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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.
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.