The Ring The Spaniard Gave Her - Lynne Graham Page 0,58

was an extraordinary likeness. ‘You’ve made me look as though I’m beautiful, though,’ she whispered self-consciously. ‘And I’m not.’

Ruy smiled. ‘Sí, querida...you are. And you destroyed my artistic objectivity. You modelled for my very first romantic portrait.’

‘You don’t do romantic,’ she reminded him.

‘I do for you. I do a lot of things differently with you,’ Ruy murmured, reaching for her left hand and showing her the diamond ring he was holding as he dropped down very deliberately on one knee. ‘Will you do me the very great honour of becoming my wife?’

Thoroughly taken aback by that proposal of marriage, Suzy stared down into anxious dark golden eyes and she dropped down onto her knees as well, covering his lean, strong face with kisses and grabbing the ring in the midst of it. In fact it was a bit of a free-for-all between him trying to get the ring back on her finger at the same time as he claimed her mouth in a fierce ravaging kiss designed to prove to her that she was being claimed for all time as his.

‘Oh, my goodness, Ruy... I love you so much and I wasn’t expecting that...but we’ve only known each other a few weeks,’ she exclaimed in reluctant protest.

‘If I had known what love felt like I’d have proposed the first day but I hadn’t ever been in love before so I didn’t recognise what I was feeling,’ Ruy explained, appraising her dazed face with adoring intensity. ‘At first I assumed it was an overwhelming desire to paint you. But I needed to keep you close as well and prevent anyone and anything from ever hurting you. I wanted to kill Brenton...slowly. I wanted to wake up with you in the morning and go to sleep with you beside me every night. I didn’t just fall in love with you a little. I fell obsessively in love with you.’

‘That’s good...that’s good. Stop saying it as if it’s peculiar when it’s not. I thought I would break in two leaving you behind in Spain because it hurt so much.’ Suzy framed his lean dark face with unsteady hands. ‘And you didn’t try to stop me leaving!’

‘I was so angry that you could believe me capable of such sleazy behaviour, angry...and, sí—’ he sighed ‘—also hurt. I expected you to have more faith in me.’

Suzy flinched at that quiet admission. ‘I didn’t trust my own judgement enough after Percy,’ she confided heavily as she closed both arms round him with so much determination that she almost toppled him. ‘But I swear I’m getting over that now...and look at you, I can see that you haven’t been sleeping, you haven’t been looking after yourself properly...and you’ve lost weight!’ she condemned with ringing disapproval.

‘Our chef is grieving your absence. I’ve eaten Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Indian and Mexican dishes every day you’ve been gone and not one British or Spanish meal. I need you at home with me so that I can eat again and regulate the menu. I need you round the clock.’

‘But marriage—’

‘And soon,’ Ruy urged as he lifted her up off the floor and brought her down on the welcome softness of the bed. ‘Like really, really soon, like possibly this week, and a casual, relaxed wedding that you would like here with your father and Cecile and her family attending. And then possibly a more traditional do for Spain and the rest of my family. You get to pick your own wedding dress too and it doesn’t have to have feathers.’

‘You are insane,’ Suzy told him lovingly as he came down over her. She speared her fingers happily into his tousled black hair. ‘I’m going to drive you nuts sometimes...you do know that? I’m untidy and impulsive and—’

‘You are the woman I love, and I can’t do without you in my life another day,’ Ruy swore vehemently.

‘I’ve got so used to you too. I thought I disliked so much about you, but you made me feel safe, protected, cared for even though I fought with you about your bossiness,’ Suzy told him, hauling him down to kiss her again, revelling in the weight of his body on hers. ‘I couldn’t believe how much I missed you. I fell like a ton of bricks for you and now you’re going to be stuck with me and my irritating habits for ever.’

‘You wouldn’t believe how good for ever sounds,’ Ruy admitted with a brilliant smile.

‘But you didn’t do serious relationships! How has this happened?’

‘Liliana