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.
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for more free ebooks uploaded by our generous members CHAPTER TWELVE
WHEN Holly was lying quiet and contented in Ruiz’s arms, she asked him, ‘Did you mean it?’
‘Did I mean what?’ he said, opening one wicked eye.
‘You know,’ she prompted.
‘Say it, Holly.’ Ruiz raised a brow as he waited.
‘When you said … you love me.’
‘Of course I did—I do.’
With a hum she settled back in his arms again. ‘I’m glad you didn’t go riding right away.’
‘Oh, so am I,’ Ruiz agreed in a mocking tone and with a smile Holly didn’t see. ‘But I am going to try out a new horse in a while, so you’ll have plenty of chance to write your article.’
‘Slave driver.’
‘Don’t tell me I haven’t filled you with enough inspiration yet?’ Dipping his head, Ruiz stared with laughing eyes into Holly’s sated gaze. He knew this was the only way they could both be happy—if he let her be free to explore her talent and her career.
‘You’ve certainly given me enough to go on for now,’ she said, reluctantly staggering a little as she got to her feet and walked to the desk.
‘Just call me back if you need any more help,’ he said, springing up and adjusting his clothing.
‘Don’t worry, I will,’ she said, already logging on.
Being singled out by Holly meant more to him than she could ever know. He was so used to being one of the Band of Brothers: Ruiz, the youngest, the fixer, the travelling glue pot for the family. The man who made things right again. He was so busy sorting things out he had never stayed anywhere long enough to form a lasting attachment, let alone with someone as precious to him as Holly. And now he wanted to do something special for her. She had to know how much he cared about her, how much he loved her. It was almost Christmas, and Christmas Day was also her birthday. Gifts for his brothers were easy—anything for their horses. Lucia was almost as easy. He could take his sister on a virtual shopping trip and let her choose anything she liked, but he didn’t want to do that with Holly. He wanted to choose something that had meaning for her. He wanted to spoil her because she had never been spoiled, and surprise her because he loved to see her laugh.
She had bought Christmas presents for the Acosta family, knowing she would be staying over the holidays with them, but she couldn’t find the perfect gift for Ruiz, the man who had everything—or who could buy it in the unlikely event he found a gap.
She had an idea. She’d have to work on it, and she’d have to work fast, Holly concluded, pressing Send on her latest ‘Living with a Playboy’ feature, along with a second message marked ‘URGENT’. The main article for ROCK! was still work in progress, and something told her that unless she wrote a couple of alternative endings she would have to wait until after Christmas to complete the final draft of that.
‘Are you ready for your riding lesson?’
She turned as Ruiz entered the room. ‘As I’ll ever be!’
‘Not chickening out, I hope?’ he said, smacking a whip against the side of his sexy, calf-moulding riding boots.
‘You wish,’ she said.
‘No, I’ll leave that to the pony,’ Ruiz said, laughing. ‘Come on.’ Throwing an arm around her shoulders, he led her out of the room.
Ruiz put her up on a young, dark bay gelding called Dulce. ‘Can I have hand rails?’ Holly asked nervously, feeling she should have a safety harness at the very least.
‘Hang onto me,’ Ruiz suggested, springing onto the back of a waiting stallion. ‘Dulce is very light on the mouth, but he’ll be kind to you. Squeeze your knees together and he’ll go forward.’
‘Not sure I can squeeze my knees together …’
Ruiz laughed. ‘Then do the best you can.’
‘Well, I blame you if I can’t get them to move together.’ But, experimenting, she discovered her knees still worked. She found the small horse remarkably biddable too, and with Ruiz at her side, patiently advising her, she also discovered confidence flooding in. ‘I like it,’ she exclaimed with surprise, urging the kind pony to pick up his stride.
‘Do you like him?’ Ruiz asked when she had successfully completed a couple of circuits of the ring.
‘I love him,’ Holly admitted, stroking the pricked, velvety ears as she rested her cheek against Dulce’s firm, warm neck.
‘He’s yours.’
‘What?’ She sat up. ‘You can’t do that.’
‘Who said I can’t? Happy Christmas, Holly.’
‘But when will I be able to ride him?’
‘Whenever you come to Argentina with me.’
‘Are you serious? Who will ride him in the meantime?’
‘The grooms will ride him. What will it take to convince you?’ Ruiz demanded, riding alongside. ‘Shall I call my brothers over and ask them to convince you that I never joke where horses are concerned?’
‘Don’t do that,’ she said, flashing a glance at the posse of impossibly tough-looking bad boys busy training fresh young ponies in the next paddock. ‘I’ve got more than enough trouble on my hands as it is. So,’ she said, narrowing her eyes as she stared at Ruiz. ‘If you never joke about horses, how about women?’
‘There are no women.’ Ruiz gave her a long, intense stare. ‘There’s only you.’
‘Good, because I tweeted our news resulting in a mega uplift in hits to the site.’
‘Oh, I’m delighted,’ Ruiz said dryly.
‘A love story contained in one hundred and forty characters isn’t bad editing.’
