The Virgin's Secret (5 page)

Tentatively she came from around the chair. She reassured herself that he was an urbane man of the world. An American. She had to be able to appeal to some rational part of him.

‘Look. You have the will. I'm sorry for trespassing where I'm not welcome. I promise if you let me go that you'll never see or hear from me again.' Angel ignored the way her heart gave a funny little clench when she said that. She couldn't even begin to contemplate her father's reaction to what she'd done, and of course she couldn't promise that he wouldn't do something stupid again, but she kept her mouth shut.

Leo put down the glass silently on the table. Angel followed the movement warily. A strange charge came into the air between them and she found her eyes being helplessly drawn back to his. They were glowing with gold in their
depths again, reminding her of how he'd looked at her just before he'd kissed her that night on the terrace. His eyes dropped then, insolently sweeping down her body, taking in her worn jeans, black top and jacket. Sneakers. And suddenly it was as if she was breaking out into little fires all over her skin.

Her heart started thumping. In a blind panic, to negate her reaction, she moved again, telling herself that he wouldn't stop her if she just walked out. After all, it wasn't as if she'd actually broken into the villa.

But just as she was about to pass him she felt her arm being gripped, and she was swung around so fast that she lost her balance and fell against him. All the breath seemed to leave her body.

In an instant he'd loosened her already unravelling hair, and it fell around her shoulders. His hand held her head, tilting her face up to him. His other arm was like a steel band around her back. Angel was afraid to move or breathe, because that would invite a contact that would scatter what remained of any coherent thought. As it was, she was barely clinging onto a shred of sanity.

‘Do you know that you've actually done me a favour, Kassianides?'

Angel winced inwardly at his use of her surname, hating the fact that it bothered her.

‘You've saved me a trip. Because I was going to confront you about why you'd come here that night. You couldn't possibly have believed you'd get away with it, could you?'

It was a rhetorical question. Angel said nothing, too scared of the burgeoning feelings and sensations running through her body. When Leo spoke again his chest rumbled against hers.

‘I was also curious to know if perhaps I'd been too harsh
in my first assessment as to why you'd been waitressing at our party. After all, just because you're Tito's daughter, perhaps it wasn't entirely fair to assume the worst.'

Angel couldn't believe it. She saw a glimmer of hope and started to nod her head. She opened her mouth, but he wasn't giving her an opportunity to speak. His voice became harder and harsher.

‘But your actions here tonight have damned you completely. The minute you saw the opportunity you were back, and this time to steal something of real value that could be used in an effort to harm our family. That will has information about my own estate, so it's not just my father you've committed a crime against, it's me.'

Cold horror trickled through Angel. This was so much worse than she'd thought.

Leo continued, ‘It's almost cute, how naive you were to think you could be so blatant. Do you really think if I hadn't been here that it would have been so easy to get access to this villa?'

Angel's fragile hopes died there and then. She tried to summon her strength and pull free, and regretted it immediately when it merely gave Leo more room to hold her even tighter against him. Her breasts were crushed against his chest. They were pressed together, torso to torso, hip to hip. His breath feathered near her mouth—when had his head moved so close?

She tried to pull back and his fingers tightened in her hair. She winced, even though he wasn't really hurting her. His mocking smile sliced through her defences.

‘You can't be so naive as to believe you're getting away that easily, Kassianides, can you?'

Cold fear trickled through Angel. For a second she was distracted enough to ask, ‘What do you mean?'

‘There was another reason I was going to come for you.'

Angel shivered inwardly, he sounded so implacable. ‘There was?'

He nodded, his face so close now that she felt as if she was drowning in the dark golden depths of his eyes. Her hands were between them, resting on his chest, where they'd gone in an instinctive move to steady herself. She could feel his heart beating steadily underneath them and it made her want to move her hips. She stayed rigid.

‘You've kept me awake for weeks.' He grimaced. ‘I tried to deny it, ignore it. But this desire wouldn't abate. I'm not in the habit of denying myself anything, or anyone I want. As much as I despise myself for feeling this…I want you, Angel.'

