Page 87 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

‘So for the sake of you getting a few extra hours with them, you think we should pretend to play happy families, even though those extra few hours are spent with the girls fast asleep?’

He held her stare so she could not misunderstand his meaning. ‘Who said anything about those night-time hours being spent with the girls?’

For the second time in as many minutes, her mouth dropped open. Dark colour slashed her cheeks and, shaking her head as like was in a daze, she took a step back. ‘Absolutely not.’

He could have written her script.

Having set his plan in action, the last few days a form of torture, sensing her attraction unfurl back to consciousness but not allowing himself in all good conscience to do a damn thing about it.

The only way through it had been to bury himself in work and wait for the Rose he’d experienced the whole gauntlet of emotions for over the years to unfurl the whole of herself back to life. And now she was here, barefoot and more beautiful than should be human.

With a blink like the shutter of the camera she always used to have slung around her neck, Diaz finally allowed himself the luxury of taking the whole of her in with the appreciative eyes that had known better than to devour her while she was postpartum and exhausted.

It felt like he was finally allowing himself to breathe again.

All those months of pretending not to notice the sexiness of the legs currently on display before him in that chic but pretty dress, pretending not to catch glimpses of those high breasts in the times when she’d not noticed the V of her robe gaping open. He’d deliberately put his own desire to sleep but now he could let it wake again and,Dios, the rush that came from it…

He recaptured the blue eyes that had turned to liquid as she’d come undone in his arms and which in turn had turnedhimto liquid. ‘We don’t have to fight it any more, Rose. Our night together—’

‘Don’t,’she interrupted, her voice suddenly tremulous. ‘Don’t ever bring that night up. I never want to speak of it or think of it again.’

His hands curled, a heaviness settling in his chest.

Diaz had always known walking out on her the way he’d done after everything they’d shared had been cruel. Unforgivable. But it had been completely necessary, and if not for their daughters he’d have spent the rest of his life forbidding himself to ever think about their night together. At some point he might even have found the energy to take a lover to aid this forgetting.

The birth of their daughters had changed everything for him. He could not endure the thought of his daughters being raised under the same roof as another man, not even on a part-time basis. And he could not endure the thought of Rose with anyone else.

He’d spent what felt like his whole life fighting his feelings for her but it had taken her near-death for him to understand and accept that Rose was a part of him and there was not a damn thing he could do about it.

‘We don’t have to speak of it, but you cannot pretend it didn’t happen or that it wasn’t out of this world.’ He’d always known that if the chemistry between him and Rose was ever given an outlet, it would be good. He’d never dreamed justhowgood it would be or how deeply it would mark him. ‘We can have that again, Rose, for the rest of our lives, and we can be a family.’

She took another unsteady step back. ‘No. It would never work. Families are built on love, not hate, and you hate me. You’ve always hated me. And I hate you,’ she added as an afterthought.

Did he hate her still? He had, for a long, long time, but for years his hate had always been mixed with other equally virulent feelings, a sickening combination that had stopped him sleeping whenever they shared a roof and kept him alert to her every sound, like he possessed invisible antennae attuned only to Rose’s frequency.

He worked hard to keep his voice even. ‘What would you say if I told you I loved you? Would that change your feelings on the matter?’

She flinched as if he’d slapped her.

The tension in the silence that followed was loud enough to hear the air enveloping them crackle.

Slowly, she lifted her stare back to him. Her voice barely rose above a whisper. ‘If you were to say that then I would say you’re a warped, cruel bastard and that I’m taking the girls and going home. In fact, I’m going to do that right now. I don’t know what sick game you think you’re playing but I want no part in it and I will not allow our daughters to be used as pawns in it.’

Filled with more clashing emotions than any woman could bear, Rose turned her back on him and aimed her trembling body back to the villa.

She’d known there was more to this trip than a simple break, butthis?

The worst of it was that she knew Diaz was being serious. He really thought, after everything he’d done and all the poisoned water that had passed under the bridge between them, that she would consider turning their sham of a marriage into something real.

But to play with her emotions by mentioning love of all things? Howcouldhe? To request a real marriage in one breath and then stab her in the heart the next?

She’d barely left the seating area when he called out. ‘Rose, I don’t want to have to play it like this but you cannot take the girls back to England without my consent.’

She froze in her tracks.

‘We have shared legal responsibility, remember? You cannot take them out of the country without my permission.’

Feeling like ice had been injected into her veins, she turned to face him.

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