‘Not bad at all,’ Ruiz agreed. ‘You should think about taking up writing as a career …’ He dodged out of the way as she aimed a swipe at him.
‘So if we’re going to be together do you think I should kill the column?’ she said.
‘Of course not,’ Ruiz argued.
‘You don’t think the readers will grow bored now they know the outcome?’ Holly said, frowning.
‘I’m disappointed in you, Holly. What has happened to that imagination of yours? There should be at least three spin-offs from this piece of news.’
Would that be the engagement, the wedding, followed swiftly by the first baby? Holly wondered.
Ruiz swiftly disillusioned her. ‘Cleaning his tack, ironing his shirts, and cooking the playboy’s meals should do it.’
‘You mentioned dancing?’ she said as he helped her to dismount.
; ‘Yes. We’re having a party at the estancia this evening.’
Holly hummed. ‘I’d watch your toes if I were you.’
The Christmas Eve celebration was being held in the main courtyard and, dressed in jeans with her hair piled up high, Holly had pitched in with the staff to help them dress the walls and balustrades with garlands of flowers to augment the colourful blossom in the garden. The cobbled area was lit by candlelight and torches held in high brackets on the walls, and there was a full moon that cast a spotlight on the glittering fountains. The band was already playing sexy South American music and there were professional dancers on hand to demonstrate the various styles of dance to the guests, as well as enough food and wine to feed an army. The banquet had been set out on trestle tables dressed with crisp white linen, boasting silver cutlery and twinkling crystal. Holly was just about to go and get changed when the biggest surprise of the night waylaid her. Lucia had arrived under cover of darkness to surprise her brothers. The two girls had been in touch by e-mail in order to spring a few more surprises before the night was out.
‘It’s just like the old days at school,’ Lucia commented, handing over Holly’s Christmas present. ‘All this subterfuge, with the added amazingness of you and my brother falling in love—’ Lucia broke off to give Holly the biggest hug ever. ‘Come on, sister-to-be, let’s go and get changed. You can hardly arrive at the party wearing jeans.’
The outfit Lucia had chosen for Holly was spectacular. The slinky dress in vivid red had a low vee neck and the highest of high hemlines. Lucia had also chosen a pair of silver sandals with stratospheric heels to wear with it.
‘You look fabulous,’ Lucia exclaimed when they had sneaked into Holly’s bedroom and locked the door securely behind them. ‘Now get those sandals on,’ she prompted. ‘If Ruiz loved you before, his tongue will be sweeping the floor when he sees you wearing this …’
‘I’d rather Ruiz kept his tongue in his mouth,’ Holly remarked dryly, turning her head to examine her back view in the full-length mirror.
‘The answer is no,’ Lucia assured her. ‘It doesn’t look big. It looks perfect. You look perfect.’
‘And you shouldn’t be spending so much money on me.’
‘And you weren’t supposed to pay me any rent,’ Lucia countered. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw the amount you put into my bank account.’
‘The column is going well.’
‘That doesn’t matter. Whoever gave you my bank details is so dead!’
‘Take the money. I can afford to pay you the going rate,’ Holly reminded her best friend. And didn’t that feel good. ‘You look pretty fabulous for a change,’ she added wryly, staring with renewed interest at her beautiful friend. ‘What’s the special occasion, Lucia?’
‘Only pretty fabulous?’ Lucia said worriedly, examining her back view in the same mirror.
‘You know you look as gorgeous as you always do,’ Holly volunteered. ‘But you still haven’t told me what the special occasion is …’
‘Why does it have to be special? It’s just a family party.’
‘And you are making a very special effort,’ Holly noted as Lucia checked her make-up in the mirror.
‘Okay, so I hear Nero Caracas is bringing his polo team as well as his new wife and baby tonight,’ Lucia explained off-handedly. ‘Which means Luke Forster, that American polo player, will be at the party. Don’t look like that, Holly. Luke’s far too stern and serious for me. And he’s about ten feet tall.’
‘Poor man,’ Holly murmured, remembering she had seen the good-looking American commanding the field of play quite a few times during the game.
‘But I might enjoy teasing him,’ Lucia added thoughtfully as she arranged her ample breasts in the low-cut dress.
‘Excellent news for Luke,’ Holly agreed tongue in cheek. ‘So are you ready to spring our surprise?’
Ruiz, meanwhile, was pacing up and down his bedroom with the phone gripped so tightly in his hand it was threatening to break apart. ‘What do you mean you couldn’t arrange it? I told you well in advance what I wanted. Plus there’s an agreement between our two countries so there shouldn’t have been a problem. What has happened to the vet? How can he have left on another flight when I booked him? I booked the jet, damn it!’ Ruiz thundered. ‘Who the hell countermanded my order?’ Ruiz whirled around as one of his brothers poked his head round the door. He waved him away. Business was all-important, and when it was business concerning Holly nothing came before that.
‘Are you coming to the party, Ruiz?’ his brother Diego asked him, refusing to be so easily dismissed.
‘When I’m ready,’ he snapped.
‘Would you like me to look after Holly for you?’
