Chapter Five #3
“Please, I can’t spend another minute explaining to you that it’s not abnormal or wrong or dirty somehow for me to want you.
I’m twenty-three years old and yes, you’re fourteen years older than me, but it’s not like you’re my father or cousin or.
..anything even remotely bordering on ewww.” Her chest rose and fell with her agitation.
“Although now that it’s become clear how you see me, I’m half over it already.
There’s nothing more pathetic than lusting after a man who thinks you’re a little girl who needs his protection. ”
She was more woman than any he’d ever met, Caio wanted to say. There was anger and determination in her, but there was also fear and something else he couldn’t put his finger on. And yet, she was here. She’d taken the risk of approaching him with an idea despite the risk of his rejection again.
He held off all the words that rose to his lips, refusing to let his emotions drive him. He’d already done that once. He hadn’t been cruel on purpose, but he’d been hard on her.
Arms folded at his chest, he watched her—her fire, her mobile mouth, her disillusion with him.
A part of him wanted to believe that her infatuation with him had truly passed.
A part of him wanted to prove the opposite—with his mouth and hands and body—that she wasn’t over him.
For the first time in almost two decades, his mind and his heart seemed to be going in opposite directions.
Leaving him irritable and tense, distracting him from his goal.
And now her outrageous idea that they should marry...the greedy, grabby part of him said she was the most valuable possession he’d ever possessed, urged him to accept the proposition. For now, at least.
He hadn’t asked her for her help.
And yet, what if he hurt her tender feelings for him? Would he be able to face himself if he took advantage of her?
“I can see that you’ve put a lot of thought into this,” he said slowly, fighting for reason amidst two conflicting parts of himself, “but—”
“A lot of thought?” Nush snorted. “I’ve spent a week talking to people I don’t like, hanging out with Peter and his deadbeat friends listening to them talk about women as if they were dogs or horses, a day listening to my father bitch about Thaata and Nanamma and how they cheated him out of his rights and then I went to see Mama and she was in a mood.
You can’t believe I did any of it on a sudden whim. ”
She settled onto the couch, and stretched her long legs out in front of her, her chin dropping to her chest. “I’m all peopled out, Caio.
Probably for the next decade.” A long exhale shuddered out of her.
“I don’t know what Thaata was thinking leaving me all that stock.
They’re all piranhas and sharks and vultures and.
.. I can even see why you have to be so ruthless day in, day out. ”
She’d sat in that very couch so many times over the years, come to him with some problem and asked for his help. And she’d always looked at him with such trust that Caio had felt like a hero. As if she was a conduit for him to make himself feel better.
Which was problematic in itself.
“Your idea, I’ll admit, has merit,” he said carefully, testing out the words on his tongue. “It solves our problems in a very comprehensive way.”
Fingers laced at her neck pulled her shirt tightly across her torso as Nush studied him from under her lashes.
“You wouldn’t have sounded like it was a death sentence if it was Mira or even Yana proposing this.
..arrangement. I mean, you even dated Yana at Nanamma’s urging.
Why is it such a leap for you when all along Thaata wanted you to marry into the family?
We both know that if Mira hadn’t eloped with Aristos over a weekend, she’d have been suggested to you next. ”
A sliver of hurt in her words made him cautious with his own. “It’s not a death sentence, Nush,” he said looking down at her. “I already admitted that it’s a good idea.”
“But? You’re not already married, are you? Because, Jesus, that could be horrible on so many—”
“Of course I’m not married.”
Color high in her cheeks, she shrugged. “Well, it’s not that much of a leap seeing none of us know much about you.”
“I want to make sure you’re not walking into this with any sort of...expectations.”
“The fact that I’m here, further entangling our lives when I want to be nowhere near you, is only because I decided it’s time to take responsibility for OneTech. For Thaata’s legacy. Now, please, let’s talk logistics. Then we can go back to avoiding each other.”
“Is that what you were doing?”
“Prenup,” she said, ignoring his question, counting out on her fingers. “How long we have to put up this charade for. What our statement to the media looks like. And, oh, yeah...”
“Prenup?” he said, more than surprised that she’d truly thought of everything.
“Yes. I went back to Aristos with my idea and he stressed that I get one.”
“Because you can’t trust me?”
“Oh, his first piece of advice was that my idea was a garbage fire. That I should stay far away from you. But then he also said that in a professional capability, you’d be the only man he’d trust, even before his own family.”
“You have to know that I’d never—”
“That you’d never...ruin me financially. Yes, I know that. We’re all very mature people here, with honor and integrity coming out of our asses. Honestly, all I want on the prenup is that if you cheat on me, I can sue your ass for everything you have.”
