First Impressions

me,” she snapped, closing the distance between them in three quick strides. “How dare you?”
    “Most people consider it an acceptable greeting,” he countered as he bent down for another log. Shane knocked it off the stump with a sweep of her hand.
    “You had no right to interfere, no right to cost me a sale. An important sale,” she added furiously. Her breath puffed out visibly in the frigid air. “Just who the hell do you think you are, telling my customers something’s already taken? Even if it had been, which it wasn’t, it’s hardly your place to add your two cents.”
    Calmly, Vance picked up the log again. He had been expecting her—and her anger. He had acted on impulse but didn’t regret it. Very clearly, he could recall the look on her face when she had first shown him her grandmother’s pride and joy. There was no way he was going to stand by and do nothing while she watched it being carted out the door.
    “You don’t want to sell it, Shane.”
    Her eyes only became more furious. “It’s none of your business what I want to do. I have to sell it. I’m
going
to sell it. If you hadn’t opened your big mouth, I
would
have sold it.”
    “And spent several hours hating yourself and crying over the invoice,” he tossed back, slamming the blade of the axe into the stump before he faced her. “The money isn’t worth it.”
    “Don’t you tell me what it’s worth,” she retorted, and poked a finger into his chest. “You don’t know how I feel. You don’t know what I have to do.
I
do. I need the money, damn it.”
    With strained calm, he curled his hand around the finger that dug into his chest, held it aloft a moment, then let it drop. “You don’t need it enough to give up something that’s important to you.”
    “Sentiment doesn’t pay bills.” The color in her cheeks heightened. “I’ve got a desk full of them.”
    “Sell something else,” he shouted back at her. Her face was lifted to his, her eyes glowing with anger. He felt conflicting urges to protect her and to throttle her. “You’ve got the damn place packed with junk as it is.”
    “
Junk!”
He had just declared war. “
Junk!
” Her voice rose.
    “Unload some of the other stuff you’ve got piled in there,” he advised with a coolness that would have rattled his business associates. A dangerous hissing sound escaped through Shane’s teeth.
    “You don’t know the first thing about it,” she fumed, poking him again so that he stepped back. “I stock the very best pieces I can find, and
you
”—she poked again—“you don’t know a Hepplewhite from a—a piece of pressboard. You keep your city nose out of my affairs, Vance Banning, and play with your planes and drill bits. I don’t need some flatlander to hand out empty advice.”
    “That’s it,” he said grimly. In one swift move, he swept Shane off her feet and dumped her over his shoulder.
    “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she screamed, thrashing and pounding him with her fists.
    “I’m taking you inside to make love to you,” he stated between his teeth. “I’ve had enough.”
    In absolute astonishment, Shane stopped thrashing. “You’re
what
?”
    “You heard me.”
    “You’re crazy!” More furious than frantic, she renewed her efforts to inflict pain wherever she could land a hit. Vance continued through the back door. “You’re not taking me inside,” she raged, even as he carted her through the kitchen. “I’m not going with you.”
    “You’re going exactly where I take you,” he countered.
    “Oh, you’re going to pay for this, Vance,” she promised as she pounded against his back.
    “I don’t doubt that,” he muttered, starting up the stairs.
    “You put me down this minute. I’m not putting up with this.”
    Weary of being kicked, he pulled off her shoes, tossed them over the banister, then tightened an arm around the back of her knees. “You’re going to put up with a hell of a lot more in a few minutes.”
    With her legs effectively pinned, she wiggled uselessly as he continued up the stairs. “I’m telling you, you’re in big trouble. I’ll get you for this,” she warned, beating furiously against him as he strode down the hall and into a bedroom. “If you don’t put me down this minute,
right this minute
, you’re fired!” Shane let out a shriek as she tumbled through the air, then a whoosh as she thudded heavily on the bed. Breathless and infuriated, she scrambled to her knees.