The Gold Collection. Maggie Cox

      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