Читать книгу The Acostas Box Set: The Shameless Life of Ruiz Acosta / The Argentinian's Solace / A Taste of the Untamed / The Man From her Wayward Past / Taming the Last Acosta / Christmas Nights with the Polo Player - Susan Stephens, Susan Stephens - Страница 17
ОглавлениеAnother column I only hope makes more sense to you, the reader, than it does to me right now. My head is full of one man: the playboy. He’s so hot and sexy with a torso that would eclipse the centre-fold on any magazine you care to mention. To see him control a horse, effortlessly and completely, is the biggest turn-on of all. The polo match was spectacular. He was spectacular—
Am I getting a little selfish here? If I am, this is for you: the quotient of thighs like smooth, muscular tree trunks, and forearms like hairy steel bars was totally off the scale—
But the playboy is the only man I’m interested in. To seem him in full battle mode cracking the ball down the field at a gallop was so thrilling I would have fallen in love with him on the spot if I weren’t in love with him already.
Yes. You can safely say I am a lost cause. I don’t seem to have any sense of reality when it comes to men. I can’t find a safe man with carpet slippers and a newspaper. I can’t even find a slightly risky man with a set of golf clubs and a year’s subscription to the local squash club. All I can find is a Playboy with a capital P and a stonking great mallet.
RUIZ was in the kitchen drinking coffee, with a housekeeper bustling at the stove. He put his cup down when Holly came into the room and got up immediately. ‘I want you to see something,’ he said, leading her back towards the door she had just entered.
His touch on her arm was so familiar … so achingly familiar. She liked it. A great deal too much.
Ruiz took her across the baronial hall with its burnished wooded floor and muted, jewel-coloured hangings to another passageway leading off the grand entrance hall. Opening the door onto a room with a very different personality, he followed her in. Leaning back against the door, he said, ‘Well? What do you think?’
She was finding it hard to concentrate right now.
‘Take a look around,’ he said. ‘I think you’ll find everything you need here …’
It was an office, she realised. Ruiz had brought her into a very modern office. All teak and cream furnishings, and sunlight slid through crisp white blinds to create the perfect working environment.
‘I thought you would appreciate having a room of your own to work in quietly,’ he said. ‘Somewhere away from the rest of the house and the hubbub of polo and family life. This is where I come when I want to get away, and where I do some of my best thinking. Let’s hope the same vibes work for you. Consider this your room for the duration of your stay, Holly. No one will disturb you here.’
It was a beautiful room. So why did she feel so flat? Maybe because Ruiz wasn’t part of the package? ‘Thank you.’ No one had ever been so thoughtful before. Her family home had been small and cramped with parents at war, so the local library or the coffee shop down the road had been her office. A room of her own, even for her brief stay here, was luxury indeed. There was only one thing missing, Holly realised as Ruiz turned to go.
‘Don’t spend all your time in here,’ was his parting shot.
‘I won’t.’ She was determined to keep it light. ‘I won’t have anything to write about if I do!’
But he’d already gone. The door had shut behind Ruiz, leaving Holly to her own devices in his fabulous office. Great. She was here to work, so this was brilliant.
Well, get on with it, then …
Nothing. Her mind was empty. There wasn’t a single idea in her head. There was just a keyboard, a blank screen, and the sound of confident footsteps walking away.
* * *
There were times when you had to cast your net into the water rather than wait on the bank doing nothing, Holly reflected when the longest ten minutes of her life had passed. There was everything here in this office, except for the one thing she needed. Picking up the internal phone, she dialled the kitchen. Ruiz picked up immediately. ‘Problem?’ he demanded.
‘I need something to write about.’
‘I’ll be right up.’
There was nothing in his tone to suggest that this was going to be anything more than a courtesy call, but Holly’s heart turned over at the sound of a knock on the door. ‘Well?’ Ruiz demanded, walking in.
Her brain seized up. Right now she just wanted to look at him. There’d been a Ruiz-drought in her life and now she just wanted to drink him in. Big, refreshing gulps! Propping one lean thigh against the desk, he stared down at her, frowning. ‘I hope you haven’t brought me up here for nothing?’
