His Unknown Heir (13 page)

He had discarded his tie and unfastened the top buttons of his shirt, and Lauren glimpsed his bronzed skin beneath. Leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe, his dark hair falling across his brow and his eyes gleaming with sensual heat, he was so sexy that she felt weak with longing—and she despised herself for it.

‘What
did
you envisage?’ she asked sharply. ‘That you would stroll in here and demand your marital rights?’

His eyes narrowed on her tense face. His instincts had been right, he brooded. Something had upset her during the wedding party, and now she was as prickly and on edge as she had been when he had first seen her again in London.

‘Not demand,’ he countered quietly. ‘I did not think I would need to. You are my wife, and I admit I had assumed we would spend our wedding night rediscovering the passion that has always burned between us.’

‘I’m only your wife because you’ve decided that you want Matty to be your heir,’ Lauren said stubbornly.

Ramon’s jaw hardened. ‘He is my son, and by definition also my heir. I would always have wanted him, but you did not give me the opportunity to be his father.’

‘You had made it clear that I could only ever be your mistress. In your eyes I wasn’t good enough for the grand Duque de Velaquez, and I believed you would feel the same way about my child.’

And that was the root of her resentment, Lauren acknowledged. She was only good enough for Ramon now because she had given him a son. Without Matty he would only have wanted her as his mistress. She was not a sophisticated Spanish aristocrat like Pilar Fernandez, but she was certainly not going to reveal her jealousy of the beautiful model to Ramon.

‘I do not think of Mateo in terms of your child or my child. He is part of you and part of me, and we have married so that we can both care for our son, who we created together,’ Ramon said, his accent suddenly very strong, and his words tugging on Lauren’s emotions. ‘I thought that for him we were going to do our best to build a relationship.’

‘By having sex?’ Lauren muttered scathingly.

He did not deny it. ‘Sex is a start. It is where everything began, after all. I saw you across a crowded nightclub and I wanted you more than I had ever wanted any woman.’ He paused, and then added softly, ‘I still do. And I think, Lauren, although you seem determined to deny it, that you want me too.’

She could not meet his gaze, and stared at the floor through blurred eyes. Maybe he was right. Sex
was
a start. It had bound them together for the six months of their affair, and if she had not fallen pregnant who could say how long they would have stayed together? Ramon’s desire for her had shown no sign of lessening. And it hadn’t just been a physical act. There had been closeness, companionship—and for her, of course, love.

Was it fair to hold it against Ramon because he hadn’t fallen in love with her? And was it fair to push him away and deny them what they both wanted because she was afraid that he would be a serial adulterer like her father? He had asked her to trust him, she remembered. He had no idea how hard that was for her, but if she wanted their marriage to stand a chance she was going to have to try.

‘I’m not a beautiful blue-blooded aristocrat,’ she mumbled, unable to forget Pilar.

‘You are the most beautiful woman in the world to me,’ Ramon said intently. ‘And your blood could be bright green for all I care. You are the mother of my son.’ He gave a rueful grimace. ‘And the reason I have taken enough cold showers in the past few weeks to last me a lifetime.’

Her hair streamed down her back like a river of gold. There was wariness in her eyes, but something else too, that made him ache with his need to possess her.

‘I have made a commitment to you, Lauren, and I want to put our differences aside and make our marriage work,’ he said steadily. ‘But you have to want that too—because it takes two to make a marriage.’ He trapped her gaze, and she swallowed at the latent warmth in his golden eyes. ‘Do you want to make our marriage a proper one?’

She could deny it and keep her pride, or she could accept a marriage that was not perfect, but which over time might grow and develop into a deeper relationship. It was her choice.

‘Yes,’ she whispered. A shiver of excitement ran down her spine at the hard glitter in his eyes.

‘Then come here.’

