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‘Let’s not talk about it. And then he arrived early at the church... I saw him from the window,’ she admitted unevenly. ‘He came over to the flat and Dad was out and I just panicked because I couldn’t face him again. I knew he would pile on the pressure and make threats. He knew what he had done, and he wanted to make sure I would go through with the wedding. He’ll be in a towering rage with me now and I didn’t want to risk that confrontation.’
‘Cabrón!’ Ruy bit out the insult in Spanish, settling her carefully into the passenger seat of his vehicle and tugging out his phone to ring his sister for advice; as a GP, she was generally home at weekends. He spoke to her in French because Cecile’s mother had been French, and he didn’t want to take the chance that Suzy might understand what he was saying. Cecile was shocked and told him what to do best for Suzy while promising to call round to check her over.
‘Shouldn’t we be contacting the police to report the assault?’ Ruy prompted as he turned the car.
‘No...no!’ From the depths of his coat, Suzy shot him a look of pure horror. ‘It would only make Percy more vindictive and I can’t afford to do that.’
‘We’ll see,’ Ruy said lightly, although he had no intention of standing back while the abuser got off scot-free because he had literally terrorised his victim into such fear that she couldn’t currently see the situation as it was. He wanted more information but knew it was unfair to press her when she was in a weakened state of confusion. He was also experiencing an extremely strong urge to protect her from further harm.
‘He has a lot of power,’ she mumbled thickly. ‘You can’t afford to antagonise people like that.’
Ruy was outraged by the depth of her fear of a small-time local businessman. It was the strangest feeling. He could not recall ever being so angry about anything that did not directly affect him. After all, he did not get involved in other people’s problems. On the one occasion when he had abandoned that rule years earlier the situation had blown up in his face when, by trying to help, he had simply done more damage, or so it had seemed. But Suzy was different, he told himself soothingly, because he had no personal or sexual interest in her. She wasn’t his type, absolutely not his type. Ruy was drawn to quietly spoken brunettes, not short, curvy redheads with sharp tongues.
‘Gosh, I’m so sleepy,’ she whispered through chattering teeth.
‘You can’t go to sleep, not yet anyway,’ Ruy responded, ramming the vehicle to a halt in front of his property and racing round to the passenger side to lift her out at speed.
He strode up the stairs to the bathroom off the bedroom and laid her down with care on the floor. ‘You need to get undressed. You have to get out of your wet clothes,’ he told her as he rang his housekeeper to order a drink and a snack for her.
‘So you can paint me?’ Suzy asked with a giggle, entirely removed from the urgency of her condition.
‘Not just yet,’ Ruy countered, crouching down to extract her from his coat and unpinning the wilted veil with ease to toss it aside. ‘How the hell do I get you out of this dress?’
‘H-hooks!’ Suzy advised with another inappropriate giggle.
Suppressing a groan, seeing by the state of her pale bluish hands that there was no way she was capable of undressing herself, Ruy gently bent her over and embarked on the many hooks. His wide sensual mouth clamped down in a hard line as the bruises began to appear. Against her naturally pale skin purple fingerprints ornamented her slim shoulders and upper arms while a long painful scrape and bruising marred her slender spine. He knew he wanted to find the guy responsible and thump him hard where it hurt most. The knowledge shook him because Ruy was very controlled and disciplined and he virtually never gave way to emotional reactions. After all, he had spent his entire life suppressing natural inclinations to concentrate on what he saw as his duty.
He stalked into his bedroom to dig a tee shirt out of a drawer. After his conversation with his sister, he was wondering if Suzy had been sexually assaulted as well and he felt murderous as he dropped the tee shirt over her down-bent head and threaded her limp arms through the holes before propping her up. Suzy was still shivering violently, mumbling to herself, barely aware, it seemed, of her surroundings or of him. That was a novel experience for a man used to being treated like a billionaire trophy to be acquired at any cost. Lifting her up with ease, he carried her into his bedroom, laid her down and rolled her into the soft blanket he had laid out, finally settling her back against the carved headboard like a cocoon.
‘Now you eat and drink,’ Ruy announced.
‘Not hungry,’ she muttered.
He wasn’t listening because Cecile had given him his instructions and he would follow them to the letter.
‘A hot bath would have warmed me up,’ Suzy complained.
‘Your body temperature has to be restored slowly,’ Ruy contradicted. ‘It’s safer that way. It would have hurt like hell anyway if I’d plunged you into a hot bath.’
‘It...would?’ Her head fell back against the headboard. ‘Where am I?’
‘My house.’
‘How did I get here?’
‘It’s not important. What’s your fiancé’s name?’
Suzy stiffened, drooping eyelids lifting high on her wide green eyes. ‘Percy Brenton.’
Percy Brenton, you are toast, Ruy reflected with satisfaction at acquiring the name. ‘Why were you marrying him?’
‘Dad...’ Her voice faltered and she blinked rapidly. ‘That’s private, I can’t discuss that.’
‘You can discuss it with me. It will remain confidential. You have been harmed. I will not harm you in any way,’ Ruy informed her levelly, his sheer confidence leaping out at her in his stance, his tone, his bright golden eyes that were no longer darker than pitch. Gorgeous eyes, she thought absently, totally gorgeous, exotic eyes.
A knock sounded on a door somewhere and her eyes slid off him to bump up against unfamiliar views and the huge window overlooking the snowy woodland scene outside. It was raining now, and the unseasonal fall of light snow was already melting fast. She was disorientated because she had never been in such a big bedroom or seen such furniture or the kind of classic paintings ornamenting the rough stone walls. It looked incredibly opulent and that was quite outside her experience.
Ruy stalked back into view with a tray. He sank down on the edge of the bed and extended a glass in a metal holder to her.