‘No …’ Her senses were full of him. She loved it when he glowered, and Ruiz was close enough for her to feel the warmth of his body and smell the soap he’d used in the shower.
‘Why aren’t you working?’ he asked, straightening up.
‘I am,’ she protested.
‘Well, work faster,’ Ruiz prompted, ‘and remember that when you leave this room your work stays here. Agreed?’
She loved it when his lips firmed. ‘Agreed,’ she said faintly.
‘Louder, Holly.’
‘Agreed.’
‘That’s better,’ Ruiz murmured. ‘Now come here. We haven’t said hello to each other properly yet.’
She stood. Taking a couple of small, prudent paces forward, she stretched out her hand to shake his.
Ruiz took hold of her and dragged her close. ‘Hello, Holly,’ he murmured, laughing down into her eyes.
She stared into the dark, amused eyes, and then at the firm, sexy mouth only a whisper from hers. ‘I thought you said this room was to work in,’ she protested without much force.
‘It is,’ Ruiz agreed. ‘Here’s your next headline.’
His kiss took her breath away. It was both fierce and tender. Two dams had burst at once, she thought as Ruiz swung her into his arms. ‘You can’t do this in the office.’
Shh you crazy woman, and savour the moment!
‘I can do anything I want, anywhere I want,’ Ruiz assured her. ‘Just so long as you want it too …’
‘All I want is you,’ she said softly, opening her heart when caution couldn’t save it.
‘If you’re sure?’ He held her above the sofa. ‘I can always leave you here to work.’
‘You dare,’ she said, feeling excitement spring inside her. ‘And you know what they say about too much work.’
‘I know what I say,’ Ruiz commented under his breath.
‘Where are we going?’ she said as he carried her towards the door.
‘To bed,’ Ruiz said bluntly. ‘This might take some time and I’m not confident the sofa springs will hold up.’
She could hardly breathe for anticipation as he strode down the landing with her in his arms. Opening a door at the end, he walked into a spacious room and kicked the door shut behind them. He carried her straight over to the bed and she barely had time to register that this was a very different room again: elegantly furnished in the Italian style rather than in the heavy traditional manner of the rest of the house. ‘I like a man who knows what he wants.’
‘And a woman who knows how to give it to him.’
She wouldn’t argue with that, Holly thought as her breathing quickened. Ruiz’s bed was big and firm, and had been recently dressed in crisp white linen. She was sure she could smell sunshine coming off the sheets. Lowering her onto the bed, he joined her and then, cupping her face, he kissed her. ‘You’re in a rush,’ she said, fighting to catch her breath when he released her.
‘Would you have me any other way?’
‘Absolutely not,’ she admitted. And then, because she was a glutton for punishment, she added, ‘How about me?’
‘Stop hiding behind the column,’ Ruiz said frankly.
‘And live a little?’ Holly suggested.
‘No.’ He paused. ‘Live a lot.’
Her body responded urgently as Ruiz kissed her again. She loved the feel of his arms around her and the touch of him beneath her hands. She loved the taste of him and the smell of him, warm, clean and musky with rampant maleness. ‘I’m so glad you invited me.’
‘Don’t play prim with me.’ His lips tugged in a grin. ‘I know what you want.’
‘Seriously, Ruiz.’
‘Seriously?’ he queried, stopping her with a kiss. ‘I know what you want. And you should know by now that I’ll call you any way I have to, as loudly as I have to, from as far away as I must.’
She wasn’t used to this feeling, this safe, sure, happy feeling. Maybe Ruiz was right and this was living. It was certainly risking everything for one man. And it was better this way. She stared into the dark amused eyes and knew then that for her this was the only way.
‘Now stop trying to kid yourself and me,’ Ruiz told her in a husky voice. ‘We both know you’re a very bad girl. So, what’s holding you back, Holly?’
‘Nothing,’ she said, moving down the bed.
