn't gobble the main treat down whole,' he'd reproved gently when,
realising that almost half of the allotted days of their honeymoon had
passed, Sienna had been desperate to visit the city that had meant so
much to her mother. 'You need to take your time, get a feel for the rest
of Tuscany too. Believe me, anticipation is a vital part of the
enjoyment.' The warm curve to his mouth, the light in

84

his eyes, had told her that he was not just thinking of her expectations
of the visit, but other, more intimate pleasures. And so they had
explored other parts of the country together. They had visited such
obvious sights as Pisa, with its leaning tower on the green lawns of the
Campo dei Miracoli, and Florence, where they had taken in the cathedral,
the famous Uffizi gallery and, at the end of a long, steep climb, the
beautiful medieval church of San Miniato. They had crossed the river Amo
by the Ponte Vecchio, marvelling at the jewellery in the shops that
lined it, and Keir had encouraged Sienna to taste some of the one
hundred different variations of ice cream that contributed to Florence's
claim to be the ice cream capital of the world. On other occasions they
had lingered for hours over coffee or glasses of good red Chianti in
some of the many fine restaurants, and Sienna had enjoyed those times as
much as any. The slow, desultory conversations they had shared had
helped her to relax, to allow herself to believe that perhaps, after
all, this fabrication of a marriage might actually work out. 'It all
seems so timeless, so unchanging,' she said now. 'It must have looked
exactly like this when my mother was here.' 'Well, I don't suppose that
twenty-six years or so means very much to a city whose palaces were
built according to ideas laid down in the thirteenth century,' Keir
returned on a note of amusement. 'With a history like that, the odd
quarter of a century must seem like little more than the blink of an
eye.' 'Being here now, I can believe that-and yet it's all of my
lifetime.' 'Sometimes things change very slowly; sometimes they happen
in an instant,' Keir commented cryptically, thinking of the impact she
had had on him in the moment they had first met. He had been knocked
completely off balance mentally, in the blink of an eyelid, and he had
been unable to recover ever since. Simply to look at her as she was now,
tall and slim in a sleeveless turquoise sundress that matched the colour
of those amazing eyes, made his body tighten in hungry response. With
her dark hair tumbling loose around her shoulders, long, tanned bare
legs revealed by her provocatively short skirt, delicate strappy sandals
on her feet, she had only to smile in his direction and his temperature
shot skywards. He regretted the revealing comment as Sienna swung round
to face him, her eyes bright with frank curiosity. 'That's a very
enigmatic comment. Are you thinking of anything in particular?' Keir's
dark eyes wouldn't meet her enquiring turquoise ones as his gesture took
in their surroundings in Siena's main square. 'If we'd been here a
little earlier in the mouth, we could have seen the Palio--the horse
race held in this square. All the riders and officials dress up in
medieval costumes. It's an amazing spectacle.' It was obvious that she
was being distracted from what was actually in his thoughts, but Sienna
found that genuine interest got the better of her wanting to pursue that
original subject. 'A horse race? Here?' Once more she surveyed the even
shape of the Campo, slightly sloping and irregular, and surrounded on
all sides by high buildings of glowing rose-coloured brick. 'it doesn't
seem possible-or very wise.' 'The stones are sanded over and the walls
are padded. Even so, there are plenty of stories of jockeys-or even
horses-flying through the air. But the Sienese say that no one has ever
been killed at a Palio. That's because it's supposed to be under the
direct protection of the Virgin Mary, but perhaps the fact that the race
itself only lasts for a minute and a half has something to do with it.'
'It sounds quite terrifying.' Sienna found it hard to imagine the noise
and the excitement of such an event in the sleepy atmosphere of this
quiet morning. 'Did your mother never see the Palio? After all, she was

86

born in June, and the first of the mees is run on the second of July.'
'No, she never... How did you know exactly when my mother was here?'
Keir's grin was wide in response to her mystified expression. 'She told
me she named you for the place and the month in which you were
conceived, and I learned your full name-Sienna June-at the wedding
ceremony, of course. We go this way,' he added, catching hold of her
hand and leading her down one of the shadowy streets at the west side of
the square. 'How did she meet your father?' Sienna forced herself to
ignore the by now so familiar quickening of her pulse that was her
automatic response to the touch of his hand on hers. Simply to have his
long, hard fingers coded around her own flooded her body with a glowing
warmth that had nothing to do with the heat of the day. Casually
dressed, in a white short-sleeved shirt and lightweight black trousers,
and with his golden tan enhanced by days in the Italian sun, his tall,
lean body had a sensual impact that took her breath away. 'Mum was nanny
to a wealthy Sienese family, and my father was here on business-he was a
wine importer. They met when he came to dinner with the Lorenzettis. He
charmed her, and she fell head over heels in love.' 'He never let on
that he was married?'

'Not for a moment.' Sienna shook her dark head in disbelief. 'Mum never
suspected a thing until she discovered she was pregnant and he refused
to have anything to do with her and the baby-with me.' Keir's comment on
that fact was short, succinct and very rude, making it only too plain
how he viewed the selfishness Andrew Nash had displayed. 'He took
advantage of her naiveté. She was only- what?--twenty-one?'
'Twenty-two.' Sienna's response was low-voiced. She was uncomfortably
aware of the fact that, although her mother had had the excuse of youth
on her side, she herself had been older, definitely more worldly-wise,
when she had met Dean. And yet he had still deceived her just as easily
as her father had her mother. More so, in fact. Because not only had he
had a wife and a child back home in Brighton, but he had also been
seeing someone else, one of Sienna's workmates at the beauty salon.
'Where are we going?' She forced the question out in order to distract
herself from the distress that thinking of Dean caused. She couldn't
believe she had let herself be conned in that way. Had always believed
that, with her mother's story as a warning always in her mind, she had
developed a natural scepticism and instinctive distrust of men who were
intent only on trying it on. And yet she had succumbed to Dean's
blandishments, his outrageous compliments, his apparent devotion, with
the sort of blind foolishness that she now found impossible to believe.
She had swallowed every one of his lies and been enticed into breaking
her own careful rules for self-preservation, seduced into his bed with
the ease of a practised angler landing a very gullible fish. 'This is
Via del Capitano. It leads to the Duomo--ffie cathedral. I warn you,
you'll either love it or hate it--there's no in between.' 'You're
right!' Sienna could only gasp a short time later as she stared in
amazement at the effect of the black and white stripes of marble
stretching from floor to ceiling in the nave and the aisles of the huge
Gothic cathedral. 'It's amazing! It looks like nothing so much as a huge
mint humbug!' She was thankful to find the cathedral so fascinating,
grateful for the opportunity it gave her to be distracted from the pain
of her memories. She was able to push all thoughts of Dean from her mind
until at last they wandered back down into the centre of Siena, to lunch
on bread and cheese

88

and black olives, sitting in the sun on the pavement outside a small
trattotia. 'I'm surprised your mother didn't name you Catherine, after
Siena's very own saint,' Keir commented, breaking off a crust of bread
and spreading it liberally with butter. 'After all, she was born not so
very far from here--on Vicolo del Tiratoio.' 'She said she thought about
it, but as a name it didn't have the special significance that Siena had
for her, though in the end she decided she preferred a slightly
different spelling. You know, this is totally crazy!' Intrigued by her
tone, Keir looked up, brown eyes frowning into the sun. 'What is?' he
enquired mildly. 'All this talk of my mother and her past, when I know
nothing about yours--and I'm married to you!' Broad shoulders under the
immaculate white shirt lifted in a dismissive shrug. 'There's nothing
much to tell,' Keir stated off-handedly. 'I don't believe that. A man
with your looks-your money---there must have been women...' 'There
have--plenty of them.' It was an emotionless statement offered in a flat
tone that erased any suspicion of boasting. 'But no one who really
mattered.' 'You never fell in love?' 'Love?' He seemed to be considering
the word, his expression thoughtful as he sipped at his wine. 'Rick
Parry always says that my one true love is my work. And I suppose in a
way it was true. Certainly from the time that I came back from
university to discover that Dad had almost reduced Alexander's to the
state where the next step would have been to call in the receivers,
getting the &m back on its feet again was something of an obsession. Any
women in my life took strictly second place.' He didn't sound in the
least bit penitent about it, Sienna reflected. Instead, his almost
casual delivery spoke of indifference to the effect his actions might
have had. 'So there was no one special?' 'There was one girl I thought I
cared for more than all the rest.' Keir swirled the wine round in his
glass, staring down into its ruby depths. 'But when it came down to it,
I cared about my work more.' 'It strikes me she had a lucky escape!'
Those dark-chocolate eyes lifted to meet Sienna's blue-green gaze, and
Keir's sensual mouth twisted at the indignation in her tone. 'What I
felt for her wasn't the real thing.'

'And would you know the real thing if it bit you on the nose?' 'If I'd
truly loved her, then nothing else would have mattered. I would have
given her all the time she needed, given up work-even the company-to be
with her.' Which put her right in her place, Sienna told herself
bitterly. He hadn't been prepared to give anything up for her. On the
contrary, the only reason he had married her was in order to obtain the
money he needed to save that precious company of his. She didn't even
rank as highly as the girl he'd thought he'd cared for. 'So what about
you?' 'What about me?' Still struggling at the smart of facing up to
just how little she truly meant to Keir, Sienna didn't trouble to adjust
her tone, earning herself a quick, dark frown of reproof. 'Are you going
to tell me the gory details of your love-life?, 'Nothing to tell.' She
aimed for airy insouciance and missed it by a mile, fingers clenching
tight over her knife until her knuckles showed white. 'Not even about
your precious Dean?'

The sarcasm of the question caught Sienna on the raw. Turquoise eyes
flashing angrily, she lifted her head and glared defiance straight into
his still, watchful face. 'Dean is none of your business!'

90

'I'm making it my business,' Keir shot back. 'Dean hurt you and
humiliated you...' She didn't need reminding of that! But what shocked
and stunned her into blank confusion was a new realisation, that came
with a rush that made her head spin dizzily. Dean had beguiled and
seduced her. He had enticed her into his bed with soft words and softer
lies, and, foolishly, crazily in love with him, she had offered no
resistance. But never once in all that time that she and Dean had been
lovers had she ever experienced the sheer mind-blowing, soul-shattering
physical ecstasy that she had known with Keir since their wedding day.
She had never been able to respond to Dean as she did to Keir, never
wanted him as she wanted this man who was now her husband. And Dean's
lovemaking had never left her exhausted and satiated, yet knowing that
he had only to touch her and her whole body would come alive once again,
desperately yearning, needing more. 'It's nothing to do with you!'
'You're my wife.' 'Your wife!' Sienna echoed, pain shading her words
with black cynicism. 'And we both know just how much-or rather how
little--that means, husband dear.' 'I'm a better damn husband than your
precious Dean would ever have been, sweetheart! Would he have brought
you here, to Siena? Would he have provided this honeymoon?' 'You didn't
have to lay on a honeymoon! No one asked you to!' She regretted the
impetuous words as soon as they had left her lips, urgently wishing them
back as she saw the black scowl that darkened his handsome features.
'You're wrong there, my lovely Sienna,' Keir put in, his coldly clipped
enunciation freezing the impulse to apologise before it had time to
fully form. 'I may only be the husband you hired on a temporary basis,
but, believe me, I know what's expected of me. And I have every
intention of fulfilling my contract to the letter.' 'Keir, please. You
know you're--' 'Know I'm what? More than that? Don't kid yourself,
darling-and don't try to pretend to me because it won't work. But one
thing I do know...' Pushing back his chair so violently that it scraped
over the pavement with an ugly pating sound, Keir got to his feet in a
swift, angry movement. 'One thing I'll never be is second best-not to
your precious Dean, or anyone else. And if you want proof...' 'Keir...'
Sienna, tried but her voice failed her as he moved to her side, towering
over her threateningly, a wary, dangerous look in his coffee-coloured
eyes. Her second feeble attempt at remonstration went unheeded as Keir
reached down and clamped powerful fingers on her arms, pulling her out
of her seat and yanking her close up against the hard strength of his
body. She was lifted half off her feet, only the very tips of her toes
still retaining contact with the ground as she swayed against him With
one arm holding her tight, his other hand came under her chin, forcing
her face up to meet his as his mouth swooped downwards. In such a public
place, his kiss was almost shocking in its fierce sensuality. Instantly
a river of golden heat raged through every nerve and cell in Sienna's
body, sending her thoughts spinning off into a wild fever over which she
had no control at all, her mind hqing as if she was in the grip of some
delirium. Her soul seemed to be drawn out of her body, the electrical
current of need that pulsed at the centre of her being making her
whimper with a hunger that was dangerously close to pain. It was several
moments before she became aware of anything other than Keir. And it was
only when she was released and set down, blinking hard in the sudden
brightness of the sunlight, that she became aware of the interested and
very approving audience his actions had earned for them.

92

'Now tell me I'm second best,' Keir challenged menacingly. 'Tell me your
Dean can match that.' And when she could only shake her head, her eyes
glazed with desire, unable to speak, his smile was positively fiendish
in its dark triumph. 'I thought not. Forget Dean, Sienna. He's the
past-gone. I am your present, and you are mine-for this year at least.
And I'll have no third party intruding into this marriage. Is that
understood?' 'Understood,' was all that Sienna managed to croak in
reply. With a gesture of supreme arrogance, Keir tossed down a handful
of notes in payment of their bill before linking his hand with hers so
firmly that, even if she had thought of resistance, she would have had
no chance of getting away. 'And now, my lovely wife, we're going home.
Back to the villa and to our bedroom, where I will prove to you once
more that I am all the husband you need.' He didn't give her a chance to
argue, obviously not expecting any hint of objection from her. And the
problem was, Sienna reflected, she was incapable of making any. The
excitement his kiss had aroused still spiralled deep inside her, fed by
the anticipation of just what awaited her when they reached the villa.
Feeling like this, she admitted to herself, she would go anywhere Keir
asked her to, do anything he commanded. Somehow over the past ten days
he had enslaved her sexually, and right now she doubted if she could
possibly break free of his sensual mastery ever again.

93

'SIENNA, darling, do you know that there's still a film in here?' 'Hmm?'
Frowning distractedly, Sienna dragged her attention away from the list
she had been studying. 'I'm sorry, Mum, what did you say?' 'I wanted to
know if you'd realised that there's a film in this camera.' Caroline
Rushford waved the article in question under her daughter's nose. 'Do
you know when it was last used?' 'Oh ... ' Sienna chewed the end of her
pen as she thought about answering. Not because she needed time to
think, but for exactly the opposite reason. She was only too well aware
of when anyone had last taken a photograph with that particular camera
just as she knew precisely why it had been put away with the film
unfinished rather than taken to be developed. 'That'll be the camera I
took on honeymoon,' she said carefully. 'But that's over three months
ago! I would have thought you'd have wanted to see the pictures you'd
taken before now.'

'I-forgot about it. There's been a lot going on.' 'But your honeymoon,
darling! Surely you and Keir would want to look back at the pictures and
remember?' That was precisely what she didn't want to do, Sienna
reflected privately. She still couldn't look back at the days she had
spent in Italy with Keir without feeling distinctly uncomfortable. And,
even after three months, she still

94

wasn't prepared to contemplate any evidence of that time, even if only
in a photograph. She felt that she had lost something of herself while
she had been away. Or did she mean she'd found a side of herself she
hadn't known existed? She didn't know and couldn't begin to work it out.
All she did know was that she had gone to Italy as one woman and come
home another. And that woman was addicted to Keir Alexander. There was
no other way to describe how Keir made her feel. He was in her blood, in
her mind, in her soul. When he was with her, she couldn't keep away from
him, but was constantly drawn to his side as a needle to the most
powerful magnet. She had to watch every expression that crossed his
stunning face, every movement of his sexy body. Her hands, too, wouldn't
stay by her side but had to keep reaching out, touching his shoulder or
his arm, her fingers tangling with his. And when he wasn't there--which,
she had to admit, was more likely the case these days---she missed him
unbearably. The emptiness of the space where he should have been was
like a reproach to her, the feeling of incompleteness she felt like an
ache in the very core of her being. It was as if some part of her, an
arm or a leg, had been amputated and she hadn't yet learned how to
function without it. The only time she felt fully whole was when she was
in bed with him. When his arms were round her, his mouth on her skin,
his powerful body linked possessively with hers... 'Smile!' Sienna
started nervously, her head coming up, eyes blinking frantically as she
reacted to a sudden, unexpected flash of light. Her consternation grew
as a whirring sound from the camera revealed that the film was now used
up, and the rewind mechanism had come into operation. 'Mum, what-?'
'There was only one frame left, so I took your picture to finish it. You
looked like a startled rabbit, but who cares. Now you can take the film
to be developed and we can all have a look at the honeymoon photos.'
'There won't be time,' Sienna objected. 'We have too much packing to
do.' The alterations to her father's house had been completed, and they
were due to move out of Keir's apartment and into their new home by the
end of the following week. 'And just how long does it take to drop a
film in at the shop? We're only moving house, Sienna, not leaving the
country! And if you won't have time, then I'll get Keir to do it.' 'If
you can catch him.' Sienna's tone was dry, blending into cynical. 'I
don't think he's been home before ten once this month.' And on several
nights it had been well past midnight before she had heard the sound of
his car drawing up outside, his key being inserted in the lock. On those
late nights she had made herself go to bed, hating the thought of Keir
finding her still up and waiting for him. She had even tried to force
herself to sleep, but had been unable to do so. On the one rare occasion
when, exhausted by a very long day of organising and packing, she had
actually drifted into a light doze she had woken instantly at the feel
of him sliding in beside her. He hadn't even needed to touch her. Just
the faint sound he'd made, the scent of his skin reaching her, had had
her turning to him, her body raging with a hunger that would have been
far more appropriate if they had been apart for fourteen days instead of
as many hours. 'Yes, he does seem to be working very hard.' Caroline
frowned her concern. 'There isn't any problem is there?' 'What sort of
problem?, It was impossible to erase the uneasy edge from her voice. Had
she put a foot wrong somewhere, so that her mother had begun to suspect
the truth about her marriage? Had Caroline, after three months of seeing
her daughter and son-

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in-law together at the close quarters necessitated by their sharing the
same house, come to realise that it was not, after all, the love match
she believed? 'Oh, not between you two--that's obvious! Anyone who's not
completely blind can see that you're absolutely besotted and that you
can't keep your hands off each other.'

'MUM!'