The first step was the hardest, the second a little easier. And then he moved too, and met her halfway across the room, breathing hard as he snatched her into his arms. ‘You looked so beautiful today,
querida
. But I have to admit that my main thought when I saw you in your wedding dress was how soon I could rip it off you.’

His sensual smile stole her breath. ‘It gives me even greater pleasure to remove
this
monstrosity,’ he growled, tugging the shirt over her head in one deft movement to reveal her firm breasts and slender waist, the tiny wisp of the lace thong hiding her femininity from him.

With a groan of need he swept her up and strode into the master bedroom, where he placed her on the bed and lowered his body onto the softness of hers, crushing her breasts against his chest as he claimed her mouth in a devastatingly sensual kiss. When he lifted his head, streaks of dull colour highlighted his magnificent cheekbones, and his hand was unsteady as he smoothed her hair back from her face.

‘This was always how we communicated best,’ he said roughly.

She did not reply, for really it was true. When they made love there was no need for words. They were perfect together. And that was why, in the heady days of their affair, she had fooled herself into believing that he was starting to care for her. She would not make the same mistake again, but she could not deny her need for him, and she tugged impatiently at his shirt buttons.

‘Then make love to me,’ she invited softly.

Their eyes locked and held for infinitesimal seconds, before he made a feral sound in his throat and captured her mouth again in a kiss that plundered her soul. She loved the way he kissed her, Lauren thought dazedly. Loved the hungry pressure of his lips on hers and the bold thrust of his tongue that erotically mimicked the act of making love to her. And then her mind ceased functioning as instinct took over, and she curled her arms around his neck and hugged him so tightly to her that she could feel the erratic thud of his heart beating in unison with her own.

She shivered with anticipation when he cupped her breasts in his palms. ‘Gorgeous—and all mine,’ he growled with intense satisfaction as he lifted his head to stare at the creamy mounds. He stroked his thumbs over her rose-pink nipples so that they swelled and pouted provocatively at him, and smiled at her soft whimpers of delight. ‘You will find me a very possessive husband,
querida
,’ he warned her, before he closed his mouth around one taut peak, and then its twin, and suckled her until she writhed beneath him and begged him never,
ever
to stop.

Ramon loved the way his cool English rose discarded all her inhibitions and became a wanton creature in his arms. Sex with Lauren had blown his mind from the start. No other woman had ever made him lose control the way he did with her, and he was already dangerously close to the edge. The long, leisurely seduction he had planned would have to wait until later, he thought self-derisively. Right now all he could think of was burying his swollen shaft deep inside her.

Lauren pressed back into the mattress and closed her eyes blissfully as Ramon trailed his mouth down from her breasts to her stomach, and then lower still. Her limbs felt boneless as the dull ache deep in her pelvis became an urgent throb of need, and she lifted her hips obligingly so that he could pull her knickers down. The molten heat between her thighs was evidence of her arousal, but Ramon seemed intent on giving her the maximum pleasure, and she gasped when he pushed her legs apart and dipped his dark head.

The feel of his tongue stroking up and down before probing gently made her tremble, and she tangled her fingers in his silky hair and sobbed his name when he closed his mouth around the sensitive nub of her clitoris. Everything was happening too fast; she was spinning out of control. But as the first spasms of her orgasm began to ripple he moved swiftly over her and entered her with one hard thrust that made her cry out.

‘Did I hurt you?’ he demanded tensely, his chest heaving as he fought for control.

‘No.’ She arched beneath him and wrapped her legs around his back, desperate for him to thrust again. ‘Don’t stop,’ she breathed.

He suddenly seemed to realise that she was close to the edge, and slid his hands beneath her bottom to angle her so he could drive deeper into her.

It was hard and fast, both of them driven by a mindless urgency as he pumped into her with thrust after powerful thrust. Lauren clung to his shoulders, her eyes closed and her lips parted as she snatched air into her lungs. It couldn’t last. The coiling sensation inside her was growing tighter and tighter. Her lashes flew open when he stopped moving, but before she could beg him to continue he altered their position and pushed her legs up so that they rested on his shoulders.

