Dreaming Of... Brazil: At the Brazilian's Command / Married for the Prince's Convenience / From Enemy's Daughter to Expectant Bride

‘You’ll be protected, Danny. You’ll be safe. You’ll be secure for the rest of your life.’

‘You make it sound like a prison sentence.’

‘It will be what we make it,’ Tiago told her with calm assurance. ‘You can have your own lawyers look over the contract. I’ll pay for them.’

‘But you don’t know me.’ She shook her head, still racked with doubt. ‘We don’t know each other.’

‘How long does it take to know someone? I saw you nearly every day for a year on Chico’s ranch. It will be the same. You struck sparks off me with your banter then—’

‘Do you mean I stood up for myself?’ she asked wryly.

He relaxed, and his mouth curved in the familiar winning smile. ‘That’s why I like you, Danny. I’m not looking for a push-over. I’m not interested in taking advantage of you. I want this to be fair. And when we’re married—’

‘I haven’t said yes to your outlandish proposal yet,’ she pointed out.

‘But you will,’ he said confidently. ‘I will expect you to stand up to me. I expect you to tell me when something doesn’t make you happy. I expect to enjoy a healthy, outspoken relationship.’

‘You can depend on that,’ she assured him. ‘But a year sharing a bed with a man without love...?’

‘I’m sorry you see it that way. I wish I had more time to persuade you that this will work really well for both of us, but I don’t have that luxury. I can only promise you that you’ll have everything you need and that I will always respect you and treat you well.’ He shrugged. ‘I can’t think of anyone I would rather enter into this agreement with—anyone I can imagine seeing on a daily basis and getting on with half as well as I get on with you.’

‘So long as we do get on well,’ she said dryly.

‘Danny—’

‘I know. You have a flight plan filed, no doubt, and you don’t have time to waste selling love’s young dream to me.’

‘Don’t be such a cynic. It doesn’t suit you. Your choice is simple. Stay here and nothing changes, or come with me on the biggest adventure of your life. Which is it to be, Danny?’

CHAPTER FIVE (#uf3466473-cc7b-57e2-9e86-3bab36943bc7)

DANNY TOOK A firmer grip of her suitcase when Tiago threatened to swoop on it. Half an hour ago, over breakfast, he’d shown her the contract his lawyers had drawn up on the screen of his phone. When she had expressed surprise that he had been able to rouse his team at such short notice just before the holidays, he’d set the tone by telling her that holidays were for wimps and that he didn’t take them.

Money bought everything, she thought. And now here they were, in the hall, about to leave the house on their way to Brazil. She’d called her mother, but there had been no reply. She hadn’t wanted to disturb Lizzie, so she had sent her an email. And her wedding to Tiago...? That lay some time in the future and still didn’t feel real.

Just as Tiago had promised, the terms of the contract were solid enough. She’d been given everything she’d asked for, and to build her confidence before she took this final step Tiago had pressed an open first-class airline ticket home into her hands, and told her she could bail out at any time. Yet even now she felt she’d sold out.

Or, as Tiago had so romantically put it, ‘Congratulations, chica! You’ve got the guts to seize the opportunity of a lifetime and share my bed.’

Yes, she knew he’d been teasing her, in that old, tormenting way, but this time she hadn’t fired back. The reality of intimacy with Tiago was only just dawning on her. Yes, of course she knew that intimacy was part of any married couple’s life, and Tiago had said that their marriage would be as close to normal as it could be for a year, but she was certain that sharing his bed would be very different from her fantasies.

‘I said I’d carry it,’ she insisted now, attempting to wrestle back her case.

‘Too late,’ Tiago told her.

Five minutes into the trip and they were already at odds. What did that say about her decision to do this? Tiago was holding the car door open, waiting for her impatiently. There was no going back now. She was leaving everything familiar behind.

Yes, but to embark on an adventure. If she wasn’t up to it she had better decide now.

She hurried down the steps to join him.

The car dropped them off at the side of a sleek executive jet, which Tiago and his team would pilot to Brazil, he’d explained. And just in case she was still uncertain as to her status, ‘Santos Inc’ was written in bold blood-red down the side of the fuselage. She really was entering another world—and it was a faster moving world than she was used to.

‘There’s no time to hang around,’ Tiago insisted, seizing her arm. ‘My take-off slot is non-negotiable.’

He wasn’t joking. He indicated left rather than right once they were inside the cabin.

‘Into the cockpit?’ she queried.

‘I thought you might like to sit with me when we take off. If you prefer you can sit in the back?’

‘No. This is good.’ Normally she was a nervous passenger, but since everything else had changed why not this too? ‘Thank you...’

Thankfully, she sounded so cool, so certain—but her emotions were in a riot. ‘I’ve always wanted to sit next to the pilot.’

‘You won’t be sitting next to me. That’s the co-pilot’s job. But you will still see everything.’

Probably a lot more than she wanted to, Danny thought ruefully, hoping some of Tiago’s confidence would wash off on her.

‘If you’re having second thoughts...it’s too late.’ He slanted her that dangerous smile that flooded his eyes with amusement and reached all parts of her too. ‘There’s a bedroom in the back,’ he added, ‘if you need it.’

‘Hopefully not. And I’m not having second thoughts,’ she assured him.

‘Not yet,’ he said dryly. ‘It’s a long flight, Danny, so go to bed if you have to.’

‘What about you?’

‘Don’t worry about me,’ he murmured, with one last look.

They took off smoothly, with Tiago handling the jet with the same easy skill he employed on his horses. When they reached cruising height and levelled off he handed over control of the plane to his co-pilot and came to ask Danny how she’d liked the new experience.

Having turned at just the wrong moment, he caught her chewing her lip as she tried to work out if this was the best decision of her life, or the biggest screw-up ever. It didn’t help when she looked at the man who would shortly be her husband. Her body thrilled at the thought, though she still had major concerns.

Flying a jet was all in a day’s work for Tiago—as was running a multi-national business and playing polo at international level—while she had a neat line in handing out pony nuts, and not a clue when it came to negotiating contracts, let alone those with a marriage clause involved.

She would just have to be a fast learner, Danny concluded as Tiago smiled down at her.

* * *

A couple of hours later she was glad to take him up on his offer to use the bedroom in the back of the plane, and was surprisingly snug between crisp white sheets in a very comfortable bed when the door opened.

‘Coffee?’

She shot up, and only belatedly remembered to yank the covers to her chin. Having stripped off her clothes, she was naked, while Tiago had rolled back the sleeves of his crisp white shirt, leaving his powerful forearms bare. Her body clenched with pleasure at the sight. There should be a law against being so attractive.

‘Sit up,’ he urged, putting the coffee down on the nightstand at her side. ‘Drink your coffee before it gets cold. Do you have everything you need?’

She wasn’t sure she could answer him honestly, and confined herself to a prim ‘Thank you for the coffee.’