'Now don't go coy on me!' Caroline laughed, regarding her daughter's
flaming cheeks with an indulgent smile. 'I may be middle-aged, and a bit
wobbly on my pins, but I hope my mind is still as broad as it ever was.
I would have more to worry about if you and Keir didn't fancy the pants
off each other, seeing as you're still such newly-weds. No, it was
Keir's job I was thinking of. There isn't anything wrong at Alexander's,
is there?' 'Nothing I know of,' Sienna hastened to assure her. Not that
she knew much more than her mother. The only time Keir had ever really
talked to her about his company had been in the days before their
marriage, when his account of Lucille's hostile negotiations had first
put the idea of proposing into her head. But once the wedding ceremony
had been performed, and she had signed the documents he had produced so
precipitately at the reception, he had never said another word on the
subject. Alexander's success or failure was a closed book as far as she
was concerned. 'You know Keir. The original workaholic, that's my
husband.' 'Well, see if you can't get him to ease up a bit. I'm
surprised you haven't made some sort of protest at the way he's
neglecting you. It's not good for a husband to work so hard in the first
months of marriage.' Caroline shot her daughter an arch glance. 'After
all, you don't want him too tired when he gets home, do you?' 'Mum,
really!' 'Oh, don't give me that look, Sienna! I can still remember how
it felt to be head over heels in love, even if for me it didn't work out
as well as it has for you and Keir. Which reminds me...' Reaching for
the camera again, she opened the back and took out the finished roll of
film. 'I can't wait to see your pictures of Siena.' The faint shimmer of
tears in her blue eyes betrayed just how much it meant to her. 'So
promise me you'll get this developed as soon as possible.' Did she have
any alternative? Sienna asked herself. How could she possibly turn her
mother down? 'Of course I will,' she sighed. 'I'll take care of it first
thing tomorrow.' 'And tell that husband of yours to ease up. I'm sure he
doesn't have to spend quite so much time at the office.' 'My mother's
worried about you,' Sienna flung the words at Keir as soon as he came
into their bedroom later that night. Much later, she registered with a
strange sense of unease. In a series of late nights, this was one of the
latest. Just what did Keir find to do until almost midnight almost every
night? 'She thinks you're working too hard.' 'And good evening to you,
too,' Keir returned satirically, slumping down onto the end of the bed
and tugging his tie free at his throat. My mother's worried about you.'
This wife of his really knew how to stick a knife in without appearing
to do so. Her mother! Did she know what it did to him to come home and
find his wife in his bed, wearing only the sexiest slip of a nightgown
he had ever seen, and be told that her mother worried about him? Which
begged the implication that Sienna herself didn't give a damn. 'So do
you agree with her?' The narrow-eyed look he turned on her had a
disturbingly

98

appraising quality about it, one that made Sienna shift uneasily under
the soft, downy duvet. She was painfully aware of the fact that she was
wearing only an oyster-coloured silk nightdress, its deep vee neckline
exposing more of the creamy curves of her breasts than she was
comfortable with in the present situation. Keir on the other hand was
still fully dressed in an exquisitely cut dark grey suit, white shirt
and what had once been an elegant burgundy silk tie but which was now
hopelessly mangled by the careless way he was pulling at it. 'You have
been staying out late a lot.' 'I'm a grown man, Sienna. I stopped
obeying a nighttime curfew on my eighteenth birthday.' 'I realise that.
But would it be asking too much for you to let me know when you're going
to be really late?' 'Why, sweetheart?' It was a soft, silky hiss. The
sort of voice that the serpent must have used in the Garden of Eden.
'Missed me have you?' 'Of course not!' The retort had come too swiftly,
Sienna reproached herself. It had been far too vehement as well. 'I know
you can look after yourself,' she amended hastily. Understatement of the
year. He could more than look after himself. She couldn't imagine anyone
who, coming under the influence of that charisma, the aura of authority
and total self-assurance that he wore with the ease of a natural right,
would even dare to think of trying it on. 'Then what's the problem?' He
was tugging at his tie again, his movements rough and impatient. When it
finally came loose in his hand he tossed it in the vague direction of a
chair, totally ignoring the way it fell short, slithering onto the thick
bronze carpet instead. 'I-she--we were afraid you'd wear yourself out.'
Even as she spoke the words she saw how ridiculous they were. She'd
rarely, if ever, seen Keir even slightly tired, never mind worn out. He
was one of those men who seemed to have endless reserves of stamina and
was able to pace himself perfectly. When other, weaker people were
falling by the wayside he just kept on going, never looking hurried or
flustered, always in control. 'How very thoughtful of you.' Keir's tone
said exactly the opposite. He was shrugging himself out of his jacket
now, the elegant garment following the tie in the direction of the
chair, with rather more success this time. No sooner had it landed than
Keir pushed off his shoes, not even bothering to unfasten the laces
first, then moved to lounge against the pillows on his side of the bed,
legs stretched out before him, crossed at the ankles. 'So what's the
problem, darling? Are you not getting enough?' 'No!' It was an indignant
squawk. 'I mean... I...' Sienna struggled to collect her whirling
thoughts. But it was hard-almost impossible--to concentrate on what she
was trying to say. Sprawled beside her, his long body indolently at
ease, Keir had now begun to unbutton his shirt, displaying a tantalising
amount of smoothly muscled chest, the tanned skin hazed with fine dark
hair. Just the sight of it dried Sienna's mouth painfully, so that she
had to swallow convulsively to ease the tightness in her throat. Dear
God, was he planning on doing a complete strip-tease? He was so close to
her that the warm scent of his body, subtly mixed with the clean, crisp
tang of the cologne he wore, tantalised her nostrils. Did he have any
awareness of the effect he was having on her? The way that her heart now
beat in double-quick time, her blood singing a restless incantation of
delight in her veins? But then Keir slanted a lazy, heavy-lidded glance
in her direction, and, seeing the provocative gleam in the
dark-chocolate colour of his eyes, she recognised that of course he knew
what he was doing. Knew it and was playing on it quite deliberately,
aiming for just the effect he had created. 'Are you sure?' he teased
now, his voice low and rich so

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that it made her think of dark honey running smoothly over gravel.
'Because I wouldn't want my precious bride to feel that she was being
short-changed. If I'm skimping on my husbandry duties...' 'Oh, to hell
with your husbandry duties!' Sienna exploded in exasperation. 'Why do
you have to bring everything down to sex?' Keir's dark eyes rounded in a
display of hurt innocence that was so obviously make-believe Sienna had
to grit her teeth against the impulse to lash out and wipe it from his
handsome face. 'Did I mention sex, darling?' he asked, his tone as
wounded as his expression. 'I don't believe the word ever crossed my
lips. But if that's what this is all about...' 'You know very well that
it's nothing of the sort.' Sienna flashed, moving swiftly to one side to
dodge the kiss he was clearly planning on planting on her mouth. She
knew only too well what would happen if she let him touch her. One kiss
and she would go up in flames. The potent sensuality that he could
trigger with just one kiss would swamp her mind, leaving her incapable
of thought. And then tonight would follow the same voluptuous pattern as
every other night of their marriage. He would take her down the
consuming paths she had come to know so well, give her the physical
delights that she craved so greedily, reduce her to an exhausted,
satiated wreck, and any opportunity to talk would be lost. 'I'm not the
one with a cesspit for a mind.' The mocking angle of one straight black
brow clearly questioned the truth of that unwise declaration, a wicked,
derisive smile curving the corners of Keir's mouth. 'What I meant
was...' She couldn't complete the sentence; her mind totally distracted
by the sight of Keir pulling open the narrow leather belt at the
waistband of his trousers in order to free his shirt completely. Under
cover of the bedclothes, she clenched her hands into such tight, rigid
fists that her nails dug painfully into her palms. It was either that or
give in to the appalling temptation to touch. To push aside the soft
white material and let her wanton fingers explore the warm, tight
contours of his muscles, the hard frame of his chest. 'What you meant
was ... ?' Keir prompted softly as she swallowed hard. 'What I meant
was...' Sienna struggled to ignore his wicked, sexy grin. 'Is everything
all right-at work. Is there some problem with Alexander's?' If she had
thrown a bucket of icy water right in his face she couldn't have
destroyed the seductive mood any more completely. Keir's face froze,
carved features hardening into rigid rejection, his eyes taking on an
obsidian glitter that made them look like dark shards of ice. 'That's my
business!' he snapped coldly, jack-knifing out of his relaxed pose and
into a stiffly upright position, every tight muscle in his long frame
speaking with dangerous eloquence of the strength of his rejection of
her. 'My business and mine alone.'

The force of his reaction startled and worried Sienna. Was her mother
right after all? Did the long hours that Keir had been working mean
that, in spite of the injection of cash she had made into Alexander's,
the company was still in difficulties? She knew how much that company
meant to Keir. It was his only link with his late father, and she
couldn't bear to contemplate the effect losing it would have on him.
'But it isn't just your business,' she protested, flinging back the
bedclothes and reaching for the silk robe, an exact match for her
nightdress, which lay across the foot of the bed. She would feel much
more in control if she covered up, she told herself as she belted it
tightly around her slim waist. A seductive sliver of silk and lace might
be suitable for a passionate night; it was totally inappropriate for a
serious business meeting.

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'I'm involved in Alexander's too.' Could he ever forget it? Keir asked
himself. All these months ago, on a mad, foolish impulse, he had
snatched at the offer she'd made him, seeing it as his only way out of a
tricky situation. Alexander's or Sienna. The woman or the company. That
had seemed to be the choice he'd been faced with then. If -he put in the
concentrated effort his company needed, then he would have to neglect
his relationship with the woman who had knocked him for six in the
moment he'd first seen her. And everything about her attitude had said
that if he did just that then she wasn't likely to stay around for long.
But if he went with his emotional instincts, and focused solely on his
developing feelings for Sienna, then Lucille would make her move and he
could lose everything. And then Sienna had come up with the astonishing
proposal that had seemed to be the answer to all his problems. He could
rescue Alexander's and at the same time win himself a breathing space
with Sienna. At the time, the year she had declared their marriage
should last had seemed like an eternity-more than enough time to win her
round, seduce her into wanting him, needing him, and, hopefully, falling
in love with him so that they could turn their temporary marriage into a
permanent relationship. Well, he'd sorted the work problems. More than
sorted them. After three months' concentrated effort, Alexander's was
well and truly back on track, with the potential to be even more
successful than ever. But three months with Sienna seemed to have had no
effect at all. If anything, it seemed he was further from winning her
heart than when he'd first started. Oh, she wanted him; there was no
doubt about that. The physical side of their relationship was everything
he'd ever dreamed it would be, and then some! But sex was all it was.
There was no trace of a possibility that she had come to care for him at
all. And if he'd needed any further proof of that, then she'd just
thrown it right into his face. Just the suspicion of any problem on the
financial front and she'd switched immediately from bedroom to boardroom
mode. Though he supposed he ought to be grateful for the fact that she'd
put on her robe. At least now he'd be able to think straight, without
being constantly distracted by the sight of her creamy skin, the rich
curves of her breasts. 'What's wrong, Sienna?' Disappointment put a
caustic bite into his voice. 'Are you worried about the return on your
investment? Afraid that I might actually go under- that you could end up
married to a man who isn't as wealthy as you thought? One who may even
be poor?' 'Is that possible?' Shock and consternation showed in her
face. How could this have happened? Could she really have been so blind
that she hadn't noticed the difficulties Keir was facing? But of course
she had. She'd been only too aware of the long hours he was working, the
length of his absences from the house. She just hadn't realised the
reasons for them. Instead she had attributed his preoccupation to a need
to be away from her, to put a distance between them. How could she have
been so stupid--so selfish! 'Keir, are things really so bad?' 'Depends
on what you're looking for,' Keir returned laconically. Stretching
lazily, he linked his hands behind his head, leaning back against them
and half closing his eyes. The movement pulled his shirt open wider over
his chest and the way his heavy eyelids drooped at the outer corners
gave him a sleepily sensual look that tugged at her heart with
disturbing appeal. 'If you want to be married to a man who can match
your father's money pound for pound, then stick around, you might strike
lucky. But if you're looking for a way out of our agreement, then
tough--no deal, lady.' 'Keir, don't be silly!' Confusion mixed with a
half-formed sense of relief to

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create an exasperation she couldn't explain. Did he mean that things
were okay with Alexander's, or just the opposite? She had no way of
knowing, and Keir's body language gave her no help at all. That
apparently indolently relaxed position could be just what it seemed, or
it could be a deliberate front, nicely calculated to hide a very
different set of feelings, ones he was determined not to let her see.
'Why on earth should I want out of our arrangement? I still need your
co-operation, remember! My uncle Francis has only handed over part of my
inheritance--the rest of it is dependent on our staying together for the
year we agreed on. I have to keep you as my husband until then.' Well,
that's told you, Alexander, you fool! Keir mocked himself. She couldn't
have spelled it out any more clearly if she'd tried. And the irony was
that just for a moment, a weak, crazy moment, he had actually let the
idea of telling her the truth slide into his mind. What the hell could
he have been thinking of? Admitting that he cared for--that he
loved-there, now he'd admitted it to himself-a woman who saw him only as
the key to her father's fortune? He needed to have his brain examined.
Keir could only shake his head in disbelief at his own foolishness. Did
he plan to lie down on the floor in front of her and let her walk all
over him with those dainty, narrow feet? 'No?' To his consternation he
realised that Sienna had caught his unthinking shake of the head and had
interpreted it in a very different way. 'What do you mean, no, Keir?'
Sienna wished she could bring her voice down an octave or two. It
sounded far too shrill and accusatory at this pitch. And if she wasn't
careful then the high, tight sound might even reach to where her mother
lay sleeping at the far end of the corridor. 'Are you trying to say you
don't intend sticking by our contract?' Sienna felt as if her stomach
was turning summersaults inside her. What would she do without him? The
future suddenly seemed unbearably bleak when viewed from the perspective
of having to face it alone. 'Do you want out? Is that it, Keir? Have you
... ?' 'The truth was suddenly unnervingly bright, like a brilliant
spotlight concentrated onto previously concealed corners of her mind,
illuminating things she would prefer to have kept hidden away. 'Have you
found someone? Is that it?' Just for a moment Keir's gaze slid away from
hers, intensifying her unease one thousandfold. He looked decidedly
shifty, as if he very definitely had something to hide. 'Have you-have
you fallen in love with someone else?' 'Don't be so stupid!' Keir
exploded, all traces of the lazy mood burning away in the heat of the
dark fury that blazed in his eyes. 'I gave you my word and I intend to
stick by that, no matter what!' 'Oh, thank God!' The rush of relief was
so intense that she almost sagged against the side of the bed, and only
just disguised the moment of weakness by transforming it into a none too
elegant drop onto the padded stool in front of her dressing table.
'Yeah, thank God!' Keir echoed with black cynicism. 'Oh, don't worry, my
lovely, your inheritance is quite safe with me! You paid for a year of
my life, and that's what you'll get, right down to the very last
second.' Suddenly too restless to stay still any longer, he flung
himself to his feet and strode round to where she perched on the stool,
her slender arms folded tightly around herself. The wary look in her
brilliant eyes as she watched him approach only inflamed further the
volatile mixture of emotions he was already prey to. She didn't trust
him; that was the real problem. Didn't trust him not to take the money
and run, leaving her in the lurch once again, all alone and with a sick
mother to care for. That rat Dean Hanson really had done a number on her!

106

It was just as well he couldn't get his hands on him right at this
moment, because he would be strongly tempted to do something very
foolish indeed. And it would be nothing less than the repellent louse
deserved! 'That's all I want.' Sienna's voice was as coolly distant as
her expression, but he would never know the effort it had cost her to
keep it that way. Keir had looked positively murderous marching towards
her just now, and it had been all she could do to keep her composure
when every nerve in her body was screaming at her to get off the stool
and run. Put as great a distance as possible between the two of them as
quickly as possible. 'At least we both know where we stand.' 'So we do.'
His expressive mouth curved into a bleak travesty of a smile, one that
had no trace of humour in it and which did nothing at all to warm the
arctic bleakness of his eyes. 'But let me just clear up a couple of
final points----or rather, correct some misconceptions you seem to hold
about just what our original agreement entailed.' One strong hand was
held up between them, only inches away from her face, and Keir's voice
was coldly emphatic as he marked off each point on a finger as he made
it. 'One-you paid me to marry you; what I do with the money is none of
your business. Your investment was in me, not Alexander's. Two--the
state of my company is no concern of yours, nor will it ever be. I
handle my own affairs as I see fit, and I won't answer to you about any
of them. And agreed to be a husband, not a lapdog. I'll act like your
husband in public, be at your side when you need me, but that's all. I'm
not at your beck and call. I come and go as I please, do what I want
when I want. Is that understood?' 'Perfectly.' Sienna was proud of her
control over her voice as she answered him. It matched his cold
enunciation perfectly. So much so that she almost expected to see the
letters form in shapes of ice on the carpet between them. 'Because if
there's anything there you can't live with, then I suggest we dissolve
our partnership right here and now.' 'There's no need for that! What
you're offering is precisely what I want from you. Nothing more; nothing
less.' 'Then at least we understand each other.' Keir flexed his broad
shoulders, pushing both hands through the dark silk of his hair. The
movement ruffled its usual sleek smoothness, causing one wayward lock to
fall forward onto his forehead in a way that Sienna found dangerously
appealing. Before she had time to think of the possible consequences of
her action, she had reached out and brushed it gently back into place.
'Sienna...' The sound of Keir's voice told her immediately how his mood
had changed in an instant. Dropping an octave or more, it had become a
huskily sensual whisper, one that curled like smoke around every nerve,
making her toes curl in instant response on the soft, thick pile of the
carpet. Chocolate-brown eyes locked with aquamarine, and Keir's intent
gaze held her mesmerised, unable to look away, incapable even of
breathing as she froze into immobility. 'When I came into this room you
were decidedly peeved. I have to wonder why you were in such a bad
mood?' 'I-I told you why,' Sienna managed with difficulty. 'My mother ... '

Keir's arrogant flick of a hand dismissed the mention of Caroline as the
irrelevance it was. 'Correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect you were
feeling neglected. "You have been staying out late a lot ...... Sienna
blinked in shock as he mimicked her own petulant tone with distinctly
unnerving accuracy. Her sense of disbelief deepened as she saw Keir's
smile, the way the pupils of his eyes had enlarged until there was only
the tiniest rim of brown at their edges.

