He continued his exploration of her feminine curves and stroked his way up her body to her breasts. She caught her breath when he pushed the top of her dress aside and played with one nipple, rolling the hard peak between his fingers. Pleasure arced down to the sweet spot between her legs and multiplied a thousand times when he unfastened the halter straps on her dress and bared her breasts to the mercy of his mouth. She felt his warm breath on her skin before he took her nipple into his mouth and sucked hard until she whimpered with pleasure and he transferred his lips to her other breast.
The last vestiges of Elin’s resistance crumbled and she gave a low moan of surrender as she wound her arms around his neck. He lifted his head to plunder her mouth with his wicked tongue. In a distant recess of her mind she acknowledged that Cortez had given a masterclass in domination which had rendered her helpless against the onslaught of his passion. A warning voice in her head whispered that she would pay a heavy price in humiliation for these moments of pleasure.
She was right. He suddenly released her and she swayed on her feet, feeling utterly bereft. She lifted her fingers to her mouth and touched its swollen contours. God knew what she looked like. She could feel that her hair had half fallen out of its chignon, and her hands shook as she pulled the top of her dress up over her breasts to hide her swollen, reddened nipples that were still damp from Cortez’s tongue. She might as well have shouted from the rooftop that she was his for the taking, she thought in self-disgust.
‘Our marriage will provide our son with the security of growing up with both his parents, which is something we know from our childhood experiences is important.’ Cortez’s voice was coolly unemotional and Elin’s stomach gave a sickening lurch as she realised that he was unaffected by what had just happened. Why didn’t she learn? A year ago he had left her after they’d had sex, and he had only kissed her now to prove that she couldn’t resist him.
‘You can’t possibly want me for your wife,’ she said desperately.
‘I have just demonstrated what I want.’ He dropped his gaze to the betraying hard peaks of her breasts and smiled cynically. ‘What we both want. And there will be other compensations to our marriage of expediency in addition to our sexual compatibility.’
He made it sound so clinical, Elin thought bleakly. ‘Your knowledge of viticulture and your ability to walk into a room and instantly charm every person present will be useful when you act as my hostess at social and business functions. My shareholders will love you,’ Cortez said drily.
‘I don’t actually care what your shareholders think of me. What concerns me is how could we possibly create a happy home and family life for Harry when there is so much antipathy between us?’ She bit her lip. ‘We hardly know each other.’
‘Then we had better go on a crash course to learn about each other, hadn’t we, querida?’ His softer tone was unexpected and made Elin wish that the situation was different. If only Cortez loved her.
Shock jolted through her and she told herself not to be stupid. It was bad enough that he made her body feel out of control, and she was not going to lose control of her heart too. She stiffened when he lifted his hand and traced his thumb across her kiss-stung lips.
‘Our son was conceived by mistake,’ he said quietly, ‘but although we may not know each other very well yet, I am confident we agree on one thing. Neither of us regrets for one second that we have been blessed with Harry. For his sake, let us endeavour not to make any more mistakes.’
Perhaps her doubts showed in her expression because he stepped away from her and said coolly, ‘Don’t forget that by marrying me you’ll fulfil the terms of Ralph’s will, which stipulates that you can only inherit fifty per cent of Saunderson’s Wines if you marry within a year. I have decided not to sell the Cuckmere estate because, as you pointed out, it is Harry’s heritage. If you marry me you will be able to continue the work your adoptive mother started when she planted the vineyards, and hopefully produce a top quality English sparkling wine.’
Owning a share of the winery would give her financial security and independence, Elin brooded. Cortez had played his trump card. He knew how much Saunderson’s Wines meant to her, and her desire to fulfil Mama’s dream. It made sense to agree to marry him to secure her position as Harry’s mother and also to take part-ownership of the winery that she had invested so much of her time and energy in.
‘All right,’ she said abruptly, before she could change her mind. ‘I’ll marry you for the reasons you have mentioned. I agree that it will be better for our son if we bring him up together. And I am determined to make Saunderson’s Wines a successful business.’
Cortez nodded and poured himself another drink, which he swallowed in one gulp. ‘I’ll make the necessary arrangements for us to marry as soon as possible,’ he told her in a crisp tone which indicated that he regarded their marriage as purely a matter of convenience, which of course it was for her too, Elin assured herself.
* * *
The bureaucratic process of applying to marry in Spain was fairly long-winded, and it was three weeks later before Cortez was able to book the wedding ceremony at the local Town Hall.
Although he was impatient at the delay in becoming his son’s legal parent, he had nevertheless found it fascinating to watch Harry develop. It was astonishing how much the baby had grown and changed in a few short weeks, he said to Elin at Harry’s bathtime one evening. The hours they spent together with their son had given Cortez an opportunity to prove his desire to be a good father and he had noticed a gradual thaw in Elin’s attitude towards him. He knew he had hurt her with his accusations, and it would take time to win her trust, but he was determined to do so, and show her that they could have a successful marriage.
Now it was the day before their wedding and they were on their way to Seville to have lunch with his married friends, Nicolás and Teresa García. The couple had a one-year-old son, and Cortez hoped that Elin would enjoy spending time with other parents after she’d complained that she felt cut off from her friends in Sussex while she was living in Spain.
He briefly took his eyes from the road and glanced at her sitting beside him in the front of the car. ‘What kind of man was Ralph Saunderson?’ he asked her. ‘It feels strange that I know nothing about my father.’ He thought of the man he had met once a year ago. He had not seen Ralph Saunderson after that first visit to Cuckmere Hall and Ralph had not been in contact again before his death. ‘You were his adopted daughter and you must have known him well.’
Cortez focused back on the highway, which was bordered on both sides by acres of vineyards stretching to the horizon, and tried unsuccessfully to ignore his fierce awareness of Elin. The light floral perfume she wore stirred his senses, and the expanse of slender thigh exposed by her skirt, that had ridden up when she’d climbed into the car, made him wish that he could pull over by the side of the road and make love to her. But relieving his sexual frustration was not possible for many reasons, not least because Harry was asleep in his baby seat in the back of the car.
Their wedding could not come soon enough, he brooded. Sometimes he had caught Elin looking at him in a way that made him wonder if she was as desperate as he was for them to share a bed. He certainly hoped she was. But he’d heard genuine concern in her voice when she had said that they hardly knew one another, and for that reason he had forced himself to suppress his desire while he concentrated on making her feel at ease with him. He’d never taken as many cold showers as he had recently, he thought wryly.
Elin shifted in her seat and the pretty, floral-patterned dress she was wearing rode a little further up her thighs. She had lost the gaunt look she’d had when Cortez had brought her to Spain, and her unhealthy pallor had been replaced with a light golden tan. Her long hair was tied in a braid that fell over one shoulder and she looked utterly lovely and wholesome and at the same time incredibly sexy. His fingers itched to undo the buttons running down the front of her dress and discover if she was wearing a bra.
‘I didn’t really know Ralph very well,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t close to him like I was to my adoptive mother. He had a tendency to start many projects with plenty