Chapter Five
SUZY STAYED STILL for only a few moments and then she leapt off the bed and ran around scooping up her clothes, clambering back into them as fast as she could.
At the same time, a phone started buzzing somewhere, a phone she suspected to be in Ruy’s discarded jeans.
Ignoring it, she sped downstairs, not even sure where she was going.
She felt hurt, humiliated, utterly and cruelly exposed after his cutting words in the aftermath of their intimacy.
She had got into bed with the wrong guy, totally the wrong guy.
In the spacious lounge area, she looked around in search of the studio he had mentioned or at least the possibility of another bathroom facility because she knew she had to wash the memory of him off her skin.
She peered into an empty kitchen, a cloakroom and then a big airy room with full-height windows that overlooked the dense woods.
It contained both an easel, a stack of canvases and a bed.
One of the doors off it led into a bathroom and with a sigh of relief she began to undress again.
She had gone to bed with a man she barely knew, and she cursed her impulsive nature for that blunder.
She had leapt in where angels feared to tread.
All the worst mistakes she had ever made could be laid at the door of that flaw in her character.
Well, lesson learned, she told herself urgently, frantically striving to fill the deep well of pain inside her with more positive feelings.
Her body ached, reminding her of what she wanted to most forget.
How on earth had she put herself in a position where Ruy Rivera could reject her as if she had chased after him begging for his attention?
Was he so arrogant, so vain that he assumed every woman would try to entrap him if she got the chance?
What else was she to think after that speech he had made?
Plenty more fish in the sea, one of her friends at school used to quip when some boy let her down, but just then Suzy didn’t believe she would ever dare to look at a man again with covetous eyes.
On the floor above, Ruy almost punched the wall of his shower, drawing his clenched fist back with a curse at the last possible moment.
What the hell had come over him when he verbally attacked Suzy like that?
But he knew, didn’t he? He knew all too well where that attack of paranoia had come from.
His brain had succumbed to a flashback of Liliana and the catastrophic trail of events that she had initiated in his life.
Cold revulsion and disquiet had drenched Ruy like an acid bath and he had lashed out accordingly at an innocent.
He gritted his teeth. Ruy had never liked being in the wrong and even less did he like the prospect of apologising.
A virgin though, he hadn’t been prepared for that possibility at all.
Why not though? She was still very young, too young for him, he censured himself.
He had given in to lust like a sex-starved teenager with no thought of the consequences.
As a result, he had destroyed any trust Suzy might have had in him and any hope of her being willing to do anything for him.
He towelled himself off grimly and stooped to snatch up his phone when he heard it buzzing.
Damp and breathless from her haste, Suzy emerged back into the lounge, having decided what she would do next.
She would nip back upstairs, collect her stuff and then go home to her father.
She would have to walk back by the road, which would take ages, but she didn’t feel as though she had a choice.
She reckoned she would sooner walk over hot coals than spend another hour under Ruy Rivera’s roof.
Someone thumped loudly on the front door knocker.
Suzy frowned, knowing the housekeeper wasn’t around and that Ruy was probably still in the shower.
After a moment of hesitation, she opened the front door and took a dumbfounded step back as Percy confronted her with knotted fists and an enraged red face.
‘You slut!’ he launched at her accusingly. ‘So, the rumours were true!’
‘Leave me alone!’ Suzy exclaimed as he extended his thick arms to grab at her and she snaked backwards into the safety of the house.
As Percy lurched past the door she attempted to slam shut in his face, two things happened. She saw several men racing across the driveway towards them and heard someone coming down the stairs to her rear.
With an explosive Spanish curse, Ruy thrust Suzy to safety behind him and as Percy ploughed forward Ruy punched him hard.
Percy went down like rock and, venting a hissed imprecation, Ruy grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him out of the house.
Suzy was frozen to the spot, shocked by the speed of Ruy’s reactions.
She watched as four men rushed up the steps, frantically apologising to Ruy in Spanish while grabbing hold of Percy to haul him away.
‘Who the heck are they?’ Suzy whispered shakily.
‘Staff,’ Ruy breathed curtly. ‘Did he hurt you?’
‘No...you got here just in time.’