108

'If that's the case, darling, you only have to say. Because if you're
not getting what you want...' One long-fingered hand slid under her
chin, lifting her face up towards his, his hard palm warm against her
cheek. The temptation to turn her mouth into that palm, press a
lingering kiss against it, was almost overwhelming. But then, just as
she was about to succumb, a very different thought struck her, changing
her mood abruptly. 'I'd be only too happy to put things right. After
all, I am your husband...' 'My husband as defined by the strictly narrow
business terms you detailed only moments ago!' Sienna flared, wrenching
her head away from his beguiling caress. She refused to allow herself
even to register the screaming protest from every awakened nerve in her
body as she sprang to her feet, facing him defiantly from a safe
distance of several metres. 'This isn't a real marriage, and we both
know it!' 'We have a certificate that says otherwise,' Keir pointed out
imperturbably. 'But there's a whole lot more to a marriage than just a
piece of paper! Important things. Things that make the difference
between a union that will last and one that's already past its sell-by
date!' Tell me about it, Keir reflected broodingly. It was the lack of
those important things that chafed at him day and night, eating into his
heart like acid. His only antidote was work, the long, wearing hours
that he spent in the office every day. Or sex. Only in bed could he
express anything of the way he felt for Sienna. And only in bed would
she respond in kind. 'Come to bed, Sienna.' He spoke without thinking,
cursing his foolish tongue when he saw the stormy rejection in her
sea-coloured eyes. Come to bed! She couldn't believe the arrogance of
the man. He had just spelled out to her in no uncertain terms the fact
that she meant nothing to him except as part of a purely mercenary deal,
and now he thought he could click his fingers and she would jump into
bed with him without a second's thought. She had far more respect for
herself than that, and even though her wanton body hungered for the feel
of his against it she was determined to defy it. 'Sex won't change
anything!' she tossed at him, magnificent in her disdain. 'And even a
proper wife can say no.' A faint smile touched her lips as she saw his
proud head go back in surprise. 'Yes, Keir, I'm saying no to you. Is
that a first? Am I the only woman ever to have resisted your
all-conquering charms?' The only one who'd ever mattered. But he'd be
damned if he let her see it. 'That's your prerogative, sweetheart.' He
smiled, his smile a masterpiece of indifference. 'But if you change your
mind, just come and find me.' 'Come and...' He was already halfway
towards the door by the time her mind had cleared enough to let her
speak. 'But where are you going?' Keir spared her only the briefest of
glances, not even slowing his long, smooth strides. 'I'll sleep in the
spare room tonight, darling,' he threw over his shoulder at her. 'I
think we'll both find it more comfortable that way.' Beyond speaking,
beyond thought, Sienna could only stand and stare as she watched the
door swing to behind him. She was totally unprepared for the rush of
distress that assailed her as she heard Keir's angry footsteps moving
swiftly down the corridor. She had meant every word she'd said, so why
should she feel so lost, so bereft, so desolated by the way he had left
her? Somewhere during the course of tonight the balance of their
relationship had shifted disturbingly, leaving her shocked and
bewildered by her own response. She had always known that Keir had only
married her for

110

the money she had offered him. Known that there was no emotion in the
role he played, that he was a husband in name only and would never be
anything more. It was what she had wanted from him after all. So why
should that suddenly prove to be so out of synch with her feelings? Why
did his indifference now have the power to hurt her so terribly?

111

SHE got her answer just thirty-six hours later. If she was honest with
herself, Sienna had to admit that she'd known all along. But she
couldn't bring herself to acknowledge the truth, even to herself. It
created too many problems, complicated things impossibly. And the
consequences for her own future were more than she dared to contemplate.
But when she saw the photograph she knew, absolutely and finally,
without any hope of redemption. There was no denying anything any more.
No way of dodging round the truth. It was there, right in front of her,
as clear as day. 'Oh, no!' she whispered weakly, fighting against the
tears that burned in her eyes. 'How could this have happened? And what
on earth do I do now?' She hadn't been able to get out of taking the
photographs to be developed. Her mother had insisted on it. 'And make
sure you ask for the twenty-four hour service!' she'd added as Sienna
had reluctantly left the house to carry out the errand. 'I've waited
over three months to see those pictures. I don't intend to delay any
longer!' And of course the first thing she'd done this morning was to
remind her daughter to collect the prints just as soon as she could. She
didn't really understand what instinct had driven her to open the
package of photographs as soon as she'd got back to her car. If pressed,
she would have said that seeing them was the last thing she wanted right
then. After the argument she had had with Keir, her thoughts had been so
unsettled, her mood swinging violently from one extreme to

112

another, that the last thing she needed was any more to worry about.
Keir had come home later than ever last night. So late that she had no
idea of what time he had actually arrived home. She had waited and
waited for him, but in the end exhaustion had got the better of her and
she had fallen fast asleep. In fact, the only indication she'd had that
he'd been in the house at all had been the indentation left by his head
in the pillow beside her when she'd woken, and the discovery of the
clothes he had worn that day lying discarded in the washing basket. By
the time she'd surfaced from a restless and unsatisfying sleep he'd
already gone. She had had no chance to see him, hadn't spoken to him
since he had walked out on her the night before last. So it had been the
foolish thought that she desperately needed to see his face, even if
only in the flat, one-dimensional form of a photograph, that had driven
her to wrench open the envelope and pull out its contents. It was the
first one she saw. Lying on top of the pile, clear and crisply defined,
undeniable in its impact, the picture had a shock value that winged
straight into her heart, like an arrow thudding into the gold at the
centre of a target. She remembered the scene only too well. It had been
on the afternoon of their visit to Florence, when she and Keir had made
their way through the narrow, straight streets around the Piazza della
Repubblica to the Mercato Nuovo. 'You can't leave Florence without
seeing E PorceUino,' Keir had announced. 'II PorceRino? The piglet?'
Sienna was proud of her growing knowledge of the Italian language. 'What
on earth is that?' And when she was confronted by the large bronze
statue she exclaimed in amused surprise. 'That's no piglet! It's a
fully-grown boar!' she said, eyeing the strong body, the dangerous
looking tusks at either side of the snout. The end of the creature's
nose looked more polished than the rest of him, rubbed smooth and shiny,
obviously by much handling. 'You have to rub his snout,' Keir told her,
a grin surfacing in response to her bemused expression. 'Go on,' he
urged, when she hesitated. Unable to resist that smile, Sienna had done
as he asked, looking up at Keir for an answer as she did so. 'Can you
tell me exactly why I'm doing this? I presume it has some special
significance?' Keir nodded his dark head in response. 'It's supposed to
bring good luck, but more especially make sure that one day destiny will
bring you back to Florence again in the future.' 'Oh, well, in that
case...' Sienna rubbed the bronze muzzle once again, with renewed
enthusiasm. 'I've fallen in love with Italy, with Tuscany in particular,
and I'd love to come back to this beautiful city any time fate wants to
bring me here.' It was the uncomfortable little skip of her heart,
making her breath catch unexpectedly in the middle of the sentence, that
warned her. Suddenly she couldn't take her eyes from Keir, standing so
tall and strong just to one side. His casual elegance, in a black polo
shirt and smart chinos, had a heart-stopping impact, but what suddenly
made her shiver, in spite of the heat, was what she saw in his eyes. The
smile on that handsome face seemed strangely forced and unnatural, and
the dark pools of his eyes remained bleak and shadowed, no warmth
lighting them at an. One day destiny will bring you back to Florence
again in the future. Yes, but when in the future, and with whom? In
twelve month's time she and Keir would be divorced, and would probably
never see each other again. Sienna shivered again, a cold, creeping
sensation slithering down her spine. She couldn't imagine ever coming
here without Keir. His presence was so much a part of her enjoyment of
the place, her delight in Tuscany, that she couldn't think of it without
him.

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'Keir!' Impulsively she reached out and caught hold of his hand, pulling
him forward. 'You must do it too! You must stroke Porcelhno's snout!'
When for a moment it seemed that he would resist, that he would refuse
to move, she felt the faint feeling of unease grow worse, developing
into a disturbing near-panic that made her heart race. 'Keir!' she tried
again, disconcerted to find her voice quavering on his name. 'Don't you
want to come back to Florence? I can't believe that!' At last he moved,
stepping forward and giving the bronze boar a desultory pat on the
muzzle. 'Ciao, Porrellmo,' he said, and it was the cool flippancy of the
response that told Sienna just what had been going through his mind. He
didn't care whether he came back to Florence or not. He was totally
indifferent to the fact. Or rather, he didn't care if he never came back
with her. And now, all these months later, Sienna was confronted by the
evidence of just what that had meant to her. Lying in her lap, where her
nerveless fingers had dropped it, was a photograph of herself in the
Mercato Nuovo, her hand still resting lightly on the bronze statue of
the boar. She remembered exactly when it had been taken. While she had
struggled with the unsettled thoughts Keir's response had brought to her
mind, he had stepped back quite coolly, and, with a casual command of
'Smile!', had captured her image before she'd had time to protest. He
had captured much more than that too. Sienna sighed, looking into the
image of her own face. He had caught her look of uncertainty, the
confusion as she'd struggled with her thoughts, a confusion that her
carefully switched-on smile had done nothing to hide. And there, behind
the pretence at happiness, was something darker, something Sienna
wouldn't have recognised if she'd seen it earlier. But she knew it now.
Now she recognised the shadow of the same pain she had felt when Keir
had walked out on her to go and sleep elsewhere. And blending with the
sense of loss was the most devastating thing of all. This was a
photograph of a woman deeply in love, but as yet unaware of what she
really felt. It was there in her eyes, in the yearning that she hadn't
been able to conceal, the need that was etched onto her face. 'Oh, no!'
Sienna's hand clenched over the photograph, crushing it impossibly. When
had this happened to her? How had it happened to her? How could she have
fallen in love with Keir when she had been so totally convinced that
she'd loved Dean? And yet now, somehow, what she had felt for Dean
seemed so alien, unfounded, light-years away from the way Keir made her
feel. So what made the difference? Sienna started the car, manoeuvring
it out of the parking space with far less than her usual attention to
what she was doing. Her mind was whirling, struggling to cope with the
conflicting memories and emotions her heart was throwing at it, forcing
her to look at them squarely in a way that she had never done before.
'Believe me, if I could have what I really want, you wouldn't be the man
with a wedding ring on his finger!' Her own words, spoken in anger on
her wedding day, came back to haunt her. 'And if I was to achieve a
dream, then I would have married-' I would have married Dean.' That was
what she had meant. She had thought herself in love with Dean. Believed
that his cruelty, his faithlessness had broken her heart So how could
her affections have swung from one man to another, with barely so much
as a heartbeat in between? Because she had never truly loved Dean. The
truth dawned with the effect of a blow to her head, making her stall the
car at traffic lights, earning her a reproachful blare of the horn from
the driver behind her. Moving off hastily, she drove on automatic pilot
as reality

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finally took the place of the self-delusion she had suffered from for so
long. Dean had set himself to win her over. He had been unfailingly
pleasant and cheerful, always apparently kind, considerate-always so
damn nice. He had never been impatient, never angry, always gentle,
always agreeable. And he had always been lying to her, manipulating her
with charm into getting her exactly where he'd wanted her-in his bed.
Keir, on the other hand, didn't try to be nice. He was always himself,
whether his mood was good or bad. And none of it mattered. She didn't
need charm or kindness, was indifferent to his temper. She loved being
with him no matter what sort of a mood he was in, even when he was cold
or downright cruel. And she missed him when he wasn't there. And Keir
had never needed to entice her into his bed. She would have fallen into
it without a second thought right from the very start if her mind hadn't
been so determined to hold onto her memories of Dean. She had been so
ashamed, so confused by the passion she'd felt for Keir, which had been
so unlike the gentle emotions she had had for Dean, when in fact those
feelings had been telling her the truth about the difference between the
two men. She had been in love with Keir almost from the start. She had
just been too blind, too deceived, to see it clearly. She wasn't exactly
sure when it had happened, but somewhere along the line she'd fallen
totally, irrevocably in love with her temporary husband. Like her mother
before her, she'd found the love of her life in Italy, and, like
Caroline's doomed relationship, hers too was destined to fail. But how
was she going to face Keir now? Sienna asked herself as she swung her
car into the underground parking space beneath the block where Keir had
his apartment. She felt as if one complete layer of her skin had been
scraped away, leaving her feeling raw and unnaturally sensitive to pain.
So how could she face the man she loved and not reveal her feelings? In
the end it turned out that Keir himself had solved that problem for her,
temporarily at least, because of-what else?--his work. 'He rang while
you were out,' Caroline informed her, 'Some problem at the Belgian
depot. He had to fly out straight away. He couldn't say when he'd be
back.' But the reprieve was only temporary, Sienna knew that. Before
long Keir would be back, and she would have to continue to pretend that
their marriage was nothing more than the business arrangement she had
insisted on at the start. There were still almost nine months of the
year they had agreed on ahead of her. How could she live through them
and not give herself away? She knew it would be harder than she could
possibly imagine. That the layer of skin that she'd felt had been
stripped off would never grow back again. That, as a result, a simple
look from Keir's dark eyes, a touch, the softest kiss, would leave her
feeling painfully bruised. She would never be able to settle in his
company. Her mind would be split into two, one half wanting to drive her
to throw herself into his arms and beg him to hold her tight, never let
her go, the other urging her to keep her distance, reveal nothing of
what was in her thoughts. And she would feel herself constantly hanging
back, frozen by indecision, unable to make any move one way or another.
It was like coming home to a different woman, Keir told himself with a
sense of something close to disbelief. He had only been away for six
days, less than a week, and yet when he returned Sienna was very
definitely not the wife he had left behind. Those aquamarine eyes
watched him warily from behind the shield of long, luxuriant lashes, and
her soft mouth rarely curved into the wide, brilliant smile that turned
his heart over inside his chest. She had put a strict curb on all those
impulsive little gestures too. No more gentle touches on his

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arm or his cheek, no tantalising trail of her fingers over the back of
his hand that seemed to say she couldn't keep her hands to herself, and
which drove him crazy with the flaring hunger for more. Her speech was
quieter too, with fewer of those fiery, provocative moments of defiance
that had so delighted him from the start. A week ago she had been like a
nervous, half-tamed thoroughbred, one that trusted no man, acknowledged
no one as master, but who allowed him and him alone to touch her, as
long as he took care not to startle her. But now it seemed that even
such a tentative understanding as they had reached had been destroyed at
a stroke. She eyed him warily, starting nervously if he came close
unexpectedly, and he didn't like the way that made him feel. By the time
his mother-in-law had made tactful excuses about needing an early night
and left them alone together he was definitely spoiling for a fight.
'What is this?' he demanded, hiding unease with impatience. 'What are
you sulking about?'

'Why would I be sulking?' Sienna asked, at last showing some spark of
the woman she had been a week before. 'Perhaps because I've been
concentrating too much on my work? Because I've been away ... ?' 'It
doesn't trouble me at all,' she returned, with an indifferent shrug of
her slim shoulders. 'It did before I went,' Keir reminded her pointedly.
'You said you were concerned. . .' 'I said my mother was concerned. As a
matter of fact, I've been far too busy organising the move to even
notice you weren't here.' Not true! Her conscience reproached her
sharply for the blatant lie. She had missed him desperately every single
second he had been away. 'Is that a fact?' One dark, mockingly lifted
brow questioned the vehemence of her retort. 'Well, that takes care of
the days, I suppose. But what about the nights?' Keir's voice had
lowered to a sexy, smoky whisper that coiled beguilingly around senses
already beleaguered simply by having him so near. After the desert of
empty days that had passed since she had last seen him, his presence had
thrown her responses into sensory overload. She felt like someone who
had been starving and was now suddenly presented with a banquet, and
didn't know which course to concentrate on first. If she looked into his
eyes, she couldn't see the hard, lean strength of that stunning body. If
she let her gaze dwell on the width of his shoulders, the strong wall of
his chest, she missed the softness of his mouth, the smooth silk of his
hair. She wanted all of him, every glorious, stunning inch, and yet fear
of betraying herself and revealing the force of her feelings forced her
to impose a distance that was the last thing on earth she wanted between
them. 'The nights?' She aimed for airy unconcern and almost managed it.
The nights had been the worst. She had been unable to sleep for hours,
lying awake lost and desolate, supremely conscious of the empty space
beside her, the inanimate cold of the sheets where there should have
been the living, breathing warmth of Keir's body. And when at last
exhaustion had overcome her she had drifted into a restless, unsettled
doze. Her shallow, unsatisfying sleep had been filled with burning
dreams, dreams filled with heady, erotic images of Keir, of his kisses,
his caresses, and the blazing, scorching passion that they lit in her
responsive body. She had tossed and turned, waking drenched in sweat and
with her body aching, crying out for the fulfillment it longed for and
for which her wanton dreams were no possible substitute. 'I got some
decent sleep at last,' she managed, with a dark flippancy that she hoped
hid the bitter reality from him. 'Did you indeed? Then you'll be well
rested.' 'And just what is that supposed to mean?' His sigh was a
masterpiece in its balance of resignation and exasperation.

120

'What do you think it's supposed to mean? Perhaps foolishly, I had
hoped, in the depths of my cesspit of a mind, that you might be glad to
see me back. That you would be happy to welcome me...' She was. Oh, but
she was glad to see him. And how she wanted to offer him the sort of
welcome she knew he meant. But fear held her back. Fear of betraying
herself, of letting her new-found feelings show. Her love was the last
thing Keir wanted from her. He had agreed to a no-strings, purely
business deal, and any emotion could only complicate matters
immeasurably. He was her husband for the year only, and when the time
was up he wanted to go, be set free to walk away without a backward
glance. 'So I'm going to have to work a little harder, am I?' The casual
way Keir slipped his hand into the pocket of his jacket deceived Sienna
completely. She had no sense of anticipation, no suspicion at all. And
when he waved his fingers under her nose she stared in total
incomprehension at the beautiful piece of jewellery that dangled from
them. The gold bracelet was the most delicate piece of work she had ever
seen. Each link was made up of a tiny flower at the heart of which,
brilliant as a dewdrop, glistened a perfect, dazzling diamond. 'An early
Christmas present for my beautiful wife.' 'Keir!' Sienna breathed in
shock and disbelief. 'I don't know what to say! You shouldn't have!'
Until Alexander's was secure, he should be ploughing all his money back
into the company, not wasting it on extravagant fripperies for her! But
as Keir dropped the bracelet into her upturned palm and closed her
fingers over it she couldn't suppress the rush of excitement and delight
that came from knowing he hadn't completely forgotten her while he had
been away. He had thought of her. And he had taken the time to select
this lovely, perfect gift. 'Oh, Keir!' impulsively she pressed her lips
against the lean plane of his cheek. 'You're so generous! I don't know
how to thank you!' 'Don't you?' he questioned huskily, the dark fires in
his eyes blazing down into hers in an eloquent declaration of intent.
'Well, this will do for a start...' His arrogant dark head swooped down
and the hard, confident mouth captured hers, his kiss a demand more than
a caress as it crushed her lips beneath his. It took just the space of a
single, jolting heartbeat for that kiss to light the fires already
smouldering in her heart, melting away any thought of resistance and
setting her blood thundering through her veins. Keir parted her lips to
invade her softened mouth, thrusting, tasting, demanding, communicating
without words the fierce, impatient need that had him in its grip. His
urgent appeal to her senses cut straight through what remained of her
defences, pushing her into an open, yielding admission of her own
desire. She trembled hungrily beneath that devouring onslaught. It made
her feel wanted, dominated, and weak with hunger. Her hands snaked up to
coil around his strong neck, shaking fingers tangling in the crisp,
short hair at the nape. An instinctive, sinuous movement of her hips
against his brought her into close contact with the heated force of his
erection, taut against the close fit of his perfectly cut trousers. She
had no way of knowing whether her moan of need preceded Keir's or vice
versa, only that the two blended together into a single sound of
longing. 'Upstairs?' Keir muttered roughly against her ear, his 'voice
thickened and rough, a flare of heated colour searing his strong
cheekbones. 'Upstairs,' Sienna whispered in confirmation, unable to find
the thought to form any further words. They weren't needed. Keir looked
for no further encouragement, instead swinging her up into his arms and
carrying her bodily towards the stairs. 'if you knew how I've missed
you!' Keir declared huskily

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as he tumbled her onto the bed to lie in a splayed heap of limbs. He
gave her no time to adjust her position, coming down beside her and
tugging impatiently at her clothes. For once he seemed to have lost all
his finesse as a lover, too aroused, too ardent to take his usual care
in easing her clothing from her. But Sienna welcomed this new clumsiness
as she had delighted in that unevenly voiced 'I've missed you.' With her
own love so desperately close to the surface, needing only the slightest
urging to come tumbling out, she revelled in even the slightest hint
from Keir that he too was more emotionally involved than before.
'Keir...' she whispered shakily, the longing for him a tight knot of
pain low down in her body. 'I know, sweetheart.' His soft voice soothed.
'I know. It's been a long, long six days, but I intend to make up for
that now.'

