Chapter Seven
IT TOOK HIM two and a half hours to find Nush.
She hadn’t been at Peter Jr.’s nightclub. Or rather it had been a short stop in apparently a long night of chasing entertainment like some college kid off on a night’s rampage.
She’s no older than a college kid, a voice whispered and he cursed.
Neither had she been exaggerating when she’d argued that she’d buried herself in that lab for more than a decade.
Just as he’d buried himself in acquisitions and mergers that would bring him closer to his goal.
Their innate nature as loners had become the foundation of their relationship.
He’d had to track down Yana and threaten her—which wasn’t an easy feat since nothing and no one could really control the volatile middle Reddy sister—and get Nush’s location out of her. Even that was only after she’d received a text from Nush that she’d needed help.
So here he was, outside of a luxury hotel, still chasing her. Solar lights placed along the huge courtyard punctured the bitter darkness of predawn. He’d taken no more than two steps when he saw her and stilled.
Patchy moonlight glinted along her neck and her chest as she walked through the double doors, her gait slow.
She came to a halt below the entrance archway.
Her hair was still in that complicated knot, but she’d changed out of the wedding dress into a black leather skirt that skimmed her knees and a ribbed white skintight top that hugged every inch of her small breasts.
A white dress shirt—her signature item—flapped over her shoulders.
He followed the line of her long, long legs to find her feet encased in glittery pink high-top sneakers that brought an unexpected smile to his lips.
His chest loosened, relief spreading through him. This was the Nush he knew, the girl who’d always made him laugh, the girl who’d been a bright spot in his dark, revenge-obsessed thoughts.
And yet, she wasn’t just that girl anymore either.
This was a woman who’d boldly told him how much she wanted him, who’d marched into his office with a solution. This was a Nush he wanted to know more of, a woman he could see himself... With a sigh, he cut off the direction his thoughts were going in too often.
Drawing closer, Caio noted that she held her bent arm close to her chest. Then the sling wound around her neck. “What happened, Princesa?”
She stiffened, her eyes huge and wide behind the thick glasses. “Caio...” She looked at her watch and then around herself. “What are you doing here?”
He touched his fingers to hers, and nodded at the cast around her wrist. “You’re hurt. How?”
“Oh, there was a scuffle at the club. I slipped and broke my fall with my wrist. The X-ray showed a hairline fracture.” She sighed. “It’s been quite the eventful night.”
“And day,” he added.
“Hmm?”
“It was our wedding day, querida.” He’d no idea why he felt the need to remind her of that. He was beginning to wonder if he knew right or wrong when it came to her.
She plucked her hand from his looking like a deer caught in headlights. “Did Yana send you? I’m sorry that you had to drive here at this time—”
“Yana didn’t send me anywhere. I spent most of the night already looking for you. I don’t like not knowing where you are.”
She raised a brow, all outrage and bite. “Since when did I have to report to you?”
“Since always, Nush,” he said, her temper egging his on. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I lost my phone.”
“And yet, you called Yana.”
“I don’t remember your number.”
His mouth twitched. “You’re a horrible liar.”
The bank of elevators behind them pinged. A familiar figure exited the glass car and every muscle in Caio’s body tightened with such ferocious anger that he covered the little gap between him and Nush as if she were prey.
His new, albeit unplanned acquisition.
His wife.
His. In every way that mattered.
Cristo, he couldn’t remember one good reason why he shouldn’t think of her as his, why he shouldn’t welcome this fortune that had directly fallen into his lap.
Peter Jr. took one look at him and his steps faltered.
A palm landed on Caio’s chest and his muscles clenched at the innocent contact. “Stop posturing around and intimidating Peter.”
“It’s not my fault if he’s scared of me. He knows he shouldn’t be sniffing around you.”
“Jesus, he’s not sniffing around me. And believe it or not, he was the only one who paid attention to me today.” When Caio stared at her, she pointed to the cast.
“Apparently, away from his bullying father and his band of toxic peers, he isn’t half-bad. He even apologized for... Anyway, we actually talked and laughed and danced... I enjoyed his company.”
Mira’s words came back to haunt Caio. God, Anushka was too soft for her own good. Too forgiving. “Your discovery is a little too late, Princesa. He can’t have you.”
“What?”