‘My staff let him onto the grounds because they knew you were staying here and they assumed that he was your father,’ Ruy explained with a shake of his head, damp black hair tousled above dark deep-set eyes that shone gold with strong emotion.
‘Well, they won’t make that mistake again and we will ensure that Brenton stays away. ’
‘Don’t know how we’re going to do that... Percy likes to have his say,’ Suzy muttered as Ruy paced away from her, punching a number on his phone and speaking rapidly.
‘Legal counsel will meet us at the police station...’
Suzy dealt him a dazed look, still reeling from Percy’s sudden appearance and the shockingly efficient violence of Ruy’s response. She watched as the men Ruy had labelled staff levered Percy back into his car and stood back waiting for him to drive away. ‘Why would we need legal counsel?’
And why, in concert with Ruy, was she suddenly employing that royal ‘we’ as if Ruy were as ensnared in the ongoing problem of Percy as she was?
‘You have to apply for a non-molestation order to keep Brenton at a distance but first you must report the original assault to the police,’ Ruy told her firmly. ‘You really can’t afford to wait to do that now.’
‘No,’ Suzy conceded with a shudder, her ex’s second attempt to assault her having shaken her up badly and made her appreciate that she did need the law to protect her.
‘It’ll take an hour for the solicitor I’ve instructed to arrive.’
‘I don’t know why you would be instructing a solicitor to help me,’ Suzy told him flatly, shooting him a bemused glance. ‘You know your moods change like the wind, Ruy. One minute you’re Mr Nice guy, the next—’
Watching her warily, Ruy expelled his breath in a hiss. ‘Will you allow me to apologise and explain?’
Suzy stiffened and flushed; her expressive eyes carefully veiled. ‘You don’t need to explain anything to me.’
‘I apologise for what I said upstairs,’ Ruy murmured in a driven undertone, thoroughly surprising her with that candid opening.
‘Unfortunately,’ he continued flatly, ‘after an experience I had with a woman eight years ago, I’m a little paranoid about having sex with a virgin.’
‘A little?’ Suzy stressed. ‘Anyone could have been forgiven for thinking I was ready to set a wedding date!’
But his frankness and the speed of his apology had already struck a reassuring note with Suzy.
Clearly, Ruy had faults and baggage just as she did, a little voice piped up inside her head, and he was strong enough to admit those facts.
He had helped her, had dealt with Percy and was still fully committed to ensuring that she stayed safe.
Yes, Ruy had also said stuff he shouldn’t have said and made assumptions that he was not entitled to make, but if he was willing to explain she decided she would listen even if it was only out of curiosity.
Stiff with nervous tension, she dropped down on the edge of a sofa and studied him with caution.
Ruy was currently engaged in buttoning the shirt he had put on with his jeans.
He had been bare-chested when he repelled Percy, the shirt fluttering loose.
He was now covering that broad slice of bronzed muscular torso.
As a little spark of heat awakened low in her belly, she turned pink and swiftly averted her attention from him.
‘Eight years ago, you must have been quite young,’ she remarked uncomfortably.
‘I was twenty-two,’ Ruy admitted flatly.
‘I took a woman home from a club one evening. She was a virgin and afterwards she spooked me by announcing that she had always known that we would make a wonderful couple. I had never met her before and, at that age, I was more into one-night stands than anything else. Regrettably, she decided that that one night constituted a relationship and she turned into a stalker, who caused me a lot of trouble and unhappiness.’
‘Oh, my goodness,’ Suzy groaned in surprise and sympathy at his explanation.
‘So perhaps you can now understand why I forgot my manners for a moment with you and dived straight into mistrust. What happened with that woman did a lot of damage to my life. Since then I have generally been much more careful about the women I take as lovers and they have, until now, always been more mature and experienced.’
‘I think the lady’s problems had very little to do with her lack of sexual experience.’
‘You’re right, but that lack was the only thing that made her different from her predecessors. I’m afraid discovering your innocence unleashed my worst memories.’
‘I can understand that...now that I know about your past,’ Suzy extended, wanting to ask him more about his stalking experience, but, sensing that he had shared as much as he felt comfortable sharing with her, she reluctantly suppressed her curiosity.