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‘I have.’
‘No, you haven’t,’ Ruy contradicted. ‘I know you too well to be fooled.’
But his wounding words had only reminded her that soon she would be travelling home and that Ruy and Spain and everything that had happened between them would then only be memories of a few stolen days in a world that was not her own. It hurt that he could shut her out so easily. It hurt that he wasn’t willing to confide in her, even though it seemed that other people already knew that same information. It hurt to appreciate that he wasn’t falling in love with her, that he would watch her walk away with the same recollections but neither the pain nor the regret that she would experience. Well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles, she told herself sharply, toughen up!
‘Suzy...’ Ruy pressed.
‘It’s fine.’
‘Prove it...’ he breathed, releasing her seat belt and lifting her into his arms to settle her across his lap.
Suzy shivered, suddenly gathered into the heat of him, cornered when she was striving to keep her distance, and yet she couldn’t have said that she wanted him to set her free because on some level she couldn’t bear to be at odds with Ruy either. ‘You’ll mess up my make-up.’
He pressed a button and told his driver to take the long route to Mercedes’ home where the reception was being held. He ran his mouth lightly down the cord of her slender neck and inhaled deeply as her head tipped back. ‘You know even the smell of your skin turns me on hard and fast. You smell delicious, like oranges in sunshine.’
‘Fruity hair shampoo,’ Suzy mumbled weakly, because he could make even that sound so much more romantic than reality. Ruy, she conceded, was a mass of contradictions. He said he wasn’t romantic or imaginative and then he said stuff like that and made her pose in a floaty, feathery, very romantic dress in an orange grove in which only her boots cast the discordant note he seemed to like in his paintings.
He skated a teasing fingertip up the length of her thigh beneath her dress. ‘I knew those slits would come in useful,’ he husked.
‘Ruy...no,’ Suzy said firmly.
The fingertip flirted with the lace edge of her knickers and she snatched in a ragged breath, the promise of sensation tugging at her greedy senses while she could feel the hard thrust of his arousal beneath her. A wave of heat travelled through her entire body, leaving her weak.
One hand meshed in her curls, he ravished her parted lips with his own and every nerve ending in her body went wild with anticipation. ‘Do I have a “maybe”?’ he prompted thickly.
‘I hope you’re capable of finishing what you started,’ Suzy told him starkly, her fingers meshing helplessly into his luxuriant black hair to bring his carnal mouth back to hers.
‘Hombre! Only you do this to me!’ Ruy growled.
‘What do I do?’
‘You make me desperate,’ he complained, skating skilled fingers over the tender folds at her core, discovering the damp welcome there, delicately penetrating her silken sheath, listening to her gasp and feeling her arch before retreating to a more sensitive spot that was even more responsive to his attentions.
Suzy reached a climax shatteringly fast and it left her limp, gasping against the heat and urgency of his marauding mouth, her whole body quivering with the aftershocks of pleasure. He held her close in the aftermath and breathed in slow and deep. ‘I wrecked your lipstick.’ He sighed. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.’
Ruy settled her down beside him again, reached for her seat belt and did it up before lifting her clutch bag from the floor and helpfully placing it on her lap. Disconcerted, Suzy glanced back at him. ‘But you...er...’
‘Not in the car. I draw the line at that. I’ll have to wait until later,’ Ruy breathed, laughing as she leant forward with a tissue to wipe his face free of her peach lipstick. ‘I deserve to suffer a little.’
That quick charismatic and entirely uninhibited smile made her want to kiss him again. Inside herself, she rebelled from that thought. Tomorrow evening, after the engagement party, she was flying home: it was arranged. It was time she forged a little distance between them and stopped throwing caution to the four winds with every kiss and every smile he gave her. Their little fling as such was almost over and he had only just finished reminding her that they did have boundaries, closing her out when he could have let her in...had he wanted to. Only he didn’t want to and that told her all she needed to know. She was on the outside with Ruy and always would be.
The limousine dropped them off at an enormous mansion milling with beautifully dressed guests. From the moment she entered she was conscious of female eyes clinging to her. Mercedes made a special point of greeting her again while from every corner Ruy was hailed as though he were a very important guest indeed. Before very long he was the centre of a crush of men, gamely answering every question aimed at him.
‘Ruy seems very popular,’ she remarked to Mercedes.
‘He always has been. That level of success impresses most people. He was also every girl’s pin-up when I was at school and he hasn’t lost his appeal to the ladies,’ Mercedes responded.
‘I noticed that he attracted a fair amount of attention at the church,’ Suzy admitted uncomfortably.
‘It’s vulgar, but all the women who made a play for him and got nowhere are madly curious to know what you had that they didn’t and why you have that ring on your finger.’ Mercedes wrinkled her nose with distaste. ‘I’m afraid that Ruy acquired the reputation of being a commitment-phobe.’
‘I can’t think why.’ Suzy laughed although she could taste bitterness behind her fake amusement because Ruy was exactly what everyone had thought he was: a commitment-phobe. She had never been in the running for anything deeper with Ruy. From the outset he had made it clear that he didn’t want a relationship and he had stuck to his rules.
Ruy retrieved her and they took their seats and a long elaborate meal began, accompanied by many speeches. It was a relief to get up and stretch her legs on the dance floor afterwards. ‘If I ever get married,’ Suzy told Ruy, ‘there will be no pomp and ceremony to it.’
‘Weddings are very much family affairs. The bride and groom don’t always have a choice. I have very stuffy relatives. This type of ritual and tradition is exactly what they appreciate and respect. Some of them have come to speak to you today but most of them are too busy observing you and gossiping and they won’t officially meet you until tomorrow.’
‘You’re scaring the life out of me!’ Suzy censured, slender hips moving in time to the pulsing beat of the music as she moved back from him.
