The Ring The Spaniard Gave Her - Lynne Graham Page 0,17

her. ‘Dad borrowed from the bank to update the bar but we didn’t do enough business to keep up the loan. When Dad was threatened with repossession, Percy stepped in. The old loan was repaid and Percy extended a new one with lower payments.’

‘How did you become involved in that arrangement?’ Ruy enquired, resting back in his chair with his wine glass elegantly cradled in one lean brown hand, so stunningly handsome in that moment that she momentarily lost the thread of the dialogue. As she gazed almost blankly back at him, her mouth dry, her pelvis thrumming with the strangest pulse that made her thighs twitch and tense, he had to repeat the question.

‘I wasn’t involved until six months ago,’ Suzy admitted in a rueful rush. ‘Then Percy said he’d write the loan off if I married him and that if I didn’t marry him he would take the pub off Dad. After a couple of discussions, I agreed but I... I told him I wouldn’t have sex with him. I would be his wife in all other ways though and nobody else would know the truth of our relationship,’ she completed with scarlet cheeks.

‘Dios mio...and he agreed to that?’ Ruy marvelled.

Suzy nodded miserably. ‘But I’m not sure now that he planned to stick to the rules and that he didn’t start hating me for them.’

‘How much does your father know about Brenton’s blackmail?’

At that question, Suzy frowned. ‘He knows nothing about any of it! Dad would never have agreed to let me marry Percy for his benefit.’

‘And the loan outstanding amounts to fifty thousand pounds or so?’ Ruy queried, startling her with his accuracy and, when he met her troubled gaze, dealing her an eloquent smile. ‘That was why you plucked that particular sum out of the air, wasn’t it?’

‘A ridiculous amount,’ she mumbled in severe chagrin as she recalled that conversation in the bar when he had urged her to name her price for modelling for him. ‘I wasn’t serious, of course...you do know that, don’t you? I’m truly not a greedy person. It’s just, Percy was starting to scare me, and I’d pretty much do anything for my dad.’

‘That’s not a sin. It’s proof of loyalty and of your love for a parent. You were willing to make a sacrifice to protect your father.’

‘But I tumbled at the last fence and now I’ve just dug Dad into a deeper hole!’ Suzy argued with a guilt-ridden shake of her head. ‘Now, after being left at the altar, Percy will be out for blood.’

‘He’s already had as much blood as he’s getting and he’s not taking any more out of your particular hide,’ Ruy asserted with scorching conviction. ‘Surely you realise that Brenton will now want to approach you with some suggestion aimed at saving his own skin? If you choose to prosecute him for assault his reputation will be ruined. He may well offer to write off that loan in an effort to keep you quiet.’

Suzy’s eyes widened. ‘No way would he do that. Percy has the reputation for collecting on all his debts.’

‘You have to report him to the police,’ Ruy continued. ‘And I can offer you a way to do that that will protect you and your father’s business.’

‘I’m not a kid, Ruy. There’s no magic fix for this mess,’ Suzy told him heavily as she pushed her plate away. ‘And in many ways, it’s a mess of my own making. I was stupidly trusting. I should never have agreed to marry Percy in the first place. That wretched money seemed to give him the impression that he was buying me body and soul and that that deprived me of any right to respect or decency. What I agreed to was wrong, though, and perhaps I deserve what happened.’

‘Valgame Dios! Of course, you didn’t deserve it!’ Ruy argued in heated dissent.

‘And now you’re talking about making me an offer...presumably money,’ Suzy gathered with a little moue of distaste and a look of reproach in his direction that made him seal his wide, sensual mouth shut again. ‘Please...don’t. I’ll think over the idea of modelling for you, but I don’t know how it could be organised now because Dad and I will probably be leaving the village soon. But please, please, do not try to buy me like Percy did... I’ve learned my lesson and I’m off the market now.’

Unusual frustration currented through Ruy, but he was adept at steering paths round obstacles and varying his