Page 13 of The Return of Her Billionaire Husband

Her chin came up, an intransigent light sparking in her eyes. ‘I don’t want them.’

‘Maybe, but still you want me.’ Joe brought her hip to hip to his body, his gaze lowering to her mouth. ‘Don’t you, mio piccolo?’

Juliette licked her lips again, her eyes flicking to his mouth. ‘No.’ Her tone was firm but her body swayed towards him as if propelled by a force bigger than her will to resist.

He tipped up her chin, stroking her lower lip with his thumb. ‘Pride is a funny thing, is it not? I would like to say I don’t want you either but I would be lying to myself as well as you.’

She drew in a breath and released it in a shuddery rush. ‘Joe...please...’

‘Please, what?’ Joe cupped one side of her face with his hand, the other hand going to the small of her back to bring her even closer to the throb and ache of his lower body. ‘Are you going to deny what you’re feeling right now? What you’ve felt from the moment I walked into the suite this afternoon? What you felt the first time we met? It’s why you blocked my phone and emails, isn’t it? You don’t want to be reminded of what you feel for me.’

Juliette swallowed again, her hands creeping up to rest against his chest, her gaze homing in on his mouth. ‘We’re separated now and—’

‘We’re not separated this weekend. We’re sharing a room. Sharing a bed.’

‘No, we’re not.’ Her hands fell away from his chest, her gaze defiant. ‘Celeste said she was going to get a fold-out for—’

‘I spoke to her a few minutes ago,’ Joe said. ‘She wasn’t able to get one in time for tonight but she’ll try again tomorrow.’

Her gaze flicked back to his, the line of her mouth pulling tight. She stepped back, her posture stiff, guarded. ‘We both need to move on with our lives. It would only complicate things to go backwards instead of forwards.’

She placed her left hand against her temple and closed her eyes as if in silent prayer. ‘Please, Joe. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.’ She lowered her hand from her face and looked up at him again with an expression that shone anew with determination. ‘I’m going back to the room. To sleep. Alone.’

* * *

Juliette managed to slip away without any of the wedding party noticing and went back to the suite and closed the door with a heavy sigh. She’d been so tempted to dance with Joe all night, to find any excuse to be in his arms again. But that was the pathway to heartbreak because they didn’t belong together. Not then. Not now.

If only her body didn’t keep betraying her. It was so hard to keep her distance when he only had to look at her and her resistance melted. She had lowered her guard enough to tell him about her frustrating relationship with her parents and her doubts over her career going forward. It was a moment of weakness and yet she had drawn comfort from sharing so openly with him. He had been supportive and understanding in a way she hadn’t expected.

And then there was the stillbirth foundation...

She couldn’t get it out of her mind—how he had raised money for much-needed research. That all this time she had been judging him for not grieving the way she expected, but he’d been doing what he thought would help others. It made it harder for her to access her anger, to keep her emotional distance.

But it didn’t mean they had a future together.

How could they when they weren’t in love, had never been in love and would only be together for the sake of physical chemistry? That wasn’t enough to build a marriage on, especially a marriage that had suffered such a tragedy as theirs. A marriage that would never have come about if it hadn’t been for her accidental pregnancy. She wasn’t the type of woman he normally dated. She wasn’t sophisticated or super-smart and no one could ever call her supermodel beautiful. She would never have been his first choice of bride if she hadn’t fallen pregnant.

Juliette pulled the clips out of her hair and tossed them on the dressing table on her way to the bathroom. Joe’s shaving things were on the bathroom counter and his bottle of cologne right next to her cosmetics. A soft fluttering sensation passed over the floor of her belly. Sharing a bathroom was such an intimate thing to do. Would she be strong enough to resist the temptation he offered? She picked the cologne bottle up, took off the lid and held the neck of the bottle to her nose, closing her eyes to breathe in the citrus notes. She put the bottle back down and put the lid back on.

She had to be strong enough.

She had to.

Juliette came back out to the bedroom and glanced at her tote bag, where the divorce papers were stashed. On Sunday, after Lucy and Damon sailed off, she would whip them out and wave them under Joe’s nose, not before. It gave her a sense of power to know she had them there, waiting for the right moment. He thought he could snap his fingers and she would come running back to him as if nothing had changed. Everything had changed.

She had changed.

And she wasn’t changing back.

* * *

Joe came back to the suite later that night to find Juliette asleep in the bedroom with a bank of pillows dividing the king-sized bed in two sections. The bedside lamp was still on and the muted light cast her features into a golden glow. She had taken her hair down and it was spread out over the pillow. Her make-up was removed, leaving her skin as fresh and glowing as a child’s. Her mouth was relaxed in sleep, her lips softly parted, her breathing slow and even. He reached up and loosened his tie, slipping it from around his collar and tossing it to the chair in the corner of the bedroom.

Juliette’s eyes sprang open and she sat upright, blinking at him owlishly. ‘Oh, it’s you...’

‘Thanks for the hearty welcome.’ Joe began to unbutton his shirt.

Her gaze narrowed and she pulled the bedcovers further up her body. ‘What are you doing?’

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