She took her time tracing the lines of Ruiz’s muscular thighs. Then, pulling up his top, she traced the band of muscles across his belly. As her fingers trailed lower she had the satisfaction of hearing him suck in a fast breath. ‘Was the belt really necessary,’ she murmured. Cupping the arrogant swell of Ruiz’s erection over the fabric of his jeans, she directed a teasing stare into his face. ‘Is all this for me? You shouldn’t have.’
Holly gasped out as Ruiz swung her underneath him. ‘But I have and I will,’ he promised as he began unbuttoning her shirt. ‘And if you can’t give me a very good reason for keeping me waiting for this, I shall just have to pleasure it out of you.’
‘Oh, no. Please don’t do that,’ she murmured, watching as Ruiz reached back to tug his top over his head. Tracing the formidable muscles on his chest, she turned her attention to his jeans. ‘You are massively overdressed,’ she complained, wrestling them off him. And massively erect, she discovered with excitement.
‘And you are as forward as I remember.’ Ruiz paid her back by whipping her top off and tossing it away.
‘Lie on that bed, Señor,’ she warned, stripping down to bra and pants. ‘There is some unfinished business requiring my immediate attention, and it cannot wait.’
‘Go easy, señorita,’ Ruiz growled. ‘I’ve been waiting a long time for this.’
‘Are you saying the renowned playboy has lost his self-control?’ she taunted, kneeling over him.
‘I’m saying that with you it might be impossible to hold on.’
‘Don’t touch,’ she warned when Ruiz reached for her breasts. Currently threatening to spill over her bra, her nipples were deep rose pink and erect.
‘Do your worst,’ Ruiz encouraged in a husky Latin whisper.
‘Don’t worry, I will,’ she promised, slipping her fingertips beneath the waistband of his boxers. It was Holly’s turn to suck in a fast, excited breath when she had removed them. Ruiz was magnificent in every department and most especially in this. She dipped her head to take him in her mouth, relishing his smoothness and the sheer size of him as she traced the veined surface with her tongue. She tasted and suckled gently, before licking him while cupping him with her hands. She wanted to hold him now, to feel the promise of pleasure beneath her hands. She needed both her hands.
‘That’s enough,’ he exclaimed suddenly, swinging her beneath him.
‘Can’t you hold on?’ she challenged him.
Ruiz’s eyes were equally wicked. ‘Let’s find out, shall we?’ he teased.
‘Oh, yes. Let’s,’ she agreed with enthusiasm as Ruiz lost no time removing her remaining clothes. Nudging her legs apart with one powerful thigh, he tested and positioned her, using a pillow to raise her hips to an even more receptive level. After protecting them, he eased inside her with infinite care.
‘That feels so good.’ She breathed out a shuddering sigh as Ruiz lifted her.
‘And now you can see,’ he said.
She hummed, pretending that didn’t matter to her. But it did. And now Ruiz had started to move his hips from side to side, so skilfully massaging he stole the breath from her lungs. Would it ever be possible to breathe normally again, she wondered, while Ruiz was inside her and stretching her so incredibly?
‘This feels so good …’ he said as he continued to roll his hips.
The pleasure was incredible and she gasped when he combined the massage he was giving her at the end of each stroke with a deep and steady movement back and forth. What made it even better was the way he withdrew completely each time, only to repeat the action again and again, until who would lose control first was no longer in doubt. ‘Keep your legs wide,’ he said, helping her to do so by placing the palms of his hands flat against the inside of her thighs and pressing them apart. ‘I want you to do nothing, think nothing. All you have to do is feel, Holly, feel me …’
All she had to do was accept this steady pulse of pleasure growing inside her, while Ruiz worked to a dependable rhythm. A soft wail escaped her throat as the tension began to build to an unsustainable level. She tried to lie still as Ruiz had told her, but she couldn’t blank her mind to what he was doing to her and knew it couldn’t be long now … Perhaps one stroke, perhaps two—
He was ready for her, and when the strength of her climax threw Holly into his arms, he held her firmly as she bucked against him lost in pleasure. This felt so right. She felt perfect. Cradling her in his arms, he stared deep into her eyes to watch the fire rage and subside again into a series of pleasurable waves, each of which brought a groan of contentment from her lips. ‘I think you liked that,’ he murmured. His mouth tugged in a grin as he dropped a kiss on her parted lips. ‘I think you liked that a lot …’
‘I did,’ she confirmed groggily. ‘But now you have to keep that standard up.’
