Page 38 of Marriage Bargain With Her Brazilian Boss (Billion-Dollar Fairy Tales)

He raised his palms in surrender.

Her mouth, in turn, pursed tight in a way that was just unnatural for her. Fighting the urge to tease it open with his fingers and then something else—God, she was nowhere near ready for that particular fantasy of his—he cleared his throat. “Did Maria leave anything in the refrigerator?”

“No offense but I don’t know how you can eat her cooking,” she said, pulling up to her knees, giving him a better view of the bikini top hugging her breasts.

His hands itched to cup their delicious weight before bringing them to his lips. Her nipples tightened to stiff points, making his mouth water for a taste.

“Her food is bland and boring. Is vegetarian lasagna okay? Or does not eating red meat for an evening offend your delicate masculine sensibilities?” she asked with a sniff that made him laugh until tears burned his eyes.

She stared at him, rapt. “You’re gorgeous when you...laugh. When you just let yourself be...real.”

“As opposed to what, Anushka?”

“As opposed to employing strategies and distractions with me, as opposed to treating this thing between us like some kind of deal you’re finessing,” she finished in a soft voice that only underlined her anger.

“Let me help you out of there and we—”

She scooted away in the hot tub when he reached out to help her. The edge of his own temper flared, like a little boy denied his favorite toy. He wasn’t unaware of how...invested he was getting in this, in her, but it only a warning at the edge of his consciousness. Nothing but a vague, discordant threat drowned out by his current obsession with pleasing her, making her smile, making her explode with his fingers and mouth.

Whatever she saw in his gaze, she offered a mollifying “I can manage it. Go ahead and shower.”

“Is there a problem if I want to help my injured wife out of a slippery hot tub?” he asked, undoing and pushing the cuffs of his shirt back.

Her gaze dipped to his bare chest and lingered. Before sweeping down onto his abdomen and then she licked her lower lip. Heat poured through him like thick honey at the stark desire etched onto her features. “Nush?” he said, incapable of teasing her. It felt like his control was hanging on by its last, frayed thread.

She looked up and blushed fiercely. “We’ve barely talked in the last week and I’d prefer it if we—”

“Is that why you’re angry? Because I was gone so much?”

“Of course not,” she said, genuinely confused that he’d think so. “You told me you’d be busy and contrary to your preconceptions, I handle solitude better than most. But for tonight, I have some ground rules.”

“And what are those?”

“For starters, you’re not allowed to touch me.”

His curse could have been heard at the beach. His own anger flared to match hers. “That’s not a rule. More like personal pettiness that’s not worthy of you.” Suddenly, he’d turned into the man-child that still remembered the shattering pain of his mama abandoning him, casting him out into the world. Choosing his stepfather and his half brothers above him. “And you know what, Princesa? Fine. I don’t care. I won’t touch you if that’s what you want.” Somehow, he arrested the hurtful words that wanted to clamor out of him.

But the damned minx didn’t back down one bit. “Okay then. If it’s that much of a deal breaker for you to let me have some say in this, there’s no point in me pretending that I belong here. You already got what you wanted, yeah? So let me go, Caio. Let’s call this farce what it is. I want to go home first thing tomorrow morning.”

“No,” he said, his mouth twisting in a wounded snarl. “Your home is with me.”

Her gaze held his—not just defiant but beseeching too. “Choose, Caio, then. Choose me. Right now. Choose me because you want a future with me. Choose me for myself, not for the stock in the company or to save your face or to acquire something else you’ve been coveting for years. Choose me because you can’t let me go.”

“Jesus, Anushka,” he said, staring at her. Cristo, the woman had a multitude of weapons against him and yet, for once he didn’t mind losing. Even as she dictated terms to him, he found himself wanting to kiss that mouth, to taste that fierceness. “When did you turn so bloodthirsty?”

“You’re not the only one who can be determined and aware of their power in this relationship.”

“For once, I’ve no idea what you’re thinking.” He rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Why am I not allowed to touch you?”

Her smile was full of a wicked triumph he wanted to taste despite his own fury coursing through him. “I want to talk tonight and if you touch me, we’ll go off-script.”

His mouth twitched, his anger leaving as fast as it came. “How’s that?”

“Hmm? You’ll touch me to lift me out and then I’ll want to kiss you and you’ll oblige and I’ll sweetly beg for an orgasm and you’ll make me work for it, prolonging every caress and kiss and by the time I climax, I’ll be so exhausted that I’ll want to crawl into bed and you’ll pat me and tuck me in as if I’ve been a good little girl and out the window go all my intentions...” She let out a long breath, a line appearing between her brows.

“That you can’t keep your hands and mouth off me is the biggest turn-on I’ve ever known. Don’t take that away from me, Princesa.”

“It is when you use my desire for you like a weapon against me,” she said, her voice thick and full of unshed tears. “That has to stop. Now.”

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