'Yes... Oh, yes.' It was a sigh of contentment, cracking in the middle
as his hands stroked over her body, making every inch of her throb in
intense arousal. She had likened her need of him to an addiction, and
now she knew how true addicts felt when, having endured the pain of
withdrawal symptoms, they were once again able to feed their craving.
Hard fingers splayed across her spine, crushing her close against the
heated length of him, and his mouth seemed to be everywhere, on her
hair, her mouth, the wild pulse at the base of her neck, then, hungrily
demanding, back on her lips again. And all the while his hands roved
over her skin, leaving burning, erotic trails where they touched, making
her moan her delight out loud. Cupping her breasts, he lifted them to
his mouth, caressing the hardened buds with his lips and his tongue. But
when she would have caught his head in her hands, fingers tangling in
the luxuriant dark hair in order to drag his mouth back to him, he
tugged himself gently free. The next moment Sienna froze into stunned
stillness, her body arched to meet the tormenting trail of his kisses
over the soft skin of her stomach and down to the most intimate spot of
all. 'Keir!' she gasped, pushed to too high a pitch to know or care what
she was saying. 'Keir, my-' Realisation dawned just in time to have her
swallowing down the incriminating word. My love, she had almost said.
Keir, my love! And the realisation of how close she had come to giving
herself away put a new exigency into her caresses, her hands sliding
down between their two bodies and closing over the hot, hard length of
him. She knew a sense of very feminine triumph as she heard him groan
aloud. 'Sienna!' Her name was just a raw, hungry sound. 'Darling, if you
do that, I... You drive me wild; I can't...' 'Do you think I mind?' Her
own whisper feathered laughter against his ear. 'What if I want you
wild?' Above her, Keir's eyes closed and his dark head fell back, hectic
colour burning across his cheekbones. 'In that case, my lady...' The
heated, wild invasion of his body into hers was so intensely welcome
that Sienna felt scalding tears spill from the corners of her eyes and
trickle down her cheeks. This was the first time she had truly made love
with Keir, knowing that he had her heart, and the heightened pleasure
that secret knowledge brought was almost more than she could bear.
'Sienna?' To her horror Keir had sensed the change in her, the dampness
of her tears against his face. 'What ... ?' But Sienna couldn't bear the
searching intensity of his dark eyes. Moving her head restlessly on the
pillow, she tried to avoid that probing stare. 'Don't stop!' she pleaded
feverishly. 'Please don't.' And then, when it seemed he would ignore
her, when he didn't move but simply looked down into her flushed face,
frowning his confusion, she balled her slender hands into tight fists,
pummelling them against his strong shoulders in angry reproof.

124

'I said don't stop!' Taking the initiative herself, she writhed
underneath his imprisoning body, exciting herself every bit as much as
him. She knew the moment that Keir lost all control. Heard it in the
muffled groan of surrender, felt it in the unruly movement of his
powerful body. With a raw, guttural sound in his throat, he took up the
rhythm she had started and built on it, with a raw, forceful timing that
built to a wild crescendo, driving her onwards and upwards until she
felt herself explode into a thousand brilliant stars as she tumbled into
total oblivion. A long, long time later she surfaced from the exhausted
sleep that had claimed her to find the room shadowed by the darkness of
the night. It was as she stirred restlessly, slowly becoming aware of
the coolness of the sheets at her side, the empty space where Keir
should have been, that the cool, unearthly light of the full moon slid
between her half-closed lids. Forcing them open, she focused blearily on
the window at the far side of the room. The heavy velvet curtains were
drawn back on one side and Keir, his navy towelling robe pulled on
against the chill of the early December night, stood staring out into
the darkness, his hands pushed deep into his pockets and his shoulders
hunched as if against some unwanted burden. 'Keir?' His dark head
whipped round at the sound of her questioning use of his name, and she
smiled sleepily, waving one hand in a gesture of invitation, willing him
to come back and join her in the bed once more. But Keir simply shook
his head, and turned back to whatever held his attention beyond the
glass. 'Go back to sleep, Sienna,' he instructed quietly. 'You have a
busy day ahead of you tomorrow. You need your rest.' Too tired to
disobey, Sienna tried a half-hearted sound of protest, but without any
force behind it. Already her eyes were closing once more, warm, drugging
waves of sleep reaching out to enfold her. 'Tomorrow...' she managed,
surfacing just long enough to catch the faint twist of his beautifully
shaped mouth. 'Yes, tomorrow,' he responded flatly, a note she had never
heard before shading his words. 'Now go to sleep.' Turning on her side,
Sienna nuzzled her face into the pillow once more, wrinkling her nose in
annoyance as a fine strand of hair fell forward, tickling her cheek. It
was only as she lifted a lazy hand to brush it away that she realised
that the gold and diamond bracelet Keir had brought her, and which she
last recalled holding tight in her fist as he carried her upstairs, was
now fastened securely around her slender wrist. How ... ? But sleep
claimed her before she could think of any explanation of its presence.
Hearing her contented sigh, Keir turned once more to study her sleeping
face, illuminated by the moonlight that slanted softly across her
pillow. In some ways it had been the homecoming he had dreamed of. But
in others it had been everything he had ever feared. Their lovemaking
had been so intense, so wild, so unbelievable. And Sienna herself had
seemed like a different woman. Herself, and yet not the Sienna he had
known UP to now. She had been so passionate, so responsive. He might
almost have let himself believe that she had missed him as much as he
had her. That the six days apart had made her look at him and their
marriage in a different light, so that he could almost imagine there was
a future for them after all. Almost' If he had fallen asleep when she
had done he might have deluded himself completely, seeing what he wanted
even though it wasn't there. But when Sienna had curled up against him,
her head resting on his chest, sighing her gratification, he had forced

126

himself to stay awake to enjoy the sensation of having her so close,
holding her tight against him. And so he had seen how, as she'd
succumbed to the exhaustion that had claimed her, the arm that she had
flung around him had relaxed, her clenched fist loosening, fingers
uncurling softly. As she'd done so something had slithered from her
grasp, landing in a soft, metallic coil on the warm skin of his chest.
The bracelet--presented to her downstairs and clutched in her greedy
grasp ever since. An expensive trinket that had brought about a dramatic
change in her attitude, transforming it from spiky reluctance to willing
co-operation in the space of a heartbeat. Well, if he left it like that,
she might lose it somewhere in the bed, and that would be a pity after
the effort she'd gone to to earn it, he'd told himself cynically. And so
he'd fastened it round her slender wrist, where she couldn't miss seeing
it as soon as she woke. Face it, fool! Keir now reproved himself
angrily, dragging his gaze away from Sienna as she settled back to
sleep, and turning to stare into the bleak, cold light of the moon that
so perfectly matched his mood. Face the fact that this marriage is still
based firmly on commercial lines. With every transaction paid for
strictly in hard cash.

127

'I HAVE something for you,' Keir said casually. 'Happy Valentine's Day.'
'For me?' Sienna's head came up sharply from the book she had been
reading to stare at her husband in blank confusion. 'But I would have
thought that the roses were enough The roses were more than enough.
Peach and gold, they exactly matched the flowers in her wedding bouquet,
and just to think that he had troubled to remember sent her heart
soaring in a singing reaction to his thoughtfulness. She tried not to
put too much on it, but all the same it was impossible not to let
herself wonder, to dream. He had been so very generous at Christmas, and
now this. Was it possible that perhaps, slowly, Keir was coming to care
for her in a way that was more than sexual? 'I still wanted you to have
this.' Belatedly Sienna realised all that Keir held out to her now was a
white envelope. Just a card, then, not the extra Valentine's gift she
had been foolishly anticipating. 'Well, you obviously don't believe in
pretending to be a secret admirer,' she joked as she took it from him.
She had tried that, she recalled, hot colour washing her cheeks. Too
scared to send him a Valentine's card that came anywhere near the truth
about the way she felt, she had chosen instead one with a jokey
inscription and had put it in the post, carefully disguising her
handwriting as best she could. The joke had fallen painfully flat when
Keir had opened the card along with the rest of his mail at breakfast
time. He had barely skimmed over the words inside, his sensual

128

mouth managing only the faintest flicker of a smile, before he had
turned to her with a 'Thanks' so off-hand as to be positively
indifferent. 'You want me to know exactly who it's from?' she said now.
'With this, I do.' Something about his attitude set her nerves on edge.
This felt all wrong. It was no light-hearted card for Valentine's Day.
Not even a slightly risque joke, as hers had been. Sienna's fingers
trembled as she ripped open the envelope. It was impossible to hold back
the irrational hopes that flooded her aund. Could it be that the roses
had just been the start, that they were meant to test the water, so to
speak? Keir wanted her to know that this came from him, and so... Not a
card. All the nervous excitement that had buoyed her up left her body in
a rush, so that she actually sagged back into her chair. Then what? It
took several more uncertain seconds before she recognised the slip of
paper she held as a cheque. Much longer to make out the amount written
on it as the figures danced before her eyes. 'What ... ? I don't
understand.' With a determined effort she blinked hard to clear her
blurring vision, forcing herself to concentrate. She recognised Keir's
handwriting, the firm, upward slash of his signature, heavily
underlined, but nothing else made sense. The value of the cheque was
impossibly large, for one thing. 'Keir, what is this?' Shadowed with
confusion, her turquoise eyes sought his, meeting head-on a gaze that
was dark as jet and every bit as unyielding. 'Can't you guess?' Rough
and hard-edged, his tone scraped over already raw nerves, making her
shiver unhappily. 'That cheque is for every penny I owe you, plus some
extra to cover the interest.' Every penny I owe you. But why? Afraid to
ask the real question, the one that was pounding in her head, she dodged
the issue cravenly instead. 'But, Keir-it's so much. Can you afford it?'
she asked, affecting a calm she was a million miles from feeling, and
finding herself quite pleased with the result. She sounded cool and in
control, not the twisting mass of nerves that she was inside. 'Of course
I can afford it!' Keir exploded, slamming one fist into the palm of the
other hand in a gesture so expressive of his mood that Sienna flinched
back in her chair, watching him with wide, wary eyes. She had known
something was up from the moment he had come home. Normally when he got
back from the office his first action was to change his clothes, casting
off the conformity and restrictions of his work-wear and putting on
something more casual and comfortable. But today he had acted completely
out of character, keeping on the superbly tailored navy blue suit and
matching shirt and tie all through dinner. Sienna found the formality of
his appearance thoroughly disconcerting. So much so that she had found
it hard to eat the delicious meal put in front of her. Dressed this way,
he looked stunningly handsome, the severe lines of the tailored clothes
enhancing the forceful appeal of his lean body, the sulking, dark good
looks. But he also looked icily remote and intimidating, a sleekly
groomed predator whom she watched uneasily from behind the protection of
her long black lashes. She didn't even have the shield of her mother's
presence at the table with them in order to Mute the impact of Keir's
disturbing presence, deflect the more pointed remarks, fill the most
uncomfortable silences. Caroline had found the cold, damp winter
particularly wearing, and Keir had insisted that she take a holiday,
visiting some friends in Spain, until the weather improved. 'I'm sorry.
I didn't mean...' Sienna got to her feet in a rush, feeling far too
vulnerable sitting down while he towered over her in this way. 'But,
Keir--how?-why?' The beautifully shaped mouth twisted into a cynical grimace

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as he lifted broad, straight shoulders in a dismissive shrug. 'How? Hard
work, careful investment. Some calculated speculation on the stock
market. As to why-well, I'm sure you can guess the answer to that.' 'To
pay me back? But the money wasn't a loan!' And what did it mean for her,
now that he had paid it all off? Where did that leave the two of them?
'I saw it as such--a temporary loan to get me out of an unexpected tight
spot. And I knew I'd never rest until it was all paid back. So I took a
couple of calculated gambles.' 'Keir, you might have lost everything!'
'It would have been worth it.' 'It mattered so much to you? But why?'
'Oh, come on, Sienna!' It was a low savage growl. 'You understand better
than that. You knew I was never going to be a tame lapdog of a husband,
someone who would be at your beck and call, come when you whistled. I
took your money because I was forced to, I needed it. But I don't need
it now, and so-'

'And now?' Sienna prompted nervously when he unexpectedly broke off the
angry tirade. 'What happens now?' Her hands were damp with perspiration,
and she wiped them as inconspicuously as possible down the skirt of her
deep red, long-sleeved dress. Just what did Keir have in mind for their
future? What happens now? Keir echoed her question in the privacy of his
own thoughts. Did he really know how to answer that? If he was strictly
honest, then he hadn't thought things through properly. In fact, he
hadn't considered beyond the moment that he handed over the cheque to
her. For nearly six months now, all his attention had been concentrated
on the prospect of this one moment. The point where he could pay back
every penny of the money Sienna had given him and know that, with
Alexander's in the clear and the debt he owed to her discharged,
everything was on a completely different footing. They could start
again. But nothing had gone as he had anticipated. For one thing, Sienna
hadn't even seemed pleased by the gesture he had made. Her amazing eyes
had been as cold and unwelcoming as the North Sea on a winter's day, her
expression coolly indifferent. 'Have you thought about making this
marriage of ours into the real thing?' Keir asked, with a nonchalance
that took her breath away. 'After all, we both get on well enough
together-and you have to admit that the sex couldn't be better.' 'Is
that a proposal?' High and tight with something close to hysterical
laughter, Sienna's voice perfectly expressed the disbelief she was
feeling. 'Because quite frankly I've had more flattering put-downs! What
on earth makes you think I'd agree to any such thing?' What indeed? Keir
was forced to ask himself, shaking his head at his own stupidity. He
could only be grateful that he'd managed to hide the way he really felt.
This way, he'd asked the question, but without putting himself on the
line. He could just imagine what her response would have been if he'd
been fool enough to do that! 'Why not?' If he could have managed to
sound more detached, he didn't know how. 'Plenty of other marriages have
been built on a whole lot less. It's a start.'

'Not much of one!' Sienna used scorn to disguise the pain she felt. 'And
what, precisely, would I get out of this marriage you're
proposing-other, that is, than a raging sex-life?, The dreadful thing
was that she was tempted! if he had been just the tiniest bit more
gentle. If he had coached his offer in terms that were even the
slightest bit less insulting, she might actually have said yes. 'A rich
husband--because, believe me, Sienna, I am rich now. The problems I had
are all behind me. A good lifestyle-a child...'

132

A child. A baby with Keir's dark hair and big brown eyes. Her own
private fantasy come true. But she could never admit as much. 'No way! A
baby should be brought into the world by two people who truly love each
other. A child deserves to have parents who can teach it by example what
love is, what it means. They shouldn't just be two people brought
together by a temporary difficulty who decided to stay together because
they had a great sex-life!' Well, now you know, Keir Alexander! Do you
want it spelled out any more clearly than that? Could she make it any
plainer? Did he really want to stick around and see what little was left
of his ego taken and trampled into the ground under her dainty, arrogant
little feet? 'Then there's not much point in continuing with this farce,
is there? We might as well call it a day.' Sienna felt all the blood
drain from her face, leaving it cold as ice. Twice she opened her mouth
to speak, only to have her voice fail her at the last moment. With a
struggle, she tried one more time. 'You-you can't mean that!' He
couldn't! Not now. Not yet. Cold and callous and totally unfeeling he
might be, but he'd stolen her heart, and if he walked out of the door
he'd take it with him, leaving just a raw, gaping hole where it should
be. 'I mean it,' Keir returned dangerously. 'Every damn word.' He was
turning towards the door as he spoke. He had every intention of carrying
out his threat unless she did something drastic. But what? Desperation
forced inspiration into her panicked mind. 'Well, that's just typical!'
she flung after him. 'Typical male selfishness! Now you've got
everything you want, you don't even spare a thought for me!' It stopped
him at least. Froze him halfway across the room, before slowly swinging
round to face her again. 'Everything-' he began, but she was too
distraught to let him speak. Instead she rushed on, the words pouring
out of her, totally beyond her control. 'You know what my situation is!
How I have to convince my uncle this is real! I must stay married to you
or I'll lose everything!' And he would never know just how true those
words really were. Without Keir she would never inherit the rest of her
father's money, but then without Keir she wouldn't care about anything
like that at all. Nothing would have any meaning. 'If the money matters
to you that damn much, I'll give it to you. I told you, I'm rich...'
'It's not just the money!' Was he so desperate to be free of her?
'There's this house-my mother's home-and how do you think people will
talk if you walk out on me now?' 'By "people" I presume you mean your
precious Dean Hanson?' LOCAN had never even crossed her mind, but it
would be safer not to admit that. 'You owe me a year! That was what we
agreed on! I want that year-no more, no less! As I said before, that
money wasn't a loan! I--bought you-paid for you...' She was saying all
the wrong things, she knew that by the black, savage scowl that had
descended on his stunning features, the blaze of yellow fury in the
depths of his eyes. 'The hired husband.' Bleak cynicism lashed at her
like the cruel flick of a whip but she forced herself to ignore it. 'You
agreed to stay for twelve months, not six. You must stay!' 'Must?' Must
was quite the wrong word to have used. 'You-you promised...' Abruptly
Keir's mood changed. The tension in his shoulders vanished, leaving them
with a disturbingly despondent slump as he raked both hands through the
dark silk of his hair in a gesture of angry frustration.

134

'I promised,' he echoed flatly. 'And I should keep my promise.' He
couldn't summon up any emotion to inject into the words. The emotion was
all in his heart. How in hell was he to stay in the relationship feeling
as he did and knowing there was no hope of a response? How was he to
survive when he could only get in deeper and deeper, as the past months
had already proved to him? He'd thought he could have it all. Keir
almost laughed aloud at his own foolishness. The company and the
marriage. But nearly six months down the line Sienna showed no sign at
all of coming to care for him. If anything, she was further away than
ever. But he had promised, and, recognising an Achilles' heel when she
saw one, Sienna had gone straight for it. He would never renege on a
promise and she knew it. So now he was caught, trapped into living with
a woman who saw him only as the key to the money she would inherit. When
the year they'd agreed on was up and he'd outlived his usefulness to her
she would let him go without even waving goodbye. The real problem was
whether he could last another six months without betraying himself.
Without her finding out what he really felt. ;All right, Sienna, you
win. I'll stay.' All right, Sienna, you win. He was conceding defeat,
Sienna told herself. But if she'd won, why did it feel so much like a
total failure? Why did she feel so despondent, so totally desolate, as
if something very special, something precious and valuable had just died
right there in front of her eyes? Because she'd won the battle but lost
the war. She'd persuaded Keir to stay, but so much against his will that
he must always hate her for it. She had used moral blackmail on him,
left him with no alternative, and he would never forgive her for that.
He would stay because he was obliged to, but he would resent every
second he spent with her. And when the year was up he would escape,
throw off the bonds that he saw as forcing him to be, in that detested
phrase, the hired husband and leave without a backward glance. And she
would have to let him go. She had no reason to justify keeping him with
her any longer. Just to think of it made her heart ache as if it was
bruised. When the year was up! Sienna had to force back the cry of
distress that almost escaped her, biting down hard on her lower lip to
keep herself silent. The end of the year might be the least of her
worries. The real problem was whether she could survive the next six
months or so and keep the truth of her feelings for Keir hidden all that
time.

