Page 45 of Their One-Night Rio Reunion
She said, ‘I didn’t know. At every event I was just concentrating on not tripping over my own feet or saying something stupid.’
‘I know. And you did yourself a disservice. You are a natural, warm person, and people gravitated to you because of that. You did more than help me enhance my business, Ana, you mademelook like a better person.’
Ana’s chest felt tight. ‘You are a good person, Caio.’
He snorted. ‘My focus has been singularly on myself—satisfying passing desires and building my own brand to the exclusion of thinking about anything or anyone else.’
‘You thought about me,’ Ana pointed out.
And he had. They could have lived very separate existences during their marriage, literally coming together only for public events. After all, that had been the agreement laid out in the marriage contract. But over the months they’d naturally gravitated towards spending more time together outside of those public appearances.
Caio had begun joining her for dinner in the evenings when nothing else was planned. Watching a documentary or a movie with her. And on days in foreign cities when he’d had to work, he’d always arranged for her to be taken on a tour with a private guide.
She said, almost to herself, ‘There was that day in Paris...’
Caio looked at her. ‘I think that was the start of it. I was finding it harder and harder to leave you to your own devices.’
They’d been in Paris and he’d arranged, as usual, for her to be taken to see the sights with a guide. He’d called her to see how she was getting on, and he’d sounded so wistful about her excursion that she’d joked, ‘Why don’t you join us?’
And he had. Ana had nearly fallen off her seat in the boat on the Seine when they’d made a stop to let him on. He’d dismissed the private guide and confided a little sheepishly that he’d been to Paris many times, but never seen the sights.
That day, they’d visited the Eiffel Tower, the Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre. And at one point, not thinking, Ana had taken Caio’s hand—a moment borne out of excitement and appreciation for everything she was experiencing. She’d soon realised with a hot and cold flash of embarrassment what she’d done, and that it would serve no purpose, and she had pulled away saying, ‘Sorry, I forgot for a moment...’
But Caio had held on and she’d looked up at him, her pulse suddenly going crazy. There’d been an arrested expression on his face, as if he too had forgotten, and then his grip had relaxed. The next time she’d pulled away he’d let her go.
That was when Ana had realised that she had to be more careful around him.
She felt dangerously close to exposing herself all over again now.
She shook her head. ‘Caio...what’s going on? Why are we still here?’
As if talking to himself, Caio said, ‘You know, everything might still be okay if last night hadn’t happened. You know why I resisted you for so long?’
Ana shook her head. Caio was moving slowly around the kitchen island. She was rooted to the spot.
‘Because I knew that you were different. I knew that from the start. And I knew that if I gave in to the temptation to seduce you it would blow everything apart.’
‘You didn’t want me on our wedding night.’
His gaze narrowed on her face. The island no longer separated them. He was just a few feet away. ‘When I saw you in that wedding dress—’
Ana ducked her head. ‘That dress was awful. So unfashionable.’
Caio’s bare feet came into her line of vision. His fingers tipped her face up. He shook his head. ‘I’ve had fantasies about that dress. On our wedding night it was easy for me to pretend that the erotic charge I’d felt was some kind of aberration. But it didn’t go away. It only grew stronger. Why do you think I threw myself into work so much? It was easier to deny my desire if I wasn’t with you. But then it got harder to stay away.’
Ana pulled Caio’s hand down and stepped back. Anger resurging—at the things he was saying, at the thought that the undercurrents she’d sensed between them hadn’t all been in her head, a figment of her imagination.
‘Why are you saying this now, Caio? What’s the point?’
He looked grim. ‘Because last night effectively blew the façade that everything was okay to pieces.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Ana asked a little shakily.
‘It means that this isn’t over.’
Ana shook her head. ‘Caio, I’ve already told you—’
‘You’ve told me nothing. All you’ve done is point to a picture and say that you wantforever.’