‘You know I have very high standards.’
‘And there’s only one way to maintain them,’ she murmured.
When he queried this with a raised brow, she murmured again, ‘Regular practice.’
‘Then I can only be grateful I rescued you from the samba club when I did.’
‘You never told me how you knew.’
‘Gabe called me at the gym,’ he confided in a whisper against her mouth. He was already hungry for her again.
‘Of course,’ she whispered. ‘So, what did he say, exactly?’
‘He said that the pretty little thing he’d seen me with at the club was having trouble with some men.’
‘Pretty little thing?’ Holly queried, pulling back her head to stare at him. ‘Are you sure he was talking about me?’
‘Size is a matter of scale, isn’t it?’ he said, smiling against her mouth. ‘Or in your case, Holly, it’s all in your mind.’ He lavished an appreciative look down the length of her naked body.
She stretched extravagantly, no longer self-conscious or inhibited. ‘You are rather large,’ she said. ‘I might hang onto you to keep me looking small.’
He laughed. ‘You do that. Now, have I answered all your questions? Or would you like to talk some more?’
‘Talk? No. Talking can wait,’ she said, reaching for him. ‘Don’t be selfish,’ she complained when he teased her by pulling away. ‘You can’t show off goods like that and then deny me the pleasure of them.’
‘Again?’ he said. ‘So soon? Are you sure?’
‘It’s been at least thirty seconds,’ she observed impatiently.
‘Well, if I must,’ he agreed, moving over her.
Ruiz was incredible. Big and hard and muscular didn’t begin to describe him. Dangerously dark, with a wicked sense of humour, but even that didn’t begin to scratch the surface of a man who meant so much to her. She was head over heels in love with him—in over her head—and it felt so good. There could be no half measures with a man like Ruiz, Holly reasoned gratefully as he probed and stretched and stretched her some more. ‘I’m glad you came to my rescue at the club,’ she managed to gasp before he took her mind off conversation. ‘And now you can come to my rescue again.’ Arching against him, she seized him with her muscles.
‘Whoah, tiger,’ Ruiz husked, responding just as she had planned. ‘That’s very forward of you.’
‘Don’t pretend you don’t like it,’ she said grasping him again. ‘I know you better than that.’
He brushed her swollen lips with his, and then dipped his head to suckle her nipples as he thrust firmly into her. She sucked in a noisy breath. Nothing could have prepared her for this level of sensation. ‘Brute,’ she complained, balling her fists against his chest when he proceeded to ride her with the same easy control he used on his polo ponies.
‘You love it,’ he said confidently, maintaining the rhythm she adored. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her as he made love to her, and when he pulled away she thought that seeing her responses mirrored in Ruiz’s eyes was the most erotic experience she had ever had. And now his kisses had grown deep and tender. ‘I want you,’ he murmured.
‘I want you too.’ He had no idea how much.
Burying his face in her breasts, Ruiz drew on her scent as she eased back her legs to give him greater access. Pressing her knees back, he brought her to the edge again. ‘Now?’ he teased her.
‘Please,’ she begged him, and only moments later she was bucking out of control with only Ruiz’s firm hands to guide her and keep her safe.
‘That was so, so good,’ she murmured a long time later.
Kissing the soft swell of her belly, he moved on to Holly’s heavy breasts to show them the appreciation they deserved. From there he kissed his way down the silky length of her body until he could bear no more, and, turning her on top of him, suggested she ride him.
‘I’m not sure I’ve got your excellent technique,’ she said.
She looked sultry and hot in the mellow light of early evening. Her red gold hair, burnished in the last rays of the sun, tumbled in glorious disarray over her breasts. ‘Enough with the excuses,’ he murmured, starting to guide her hips with his hands. ‘Remember, practice makes perfect. This is almost as easy as the samba. That had three steps. This has two, forward and back …
‘Who knew you’d be such an able pupil?’ Ruiz commented with appreciation after a few minutes of this.
