Page 44 of Their One-Night Rio Reunion
Ana frowned at the sky from her bedroom balcony. Where on earth was the helicopter going? It had been on a steady path towards the island, but suddenly it had banked to the right and now it was going back in the opposite direction.
Not that she’d noted the arrival of it with relief—more a sense of futility and loss. Annoyingly.
She also noticed that the security boats were gone. She was confused. She felt as if she should jump up and down and shout. Wave a bright-coloured shirt in the air. But they knew they were here...what were they doing?
Suddenly a suspicion formed.Caio. He was a man used to getting his own way.
Fuelled by a sense of anger, and far more betrayingly by excitement and hope, Ana left her things on the bed and went downstairs.
She found Caio in the kitchen, putting his phone back into his pocket. He turned around. Ana tried to ignore how her heart hitched.
‘Why is the helicopter not landing?’
‘I told them to go back to Rio and await further instructions. We’re not done here, Ana.’
She’d been right. Anger at his high-handedness made her put her hands on her hips. ‘Who do you think you are to make that decision on my behalf?’
Caio mirrored her, putting his hands on his hips. ‘The man you chose...no,beggedto be your first lover.’
Ana flushed with self-consciousness. ‘I’m beginning to regret my decision.’
Caio took his hands down and moved closer. ‘Are you really?’
Ana took a step back and put a hand out. ‘Don’t come near me, Caio.’
‘Why? Because you can’t think straight if I’m near you? Because you’re afraid of what you’ll do?’
Ana scooted around the kitchen island so that it was between them. She wasn’t afraid of him; it was of herself she was terrified. He was right. Damn him.
She realised that Caio looked a little wild. As if his civilised veneer had been cracked open, revealing the elemental man she’d met last night.
‘I would have thought you’d be delighted to return to work. To your life in Rio. Your usual lovers.’
‘What life would that be, hmm? The life I led before? Where I cut myself off from my family and was dumped by women and friends who’d only accepted me for my family connections? And yet those were the first people who rushed back when I made my first million? Lovers who saw only the status I could offer them, and the expensive trinkets? Lovers who had no interest in who I really was? The life where I took my mother’s name, casting aside hundreds of years of legacy, and worked twenty-four-seven to build up a business that needed a marriage of convenience to take it to the next level? A business that will die with me? Rendering everything I’ve done as futile?’
Surprised at his outburst, Ana said, ‘It won’t be futile. You’ve created innovations that will last forever.’
He waved a hand. ‘They’ll last until someone comes up with a better idea.’ Then he continued, ‘Or perhaps I should return to the life I’ve had for the past year, with a wife of convenience who turned out to be not as convenient as I expected?’
Ana swallowed. There was something dangerously exciting about this far more volatile Caio. ‘You no longer have a wife. We’re divorced, remember?’
Caio glanced down at her hand. ‘You haven’t stopped wearing your rings.’
Ana blinked and looked down to see the gold band and the very plain round cut diamond engagement ring that Caio had insisted she pick out for herself. She hadn’t removed them.
She reached for them now, feeling exposed, but Caio said, ‘Don’t. Wait.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ANA’SFINGERSWEREon the rings. She felt angry with Caio for delaying the inevitable. She pulled them off and put them on the island between them. ‘Why would you not want me to take them off? We’re no longer married.’
Caio ran his hands through his hair, clearly agitated. He looked at Ana. ‘I thought I had it all mapped out—that I knew exactly what I wanted. You would be the perfect accompaniment, taking me to the next level, and in return you’d get your own freedom, and your brother’s.’ He started to pace back and forth. ‘But then it wasn’t just that I got used to you by my side. I began toneedit. I told myself it wasn’t that at all. That I just appreciated your opinion and the company you provided. I told myself I wasn’t coming to depend on you...’ He stopped pacing and looked at her. ‘Do you remember when you had that tummy bug in Kuala Lumpur?’
Ana nodded. She’d seen that city through the triple-glazed glass of her bathroom and bedroom as she’d succumbed to a violent but thankfully short-lived stomach bug. It had meant, though, that she hadn’t been able to attend one of the events with Caio.
‘We’d only attended a few events by then, but when you weren’t there...it bothered me. And it bothered me that it bothered me. I didn’t like how you’d inserted yourself into my life so seamlessly. How I already felt a reflex to turn to you and see if you were okay. See your reaction to something. Toneedyou by my side. I’d been coping fine for years. I didn’t need anyone. But suddenly... I did.’
Ana swallowed. Not sure how to respond. She could remember how Caio had been a bit more distant than usual with her for a couple of weeks after that. She’d seen it as a judgement on her far too human frailties. But it hadn’t been that at all.
