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Finally, when she thought she could bear it not a second longer, his gaze claimed hers. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to let me in like this? It feels like a lifetime. In fact, I wasn’t sure it was ever going to happen.”
She brushed away the tears streaming down her face. “When you said I left to protect myself, you were right. I abandoned us. I quit on us. But I’m not going to do it this time. I am in this for the long run, Coburn. But I need to know your heart isn’t closed to me. I need to know you can love me again.”
His eyes darkened to a deep, midnight blue. “Why do you think I couldn’t sign the divorce papers? Because I couldn’t let you go. Because you own a part of me that no other woman ever will, Diana. What does that say to you?”
She wasn’t sure. She wanted more.
He brought his mouth down to hers. “My heart is not closed to you,” he murmured against her lips. “I wanted to hate you for leaving me. I tried very hard to. But I never could.”
Her heart expanded in her chest, her relief at hearing him say those words making her feel as if it would burst right out of her. It was the closest to a declaration of love she was going to get right now. And it was enough.
She curved her fingers around his nape and brought his mouth down to hers. Lost herself in the perfection they created together. He let her take the lead, kissing her back, but keeping his hands off her. She fisted his T-shirt, desperate to feel his skin against hers. Desperate to have him inside her sealing this bond they had remade.
“You have too many clothes on.”
“You told me not to touch you.”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“Is that so?” He lifted himself off her. “Get rid of the nightshirt and I might consider it.”
She lifted herself into a sitting position and stripped it off. His eyes were pure wickedness as he ran his gaze over her body. “Now for your punishment.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “You wouldn’t da—” She never got the words out because suddenly she was facedown on the bed, draped over Coburn’s lap.
“Coburn—”
“Relax, wife,” he growled, his palm closing over her buttock. “This type of spanking you’ll like.”
She did. Too much.
When he pushed her thighs apart, rid himself of his jeans and took her in a hot, hard possession that stole the breath from her lungs, she was with him every step of the way as he drove her to oblivion. To a place without shadows, only truth.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“JACK NIEMAN IS running ten minutes late.”
Coburn scowled blackly at Frankie’s announcement that the billionaire investor and ruthless corporate raider, also known as his chief nemesis, was behind schedule.
When he should have been home dressing for a charity event he was attending with his wife tonight, he was herding cats into a boardroom. Big fat cats with extensive personal fortunes amassed from their considerable brainpower, all of whom seemed to be overcommitted and unapologetic.
“Let me know when he’s here,” he growled.
He took the extra moments to anchor his thoughts for what would be the most important meeting of his life. He was ready for it. Determined to secure the board’s approval to make the announcement on Monday acknowledging Grant’s full responsibility for the massive recall and deaths associated with it, despite the potential catastrophic fallout it might have for his company.
It had spun him in circles to be sure, the brutally hard decision he was making. But the one thing going very right in his life had kept him grounded: his wife, who seemed intent on prioritizing them for the first time in the history of their tumultuous relationship.
To give them a chance at something extraordinary.
Diana’s support over the past few weeks as he’d managed a living nightmare had been unconditional. She had been his rock in an ocean of uncertainty when he thought the sleepless nights and anguish might break him. She had not doubted him once, not even when the board had threatened rebellion and his head on a platter, always coming back to the same refrain. Doing what’s right is never wrong.
He ran a palm over the stubble on his chin. He hadn’t been ready to tell her he loved her the night she’d broken down and confessed her feelings to him, because he’d had to be sure if he ever said those words again he meant them. Had to know the bitterness he’d harbored in his heart for so long had lifted.