137

SIENNA wasn't asleep when Keir finally came to bed, just half dozing.
But when she felt the bedclothes lift slightly, the bed dip under his
weight, and the warm, intensely personal scent of his body coil around
her she came wide awake at once. For a few moments she lay absolutely
still, wondering whether to speak or take the more diplomatic route of
keeping quiet. The past weeks had been hard enough. Was she about to
make them more difficult for herself? In the month since Valentine's
Day, it had seemed as if Keir barely existed in her life. If it hadn't
been for the fact that he came home every night, then she would never
have seen him. He was out early in the morning, often before she even
woke, and he stayed out all day, only reappearing later than ever
before, often only just in time to collapse into bed and fall fast
asleep. But she knew that he no longer needed to work so hard.
Alexander's was going from strength to strength, the investments Keir
had made bringing in a small fortune in interest. And so the only
conclusion she could come to was that he was deliberately distancing
himself from her, staying out in order to avoid having to come face to
face with her. And she couldn't bear it. The few months that were left
of their marriage were steadily going by. All around her, the signs of
spring's arrival were slowly starting to appear. Before she could blink
it would be summer, and at the end of that summer she and Keir would go
their separate ways. This was all the time with him that was left to
her. She couldn't possibly let it go to waste. Beside her, Keir stirred
restlessly, and, unexpectedly, she heard him sigh deeply. Just what was
the reason for his despondency she didn't know, but she had to talk to
him- and now. 'Keir?' she said softly, and instantly felt the long body
at her side stiffen. 'I didn't realise you were awake.' Coming out of
the darkness, his voice was far from welcoming, with no trace of warmth
in it. Not the best beginning, but she forced herself to ignore the
tension in him so that she could continue. 'My mother will be back next
week. Can I hope that you'll at least make some effort to be home once
in a while when she's here?' Keir lifted his hands and linked them
behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. 'So that's what's so
important it's kept you awake half the night,' he drawled sardonically.
'Well, you needn't worry your pretty head about things any more. I'll be
here.' He'd be here for Caroline, the moment her mother set foot in the
house. But he hadn't been here for her, for his wife, for ages. There
was no way she could control her voice. She sounded as ungracious and
ill-tempered as a hibernating bear woken far too early from its sleep.
And, to judge by the way Keir's head turned swiftly in her direction, he
was well aware of the fact. 'You don't sound too pleased with the idea,'
he commented satirically. 'Was that the wrong answer? Was I supposed to
say, No, I'll make myself scarce so that Caroline will be forced to
wonder what's up?' 'Of course not! But that's just what she'll do if you
continue the way you've been behaving. Don't you think it's a little too
early to start laying preparations so that people won't be too surprised
when we finally divorce?' 'That wasn't what was in my mind at all.' It
was impossible to interpret Keir's tone, and the way he

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had Pulled himself up onto his pillows, leaning back against the
bedhead, meant that his face was way above hers, impossible to see. So
she had no clues at all as to exactly what had been in his thoughts.
'But then I don't think you'd want to know what I was really thinking.'
'Wouldn't I?' Sienna copied his movement of a moment earlier, levering
herself up until she was sitting against the pillows. She caught the
flash of his dark eyes, eerie and disturbing in the moonlight coming
through a chink in the curtains, glancing at her just once, then away
again, with a speed that slashed at her heart in its total indifference.
'And what would you know about it, husband?' She emphasised the word
with a sarcasm that matched his own. 'When have you been around to learn
anything about the way I was thinking? To see anything beyond the needs
of that damn company of your-' 'Well, well, what is this?' Keir
interrupted her tirade mockingly. 'Are you claiming, dear wife, that
you've actually been missing me? That, unlike the last time, this
protest is actually on your own behalf and not just your mother's?' The
cynical intonation of that 'deal wife' turned the endearment into an
insult that twisted the knife in the wound he had already inflicted on
her. 'Don't call me that!' She was beyond thinking if her response was
wise, beyond caring how much it gave away. 'Don't you dare use the word
wife in reference to me!' 'Why not?' Keir returned with deceptive
mildness. Sienna was only too well aware of the way that that ominously
quiet voice hid a ruthless temper, only barely reined in. One false move
and he would loose his grip on it altogether. 'I understood that was
what you are,-for now at least.' Suddenly a fierce, liberating anger
filled Sienna's thoughts, obliterating rational thought. She didn't care
if she drove him to lose his temper. Perhaps, after all, that was what
she wanted him to do. It would be such a change to see some emotion,
some passion in him even if it was only anger. For the past few weeks he
had been so controlled, so coolly distant, that at times she had been
ready to scream. It would be a relief to let out some of that tension,
like hot air escaping from a pressure cooker. 'A wife in name only! A
wife who hasn't been treated like a wife! Do you know how long it is
since we-since we made love--or did anything together! You're out all
day and half the night; I hardly ever see you! If you were a different
man, I might think you had a mistress, but I can't even tell myself
that! Instead my rival in the ... the...' Desperately she caught herself
up as her wayward tongue almost gave the game away completely. My rival
in the love stakes she had been about to say and her heart clenched in
panic at the thought of just how Keir would have responded to that! 'My
rival for your attention,' she amended hastily, 'is your company!' Her
words died away into the silence of the night. A silence so still and
profound that it tugged sharply at her nerves, making her skin feel
cold. Say something! she pleaded silently, willing Keir to speak. But
still the silence stretched out, tightening her nerves with every
fearful beat of her heart. And still Keir said nothing. She was so tense
with expectation of his angry response that when he moved suddenly she
flehed away nervously. But Keir had only lifted his hands to rake them
through his hair, shaking his head slightly as he did so. 'I had no idea
you felt this way. I-' 'Well, what way did you expect me to feel? Was I
supposed to sit quietly at home while you were out playing at being the
businessman of the year?' 'I was not playing!' It came out with a snap
from between clenched teeth. 'I was earning the money to pay you back.'
'Money I didn't want!' That brought his eyes round to her again,
studying her so

140

intently from beneath lowered lids that she shifted uncomfortably
against the softness of the pillows. Now that her eyes had grown
accustomed to the darkness, she could make out the strong, clean lines
of his chest, the wide, straight shoulders, and her fingers itched to
stretch out and touch. She had to clench them tightly out of sight under
the covers so that they didn't smooth over the skin she knew felt like
heated satin, trace the tantalising line of body hair down to where it
vanished out of sight under the duvet. The moonlight played on the
carved lines of Keir's face, throwing it into planes and shadows that
emphasised the purity of the bone structure, the deep pools of his eyes.
Against the immaculate white of the pillow covers, the darkness of his
hair was almost shocking. The restless movement of his hands a moment
before had ruffled it softly, so that a single wayward lock had fallen
forward over the high forehead, just asking to be stoked back into
place. But she didn't dare. His mood was too dangerous, too
unpredictable. From wanting the release of his fury, she was now
desperate to do anything to avoid it. It was impossible to tell which
was worse--the fire of his anger or the coldness of his indifference.
Both were brutally destructive in their own way. 'Here we go again,'
Keir muttered roughly. "'I don't want ... I don't want". Will you ever
tell me what you do want?' Oh, but that was easy. If only she had the
nerve to say it. Did she dare? Sienna stared up into the impenetrable
darkness of his eyes and drew in a ragged, uncertain breath. Her lips
were too dry to speak, and she slid her tongue over them to ease the
feeling. It was as she saw Keir's gaze drop to follow the small
movement, the sudden tension in his jaw, that she knew he was not as
unaffected by her as he seemed. Was his indifference, then, all just an
act? Had he felt the past weeks' separation as badly as she had? Was the
hunger that she had experienced even now eating away at him as it was
inside her? 'Oh, Keir, don't you know...' A blend of uncertainty and
undisguised desire, touched with a hint of soft amusement lowered her
voice by a husky octave, and she knew from the way Keir's head went back
slightly that he was not unaware of it. 'Surely you can guess.' His
breath was dragged into his lungs with an effort, as if they were raw
and uncomfortable. 'Tell me.' His command was even more rasping than
hers had been. The sound of it made Sienna's mood lift dramatically. In
this way at least they could still communicate. With a small smile
tugging at the corners of her mouth she finally gave way to temptation.
Lifting her hand, she touched it lightly to the strong curve of one
shoulder, the smile growing as she saw the shudder he was unable to
control. Very gently she trailed her fingertips across his chest, her
gaze fixed on the path she was taking so that she couldn't miss the
response he fought. Just for a second she let her fingers rest against
the pulse at the base of his throat. Finding it satisfactorily
heightened, the blood throbbing beneath the delicate pressure, she let
the smile become a grin of triumph. If she couldn't keep him with her
any other way, there was always this. Sex had been their way of
connecting from the start. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't what she wanted.
But it was better than nothing. 'You know what I want, Keir. I want
you.' The breath he drew in was even deeper, rawer, than before. He was
weakening. Whatever wounded pride or determination to make his company
the best in the world had kept him from her over the past weeks, it was
weakening rapidly. The wall he had built between them was cracking
apart, coming down brick by brick. A little more encouragement was all
it needed. Her fingers traced delicate, heated patterns down over his

142

impressive torso, making small circles in the softness of the fine dark
hair, feeling the powerful muscles clench and tighten underneath her
touch. Her own heart was thudding painfully, her blood heating until it
created a fire of need at the most feminine core of her body. 'Did you
hear me, Keir?' His lack of anything to say was surprising. But perhaps
he wanted her to carry on persuading him. Perhaps he wanted to carry out
this game of provocation to the very minut. Perhaps he wanted her to
tantalise and torment him until he could take no more. 'I said I want
you.' Her wandering hands had reached the line of the bedclothes and she
hesitated, then ran them backwards and forwards along the top of the
soft barrier, as if debating whether to go any further. Keir was totally
still now, he almost seemed to have stopped breathing. 'I want you to-'
She broke off on a squawk of shocked surprise as Keir moved at last. But
not in the way she had anticipated. A hard hand clamped onto hers,
strong fingers closing tightly, stilling her teasing movement. 'I heard
what you said,' Keir growled savagely. 'But you'll have to forgive
me--I'm not in the mood tonight.' 'Not-not in the-' Sienna turned wide,
stunned eyes on his face, finding it closed and shuttered, as cold and
unyielding as if it was that of a marble statue. 'I don't understand.
What had happened to the response she had been so sure of? The passion
she had believed was just under the surface, needing just the faintest
encouragement to be set free? Not in the mood? Dear God, Alexander, who
are you trying to kid? The hunger was like a pain inside him, clawing at
him. But he'd been caught that way before and the inevitable kickback
had become harder and harder to endure. Oh, he could let himself make
love to Sienna quite easily. Let himself He almost laughed aloud at the
bitter irony of the thought. It was all he could do to stop himself from
grabbing her and throwing her back on the bed and... But it was no
longer the same. The pleasure--the physical pleasure--was still there,
intense as ever. If anything, it grew more intense each time he made
love to Sienna. He was always fully physically satisfied. But deep
inside was an emotional black hole that was growing wider and deeper
with every day of this facade of a marriage that passed. He hated the
way it made him feel. Feared that one day he might weaken and say what
he really felt, reveal his heart openly to her. He was afraid that one
night, in the throes of passion, or, worse, when he had had rather too
much to drink, he might just let down the barriers he'd lived with for
so long and tell her that he loved her. And so for weeks now he'd held
back, making excuses. He'd stayed out as long as he could and come to
bed later and later, waiting until he was sure that she was asleep. Or
he'd protested a tiredness he was far from feeling. Anything so that he
could avoid being in bed with her when she was awake. It was bad enough
having to endure the long wakeful hours with her warm soft body curled
so close to his, the perfume of her skin filling his nostrils. 'I don't
understand.' Sienna's eyes, pale in the moonlight, were sheened with
tears she wouldn't let herself shed. 'What is it? Don't you fancy me any
more?' Fancy her! 'Fancy' didn't describe it. He ached with hunger.
Wanted her as he had never wanted any woman, and that hunger never
eased, was never appeased. But he couldn't bear the emotional backlash
any longer. Couldn't handle the thought that making love meant nowhere
near as much to her. That with her it was only physical. That her mind
and her heart were not involved in the way that his were. That perhaps
she was even comparing him with Dean and wishing he were the man she
loved. 'Sienna, I told you I wasn't in the mood.'

144

If her tormenting fingers wandered an inch or so below the covers she'd
soon prove that statement for the outright lie it was. Silently Keir
cursed his wilful body for the all too obvious signs it was betraying.
'But you haven't made love to me for weeks!' Not with his body, perhaps,
but in his mind ... ! In his thoughts he had been with her, loving her,
more times than he cared to count. His thoughts had produced the most
erotic, most carnal, positively X-rated films for his own private
viewing. But the most fantastical element about them had been that in
every one of his dreams Sienna had been avowing her undying love for
him. 'We don't have to be at it every second of the day!' 'Keir, we're
not at it any time. And we're supposed to be-we're newly-weds--we're
married.' 'Yeah, we're married,' Keir echoed cynically. 'And this is
what happens when you get married. Romance flies out of the window. You
sign that piece of paper and everything changes. Reality intervenes...'
'But ours isn't exactly the usual sort of marriage. You're not really my
husband, are you? And I'm not anything like a wife. It's not even a real
marriage.' 'You said it, lady.' If she'd kicked him right where it hurt
most, it couldn't have been more painful. But it had had one welcome
effect-it had successfully doused his ardour in a second. At least now
he would be able to get out of bed and walk away without revealing the
lie he had been telling all this time. And he had to walk away. He
couldn't stay. Couldn't talk to her any more. But he had to make sure
she didn't come after him. 'Real marriage or no, Sienna darling, the
magic's gone out of it. I mean, look at what you're wearing .' The flick
of his hand that kneated the soft cotton of her well-worn tee shirt was
arrogantly contemptuous. 'This...' Sienna caught herself up in a panic,
painfully aware of the way that she had come close to admitting that,
feeling lost and abandoned, she had pulled on the old tee shirt for
comfort. 'It's a cold night!' she substituted hastily. 'In a centrally
heated house.' As if to prove his point, Keir flung back the duvet and
swung his long legs out of bed with obvious indifference to the chill of
the night. Proudly naked, he strode across the room to snatch up his
robe and shrug it on, belting it tightly round his waist. 'You can't
walk out on me like this!' Sienna protested wildly. 'I won't let you.'
'You can't stop me.' Keir's contradiction was formed in ice. And before
she had time to recover enough from that final cutting comment he was gone.

Left alone, Sienna wrapped her arms tightly round her slim body, as if
to hold herself together. Deep inside she felt as if she was falling
apart. As if everything that was truly hers was crumbling to pieces,
never to be put back together again. The pain of Keir's rejection was
almost more than she could bear. And it was so much worse because it had
been done so coldly, with absolute control no trace of anger or any
other emotion in his voice. Somewhere along the line she had foolishly
allowed herself to become complacent. Because Keir had desired her so
much at the start of their marriage, she had convinced herself that he
would always feel that way. That if nothing else, the blazing physical
passion they shared would keep him by her side for what remained of
their marriage. She had relied on that and allowed herself to hope that
perhaps in that time there might be a chance that he would come to feel
something else, something much deeper. Now it seemed that both dreams
had been trampled in the dust. Keir didn't even want her any more. So
she might as well give up. No! Even as the thought formed in her mind
she rejected it. She still had over five months of her marriage left.
She would use them to win Keir back to her, one way or another.

146

It was either that or face the prospect of a future living with a vital
part of her cut away. And passion would be the easier approach to take.
If sex was the way to keep him interested then she'd give him sex, sex
and more sex. All she had to do was relight the fires that seemed to
have subsided from their original blaze to a mere flicker. This grotty
old tee shirt would have to go for a start. Pulling the duvet up over
the offending item, Sienna settled down to some serious planning.

147

'THERE! That should do it.' Sienna smiled with satisfaction as she
replaced her credit card in its holder and pushed it back into her
handbag. it could do with a rest. She'd really given it a battering
today! But in the end it would all be worth it. Or at least she prayed
it would be worth it. If the full-scale assault on Keir's senses that
she planned, with the help of a morning at the hairdresser's and a
beauty salon and the contents of the various carrier bags with which she
was now laden, didn't work then she had no idea at all what her next
move would be. But there, would be one; she was determined on that. She
was going to win this battle or at the very least go down fighting. But
first she was in urgent need of refreshment. Her feet were throbbing and
her throat was dry. She needed a cool drink before she made her way back
home. The wine bar was crowded and noisy, buzzing with a hundred
different conversations as Sienna hunted round for a space to deposit
her bags. She didn't find one. What she saw instead had her frozen to
the spot, turquoise eyes widening in shock, her blood running cold in
her veins. 'Keir!' she breathed, her voice shaking. She'd forgotten that
this bar was a favourite of his. Just a short walk from his offices, it
was where he and his employees gathered to celebrate a birthday or a
particularly successful deal. But it wasn't any member of Keir's staff
who was with him now. It wasn't even a client or one of his friends.
Even though the woman seated on the far side of the crowded

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room had her back to her, Sienna would have recognised her anywhere. The
red-gold hair was unmistakable, as was the tinkling laugh that now
sounded through a sudden drop in the conversation as she leaned forward
to take one of Keir's hands in both of hers. And, in spite of knowing it
was impossible at this distance, she actually thought she could catch a
waft of Lucille's sickeningly sweet trademark perfume. Keir and his
stepmother, here! Sienna's first coherent thought was that she might be
seen if she stayed any longer. Keir, at least, with his back to the
window, was facing in her direction. If he looked up, glanced this
way... Panic put wings on her heels, and after a couple of moments'
frantic pushing and shoving she was once more outside on the pavement,
breathing hard, as if she had run a sprinting race. Keir and Lucille.
Keir and Lucille. The names ran like a litany of horror through her
mind. Keir and his stepmother, the woman he professed to hate. But if
that was the case, then why was he meeting with her secretly like this?
Sienna gave a low moan, swaying back against the wall and closing her
eyes in despair. Was this, and not the demands of work at all, the
reason why Keir had been out so late so often? Were assignations with
Lucille what had kept him away from home? And, if so, what sick sort of
a plot had he been hatching all the time--perhaps even from the moment
that he'd agreed to marry her? 'Excuse me, my dear...' A concerned voice
penetrated the whirling haze inside Sienna's head. 'But are you all
right?' 'Oh, yes!' Hastily she forced her eyes open, staring straight
into the anxious face of the elderly gentleman in front of her. 'Thank
you, yes, I'm fine. Truly I am. I-just felt rather tired. The crowds,
you know.' 'That's London for you. Perhaps you should go in here...' a
wave of his hand indicated the wine bar behind her '...and sit down for
a moment.'

