‘So, what sort of stuff do you paint?’ Suzy asked.
‘People, mainly portraits, usually women.’
‘Nudes?’ Suzy suddenly prompted in a slightly strangled voice.
‘I have done, but generally my models remain clothed,’ Ruy responded with a glint of amusement in his gaze, because she was shifting in her seat like an embarrassed child, her dismay at the prospect of posing nude for him clear as day. A prickle of interest in seeing those pale luscious curves unveiled shimmied through him like a sudden shot of some dangerously addictive drug. Taken aback by that loss of artistic objectivity, he struggled to suppress that leap of desire, all amusement buried by his own far too personal response.
Dessert was served as Suzy confessed, ‘I know nothing about art.’
‘Why would you when it’s not an interest of yours?’ Keen to stick strictly to business as he saw it, Ruy added, ‘If you agreed to model for me, you would have to first sign a non-disclosure agreement, which would prevent you from mentioning my name or indeed any details about me. It’s a standard safeguard I use with every model I employ.’
‘Why would you do that?’ Suzy surveyed him, eyes as green and fresh as spring leaves wide with curiosity and surprise. ‘Don’t artists need publicity to boost their careers and the prices their work commands?’
‘Privacy is more important to me,’ Ruy said quietly.
Suzy waved an expressive hand at the elegant table and her surroundings and laughed. ‘And, it doesn’t look like you’re hurting for a spare penny or two!’ she teased.
It was that playful quality, which his sister had called liveliness, that appealed to him, Ruy decided, his attention locking to that full pink lower lip, recalling the taste of her, the taste of temptation. When she smiled she practically lit up the room. Yet when she had danced, even before he had seen her face, he had wanted to capture her in oils, to somehow magically meld her innate grace of movement into the painting. Obviously, there would have to be more than one canvas, he conceded, to capture her different moods.
‘I would like you to consider granting me another favour,’ he divulged.
On the brink of asking why she would consider doing him any favours, Suzy caught her tongue between her teeth, recalling how supportive he had been.
‘I have to attend my brother’s wedding in a couple of weeks and it would be easier if I had a woman with me, a woman willing to pretend that she was engaged to me.’
‘Why on earth would you want that?’ she exclaimed, too disconcerted to guard her tongue.
‘I have a troubled relationship with my brother. My presence at his wedding would be smoother if he were to believe that I had found a woman of my own,’ Ruy revealed reluctantly.
‘Very strange...and not for me,’ Suzy said ruefully. ‘I was Percy’s fake bride and it didn’t work out well for me. I don’t want to be faking anything for anyone now.’
‘Consider it. I think it would suit you right now to escape the local gossip for a while. The wedding is in Spain.’
‘Spain!’ Suzy rolled her eyes as though he had suggested the moon as a destination, but the reference to local gossip made her grimace. It annoyed her that he was right once again. Leaving the village even for a few days was a welcome idea, particularly as it would put her out of reach of Percy, she acknowledged. ‘But, I’ll think about it.’
Smothering a yawn over coffee, Suzy began to droop, the events of the past few days catching up with her again. Ruy urged her to have an early night.
‘I shouldn’t still be here,’ Suzy registered abruptly, absently amazed by the way she had simply taken Ruy Rivera’s hospitality for granted. ‘I should go home.’
‘Where were you heading when you went into the woods?’
‘I had a vague notion of hitching a lift to the railway station. Can you imagine it? Me in that wedding dress and probably not even having enough money to buy a train ticket...’ She shook her head and sighed. ‘I’m sorry I involved you in all this.’
‘You’re welcome to stay. At least here, you are out of Brenton’s reach,’ Ruy pointed out sneakily.
‘And it’s handy to keep me around if you want to paint me.’ Suzy’s bright gaze glimmered with humour. ‘I’ve got your measure, Mr Rivera...you will never be slow to take advantage of a useful opportunity.’
Ruy’s rare grin slashed his expressive mouth, his dark eyes flashing gold with appreciation at the intelligence sparkling in her appraisal. ‘Exactly,’ he agreed.
Suzy paused at the foot of the stairs and glanced back at him, her delicate profile and the scattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose as fascinating to him as the fragile white shoulder poking through her spiralling auburn curls. ‘Thanks for helping me today. The wedding thing sounds challenging, I’m afraid, and I don’t think I fancy trying it. I’ll do the model thing for you, though, as long as I can keep my clothes on,’ she announced with a gauche bluntness that almost made Ruy laugh out loud.
Involuntarily he was entranced by that kind of modesty. Was it an act? Understandably, he was suspicious. After all, the majority of women Ruy met couldn’t wait to get their clothes off for his benefit, be it as a model in the studio or as a one-night stand. And then there were the unwelcome invitations like the maid who had sashayed into his bedroom with his breakfast one morning naked as a jaybird, or the PA who had just stripped off down to her fancy lingerie on the first and last day of her employment with him.
‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
‘Ah...’ Ruy shifted a fluid hand. ‘Would it be possible for me to first remove some clothes from the bedroom?’
On the stairs, Suzy froze and whipped round. ‘It’s your bedroom? I’m putting you out of your own bed? Oh, that won’t do at all! I’ll sleep on one of the sofas.’
‘That’s not necessary,’ Ruy declared, striding up to crowd her on the stairs and with his very height and breadth somehow persuading her to move on up to the landing.
‘But—?’
‘I’m sleeping in my studio,’ Ruy countered firmly, having already procured a bed for his use. ‘When I bought this place it was a ground-floor bedroom.’
Suzy hovered uncomfortably as Ruy removed items from drawers and a closet and returned to her side.
‘I’m going out tonight. I wouldn’t want to disturb you when I return,’ Ruy murmured softly, scorching dark golden eyes welded to her.
Suzy was bright pink with self-consciousness, the sort of deep dire self-consciousness that she had suffered as a schoolgirl. ‘It just doesn’t seem right, me putting you out.’