Angel's brain couldn't compute the significance of what he was saying, and certainly couldn't compute the tumult of emotions that had threatened to swamp her when he'd called her
Angel.
All those nights she'd woken sweating from torrid dreams…he'd been thinking of her too?

She tried to push back again, but Leo held her effortlessly. His head bent closer and Angel twisted hers away in desperation. He whispered near her ear with deadly silkiness, ‘You came here that night to humiliate my family, and you tried to humiliate me. And you came here tonight to steal from us. You won't get away with it, Angel. You can't expect to keep playing with fire and not get burnt.'

Angel turned her head back, seriously panicked now. She'd never stolen anything in her life! ‘But I wasn't. I—'

But the rest of her words were silenced under the devastating crush of Leo's mouth to hers. He was ruthless,
he was angry
, and he plundered and took until Angel felt weak tears smart at the back of her eyes and her hands were fists trying to beat ineffectually against his rock-hard chest.

A weak moan of pleading came from deep in her throat. Finally Leo pulled away, and she felt his chest moving against hers with his harsh breaths. It should have disgusted her,
scared her
, made her recoil when she saw the heated look in his eyes, but it didn't.

It made her quiver deep down inside, somewhere very vulnerable. As if she'd been waiting for this. As if, despite everything, this somehow felt right. In that moment Leo's hand gentled on her head, his fingers massaged her skull, and the movement weakened her further. She couldn't cope with tenderness, gentleness. She felt a thumb move across her cheek, and only realised then that a tear must have crept out.

Leo smiled, but it was tight. ‘The tears are a nice touch, Angel, but unnecessary—along with trying to pretend that you don't want me.'

He shifted slightly, so that Angel fell more into the cradle of his lap, and she gasped when she felt the hard evidence of his arousal against her belly. The shocking reality of it made moisture gather between her legs in a very earthy recognition of a mate. She couldn't believe she was having this reaction, and yet from the moment she'd seen him emerge from the pool…

She was caught by his eyes as if hypnotised. Everything melted away: who she was and why she was there.

When Leo bent his head again, this time he wasn't cruel and harsh. His touch was firm and seductive. His mouth settled over hers and caused a deep sigh to move through her.

With an expertise she dimly acknowledged Leo forced her mouth to open to him, touching his tongue to hers and causing a flash flood of liquid heat to her groin. Angel moved instinctively, barely aware of what she was doing, just sensing that she wanted…more.

Leo hauled her even closer, growling something in his
throat as his mouth continued its dark magic on hers. Angel was vaguely aware that her hands had unfurled and had climbed up over those impossibly broad shoulders. She was now clinging to his neck, arching her body into his, fingers tangling in the surprisingly silky strands of his hair.

When Leo took his mouth from hers she gave a little mewl of despair. She opened heavy eyes to see him smile with sinful sexiness and her heart turned over. A lock of glossy black hair had fallen forward onto his forehead and Angel pushed it back with a trembling hand, barely aware of what she was doing, just following some deeply felt instinct.

Leo's hand settled at the waist of her jeans, and after a heart-stopping moment snaked under her top. The feel of him touching her bare skin made her pulse rocket skywards. His hand crept higher and higher, to where she could feel her breast grow tight and heavy, until after an excruciatingly slow moment he cupped the soft mound and pulled the cup of her bra down.

Angel bit her lip. She was seriously out of her depth, and she felt as if a part of her was standing apart and watching with mounting horror as she let him touch her so freely. But she was caught in the grip of something so powerful she couldn't move.

Leo moved his thumb back and forth over the tight puckered tip, and then with a brusque movement he thrust up her top to bare her breast to his gaze. To see him looking down at her breast made Angel feel faint with a rush of desire. And then, when he bent his head… Her mind was screaming at her to pull away…but she couldn't. When he flicked out a tongue and then sucked that peak into the hot, swirling cavern of his mouth Angel's head fell back. Her hands gripped his shoulders tightly.

