The Gold Collection. Maggie Cox

      ‘Dios mio, I threatened to fight for custody of our child. I gave you no choice but to be my wife. And now you feel trapped. You asked me once if you were my prisoner,’ he said harshly. ‘The answer is no, Lauren. I will not keep you here against your will any longer.’

      She wished he would turn round, so that she could see his expression, because the dark, deadly serious tone in his voice was scaring her to death. ‘I don’t understand,’ she whispered.

      He shrugged. ‘I am setting you free. Neither of us can be happy while you continue to be haunted by the way your father treated your mother. You are constantly waiting for me to let you down in some way, and ultimately that lack of trust will destroy our relationship.’

      He paused, and then continued in the same emotionless voice. ‘I will agree to a divorce, and to you taking Mateo back to England. All I ask is that you allow me to buy a house for the two of you, and for your agreement that I can visit him often.’

      She was so shocked by his stark announcement that she could not speak—couldn’t think. The agonising pain, as if her heart was being crushed in a vice, made it difficult to breathe.

      ‘I don’t want a divorce,’ she stammered. ‘I would never take Matty away from here—from the castle, and his family, and you. I know how much you love him.’

      She broke off when Ramon turned to face her, and the stark wretchedness in his eyes made her want to weep. She knew how much it must have cost him to offer her custody of Matty, to allow her to take his son away. He thought she wanted her freedom, but what she really wanted, needed to do was tell him honestly how she felt about him. She had been a coward for far too long, and had allowed her father’s behaviour to colour her judgement of Ramon, but what they shared was too special to lose.

      Courage was hard to find as she stared at the tall, handsome man who was her world. His jaw was tense, his skin drawn tight over his slashing cheekbones. She wished he would smile and hold her, kiss her hair as he did every night as she fell asleep in his arms.

      She took a deep breath.

      ‘I don’t feel trapped. I want to remain married to you because…I love you.’

      The silence was so intense that Lauren could hear the ragged sound of her breathing. There was no reaction on his hard face, and his thick lashes hid the expression in his eyes.

      ‘Some love,’ he said scathingly at last. ‘You say the words, Lauren, but you did not show it today, when you believed that I was having an affair with Pilar.’

      Feeling as though she were dying inside, Lauren stared at the floor, willing her tears not to fall until she was alone and could deal with his rejection in private. She did not see him move, and flinched when he slid his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face to his.

      ‘True love—the kind that lasts for ever—is profound and loving, passionate and tender,’ he said deeply. ‘It is about trust and forgiveness, friendship, and an abiding affection that transcends all life’s problems and disappointments and brings the greatest joy.’ Ramon paused and stared into her grey eyes, feeling his heart contract when he saw the shimmer of her tears. ‘At least that is the love I feel for you, mi corazón.’

      It was too much to take in. He had defined the meaning of love so beautifully that she could not hold back her tears. She must have misunderstood. He could not mean that he felt that wealth of emotion for her, she thought desperately. But the golden gleam in his sherry-brown gaze burned into her soul, and to her amazement love blazed in his eyes.

      ‘You…you love me?’ She was a lawyer, and she always verified her facts.

      ‘With all my heart, mi preciosa.’

      The raw emotion in his voice touched her even more than the words, and she realised that she was not the only one who was shaking. Questions swirled in her head.

      ‘Why didn’t you say?’ she whispered, still finding it impossible to believe.

      He gave a rueful smile and stroked her hair back from her face with an unsteady hand. ‘At first I did not know,’ he admitted huskily. ‘All I knew was that I fancied you like hell and wanted you in my bed. To my annoyance, I missed you when you weren’t around. But I think even then, during our affair, I knew you were special,’ he said slowly.

      ‘You know what happened the one and only other time I fell in love. My heart soon mended after Catalina, but I felt ashamed that I had disappointed my father, and I was determined to one day marry a woman from my own social circle of whom he would approve. My experience with Catalina made me wary of trusting my judgement of women, so when I met you and realised I wanted more than a casual affair with you I reminded myself that I could never allow our relationship to develop.

      ‘I was furious when I discovered that you had kept my son a secret from me, but I was secretly glad that it gave me the opportunity to make you my wife,’ he admitted. ‘I kidded myself that I only wanted to marry you for Mateo’s sake. When you walked towards me in the church, looking like an angel, I knew that you had stolen my heart irrevocably and for ever.

      ‘Don’t cry, mi corazón,’ he said softly, brushing his lips over her damp cheeks and tasting her tears. ‘Don’t you want me to love you?’

      ‘I want it more than anything in the world, and I always have—because I fell in love with you about five minutes after I met you,’ she told him fiercely. ‘I’m crying because I was so unsure of you, and of the happiness that we seemed to have. I wish you had told me how you felt.’

      ‘You wouldn’t have believed me,’ he said gently. ‘You had to learn to trust me first. I tried to show you how much you meant to me.’

      ‘By giving me things,’ Lauren murmured, suddenly understanding that the jewellery and other presents he had showered her with had been his way of trying to teach her that he loved her. ‘Oh, Ramon.’ She stared at his beautiful sculpted face and ached with love for him. ‘You wouldn’t really have agreed to a divorce, would you?’ she asked, a little tremor of uncertainty still in her voice.

      ‘You must be joking.’ He smiled suddenly, and snatched her into his arms as the restraint he had imposed on himself crumbled beneath his urgent need to hold her close. ‘Even as I said it I was frantically backtracking and planning how I could persuade you to stay with me. I never want to let you go, querida,’ he said, suddenly serious again. ‘But I blackmailed you into marrying me. You have to choose whether or not you want to be my wife.’

      Joy unfurled in Lauren’s heart and radiated out, until every cell and nerve-ending in her body overflowed with happiness. ‘I choose you—and I want to stay with you as your wife, friend and lover until I die.’ She untied the belt of her robe and shrugged it from her shoulders, heat sizzling in her blood when Ramon studied the very daring black lace negligee with rampant appreciation in his eyes. ‘But I won’t object if you want to persuade me a little,’ she invited in a sultry tone.

      The sight of her creamy breasts spilling out of her sexy nightgown was too much for Ramon, and with a groan he lowered his head and captured her mouth with a sensual mastery that elicited her urgent response. She was on fire for him instantly, and curled her arms around his neck as she pressed her body up against his hard thighs.

      He was breathing hard when he finally lifted his lips from hers. ‘I have something for you,’ he told her raggedly.

      She smiled and stroked her hand over the distinct bulge beneath his trousers. ‘I know.’

      ‘Witch.’ He eased away from her, strode over to his desk, and retrieved a small box from a drawer. ‘I’ve wanted to give you this for weeks, but the time never seemed right.’ He paused, and then added a shade bleakly, ‘And I wasn’t sure you wanted my love for you that this ring represents.’

      He opened the box, and Lauren caught her breath as she stared at the exquisite sparkling circlet of diamonds set in white gold. ‘One day our son can give this “monstrosity”