‘Trust me,
querida
, it will be even better for you like this,’ he promised.

And it was. He slammed into her and filled her to the hilt, each thrust so deep and intense that the pleasure was indescribable, impossible to withstand.

‘Ramon…’ The coiling in her pelvis tightened one more notch, held for a few agonising seconds, and then snapped with explosive force, so that she bucked beneath him and clawed at his arms, utterly overwhelmed by the tidal wave of ecstasy that swept through her.

Her orgasm was mind-blowing, but a tiny part of her consciousness sensed that he was nearing his own nirvana, and she lifted her hips to meet his final savage thrust, heard the groan that was wrenched from his throat as his big body shuddered with the force of his release.

It took a long time for Lauren to come back down, and she lay contentedly beneath Ramon, loving the feel of his warm, lax body pressing her into the mattress. At last he rolled off her, but immediately curved his arm around her and pulled her close.

‘Tears,
querida
?’ he asked roughly, brushing his fingers over her face and tracing the twin rivulets of moisture.

She could not tell him that in those moments of intense passion she had felt as though their souls as well as their bodies had merged as one.

‘I just wish things had been different,’ she whispered, imagining how it would be if he loved her. Perhaps he would murmur tender endearments in her ear, and she would be free to voice her love for him instead of hiding her feelings away.

Ramon frowned. ‘Is being married to me so unbearable?’ he demanded, feeling as though he had been kicked in the gut.

‘Of course not. I accept that it was the right thing to do for Matty’s sake.’

Why was her answer not as satisfactory as it should be? Their son
was
the only reason he had insisted on marriage, he reminded himself. He was pleased Lauren shared his belief that Mateo should grow up with both his parents, and the sizzling sexual chemistry between them was a bonus he intended to enjoy to the full.

‘As you say, our son’s needs are paramount. But tonight I intend to satisfy all
your
needs, as well as my own,’ he growled, before lowering his head and slanting his mouth over hers to initiate a deep, sensual kiss that stirred the embers of their mutual desire.

Lauren might only have married him to keep her son, but she was a highly sensual woman. Her enjoyment of sex was uninhibited, and Ramon was unable to restrain a shudder of pleasure when she wrapped her fingers around his already thickening shaft.

He curled his hand possessively around her breast and lifted his head to stare down at her, pleased to see that her eyes were glazed with desire.

‘Now you are my wife,’ he murmured, unable to hide his satisfaction as he slid his hand between her legs and found that she was ready for him. ‘And we have just proved that passion, together with a mutual desire to do the best for our son, are key elements to making our marriage work.’ His voice roughened as he positioned himself over her. ‘Especially passion—don’t you agree,
querida
?’

She didn’t, but she did not tell him. Instead she gave herself up to the exquisite pleasure only he could arouse in her. But later, when she lay listening to the rhythmic sound of his breathing, she wondered dully if she was destined to spend her life wanting more than he could give her.

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘I’
VE
decided that we should have a honeymoon.’

Lauren opened her eyes to find Ramon leaning over her, looking disgustingly wide awake despite the fact that they had both had very little sleep the previous night.

‘All right,’ she mumbled, snuggling deeper under the sheet.

‘Where would you like to go?’

She glanced at the clock, and firmly closed her eyes once more. ‘Do we have to decide at seven o’clock in the morning?’

Ramon studied her, noting how the early-morning sunshine slanting through the blinds had turned her hair to pure gold. Her mouth was slightly swollen from his kisses, and recalling the taste of her and the feel of her soft lips parting beneath his he felt unbearably tempted to make love to her again. But she was clearly exhausted after their energetic wedding night, he thought, a feeling of tenderness tempering his hunger. Lauren was his wife now, and they had all the time in the world.

‘We need to make plans so that I can mobilise the staff,’ he told her.

