Suzy wasn’t fanciful and she didn’t believe in miracles. She knew that Ruy viewed her as an enjoyable fling and nothing more. He had warned her that he didn’t have relationships as such with women and she had listened, but her heart and her body had overruled her common sense. She had given in to temptation. She had honestly believed that she could stop her emotions getting too deeply involved but that had proved to be a naïve hope. Now she knew that heartbreak loomed on her horizon. She had been too trusting, too confident in her assumption that she could protect herself and too ignorant of how intimacy could change and strengthen everything between a man and a woman.
Even so, she wasn’t one to cry over spilt milk and she didn’t think that she had any true regrets. She couldn’t say that she wished that she had never met Ruy because she had revelled in every high and low of being with him. She was almost twenty-two years old and he was the first man in her life—she didn’t count Percy. At her age, it was normal to succumb to physical attraction and hope that it would develop into something deeper. It was equally normal to fall in love and get hurt. She would learn to live with the disappointment, she told herself fiercely.
Ruy answered his phone and began to talk in Spanish. It was his sister, Cecile, and Suzy saw him frown and start to pace as the conversation heated up. After several strained responses when she could clearly see that he was hanging onto his temper by a thread, the call ended.
‘I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to remain one full day longer after the wedding.’
Her brow furrowed. ‘Why?’
‘Cecile was phoning to warn me that my family are throwing an engagement party here for us the day after Rigo’s wedding,’ he explained. ‘Manuel refused to make any arrangements without the go-ahead from me, which is why Cecile has shared their plans in advance.’
‘No, I can’t stay any longer,’ Suzy interrupted worriedly, keen to stick to the timetable initially agreed between them.
‘Would you really leave me to face an engagement party without a fiancée?’ Ruy demanded in astonishment.
Suzy reddened. ‘What’s the point? I’ll be leaving and disappearing from your life soon anyway.’
‘One day,’ Ruy emphasised, dark golden eyes brilliant. ‘We’re talking about one day. Why are you in such a hurry to get home?’
‘Because I’ve got plans,’ Suzy responded with determined cheer. ‘Dad doesn’t need me working at the pub any more. I’d like to work with children in the future and I’m going to look into studying towards that goal. I’ll need to get applications in now if I want to get onto a course.’
‘One more day, querida,’ Ruy murmured drily. ‘Don’t make it a big deal. I didn’t ask for this party either.’
Suzy sucked in a sustaining breath, wanting to be fair and yet resenting him for putting pressure on her. ‘I’ll agree because it would be unreasonable to say no in the circumstances, but no is really what you deserve...’ She waved a meaningful hand at the racks of clothing and the antique box of jewellery. ‘You constantly chip away at what I want to try and turn it into what you want instead. I don’t like that.’
The faintest colour edged Ruy’s sculpted cheekbones. ‘I enjoy smoothing out problems for you, solving them,’ he argued as he moved forward. ‘You’re letting me paint you. You’re faking being my betrothed for my benefit. I owe you and I like to pay my debts.’
‘Some things in life are free, Ruy,’ Suzy declared, her pulses pounding at the smouldering glitter in his gaze. ‘You don’t owe me anything and I don’t owe you anything either. Let’s keep this simple.’
‘You want me to return the clothes?’ he prompted tautly.
‘Not until I’ve picked out something suitable for a fancy engagement party,’ Suzy responded with a rueful roll of her bright eyes. ‘And now Cecile knows about our pretend engagement as well.’
‘Cecile knows the truth...that you’re doing me a favour,’ Ruy contradicted.
‘Like I’m about to complain about a week in a palace abroad where I’m being waited on hand and foot!’ Suzy quipped, flashing him a look of amusement, needing to come across as light-hearted and fully aware that nothing between them was real or lasting. ‘And the sex isn’t bad either.’
‘Cheeky,’ Ruy remarked with a sizzling smile, reaching for her and discovering that at the very last minute she wasn’t there any more.
‘Lunch,’ she reminded him from the bedroom door. ‘I’m starving!’
She would keep it light and chirpy right up until the moment she departed. She wasn’t the clingy, needy type and, worse, he would be repelled by any hint of clinginess after suffering the attentions of a stalker in the past. No, there would be no behaviour of that nature on her part. She would laugh and she would smile, and she would stay normal and buoyant right to the bitter end.
CHAPTER NINE
‘YOU LOOK FANTASTIC,’ Ruy murmured as Suzy emerged from the dressing room, a flirty net fascinator anchored in her vibrant curls. She was an amazingly sexy vision. No man in the world would wonder why he was with such a beauty. That emerald-green shade accentuated her translucent skin and vibrant curls.
Her elegant gown, with its strategic panelled splits, revealed an occasional discreet flash of long shapely calf and tiny feet shod in high-heeled shoes that were a curious mix of bondage boot and sandal, with narrow straps that bared her toes while accentuating the delicacy of her ankles. ‘I notice that you’re not wearing any jewellery.’
‘I’m wearing the engagement ring, but I decided it was best not to borrow anything from that chest,’ Suzy told him gently. ‘I’m not a member of the family and it would be tasteless of me to be seen flaunting any of it before we were married. Your brother’s bride would have more excuse than I would have.’
‘The collection was offered to her and refused,’ Ruy sliced in coolly. ‘Of course, Rigo is marrying an heiress and the bride probably has her own inherited gems to flaunt.’
Suzy flushed a little. ‘I wasn’t being rude. I just don’t think it would be appropriate for me to be showing it off in my current role. You’ve told me nothing about the woman your brother is marrying. Tell me more,’ she urged, keen to leave the topic of the jewellery she had rejected behind.
‘Her name is Mercedes Hernandez Ortega. She’s the only child of a prominent industrialist and well known for her charity work. I’ve never met her because she’s more in your age group than mine. As my father would have said, however, in a worldly sense, Rigo has done very well for himself this time.’
‘This time?’ she questioned as they walked downstairs.