Sandra Marton - Reunited With The Billionaire

This exciting reissue from USA TODAY bestselling author Sandra Marton guarantees pleasure and passion!

An unquenchable desire…

When Wendy Monroe left Cooper’s Corner she’d been a championship skier in the making…and madly in love with Seth Castleman. Until an accident on the slopes shattered her dreams—and her heart.

Now Wendy has returned for life-changing surgery and comes face to face with Seth again. He’s more devastatingly handsome than ever, and it soon becomes clear that the chemistry between them still burns hot. Will Wendy overcome the past and be reunited with her billionaire?

A Cooper’s Corner novel.

Originally published in 2002 as Dancing in the Dark.

Reunited with the Billionaire

Sandra Marton

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CONTENTS

Cover

Back Cover Text This exciting reissue from USA TODAY bestselling author Sandra Marton guarantees pleasure and passion! An unquenchable desire… When Wendy Monroe left Cooper’s Corner she’d been a championship skier in the making…and madly in love with Seth Castleman. Until an accident on the slopes shattered her dreams—and her heart. Now Wendy has returned for life-changing surgery and comes face to face with Seth again. He’s more devastatingly handsome than ever, and it soon becomes clear that the chemistry between them still burns hot. Will Wendy overcome the past and be reunited with her billionaire? A Cooper’s Corner novel. Originally published in 2002 as Dancing in the Dark.

Title Page Reunited with the Billionaire Sandra Marton www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

I T WAS COLD THAT DAY, colder than usual, even for Norway. The sky was bright blue, the sun golden, the wind a gentle sigh.

Wendy stood poised in the chute at the top of the ski run. Excitement flowed through her blood like a river of quicksilver. She had never felt more alive.

“Empty your mind of everything but the mountain,” her coach said, and then the horn sounded. She dug her poles into the snow and began her run down the slope. Through the first gate. Through the second, and the third, and…

Too fast. Too wide on the turn. Recover, damn it! She’d made worse mistakes. Surely this wasn’t enough to make her lose control….

She flew through the air, bindings never releasing. Somebody screamed as she hit the netting and bounced over it.

This wasn’t supposed to happen, she thought with great clarity—and then she saw the trees…and the rocks.

After that, there was only blackness.

* * *

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, welcome to John F. Kennedy International Airport. Please keep your seats until the captain brings the plane to a complete stop.”

Wendy jerked awake. A dream. That’s all it was, just a dream. She hadn’t had it in a long time. Now she was returning to Cooper’s Corner for the first time in the nine years since the accident, and she’d had the dream again.

Welcome home, Wendy.

Whoever it was who’d said you couldn’t go home again had been right.

You can still change your mind, a little voice whispered. All she had to do was turn around and head back to Paris, where she’d been living for the past seven years. Yes, she’d given up her tiny flat in the Marais because she didn’t know how long she’d be gone, but she’d made friends. Gabrielle or Celeste would be happy to let her sleep on the sofa until…

Until what?

Wendy wasn’t about to regain the life she’d loved by teaching English to a bunch of French kids all day. One of the supporters of the American team had gotten her the job when she moved to Paris to continue therapy on her leg, but sitting in a stuffy classroom quickly lost its appeal even if your window looked out over a sea of chimney pots. She’d been born to schuss down a snow-covered mountain with the wind in her face, and if she was going to do that again—ski and race and feel as if she were truly alive—she had to go home. For a little while, anyway.

The 747 lurched to a stop. People unbuckled their seat belts, stood up, sought their carry-on luggage. Wendy clutched the handle of her duffel bag and followed the other passengers from the plane, through the terminal and to the line snaking toward Customs.

Even if she’d wanted to change her plans, it was too late. What excuse could she give? Her parents were expecting her, and her mother was ecstatic that she was coming home. Only her father knew the real reason for her visit, and she’d asked him not to say anything to her mother. Wendy would have to tell her the truth, but she’d do it face-to-face. Gina would take it better that way.

That’s what Wendy hoped, anyway.

And then there was Alison, driving the fifty or so miles from Cooper’s Corner to Albany Airport to meet the connecting flight from Kennedy. Wendy’s folks had offered to pick her up but she’d refused.

“You guys don’t have to take the day off,” she’d said when they’d phoned the last time. “I know how crazy things get at school. Besides, I haven’t seen Allie in years. This way, we’ll have time for girl talk.”

It was another half-truth. Gina and Howard had visited her every six months, but she hadn’t seen Alison in nine years. So, yes, it would be nice to spend some time with her—and if it also gave Wendy a little longer to adjust, out from under her mother’s watchful eye, so much the better.

Wendy reached the Customs counter and handed over her passport and declarations form.

“Nothing of value to declare?” the Customs officer said.

“Nothing,” Wendy replied briskly.

Nothing the government would want to hear about, anyway. Only Oprah or Ricki would lift an interested eyebrow if she said, “Well, actually, there’s a swarm of butterflies in my stomach right now because I’m coming home so I can convince a doctor to perform an operation my own physicians call insane.”

That kind of thinking wasn’t good. This was her life. She had to do what she thought best, and why have second thoughts now? The thing to do was concentrate on how great it would be to see Allie. They hadn’t done anything except talk on the phone since the night before the ski team left for France…

The same night Seth made love to her for the very last time.

The thought was so sudden, so unexpected that it almost stole her breath away. She must have made a sound because the Customs guy, who was holding out her passport, raised his bushy eyebrows.

“Miss? You okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine.” Wendy smiled brightly, took back her passport and walked to the exit doors that led into the terminal.

There was a sign just ahead. She paused to check the directions for the connecting flight to Albany. People brushed past her, everyone in a hurry to get somewhere. She was in a hurry, too. The sooner she got to Cooper’s Corner, the sooner she could get started on the future.

Once she’d reached the right terminal, she limped to the waiting area at the gate. Her leg ached something fierce. The doctors had warned her that it would, after all the hours in the air. Inactivity wasn’t good for bones that were held together with screws and steel plates. Muscles didn’t like stretching themselves for the benefit of all that hardware, either.