Lauren gave up trying to sleep and rolled onto her back, her heart missing a beat when she met Ramon’s warm sherry-gold gaze. ‘You make it sound like a military operation. Why would the staff need to come on our honeymoon?’

‘I have a villa in Barcelona. I thought we could take Mateo to the beaches there, and there are plenty of designer shops for you in the centre of the city. But there are no permanent staff at the villa, so we will need to take a cook and a butler, and other household staff—and Cathy, of course, for Mateo.’

‘It’s going to be quite a crowded honeymoon, then,’ Lauren murmured, her initial excitement fading a little now that it sounded as though their stay at the villa would be as formal as life at the castle. ‘To be honest, I think Matty is a bit young for the beach—we’ll spend all our time trying to stop him eating the sand. And I really don’t need to do any more shopping,’ she added ruefully.

In the two weeks prior to the wedding Ramon had insisted on taking her shopping in Madrid several times, and her wardrobes were now bursting with couture clothes from all the top design houses.

‘Couldn’t we go somewhere on our own—just you, me and Matty? Do you remember that weekend we spent at a lodge in Scotland?’ She smiled, remembering the trip they had made to the beautiful Scottish Highlands a month or so before she had found out that she was pregnant and their relationship had been blown apart. Ramon had been so relaxed that weekend, and had made love to her so tenderly in front of a blazing log fire that she had found herself falling ever deeper in love with him. ‘It would be nice to go somewhere peaceful,’ she said wistfully.

In the hectic run up to the wedding she had barely spent any time with him, and as the castle had been full of his various relatives they had had no chance to be alone.

Ramon frowned. ‘Scotland will be cold at this time of year. But if it’s mountains you want, I know of a place that is quiet and peaceful, with just the sound of a stream outside the house to disturb us. But it’s not much—just a simple lodge. And there isn’t room for any of the staff.’

‘It sounds perfect,’ Lauren assured him.

She knew many of her friends back in London would love to have an army of staff to take care of the cooking, housework and childcare, but she found the stiff formality of the castle rather stifling, and she didn’t think she would ever get used to the maids bobbing a curtsy every time they saw the new Duquesa.

Ramon dropped a kiss on her mouth. ‘That’s settled, then. I’ll instruct the staff to pack for us, and we’ll leave in a couple of hours.’

‘This is spectacular,’ Lauren said in an awed voice a few hours later, as she climbed out of the four-by-four Ramon had driven from the castle up into the Cantabrian mountains. Below them was a lush green valley, with farmhouses dotted here and there, and orange and almond groves in full bloom. The stream that threaded through the valley was glinting like a silver ribbon in the sunshine. All around the wooden lodge where they were to stay were tall pine trees, and rising up behind them were the higher peaks of the mountains, capped with snow that sparkled pure white against the cornflower-blue sky.

The lodge was as basic as Ramon had said, but perfectly comfortable, with a large sitting room and kitchen, a main bedroom with a bathroom leading off it, and a smaller room where they would set up a travel cot for Matty.

They unpacked the car, and then Ramon took charge of his son while Lauren spread out a rug on the grass and opened the picnic hamper the castle cook had prepared for them.

‘What a heavenly place,’ she murmured, her eyes drawn to the towering mountains. ‘Do you often come up here?’

Ramon carefully spooned some yogurt into Matty’s mouth while the baby was distracted by playing with the car keys. ‘Not as much as I would like. The responsibilities of running the company and the castle estate leave me with little free time, but when I was a boy I came up here most weekends, to hike or to fish in the mountain lakes.’

Lauren nodded. ‘I can understand why. I love it here. And I love picnics. I always seem to eat twice as much when I’m out in the fresh air,’ she said ruefully as she bit into another smoked salmon sandwich. ‘I must admit I prefer meals like this much more than the formal dinners we have at the castle, with the butler and a dozen servants in attendance—even for just the two of us.’

