The Ring The Spaniard Gave Her - Lynne Graham Page 0,53

waited until the eleventh hour to mention it? Of course, the wedding had taken up the whole of the previous day and evening and there had not been an opportunity for them to talk about anything serious. But then, Ruy didn’t do serious, so what was he talking about? She had a life to live and it wasn’t in Spain. Most probably he found their liaison convenient. The sex was off-the-charts amazing and wasn’t that, according to popular report, what the average guy reputedly valued the most? In addition, she made no demands on him. High colour mantled her cheeks at the humiliation of such thoughts in which she was reduced to rating her precise value like some product and she lifted her bright head high as she smiled at the last departing guests.

‘Now perhaps you’ll tell me what’s wrong with you,’ Ruy breathed in the marble hall.

‘I have to pack,’ Suzy told him with urgency.

Impervious to the hint that she intended to be very busy, Ruy followed her upstairs. He strode into the bedroom. ‘I ask you to stay on and you don’t even want to discuss it?’ he pressed incredulously.

‘It’s not possible,’ Suzy told him, hauling her case out in the dressing room, wishing he weren’t able to see that it was almost fully packed already. ‘Thank you for the offer but I’m saying no, we’re done.’

‘Why?’ Ruy demanded rawly, swiping the heavy case from her and planting it noisily down on the luggage rack in the bedroom. ‘Why wouldn’t it be possible?’

Suzy felt trapped. She hadn’t wanted such a confrontation, had seen no advantage to it, indeed had only foreseen future repercussions. ‘It just wouldn’t be,’ she muttered evasively.

She yanked comfy clothes out of her case and carried them into the bathroom, closing and locking the door for privacy.

‘I want... I need an answer,’ Ruy growled outside the door.

Suzy stripped off the dress and pulled on yoga pants and a loose sleeveless sweatshirt. She was all shaky. She didn’t want to leave the bathroom, but she was no coward. Breathing in deep, she padded out again barefoot, to head back to her case to dig out canvas shoes.

‘I don’t want to talk about this with you,’ she warned him stiffly.

‘I’m afraid you have no choice but to talk about it. That jet won’t take off until I get an answer,’ Ruy spelt out flatly.

That hard assurance warned her that there was no way she would be getting home without satisfying his curiosity, but she was still very reluctant to tackle so controversial a topic with a male she knew to be fiercely private and determined not to confide in her.

‘Suzy...’ Ruy breathed.

As she looked at him involuntarily, it was as if a cruel hand squeezed her heart inside her tight chest. Black hair slightly tousled, a dark shadow of stubble accentuating his jaw and sensual mouth, his dark eyes smouldering gold, he was rawly masculine and very much the man she had fallen madly in love with. She had become accustomed to the man in the sharply tailored business suits that he wore with such panache. At first that sophisticated image had intimidated her, and then he had simply become her Ruy and what he wore and where he lived and how much money he had hadn’t mattered to her any longer. When he had rescued her and her father from Percy, when he had supported her through that frightening experience, she had begun to believe that Ruy Valiente was everything she had ever wanted in a man. Discovering that he was not that man had shattered her faith in her own judgement.

She straightened her shoulders, lifted her head, green eyes veiled. ‘Is it true that you slept with your brother’s first wife and that she...er...died when you ditched her?’

As she’d spoken, Ruy had become as still as a statue, his lean dark features wiped clean of all expression, but his healthy colour had evaporated and his shock stabbed her to the heart because she took that reaction as confirmation. He compressed his lips and it took a few seconds for him to master his surprise at that question and respond. ‘In essence the facts can be interpreted in that light. People who know me are aware of the true facts and if you knew me better—’

‘I don’t want to know you any better!’ Suzy let loose at him because her tension had climbed and climbed unbearably while she awaited his answer and the ferocious disillusionment she