Page 5 of Marriage Bargain With Her Brazilian Boss (Billion-Dollar Fairy Tales)

Nush glared at her sister. “Not everyone is as confident when it comes to sex and romance and affairs as you are.”

“I’d never make fun of you.” Yana laced her fingers around Nush’s stiff ones and squeezed. “I mean, everyone thinks I’m just beauty and no brains and I drove Thaata and Nanamma wild with my antics, and it’s kinda true but I’m not completely without substance, Nush.”

“Mira and I’ve never thought that of you,” Nush said, feeling angry on her sister’s behalf. Angry at a world that always found fault with women.

Yana was beautiful. Like world-class beautiful, with cheekbones one could sharpen their knives on, a wide, plump mouth that regularly spawned poems and dirty lyrics in homage from fans, a naturally voluptuous figure that had designers and photographers clamoring to showcase their designs. And yet Yana was routinely called a shallow diva by the press, her worth frequently reduced to her looks by her mother. Not that Yana didn’t give them all enough fodder by forever getting into one mess or the other.

Beneath it all, Yana hid a heart of gold. It just needed a lot of excavation first. Both her sisters had welcomed her into their lives with open arms, and unconditional love. Nush couldn’t imagine getting through the last few years of dealing with her mother’s worsening mental health issues without her sisters and Caio.

And just like that, every road in her life wound back to him.

Folding and refolding a note in her hands, Yana gave a tremulous smile. “Thanks, Nushie.”

What message had Thaata left for Yana? And Mira, for that matter? Were they feeling as raw and stuck in their lives as she did in her own?

“I wasn’t teasing about making your move fast,” Yana said softly.

Nush tried for denial but gave up as something in Yana’s tone tugged at her. “Why do you say that?”

“You know how Thaata thought you and Peter Huntington Jr. would be a good match and it went to hell because he called you a giraffe with an oversized brain?”

Nush sighed. “I don’t need a reminder.”

Yana giggled. “It’s funny because I think he’s an overgrown dinosaur with a pea-sized brain. It’s common knowledge Thaata and Peter Sr. have been increasingly at odds since Thaata brought in Caio.”

“That was fourteen years ago and without Caio, the company would’ve never grown as it has.”

“I agree. And then Caio roped you in and OneTech grew beyond everyone’s expectations. That’s one reason Peter Sr. was pushing his son at you. You’re the golden goose for OneTech and he wanted to break up you and Caio.”

“I’d never work for someone who thinks Caio’s the enemy.”

“But Peter Sr. doesn’t know that and he’s a master strategist. Since you and his son went nowhere, talk now is that Laura Huntington and Caio could be the new partnership that could balance out the power struggle.”

Nush’s heart gave a painful thud. Laura Huntington was everything Nush wasn’t. Sophisticated, beautiful, curvy, witty and not at all socially awkward—a perfect counterpart to smooth out Caio’s brittle edges. She cleared her throat, trying to budge her heart, which seemed to have lodged itself in her throat. “I thought the Huntingtons hated Caio.”

“Not if they get him for a son-in-law. I hate to give her credit but Laura’s the total package.”

Despite the ever-tightening knot in her belly, Nush laughed. “Why do you hate to give her credit?”

“Huh? How are you so smart in some things and so naive in others, Nushie-kins?” Yana laced her arm through Nush’s. “Because she’s direct competition for my little sister. On that principle alone, I have to hate her. Also the fact that Laura’s an intellectual snob who’s always looked down on me might have something to do with it.”

On a sudden impulse, Nush wrapped her arms around Yana’s waist and planted a hard kiss on her cheek. Her sister stayed stiff at first but slowly relented. Nush bit back tears that felt like they were never far these days.

“We have each other. Always,” Yana said, tone full of emotion that she rarely let even her sisters see.

Her grandparents were gone, Mama didn’t want to talk to her most weeks, and now Caio might be making new alliances that would only make her an outsider in his life...it felt like her world would never stop rocking. But she’d always have Mira and Yana, Nush reminded herself, breathing the floral scent of Yana’s perfume deep into her lungs. For all that her father had never actually parented her for a single day in her life, he’d given her two wonderful sisters. Nush could forgive him a lot for that.

Yana dabbed at her cheek with a grimace. “I don’t see a good reason for Caio to say no to this partnership, Nushie. Laura’s brains and beauty and a steadying influence over her father. And we all know Caio will do anything to keep control of OneTech.”

Nush couldn’t contest the point.

Caio’s loyalty to her grandparents was only rivaled by his ambition. More acquisitions, more mergers, more innovation...he’d been on a warpath the last year. While she mostly tuned out those meetings, Nush remembered even her grandfather asking Caio what would be enough and Caio laughing that not until he had something in his hand.

Over the years, Nush had tried to understand where his ambition stemmed from, why no amount of success or wealth was enough for him, but she’d got nowhere. Which had made her realize now how ruthless his personal boundaries were. Yes, she had a familiarity with Caio, more than others had, but she couldn’t delude herself that she knew all of him either.

And maybe that’s where your fascination comes from, a voice whispered inside her head. For all that he knew every inch of her life, Caio was still a mystery to her. And as a woman who built complex systems that ran some of the biggest infrastructures in the world, it was no wonder she was obsessed with peeling back the layers of what made him want a woman.

As if to prove Yana’s point, Laura Huntington ended up being the woman who did halt Caio’s purposeful stride toward Nush. Her fingers clutching his, Laura said something to him. Bending down to accommodate Laura’s petite frame, long fingers on her shoulder, Caio listened, rapt. The ease with which their bodies leaned toward each other—there was a certain familiarity between them.

---