Page 16 of Marriage Bargain With Her Brazilian Boss (Billion-Dollar Fairy Tales)

Had she wanted him even as she’d dated other men?

And what do you feel about her?an insidious voice whispered much as he tried to bury it.

He let out a filthy curse that would have scandalized his mother. As rowdy as he and his brothers had been, Mama had been proud of the fact that she’d taught them manners. She’d also taught him what honor meant though only a frayed thread remained. Which said he couldn’t use Nush like that.

And if that meant she hated him, so be it. If that meant they had to delete ten years of a fond, fulfilling relationship and start over as strangers, then so be it. With a ruthless will that had seen him through dark times, Caio pushed the thought of her out of his head.

It was early morning the day Rao’s will was to be read while Caio was breakfasting on the veranda that looked out onto the beautiful blue of the ocean when he saw Nush.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to stop his gaze from sweeping all over her. It was a losing fight. Cristo, he’d never be ready for the sudden punch of desire that knocked him for sixes when he laid eyes on her now.

He let out a filthy curse under his breath, only realizing now how much damage the damned kiss had done. There was no going back from it. No unseeing Nush as the woman who’d so boldly declared she wanted him, who’d let him see the yearning in her eyes, who’d responded like dry tinder to fire to his every caress.

Who’d once again claimed him—whether he’d wanted to be or not—like no one else ever had.

She’d just returned from a morning run and was stretching on the lawn, chest heaving, long thigh muscles shaking. Unaware of what a delectable reward she provided him after three days of searching for her face wherever he went like some rejected loser.

He shouldn’t want to look and even if he did, the decent thing would’ve been to look away. To not let one moment’s bad decision compound into setting into motion things he couldn’t take back as easily. Caio didn’t even try.

She was wearing a burnt-orange sports bra and loose black shorts—an outfit he’d seen her in countless times. But this morning, he noted the swell of her small breasts pushing up and out of the bra as her chest heaved, the tight nip of her waist and the voluptuous flare of her hips, the sweet curve of her ass and those legs...she had the longest legs with toned muscles where her shorts rested. The silky sheen of miles of brown skin, begging to be touched and kissed and marred at his fingers...he swallowed.

Her thick, wavy hair pulled away from her face in a braid made that innocent sensuality she possessed shine brighter, hotter. Curly tendrils escaping it kissed the nape of her neck and she angrily pushed them into the braid in stabbing motions that made him smile.

All Caio wanted was to walk toward her and enfold her in his arms from behind. Wrap that thick braid in his hand and twist it up and away until he could see into those beautiful brown eyes. Kiss the sweaty curve of that elegant neck and taste the salt on her skin until she melted into him again. Run his hands down her body, stroke every dip and flare and inch of bare skin, learn where she was most sensitive.

He was semi-hard already, just from watching her. Just from knowing that she wouldn’t stop him if he gave in to the madness and did any of those things.

And as arousing as that was, it was also the thought that cut through the haze.

There was nothing in the world that Nush did without giving it her all, without feeling it to the core of that steely sweetness. There was nothing he could give her but pain and hurt and...misery in the end. No promise he wouldn’t break. No guarantee that he wouldn’t ruin that sweet innocence of hers.

He was cynical to his core, and was even now making plans to ruin his stepfather. She’d be horrified when she learned he’d been planning such destruction for years, when she saw him for who he was truly then.

As if aware of his eyes on her, she turned mid-stretch. Across the few feet that separated them, their gazes met and held. Electricity arced between them, fueled by desire and something more, something he preferred to leave unsaid. Forever, if possible.

He cut his gaze away but it didn’t go that far. Nothing, it seemed, when it came to Anushka, was in his control anymore.

Her face was pink and sweaty from the run. Without the glasses, her eyes looked enormous in her face. Suddenly he wondered why she didn’t wear contacts or get it corrected by laser surgery. Suddenly there were too many things he didn’t know about her.

Her throat moved on a hard swallow, calling his attention to the thin golden chain she wore with a pendant that saidPrincesain gold. It was the only jewelry he’d ever seen her wear on a constant basis. A paltry gift he’d bought her for her sixteenth birthday that she’d always cherished. The weight of that was as terrifying as it was exciting.

Only your gift that she cherishes so much, a sneaky voice said in his head.

He wondered at how protective, even possessive he felt about her when he was determined to nip this thing between them.

“Good run?” he asked, determined to bring things back to some kind of even keel. Maybe it was a fool’s wish but a part of him wanted that easy camaraderie they’d shared for almost a decade. He craved to be the Caio he’d been with her—fun, easygoing, free of the bitterness that had long tainted him.

Without answering, she lifted the navy-blue bottle of water and took a long chug.

Caio followed the trail of a water drop down her chin, down her long, elegant neck down to her cleavage where it disappeared. He should feel shame for watching her like that, and yet he didn’t. There was no turning off the desire her kiss had unleashed.

When she finally joined him at the table, something in him calmed. Pulling a plate toward her, she applied a liberal amount of butter to her toast and then scooped three spoons of strawberry jam on top. Her sweet tooth and her utter enjoyment of food had always been something to watch. But now, there was a sensual element to it that made every muscle in him tight.

He closed his laptop with a loud thunk, giving up even the pretense of working.

Licking a clump of jam from her lower lip, she said, “If I’m disturbing you, I can leave.”

If it had been anyone but her, Caio would’ve known that the gesture and the question were designed to go together. That she didn’t realize how tempting and taunting she sounded only made him want her more. As if her innocent sensuality had been shaped to perfectly counteract his cynical disillusion of life. Even sex had at some point become boring, nothing but an exercise to relieve stress.

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