here in the moment with him, but the past couldn’t be erased, and she couldn’t forget that when her ex had come on the scene she had been so grateful, so thrilled by the attention he lavished on her, she had fallen for it—for him—to the extent that she would have trusted him with her life. Fortunately, she had only trusted him with her bank card, but her small pot of savings had disappeared just the same. No wonder she doubted her own judgment now.
Ruiz eased her carefully down, making sure she was steady on her feet before he let her go. ‘Forget him,’ he said in a voice she had never heard him use before. ‘Whoever he was he can’t hurt you now. I won’t let anyone hurt you, Holly. You have to learn from the past and move on. Don’t you think you can? Why not? When we first met you weren’t sure you could make it as a journalist, but look at you now. Where has that woman gone?’
‘On permanent vacation?’ She smiled wryly to make light of it, but Ruiz wasn’t in the mood for a joke and told her so. ‘It’s time to give yourself a break, Holly.’
‘And it’s time you stopped being kind to me for your sister’s sake,’ she fired back, knowing even as she said it that she was allowing the past to spoil things for her.
‘You think I’m being kind to you?’ Ruiz said.
‘What can I think when you’ve already told me that being kind to me for Lucia’s sake is what you feel obliged to do?’
‘You’re twisting my words. You should have more confidence in yourself Holly.’
She dragged in a shuddering breath as Ruiz’s lips brushed her cheek and then her neck, and finally her mouth. She wanted nothing more than to believe him.
‘You’re still too serious,’ he said, drawing back to look at her, but then his wicked mouth tugged in a smile, ‘and here was me thinking I had done everything possible to make you smile.’
She huffed and relaxed a little. Everything they had shared was reflected in Ruiz’s eyes. It was both arousing and terrifying.
‘More ice cream?’ Ruiz suggested, refusing to be drawn into her dark mood.
‘You’re very bad.’ But her voice was trembling as Ruiz’s lips brushed her neck.
‘It’s your turn to lick me clean,’ he observed, staring down at her with a mock-stern expression on his face. ‘You started this game and now you have to finish it.’
She laughed. Holly touched him in a way no other woman had. He was so acutely tuned in to her he could feel all her hopes and fears, and not for the first time wished he could meet the man who had hurt her so badly. He wanted to keep her safe—
Safe from him?
He brushed that thought aside as she stared at his lips. He had never felt this way before. He had always held his feelings in, knowing Nacho had had enough to contend with bringing up three brothers and a sister. Holly had always kept her feelings in—they both had; that was their bond.
‘What are you thinking?’ she said quietly.
That Ruiz the fixer had always managed to fix himself, but now there was Holly in the frame. ‘Are you refusing to finish this game?’ The heat was rising. He could see it in her eyes. He wanted Holly to forget the past with all its false promises and disappointments. ‘As it’s you I’ll permit the use of a clean cloth rather than your tongue,’ he teased. ‘I realise now that licking is only for the advanced class.’
‘Don’t you take anything seriously?’ she asked, wondering how she was supposed to resist a man whose eyes were always so warm.
Ruiz pretended to think about it. ‘The health of my polo ponies? I take that sort of thing very seriously indeed. But ice cream fights?’ His lips curved in a wry smile as he shook his head. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Holly.’
‘What are you doing?’ she said as he drew her close.
‘Now I know you’re not that naïve.’
‘Ruiz—’ That was as far as she got.
‘I want you,’ he said. ‘What you see is what you get with me, Holly. There is no hidden agenda. And I think you want me too. Am I wrong?’
How could she deny it? Confronted by this much strength of will she might have expected to feel weak or vulnerable, but she felt neither of those things. She felt strong. The strongest man she had ever known had made her feel confident in her own right.
‘Are we going to stand here all day?’ he demanded, brushing his lips against her cheek and then her neck. ‘Or am I going to take you to bed?’
She was on fire for him, and as Ruiz’s hold softened into a caress she linked her hands behind his neck and let him lift her.
Ruiz carried her into the bedroom and laid her down carefully on the bed. Every instant apart from him seemed like a minute, every minute an hour. She reached for him hungrily, wanting him so strongly nothing could stop this. Ruiz’s kiss was like the first time all over again, and so gentle her eyes stung to think he could be so tender. She hadn’t expected such reverence. She was a plain, down-to-earth woman and expected to be treated as such, but Ruiz was kissing her as if she were made of the finest glass and might shatter in his arms if he held her too tightly. ‘You’re beautiful,’ he murmured.
‘No, I’m not.’
‘If I say you’re beautiful you should believe me.’
‘I’m far too big,’ she interrupted, trying to cross her arms over her breasts.
‘How can you be too big when the top of your head barely reaches my chest? And your breasts are beautiful.’
She didn’t argue when Ruiz lay beside her. Or when she shivered with pleasure as he dipped his head to lave first one nipple and then the other with his tongue so skilfully she writhed urgently on the bed, instantly hungry for him. When one powerful thigh pressed against her legs she welcomed him with a sharp cry of need, responding greedily by arching against the brutal thrust of his erection, demanding release.
She might have known he’d make her wait, and now she was all the more excited, knowing what lay in store for her. He protected them both again. Protection was for the woman to think about, she remembered her ex telling her—
She must have been mad. And desperate, Holly thought as Ruiz took her in his arms. ‘No more shadows,’ he whispered as if he knew where her thoughts had been straying. ‘You’re beautiful, and I want you, Holly. It’s that simple.’
Stroking the hair back from her face, he kissed her repeatedly, and when she felt the tip of his erection brush against her she almost lost control. ‘Greedy,’ he murmured, soothing her when she groaned with complaint. Moving on top of her, he warmed her with kisses, cupping her buttocks as he positioned her for pleasure. This was more leisurely, allowing them to relish each sensation to the full. She pressed her hands against his chest, staring up into his eyes.
‘Good?’ he murmured.
‘So good …’ Holding his gaze, she was able to share the moment when the smooth warm tip of Ruiz’s erection probed delicately before withdrawing again. It was an incredible sensation, and sucked every last shuddering breath of air out of her. He repeated