He tucked a wavy lock of hair that fluttered at her jaw, taunting him. “I said he can’t have you.” Caio softened his own voice. “You’re mine, Nush.”
“Either you’re continuing with the theme of mocking something that I consider sacred or you’re an arrogant ass who doesn’t want me but doesn’t want anyone else to have me,” she said, swaying on her feet, “and I—”
Caio steadied her. “You said we weren’t even allowed to indulge in mild flirtations. I’m just reminding you of your own conditions.”
Big, wide eyes considered him, exhaustion written into her features. “You could have just said that instead of issuing...possessive statements.”
With Mira gone and Yana’s unreliable and chaotic schedule, he didn’t want to leave Nush alone at that big house. Which meant she was coming with him to Brazil tonight.
A huge part of him protested. He wanted to keep her separate from the poison in his life. Wanted to keep her away from all his bitterness. Wanted to keep his own image untarnished in her mind. But it wasn’t an available choice anymore.
Anticipation coiled through him even as he acknowledged he had quite a fight on his hands. “Are you in pain?”
She pushed the bridge of her glasses up her nose and nodded. “I don’t think the pills have taken yet. Especially not enough to make me tolerate your territorial, jealous husband act.”
When she stepped to his left, he got in her way, blocking her with his body.
It was confrontational in a way he’d never addressed her before.
But it didn’t feel wrong either. Nothing felt wrong anymore.
In fact, every filthy thought, every overwhelming urge, every spike of hot need pulsing through him felt deliciously, irrevocably right.
What the hell had those vows done to him?
When she signaled to Peter Jr, he appeared with an umbrella in hand, a small smile twisting his mouth.
Caio addressed the younger man. “Leave, Huntington.”
Peter glanced in Nush’s direction, mumbled something to himself, pretended as if he was considering standing up to Caio and then ran down the steps without a backward glance.
Mouth falling open, Nush stared at the fast-receding man. She slapped at Caio’s abdomen with the back of her hand, her eyes round with anger. “He was my ride.”
“You have me.”
“Stop reminding me of those ridiculous rules. It’s not like I was going to elope with him.”
“I don’t want you around him.”
“You’re a thug, Caio Oliveira,” Nush said, turning to him, gaze pinning him. “A bully. An arrogant ass. And I don’t need your pity. It’s bad enough...”
“Bad enough what, Nush? What was so bad that you’ve been running from me all night?”
“I’m not running from anything. I smiled at that mockery of a ceremony.
I ate cake and laughed about the silly jokes everyone made about how you’ve had to jump in and save the poor, plain, weird Reddy sister again.
I signed every piece of paper you put in front of me.
And when you told me to leave, I followed your order, without looking back, like a good little solider. ”
Her voice was full of an ache that he knew he was the cause of. It terrified him like nothing else had ever done. Her lower lip wobbled before she bit down on it.
“You’re acting like this was a real wedding day...”
“What would make it real then?”
His question vibrated in the air around them with all the intensity of a lightning strike. And suddenly, Caio wondered if it could be that simple. If that was what he’d been fighting against since she’d walked into his office and declared her outrageous proposal.
The idea of simply keeping Nush was a dangerous thought on so many levels and yet so alluringly appealing to the deepest core of desires and wants he’d buried under need for vengeance.
Suddenly the sweet forbidden temptation that she was, was very much within reach.
And he knew he wasn’t going to be able to let go of her.
Not now.
Not ever.
“What are you saying?” Nush said in a whisper.
“What would it take from me to make it real? A promise of fidelity? My commitment to make this work? My word that I don’t want anyone else?
Only you.” Lightning flashed across the sky as if to underscore the fierce resolve in his words.
A tremor skittered across her shoulders.
“Ever since that kiss, all I’ve done is think of what else I’d do with you.
” She didn’t say anything for so long that Caio felt a flicker of unfamiliar fear twist through his gut.
“Come, Princess. You’re in pain. We can discuss this later when—”
“You want this to be real? Our...” she stumbled over the word, “marriage? When did you decide that?”
Shedding his jacket, he draped it around her shoulders, careful to not jostle her wrist. “I see no reason why it can’t be the real thing.
Not when we both want each other, not when we’re already tied to each other.
Not when I know no other woman would give me the kind of.
..loyalty that you do. The ceremony we had, the dress, the cake, the guests, the ring.
..it spooked you because it felt too real, didn’t it? ”