Page 26 of Marriage Bargain With Her Brazilian Boss (Billion-Dollar Fairy Tales)

“You have such a razor-sharp brain when it comes to business and politics, but you are just as dense as any other man when it comes to women. I thought you knew Nush better.”

She was upset that Laura was there.Caio repeated the words to himself. Because she thought Laura and he were together? Because she’d assumed he couldn’t do without Laura even for an evening? Because they’d been buried in his study for hours straight after the short ceremony?

“I needed Laura there. There was something I needed to push through the board before I...” He stopped, knowing that he was explaining himself to the wrong woman. “So she disappears instead of asking me about it? And she says the way I see her is outdated.”

“Did you expect her to make a scene?” An uncharacteristic hardness twisted Mira’s mouth. “Nush never pushes, never demands anything of others, is too happy to push herself into a corner in someone’s life, content to be there. She spends hours waiting outside of her mom’s room at that home every weekend hoping she’ll see her, wanting her to know she’s there. She keeps bringing Dad home after one of his episodes, begs him to shower, eat, looks after him as if he were a child for days after. She dropped the idea of going to college in New York in some stupid bargain with Thaata so that he wouldn’t throw Yana out of the house after she pulled another of her stunts.”

“Of course Rao had manipulated her.”

Mira let out a laugh. “She’ll fight you if you even say that. That’s how unconditional her loyalty is. Thaata loved us but yes, you and I know he was also a master manipulator.”

And yet, Nush had told him that she was attracted to him. She’d taken the risk of kissing him. She’d come back after he’d told her she wasn’t grown up enough for him, to save the company.

He hadn’t appreciated how far out of her comfort zone she’d gone. How much courage it must have taken to walk back into his office. For all of five seconds, he felt utterly inadequate to be the recipient of such...pure emotion, whatever it was.

A part of him flinched, wanted to run far from it.

He pushed a hand through his hair as another piece fell into place. “So Rao knew that she...” He couldn’t put it into words. Suddenly, everything Nush had given him felt like a gift he didn’t deserve.

“I think so. He probably also guessed that she’d come to your rescue.” Mira rolled her eyes. “If he hadn’t taken such a bad turn, I think he’d have had it stipulated in writing. Sort of purchased you for his precious princess.”

He raised a brow, knowing that Mira was trying to get her own shots in. “And here I thought you were the sweetest Reddy sister, Mira.”

She shrugged. “You know better now.”

“I didn’t know what conditions you agreed on for this...fake marriage, but I hope you remember Nush gives of herself unconditionally. Doesn’t mean we all deserve it.”

“Is that a warning, Mira?”

“I’m trying to appeal to the better part of you. Or maybe I know that I’m talking to a kindred soul. You and I don’t know the weight of such...open trust and affection. Nor do we know how not to shatter it, Caio.” Shadows swirled in her eyes. “If you care about her, at all, get this thing annulled as soon as possible.”

“That’s,” he said with a smile trying to take the bite out of his words, every instinct and rational thought revolting against the idea of annulment, “between Nush and me. No one else.”

Mira blinked. “She’s the best of us all, Caio. Don’t hurt her.”

“Where did she go, Mira?”

“Yana mentioned something about a new nightclub.”

And Caio knew who the nightclub belonged to. He bit back a curse as fierce jealousy stormed through him. Even as he knew Nush wouldn’t do anything to break their...what was it between them? An arrangement? A deal? A bargain? And what did she get out of it? All the benefits in this marriage were his. And he didn’t like the imbalance of that. Didn’t like being in her debt one bit.

“How long are you planning for this fake marriage to last?” Mira asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“When are you going back to that husband of yours?” he taunted. “I hear he’s been like a wounded beast ever since you left him. And Aristos’s veneer of civility was thin enough to begin with.”

“Touché,” Mira said, as something like panic touched her eyes. “I... I’m going back tomorrow. To Athens. Wish me luck, won’t you?”

On a sudden impulse, Caio gathered Mira to himself and hugged her petite frame. She was stiff in his arms for a few seconds before she sank into his embrace. “You’ll be glad to know your estranged husband and you are on the same wavelength.”

“What?” she asked, eyes wide and bright at the mere mention of Aristos. The stubborn Greek, who was as close a friend as Caio had had in the last decade, had won a point in his eyes when he’d arrived as soon as he’d heard of Rao’s death and supported Mira through the grief. Granted, he’d only stayed for two days, but after nine months of his wife leaving him with no reason or note, as Aristos had shared after a couple of drinks, Caio had thought it showed what the man was made of.

“Apparently, he vehemently warned Nush against this marriage too.”

She laughed then, and Caio thought there was both joy and grief in the sound. He squeezed her slender shoulders, realizing only in that moment how she and Yana had carved themselves a place in his cold, cold heart. They’d fought with him, challenged him, forced him to earn a place in their family and then steadied him with the kind of trust and affection that he’d been parched for, ever since Papa had passed away and his loss had changed Mama into a shadow of herself. But they’d never resented him for earning such a prominent place by Rao’s side in OneTech and that was generosity Rao and his wife had taught all three of their granddaughters.

Caio sent another heartfelt thanks to the man who’d saved him all those years ago.

Maybe Rao had succeeded at his mission to chip away at his bitterness to a small extent, he thought. Or stopped the poison from spreading further and turning Caio into a toxic man in the very shape and shadow of the man he loathed.

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