Page 20 of Their One-Night Rio Reunion
The fizzing deflated a little.
‘It’s because I’m a virgin, isn’t it? I know you’re much more experienced...that it takes threesomes to engage your interest—and I can’t offer you that. Well certainly not here... There’s only us on the island—’
‘Whoa, wait—what? Threesomes?’
Ana shut her mouth. She was babbling.
Caio was looking at her as if she had two heads. ‘What are you talking about?’
A wave of embarrassed heat rose up from her toes to her face. ‘There was a piece online...about you and two supermodels...’
Another look of disgust flashed across Caio’s handsome features. ‘They put that story out there because I declined their veryun-tempting offer to have them both pleasure me simultaneously. They were trying to boost their profiles. The piece disappeared once my legal team threatened to sue for defamation.’
‘Oh...’ Ana’s voice was small. But she couldn’t stop the small burst of relief she felt in her solar plexus to hear that he wasn’t into performative sexual situations. Talk about intimidating...
‘“Oh”, indeed,’ Caio said. Then, ‘Look, there’s no point making things complicated. We’ve got one night together and then we get on with our lives.’
Ana folded her arms across her chest. ‘That’s precisely my point. It doesn’t have to be complicated.’
‘Ana, look, it’s not that simple. You’re not experienced—’
‘And I won’t ever be experienced with that kind of attitude.’
Caio’s eyes flashed. ‘I will not be your first lover. I’m not the kind of man who is anyone’s first lover. I’m not kind, considerate, gentle...and that’s what you deserve.’
I don’t want kind and considerate!Ana almost growled out loud.
‘That’s ridiculous,’ she said instead. ‘You were inexperienced once. You must have slept with a virgin before.’
Caio shook his head. ‘Never. I’m not interested in that kind of emotional responsibility. In case it’s escaped your notice I signed up to a marriage of convenience purely to avoid emotional investment. To focus on business.’
Ana recognised the obdurate look on Caio’s face. She sat back down on the lounger and shrugged lightly. ‘Fine.’
His expression went from obdurate to suspicious. ‘Fine...?’
Ana sat back and stretched her legs out. She closed her eyes, crossing one ankle over the other. ‘I’m not going to beg, Caio. I’ll fix something for dinner around six p.m., okay?’
He said nothing for a moment, and then, ‘Okay. See you then.’
Ana kept her eyes closed until she was sure Caio had gone back up to the villa. Then she opened them.Fine?No, it was not fine. She sat up straight. The memory of that night a month previously at the cancer charity benefit was still vivid. It was the night she’d worn that red dress. The one she’d felt sexy in. The one she’d hoped would provoke a reaction from Caio.
Except he’d been stony-faced and tense all night. Literally almost flinching if she touched him.
They’d actually left the event early, and hadn’t exchanged a word on the way home, when usually they would chat idly about the people they’d met, or Caio would ask her what her opinion was of certain people or conversations they’d had.
When they’d reached the apartment he’d disappeared into his study. She’d assumed that it was because, contrary to turning him on, she was actively turning him off. And that with every effort on her part to make him notice her she was only driving him further away.
But it hadn’t been that. It had been because shehadbeen getting to him. He just hadn’t wanted to admit it or act on it.
She’d hadn’t fully acknowledged until now how rejected she’d felt that night. And hurt. Because over the previous months it had really felt as if they’d become a unit—not a conventional one, granted, but a unit. Supportive. Respectful. Almost...friends.
But since that night last month they’d been careful to avoid each other. Ana had felt humiliated to think that she’d actually hoped Caio might find her attractive. That she’d put so much effort into transforming herself into a sleeker version of herself when she’d never had a hope.
That was why she’d booked a one-way ticket to Europe for the day of their divorce. She’d wanted to leave Rio ASAP and put Caio and her humiliating crush behind her.
But now everything had just flipped one hundred and eighty degrees.
Caio wanted her.
