The Gold Collection. Maggie Cox

need to continue with my duties in running the estate, but I can arrange my work around your studies.’

      He paused, his brows drawing together when he saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes. ‘What’s the matter, querida? I thought a modern-thinking woman like you would welcome the idea of sharing the care of our child equally?’

      ‘I do,’ she assured him. ‘It’s just that you’ve taken me by surprise. I didn’t expect you to understand how I felt,’ she added huskily.

      Her smile tugged on Ramon’s insides. ‘You should expect it,’ he said seriously. ‘You are my wife, and it is my duty to try and make you happy.’

      Lauren’s heart sank a little at the word duty. She didn’t want to be another of his responsibilities. It would be so much nicer if he wanted to make her happy because she was important to him, she thought, unaware of the faintly wistful expression in her eyes.

      Ramon began to undo his shirt buttons, revealing his muscular chest, the golden satiny skin covered with a mass of fine dark hairs that arrowed down over his flat abdomen. Lauren’s heart-rate quickened when he leaned close to her and slid his hand beneath her chin.

      ‘I want our marriage to work, querida.’ He paused for a heartbeat, and then added deeply, ‘Not only for Mateo’s sake. And to that end I am prepared to do whatever it takes.’

      The first brush of his mouth over hers was nectar after two days without him, and she responded eagerly—like someone who had been lost in the desert and had suddenly discovered an oasis. She sighed with pleasure when he wrapped his arms around her and deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue into her mouth and exploring her with a sensual mastery that made her tremble.

      He grinned as he stood up and removed the rest of his clothes with flattering speed. ‘Anyway, I rather like the prospect of being a house-husband.’

      Lauren’s lips twitched at the idea of her macho husband transformed into a tamed pussy-cat. Her heart lifted. He might not love her, but he cared about her enough to want her to be happy, and that was more than she had ever dared hope for.

      ‘You know that housewives are meant to be domestic goddesses in the kitchen and temptresses in the bedroom?’ she murmured as she pulled him down on top of her. ‘How does that work for house-husbands?’

      ‘I’ve never been near a kitchen in my life,’ Ramon confessed shamelessly, drawing the straps of her nightgown down her arms until her breasts spilled into his hands. ‘But I’m a god in the bedroom, querida,’ he promised, and proceeded to live up to his claim.

      Was it tempting fate to think that life couldn’t get more perfect? Lauren wondered a few weeks later, as she carried Matty up the steps of the swimming pool and wrapped a towel around his wet, wriggling body. Not that he needed a towel in the glorious Spanish sunshine that shone every day from a cloudless blue sky. But he did need sunscreen and a hat, she told him as she set him on his feet. He immediately toddled off across the grass, laughing gleefully when she gave chase.

      The pool was set amid beautiful gardens, where the scent of jasmine and bougainvillaea filled the air. All around the castle stood the peaks of the Cantabrian Mountains, lush and green at their base, rising to silvery-grey bare rock towards the summits. Ramon was a keen hiker—yet another facet about him that Lauren had recently discovered—and with Matty secured in a baby carrier on his father’s shoulders they went walking in the picturesque countryside most weekends.

      Lauren was making the most of the summer, and treasured spending every day with Matty, but she was looking forward to starting her studies for a Spanish law degree in September. Ramon had driven her to Bilbao for her interview at the university, and afterwards they had spent a magical afternoon at the Guggenheim, world-famous for its collection of contemporary art. Then he had taken her to an exclusive five-star hotel, where they had enjoyed an even more magical night.

      It was becoming harder and harder to hide her feelings for Ramon, she mused as she carried Matty back into the castle for his afternoon nap. ‘At least I can tell you how much I love you,’ she murmured to the tired little boy. He gave her a cheeky grin that as ever stole her heart, and she dropped a kiss on his cheek before tiptoeing out of the nursery.

      The sound of Ramon’s mobile phone greeted her when she walked into their bedroom. She frowned, realising that he must have left it behind, and after a moment’s hesitation answered it. She explained to his PA that he was out in the vineyards and would not be back until early evening.

      ‘I’ll drive out to find him and give him his phone,’ she assured Maria, when the PA went into a lengthy explanation about an urgent matter that required his immediate attention.

      The Velaquez estate was huge, with miles of vineyards, but she guessed that Ramon would be at his estate manager’s cottage. It was too far to walk in the hot afternoon sunshine, and so she slid behind the wheel of the sports car that was his latest gift to her, lowered the roof, and was soon speeding along the dusty tracks, with the warm breeze blowing through her hair.

      It was a glorious feeling, and she couldn’t help smiling. She hadn’t thanked him properly for her car yet, but tonight she planned to wear a new sexy black negligee and show her appreciation by seducing him.

      There was no sign of Ramon’s Jeep outside the cottage. So he could be anywhere on the estate, she thought with a frown, as she brought her car to a halt and stared along the endless rows of vines. She sat for a few moments, wondering what to do, and was relieved when one of the estate workers ambled up the track.

      ‘The boss not here,’ the man told her in answer to her query. ‘He used to come Fridays, but not now.’

       Do you know where he spends every Friday afternoon?

      Pilar Fernandez’s curious question on the day of Valentina’s twins’ christening stole into Lauren’s mind, and despite the hot sun beating down on her shoulderblades ice trickled down her spine.

      There would be a perfectly reasonable explanation as to Ramon’s whereabouts, she told herself firmly. She smiled at the worker. ‘Do you know where el Duque is?

      The man shrugged. ‘Sometimes I see him drive along this track.’

      ‘And the track leads where?’ Lauren queried patiently.

      ‘To Casa Madalena.’

      All the joy went out of the day, and all the heat drained out of the sun. Lauren shivered and hugged her arms around herself, nausea churning in her stomach. So Ramon spent every Friday afternoon at the home of Pilar Fernandez, and had apparently done so for weeks—despite the fact that he had told her he visited the vineyards on Fridays. Why had he lied? she wondered, and gave a bitter laugh. It could only be because he did not want her to know about his regular visits to Pilar.

      Her mother had told her that her father had pretended for years that he played squash at his sports club every Friday evening, when in fact he had been having an affair with his secretary.

      Oh, God! Pain ripped through her, and she sagged against the car. She had been such a fool. When she had first met him Ramon had been a playboy who had never been faithful to any of his numerous mistresses for more than five minutes. He had married her because he wanted his son, and had bluntly admitted that she was not his ideal wife. But he had said that he wanted their marriage to work, and she had been so blinded by her love for him that she had seized on the nice things he had done for her as a sign that he was beginning to care for her.

      Maybe he had encouraged her to accept a place at university in Bilbao so that she would be out of the way for a couple of days a week? Maybe he intended to invite Pilar to the castle, so that she could get to know Matty before he divorced her and married the aristocratic Spanish beauty who would make him a much more suitable bride?

      Her overwrought imagination battled with her common sense. Ramon would have to be Superman to have the energy for an affair when he made love to her every night. But he had never given any indication that the wild passion they shared was anything more