The Virgin's Secret (13 page)

L
EO
was looking at her so intensely that Angel quivered. And then he just said, in a hard voice, ‘We're not here to chat and swap life stories, Angel, charming as this has been. I'm done with talking. What I'd like right now is for you to show me what you've learnt and seduce me.'

Angel just looked at him, hurt slicing through her at the way he was dismissing what they'd just shared and closing himself off again. She could deduce that he wanted to punish her in some way for having encouraged him to talk, but for her to seduce
him
? Show him what she'd learnt? She still had no idea what she was doing in bed—no conscious thought anyway. The minute Leo touched her she forgot time and space, everything but the building fire in her body, and now he wanted…

He said it again, as if he could hear her inner dialogue. ‘I want you to seduce me. You're my mistress, that's what mistresses do.'

More hurt sliced through Angel. She was his mistress, and she'd forgotten for a tiny moment. The last days when he'd not come to her bed had left her feeling on edge. She hated to admit it now, especially when he was being so cold, but a part of her
thrilled
at the thought of being free to touch Leo any way she wished.

She told herself that when he pushed her back like this it should make it easier to cut out her emotions…but she caught his eyes and in a flash something glimmered in their depths. Something indefinable. She didn't believe it for a second, but Leo looked almost vulnerable. It made her make her mind up. Along with the way her pulse had jumped to think he was inviting her to take the initiative.

She put the bottle of water down on the island behind her and then turned back. She stepped up to Leo and stood in front of him for a long moment. He was so much taller than her, and so broad that she could see nothing behind him.

From here she looked up, to see Leo looking down from under hooded lids. He wasn't moving a muscle. But Angel could see the golden lights in his eyes again, and curiously that comforted her. She brought her hands to his chest and took a deep breath, spreading them out, moving them up over his pectorals, which she could feel under the material of his soft T-shirt.

She moved her hands under the collar of his T-shirt and on tiptoe, spread them out and around his neck. She tried to bring his head down to her level, so she could kiss him, but he wasn't budging. Angel bit back a retort. Determination fired her blood: he wasn't going to make this easy.

She manoeuvred him over to the stool, pushing him down onto it so he was more on her level, and she thought she caught a glint in his eye but couldn't be sure. His feet were on the ground, the height of the stool no hindrance to him.

Angel moved his legs apart with her body and stepped right up between them. She stopped for a minute and looked at the scar above his mouth. She put out a finger and traced it, before bending forward and pressing her lips there, above his top lip.

He still wasn't moving. Just looking at her as dispassionately as if she were speaking Chinese in a tedious lecture. For an excruciating moment uncertainty rose up within Angel and she had a flash of all the women he had been with. All those blonde scary-looking women who would no doubt know exactly what to do, who'd be bringing him to the edge of his control already, not leaving him looking as if he was about to fall asleep.

Angel stopped, and her hands fell to his thighs. She felt stupid. Kissing his scar as if she could kiss away whatever had put it there. She hung her head. ‘Leo, I don't think I can do—'

‘Keep going.' His voice was rough.

She looked up again. Leo's eyes weren't as clear as she'd thought. They burned gold. Angel's heart started to thump erratically. Her hands were still on his thighs and she started to move them experimentally up his legs, until they rested near his crotch. Her thumbs were close to where the fabric of his jeans was slightly bulging out.

Angel looked at Leo and moved one hand, so that it cupped him intimately. To her intense joy she could feel the evidence of his arousal and see the way his eyes flared. It gave her a heady confidence. She moved her hand up and down, stroking, caressing through the material. She could see Leo's fists clench out of the corner of her eye, and he made a slight move. Immediately she moved back out from between his legs and away.

She shook her head. ‘No touching.'

Leo's jaw clenched, but he nodded. Angel moved back and placed her hand on him again. He was even bigger now, and she started to tingle all over, anticipation coiling through her like a live wire.

