Page 21 of Marriage Bargain With Her Brazilian Boss (Billion-Dollar Fairy Tales)

It was Caio’s turn to look shocked. But he didn’t let her linger on it by moving toward her, his gaze as impenetrable as ever. “You’re still loyal to me after everything that happened, Princesa?”

“Of course I am,” Nush said, trying to make light of the matter. “That’s what being an adult is actually about, isn’t it? Putting aside personal differences and doing the right thing for everyone? I’ve never doubted that OneTech belongs in your hands. And thankfully, I’ve figured out a way to make that happen.”

His gaze searched hers, a vertical line appearing between his thick brows. Her fingers tingled at her side, itching to press at that ridge he got when he was thinking, wanting to smooth it away. “How?”

“We’ll marry. I can sign over my stock to you, you’ll be the majority stakeholder, even more than before, and I can go back to my lab.”

“No. Absolutely not,” Caio said in a soft voice even as the idea took wings in his head and began fluttering at a speed that he couldn’t contain.

Nush would be his wife. He wouldn’t have to worry about her or how to protect her from fortune hunters and their clutches now that she was even wealthier.

Rao’s vision for OneTech would be preserved.

Peter Huntington Sr.’s grubby, greedy hands could be kept off the company.

Nush was ready finally, clearly, to step in and take a bigger role at the helm of OneTech, as Rao had always wanted.

Whatever Rao had thought to thwart Caio from would again become a distinct possibility as the CEO of OneTech.

Her idea was perfect in every which way, took care of every eventuality. In theory, it was the best solution.

He would pay millions more than the stock was actually worth—he wouldn’t undercut her in any way. All he’d need to do was sign a piece of paper that legally bound her to him.

The reality was a leap of a universe away. She’d be his wife. In every way that could mean. The woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking of kissing would be his wife. Would have his deepest commitment. Because for all that Rao had called him cynical, Caio had always believed that marriage was a beautiful bond between people who gave it trust and love. Papa and Mama had shared a marriage like that.

Rao and his wife had shared a commitment like that.

And while he’d never seen it in his future after the mistakes he’d made by falling for his stepbrother’s intended, a commitment to Nush would be different.

And his imagination and his libido ran little circles in his head, already breaking any rules he might want to put in place.

“No.”

With a long exhale, as if he was nothing but an irritable child throwing a tantrum, Nush simply ignored his outburst, picked up the watering can, filled it at the attached en suite and began watering the plants on the ledge.

Plants she’d added to his office almost two years ago after calling it “a sterile, ugly box made of glass and chrome and leather” that might permanently damage his mental balance. As he’d discovered in the last few days, while stewing in jealousy and protectiveness and something else that he didn’t want to think of, there was no erasing Nush from his life.

Wherever he turned, every nook and corner of his personal life he examined over the last decade, she was present. With her laughter, with her genius, with her awkwardness, with her grief, she’d etched herself into the fabric of his life.

And if she were to become his wife too...he’d end up hurting her. Shattering her.

But Caio also knew that he had no good reason to say no to her proposal. Not unless he was also ready to admit that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking of their kiss.

It had taken him every ounce of willpower he had to not check on her in the last week. To not go rushing in like some possessive, protective male on steroids and drag her far away from Peter’s influence. To not demand that she should know her worth better.

Instead, he’d acknowledged—how mature and self-aware of him—that it was time to let go. Both for his sake and hers. Time for her to make her own decisions—even bad ones—even though she’d clung to him when he’d kissed her, even though she’d declared that she’d wanted him for months. He’d even told himself that he’d been right to think it nothing but an infatuation borne out of grief and loss.

The last thing he’d expected was that she’d be back, full of that verve, those big eyes staring him down, armed with an idea that could change things for the better. Or worse.

Sunlight streaming through the glass walls outlined her body, as if just for his pleasure. For the first time since she’d walked in, Caio allowed himself to take her in completely, take in the differences in her that he hadn’t been able to stop cataloguing. It was a losing battle anyway.

The white dress shirt stretched tight across her chest and shoulders, and the dark skinny jeans she’d tucked into only reminded him of those legs bare, long muscles glinting. Her hair had been subdued into two braids and the glasses were back on. She looked chic and sexy and stylish in a way that didn’t conform to any standards set by others.

It was all Anushka Reddy—genius coder, socially awkward with a dirty mouth and a sensuous appeal that hit one like a punch to the solar plexus.

And the thin tie, multicolored and with lines of code all over, dangling innocently between her breasts... Cristo, one look at her and all he’d wanted to do was undo that tie, wrap his fingers around it to pull her closer, to slip his fingers under that shirt and...

“Caio, you’re staring.” She cleared her throat, ridding herself of that huskiness he wanted to hear again and again. “In a way that tells me you’re imagining—”

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