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‘I have a troubled relationship with my brother. My presence at his wedding would be smoother if he were to believe that I had found a woman of my own,’ Ruy revealed reluctantly.
‘Very strange...and not for me,’ Suzy said ruefully. ‘I was Percy’s fake bride and it didn’t work out well for me. I don’t want to be faking anything for anyone now.’
‘Consider it. I think it would suit you right now to escape the local gossip for a while. The wedding is in Spain.’
‘Spain!’ Suzy rolled her eyes as though he had suggested the moon as a destination, but the reference to local gossip made her grimace. It annoyed her that he was right once again. Leaving the village even for a few days was a welcome idea, particularly as it would put her out of reach of Percy, she acknowledged. ‘But, I’ll think about it.’
Smothering a yawn over coffee, Suzy began to droop, the events of the past few days catching up with her again. Ruy urged her to have an early night.
‘I shouldn’t still be here,’ Suzy registered abruptly, absently amazed by the way she had simply taken Ruy Rivera’s hospitality for granted. ‘I should go home.’
‘Where were you heading when you went into the woods?’
‘I had a vague notion of hitching a lift to the railway station. Can you imagine it? Me in that wedding dress and probably not even having enough money to buy a train ticket...’ She shook her head and sighed. ‘I’m sorry I involved you in all this.’
‘You’re welcome to stay. At least here, you are out of Brenton’s reach,’ Ruy pointed out sneakily.
‘And it’s handy to keep me around if you want to paint me.’ Suzy’s bright gaze glimmered with humour. ‘I’ve got your measure, Mr Rivera...you will never be slow to take advantage of a useful opportunity.’
Ruy’s rare grin slashed his expressive mouth, his dark eyes flashing gold with appreciation at the intelligence sparkling in her appraisal. ‘Exactly,’ he agreed.
Suzy paused at the foot of the stairs and glanced back at him, her delicate profile and the scattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose as fascinating to him as the fragile white shoulder poking through her spiralling auburn curls. ‘Thanks for helping me today. The wedding thing sounds challenging, I’m afraid, and I don’t think I fancy trying it. I’ll do the model thing for you, though, as long as I can keep my clothes on,’ she announced with a gauche bluntness that almost made Ruy laugh out loud.
Involuntarily he was entranced by that kind of modesty. Was it an act? Understandably, he was suspicious. After all, the majority of women Ruy met couldn’t wait to get their clothes off for his benefit, be it as a model in the studio or as a one-night stand. And then there were the unwelcome invitations like the maid who had sashayed into his bedroom with his breakfast one morning naked as a jaybird, or the PA who had just stripped off down to her fancy lingerie on the first and last day of her employment with him.
‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
‘Ah...’ Ruy shifted a fluid hand. ‘Would it be possible for me to first remove some clothes from the bedroom?’
On the stairs, Suzy froze and whipped round. ‘It’s your bedroom? I’m putting you out of your own bed? Oh, that won’t do at all! I’ll sleep on one of the sofas.’
‘That’s not necessary,’ Ruy declared, striding up to crowd her on the stairs and with his very height and breadth somehow persuading her to move on up to the landing.
‘But—?’
‘I’m sleeping in my studio,’ Ruy countered firmly, having already procured a bed for his use. ‘When I bought this place it was a ground-floor bedroom.’
Suzy hovered uncomfortably as Ruy removed items from drawers and a closet and returned to her side.
‘I’m going out tonight. I wouldn’t want to disturb you when I return,’ Ruy murmured softly, scorching dark golden eyes welded to her.
Suzy was bright pink with self-consciousness, the sort of deep dire self-consciousness that she had suffered as a schoolgirl. ‘It just doesn’t seem right, me putting you out.’
Ruy rested a long brown forefinger gently across her parted lips. ‘Silencio, porfavor...it is nothing.’
Her lips prickled even below that light touch and her pupils dilated. ‘Ruy—’
‘It is very sexy that you didn’t suggest that I share the bed with you,’ Ruy murmured softly, gazing down at her for all the world as though that omission on her part were an act of astonishing restraint.
Thoroughly taken aback, Suzy shot the vast bed a glance, acknowledging that it was large enough to absorb two couples, never mind one, but she was still struggling to get her head around the telling fact that he found her failure to ask him to join her in the bed sexier than an invitation would have been. And that concept lay so far beyond her grasp of the male outlook on sex that she could only gaze back at him in incredulity at the comment.
‘Sleep well, buenasnoches,’ Ruy husked, striding out and leaving her standing there in a fog of confusion.
Did Ruy get women coming on to him so often that it had become the norm for him? He was extraordinarily good-looking, she conceded thoughtfully, picturing that lean, strong, sculpted face and those stunning eyes that could go from dark to smouldering gold. Very, very good-looking, she concluded as she made use of the new toothbrush laid out for her and prepared for bed. She had studied him throughout their meal, seeking a flaw, nonplussed to be unable to find one. Those gorgeous looks of his had briefly mesmerised her into stealing that kiss. She winced for herself afresh. Talk about making a production out of being attracted to a guy! She had practically shouted it in his face. But she was comforted by the conviction that most women probably found Ruy Rivera extremely appealing and he was clearly used to it and bored by it, so her foolish little kiss would soon be forgotten.
As she would soon forget him, once he was out of her radius, she told herself soothingly. She was a very down-to-earth and sensible woman, always had been, always would be. Accepting Percy’s offer had been a mistake, a glitch caused by panic on her father’s behalf. She felt quite nervous and sick at the thought of what her rearranged future might now hold for her and her father, but she was well used to making the best of what she got in life even if it often wasn’t what she wanted or felt she needed. And she would handle whatever happened, she told herself squarely, slipping into the gloriously comfortable bed.
As Suzy drifted inexorably into the deep sleep of emotional exhaustion, Ruy was striding into the village pub to introduce himself to her father. No sooner had he intimated that he had news of Suzy than the barmaid was left in charge and he was ushered into a private room where he sat down to discuss business over a revered Scottish malt while thinking that Suzy might try to object but he was sticking strictly to the guidelines she had given him...
