Читать книгу Exotic Nights: The Virgin's Secret / The Devil's Heart / Pleasured in the Playboy's Penthouse - Эбби Грин, Natalie Anderson - Страница 13

IN THE car on the way down to Athens, Leo fought back waves of anger and irritation. The sight of Angel’s smooth thighs out of the corner of his eye was nearly too much.

When he’d first seen her in the dress he’d wanted to march in and rip it off her. To find something much more suitable, something that might cover her from head to toe. To his utter shock and ignominy, it had only been when she’d turned around and been so provocatively cocky that he’d realised his desire to change it stemmed from somewhere very ambiguous.

He’d suddenly been uncomfortable with the idea of her going out and looking so obviously like his mistress. When that was exactly what he wanted. The fact that he’d had to remind himself of that fact struck hard now. Also, more worryingly, sleeping with Angel for the past week had done nothing to diminish her effect on him. Every time he slept with her, thrust into her lissom body, his desire increased exponentially. He’d also been growing acutely aware of the attention Angel garnered from other men, attention she appeared not to notice, but he didn’t trust her for a second.

He was embarking on a new path, taking up residence in his ancestral home, not to mention taking control of a multimillion-dollar organisation while keeping track of his own business concerns in New York. He had a million and two things to occupy his time and energy, not least of which was being vigilant and mindful of the vulnerabilities of his company in its time of transition.

He couldn’t help feeling, with the space that Angel took up in his every waking moment, that he was being incredibly stupid. Willingly taking his enemy into his bed, where she was fast proving to have more control over him than he cared to admit.

The only way Leo knew to counter these doubts was to exert his own control, and right now he only wanted control of one thing: Angel. With a growl he ordered the driver to put up the privacy partition, and turned to reach for Angel in the exact moment that she turned to him with a question in her eyes.

The minute she saw him a delicate flush bloomed in her cheeks. He saw her eyes dilate and, without speaking a word, he pulled her over to straddle his lap. He pushed her short dress up over her thighs so that her legs could move more freely.

Leo gripped her waist then, moving her strategically, so that she could feel where he ached most. He was rewarded with a gasp, but Angel’s eyes were curiously unemotional, as if she had locked herself away somewhere. To his utter consternation Leo found that thought repulsive. How dared she try and hide herself from him? She was his—mind, body and soul.

What ensued was a battle of wills more than an act of lovemaking, although it was that too. Explosively, with ruthless intent, Leo drew down his zip and pulled Angel’s panties aside, and surged up into her moist heat.

He wouldn’t let her look away. Every time she turned her face he ruthlessly brought it back. She closed her eyes, but he ground out, ‘Open your eyes, Angel, look at me.’

And she did. With defiance blazing. It only served to make their lovemaking even more intense. Eyes locked. Angel clearly knew that Leo wanted something of her, and she was determined not to give it. Finally the moment came, and Leo could bear it no more. His body was screaming for release, Angel’s moans had got more and more fractured, and he could feel the start of the spasms of her orgasm. He knew as soon as he felt it that he couldn’t last. And he didn’t.

For a long moment in the aftermath Leo’s head rested on Angel’s still covered breast. Their bodies intimately joined. He felt every last pulsating clench of her body around his. But it was only when he felt her hesitate for a second and then bring her hand up to stroke his hair that he realised he’d won that particular round. Curiously, though, he felt no sense of victory.

That night, at yet another function—Angel wondered desperately how much anyone could endure of this endless posturing and preening and networking—she was trying desperately not to give in to the temptation to tug her dress down over her legs, feeling exposed and angry with herself for choosing it now. She’d been too angry to change when Leo had declared that it was perfect.

What had happened in the car on the way there … She still burned at knowing she’d just let Leo do that. She’d done her best to remain aloof. But that was near impossible.

She’d learnt her lesson that first morning after they’d slept together. When he’d been so cold. Each night since then he’d come to her bed and they’d made love, but within minutes of finishing he’d get up and walk, naked, back to his own room. No hanging around. No nice words. No cuddles or, God forbid, tenderness. No whispers in the night, talking of inane things, which was how she’d always imagined it might be with a lover.

‘You’re a million miles away, Angel.’

Angel’s focus came back into the packed ballroom of one of Athens’ plushest hotels. Lucy Levakis was looking at her with a teasing smile.

‘Not that I blame you, of course,’ she whispered then, with a pointed glance in the direction of the two men who conversed nearby, both tall and both commanding lots of attention—mostly female.

Lucy sighed indulgently as she looked at her husband. ‘I can remember what it’s like …’ she said, and then, dryly, ‘Who am I kidding? He still makes the rest of the room fade away.’

Angel smiled tightly. Ari had greeted her with more warmth tonight, as if she’d passed some silent test. Angel had fleetingly and far too wistfully wondered what it might take to break through Leo’s wall of mistrust. She thought of how he’d caught her red-handed in his office, and had to concede it would take a lot. A belief that she could possibly be innocent when he had no reason whatsoever to believe otherwise, and zero interest.

