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.
‘Now go upstairs and put your boots on. We’re going to the police station,’ Ruy informed her.
‘Right now?’ she gasped.
‘No better time.’
Apprehensive at the prospect of reporting Percy to the police, Suzy got to her feet, ruefully amused that she had left her boots upstairs and had been running around in her socks without realising it. Putting on her boots, she came down again clutching her bag and tossing it into the car that Ruy stood beside.
‘You’ll feel relieved when it’s done,’ he assured her confidently.
Some time later Suzy emerged from the police station, answering the urbane solicitor, Ellis Johnson’s query about the nearest good hotel. The imaginary weight she had felt on her chest had lifted and, for the first time in several days, she felt a little more like herself again. Ruy planted a light hand to her slender spine to urge her back into his vehicle while Ellis headed for his own car. She knew that she had to go back home with Ruy to fill out the paperwork for the non-molestation order with Ellis. The recollection of Percy forcing his way into Ruy’s house still had the power to make her blood run cold. She registered that it would take time for her to stop feeling jumpy and feel safe again.
‘Will you consider signing a non-disclosure agreement with Ellis at the same time?’ Ruy enquired without warning. ‘With a view to modelling for me? I know you’re probably not in the right mood to contemplate anything extra and understandably you may feel that you can’t trust me now.’