'Oh, there's no need for that!' Sienna assured him, barely suppressing a
shudder at the thought. What she should be doing was getting on her way,
so as to be well out of sight as quickly as possible just in case Keir
and his companion came out of the wine bar on their way home. 'I really
have to be on my way. But thank you for your concern...' She was already
moving as she spoke, not daring to look back in case she saw the tall,
proud figure of her husband, or Lucille's smaller, curvier form, trim in
the elegant cream suit. On their way home. And what if their destination
wasn't separate-two homes-but they were heading in exactly the same
direction? What if Keir's plan was to head for Lucille's house...
Because he had to be spending all these late evenings somewhere. From
some hidden corner of her memory came an image from her wedding day, the
lascivious expression on Lucille's face when she had looked at Keir.
Once again she heard that double-edged, 'You always did give great value
there, didn't you, dearest?' No, she wouldn't let herself think it.
Desperately Sienna hailed a taxi, wanting only to be home, away from the
tormenting images that preyed on her thoughts. But of course leaving the
wine bar behind did not mean freeing herself from the memory of what she
had seen. That pursued her all the way home, and fretted at her thoughts
throughout the evening. And things were made so much worse by the fact
that once again Keir was late. Once more it was almost midnight before
Sienna heard his heavy footsteps on the stairs. By then she was in bed.
For a long time she had debated with herself the wisdom of staying up
and confronting Keir over what she had seen, having it out with him. But
in the end reason had won. She didn't know what she had seen, did she?
And, even if things were as bad as she feared, surely it was better to
stick to her original plan? Even if Keir's attentions

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had strayed-to his stepmother of all people!-she could still win him
back if she just put her mind to it. She didn't allow herself to
consider the possibility that Keir's attentions had never strayed, but
in fact Lucille had been the one he had been interested in-and possibly
his mistress-all this time. 'Waiting up for me again, my darling wife?'
Keir's drawling voice, blackly cynical and very slightly slurred,
challenged her from the doorway. Dark hair tousled, brown eyes
impossibly bright, and with a day's growth of beard heavily shadowing
the strong line of his jaw, he looked totally unlike the elegantly
groomed businessman she had seen in the wine bar. The wild, gipsyish
look was emphasised by the way that his shirt hung loose, his tie
unfastened and dangling round his neck, the tailored jacket slung over
one shoulder, a finger hooked into the neckline. 'How very devoted you
are...'

'And how very drunk you are,' Sienna returned sharply. Foolishly,
crazily, her heart had lifted as she'd realised the state he was in. To
have got this drunk then surely he couldn't have had any sort of
enjoyable time with Lucille, could he? Or, if he'd stayed with her, then
surely he would have been incapable... 'I trust you didn't drive home in
that state.' 'I'm intoxicated, not stupid! Of course I took a taxi.'
With his free hand he executed a rather wild salute. 'But thank you for
caring all the same.' 'It was the other people on the roads I was
thinking of,' Sienna returned tartly, reverting to schoolmisftss mode in
order to hide the sense of horror that gripped her at just thinking of
the possibility of that glorious body being damaged in any way. 'I would
hate the thought that you'd hurt anyone.' 'Now that's more like it. For
a moment there I wondered if I'd got the right room.' There would be no
talking to him tonight, Sienna reflected wearily. He was past listening
to anything she said. And, knowing how volatile his temper was these
days, even when sober, she wasn't prepared to risk the nuclear explosion
that must inevitably result if she provoked him in this mood. 'I wasn't
sure if you were in fact my beloved and loving wife...'

'In the flesh, as you can see.' That comment had been a mistake, she
realised, as in response to her words Keir's polished onyx eyes slid
downwards from her face and moved lazily over the amount of creamy skin,
the flushed curves of her breasts exposed by the black satin and lace
nightgown that had been one of her purchases earlier that day. 'And what
flesh,' Keir muttered, the words thick with sensual appreciation as he
levered himself upright from the doorpost against which he had been
lounging. 'Sienna, you look...' As he paused, seeming to hunt for the
right word, Sienna's heart skipped first one then several beats at the
thought that the first stage of her plan had succeeded. Perhaps it
wasn't quite as she would have wanted it. She would have much preferred
it if Keir had been completely sober, so that she would have known his
comments came from the heart but it was a start. 'Devastating...' It was
dragged out into a long, aching sigh. But a second later a change came
over Keir's face. His jaw tightened, dark eyes suddenly focusing more
clearly, and he drew himself up with an abrupt little shake of his proud
head, as if to drive away some unwanted thought. 'What are you up to,
darling?' His voice was different too. Clearer, curt, and only faintly
ragged round the edges. Evidently he was really nothing like as drunk as
he had first led her to believe. 'Trying to tempt my jaded appetites?'
The pain burned like acid in her heart. From being what she had wanted
so desperately, the desire she saw smouldering

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in his eyes was now like an image from a nightmare. She had longed for
this, dreamed of his finding her desirable and wanting to make love to
her, but not like this. Not like this! 'Keir, don't!' "'Keir, don't!"'
he echoed, bleakly mocking. 'Oh, now I know that you really are my wife.
Now...' She couldn't take any more. 'Are you coming to bed or not?' For
the space of a long, drawn-out heartbeat, he paused, narrowed eyes
searching her face, his gaze seeming to scorch where it rested. Sienna
felt as if her heart was beating high up in her throat, pounding
painfully against the tangled knot of feelings that had gathered there,
choking her. Then, just when she knew she could take no more, he shook
his head again, more slowly this time. 'No,' he pronounced, slow and
deep and inflexible, turning a look of violent antipathy on the
inoffensive divan on which she lay. 'No way. Not in that bed, not
tonight. If I'm to sleep at all tonight-and it's really rather important
that I do--I'll have to--' 'Why?' Sienna questioned, interrupting him.
'I mean, why is it important that you sleep tonight?' 'Oh, didn't I tell
you?' It was impossible to tell whether his surprise at her question was
affected or genuine. 'I'm driving one of the lorries to Carlisle
tomorrow morning.' 'A lorry! But why?' 'There's no one else. This flu
epidemic has had drivers going down like flies. This consignment has to
be delivered tomorrow without fail, and I was the only person available
with the necessary licence.' Or it was another excuse to avoid spending
time with her. 'I'm coming with you!' The impulsive words were out
before she had even fully formed the thought of uttering them. 'No.'
Flat and hard, the single word brooked no argument. He didn't want her
with him; resistance was etched into every line of his strong face.
Sienna simply ignored it. 'Yes! Oh, please, Keir! I've never been in one
of those huge cabs and I've always wanted to...' When she turned those
huge, pleading eyes on his face like that it was impossible to refuse
her anything, Keir thought despairingly. If only he was a little more
sober he'd be able to think of some argument against the idea, say
something that would put her off. 'Please!' 'I'm leaving at six.' His
back was against the wall and he knew it. 'I'll be there.' 'This is
fun!' Sienna couldn't contain her enthusiasm. 'It's amazing being so
high up like this. You can see for miles.' Keir couldn't hold back a
swift grin in response to her exuberant gesture, which took in the
expanse of rain-swept motorway visible through the huge windsermn of the
truck's cab. 'I can still remember the way I felt the first time I drove
one of these on my own. It felt like being at the wheel of a tank.' If
he was honest, he had never expected that Sienna would manage to get out
of bed to join him in the early dawn, particularly when the weather was
so foul. But she'd surprised him by being up and ready by the time he'd
made it downstairs. One look at her determined face had told him that
there was no point in trying to dissuade her from coming with him, and
anyway he hadn't had time to argue. He'd already been running late, and
it had been easier simply to go along with her resolve to accompany him.
There was nothing he could do but make the best of it. At least the
concentration required in handling the heavy vehicle in the unpleasant
weather conditions distracted his attention from the way her

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tight jeans hugged the rounded shape of her bottom and hips, and the
turquoise cotton sweater echoed the colour of her eyes. 'I never
realised you actually drove for the company. I've always thought of you
as management.' 'It was a matter of necessity at the beginning.
Alexander's was so run-down that we just weren't making enough to pay
the number of drivers we really needed. I got my licence as soon as I
could, and went out on the road with the rest of them until things got
better.' 'And you enjoyed it.' Sienna didn't disguise the surprise she
felt. She was discovering a new and very different side to this man who
was her husband. A side that she had never dreamed existed. The man
sitting beside her in the cab, casually dressed in an elderly grey
sweatshirt and black jeans, strong fingers firm on the wheel, every
movement sure and confident and in control, was light-years away from
the sophisticated, immaculately groomed businessman she had thought she
was married to. This Keir seemed years younger, his brown eyes alight
with something close to excitement, the long body relaxed and yet always
alert, ready to cope with any problem that presented itself. He looked
powerfully, vibrantly alive, vital energy crackling through him seeming
to play around him like an electrical storm. And Sienna felt herself
caught up in his enthusiasm with him. 'I loved it. Loved the freedom,
the hours--days-when there was just me and I didn't have to answer to
anyone else.' 'Was that so important to you? I thought you got on well
with your father.' 'With my father, yes.' The emphasis on the word
'father' brought Sienna's head round to stare at him a faint frown
creasing the space between her brows. 'But not with ... ?' The sudden
memory of the scene in the wine bar the previous day made her tongue
falter nervously, fearful of the repercussions if she actually framed
the question. But Keir supplied the remainder of the sentence,
completing it with surprising equanimity. 'Not with my stepmother-or my
own mother, for that matter.' His mouth twisted into a cynical grimace.
'I never seemed to be able to manage any sort of a real rapport with the
female side of my family.' Which was such a loaded comment that it had
Sienna moving restlessly in her seat, painfully aware of the way it
could be made to apply to her. But her courage failed her at the thought
of questioning him further on either that or the subject of Lucille, and
so, acknowledging her cowardice, she stuck to the least contentious
topic. 'You didn't have an easy relationship with your mother?' 'That is
very definitely an understatement, my dear Sienna. No one had an easy
relationship with my mother; .she was a very demanding woman. Just
because she died appallingly young, it didn't make her a saint. At times
she made my father's life hell with her unceasing complaints, her
extravagant spending-' Keir broke off in order to concentrate on
maneuvering the truck around a roundabout, but when they were once more
back on the straight road he continued as if his speech had never been
interrupted. 'That was why the company was in such bad shape when I left
university-the money she took out of it, and the fact that my father
completely went to pieces after she died. It took us years to pull
things round again, and I'm sure the stress of those times took their
toll, contributing to the stroke that finally killed him.' Keir's
expressive mouth twisted sharply again, revealing his feelings only too
clearly. 'The only thing I can say is that at least she was nowhere near
as bad as the second Mrs. Don Alexander.' 'Lucille...' Sienna's uneasy
whispering of Keir's stepmother's

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name earned her a slanted, narrow-eyed look, swift and assessing.
'Lucille,' he repeated when she couldn't continue. 'What is it, Sienna?'

'I-I saw you with her yesterday.' At first she thought he hadn't heard
her. His face betrayed no response; he changed gear every bit as
smoothly as he had done everything up to now. It was only when he
expelled his breath on a hiss of exasperation that she realised that the
calm he displayed was only on the surface, and what was underneath was
far more complex than she knew. Abruptly Keir indicated left, swinging
the truck into the lane that led to the motorway services. It was only
when they had parked and he had switched off the engine that he turned
to her, his expression icily distant. 'You saw Lucille with me,' he
corrected coldly. 'Not the other way around. There is a difference.' She
wanted desperately to believe him. Everything in her heart cried out to
accept his version of the story and so ease one of the causes of the
unhappiness that she had endured for the past weeks. But was she being
gullible and naive to let her emotions rule her head? Uneasily she
ducked her head in order to avoid that intently probing, dark-eyed gaze.
'She was holding your hand...' she muttered, unwilling to give him an
easy victory. 'Exactly. She was holding...' with a suddenness that made
her jump, Keir reached out and closed his hand over Sienna's, where they
lay in her lap '...my hands... Do you see?' And of course she did.
Looking down at Keir's strong fingers folded over hers, in exactly the
same position as Lucille's had been, she could recall only too clearly
how the older woman had reached for Keir in much the same way as he had
just demonstrated to her. Though that still didn't mean their meeting
was totally innocent. Still unable to meet his eyes, she could only nod
in silent acknowledgement. 'Sienna.' Keir's voice was suddenly
surprisingly soft, gently cajoling her out of her withdrawn mood. 'Could
it be that you were the tiniest bit jealous?' But that would be
admitting too much. With a jerky, peevish movement, Sienna snatched her
hands away from Keir's, pushing them restlessly through her hair. 'And
why exactly would I to be jealous of her? It's not as if she's got
anything I want...' Or anyone, if Keir's story was to be believed.
'Seeing as we've stopped here, have we time to have a drink? I'm dying
for a coffee.' She waited only long enough to see his curt nod of
agreement before opening the door and clambering down from the high cab.
Keir was close behind her as she marched towards the coffee bar. In the
queue to buy their coffees he was a dark, silent figure whose presence
lifted all the tiny hairs on the back of her neck in instinctive
awareness, but he didn't say a word until they were actually seated at a
table inside the cafe. Only then did he turn to her, a frown drawing his
dark straight brows together. 'I'm having trouble believing that you
could actually think I would make a secret assignation with Lucille...'
'Did I mention secrets--or assignations?' Sienna tried for flippancy,
praying that her expression, the anxiety in her eyes, wouldn't give her
away. 'You didn't have to.' Keir was stirring sugar into his coffee with
unnecessary force. 'It was all written there on your face. You thought
I'd arranged to meet her...' 'You didn't?' It came out too quickly,
destroying her earlier pretence at carelessness. Keir looked deep into
her troubled turquoise eyes, his expression unexpectedly serious. 'No, I
didn't. Look, Sienna, let me tell you a few home truths about Lucille.
About this woman who you choose to believe I would dally with at the
risk of yet more damage to our marriage. .' 'Choose to!' Sienna
protested indignantly. 'You make it sound as if I'm looking for-'

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'Well, aren't you? Sienna, I made a commitment to this marriage when we
first started out on it. A husband for a year was what I promised, and I
have no intention of putting that in jeopardy.' It was truly terrifying
how easy it was to believe him. When those dark eyes held her
mesmerised, and his voice rang with conviction, he could have told her
anything and she would have accepted it. The noise and bustle of the
cafe around them blurred to an indistinct haze and in that moment it
seemed as if there was only herself in the world with Keir, this man she
loved so desperately and yet dared not tell. 'Lu-Lucille ... ?' she
managed to remind him, in a voice that sounded raw and husky, as if from
overuse. 'Lucille,' Keir repeated, scowling darkly. 'The woman who broke
my father's heart but wouldn't let him go. She didn't want him, but she
wanted his income, and so she clung like a limpet to that marriage
certificate even after it ceased to have any meaning whatsoever. She had
numerous affairs when they were married, bled him dry with her spending.
And even when he was dead she didn't let go, but lingered like a
vulture, picking over what was left.' He picked up his coffee cup and
drank from it, but Sienna was sure that he never even tasted the dark
liquid. 'Legally she was still his wife, and as he'd never got around to
changing his will when she ran out on him, she was entitled to
everything he'd left her. And that was to have been her last revenge.
She knew exactly to the penny what I had available to buy her out, and
so she asked for that plus half as much again. If I didn't pay she would
sell to someone else, and Alexander's-the company Dad had put his life
into--would be no more. I was desperate.' So desperate that he had taken
the offer she'd made to him. He'd signed away his freedom for a year in
order to save Alexander's in his father's memory. 'Keir...' Sienna's
eyes were soft as she looked at him, seeing the proud head downbent,
that dark gaze staring broodingly into his coffee cup. 'You don't have
to tell me this.' That brought his head up sharply, brown eyes blazing
into sea-green. 'Oh, but I do. Don't you see? I want you to know that
nothing on this earth would force me into meeting with that she-wolf
ever again. That if she hadn't come up to me in that wine bar yesterday
and-' He broke off abruptly, shaking his dark head as if to rid himself
of the memory. 'I would never have sought her out.' Sienna felt as if
her emotions were on some violent out-of-control seesaw. Just as her
heart was soaring in delight, hearing the vehement conviction of his
declaration, a tiny, more rational part of her mind noted a disturbing
tension about Keir's shoulders and jaw, an unexpected wariness in his
eyes. She was seized by the sudden conviction that he was holding
something back. Something vital to her peace of mind. But she didn't
have time to go back over their conversation and try to place exactly
when the change had first come over him. Because Keir's next words drove
every other thought from her mind. 'You have to see that I would do
anything-anything at all-to get Lucille out of my life for good.' Which
was a real backhander, Sienna reflected miserably, fighting to force
back the bitter tears that burned in her eyes, refusing to let them
fall. Because in the same moment that Keir had given her peace of mind
on the subject of his meeting with Lucille he had also blasted apart any
chance of hope she might have had on another, far more important matter.
'I would do anything-anything at all...' Even, it seemed, accept
Sienna's proposal of marriage. Just when it had seemed that she was
beyond feeling any more pain, it was clear that Keir could still find
new ways of twisting the knife in even deeper.

