Page 30 of The Bride's Billionaire

“This might be my favorite look for you.”

“Ah, so you like a man in a tux. Noted.” He held out his arm. “Shall we?”

She walked beside him. “I admit I don’t know what to expect.”

He shook his head. “Nor I. This whole process has been nothing like any other bids I’ve participated in.” He glanced at her and smirked. “Competition included.”

“Nor I.”

The limo waited for them, and once again, they were off to an event for Antar. She fidgeted, something nagging at her. “Do you think we should have fessed up in the beginning and admitted we know each other?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know why we would have. It has zero relevance.”

At the time, she had agreed with that sentiment, and even now, she felt the same, but something about it niggled at her.

The limo took them to the churrascaria where Tyler and Kayla had eaten their first meal together. They walked in and up the stairs as they had before. Antar had rented out the whole balcony level, and when they entered, everyone stood up and clapped.

“What?” Kayla smiled, unsure what she was supposed to do or how she should react. “What is this?”

“I don’t now, but I’m smiling and waving like a celebrity.”

She laughed.

Mr. de Santos approached and handed them drinks. “Welcome. We are so glad you could be here. We wanted to introduce you both to our team.” He led them around the room, to small groups here and there, introducing Kayla and Tyler to every face. The women air-kissed her face, and the men kissed her hand. She knew she would never remember every face or every name. But she felt overwhelmingly loved and appreciated by the end of it. Brazilians had a gift of showing love for others.

Then Mr. de Santos motioned that they and everyone else sit.

Rogerio stood at the front of the room. “Before we start thecarne(meat) consumption, we have some announcements to make.”

Kayla shifted in her seat and almost reached for Tyler’s hand. How they had managed to be a support for each other through all this, while still being competitors, was a mystery to her, but she was grateful for him, and appreciated that he was at her side through everything.

Mr. de Santos joined Rogerio up in front. Then they smiled at both Tyler and Kayla.

“Oh boy.” Tyler muttered.

“You know it,” she answered. And through their teeth, they smiled some more.

“And now, we will make an announcement to you all at once. Our two bid contenders don’t even know our plans.” Rogerio rubbed his hands together, and Kayla was put in mind of an evil magician. She wondered at the wisdom of announcing it like a winner of some kind of contest, with both of them present. This whole situation was more eclectic by the minute.

“We got to know them both. Even saw Kayla up on the cable car pretending she wasn’t afraid of heights.”

Everyone chuckled, and her mouth fell open in shock. She turned accusing eyes on Tyler.

“I said nothing.”

“Hmm.”

Rogerio continued. “We heard their bids and were impressed with both.”

Mr. de Santos took over. “When we thought of going with one, we were depressed about losing the other.” He nodded to them. “And so at this time, we would like to open up a new relationship as a bottler for Antar…with both Finley BottlersandSperring Bottlers.”

Kayla couldn’t concentrate. “What did he just say?”

But Tyler was already on his feet, clapping, so she joined him. Then she nodded her head and blew kisses. “They want us both to be their bottlers?”

“Sounds like it.” His tone was flat, and she could tell he’d shut her out, back in business mode again.

She tried to run the math. Would that cut into expected profits from this country? Was this good news or bad news? It had to be better than if they had turned her down flat.

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