Angel forced her thoughts away from that now, stung that she was feeling so vulnerable. She forced herself to smile more widely at Lucy. ‘Anyone would think you two were still on your honeymoon, not going home to two small children.’

Just then Lucy got pulled aside by an acquaintance, so Angel was left on her own again, with Lucy sending back an apologetic grimace. Immediately, though, Leo turned his head where he stood with Ari a few feet away and held out a hand. With an awful lurching in her chest Angel reached out and took it, feeling as if something slightly momentous had just occurred. Which was ridiculous. But she realised in that moment that Leo hadn’t once left her on her own since that first function. While he’d not exactly been demonstrative, he’d been solicitous and attentive.

But to be faced with Leo and Ari was nearly too much. They both packed a punch, even if Leo was the only one who made Angel’s pulse race and her legs turn to jelly. She tried to ignore him and smiled at Ari, shyly asking about his and Lucy’s children.

Ari rolled his eyes and groaned, ‘Zoe is walking as of this week, so with her and Cosmo underfoot it’s like an assault course. Just getting through the day and keeping them both alive is a feat in itself. Running a shipping fleet is a piece of cake in comparison.’

Angel smiled, inordinately relieved to see that Ari seemed to have definitely thawed towards her. She wondered if it was Lucy’s influence.

Ari looked at Leo briefly, and then back to Angel, ‘Actually, I have a favour to ask of you.’

Angel nodded. ‘Sure, anything.’

‘I’d like to commission you to make a set of jewellery for Lucy. Our anniversary is in a couple of months, and since she’s found out that you designed the necklace I gave her I know she’d love a complete set. I was thinking of a bracelet, and perhaps earrings to match?’

Angel felt a dart of pure pleasure go through her, and she blushed. ‘Well, I’m honoured that you’d ask … I’d love to do something …’

But then, just as suddenly, her spirits dropped like a stone when she realised that she had no way of being able to take on such a commission. ‘But unfortunately I’m not really in a position at the moment to make anything new … I don’t have the—’

‘I’ll make sure she has everything she might need.’

Angel’s mouth opened and closed and she looked up at Leo, genuinely stymied.

Ari was already responding. ‘Great. Angel, can you come to my office tomorrow morning and we can discuss the designs?’

Angel looked back to Ari, feeling as if the wind had just been knocked out of her. ‘Yes, of course.’

Lucy returned then, and reminded him that they’d promised to be home by a certain time. As they left, Ari gave Angel a discreet wink. When they’d gone, Angel looked up at Leo and said stiffly, ‘You shouldn’t have promised Ari that I could take the commission. You’ve no idea how expensive it might be to make what he wants, especially if he wants it so soon. Plus, I’ve no workspace.’

Leo pulled her into him, and that little move set off a host of butterflies in Angel’s chest. Apart from holding her hand, Leo rarely touched her more intimately in public. ‘The villa has a million empty rooms, and I’ve no intention of denying my friend what he wants.’

Why did her heart ache when his easy generosity to his friend was so apparent?

Angel stood at the door of the room, which had been found at the very back of the villa, and shook her head wryly. This was what untold limitless wealth did: it gave you a state-of-the-art jewellery-making workshop within days.

She walked in and touched the wooden table reverently, seeing the myriad tools and expensive metals and stones she’d listed for Leo all laid out. She hadn’t had access to facilities and equipment so fine even in college. It gave her a pain in her heart to know that just as quickly Leo would have it ripped out and replaced by the generic room it had once been when the time came. She sighed deeply.

‘Don’t you like it?’

Angel whirled around, her hand going to her chest. ‘You scared me half to death, creeping up on me like that!’ But, even so, her treacherous body was already responding to the way Leo lounged so nonchalantly against the door, hands in the pockets of his trousers, shirt open at his throat.

‘You look as if someone has just died, so the only thing I can deduce is that you hate your workshop.’

Angel shook her head, aghast that he’d seen her turmoil so easily. ‘No, I love it.’ She turned away, so he wouldn’t see how vulnerable she felt to be caught like this. ‘You must have spent a fortune on it.’

She turned back then, feeling more in control, and saw Leo shrug. ‘I just told them to install the best.’

Angel smiled, feeling hurt at his nonchalance. ‘Well, you got the best. I just hope it won’t cost too much to rip it all out again.’

For a long moment he said nothing, and then, ‘You don’t have to concern yourself with that.’

Leo felt a surge of something rip through him at her casual words. She just stood there, in jeans and a T-shirt, looking so effortlessly sexy that he felt weak inside. He heard himself say harshly, ‘Don’t get any ideas about Ari Levakis, he’s a happily married man.’

The look of sheer incomprehension on Angel’s face made Leo want to alternately shake her for acting and kick himself for being so obvious. But something about the way Ari had visibly warmed towards Angel, evident in the fact that he’d asked her for this commission, had sent something ominously dark into Leo’s belly the other night.