01 Winters Thaw (10 page)

“Sorry. Did I wake you?”

Sterling shook her head. She still lived with Uncle Sam and Aunt Cindi in their little cottage through the woods. The path between Sienna and Sterling’s homes, as well as the one that led to Hope’s house, was well-worn. One of the nicest things about living at Compass Ranch was how close she was to her cousins. They were her best friends, and she couldn’t image how different her life would have been without them in it.

“I need help.”

Sterling sighed softly. “Are you still upset about Josh? Because if so, you should call Hope to talk about it. She’s more forgiving than me. Right now, I’d like to punch him in the face for being such a shithead.”

Sienna grinned. Sterling and Jade always had her back. It was a nice feeling. “I don’t want to talk about Josh. It’s Daniel.”

Sterling’s eyes widened, interest dawning. “What about him?”

“I’m planning to sleep with him, but I don’t know how to initiate it. I mean, short of walking to his RV and stripping off all my clothes.”

Sterling’s mouth fell open. Sienna wasn’t sure she’d ever seen anyone actually gape until that moment. Part of her was pleased she’d been able to shock her unshakable cousin.

Then Sterling went into motion. “Conference call.”

Sienna shook her head, but it was too late. She could see Sterling plugging in Jade and Hope’s phone numbers.

Dammit. She’d hoped she and Sterling could keep this conversation between them. Then she heard her mother’s voice in her mind. Jody often mourned for the good old days when phone calls were just between two people and you couldn’t see who you were talking to. Her mother was always one of the last holdouts whenever it came to technology.

In the meantime, Sienna and her cousins had begged their parents to buy them the latest and greatest each and every time a new phone came on the market. Usually Sienna loved the ability to talk to—and see—all of her cousins at once. This was especially true during the years Sienna was away at college. She’d missed her cousins so much those four years. Being able to see their faces and hear their voices over the video phone never failed to chase away her homesickness.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those times. Hope’s face appeared first. Like Sterling, she was dressed for bed, sitting propped up against pillows. No doubt she’d been reading some juicy romance novel on her ereader. “Everything okay?”

Sterling nodded. “Yeah. We’re just waiting for Jade to pick—”

Jade’s face appeared. The four of them each graced a corner of the flat phone screen. Unlike Sterling and Hope, Jade was clearly out and about rather than in bed.

“What’s wrong?” Jade asked. Sienna heard someone in the background ask for another beer. Jade turned away from the screen for a moment and told the guy he’d had enough and she was cutting him off for the night. Then she yelled over her shoulder, “Bruce. I’m taking a smoke break.”

Jade didn’t appear to wait for permission. Instead, the background changed as they watched her leave the crowded bar and head for the back door.

“You don’t smoke,” Hope pointed out.

“So what? It didn’t take me too long working here to figure out the waitresses and Bruce were getting more breaks than me just because they’re all chain smokers. Fuck that shit. Told Bruce it wasn’t fair and that I’d be taking smoke breaks too.”

Sienna laughed. “What did he say to that?”

“What could he say? I’m right and he knows it.”

And if Bruce didn’t realize it at first, Sienna had no doubt Jade drove the point home relentlessly until the man gave in simply to shut her up.

Jade had clearly made it to the back parking lot as Sienna spotted several cars in the background. “Listen, as much as I’d love to have one of our virtual slumber parties, I’m going to have to go back in soon. So cut to the chase. What’s wrong?”

Growing up, Jade had felt like odd girl out because she didn’t live on the ranch. In order to keep her in the group, they’d started holding weekly virtual slumber parties—sometimes with their parents’ knowledge, sometimes without. They’d crawl into their own beds, then fire up the conference call, giggling and whispering until the wee hours.

“Sienna’s going to sleep with Daniel.”

Sienna winced at Sterling’s abrupt announcement. “Actually, I was only thinking about it. I’m not sure that I’m going—”

Jade rolled her eyes. “Dear God. Please stop thinking. I swear I’ll hang up right now if you tell me this is just another Sienna
should I, shouldn’t I
gab-fest.”