“Cheat on you, Nush?” he said, her bloodthirstiness knotting his stomach tight with a hunger like he’d never known before. “That implies a prior commitment. Is this more than a simple marriage bargain on paper?”
“Yes. No.” Her cheeks reddened. “I don’t care if you think I’m not sophisticated enough for you to screw, Caio.
But I draw the line at the world seeing you parade your long lineup of girlfriends while you’re married to me.
So yes, I want your commitment to not making me look like a fool in front of the world.
Apparently, there’s only so much my pride can take. ”
“And you, Nush? Will you promise the same? Will you stop chasing—”
“Yes, of course,” she said, blowing at her bangs. “That’s why we need to put a time limit on this. The celibate life is not for me.”
“I wouldn’t think so, given the number of dates you’ve been on in just the past year,” he added drily.
“I hope you appreciate the sacrifice I’m making for the good of the company.
..blah, blah, Caio. All this adulting is exhausting.
” A glint in her eye caught his attention as she studied her nails.
“I’ve completely accepted the possibility that the only two candidates that might bring me pleasure are this pink vibrator Yana gave me last year for my birthday or you. ”
Instant heat gripped him, a fist around his cock, making his skin hum. She was taunting him. He knew that. She was going to continue taunting him for however long they stayed married. Still, he couldn’t beat away all the images her words conjured. Couldn’t think of a better torment.
“Which reminds me,” she said, and texted rapidly on her cell phone. “Yana promised to get me the latest model. Might as well stock up.”
“Is that your plan then? To seduce me?”
“I guess that means you don’t assume I hatched this whole plan to have you?”
He laughed at the idea and then sobered when he saw the very real apprehension in her eyes. Grabbing her hand, which he’d done a thousand times before, Caio squeezed it. “If it were Yana, maybe yes. But you’re far too straightforward for such a conniving plan.”
“Thank the universe for small mercies.” Her throat moved on a swallow, and she plucked her hand from his.
“I won’t let everything Thaata worked for get destroyed because of my insecurities.
” Grabbing the oversized jacket she’d discarded, she slipped it on.
“As for seducing you, I wouldn’t know where to begin.
But let’s say that I do have high hopes for this fake marriage. ”
“Ahh.” Suddenly, the idea of Nush trying to seduce him sounded like a fantasy he hadn’t known he’d want. “What are those hopes?”
“Either we’ll have sex and I can work you out of my system—because all the fantasies I’ve spun about how good it will be can’t be real.
” Her throat moved down on a hard swallow.
“Or we don’t have sex but I realize what a controlling, arrogant, emotionally cold man you are and, hello.
..sweet liberation from two years of unrequited lust.”
Two years? She’d wanted him for two years? Not just months. Which meant she’d dated all those men for what?
Caio rubbed a hand over his face. If he’d needed any more proof that he didn’t really know Nush, here it was. Not once, by gesture or look, had she let on that she was attracted to him. Not once had she acted differently with him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” The question escaped his lips despite his resolution to not dwell on this giant elephant that populated their relationship now.
“It’s attraction, Caio. Desire. Lust. And this marriage...it’s just an amendment to our partnership, isn’t it? Like the one you suggested all those years ago. And when it’s over, I can move on with my life. Without you in it.”
She left without waiting for his assent. Because it was a given. They had no other choice.
He had no other choice. Not if he wanted to buy his stepfather’s company and break it off for parts. Not if he wanted to look him in the eyes and let the abusive bully see his destruction in Caio’s eyes.
Running a hand through his hair, he paced the length of his office, feeling like a caged tiger. For the first time in almost two decades, he felt like he’d been sucker punched.
He’d been angry with Rao for leaving all of his stock to Nush, for making her a target for both fortune hunters and the likes of Peter Huntington Sr., sharks already circling fresh blood. For leaving Caio with a god-awful mess instead of signing the papers that transferred his stock to Caio.
And yet, was this what his mentor had intended?
For all he’d been a man of integrity, he’d played games like a maestro.
Had Rao foreseen all along that Caio would be pushed to such lengths to protect both OneTech and even more importantly Nush?
Or had he thought only to thwart what he’d called Caio’s corrosive, self-destructive need for revenge, even from beyond the grave?
And yet, Nush had delivered everything Caio needed straight into his hands. Along with herself.
In his wildest dreams, he hadn’t imagined that he’d be left with no other choice but to marry Nush. Or that every muscle in him would curl with anticipation.
Or most unthinkable of all—that the idea of marriage to the one woman who’d always brought out the best in him would fill him with a desperate need to make their arrangement permanent and real.