His answer to that was to lob a polo ball at the door, which his brother dodged. ‘Only asking,’ Diego murmured, closing the door.
So his surprise for Holly was ruined, Ruiz raged inwardly. Lucky for him the jeweller in Buenos Aires hadn’t let him down. Checking the breast pocket of his jacket, he decided he’d better go down to the party, but he was nowhere near ready to give up on his other surprise for her yet.
Holly and Lucia had barely walked into the party when three of the Acosta brothers spotted their sister and came straight over. Their reunion was touching and Holly envied their closeness. This wasn’t the constant squabbling and petty jealousies Lucia had described at school. It was the deep and abiding affection of people who knew everything there was to know about each other, and made Holly long for her own family.
With all the constant squabbling and petty jealousies that might involve, she thought with amusement as Lucia batted the most formidable of her brothers, Nacho, on the head with her frivolous party purse. ‘How dare you summon me back like an employee, you great oaf? And what have you done with Ruiz?’ Lucia demanded, swinging round. ‘Holly has a special surprise for him and he’s not even here. Don’t tell me you’ve sent him back to London to work?’
Nacho huffed dismissively. ‘I can’t tell your brother Ruiz what to do.’
‘Quite right,’ Lucia agreed dryly. ‘Ruiz is too busy telling me what to do.’
As Lucia kissed each of her brothers in turn Holly grew increasingly anxious. Was her surprise for Ruiz going to fall flat?
‘Last time I saw Ruiz he was pacing his bedroom like a bear with a sore head,’ Ruiz’s brother Diego murmured discreetly in her ear. ‘I’d give him a few minutes.’
‘Thank you.’ Holly smiled her thanks.
As the darkly glamorous men peeled away to welcome their guests other men were drawn like moths to the two girls standing on the edge of the dance floor. Holly was quite relieved to see the driver who had brought her from the airport amongst them. He bowed so politely over her hand she was only too delighted to accept. He was fun, she remembered, as her portly partner chuffed his moustache before leading her onto the dance floor. The dress Lucia had given her was really working its magic, Holly thought as she started dancing. She had never worn such a beautiful party dress before. She glanced gratefully at Lucia, noticing with amusement that Lucia had just walked straight up to the attractive American polo player, Luke Forster, only to veer away at the very last moment on the pretext of tugging one of her brothers onto the dance floor. It was also interesting to see Luke Forster’s brooding amber gaze following Lucia as she sashayed off.
Holly had only been dancing with the driver for a few minutes when another man tapped the driver’s shoulder and cut in. This man spoke no English, but he danced well and held Holly at arm’s length so their bodies always had air between them. She was really enjoying herself, though still worrying about Ruiz and wondering where he could be. And then a younger man, who had clearly had too much to drink, decided it was his turn to take Holly on a drunken lurch around the floor. Unfortunately his grip was so secure she couldn’t break free, and now Lucia was making frantic signals from the edge of the dance floor. Like a drama slowly unfolding that no one could stop, Holly saw Ruiz emerge from th
e house and stand at the top of the steps to scan the dance floor. The young man who had Holly in his grip decided that this was the perfect moment to launch his assault. Wet lips pursed, he darted his head forward, and as she whipped her head away to avoid him a big black shape launched itself on Holly and her partner, barking wildly as it knocked them to the floor.
‘Bouncer?’ Holly exclaimed, wiping muddy paw marks from her arm. She looked up to find Ruiz dressed in full evening rig standing over her. He looked more magnificent and formidable than she’d ever seen.
‘No harm done,’ Ruiz said in a tone Holly had never heard him use before as he brushed the man’s suit down and called for one of the gauchos to escort him away. ‘How the hell did Bouncer get here?’ he demanded with frustration.
‘Please don’t be angry with Holly,’ Lucia begged him, hanging onto her brother’s arm.
Easing himself free, Ruiz took hold of Holly. ‘Well?’ he murmured.
Their faces were very close. Ruiz’s mouth was almost touching hers. Everyone at the party was frozen to the spot, sensing drama. There was no music, no chatter, not a sound to be heard—until Bouncer whimpered and both Holly and Ruiz knelt simultaneously on the ground to make a fuss of him. As if this were the signal everyone had been waiting for the music started up again and the dance floor came back to life.
‘Happy Christmas, Ruiz,’ Holly murmured, staring across Bouncer’s head into Ruiz’s eyes. ‘I think Bouncer had this planned from the first moment we met, though Lucia brought him over in the private jet with the vet,’ she explained, ‘and as Bouncer has had all his shots and has a pet passport and Argentina has the same arrangement for allowing pets to travel as the EU …’
‘This I know,’ Ruiz assured Holly, softly holding her within an inch of his mouth as he lifted her to her feet. ‘I do deal quite a lot with the authorities in both countries, you know? Shipping ponies?’ Ruiz’s lips tugged in his trademark smile. ‘I tried to bring Bouncer over to surprise you for Christmas too, but it appears you beat me to it.’
The Shameless Life of Ruiz Acosta Page 15
