His Unknown Heir(50)

‘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.