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'I NEVER realised that Carlisle was so close to the Scottish border!'
Sienna was studying the book of maps she had discovered amongst the
collection of bits and pieces in the cab. 'I've never been to
Scotland--do you think?---could we ... ?' 'I can take a hint!' Keir's
tone was dry but surprisingly mellow. 'Yes, we can make a trip over the
border, just to say you've been.' 'Great!' As the day had gone on she
had found it increasingly difficult to maintain the level of bright,
inconsequential chatter that she had decided was the best way of hiding
from Keir the real way she was feeling inside. But this new discovery
made things rather easier, and Keir's unexpectedly easygoing mood helped
unmeasurably. 'What's the nearest place in Scotland I might have heard
of?" 'Gretna. It's just over the border.' 'Gretna Green?' Sienna
consulted the map again. 'Oh, yes... Is it as romantic as it sounds?'
'Romantic?' Keir's laughter was a sound of pure cynicism. 'You can
forget any delusions you have on that score. It's pure commercialism
through and through. Oh, don't look so disappointed, darling, I'm sure a
believer in true love like you will be able to find some romance in the
place somewhere.' It was so loaded with hidden significance that it was
like an actual blow to her stomach, leaving her incapable of breathing
for a moment. But she couldn't get her mind round what exactly Keir was
driving at. 'True love?' she questioned uncertainly, her heart racing in
double quick time. Did he know? Had he guessed? How-how-had she given
herself away? 'Oh, come on, sweetheart! You must be the last of the
really great romantics. After all, you've held on to your precious
Dean's memory all this time...' The rush of relief was so intense it was
like pure adrenaline, making her head spin. 'You mean Dean!' 'Of
course.' The look he slanted in her direction was swiftly assessing, his
frown revealing the danger she was in, how close she had come to
blasting her whole subterfuge wide open. 'Who else?' Who else! Sienna
took a deep breath, knowing she had to go for broke. She had to find
something to tell him in order to distract that calculating mind from
thinking back over her reaction, putting two and two together and coming
up with an answer that would destroy the balance of their relationship
for ever. And she had to make it good. There was only one thing for it.
The truth. Or at least a part of it. Enough to convince Keir and make
him stop questioning her. And besides, she wanted him to know. Wanted it
all out in the open once and for all. 'Let me tell you about Dean,' she
said carefully. 'Everything about Dean.' 'Everything?' Keir's eyes were
on the road, but Sienna could tell that every nerve in that long, lithe
body was attuned to her, his mind concentrated on her words. 'Yes,
everything! It's not a pretty story-and not one I'm proud of. You see, I
was duped, deluded--conned. Dean Hanson was a liar and a cheat, a
deceiver through and

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through, but I let him trick me. I was easy prey because I was stupid
and gullible and I ignored all the warning signs until it was far too
late.' Bending her head so that the dark fall of her hair hung like
sleek curtains around her face, hiding it, she stared down at her hands
clasped tightly in her lap. 'I met him at the salon where I worked. He
was a salesman for one of the cosmetics firms. We-we hit it off straight
away. He was good-looking, witty, charming...' The word tasted sour in
her mouth. 'So charming. He told me I was beautiful. That he'd never met
anyone like me before. That I'd knocked him off balance in the first
moment he'd ever seen me...' 'All the usual garbage,' Keir put in when
her voice failed her. 'The sort of thing a guy spouts automatically when
he wants to get a woman into bed,' he added sardonically when she turned
to him, a question in her eyes. The sort of thing he would have said to
her at the start of their relationship if she hadn't flattened him with
the crazy marriage idea. Only with him it would have been true, and not
just his hormones talking. Okay, not entirely his hormones talking, he
amended with painful honesty. He had wanted her in his bed-fast! The
rest had come later. 'The usual garbage,' Sienna echoed in a thready
voice that twisted something painfully in his guts. 'Well, I fell for
it. Hook, line and sinker. He had me wrapped round his little finger so
fast that I didn't know night from day. I was dreaming of rings and
wedding bells and happy ever after- and then I found out the truth.'
'Don't tell me. He was married.' Despondently Sienna nodded, aquamarine
eyes dulled and shadowed. 'Married with a kid and another on the way.
And...' Beside her, Keir swore violently as a gear change resulted in a
totally uncharacteristic crunching sound. 'There's more?' 'I wasn't the
only one.' This was what she had found so hard to cope with. She
couldn't believe that she had been so naive, so gullible, so totally,
senselessly blind. Dean's wife and child had been miles away, but his
other woman-apart from Sienna herself, of course---had been right there
under her nose all the time. 'Jacqui worked in the salon with me.' It
was a cry of pain. 'I saw her every day. Talked to her. Had lunch with
her. And I never suspected!' This time the black savagery of Keir's
response, the brutally eloquent stream of curses, made her flinch in the
same moment that her heart soared at the thought that at least he cared
enough to react in this coldly furious way. 'I was luckier than Jacqui,'
she managed, on what was supposed to be a laugh, but one that broke
painfully in the middle. 'She ended up pregnant and when she told him
she couldn't see Dean for dust-what was that?' The growl of the engine
had hidden Keir's muttered words, so now as she turned her pale face
towards him, he repeated more clearly, 'I said, you really choose your
times, lady.' 'Times?' Sienna frowned her bewilderment, turquoise eyes
clashing with deepest brown. 'I don't...' 'Sienna...' Her name was a
sound of pure exasperation. 'Do you know what it does to me to listen to
you pouring your heart out like that and not to be able to do anything
about it because--' His fist slammed down on the edge of the steering
wheel in a gesture of burning frustration. 'Because you have to
concentrate on your driving,' Sienna finished for him. 'Don't worry, I
understand. I mean, what else could you do?' 'If I could just get off
this damned motorway, I'd stop this truck at once...' The vehemence of
his response was startling, the suppressed anger in his tone ringing
with some other, inexplicable

164

note to create the emotional equivalent of a Molotov cocktail. 'I'd take
you in my arms, hold you, keep you safe. Let you cry out all the hurt
until you were ready to face the world again...' all right. I'm not
going to cry.' Not true! her conscience reproved her. Hot tears were
pricking at her eyes, threatening to fall and prove her a liar. But they
weren't the sort of tears Keir believed she would shed. Not tears of
loss and pain at the way Dean had treated her. Instead they were tears
of joy and delight, mixed thoroughly with a strong sense of disbelief at
the thought that Keir even wanted to comfort her like this. Just to
imagine him taking her in his arm and holding her made her blood sing in
her veins. 'I've wept all the tears I'm ever going to waste on Dean
Hanson. I'm over him. I'm never going to think of him again.' I'm over
him. Keir had to force himself to keep his eyes on the road as Sienna's
declaration reverberated inside his head. I'm over him. If she only knew
how long he had waited for her to say those very words. And now the
moment was here but he had no idea how to react. He couldn't react or
the result would be a very nasty accident on a crowded motorway. So what
did he do? His hands clenched so tightly over the wheel that his
knuckles showed white as he was suddenly a prey to the terrible
despondent thought that perhaps, after all, those words had come too
late. That the past seven months had already inflicted so much damage on
what had only been a very fragile relationship to start with that it
would be too difficult to repair it. Certainly it seemed impossible that
they could ever think of starting again. And, to make matters worse, he
was developing a headache that was making it difficult to think
straight. Wearily he sighed, massaging the back of his neck with one
hand. 'Is something wrong?' Sienna was quick to notice his reaction.
'I'm tired,' Keir hedged. 'Didn't sleep too well last night.' And when
he had dozed at all his dreams had all been of Sienna, beautiful,
sensual Sienna, her creamy skin flushed with warmth, in the stunning
black nightdress she had worn last night. How he had ever managed to
stop himself from getting into bed beside her and ripping it from her
glorious body, he would never know. 'But it doesn't matter. We're nearly
there. Just another ten miles or so and we can stop for the night.' The
night. Sienna, you idiot, you hadn't thought of that! 'What-I mean,
where do you normally sleep when you're on the road?' The grin he turned
on her lacked something of its usual megawatt brilliance, but at least
it contained genuine good humour. 'In the cab.' His amusement grew at
the sight of her stunned expression. 'There's plenty of room, and it's
cosy enough with a duvet... But don't worry, I won't expect you to
share. I expect you'd find it rather too intimate for comfort.' If only
he knew that intimacy was exactly what she hungered for. But Keir was
concentrating fiercely on his driving, so much so that he completely
missed the play of emotions over her face. 'I rang ahead from the first
services we stopped at and I've booked us into a hotel together.'
'Together?' Dark brown eyes were slanted in her direction, and in spite
of the brevity of that glance she was shocked to see how dilated his
pupils were. He looked pale too, worryingly SO. 'The hotel only had one
room. So I'm sorry, you'll have to share with me tonight.' There had
been no need for that 'sorry' Sienna told him

166

blithely in the privacy of her thoughts. 'Together' was exactly what she
wanted for tonight. But by the time they finally reached their hotel it
was obvious that any plans she might have would have to be shelved. Keir
was evidently decidedly unwell. He had lost all trace of colour and it
seemed that he could barely open his eyes. His skin was faintly sheened
with perspiration and felt damp and clammy under Sienna's fingertips
when she touched him. 'Keir, what is it?' she asked anxiously as the
lift moved upwards towards their floor. 'Are you ill?' 'Migraine.' His
voice was rough and hoarse, as if it came from a painfully dry throat.
'I don't get them often, but when I do...' The words trailed off and he
swayed on his feet. 'Here...' Stepping forward hastily, she took his
arm. 'Lean on me.' The unexpected ease with which he complied, when she
had expected at least a token protest, was more worrying even than his
pallor. His arm around her shoulders was warm and heavy, and she had to
stiffen her back to support him. The short trip down the corridor seemed
to take an age, but at last they reached their room. Sienna had barely
got him inside before he lurched to the bed and collapsed face-down,
burying his head in the pillows. 'Keir...' It was shocking to see him
like this. She had always thought of Keir as being so strong, so
capable, someone who could handle everything. 'Do you have any
medication? Tablets you can take?' 'At home, in London,' he managed, his
voice muffled by the pillows. Not much use to him there, Sienna told
herself. But there had to be something she could do to help. Suddenly
inspiration struck. 'I have to go out for a minute, Keir. But I won't be
long, I promise. Half an hour at most.' By a lucky chance she found a
chemist still open in the very next street so in the end she was ill
than half that time. The small pile of discarded clothes on the floor
beside the bed told their own story. Keir had just had enough strength
to strip them off before subsiding back under the covers. 'Well, that'll
make my job easier. Here, take these.'

Compliant as a tired child, Keir swallowed the painkillers she held out
to him, opening his eyes just wide enough to eye the two bottles she
held with faint curiosity. 'What ... ?' 'Lavender essential oil and
almond oil as a carrier. I'm going to give you a massage. I am a
qualified aromatherapist, remember,' she added, when he looked slightly
sceptical. 'I used to do this for a living. Now lie down on your front
so I can do your back.' Kneeling beside him on the bed, she blended the
oils together then poured a little into her cupped hands. When it was
slightly warmed she smoothed it over the length of his back, wincing as
she felt the tight knots of tension in his muscles just under the
surface of the skin. He really must be in pain, she thought in some
distress. Fired by a determination to help, she swept her palms up the
long straight line of his spine to the nape of his neck and out across
his shoulders, kneading firmly on the taut muscles. 'Mmm...' Keir sighed
softly. 'That feels good-' Already he was beginning to relax a little,
something of the strain easing out of him under the pressure of her
trained movements. 'Don't stop.' She couldn't if she had to, Sienna
admitted to herself. The feel of the warm satin of his skin under her
fingers, the scent of his body combined with the perfume of the lavender
gave her a very real sense of pleasure, one that carried a potently
erotic charge. She had never been more intensely aware of the strength
of the muscles in those broad straight

168

shoulders, the width of his ribcage, the supple texture of his skin. She
could feel the effect she was having on him and sensed an answering
response in her own body. Her breasts felt full and heavy, aching
faintly, and her blood heated swiftly, flooding her veins with a golden
warmth. 'Sienna...' Keir's voice was barely audible, so that she had to
bend closer to hear it. 'Something to tell you.' 'What's that?' 'About
Lucille... 'What about Lucille?' The steady rhythm of the massage never
faltered, in spite of the new and disturbing tension she suddenly found
she was prey to. She didn't want to hear a word about his stepmother.
'Those affairs she had...' He was clearly having to make an effort to
get the words out. But it was obvious that this was something he wanted
her to know, no matter what it cost him. 'She tried it on with me.'
'What?!, Just for a second Sienna lost her timing, her hands freezing in
mid-stroke. But then she collected her scattered thoughts, bringing her
attention back to the job in hand. Concentrate! she told herself
fiercely. Keep your mind on what you're doing. Don't let him know how
upset you are! 'She came on to me. One night when my dad was away. She
came to my room wearing just a robe, with nothing on underneath. Said
she was tired of Old Alexander, and thought she'd try the young one out
instead.' 'But you told her no chance.' It was a statement, not a
question. She didn't even need to think to know that that would have
been his reaction. After all, she'd seen enough of his hatred of his
stepmother, the supreme contempt in which he held her, and his heartfelt
loyalty to his father to know he would never have considered anything
else. 'Yeah...' It was a sigh of relief, and under her massaging fingers
rather more of the tension eased from his tight muscles. 'She went then.
But I always worried...' 'Worried?' 'That my dad would find out. That
he'd believe I'd taken an active part in her scheme. It would have
destroyed our relationship. And she never gave up. Even on the day the
will was read-and yesterday, in the wine bar.' 'She-Lucille sought you
out?' 'She still has a contact at the office. Someone who'd told her
that I was there every day. She thought that our marriage was in
trouble. That she could take her chance. I always suspected that might
happen if she even got a whiff of a suggestion of our arrangement...'
The weary voice a-ailed off, and Sienna wondered if he'd drifted asleep.
But a couple of seconds later Keir obviously forced himself back to
consciousness again. There was clearly something he still wanted to say.
'Obviously I told her to go to hell...' It was all he could manage. This
time he did fall asleep. Deeply asleep, his breathing even and relaxed,
the long body finally at ease. Not daring to risk waking him, Sienna
continued with the massage for a few minutes more, ceasing only when she
knew he wouldn't stir when she removed her hands. Easing herself away
from him, she pulled the blankets up over Keir once more before lying
down beside him, staring up at the ceiling, her mind buzzing. The things
Keir had said had given her plenty to think about. At some point, much
later in the night, Keir finally stirred, surfacing from the deep sleep
which had claimed him. His headache had gone and he felt totally
different. He felt wonderful, he thought, stretching luxuriously, then
freezing as the movement brought him into contact with the warm feminine
softness of the woman lying next to him. 'Sienna...' It was just a
whisper but it brought her instantly awake, wide turquoise eyes flying
open to look straight into his.

170

'What is it? Are you all right?' Keir's smile was gentle, warm. If she'd
been weak and foolish she might even have described it as loving. She
wasn't as stupid as that, but even so she couldn't stop herself from
allowing herself the indulgence of savouring the word just for a moment.
'I'm fine. Your massage worked wonders.' The kiss he dropped onto the
end of her nose was soft as thistledown and heartbreakingly brief. It
was there just for a second, then it was gone, and her heart cried out
at the pain of its loss. But then in the space of a heartbeat she saw
Keir's face change. Saw the sudden stillness, the swift darkening of his
eyes. And she knew what he was feeling because it was happening to her,
too. The swift awakening of every sense. The quickened beat of the heart
flooding every inch of her body with heat. The spiralling hunger that
scarcely seemed to be born before it grew to uncontrollable proportions,
impossible to suppress, making her move restlessly at his side.
'Sienna...' he said again, but on a very different note this time, one
that drew a deep, heartfelt sigh from her because she knew there was now
no going back. Not that she wanted to go back. Ever. This was all she
wanted, all she had ever dreamed of. Everything she had ever longed for
was right here in this room, in her arms. She was lost, drowning in the
deep dark pools of his eyes, and she never wanted to be rescued because
this was what she had been born for, and without it she would always be
incomplete. Keir's smile was slow, surprisingly hesitant, his gaze
holding her mesmerised as his hands slid over the curves of her
shoulders, down her arms, and across to support the soft weight of her
breasts against the heat of his palms. 'Can we do this?' he whispered,
and the unexpected, unbelievable note of uncertainty in his voice was
the last thing she had expected. 'Can we do this?' she echoed softly,
knowing with absolute certainty, without hope of salvation, that if they
didn't she would die, or at the very least shatter into tiny pieces,
impossible to put back together again. 'Oh, Keir, of course we can!
We're husband and wife.' Her encouraging smile was crushed under the
force of his kiss, and with a sense of having truly come home she
willingly surrendered to their mutual passion.

173

SIENNA stared at the calendar and sighed deeply. It didn't matter how
many times she checked the dates, it still said the same. Of course it
did! With a despairing gesture she tossed the pen down onto the kitchen
work-surface and sighed again. If only she could throw away her worries
as easily. But that was impossible, as, deep down, she had always known
it would be. June the twenty-second. In another two months exactly it
would be her first 'anniversary'. The first and last. The day that she
and Keir had agreed would mark the end of the agreement that bound them
together. So what exactly would they be celebrating? A year together or
the start of their lives apart? Just over three months ago they had been
in a hotel room in Carlisle. in bed. That night Keir had made love to
her as never before. She had been caught up in a whirlwind of sensation,
lifted higher and higher, away from all reality, everything that bound
her to the earth. She had given herself to him without restraint,
without thought of control or hesitation, and he had responded in
kind----or so she had believed. But only the very next day that idyllic
interlude had been exposed as the fantasy that it was and she had come
tumbling back down to earth, landing with a very definite and very
painful thud. The truth had dawned on-what else?--the morning after.
True to his promise, Keir had taken her over the border into Scotland,
into Gretna Green. And while they were there a bride had arrived for her
wedding. White dress, heather in her bouquet, even a Scots piper walking
before her, escorting her to the ceremony. And it had been as the piper
began to play, as the first haunting notes had sounded in the cool
spring air, that Keir's mouth had twisted and he had muttered with black
cynicism, 'There she goes. Another lamb to the slaughter. The triumph of
optimism over reality.' She'd needed that, Sienna told herself. Needed
the cold splash of realism in her face, driving away the last foolish
remnants of fantasy that had still clung to a mind so stupefied by
passion, drunk on sensuality, that it had been in danger of being unable
to see the truth when it jumped up and bit her. After all, she'd been
there before. Hadn't she already had far too much bitter evidence of the
fact that, where Keir Alexander was concerned, passion was a substitute
for love, not a vital component of it? To Sienna their lovemaking had
been an expression of a deeper feeling, of true sharing, and a promise
of a more permanent commitment. But Keir had no idea at all of for ever.
To him the ardour of the moment was just that, for the moment, and when
it was over, having taken his fill of pleasure, he was perfectly capable
of turning and walking away. But for Sienna that could never be. And not
just because of the way she felt about her husband. Because the passage
of time had forced her to face up to another reality, one she had at
first only feared, but now knew to be a definite fact. That night in
Carlisle, for the first time since their marriage, Keir had made love to
her without the use of any form of protection, and now she knew just
what a mistake that had been. She was three months pregnant by a man Who
showed no sign at all of reconsidering his determination to end their
marriage once they had reached their first anniversary. Unobserved, Keir
watched Sienna from the doorway, his heart sinking as he saw the way she
studied the calendar. it was obvious that she was counting off the days
to the end

174

of their marriage, and to judge by the expression on her face it clearly
couldn't come soon enough. 'Why the big sigh?' The casual question made
Sienna jump like a startled cat, whirling round to face him.
'Oh--nothing! I was just thinking how the calendar says it's summer, but
the weather doesn't seem to agree.' 'It's an English summer,' Keir
laughed. 'Rain, rain, and more rain. How about if I take you away from
it all?' he added unexpectedly. 'Somewhere warm. What about Italy
again?' 'No thanks!' Sienna answered hastily. How could she go back to
Italy when her memories of that first time, of her honeymoon, were still
so vivid in her mind? She doubted if she would ever set foot in that
magical country again, because if she did her pleasure would be tainted
by images of herself and Keir during those strange, unreal first days of
their marriage. Days when she had still been able to hide behind the
protective armour of pretending to herself that she wasn't in love with
her husband. 'Well, then, what about dinner, at least? Caroline is
visiting a friend tonight, so you needn't worry about her being on her
own. We could make a night of it. Say yes, Sienna,' he urged, seeing the
uncertain, hesitant look that crossed her face. 'I have something very
important I want to talk to you about.' 'You do?' Sienna's heart seemed
to turn a somersault inside her chest. What could Keir want to talk to
her about that he would describe as 'very important'? 'What is it?' But
Keir simply adopted a mysteriously evasive expression, shaking his dark
head adamantly. 'Tonight,' was all he would say. 'I'll tell you
everything tonight.'