Ramon frowned at her outburst. ‘It has always been the tradition for the Duque and Duquesa to dine in the great hall. Even when my sisters and I were little my parents insisted that we should dress for dinner each evening, and we were expected to sit through five courses and make polite conversation without fidgeting or appearing bored.’

‘Do you mean that you never ate pizza in front of the TV? Or invited a few friends round and slung steaks on the barbecue?’ Lauren said in astonishment.

‘Certainly not. I was brought up always to be aware of my position and to act accordingly.’

She grimaced. ‘No wonder you looked shocked when you caught me eating ice-cream out of the tub at your apartment in London—and when I ordered Chinese takeaway and insisted that we picnicked on the living room floor. What on earth did you think of me?’ she muttered, blushing at the memory.

She doubted Pilar Fernandez would experiment with chopsticks to eat sweet-and-sour chicken balls, and dribble the sauce down her chin. It emphasised yet again that she did not belong in Ramon’s world, Lauren thought dismally.

‘I thought you were fun,’ he told her, smiling when she stared at him in surprise. ‘I’d never met anyone like you before. You liked to do crazy things, like walking in the rain, and cooking bacon sandwiches after we had made love for hours and were starving.’

‘Don’t remind me,’ she groaned.

‘I could relax with you,’ Ramon said quietly.

He hadn’t realised how much he had enjoyed being with her until she had ended their affair and he had returned to Spain soon after, to help care for his dying father.

‘I loved my parents, but my childhood
was
restrictive,’ he admitted. ‘I was brought up mainly by my governess, and I only saw my father for an hour each evening, when I was summoned to his study so that he could tell me about my ancestors, and the history of the castle, and instruct me on the duties I would one day take on when I became the Duque de Velaquez.’

‘Did you want to be a
duque
?’ Lauren asked curiously, trying to imagine him as a little boy, perhaps not many years older than Matty, being taught the responsibilities that lay ahead of him.

Ramon hesitated. It had been impressed on him by his father that a
duque
should be strong and in control of his emotions. From a young age he had understood that he must never cry—even when he had been thrown from his horse and had broken his arm. The lessons of his childhood were deeply ingrained, and he did not find it easy to confide his thoughts and feelings. But Lauren was his wife, and he realised that for their marriage to stand a chance he must now learn to open up a little.

Ramon’s sudden grin reminded Lauren of the relaxed, carefree lover she’d had a passionate affair with eighteen—no, nineteen months ago. ‘Actually, I wanted to be an astronaut,’ he told her, laughing when she gave him a disbelieving look. ‘I had a passion for science—especially physics, which I studied at university. After I completed my Masters degree I was offered the opportunity to study with the American Space Agency.’

Lauren’s eyes widened. ‘Did you take it? Why ever not?’ she demanded when he shook his head.

‘I couldn’t,’ he said with a shrug. ‘I was the only son and heir of the Duque de Velaquez and I always knew that my life was to be at the castle, running the winery and the estate, and heading other Velaquez business interests.’

‘So you sacrificed your dream for duty,’ Lauren said slowly.

Ramon’s strong sense of duty must have been ingrained in him as soon as he had been old enough to understand his family’s noble heritage, she realised. And as the only son he had grown up knowing that he must marry—not necessarily for love. He must choose a woman with a similar noble pedigree to provide the next Velaquez heir.

It was small wonder he had never considered that an affair with his English mistress could ever lead to a deeper relationship. Even if he had begun to care for her, as she had hoped at the time, she understood now that he would not have put what he wanted before his duty to his family—he would never have allowed himself to fall in love with her.

‘So, did you never come up here to the lodge with your father?’ she asked curiously.

‘No. I had various tutors. One of them enjoyed the outdoor life, and used to accompany me. I was educated at the castle because my father feared that I might make unsuitable friendships if I went to school,’ Ramon explained when Lauren gave him a puzzled look. ‘I only ever socialised with young people from a similar social standing to my own. It was only when I went to university that I realised how stifling my upbringing had been,’ he admitted.

