Page 15 of The Return of Her Billionaire Husband

Joe stood from the bed and looked down at her, unwilling to confirm or deny it. He had never felt the need to settle down with anyone long-term. He’d preferred to live in a world outside permanent attachment. A safe world. A world where he couldn’t hurt or be hurt in return. ‘Try and get some sleep, cara. Goodnight.’

* * *

Juliette listened while Joe had a shower in the bathroom. She tried to stop her mind filling with images of him under the hot spray of water, tried to stop thinking of the times she had shared a shower with him in the past. The blistering passion, the drumming need, the explosive orgasms.

She groaned under her breath and turned so her back was facing the bathroom, tucking her legs up close to her torso and squeezing her eyes shut. She waited for him to join her in the bed, waited for the familiar press of his weight down on the mattress, her senses so alert she knew it would be impossible to settle into sleep. She opened her eyes and saw the medication next to her glass of water. She sat up, pressed one out of the blister packet and swallowed it down with a gulp of water.

She lay back down and waited for the slow but inexorable drag down into mindless slumber...

CHAPTER SIX

JULIETTE DIDN’T KNOW how long she had been asleep when she woke. It was still dark except for a beam of silvery moonlight peeping through a gap in the curtains, illuminating the bed...the half empty bed. She sat up and pushed her hair away from her face and frowned at the vacant space beside her. The pillows were undented, the sheets smooth, showing no sign Joe had even momentarily lain down beside her.

A perverse sense of pique washed over her. Why hadn’t he slept beside her? Did he find her repulsive? Was he worried she might cross to his side of the bed? She pushed off the bedcovers and, ignoring the bathrobe laid over the chair, padded through to the sitting room area.

Joe was sitting in a slumped position on the sofa, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his head on one side, his eyes closed in a deep sleep. He was naked except for a bath towel anchored around his lean hips.

Juliette knew she should tiptoe back to bed. Knew she shouldn’t feel a smidgeon of compassion for him for having spent an uncomfortable night sleeping upright. Knew she had no right to stare at his tanned athletic body bathed in moonlight, making him look like a Greek god rather than human. But her feet seemed to be anchored to the floor, her eyes drawn to him with the force of an industrial-sized magnet.

She wasn’t aware of making a sound but suddenly his eyes opened and he blinked and sat upright, scraping a hand through his already tousled hair.

‘Was I snoring?’ he asked with a grimace.

‘No. Is that a new habit you’ve acquired since we...?’ She left the sentence hanging but couldn’t explain why. He’d told her there’d been no one else since she’d left but one day there would be. That was something she didn’t want to think about too closely. Someone else in his life. In his bed. In his arms. Experiencing the mind-blowing passion she missed to this day.

Joe drew his legs to a right-angled position, leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. ‘Not that I know of.’

There was a moment of silence. A silence so loaded the air seemed to be weighted, making it hard for Juliette to breathe.

‘Why didn’t you sleep in the bed?’

Joe lifted his head to look at her, his eyes so dark they could have been black holes in space. ‘I didn’t want to disturb you. You looked like you needed your sleep.’ His voice had a rough edge that made something in her belly lose its footing.

Juliette rolled her lips together and came a little closer, drawn to him as if her body had a will of its own. ‘Joe...it’s okay if you want to share the bed. Really, we’re both mature adults and—’

‘It’s fine. I got a couple of hours. It’s all I need.’ He rose from the sofa, securing the towel around his hips, and walked over to the windows, pushing the curtains further aside to look at the moonlit view.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the sculpted perfection of his back and shoulder muscles, taut buttocks and his long strong thighs and calves below the hip-height towel. Just knowing he was naked under that towel was enough to send her female hormones into a cheerleading routine. Sensations stirred low in her body—sensual, erotic memories of his thick, hard presence moving within her.

Joe turned from the window and brushed his hair back from his forehead. ‘Go back to bed, Juliette.’ His tone was part stern authority and part growing impatience.

Juliette took a step towards him. ‘Joe...’

He closed the distance between them and placed his hands on the tops of her shoulders. The warmth of his fingers seeped into her flesh, awakening needs and desires she wasn’t sure she could control. His hooded eyes drifted to her mouth, his breath hitching, his body so close her breasts brushed against his chest. The smooth satin of her shortie pyjamas couldn’t hide her body’s reaction to him. She could feel the tensing of her nipples, the spreading tingles in her breasts, the smouldering heat in her core.

His hand cupped one side of her face, his thumb moving across her cheek like the arm of a slow-beating metronome. ‘Kissing you would be the easy part. Stopping at one kiss, however, would be something else.’ His voice was so rough it sounded as if he’d been gargling with gravel.

Juliette’s gaze lowered to his sensually shaped lips and something in her stomach fell off a high shelf. ‘Who said I wanted you to kiss me?’ Her voice was too breathy to relay the cool indifference she’d aimed for.

One side of his mouth tipped up in a crooked smile that did serious damage to her resolve to resist him. His thumb stroked across her lower lip, back and forth in a mesmerising, spine-tingling rhythm. ‘When I arrived here this weekend I was so determined I wasn’t going to do this.’

Juliette hadn’t realised she’d moved until she found herself flush against him, the hard jut of his hips, the proud rise of his male flesh setting her body on fire. ‘Do what?’ Her voice was so soft it could barely be called a whisper.

‘You know exactly what.’ And his mouth came down and covered hers.

Juliette knew she should have pulled away right then. She should have stopped it from going any further. She shouldn’t have allowed herself to be tempted, much less give into it. But as soon as his lips met hers, something hard and tight and bitter inside her collapsed like a house of cards. His lips moved against hers in an exploratory fashion, as if he was reminding himself of her contours, her taste, her texture. She groaned and opened to him and his tongue met hers in an erotic dance that made the hairs on the back of her neck tingle and the base of her spine fizz.

Her hands moved from his chest to link around his neck, her fingers playing with the thick black strands of his hair. He made a low growling sound deep in his throat and changed position, deepening the kiss until the bones in her legs threatened to melt like candlewax in a cauldron.

---