Page 35 of Their One-Night Rio Reunion
Ana rolled her eyes. ‘Apart from that.’
Caio felt a bit stupid. What else was there besides work and the transient release of tension and frustration with a beautiful woman? Except that hadn’t appealed for some time now. A year, to be precise. And after tonight... He didn’t want to think about that...
Before he could formulate a response, Ana asked, ‘Why didn’t you just marry one of your lovers or a mistress? You wouldn’t have had to deny yourself for a whole year.’
Caio welcomed the kind of talk that defused some of the heat in his blood. And a chance to remind Ana, in case she needed it, not to expect that this night meant anything more than the physical.
‘Because I needed a marriage where there was no risk of emotional entanglement. A woman who understood the parameters. If I’d married a lover, no matter what I’d said, she would have hoped that it meant more...and no lover has lasted longer than a couple of weeks. I have a short attention span.’
Or he’dhada short attention span. Caio hated the suspicion that his brain had effectively been rewired in the last year. The past few hours.
‘Why me?’
Caio shrugged, careful to keep his expression neutral, not wanting her to see that his decision to marry her had been born out of far more complicated reasons than he’d ever really acknowledged.
‘Your father wanted to do a business deal.’
‘So I was just an added bonus.’
Caio shook his head. ‘An integral part. You came from the right kind of family...you understood—understand—our world. And once you knew what I expected of you I could see that you weren’t averse to the idea.’
‘No,’ she conceded. ‘Not when you explained what you needed.’
Ana raised her glass towards him. ‘Here’s to a business arrangement successfully executed.’ Then she said, ‘My father would have done the deal with you anyway, even if you hadn’t married me.’
Caio shrugged. ‘Perhaps. The truth is that he needed me more than I needed him.’
‘I bet he hated that.’
Caio recalled the barely concealed aggression of Rodolfo Diaz. ‘He’d done his research on me. He knew that my personal life was beginning to damage potential business prospects. He knew I wanted to expand globally. When he mentioned you, and the prospect of marriage, I couldn’t help but consider that it was serendipitous.’
Ana smiled, but Caio could see it was brittle.
‘And so the perfect sacrificial virgin was handed to you on a platter?’
Caio took a sip of his drink and shook his head, ‘There was nothing sacrificial about you, Ana. You were in control of the situation the whole way. You stood up to your father that day...you angered him.’
Ana’s eyes flashed at the memory. ‘Iwasangry with him.’
‘You put yourself in danger.’
Ana looked at Caio. ‘I told you he was never violent...’
‘I think you pushed him over a line that day. I saw it in him. Remember, I’ve seen it before.’
Ana frowned now. ‘With your mother...?’
Caio nodded.
Ana shook her head. ‘I don’t think my father would have actually struck me...’
But even as Ana said those words it was all too easy to imagine a scenario where Caio had walked away from the deal and her father had lashed out for the first time. The longer she’d been single and in his house, the more of a burden she’d been.
But she hadn’t been able to leave until she’d known Francisco would be safe.
Caio was grim. ‘I saw it in him that day.’
Ana focused her attention on Caio again. She frowned. ‘So are you saying you offered to marry me to protect me?’
