The Ring The Spaniard Gave Her - Lynne Graham Page 0,43
of his skin and the aroma of clean, fresh male engulfed her and the pulse at the heart of her quickened. The strength of the hunger Ruy ignited in her unnerved her because she had never thought of herself as a particularly sexual being and now she was learning that she hadn’t known herself as well as she thought she did. Her nipples prickled and peaked and her body dampened, her pupils dilating.
‘Sometimes I want to eat you alive,’ Ruy groaned hungrily against her ripe mouth. ‘I thought this would fade...why isn’t it fading?’
‘Feed a cold, starve a fever,’ she framed shakily. ‘Maybe you were right and we shouldn’t be doing this.’
‘Que pasa? What’s the matter with you?’ Ruy growled, ravishing her parted lips passionately with his own in punishment for that suggestion, his tongue delving deep enough to make her shudder against him as if she were in the teeth of a gale. ‘This is us. This is how it is.’
But she felt consumed by him, by the passion she couldn’t deny, by the boundaries she couldn’t make herself respect. He walked her indoors to the air-conditioned cool but still she felt as though her skin had shrunk too tight over her bones and her heartbeat was pounding as if she had run a mile. Ruy wanted to lift her up into his arms and stride upstairs with her, but instead he forced himself to stay in control with her simply to prove that he could do it...this once.
Manuel was beaming at them from a discreet corner. They were definitely putting on an authentic show of being lovers, Ruy acknowledged without the satisfaction he had expected to feel. She would be leaving in a day and a half, straight after the wedding. He already knew that he would miss her. Not just the passion, but the new life she brought to the palacio.
A huge bunch of sunflowers gathered from the edge of a field by Suzy sat in a giant vase on a table, transforming the splendid marble hall into a much warmer space. Suzy cast a kind of spell over the old house, changing practices that had been in vogue for decades. A cardigan she had abandoned over a carved chair provided another splash of colour. She could be rather untidy, Ruy conceded, because he had tripped over the boots she’d left lying on the bedroom floor the night before. Not that on the way into a bed containing Suzy he had felt remotely tempted to complain.
They now ate their meals in the airy orangery, not in the formal dining room, where she had confessed to feeling oppressed by the heavy tapestries on the wall and the giant table. She had taken a notion for fish and chips one afternoon and had casually suggested it to Manuel and, lo and behold, Ruy’s cordon bleu chef had served fish and chips for the first time ever and had then emerged from the kitchens he ruled like a tyrant to enquire as to whether she had any other special requests. Informed that Suzy loved to be surprised, the chef had grinned and Ruy had appreciated that his regimented menu of meals—for he did not like to be surprised by what was on his plate—would be changed for ever. Suzy smiled and said thank you and the staff couldn’t do enough for her.
On the landing he succumbed to the allure of her soft pink mouth and crushed her to him to extract a hungry kiss. They walked into his bedroom and Suzy stopped dead. Ruy frowned at the display of rails holding a wide selection of women’s clothes.
‘What’s all this?’
‘You said you weren’t sure that your clothes were what you needed for your stay here or for the wedding. I ordered a selection of designer garments in your sizes. I’m sorry I forgot to mention it,’ he completed truthfully as he closed a hand over hers. ‘You can look at them later.’
‘Ruy,’ she muttered in frustration. ‘For goodness’ sake, I’m leaving soon!’
‘I thought you could donate them to a charity afterwards,’ Ruy suggested, feeling quite pleased with that community-minded advice. ‘Or even auction them off for a good cause.’
Suzy gritted her teeth at the prospect of garments so expensive that it would be worth auctioning them and groaned. ‘I tell you not to be sneaky and you just get sneakier!’ she complained. ‘And what’s in that giant chest sitting on the dressing table?’
Ruy shrugged. ‘Some jewellery I had Manuel take out