‘At a guess?’ she said. ‘You.’
He groaned with contentment as she picked up the rhythm. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t made love with this man before, but being in control like this, directing his pleasure, took her feelings to a new level. She loved being in control. She loved teasing him by making him wait. She loved to see the tension growing in him as she brought him to the brink, though she couldn’t keep him hovering there as he had kept her hovering, because she wanted to fall so badly too—
They fell together in a bucking, thrusting tangle of limbs as the pleasure waves hit them. She knew nothing more after that for a long while, and, as a slave to sensation, she was glad to be lost. When she woke she was still safely wrapped in Ruiz’s arms. Their legs were tangled around each other and his sensuous face was relaxed. Thinking he must be asleep, she took hold of his hand to kiss each sensitive fingertip in turn.
‘I trust you’re satisfied,’ he murmured.
‘For now,’ she agreed sleepily, turning her face towards him on the pillow.
‘You’ll exhaust me,’ Ruiz complained, but his lips were already tugging in a wicked smile.
‘I’m going to do my best to,’ Holly agreed, ‘though I think I still have some way to go,’ she observed, registering the pressure of Ruiz’s erection against her belly growing more insistent by the second.
Lifting himself up on one elbow, Ruiz smiled against her mouth. ‘More?’ he murmured, teasing her.
‘Much, much more,’ she agreed.
But first he caressed her with all the care and tenderness she had always dreamed of. Emotion wedded to strong sexual attraction was a wonderful thing, Holly had discovered, and Ruiz’s stamina had never been in doubt. She exclaimed with the anticipation of pleasure as he turned her, touched her and entered her. She was on her side with her back to him, her legs drawn up in what was at once the most comfortable, as well as the most receptive position. She arched her back, offering herself for pleasure, while Ruiz held her and rocked her until the excitement became too much for her to bear.
Would he ever get enough of Holly? It seemed not, and it was torture holding back. She had no idea how much he wanted her or how deeply he had come to care for her. He hadn’t realised that himself until he’d seen her here in Argentina. He had hoped she would accept his invitation, but he’d played it cool, played it down, because he had wanted this to be Holly’s decision. He’d left airline tickets—a long shot based on nothing more than his belief that Holly had the same gut feeling he did that there was more ahead of them. The proof that he had been right to bring her to Argentina had blazed from her eyes the moment he’d seen her after the polo match.
Something vital had changed between them, Holly thought as Ruiz caressed her face. She hadn’t been imagining things before; they were bound on more than a purely physical level. Breath shivered out of her in a soft moan as he cupped her buttocks in his warm, strong hands. ‘You can’t help yourself, can you?’ she murmured, gratefully positioning herself.
‘Maybe not, but I can help you.’
She drew back her knees to encourage him as he eased inside her. ‘You’re always so gentle with me,’ she said.
‘Until you tell me otherwise,’ Ruiz agreed, ‘and even then I’ll be gentle with you.’
‘Not even a little bit rough?’ she said, provoking him as she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.
‘Fast and deep and hard is as rough as I’m prepared to get with you—’
‘Get rough, then,’ she said, smiling wickedly as she egged him on.
They made love for hours. Whenever Holly was briefly sated Ruiz coaxed her back into a state of arousal until she clung to him, rocked with him, moaning rhythmically as he coaxed her on to yet another welcome release. Not that she needed much coaxing. And when at last she did fall asleep for any length of time he kissed her and lay watching over her, knowing that he had never felt like this before. His feelings for her beat against his brain. They had never been in doubt, but what exercised his mind was how to make it possible for them to be together. Because they were going to be together. He was going to make it happen.
Rolling onto his back, he stared at the ceiling to think about his dual life in Argentina and London. And then there was his loyalty to the Band of Brothers. The London house he so badly wanted to make into a family home, the family estancia and the pampas he loved. And that was before he even got started on his horses and the polo—his whole crazy life. How could he ask Holly to share that when she was so gifted and career-oriented? He couldn’t expect her to trot along meekly at his heels.