Once again, Sterling answered for her. “It’s not. She’s going to do it.”

Hope smiled. “I think that’s awesome. Daniel is gorgeous and funny and smart and so nice to your brothers.”

Hope’s list went a long way to easing her fears, but deep inside, Sienna still wasn’t sure she had the nerve to go through with it.

“Great, Hope,” Jade interrupted. “But FYI, none of that matters. This is just sex, right, Sienna?”

Sienna nodded quickly. That was the only part of this whole crazy scheme she was certain of. She’d just gotten out of a long-term relationship, if Sienna could call her “break” from Josh getting out. In reality, she wasn’t sure she was out at all. She and Josh had dodged the conversation at Thanksgiving, settling nothing.

The only thing she knew for sure was she wanted to have sex with Daniel. Her heart wasn’t ready to jump into anything else, but her body, well, that was a different story. Daniel had uncovered her previously undiscovered libido and, since she was a free woman, she didn’t see any harm in exploring the uncharted territory. “It’s just sex.”

“Well, then the answer is simple. Shower, shave, makeup, lingerie.” Jade consulted the time on the phone. “It’s almost eleven now. You can be at his RV by midnight.”

“Tonight? Oh no. I wasn’t even considering—”

“It has to be tonight, Sienna.” Sterling’s assurance took her aback.

“Why?”

Hope smiled sympathetically. “Because we know you. If you don’t go now, you’ll lay awake all night making a list of reasons why you shouldn’t. And then tomorrow…”

Hope shrugged, letting Sienna fill in the unspoken
you won’t go
.

She started to argue, promise them she’d follow through with the plan later, but they were right. The words died on her lips.

Vivi’s advice drifted through her mind.

Live in the moment.

Sterling piped in with her own advice. “And don’t get nervous and start babbling.”

“I don’t do that,” Sienna protested.

Hope giggled. “Remember your college graduation party when Uncle Seth suggested that you say something to everyone?”

Sienna tilted her head haughtily. “I hate public speaking.”

Jade laughed as well. “It was just family and a few close friends from town. I’d hardly call that public.”

“There were nearly sixty people there and they were all looking at me,” Sienna clarified.

“And you rambled for close to twenty minutes, thanking basically every single person you’d ever met in your life as well as the guy who delivered the booze.” Sterling shook her head. “When you get anxious, inane words fly out in a steady stream.”

“Fine, I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Um, Jade,” Sterling said suddenly.

Jade was standing with her back to the parking lot. Hope’s eyes went wide as Sienna grinned. “Yeah?”

“Don’t turn around,” Sterling instructed.

If there was one thing they all knew about Jade, it was that they should never tell her
not
to do something. To do so was the equivalent of a dare and Sterling knew it.

Jade glanced over her shoulder just in time to spot crazy Stanley’s bare ass as he mooned her.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Jade yelled as Sienna, Hope and Sterling burst into loud laughter.

Stanley turned around before he hitched his pants back up, treating them all to more than an eyeful of his shriveled penis. “Serves you right for not getting me another drink, Jade Compton.”

Jade appeared to forget she was on the phone as her face disappeared from her portion of the screen. The rest of them were treated to fleeting glimpses of cars, the bar, bits of Jade and Stanley as she shook the phone at him. Sienna felt faintly motion sick watching it.

“You get your hairy ass and tiny dick out of here before I call my dad and have him arrest you for indecent exposure, you fucking pervert!” Jade yelled.

Stanley must have taken her threat to heart as Jade’s face reappeared on the screen.

“Thanks a lot, Sterling. Now I’ll have to scratch my eyes out to try to get that image out of my mind.”

Sterling showed no remorse, her smiling face far too delighted. “Hey, I saw it too.”

