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‘My family were bankers to royalty for centuries. That’s just about all you need to know. What made you laugh?’
‘The one who had a whole string of wives,’ Suzy confided, an irrepressible twinkle in her bright eyes. ‘Your family’s version of Henry the Eighth.’
‘Except Diego’s five unfortunate wives died in childbirth,’ Ruy explained.
‘I suppose back then that was very common,’ Suzy remarked thoughtfully. ‘Thank goodness it isn’t now.’
‘My mother died in childbirth and my baby sister with her,’ Ruy heard himself admit in argument, startled to hear himself proffering that confidence, but there was something in the freedom with which she spoke and behaved with him that smashed his usual reserve and brought his own barriers crashing down. Somehow she made him want to tell her stuff and he couldn’t explain that to his own satisfaction. ‘It’s less common, but it still happens.’
‘What age were you?’
‘Rigo and I were five. Our world fell apart without her. She was very loving. My father, on the other hand, was more of a “spare the rod and spoil the child” parent.’
‘I’m so sorry. At least I was too young to be aware of my loss and Dad was very caring.’
‘You were fortunate. Our father didn’t have a kind bone in his body. He punished my brother and I for the smallest infraction. I excelled at school, but I still got punished for not doing well enough to please. Rigo, regrettably, was not academic. As you can imagine, he suffered more,’ Ruy told her grimly. ‘My father made Rigo compete with me and never let him forget that I was the elder, the heir, the important son. It destroyed our relationship.’
‘So, you were never close to your twin?’
‘No. He grew up resenting me and that never went away...in our twenties, something occurred that destroyed any hope of a closer relationship.’
‘And what was that?’ Suzy prompted, hungry for more detail, conscious that Ruy rarely spoke so freely with her.
‘Rigo was addicted to drugs for a while. I don’t wish to share his history,’ Ruy admitted very stiffly. ‘That is his business.’
Suzy reddened, aware that she had asked one question too many and mortified as she took a determined step back from that angle. ‘What was it like for Cecile?’ she asked.
‘Cecile’s mother was my father’s mistress. She didn’t grow up with us and he never officially acknowledged her as his daughter. Rigo wants nothing to do with her because according to him accepting Cecile into the family is dissing my father’s memory. Even though our father was cruel to him, he still regards him as the ultimate standard of what he should aspire to.’
‘Life’s too short for an outlook like that.’ Suzy sighed ruefully, passing by him into the bedroom, relieved to have finished that conversation and backed away from it. ‘Do I need to change for dinner or anything?’
‘Not for my benefit, particularly when you look as incredible as you do in those shorts,’ Ruy told her with a slow smile.
Her face went pink as she watched him remove his jacket and tug his tie loose. The little intimacies of a shared room tugged uneasily at her and she walked restlessly over to the window. ‘Is that orange grove in the courtyard the one you were referring to?’
‘Yes, but there’s another wilder, larger version of it at the far end of the gardens beside the estate orchards. I remember playing hide and seek there as a child,’ Ruy imparted, his voice closer than she expected.
Suzy whirled round and there he was, a couple of feet away, clad only in boxers, almost every inch of his magnificent body bare for her perusal. Involuntarily her eyes roamed over the expanse of his bronzed torso, lingering on the corrugated slab of his abs and flat stomach. Her mouth ran dry, her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth.
‘Don’t look at me like that. I’m not good at self-denial,’ Ruy warned her.
‘Neither am I,’ Suzy croaked, noticing, well, she really couldn’t help noticing that he was aroused. Those boxers didn’t hide much. ‘How was I looking at you?’
‘Like you want me...like I look at you,’ Ruy framed hoarsely. ‘Dios mio! Even my grammar’s going to hell!’
Warmth mushroomed inside Suzy at the confirmation that he still wanted her but that, just like her, he was in conflict over it. Still being tempted by him had seemed weak until he made that same admission. ‘I was so angry with you this morning...still am, because you aren’t the guy I thought you were and that threw me...and now I don’t have the right clothes.’
‘I’ll get you more clothes,’ Ruy swore impatiently. ‘Little problems of that sort aren’t important.’
‘You’re not allowed to buy me anything more,’ Suzy reminded him. ‘You keep your money to yourself.’
Ruy reached out and closed his big hands round her smaller ones to tug her closer. ‘Anything you want. I need you to be happy.’
‘It doesn’t take money to make me happy,’ Suzy mumbled. ‘Well, except when it came to saving Dad from Percy.’
‘There’s an exception to every rule,’ Ruy conceded generously while stilling in the act of edging her even closer. ‘We’re not supposed to be doing this.’
‘That’s your rule,’ Suzy pointed out helplessly.