With one hand on him, and the other around his neck, she
leant into him fully and pressed her mouth to his. In keeping with his letting her do the work, Leo didn't respond to the kiss at first. Angel had to entice and cajole. At one stage she nearly screamed her frustration; despite his obvious arousal, she felt as if
she
was on the way to exploding, not him.

Her breasts were pressed against his chest, and the tips ached so badly that she rubbed against him. She wanted to press herself against his erection, to feel the slide of it against her body.

But his mouth…first she had to get him to kiss her. She flicked out her tongue and traced lightly along the seam of his lips, biting gently and then smoothing over the bites. When she tugged on his lower lip he opened them slightly, and Angel brought both hands to his head, holding him so that she could plunder and stroke her tongue against his exactly the way he did to her. His tongue duelled with hers, teeth nipping, biting her lower lip, making it sting deliciously.

She was in danger of being sucked down into the familiar pool of pleasure—until she noticed that Leo was still restraining himself, even though he was kissing her back. Although when she pulled back slightly she could see a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. It helped her regain her composure. She tried to control her breathing, stood back and held out her hand. Leo took it and stood up, and Angel silently led him from the kitchen and up the stairs to his bedroom.

It was all at once incredibly intimidating and incredibly arousing to have Leo just say nothing, be passive. When his bedroom door closed behind them Angel turned to Leo and tugged the bottom of his T-shirt up. He lifted his arms and Angel pulled it off all the way.

Then she led him over to the bed and sat him down on the edge. She stepped back a few paces and bit her lip for a second, feeling nervous again. She reached up and pulled at
the band that was holding her hair up haphazardly, and felt the mass fall down around her shoulders.

Then she put her hands to the bottom of her flimsy vest and pulled it up slowly, more out of intense nervousness than an attempt to be erotic. She could see a muscle pop in Leo's jaw, and his eyes had darkened. As he lounged back he put his hands behind him in an utterly nonchalant yet effortlessly sexy pose.

For a second Angel's eyes fell to his crotch and she saw the distinctive bulge. Her throat went dry, and she realised she'd stalled, baring her belly. With a deep breath she pulled her vest up and off completely, trying not to feel embarrassed. She let it drop to the ground. Her breasts felt tight and achy, the tips puckering under Leo's hot gaze.

Angel brought her hands to her pyjama bottoms and she undid the tiny bow holding them up. She pulled it loose and the bottoms sagged around her hips. With a little wiggle, she let them fall off.

Angel stepped out of them, and now she stood before Leo in nothing but her tiny panties. He filled her vision. He was like a marauding pirate, inspecting her for his delectation.

Angel walked over to him and pushed his legs apart, coming between them. She brought her hands to the fastening of his jeans and undid the button, slowly dragged down the zip. Her eyes followed the dark silky line of hair that disappeared under the top of his briefs. She saw him wince as her knuckles brushed his erection.

When his jeans were open she put her hands around his back to encourage him to tip his hips up so she could slide them down. Her sensitised breasts brushed enticingly against his belly, and Angel nearly moaned out loud before sinking to her knees to pull them off completely.

With shaking hands, she threw them behind her. She
reached up again and tugged at the sides of his briefs. Leo's face was tense, the lines stark. His eyes glittered, and Angel wasn't sure how she was still operating.

She pulled his boxers down, releasing him from confinement. And then, with her heart nearly leaping out of her throat, she looked at Leo and took him in her hand, slowly slipping it up and down over the thickness, feeling him swell and harden even more.

Acting on instinct, wanting to taste every bit of him, she leant forward. But Leo stopped her, with his voice sounding tight. ‘No, Angel, you don't have to—'

‘No talking.' Her voice was husky and wound around his every sense, pulling tight. Leo couldn't believe it. Angel was shielding those incredible blue eyes by lowering her lashes and taking him into her mouth, surrounding him with sweet, moist warmth. Caressing him with such innocent eroticism that he knew he wouldn't last—not when he'd nearly exploded just at the touch of her hand on him through his jeans downstairs.

