Christmas at the Castello(8)

Last night she had felt a whole hell of a lot. The half-moons dug into  his biceps he'd noticed when he'd put on his shirt this morning bore  testament to that. The sensation of her body tightening around his as  he'd driven her to the brink was burned into his brain, taunting him,  reminding him of just how good it was between them.

"The Key West house," Jerry prompted.

Coburn gave him a distracted look. "Sorry?"

"The Key West house. Diana keeps it."

He nodded.

"The East Side apartment closes this week. Half of those proceeds will go to each of you when that happens."

He nodded. He'd hated that apartment from the first day they'd moved  in. It had been a stuffy, cliquey building with a tiny terrace that had  made him feel like a caged animal. He'd been thrilled to get out of it.

Jerry wrapped up the remainder of their properties and moved on to the incidentals.

"The season tickets to the ballet and the opera will go to Diana, while the basketball tickets go to you, Coburn."

"Fine." Did she really think he wanted to attend a brutally boring  opera now that they were through? The only reason he'd ever agreed to go  was because watching the joy it put in his wife's eyes when she finally  took a night off had been worth it and ten times more.

He nodded. Waved for him to continue.

Jerry started listing off such minor, inconsequential stuff his mind  faded to black. What the hell did he care if he had the country club  membership? He'd never have time to golf. He also had no interest in the  artwork Diana had walked off with.

"I only want the painting of the Pyrenees," he broke in. "She can have the rest."

He'd cycled a race there. It had sentimental value to him.

Jerry nodded and resumed the exhaustive list. Coburn couldn't believe  he and Diana had accumulated so much stuff in two years. The free spirit  in him thought it utterly ridiculous. He waved a hand at Jerry. "She  can have it all. Whatever's on the list, let her take it."

He needed to get out of this room now.

Jerry looked thrown. "Okay-just give me a moment. I'll move on with the  life insurance policies and retirement savings." He started flipping  pages. Coburn blew out a breath, stood up and walked to the windows.  This whole thing was ridiculous, insane. He and Diana both had enough  money individually to never have to worry about their financials. He was  seriously thinking of making his will out to a nature organization for  when he eventually left this world.         

     



 

He turned and leaned back against the windowsill, his gaze moving to  his wife. She was still sitting there frozen, as if she was on another  planet. He had the vicious urge to do something to shake her out of it.

"We'll start with the life insurance policies. You-"

"Enough." He waved a hand at Jerry. The lawyer set the paper down with a  slow movement, both of the legal experts absorbing his aggressive tone  and stance. He pinned his gaze on his wife's face. "Diana, are you all  right?"

She lifted her chin, her dark eyes flaring with emotion for the first time. "Perfect."

Exactly what she'd said to him last night after he'd taken her apart with his despicable behavior.

Jerry eyed him. "Should we continue?"

"No." He kept his gaze trained on Diana. "The agreement is fine, all of it. I, however, am not ready to sign."

Diana bolted upright in her chair. He registered the movement with  intense satisfaction. His wife was awake. "What do you mean," she  demanded slowly, "not ready?"

"I mean I'm not ready to sign."

"Why not?"

He lifted a shoulder, sloughing off the incredulous part of his mind that questioned his sanity. "I want more time."

Diana's eyes spit fire at him. "For what? You know I'm leaving the  country in three weeks, Coburn. I want this done before that happens,  and I'm sure you do, too."

He wasn't sure what he wanted anymore. But he was going to take his brother's advice and figure it out.

"So sorry to disturb your plans," he murmured in a voice as smooth as churned butter, "but that's just the way it is."

"Coburn." Jerry jumped in when it appeared his client might go loco.  "It's highly unusual for a party to back out at this point when we have  all the fine print agreed upon. Once Diana leaves the country, it's  doubtful we can facilitate anything, given the spotty communications she  might have where she is staying."

He gave the lawyer a withering look. "It took my wife twelve months to  come out of hiding and face me. She can damn well wait for another few."