“Bitch. I have to get back inside. Go over to Daniel’s tonight, Sienna. Get laid. Then call me tomorrow with the details.” Jade’s screen went black before any of them could say goodbye.

Hope tried to stifle a yawn. “I need to go too. Good luck, Sienna.”

“Thanks.” Sienna glanced at Sterling.

“So. Shower, shave, makeup, lingerie and shut up. Anything else?”

Sterling smiled. “Just let go, Sienna, and enjoy the moment. That’s really all there is to it.”

Chapter Six

Daniel lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. He refused to look at his clock again. At last check—no more than five minutes earlier—it had been midnight. He’d ticked off every hour since he’d crawled into bed at nine and he was still no closer to finding sleep.

Eventually, sheer exhaustion was going to have to win out. God knew he couldn’t keep going at this rate. It had been a week since he’d kissed Sienna in the stable. He would have tried to steal more than a few heated kisses from her, but Sienna pulled away when they’d heard someone enter the stable.

Daniel shuddered to think how close Seth had come to catching them. Even though they were standing a proper distance away from each other when Seth approached, he still sensed his boss was suspicious. For one thing, Sienna’s face had been flushed, her gaze roaming everywhere to avoid her father’s questioning stare. She may as well have stamped the word
guilty
on her forehead.

Since then, Seth had kept a very close eye on where he was and who he was with. Not that Seth had needed to be on his guard. Sienna was doing a good enough job staying away from him without her father’s interference. He hadn’t caught more than a glimpse of her when she came home from work each day. She’d stopped eating dinner with the family and even eschewed riding her beloved mare, Maria.

According to Doug, Sienna was depressed over Josh. Daniel knew that reaction was natural, but it didn’t stop him from wishing she’d open her eyes and see him as a suitable replacement.

“Fuck that,” he muttered. He didn’t intend to replace Josh. He wanted to erase him from Sienna’s thoughts forever. He wasn’t sure when his intentions had changed, but somewhere along the way, he’d stopped hoping to just get into Sienna’s pants. Lately, he’d been thinking it might be nice to find a way into her life, but that didn’t seem possible.

For one thing, she’d just gotten out of a relationship. There was no way she was ready to hop right back into one. And secondly, he’d heard her conversation with Josh. They hadn’t broken up—not officially. They’d just taken a timeout. Daniel didn’t think Sienna would let the idiot come back, but, well, dammit, he wasn’t sure.

He released an annoyed breath and forced his eyes shut. He’d never fall asleep at this rate. He tried to clear his mind of Sienna Compton completely.

A knock sounded on his door.

“What the hell?”

He listened again, wondering if he’d imagined it or if it was the cold winter wind knocking a branch against the trailer.

Another knock. Someone was definitely outside.

He rose and slipped on a pair of sweatpants. Opening the door slowly, he was surprised to find Sienna, wrapped in a coat and shivering.

“Sienna? Get in here. It’s freezing out there.”

She quickly climbed the three stairs, passing him as he closed the door.

“Is something wrong?” He couldn’t imagine there was anything—short of bad news—that would bring her to his trailer at this time of night.

She shook her head. “N-no. Everything’s fine.”

“Okay. That’s good.”

She didn’t bother to explain more. Instead, she shrugged off her coat. Underneath she was dressed in a little slip of a nightgown. He hadn’t realized until that moment that her legs were bare. She’d walked all the way over here in a bit of silk and slippers. Obviously she was paying for the decision, given her uncontrollable shivering.

“Jesus, Sienna. What the hell are you wearing? Or
not
wearing? You’ll be lucky if you don’t get frostbite.”

She rubbed her hands together, blowing on them for heat. “This was a lot s-sexier when my cousins and I p-planned it from the warmth of my bedroom.”

“Sexy?” Her words hit him like a sledgehammer to the forehead. “Did you come over here to sleep with me?”

Her cheeks were red from the cold, but even so, her blush enhanced the color. “If you h-have to ask, then it’s s-safe to say I’m not doing s-so well.”