The Shameless Life of Ruiz Acosta Read online

  ‘Shall we forget about the ice cream?’ he asked.

  Her breath hitched in her throat as Ruiz dipped his head towards her, but she had called it wrong. Instead of kissing her, as she had thought he might, he dabbled ice cream on her cheek. Exclaiming with surprise, she pushed him away. ‘You—!’

  Ruiz seized her wrist and drew her close. ‘Don’t wipe it off,’ he said, frowning. ‘What a waste …’ She trembled uncontrollably as he moved her hand away and licked the ice cream from her face. She was still reeling from this when he dabbed some more on her neck. ‘This is delicious,’ he observed as coolly as if they were sharing a meal in a café.

  Sweet sensation streamed through her veins, making her more reckless and excited. She reached one hand out, cautiously feeling for the tub, but Ruiz saw what she was doing and dodged out of her way, and the best she could manage was a glancing blow to his cheek. ‘How’s your temperature?’ she demanded, backing away to a safe distance.

  ‘Red hot,’ Ruiz assured her.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Have you ever felt that you were about to do something you might regret and yet were utterly powerless to stop yourself? Well, that’s where I am now. I could do with a gang of you turning up at the penthouse to drag me back from the lustful brink. But I should warn you that if you do I might not be all that pleased to see you.

  Tomorrow’s another day? Yes, and I might need a hug by then. Maybe I’ll know what sex can be like when you choose the right man, but we all know that for every good thing that happens there’s the flip side of the coin, so I could be about to make the biggest mistake of my life.

  And the playboy? The reason I’m telling you this is because there’s a look in his eyes I haven’t seen before, and after months of telling myself I don’t need men I suddenly thought, Do I want to spend the rest of my life wondering what I’ve missed?

  COULD she remember all that? She could hardly race to the laptop now. ‘The writer of this column is otherwise engaged and seems likely to be so for quite some time’ was one heck of a headline, but was this moment something she wanted to share with the world? ‘How is it possible I’m covered in ice cream while you have a magic ring of protection around you?’ Holly demanded excitedly, playing for time. She shrieked as Ruiz prowled closer, while he just grinned and shrugged.

  Why was she out of ammunition? Holly’s chaotic thoughts refused to assemble into a coherent form as she backed away. It wasn’t a fresh tub of ice cream she needed, but a long, cold shower and a few miles’ distance between them. What had she been thinking? That she could play games with Ruiz and there would be no consequences? ‘Okay. I give up.’ She raised her hands in defeat. ‘You’re better at this than I am—’

  ‘What do you expect with three brothers and a sister? I’ve been having food fights since I could lift a spoon.’

  An only child could only dream of having this much fun, but at least Ruiz had ceased hostilities for now. She breathed a sigh of relief as she tried to retrieve a blob of ice cream that had landed on her chest before it could trickle any lower. But this brief pause in the ice-cream war didn’t mean she liked losing. Sneakily reaching for the tub, she launched a counter attack, and, though Ruiz had the reflexes of a fighter pilot, she managed to score a hit on his mouth.

  ‘You’ll pay for that,’ he warned, wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

  Holly sincerely hoped so. The fears that had haunted her for so long had been consumed in the fire burning in Ruiz’s eyes. It was enough to make anyone hot and reckless. She held her breath as he prowled closer. Seconds ticked away and then they both launched an attack at the same moment. A fast and furious battle ensued. Ruiz was so much stronger and faster than she was, but she was fast enough, and fiercely competitive. Everything became a blur of limbs and flying ice cream. She managed to put the island counter between them, a barricade that gave her chance to draw breath. Lifting her chin, panting and gloating, she taunted Ruiz across the gleaming stretch of granite.

  He vaulted over it. ‘Now what are you going to do?’ he said, holding her in front of him.

  She hummed, glaring at him defiantly. Struggling was pointless. Ruiz’s grip was light, yet firm, while she was consumed by excitement and covered in sticky ice cream. This was hardly the moment to assume the moral high ground. Resting back in his arms, she began to laugh.

  ‘What?’ he said.

  Every part of her was tingling and aware. She was free. ‘Nothing you need to know,’ she said, straightening up to deliver a challenging stare into Ruiz’s eyes.

  He had never wanted her more. His virtuous resolutions to steer clear of Lucia’s friend were history. He was more interested in licking Holly clean. He kissed her cheek, her neck, tasting her, and then he tasted her some more. ‘You’re delicious,’ he commented as she wriggled in his arms, helpless with laughter.

  ‘And so are you—’

  He wasn’t prepared for her whipping up his tee, and holding it while she licked the sugared cream from his chest. He sucked in a sharp breath and his surprise didn’t lessen with the look she gave him. Her eyes blazed with fire and the sort of confidence he knew was buried deep inside. ‘Kiss me,’ she demanded fiercely, making it sound like a challenge as she locked her hands behind his head.

  A challenge? This was a pleasure. The kiss was long and hot and deep. She tasted warm and sweet, and fiercely female. There was nothing girlie, soft, or vulnerable about Holly now. This was an equal match between a woman intent on claiming her mate, and a man who rejoiced in her strength as he lifted her.