Jerry's jaw dropped. Chase gave Coburn a wary look as if appealing for  direction. Diana flicked a look at the two lawyers, her eyes ice-cold  and full of purpose. "Could you give us a second?"

The two men looked relieved to be leaving the room. Coburn closed the  door with his foot behind them and stood watching his wife, arms folded  over his chest. Diana got to her feet, crossed to him and stood mere  inches away, her stony face not hiding for one moment what he could read  in her eyes. "Don't you think last night was payback enough, Coburn?  Why are you doing this?"

He narrowed his gaze on her. "You were the one to instigate the hot  breakup sex this time, sweetheart. I only went along with it."

Fury wiped the composure from her face. "Do not do this to me. Do not play games with something so important."

"Why not?" He moved close enough to her that he could inhale her  distinctive floral scent. Her fear. "How important was this to you when  you ignored my phone calls for weeks? When you refused to talk it out  like a rational human being?"

Her eyes flickered. "I did that because it was over. To end the vicious  circle that happened between us time and time again... To save us."

"No." He caught her jaw in his fingers and commanded her attention. "You did it to save yourself. And to hell with how I felt."

"Coburn-"

"Save it." His razor-sharp words cut through the air like a knife.  "Learn what it's like to wait and wonder, Diana. Learn what it's like to  be stuck in purgatory like I was. I can tell you from experience it  isn't pretty."

He turned and yanked open the door. Diana set a hand on his shoulder.  "I am going. Jerry will find another way to make this happen, and it  will be done. Do it the easy way without dragging us all through that."         

     



 

He turned around, never feeling so cold and emotionless in his entire  life. "Enjoy your self-exploration, Diana. I hope you get your answers."

He walked out of the conference room and away from the closure he'd  wanted so desperately. If it added another complication to his already  convoluted life? So be it. That had been far, far more satisfying than  what he'd walked in there to do.





  CHAPTER FOUR

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, he wouldn't sign?"

Her father's enraged voice boomed in Diana's ear, intensifying the dull  throb in her temples. She put down her spoon and pushed her half-eaten  bowl of soup away as the ache in her head mixed with the uneasy  sensation in her stomach to inspire a distinctly unwell feeling.

"He said he needed more time." She fixed her gaze on Wilbur Taylor's  flinty, gray-eyed one and the expression he reserved solely for  conversations about her ex-husband.

"More time for what?" her father huffed. "So he can add another socialite to his list of fame?"

Her mouth tightened. "I have no idea, and frankly I'm over it. I'm leaving on Friday. It can wait until he sees reason."

Her father waved a hand at her. "Never mind. I'll sic David Price on it."

She put her spoon down, her blood pressure rising. "Jerry is perfectly  capable of taking care of it. It's my business, Father. Stay out of it."

"Jerry Simmons is a fine lawyer, but he isn't a pit bull like David. David will have you divorced in minutes."

"No." She cut the idea off at the pass. Although she couldn't say she  didn't have her doubts about Jerry's ability to handle Coburn after her  husband had walked all over him two weeks ago in that conference room,  this was her decision to make, and she didn't want her father anywhere  near it.

"Fine." Her father shrugged his broad shoulders. "But I don't think  you're handling this very well. You shouldn't be giving him any choice."

Diana picked up her wine and took a sip. What did he think she handled  well, beyond her patients? She'd spent her life trying to live up to her  world-renowned orthopedic surgeon of a father, who overshadowed  everything in his wake with his big personality and impossible  standards. But measuring up had become a fruitless pursuit she'd finally  abandoned for her own sanity.

"Your father is only considering what's best for you, Diana." Her mother, ever the peacekeeper, attempted to smooth the waters.

And pursuing his own witch hunt of her husband... Her father had never  liked Coburn from the minute he'd laid eyes on him. She'd always  wondered if it was because he saw too much of himself in Coburn-a man  who viewed the world as his oyster and took his pick of it as if it was  his divine right. That was what her father had done in marrying her  mother, his secretary at the time, then carrying on a five-year-long  affair with a brilliant fellow doctor whose brain apparently turned him  on more than his society wife.