Page 9 of The Return of Her Billionaire Husband

Joe shrugged and turned to look at the guests coming out to the terrace. ‘It doesn’t mean I don’t have them.’ The bottom register of his voice throbbed with something she had never heard in it before.

Juliette frowned and chewed on the inside of her lip. He was always so aloof and distant. He was like a steep and rocky island she continually circled, looking for a place to anchor.

His eyes met hers in a lock that made the backs of her knees shiver. ‘This weekend could be a blessing in disguise. It could be a chance to sort out some of our issues. Not in the presence of other people, but while we’re alone.’

While we’re alone.

Juliette had to do everything in her power not to be alone with him. The only time she wanted to be alone with him was to hand him those hot-off-the-press divorce papers. ‘I don’t think our issues are the type that can get sorted out over a weekend, Joe. Not even over a lifetime.’

‘Maybe, but at least we should try. I have some regret over how I handled our relationship.’

He had regret? She didn’t want to hear about his supposed regret. She had regrets in their multitudes. She had known he had only married her out of duty and she had married him anyway. He had been there for her on his terms, not hers. It had been a fly-in, fly-out marriage that was doomed from the start. Being with him now reminded her of how stupid she had been.

She’d foolishly believed their baby would bond them—would help him fall in love with her as well as their child. She had wanted him to love her. Wasn’t that every girl’s dream? If he had loved her then it would have made her feel better about how they had come together in the first place. It would absolve some of her nagging guilt about her own feelings. She had fallen in lust with him. Simple and bald and blatant as that. Lust was what she still felt for him and it had to stop.

She had to stop fuelling the fire that blazed inside her.

Juliette sent him an icy look. ‘There isn’t anything you could say to me that would make me want to resume our relationship. Nothing. So don’t get any funny ideas that this weekend is going to magically fix what wasn’t right in the first place.’

A waiter approached with a tray of drinks and Juliette took a glass of champagne. She was acutely conscious of Joe standing beside her, his arm brushing hers as he reached for a drink sending another hot shiver coursing through her body. Nerves and other emotions she didn’t want to think about had her halfway through her drink before Joe had even taken a sip.

‘Did you hear me say I want us to get back together?’ There was a bite in his tone that nipped at her feminine pride. His eyes were espresso coffee dark and glittering with barely suppressed anger. ‘That’s the last thing I want.’

Juliette took another sip of champagne and then looked down at the remaining bubbles in her glass. ‘Good to know.’ It was good, wasn’t it? He wanted out. She wanted out. Why then was her chest feeling as if something heavy was pressing all the air out of her lungs? She rapid blinked to clear her suddenly blurry vision, her throat so tight it felt as if a champagne cork was stuck halfway down.

Joe released a long slow breath and moved closer again, resting his hand on the top of her shoulder. The anger had gone from his gaze, to be replaced by a brooding frown. ‘I apologise for being blunt but what’s done is done and can’t be undone.’

Juliette summoned her pride back on duty and brushed off his hand as if it was soiling her dress. ‘I thought we agreed not to touch?’ Her tone was sharp, her glare cutting.

‘Please welcome the bride and groom.’ Celeste’s cheery voice rang out and the string quartet accompanied Lucy and Damon as they came out onto the terrace to cheers and applause from the assembled guests.

The press of the other guests gathering for a better view brought Joe to stand shoulder to shoulder with Juliette to make more room. Juliette painted a smile on her lips while her elbow landed a surreptitious jab in his ribs. He gave a low grunt that sounded far sexier than she had bargained for and a wave of heat rose over her skin. The steel band of his arm came around her and his hand glided down to her hip in a hold that was blatantly possessive. She glanced at his left hand resting on her hip and saw the gold glint of his wedding ring. The ring that claimed her as his. She was conscious of every point of contact as if her body had been finely programmed to recognise his touch.

She could have been blindfolded and still known it was him.

Lucy and Damon approached arm in arm and with wide smiles. An aura of happiness surrounded them and Juliette wished some of it could brush off on her. Why couldn’t she have found happy-ever-after love?

‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe my eyes,’ Lucy said, grabbing Juliette in a bone-crushing hug that almost spilt the rest of her champagne. ‘What’s going on? Don’t tell me you two are—?’

‘No.’ Joe’s strident tone served to underline the word and land another free kick to Juliette’s self-esteem. His arm dropped from around her waist and he added, ‘There was a mix-up with the accommodation and we’re trying to make it easy on Celeste, who double booked the room.’

‘Oh, well, then...’ Lucy’s eyes began to twinkle as brightly as the princess diamond ring on her finger. ‘I hope it won’t be too much of a problem for you sharing?’ There was a wink-wink-say-no-more quality to her tone.

‘No problem at all.’ Juliette kept her features under tight control but she couldn’t control the creep of warm colour she could feel pooling in her cheeks. Or the lingering hot tingle on her hip where Joe’s hand had rested just moments before.

Damon grinned and grasped Joe’s hand. ‘Who knows what a weekend on Corfu will do, eh? Great to have you both here to share our special day with us.’

‘I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,’ Joe said with an enigmatic smile.

After a moment or two, Lucy and Damon moved on to greet other guests, and Juliette lifted her glass to her lips and drained it. ‘No problem sharing a room. Who knew what a consummate liar I could be? Go me.’

Joe’s expression was shadowed by a contemplative frown. ‘As I said, we could use this weekend to help both of us move forward.’

She raised her brows, sending him a scathing look. ‘And how do you propose we do that? Hmm? Kiss and make up? Thanks, but no thanks.’

He took her empty glass off her and placed it on the stone balustrade nearby. ‘It would be a start, don’t you think?’ His darkened gaze dipped to her mouth as if he were recalling every kiss they had ever exchanged.

Juliette’s lips tingled and she fought not to lick her lips to draw any more of his attention to them. She sent him an arch look. ‘That’s how we got into this mess, if you remember. You kissed me.’

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