Page 31 of Marriage Bargain With Her Brazilian Boss (Billion-Dollar Fairy Tales)

Was it because of their particular destination? Or because he was already finding her presence intrusive?

They’d share spaces like this on a daily basis—the bedroom, the kitchen, the bathroom, even a tub maybe. For days and months and years...ifit worked out. They’d create their own traditions, make holiday memories, maybe even have kids. He’d be hers forever—unapologetically hers, irrevocably hers.

He wouldn’t leave her for anything, wouldn’t make her wonder if he’d break his word or send her off. As a mentor, friend and colleague, he’d been steadfast. As a husband, he’d be...

Jesus, Nushie, why don’t you just prostrate yourself at his feet then?The caustic words sounding very much like Yana put a break on her spiral. It was wishful thinking, a fantasy she’d weaved.

He was secretive and arrogant and controlling, she reminded herself. And he thought her some kind of unicorn he had to protect.

God, she was going to lose it with such constant, conflicting thoughts.

“Because I can’t be trusted to look after myself?” Her words came out full of distrust and fear.

“Because you’re hurt and I don’t want you fending for yourself alone in that big, empty house.” He sighed, added as an afterthought, “And because I want you with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“To an island I own off the Brazilian coast.”

“Is that where your family lives?”

“They used to. Before...” his jaw clenched and released, “a long time ago.”

Nush frowned. “Wait, this acquisition...does it have something to do with your family?” Because that would explain the lengths he’d gone to, wouldn’t it?

Marrying her.

His barely hidden agitation as she’d signed the stock over.

The hours and hours of strategy planning with his executive team.

His furious determination to acquire the company despite Peter Sr.’s vicious protest that it was nothing but a liability unsuitable for OneTech.

“It’s a long story to get into now, Princesa.”

“We have a long flight ahead of us,” she said, before leaning her head back and closing her eyes. “I’d like nothing but—”

“Here, let me.”

Nush sighed as long fingers cleverly massaged her temples and relieved the tension that had been building all day. She tucked away the fact that he hadn’t answered her question, for now.

With a groan she couldn’t suppress, she leaned her head forward until it hit his abdomen, begging for his fingers to go deeper and farther. He granted her unspoken request, his fingers kneading gently at her scalp and then back around. With her arm between them, Nush steadied herself with a hand on his stomach.

Tight, hard muscles clenched under her touch. She spread her hand around innocently enough, needing to touch more of him. A ripple of movement was her reward. Then she played with his belt buckle, the cold metal a nice break from the warmth suffusing her. A different kind of tension thrummed into life as she imagined sending her fingers on a southward quest. Her mouth dried at the thought of tracing his shape and length, of raking her fingernails over rock-hard thighs...

“I’ve asked the staff to bring you something to eat,” he said, stepping back. Cutting the contact without pushing her away. “A shower, food and sleep.”

She nodded without looking at him and fisted her hand that felt suddenly bereft. Damn, why had she hesitated?

“So docile, Princesa? You must be in a lot more pain that you’re letting on.”

She looked up to find him regarding her with a frown. “It’s been a long day and I’m just gathering my thoughts. But I can’t pin one down.”

“Anything you want to share?”

Nush stared at him, wondering at how easily he turned it back to her. How he deflected her delving into his mind, his heart. Neither had he missed that her suddenly subdued temper meant something deeper was needling her. “It’s not an easy jump to think of you as my...husband,” she said, testing the shape and weight of the word on her tongue. “I’ve never even thought of marriage in my future.” She didn’t say it might have been because her present had been mostly obsessed with him.

“Which is why I’m not going to rush you into anything.”

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