Dare Me Tonight (The Knight Brothers 3)

“I’ll be back with lunch.”

“I’ll be waiting.” She held her breath until he walked out before laying her head down on the desk.

What was he doing to her, turning on the charm and turning up the heat between them? And how did she hope to resist him when she’d never been able to before?

Chapter Eight

Ethan arrived at Sienna’s place with flowers in hand. He’d spent thirty minutes at the shop picking out just the right bouquet, ultimately choosing wildflowers to go with the spirit he sensed in Sienna.

“Thank you! I love them!” she said as he handed her the flowers. Her pleased smile told him he’d made the right choice. She put them in a vase with water and gave them a prominent place on the table in the family room.

Stomach churning at the prospect of what he was about to reveal to her, about his past, about himself, he waited for her to tell him where she wanted them to talk.

Ultimately, he followed her into the big room with the sofa and settled beside her.

She curled a leg beneath her, her knee touching his thigh. “So.” She stared up at him wide-eyed, obviously eager to hear what he had to say.

“So.” He didn’t see any point in beating around the bush.

“I was married.”

She sucked in a startled breath. “Was?” she asked, clearly needing the reassurance that when she’d been with him in New York, he was free and clear.

“Was. Mandy passed away from an accidental drug overdose about a year ago.” The shock and pain of that moment, finding his wife cold on their bed, stayed with him to this day.

“Ethan, I’m so sorry,” Sienna said, clutching his hand in hers.

He cleared his throat. “Mandy was an addict,” he went on, curling his fingers around Sienna’s for support. “And while she was in California overseeing a huge deal for KTT, she was buying substandard parts for a ridiculously high amount of money and pocketing the difference along with her dealer. Who, I might add, she was sleeping with.” He blew out a harsh breath, admitting he’d been blindsided by his own wife.

Sienna blinked in obvious surprise. “She stole from your company and cheated on you? Was she insane?”

He chuckled at her words, appreciating the moral support.

Before he could speak, Sienna went on. “Addiction is a disease but the choices she made were her own. And if I were married to a man like you, nobody else would catch my eye,” she said, blurting out her innermost feelings.

He jerked his gaze to hers, surprised she’d let him in that much, and from the bright flush on her cheeks, she’d shocked herself as well. Now wasn’t the time to react to the sentiment but he tucked it away close to his heart.

“Mandy hurt me,” he said, instead focusing on why he was giving Sienna so much personal information. “She fucked me up until my family no longer recognized me,” he admitted. “And because she took me so off guard, she destroyed my belief in people. And she definitely stole any desire I had to move forward with a woman. Suffice it to say I wasn’t prepared for you.” He clenched his jaw, the admission pulled from him.

It wasn’t easy to admit she affected him deeply.

Her self-deprecating smile disarmed him as she said, “I wasn’t prepared for you, either.”

He chuckled, ready to lighten the mood. “Most people aren’t.”

She leaned an elbow against the back cushion of the sofa. “Well, Ian Dare is my half brother. He didn’t want anything to do with my part of the family after finding out about us. Trust me when I say if I can deal with him, I knew when I heard about you that I could handle you.”

Ethan cocked his head to one side. This was the first he’d heard that she’d been warned about him. “When you heard about me?”

“Sierra mentioned that you might be … difficult,” she admitted. “But I wasn’t worried.”

And that was why he was so drawn to her. Where other people ran away, she ran toward him. “You blew me away with your openness and your inviting smile. And I couldn’t stop staring at you because you were so fucking beautiful. I kept running through a list of reasons why I needed to keep my hands to myself, but I couldn’t do it.”

“Considering I propositioned you, I obviously couldn’t stay away from you, either.”

He knew that wasn’t an invitation now. She’d made her feelings clear, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to show her what he wanted from her. He leaned in, close to those damp lips he wanted to suck into his mouth and taste.

She lifted a hand, placed her palm on his chest, and held him at bay. “Nope. Not happening.” But her gaze flickered with disappointment, and he knew it wasn’t any easier for her to keep her distance than it was for him.