Like Bouncer?
He couldn’t even be in the right place at the right time for the dog, let alone Holly. Come and live with me and fit in? Was that what he was saying? Try to shoehorn your life into mine—or into whatever small space I can spare for you? He had nothing to offer Holly. Throwing himself back on the pillows, he knew he would never ask so much of someone he loved. So what then? How could he keep her? And he must. They belonged together.
By giving her all the freedom she could want. By letting her go. By allowing Holly to make her own decisions.
Dios! That wasn’t satisfactory. He was accustomed to being in control.
He was accustomed to being alone. Did he want her or not?
He had to wake her.
‘What?’ she murmured groggily as he kissed her awake. Reaching for him she was trusting like a child. She touched him tenderly, her fingers trailing down his arm, her eyes seeking reassurance in his. He wanted this. He wanted it for ever and not just for now. He wanted this closeness, this tenderness, this caring for each other, for ever and for always.
She smiled slowly. ‘So you’re still here,’ she said.
‘Of course I’m still here,’ he confirmed, frowning as if anything else were inconceivable to him. And it was. It already was. It was unthinkable that he should be anywhere other than with Holly. The French called it a coup de foudre—a thunderbolt to the heart. He just knew it as love.
* * *
Ruiz introduced her to his brothers. They were dangerously good fun and ridiculously good-looking. Only Nacho remained a little reserved, but Holly felt his approval. ‘You’re good for my brother,’ Nacho told her after supper that evening. ‘I’ve never seen him so relaxed.’ Holly glanced at Ruiz, exchanging a look with him that told her how pleased he was she fitted in and liked his family.
Fitted in for now, Holly mused the next morning after another spectacular night of love-making with Ruiz. Soon she would have to go back to London and return to work. Before then she had an article to write, but, though she sat and stared at the screen in the room Ruiz had set aside for her, the page remained resolutely blank. She turned with surprise when Ruiz walked in, managing to look sexier than ever in his knee-length riding boots, form-hugging breeches and tight-fitting top. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be training?’ she queried.
‘I changed my mind,’ he said. ‘It’s no fun on my own.’ Walking up to the computer, he typed in: FUN. ‘That’s what you need more of, Holly.’
‘Didn’t I have enough fun last night?’ She rested her chin on her hand to stare up at him.
‘That was then and this is now,’ Ruiz argued. ‘When I first met you Holly Valiant, you embraced fun. You couldn’t get enough of it.’ Putting his arm around her shoulders, Ruiz emphasised this comment with a kiss that made it hard to remember work. Holly stared down at the powerful forearm currently resting against her chest, all deliciously nut brown and muscular, and shaded with just the right amount of dark hair …
‘Holly,’ Ruiz warned softly, swinging her chair round so she had to look at him. ‘You have to stop doubting me.’
‘How do you always know what I’m thinking?’
‘I just know you,’ he said.
‘So, why are you with me, Ruiz?’ She searched his eyes.
‘Let me think,’ Ruiz murmured dryly. ‘Could it be because I love you? Have you thought of that? Or are you just too frightened to put love in the frame in case you get hurt again?’
‘Frightened? No.’ She certainly wasn’t frightened of Ruiz. She trusted him. ‘You love me?’ she said as if her brain had only just computed it.
‘I love you, Holly Valiant,’ Ruiz said, staring into her eyes.
‘You can’t say that just because we had good sex.’
‘Surely you mean amazing sex?’
‘Naturally, that’s what I meant to say,’ Holly agreed, adopting the same teasing tone. ‘But that doesn’t mean you love me,’ she said, turning serious again. ‘How can you be so sure of your feelings?’
‘We’ve got plenty of time on our hands if you want me to prove it to you now.’
‘Ruiz, please be serious—’
‘I have never been more serious in my life,’ he said, losing the smile. Taking both her hands in his, he stared into her eyes and then he kissed each of her hands in turn. ‘I know you’ve been hurt in the past, but I will never hurt you, Holly. I want to be with you and to care for you always. If you’ll have me …?’
