Reunited for the Billionaire's Legacy: Christmas at the Castello (bonus novella) by Jennifer Hayward

Author:Jennifer Hayward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

COBURN WAS TRUE to his word. For three days and three nights he did not touch her, goad her or push her to discuss anything more pertinent than the weather and what they were going to do that day. They interacted like polite acquaintances who happened to have an intimate knowledge of every inch of each other they kept tightly in check as they explored the island by boat and foot.

When they’d had enough of the ever-present baking heat, they headed for the crystal clear water and the coral reefs that surrounded the island. Diana could have spent days there swimming with the schools of brightly colored fish, avoiding her problems. And yet, funnily enough, by letting her mind go and relaxing, clarity came instead.

Her life had been irrevocably changed when she and Coburn had conceived this baby. She had to give them a second chance. A chance to forgive each other their transgressions, as Coburn had said, and perhaps find some level of happiness.

A clammy feeling attacked her appendages as she sat lounging by the pool with a book on yet another stunning Caribbean day while her husband worked in the office. She was terrified. A powerful voice inside her couldn’t help pointing out the parallels with her mother and father’s relationship. It would only ever be Coburn for her. Did her weakness for a womanizer like her husband make her as much a victim of the cult of Coburn as her mother was for her father?

The realist in her knew she was risking her heart. The optimist was sure her husband felt more for her than he was willing to admit and they could build on that.

Coburn finally made an appearance as the late-afternoon shadows chased each other across the surface of the pool. He wore the same distracted, aloof look he’d sported for days now, this new foreign version of her husband that eluded her attempts to reach him. Always with Coburn there had been emotion, whether positive or negative throughout their roller-coaster highs and lows. He was an extrovert, a man who needed to express himself as much as she needed to crawl inside herself at times.

She swam toward the edge of the pool and clutched the side, studying the tension etched in his face.

“I thought you were going to be in there all day.”

“I’m sorry. There’s a lot going on.” His gaze singed her skin as it moved over her curves in the coral bikini. “You’re burning.”

She looked down at her shoulders. They were a bit pink. Coburn offered her a hand and pulled her out of the pool. She bit her lip as he wrapped a towel around her. “You could share, you know.”

“I won’t distract you from the choices you need to make.”

She lifted her chin to look up at him. “I’m willing to give this a shot, Coburn. I’m willing for us to give this a shot. But this is it. We make it work this time or we walk away.

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