Seeing her take off her clothes just now—first that skimpy vest which had shown all too readily the curve of her firm breasts with their hard tips, then the way she'd dropped her bottoms to the floor and stepped out of them. And then she had walked towards him and stripped
him
. He'd actually been afraid to touch her, afraid he'd scare her with the strength of the passion running through him, but he knew she'd pushed him to the edge now, and he wouldn't be able to contain it any longer.

Angel felt Leo's hips jerk, and then suddenly she was being gently pulled away and he was hauling her up.

‘Enough,' he growled. ‘I'm seduced.' With quick hands he tugged and pulled down her panties, and then, in a move so
fast he made her dizzy, she was flat on her back on the bed and Leo was rolling a condom onto his penis.

He pushed her legs apart with a hand, stroking up her thigh as he did so, delving into where the ache was building to screaming pitch. She nearly bucked off the bed she was so aroused. Leo slid into her and then thrust harder and harder, taking her with him, putting a hand under her buttocks, lifting her into him even more. Angel wrapped a leg around his back and clung on. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, could only move in tandem with Leo until everything was obliterated and shattered around them.

 

The next morning when Angel woke she was on her front, with one leg lifted up and her arms sprawled out wide. She felt utterly replete at a very deep level, and heavy—as if she could sink all the way to Middle Earth.

She heard a muted sound, and opened one eye to see Leo standing at the mirror of his wardrobe, knotting his tie. It was the same image as that first morning, and she was awake instantly, pulling a sheet over her nakedness, coming up on one arm, wary. She hadn't woken in his bed before.

Leo looked at her, and Angel steeled herself. ‘You're still here. And I'm in your bed.'

Leo's mouth quirked and his attention went back to his tie. ‘You're very good at stating the obvious.'

Angel bit her lip when she remembered last night. The conflagration that had blown up around them. What had led up to it.

‘Do you ever wake up with a woman you've slept with?' she heard herself asking, as if someone had taken control of her mouth.

Leo's hands stilled. Angel could see that the glimmer of warmth in his eyes was rapidly cooling.

Leo tried not to look at Angel, but he didn't have to. Her image was burned onto his retina. She lay there, just feet away, in such tousled and innocently sexy splendour that she hit him right between the eyes. But her question… The very impertinence of it went through him like a gunshot. His immediate reaction had been a vociferous
no
! Because waking up with a woman in his arms was anathema to him on so many levels.

It implied a level of trust he just did not have. For him, trust meant emotion, and emotion meant instability,
fear, and, quite literally, death
. His primary female role model, his mother, had been dangerously unstable. He'd only told Angel the half of it last night—and why the hell had he said anything?

Irritation snaked through him now. He'd come dangerously close to waking up wrapped around Angel like a vine as it was. With her body curled trustingly into his. And that was bad enough.

Angel knew Leo wouldn't answer her. She couldn't believe she'd asked the question. She sat up and wrapped the sheet around her as she got up to look for her discarded clothes, blushing when she bent down to pick up her knickers from where Leo had flung them in his haste last night.

She was almost at her own door when she heard his cool, ‘We're going out tonight. I'll be home by eight.'

Angel stopped and just nodded her head, keeping her back to him. She couldn't bear to see that same image again, those cool eyes in the mirror. She slipped into her room and shut the door behind her.

Back to square one. Back in her place. Delphi's wedding was only a week away now. Perhaps Leo saw that as the end of Angel's penance and he'd turn around the morning after and let her go. He'd replace all the beautiful clothes in the
walk-in wardrobe with a different size for a new and improved mistress. One who didn't come with messy ties and revenge.

Angel resolutely went straight into her shower and stood under steaming hot jets of water. At least she had something to look forward to apart from Delphi's wedding: her jewellery commission for Ari and Lucy Levakis. Just thinking of that and anticipating what she'd start with that day helped to clear her mind of far too disturbing thoughts, like how disarming it had been to see a totally different side to Leo last night.