Her father stopped at the electric gates that secured Ruy’s house in the woods. The gates whirred open and Suzy stared in disbelief at her parent while he marvelled out loud at the camera-recognition technology that had given them automatic entry.
‘Dad!’ she gasped in frustration. ‘What are we doing here?’
‘You had a row with him, and you didn’t talk it out. This is your last chance to get it sorted,’ her father told her squarely.
At the realisation that Ruy was back in England, Suzy froze in consternation. ‘I’m not going in there!’
‘If he’s made the effort to fly over here, you can make the effort to at least listen to what he has to say. You don’t have to forgive him for whatever he’s done,’ her father pointed out levelly.
‘I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!’ Suzy protested, shooting him a shaken glance.
‘I hope you don’t still feel that way in ten minutes—’
‘Ten minutes?’
‘I’ll wait here for ten minutes. If you aren’t back out again by then I’ll go home.’ Her father switched off the engine with a flourish.
‘Did Ruy somehow force you into doing this for him?’
‘No, he was planning to come to the pub, but I didn’t want to find myself in the middle of your drama and it’s not very private there. This is the better option,’ Roger Madderton opined and leant across her to swing open the passenger door in invitation.
Suzy snatched in a sustaining breath and leapt out. ‘I’ll be out in less than ten minutes!’
‘Famous last words, my love,’ her father said equably as she slammed the door shut again.
Furious with Ruy for using her dad to do his bidding and mysteriously contriving to shift the older man’s loyalty away from his daughter, Suzy stomped up the steps. Ruy opened the door himself and her heart skipped a beat straight away. His black hair was still damp from the shower, his jawline freshly shaven. Sheathed in jeans and a shirt, he should have seemed familiar but he was definitely changed with his lean, strong face rather fined down, his spectacular dark eyes under-shadowed. Her first thought was that he had been ill, and alarm clutched at her and only with the greatest difficulty did she resist the urge to demand proof of his health.
‘Ruy...’ It was all she could do to squeeze those syllables from her dry throat.
‘Don’t blame your father for this. I phoned him last night and persuaded him that this meeting was for the best.’
‘But it’s not,’ Suzy whispered, sidling past him, careful not to brush against him.
‘Hear me out and then say that,’ Ruy framed harshly.
What Suzy wasn’t about to say to him was that seeing him again and refreshing her memories only made their separation more painful for her. ‘OK,’ she agreed. ‘I’ll listen.’
Ruy strode into the spacious reception area. ‘I told you about my stalking ordeal eight years ago.’
‘Well, you didn’t tell me how you settled it,’ Suzy remarked in a brittle voice.
‘I didn’t settle it, but eventually I involved the police and she was charged. I had to do something. The longer it went on, the worse it became. She assaulted a woman I took out to dinner. When the police arrested her and searched her apartment they discovered that she had gathered a huge amount of information about me long before I met her. She had deliberately targeted me in the club the night we met.’
Suzy was frowning. ‘That’s creepy. What happened to the poor woman she assaulted?’
‘She was shaken up, but she managed to get away from her. Although I was convinced it was my stalker who had attacked her, we weren’t able to prove it. The assault made me bring in the police,’ Ruy admitted. ‘After she was arrested, her parents approached me and begged me to drop the charges. They said the prosecution would ruin her life. They promised to get her psychiatric treatment and swore that I would never see her again. I dropped the charges and to this day, I don’t know whether that was the right or wrong thing to do.’
‘I don’t understand what all this has to do with your brother’s wife—’
‘Bear with me,’ Ruy cut in. ‘Would you like a drink?’
‘A white wine.’
Ruy filled a glass for her, his lean brown hands deft, and she watched him, studying his sculpted profile, his black hair gleaming as it dried in the sunlight arrowing through the tall windows. ‘I was sympathetic towards my stalker’s parents because my brother also had mental-health issues,’ Ruy explained. ‘Rigo had a nervous breakdown in his teens. He got hooked on prescription drugs and eventually he had to go into rehab to get clean. Six months after that he phoned me to tell me that he had got engaged and that he wanted me to meet his future wife, whom he had met in the same clinic. He was besotted with her. She was a beautiful woman. Her name was Liliana, my former stalker.’
‘Good grief!’ Suzy croaked, finally grasping the connection. ‘What did you do when you realised?’
‘I was honest with him. I told him that I had had a one-night stand with her, which quite naturally angered and upset him. No man wants the woman he loves to have already slept with his brother. I also gave Rigo chapter and verse on her stalking activities and I went to see her parents and asked them to be honest with him as well. They flat out refused. They believed Liliana was in love with my brother and that he was the best chance she had of a normal life. At the same time Liliana gave Rigo some nonsensical story about how I had led her down the garden path and broken her heart, which of course made him sympathetic towards her. I, on the other hand, was convinced she had chosen him because he was my brother...and in the end I was proven right on that score.’
Suzy gulped down a mouthful of wine. ‘She really did put you through the mill. What happened?’
‘He married her, and she began to stalk me again. She was very manipulative. My brother accused me of trying to lure her away from him when I would have done anything to be rid of her attentions!’ Ruy admitted in a driven undertone. ‘But, no, I certainly never wished her dead. She interrupted a business lunch I was having one day...my brother’s wife, my sister-in-law, walking in and draping herself over me as though we were lovers. Her behaviour caused a great deal of talk and I warned Rigo that he had to rein her in or that I would take steps to keep her away from me.’
‘My word, Ruy...she made your life hell.’ Suzy sighed, understanding all at once why Ruy was so set on not getting into relationships. Liliana had scared him off and had probably made him wary and distrustful of every woman he met after her. ‘And your brother’s too.’
‘The last time I saw her I tried very hard to persuade her to see a psychiatrist and I told her that there was no chance of her ever having a relationship with me, but she became hysterical and I had to drop the subject. That afternoon she bribed a cleaner to gain access to my apartment and took an overdose there,’ Ruy related grimly. ‘She knew my schedule and usually I would have been home that evening but a crisis had arisen and I flew to Brussels instead.’