  She had never done anything remotely like this before—had never clawed at a man’s clothes, hungry to feel his naked body hard against her. There was nothing delicate or tender happening here. She was burning up from the inside out.

  Buttons from her pyjama top flew across the kitchen and skittered across the floor as she yanked Ruiz’s top over his head. He only paused briefly to protect them both, and then he took over, resting her on the side as he pushed the top from her shoulders and the pyjama pants from her legs. His clothes dropped to the floor. Excited sounds escaped her lips. Ruiz’s naked torso was stronger, harder, warmer, more beautiful than even she had imagined. The wide spread of his muscular shoulders was enough to turn her on, but it was the look in his eyes that really did it for her, because that promised more excitement than she had ever known. Holding Ruiz’s darkening gaze, she traced the pattern of muscle and sinew from his breastbone to his shoulder, then down over his biceps to his forearms, and on to his hands and the lean, elegant fingers. ‘Now,’ she whispered urgently.

  He brushed his mouth against her lips—a promise that wasn’t enough for her now. ‘Don’t tease me,’ she warned him. But he did, brushing his lips and his stubble against her neck and her cheek, and then her lips, promising, always promising, yet pulling away before she could taste him. He repeated this until her body was a furnace and she was wild for him.

  As Holly pressed herself against him he tested her and found her ready. He still took his time, teasing her for as long as he had with kisses. She moaned with need when he gave her the tip and then exclaimed with disappointment when he took it away again. She shivered and opened herself more for him, pressing her thighs back as he touched her, crying when he paused. He dipped again, a little deeper this time, and then retreated. She was so moist, so warm, so completely ready for him, but even with the thought of that tight wet grip waiting to claim him banging at his brain he knew it would be better for her if he made her wait.

  ‘I can’t stand this,’ she raged in a shaking voice.

  ‘You have to,’ he whispered. ‘It will be all the better for it—’

  ‘Really?’ she exclaimed, and, arching forward without warning, she took him. She took him. He gasped and shuddered with surprise, slammed by an overload of sensation. ‘Steady,’ he cautioned as her fingers bit into his buttocks. ‘If you do that,’ he warned as she bucked and arced against him, ‘it will all be over too soon—’

/>   She ignored him. Screaming out his name, she plunged headlong into the first climax. It was a battle to hold her in place as she thrust her hips frantically to claim each wave of pleasure as it hit her. ‘You’re so big,’ she groaned with satisfaction as the storm subsided.

  ‘I aim to please,’ he managed to say wryly, keeping up a steady rhythm until she was ready to start again. ‘I trust that wasn’t a complaint,’ he added in a husky whisper against her mouth, unable to resist the temptation to kiss her again.

  ‘A complaint?’ she murmured when he released her. ‘I trust that was just a sample?’

  He laughed. She was ready for more and this time she didn’t want any distractions. Taking him in an even firmer hold, she ground out, ‘Don’t tease me—Don’t wait—Don’t stop—’

  ‘You’re incredible,’ he said. And it was true. He’d met his match.

  They feasted on each other, and neither of them tired. He persuaded her to hold her thighs back so he could increase her pleasure. It was then he discovered that she loved to watch. ‘You’re quite something,’ he murmured, accommodating that wish too. Arranging her comfortably with one leg over his shoulder and one tiny foot on the counter, he worked steadily to keep her hovering on the edge, but this was the hottest woman he’d ever known. Could he hold on? ‘I’ll tell you when,’ he instructed, staring deep into her eyes.

  Her retaliation was swift and fierce, ‘Don’t make me wait,’ she warned him. ‘Don’t you dare make me wait—’

  ‘Now,’ he commanded, taking her with a firm, deep thrust. The sound of her voice—the language she used—all of it increased his pleasure tenfold and this time they rode the storm together, inventing a new erotic dictionary along the way.

  They must have been unconscious for a few moments, Holly thought as she slowly came round to find Ruiz resting against her, breathing steadily, still holding her safe in his arms.

  ‘What?’ he murmured, raising his head to look at her.

  A sudden rush of doubt swept through her at the thought of what they’d done. Without the same hunger driving her she had too much time to think.

  ‘Holly?’ Ruiz prompted, sensing the change in her.

  ‘Nothing,’ she said. But there was something wrong, and they both knew it. A game that had started out so innocently had turned into something so much more.

  ‘Do you regret it?’ Ruiz asked with concern.

  ‘No, of course not.’ Reaching up, she closed her eyes and kissed him, but the doubts refused to go away.

  ‘You’re not frightened of me, are you?’ Ruiz demanded softly when they broke apart.

  Nothing could be further from the truth. She wasn’t frightened of Ruiz. She was frightened of her feelings for him.

  Cupping her chin so she couldn’t avoid his gaze, Ruiz demanded, ‘Is there someone else?’

  That was so ridiculous she laughed. ‘There’s no one else,’ she exclaimed. But Ruiz was partly right, even if he was wholly wrong. She was completely 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 the action so it was like the first time every time. He was giving her a master class in foreplay with such a concentration of sensation it wasn’t long before she had to thrust towards him and take him deep—and she was still astonished by the size of him.