For that split second she thought Ruiz looked as vulnerable as she felt. ‘Who wouldn’t want you?’ she said. ‘Not that I’m giving you licence to find out.’
‘The only licence I want is one with both our names on it,’ Ruiz assured her.
‘Cheesy, but it might just work,’ Holly said, starting to smile. This was happening. This was really happening. Holly Valiant had a boyfriend. And he loved her.
‘It will work,’ Ruiz said with confidence. Drawing her into his arms, he stroked Holly’s hair back from her face. ‘When will you go public with this?’
‘In the column?’ She gave him a cheeky look. ‘You’ll just have to wait and see—’
‘This isn’t for the column,’ Ruiz said, turning suddenly serious. ‘I’m asking you to marry me, Holly.’ As he waited for her to say something he felt as if he were balanced on the tip of a mountain peak on one foot. ‘I want to be with you, and I don’t want anyone else,’ he said. ‘I want to share everything I have and everything I am with you, and I don’t want to waste another second of our lives debating this. I want our future to begin now—here—right this minute,’ he declared fiercely. ‘I’m asking you to be my wife, but to be your own person too.’ He stopped, knowing Holly’s answer would be final, and that nothing in his life had meant this much to him before.
‘Your life is so wildly different from mine,’ she said, managing to smile and frown all at the same time.
‘Wild is about right,’ he agreed. ‘But isn’t taking chances what life is all about? There never will come a point where things are easy and straightforward, but if we can work through the challenges together we can make this work. And hopefully, there are some problems you wouldn’t want to be without.’
‘Like you?’ she suggested.
‘I’d rather think of myself as a challenge,’ he teased her.
‘I agree. Life would be boring without challenges, but endless problems are depressing.’
‘Then let’s not make a problem out of this. Do you accept my challenge?’
‘I do,’ she said.
‘I love you, Holly Valiant.’ He folded her in his arms.
‘You love me?’
‘I love you.’
‘You love me,’ Holly repeated, as if testing the words and finding them, not only plausible, but gradually, slowly, oh, so slowly, believable. ‘You love me.’ This time she smiled as she looked at him.
‘Yes, I do,’ he confirmed. ‘Dios send an angel to help me convince you,’ he muttered beneath his passionate Latin breath. ‘And if it takes a lifetime to prove it to you, then that is what I will do, Holly Valiant. So,’ he said, ‘having got the main challenge out in the open and sorted out, have you worked out yet what the missing link is where your writing is concerned?’
‘I only wish I could,’ Holly admitted worriedly, raking her hair with frustration. Her mind was so scattered, she could hardly concentrate. He loved her?
Focus, Valiant, focus!
‘Let’s take a shower.’
‘Together?’ she said, frowning.
‘Is there any other way?’
‘Your writing will be fine now,’ he said later when they were both standing in front of the silent computer. ‘Before, you had just shut your mind to anything that frightened you, stifling original thought.’
‘And I suppose you’ve just done me a favour in the bedroom by opening it up again?’
‘It certainly helped,’ he said. ‘I think I can give you some further help if you need it,’ he added, glancing at the sofa.
‘Don’t you think of anything else?’
‘With you around?’ His lips pressed down. ‘Rarely.’ Grabbing her hand, he pulled her across the room. ‘I bet I can give that imagination of yours a real kick-start.’
‘I’ll try anything once,’ Holly said, gamely.
‘Excellent. First play and then work—’
‘If you think that’s the solution,’ she said, ‘We’d better get to it.’
‘I couldn’t have put it better myself. I think you’re going to write the best article of your life after this, Holly Valiant, and then I’m going to teach you to ride.’
She laughed. ‘And after that?’ she queried.
‘After that we’re going to show everyone how to dance the samba—’
‘You’re completely mad,’ she exclaimed as he lowered her down onto the cushions.
‘Mad for you,’ Ruiz agreed, unfastening his belt.