She was fast being transported to a place of no return. The
pleasure was so intense that she was afraid she'd burst. Leo brought a hand between her legs, forcing them apart to cup between her thighs, and she was lost completely. She'd never felt this out of control of her own body before.

He caressed her through her jeans, the material acting as a paltry barrier to his expert touch. He knew exactly where she ached, and all the while he suckled mercilessly on her breast. Angel cried out in desperation: for him to stop and for him never to stop. The sensation of her jeans and his hand moving remorselessly against her was excruciatingly exquisite.

Angel felt her body tensing. She'd lost any hope of regaining control by now. The world had ceased to exist.
This
was her reality.

With a husky whisper she entreated him, hardly knowing what she was looking for. ‘
Leo
…'

Everything went very still. But Angel hardly even noticed until, with sudden ruthlessness that almost bordered on cruelty, Leo stopped what he was doing and thrust her back from him with two hands on her shoulders.

For a long moment Angel stood in shock, breathing swiftly as the earth righted itself again. Her heart thumped painfully and a light sweat had broken out all over her body. He rearranged her top and bra so she was covered again, with an abruptness that made Angel wince. The material chafed against her still sensitive nipple.

She just couldn't believe— Her thoughts ground to a halt when she realised her hands were glued to his chest, fingers curled and clinging to the material of his shirt. Hurriedly she dropped them as though burnt. Angel also realised then that her legs were incapable of holding her up, and she nearly collapsed in a humiliating heap at Leo's feet before he cursed and
picked her up, bringing her back over to the chair and sitting her down.

Angel let her hair fall around her face. She couldn't find a word to articulate how awfully raw and exposed she felt. Leo had set out to humiliate her and it had taken a nanosecond before she'd turned into a groaning wanton in his arms. How he must be laughing at her. He'd accused her of stealing just seconds before he'd kissed her, and she'd all but lain down and given herself to him.

Her cheeks burned so hot they felt on fire. She could remember the way she'd said
Leo
, breathlessly, huskily, just as her whole body had been about to tip over the edge into an experience she'd never had, an experience that her jangling nerves craved to know even now. She'd thought she'd been in love with her boyfriend at college, and he hadn't even managed— She gulped. Yet here, with someone who clearly despised her…Mortification twisted her insides into hard knots.

‘Angel—'

His voice was suddenly too close, and Angel jumped up in a reflexive surge of horrified anger at how she'd reacted. Too late she saw that Leo had been holding out a glass of what looked like brandy, and she could only watch dumbly as it was knocked out of his hand with the force of her jerky movement, spinning away to crash into the corner of the room, glass shattering, alcohol staining the parquet floor.

She looked at Leo in shock. ‘I'm so—'

He cut her off, his face all sharp angles and forbidding lines. Jaw tense. ‘You could have just refused, Angel. There was two of us involved in what happened just now, so don't try the outraged virgin act.'

If only he knew!
His words fell like tiny cuts all over her skin. Angel quivered with a rush of contradicting and mixed
emotions. Right then she was glad the glass had smashed, and yet she also wanted to rush to clean it up. She wanted to smack Leo across the face, when she'd never hit a soul in her life, but she also wanted to throw herself into his arms and beg him to kiss her again. Her body still tingled and burned.

She made a monumental struggle and tipped up her chin. ‘I didn't see the glass. I'm sorry.'

His eyes flashed in response. In a bid to put space between them Angel went on jelly legs to where the glass had smashed and started to pick up the bigger pieces. She heard something inarticulate behind her, and gasped as she was pulled up, a hand under her arm.

‘Leave it. I'll get someone to look after it.'

They were very close again, and all of Angel's recent humiliation rushed back. Something caught Leo's eye and he looked down at her hands, saying harshly, ‘You're bleeding.'

Angel looked down stupidly. She hadn't felt a thing, but saw that her finger
was
bleeding from a nasty-looking gash. Leo expertly took the glass out of her hands and put it on the table behind them. Then, holding that hand carefully in his, he picked up the phone, dialled a number and bit out terse instructions in accentless Greek.