‘I’m surprised your father agreed to you going to uni,’ Lauren commented.

‘It took me a long time to persuade him.’ Ramon sighed heavily. ‘And then I gave him good reason to regret his decision by falling madly in love with a topless model and announcing my intention to marry her.’

Lauren gave him a startled glance, feeling a sharp stab of jealousy that Ramon, whose heart was made of granite, could ever have been ‘madly in love’.

‘But I thought it was your duty to marry a woman from the Spanish nobility? What did you father say?’

‘Naturally he was horrified, and tried to dissuade me. But I was eighteen, enjoying my first taste of freedom, and I was hell-bent on making Catalina my bride. That’s when my father took action.’ Ramon’s smile faded as he remembered the pain he had felt when he had learned that he had been betrayed by the woman he had loved.

‘He employed a private investigator, who discovered that Catalina had a lover. The lover was a drug addict, who needed money for his habit, and so Catalina came up with a plan to seduce the wet-behind-the-ears son of a wealthy
duque
, persuade him to marry her, and then make a mint from the divorce settlement. Armed with these facts, my father dragged me along to the hotel where he knew Catalina and her lover met in secret, and presented me with the two of them naked in bed together.’

‘Ow,’ Lauren murmured sympathetically. ‘That can’t have been a good moment.’

‘There were plenty of others just as bad when the press got hold of the story. My humiliation was
very
public,’ Ramon said dryly. ‘I felt a fool—and, worse, I knew I had greatly disappointed my father. I soon got over Catalina, once I had seen that she was a mercenary slut, and in a way the whole sordid experience was good for me—because it taught me to be careful who I trusted. The Velaquez fortune is a powerful aphrodisiac for many women,’ he drawled sardonically.

‘Not for me,’ Lauren told him firmly, horrified that he might have thought her to be a gold-digger when she had first met him. ‘I was determined to train for a good career so that I could earn my own money and
never
be reliant on any man.’

‘Your desire for independence is all very well, but you were wrong to keep my son a secret from me,’ Ramon said harshly. ‘You put what you wanted before the needs of our child.’

Lauren bit her lip. ‘I’ve already explained that I didn’t think you would want our baby when you’d just told me that you intended to marry an aristocratic bride. If I had known that you would love your child, regardless of his mother’s social standing, I would have told you I was pregnant the night we broke up.’

The tense silence that fell between them was broken by Matty, who had grown bored with playing with the car keys and made a grab for the pot of yogurt, chuckling when yogurt flew through the air and landed on Ramon’s shirt.

‘You have to admit he’s got a great aim,’ his father commented as Lauren hastily took the yogurt pot from Matty, before he could spread its contents any further.

She glanced at Ramon, worried that he was annoyed with Matty, but Ramon laughed as he gathered him into his arms and lifted him high in the air, so that the baby squealed with delight.

‘Even if you had told me, I don’t think I would have had any concept of what having a child really meant. Nor would I have known that I could feel such a strength of love for my son,’ he admitted in a low tone. ‘Until I saw Mateo for the first time I had viewed having a child as a duty, to ensure the Velaquez name. I had never imagined what it would be like to be a father, to feel this absolute, overwhelming love for another human being and know that I would gladly give my life for his.’

Lauren swallowed the sudden lump in her throat, startled by the raw emotion in Ramon’s voice. ‘I know what you mean,’ she said huskily. ‘The first time I held him I was swamped by the most intense love for him, and everything else, including my career, suddenly seemed unimportant.’

Her eyes locked with Ramon’s in a moment of shared parental pride for their son. Matty linked them together inextricably, she realised. For the first time since the wedding she felt a sense of calm acceptance that she had done the right thing by marrying Ramon, and that giving up her career was a small sacrifice when it meant that her baby would grow up with both his parents. But hearing Ramon voice his love for Matty made her heart ache with longing that he would love her too.