This was how it had been for the past three months, Sienna reflected as
she began her preparations for the evening ahead of her. Ever since they
had returned from Carlisle Keir had almost seemed to become a different
person. He had changed his behaviour completely. The long working hours,
the late nights were now just a memory. Keir came home every evening; he
took every weekend away from the office. But it was more than that. He
had never been so attentive, even in the early days before they had
married. He took her out-to restaurants, to the theatre, to concerts.
And as the days had grown warmer and longer he'd organised
outings-picnics, days by the sea, countless special treats. If she had
been asked to describe his attitude in a single word, she would have
said that he courted her. Except that courting usually led to something.
An engagement, or a marriage, and she and Keir already had both of those
behind them. All that this change in Keir's behaviour was leading to was
their divorce; because never once had he suggested that they didn't
stick to the plan she had originally detailed when she had proposed to
him, almost a year before. But she enjoyed this new way of living, and
went along with it, making no protests and asking no questions. She
welcomed any crumb of warmth, any attention he was prepared to offer
her. After the devastating experience on Valentine's Day of thinking
that she had lost him that he was ending their marriage right there and
then, she certainly wasn't about to look any gift horses in the mouth.
'Ready?' Keir appeared in the doorway as she was putting the last
touches to her make-up. 'Just coming.' She slid her feet into
high-heeled court shoes, smoothed down the rich blue silk of her elegant
vee-necked dress, and turned to survey herself in the mirror. 'You look
wonderful.' In the glass her eyes met Keir's, and she saw the warmly
sensual approval in their ebony depths. Immediately her heart gave a
nervous flutter, like the wings of a dozen butterflies

176

beating inside her chest, as she fought to control her instinctive
response to his smile. Because over the past few months, while her days
had been peaceful, warm, filled with unexpected delights, the nights had
been so very different. The hedonistic sensual indulgence of the night
in Carlisle had never been repeated. Clearly Keir saw it as a mistake
and had moved to clamp down on such unrestrained behaviour. Or it had
been just the last throes of a passion already waning that had now
burned itself out completely? 'You're not so bad yourself,' she managed,
with a lightness she was far from feeling. The sober dark suit fitted
his superb physique like a glove, the fine material of his cream shirt
clinging to the muscled lines of his chest, its pale colour bringing out
the darkness of his hair and eyes. The superb cut of his trousers
emphasised the impact of sleek hips and long powerful legs, a narrow
leather belt cinching the slim waist. Seen like this, Keir was every
inch the sophisticated, successful businessman she knew him to be. But
she had also known, all too briefly, another, very different Keir. A
relaxed, more informal man, casual in sweatshirt and jeans, who had
driven a powerful truck with easy confidence and evident enjoyment Or
the less controlled, more vulnerable man who had opened up about his
past, about some of his own inner fears when she had massaged his back.
Her heart ached for the loss of those other sides to her husband,
carefully concealed once more behind the worldly mask he displayed in
public. And the public Keir was very much to the fore now, as he drove
her to a favourite restaurant, encouraged her to choose the dishes she
most enjoyed from the spectacular menu, entertained her with the sort of
light, witty conversation that had her laughing out loud in delight. In
fact he played his role as escort to perfection, so much so that it was
not until the very end of the meal, when they were actually preparing to
leave, that she suddenly remembered the reason they were out together at
all. 'You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about, Keir.
Something very important.' It was as if she had thrown a switch, turning
off a light deep inside him. Abruptly his mood changed, all amusement
fading from his eyes, leaving them shuttered and distant. The muscles in
his face tightened, the smile that had danced on his lips all night
vanishing in an instant. 'Not here,' he said, scrawling his signature on
the credit card slip with such an aggressive pressure that it ripped
through the top layer of paper. 'We'll talk about it when we get home.'

Which was guaranteed to set Sienna's heart pounding in panic, a cold
hand seeming to twist her nerves into knots, destroying all her pleasure
in the evening. As Keir escorted her out to the car and all through
their homeward journey her mind was racing, trying desperately to think
back, find out just when she had made a mistake, when things had gone
wrong. Because something had gone terribly wrong. Everything about
Keir's withdrawn silence, the stiff, antagonistic set of his shoulders,
the tension that held his long body stiff in the seat beside her, all
communicated the fact that he wished he was anywhere but here. And so
when they were once more inside the house, and Keir had ushered her into
the elegant sitting room with its cool cream and beige decor, she
couldn't control herself any longer. Already wound up so tight that if
she didn't say something she felt she might actually snap in two, she
turned to Keir in something close to desperation. 'Keir, what is it?
What do you want to talk to me about?' He didn't answer her, didn't look
at her. instead he crossed the room to select a bottle of brandy and
pour himself a drink. Then, as he was about to replace the bottle, a
thought obviously struck him and he turned to her again. 'Would you like
one?'

178

'N-no thanks.' Sienna's response was distracted. Because in those few
seconds something had happened to stop her thought processes dead. When
Keir had lifted the brandy bottle to fill his glass she had noted a
totally uncharacteristic tremor in his hand. It had been there again
when he'd replaced the bottle, making it clatter faintly against the
tray. Keir was nervous! And that was something she had never seen
before. Something had put him very much on edge, and that simple fact
was so incredible, so unexpected that it drew her thoughts into turmoil,
making her reassess everything that had happened and come up with a
totally new interpretation of events. 'Won't you sit down?' 'Do I need
to?' She tried for a joking tone, saw it fall desperately flat, the
unresponsive twitch of Keir's lips into a travesty of a smile adding
fuel to the fire of speculation that was now blazing in her mind. Was it
possible that she'd got it all completely wrong? Had Keir not wanted to
tell her something dreadful, but quite the opposite? Earlier this
evening she had likened his behaviour over the past weeks to the
old-fashioned tradition of courting. What if that had been exactly what
he had been doing, and now ... now... The idea was too important, too
fragile, for her to want to risk tempting fate by actually letting it
form, even inside her head. So instead she turned to Keir again, unable
to wait any longer. 'Keir, please! What is it?' Still he prevaricated
for a few more long drawn-out moments, taking first a sip from his
brandy, then another, deeper swallow, as he came to sit in the chair
opposite her. He seemed to be hunting for a way to begin, and that was
so unlike the cool, confident Keir she knew, the man who always knew
what to say, that it seemed to confirm her happier suspicions, warming
her heart. 'Keir...' she prompted softly. Keir's dark head came up,
chocolate-brown eyes clashing with turquoise, and in that moment
Sienna's new-found conviction faltered, a sliver of her earlier panic
sliding in through a chink in her mental armour. 'I think it's about
time we started thinking about the future. We need to think ahead,
decide what explanation we're going to give...' 'Explanation?' Her voice
was just a raw croak, total incomprehension clouding her eyes. 'For
splitting up.' Each word was clipped, coldly enunciated, falling like
controlled blows on her sensitised nerves. 'We need to have some reason
to get divorced. Something to tell friends-your mother-when they ask.'
When she had actually come round to expecting exactly the opposite, the
realisation of the true horror of reality was like the destruction of
her soul. If Keir had reached into her chest and ripped out her heart,
it couldn't have hurt any more. Her eyes blurred, there was a sound like
the buzzing of a thousand angry bees inside her head, and she knew with
a sickening sense of conviction that if she hadn't been sitting down she
would have collapsed in a limp, lifeless heap on the thick carpet right
at Keir's feet. 'We--I ... ' No words would come. None at all. Her mind
was just one terrible scream of agony. She had thought-hoped- Oh, God,
what did she do now? 'If you like, I'll take responsibility for it.'
Keir seemed oblivious to her distress. He was talking in a strangely
distant, toneless voice. It was as if he had embarked on a speech that
he knew he must finish no matter what. And he had no intention at all of
diverging from the script in any way. 'For ...?'

180

'Grounds for divorce. I'll provide you with adultery, perhaps.'
'Adultery!' How could he articulate such an word with such a total lack
of emotion? even think Of suggesting such a thing? 'It's probably easiest.'

'Ease-' Sienna swallowed hard, trying to ease the painful constriction
in her throat. 'Adultery with who?' she demanded hoarsely and
ungrammatically, and watched in horrified disbelief as Keir shrugged
broad shoulders dismissively. 'Someone. Anyone. Does it matter?' 'Oh,
yes, it matters! It matters like hell! I have a right to know who you're
going to be unfaithful to me with...' The words tumbled out faster than
a racing stream, clumsily tangling up in each other in her desperation
to have them spoken. 'I need to know who you're going to involve in
helping you destroy our marriage.' 'But we don't have a marriage to
destroy. You know that,' Keir stated with deadly calm. 'The arrangement
was-' 'I know what the arrangement was!' Sienna yelled, unable to
express her misery in any other way. Seeing the swift reproving frown he
turned on her, she hastily adjusted the volume downwards as she
continued, 'You don't have to spell it out for me. I know what we
agreed.' 'Then you'll also agree that we need to start making plans...'
'No...' She was getting to her feet as she spoke, spinning away from
him, unable to look into that cold, emotionless face any longer. 'What?
Sienna, what did you say?' On the mantelpiece in front of her, in a
silver frame, was a colour photograph of their wedding day, placed there
by her mother. Sienna's eyes flinched away from it, unable to bear the
sight of her own wide, brilliant smile, the tall, impossibly handsome
man at her side. Slowly she forced herself to turn and face Keir again.
'I said no. I don't want to make any plans. It's too early.' 'The year
is up in two months' time,' Keir reminded her cruelly, emphasising the
point by slamming the side of his hand down on the arm of his chair in
time with the last three words. 'I know that, but...' What could she say
to dissuade him? How could she hope to change his mind? She couldn't. If
he was so desperate to be free of their marriage, he would break away
from her no matter what she did. Wasn't it better to agree, to let him
go easily? That way at least they might have some chance of remaining
friends. But, oh... A cruel hand twisted her heart, so that she had to
bite back a whimper of pain. She didn't want them to be just friends.
'All right.' She had to force the words out, but even so he had to
strain to hear a voice that was little more than a whisper. 'All right,
we'll do as you say. But have you thought about my mother?' 'Caroline?'
For the first time Keir's resolution faltered. His head went back
sharply, onyx eyes widening in something close to shock. His movements
suddenly strangely jerky, he lifted his glass to his lips, downing what
was left in it before pushing himself to his feet and crossing to the
tray to refill it. 'What about Caroline?' he asked, the hoarseness of
his voice betraying the way his composure had cracked wide open. It was
a further cruel body-blow amongst so many devastating hurts to realise
how much Keir cared for her mother. To see in his face his concern for
Caroline where there was none for Sienna herself. But that affection was

182

the only weapon she had left in her arsenal, and she was determined to
use it against him as ruthlessly as she could.

'Don't you see it would hurt her terribly to think that you could be
unfaithful to me so soon after our wedding? It would devastate her to
find you so shallow, so selfish. She respects you, admires you... She
loves you, Keir!'

'Do you think I don't know that?' The brandy glass was slammed back down
onto the tray with such force that Sienna fully expected to see the
beautiful crystal shatter under the impact. 'Do you think I don't know
how Caroline feels? But I can't afford to think of her-I have to
concentrate on you. On what you want. Otherwise I can't do this. I-'
'Just a minute!' Sienna's vehemence shocked Keir into a silence that lay
thick and heavy around them. Slowly she shook her head, trying to clear
her thoughts, before turning to look at him again. 'What did you say?'
Had Keir suddenly changed dramatically, or was she actually looking at a
totally different man? Had his face always been so pale, his eyes so
shockingly dark? Why hadn't she noticed the way his skin was drawn tight
over the wide cheekbones, etching white marks of strain around his nose
and mouth? Was it possible that, caught up in her own misery, she had
been reading him all wrong? 'What did you say?' she repeated more
emphatically when he didn't answer her. 'That I have to do this for you.
That-' 'But what if I don't want it?' She would have thought it was
impossible for him to lose any more colour, but now his face was ashen
with shock. He took a single step towards her, then stopped, his eyes
never leaving her face. 'You-?' 'I don't want it, Keir. I want to stay
married to you. I want us to try and make a go of things together.' The
words were hopelessly inadequate to describe the way she felt but she
didn't dare to be any more revealing, to expose her true emotions
without some idea of what he thought. 'I don't think so.' Keir shook his
head firmly enough, but there was something in his eyes that didn't
rally with the emphatic negative. A tiny spark of vulnerability that lit
a flare of hope in Sienna's heart. 'It wouldn't work.' 'Why not? Surely
we have something special.'

'What? Sex?' She had never heard such raw anger in his voice. 'Is that
really so very special? Do you think that's all that matters to me? Or
that it says anything about the way you feel? Do you think that just
because I can bring you orgasm, because I can make you shudder in
ecstasy underneath me, that I'm fool enough to believe it means you love
me?' 'It's part of it. Keir...' Drawing a deep, uneven breath, she took
a calculated risk, her heart clenching in tension as she spoke. 'Dean
could never make me feel that way.' She had his attention now, with a
vengeance. But she didn't know how to build on it. The problem was that
she was working blind, unable to gauge just what he was thinking. And
those dark, unreadable eyes gave her no clue at all. 'Would you stay if
I told you I was pregnant?' She had invested so much emotional
importance in the certainty that he would say, yes, of course he would
stay, that it rocked her world to see the way he shook his head. 'A
child should have two parents who love each other, not two desperate
people yoked together purely in name. I'd always be there for any child,
Sienna; I'd want to be a true father. I've always believed that I would
have to be married to the mother of my child. It was what I wanted. But
I couldn't force you into something like that. I couldn't tie you to a
marriage you didn't truly want.'

184

And that was when Sienna knew. When absolute certainty that Keir loved
her. go against his own needs, his own beliefs, if he would bring her
happiness. 'You need to be free to find someone to love.' 'But, Keir, I
already have.' The look he turned on her was so numb, so it wrenched at
her heart. 'You have? Who ... ?' 'Who do you think? Keir, you must know
it's you!' Looking into his handsome face she saw the shock, disbelief,
the slow, unbelieving dawning of understanding. 'I know nothing of the
damn sort!' he exploded, with a touch of the old Keir that brought a
delighted bubble of laughter to her lips. 'Then let me put it into words
of one syllable,' she said, at long last having the courage to come
forward and take him by the hand. 'I, Sienna, love you, Keir, with all
my heart, and if you'll let me I'll be your wife for better for worse,
for richer for poorer, for all those other things, if only you'll let me
be your wife for real.' The last words came out on a gasp of shock as
she was whirled into his arms and crushed close up against his chest.
One strong hand came under her chin, lifting her face until her eyes met
his deep ones, that blazed with a devotion so fierce and true that any
last remaining fears were shrivelled up in the stormy heat of it. 'If
you love me, I'll never let you be anyone else's wife as long as there's
a breath left in my body.' With a sigh of pure happiness that seemed to
come from the depths of his soul he brought his mouth down hard on hers,
expressing his feelings in a way that mere words could never manage. Her
head spinning, her legs weakening beneath her, Sienna could only cling
to him and respond in kind, willing him to know from her kiss the
overwhelming strength of her feelings for him. When at last he wrenched
his lips away they were both trembling with emotion and need, and she
knew that the flare of colour high on his cheekbones was matched in her
own face as he stared down into it. 'I really think that we should get a
divorce, my love,' Keir said when he finally gathered the strength to
speak. That 'my love' told her there was no way he meant what he had
said at all, but still his words confused her. 'But, Keir, why?' 'So
that we can start again. So that I can propose to you as I always
planned to do. So that we can get married all over again, properly this
time...' 'As you always planned to?' Sienna pounced on the part of his
impassioned declaration that had surprised her most. 'Keir, are you
saying ... ?' 'That I always meant to ask you to marry me,' he confirmed
her suspicions easily. 'Right from the start I knew I wanted to marry
you, but I wanted to give you time to get over Dean. And I wanted the
problems with the company sorted out too, so that I could promise you a
secure future.' She had never guessed that he felt this way. 'That
wouldn't have mattered.' 'It would have mattered to me. I thought I had
time. That I could sort out my own problems first and then come to you
free of all of them. But then you preempted me with your proposal, and I
was so afraid that if I said no you'd look elsewhere, find someone else,
that I jumped in with both feet. I was arrogant enough to think that a
year would be more than enough time to make you come to care for me ...
' 'It didn't take half that long,' Sienna whispered, resting her head
against the firm, secure support of his shoulder. 'I knew I was crazy
about you before six months were up.' 'You ... ? Valentine's Day,' Keir
declared perceptively, and Sienna nodded confirmation of his assumption.
'I couldn't let you out of our agreement because I was terrified you'd
walk out of my life and never come back again.'

186

'That was not what I had in mind at all,' Keir told her softly. 'What I
wanted was a chance to offer you marriage on equal terms, without my
being just the hired husband.'

'You were never that,' Sienna assured him. To her, Keir could never be
'just' anything. 'But if you felt that way, why did you stop sleeping
with me?'

'The sex was getting in the way. We were falling into bed instead of
talking to each other. Making love instead of loving. I wanted to take
our relationship back a couple of steps, so that we could learn to get
to know each other properly. And I couldn't bear to make love to you
when I thought that for you it was only sex.'

'That I can believe. What I don't understand is why you said what you
did that day in Scotland.'

'At Gretna?' Supremely sensitive to her moods, Keir had picked up at
once on her train of thought. 'Oh, Sienna,' he groaned, shaking his head
in amazement at his own actions. 'If you knew how much I regretted that
afterwards. But it was either that or admit the way I was feeling-that I
was jealous as hell of that wedding being a real one. The sort of
marriage I had always dreamed of having for myself.'

'Well, we can have that now,' Sienna told him, smiling up into his face
and seeing the love shining in his eyes, so clear to see. 'We can begin
again.'

Keir nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful.

'How do you feel about having a private ceremony on our anniversary?
Just the two of us, renewing our vows, making them real and lasting this
time, a marriage that will be for ever.'

'I'd love that,' Sienna whispered. 'But only if you don't mind a
pregnant bride.'

'I don't mind-' Keir began, then broke off in shock as the impact of
what she'd said hit home fully. 'You meant it!'

'I meant it,' Sienna admitted, her pale skin colouring in response to
the blazing, ecstatic force of his smile. 'So I'm

afraid it won't be "just the two of us" for very much longer.'

'Do you think I mind? I couldn't be happier.'

Keir hugged her even closer, pressing his mouth lovingly to the corner
of her smiling mouth.

'I lied, you know,' he whispered against her ear, his warm breath
feathering over her skin. 'I could never have let you go to find someone
else. I wanted you all to myself. I always believed that if ever I
married it would be for a lifetime.'

'Oh, Keir...' Sienna sighed against his lips as his mouth captured hers
once more and the heated waves of passion washed over her, threatening
to drive away all rational thought. 'That agreement we made. Do you
think we could extend the contract beyond its original term-say for the
rest of our lives?'

"That might just be long enough,' he told her huskily, swinging her up
into his arms and heading for the stairs and their bedroom. 'And the
rest of our lives starts now.'