Читать книгу Exotic Nights: The Virgin's Secret / The Devil's Heart / Pleasured in the Playboy's Penthouse - Эбби Грин, Natalie Anderson - Страница 9

LEO watched Angel take the glass in both hands, a curiously child-like gesture that made something in his chest twist. He wanted to wring her pretty neck. But he also wanted to flatten her back against the couch and finish what they’d started in the study. He could still remember how it had felt to roll his tongue over her small tight nipple, the way she’d arched into him, and he had to use iron will right now to control the rush of response.

He had not meant to ravish Angel standing in the study like that. The impulse to kiss her had been born out of his inarticulate rage that she had such a visceral effect on him, especially when he knew exactly who and what she was. But the kiss had got out of control very quickly. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so consumed, to the extent that he’d shut out every clamouring voice in his head. Until she’d said Leo with that husky catch, and her hips had jerked against his hand, and he’d emerged from what had felt like a trance.

He’d touched down in Athens barely three hours ago and was still reeling slightly at facing the reality that he’d willingly upended his life. Feeling acutely vulnerable again, Leo turned and strode back to the sideboard, to pour himself a drink and try and gather his scattered thoughts. They’d scattered as soon as he’d taken the call from the security guard and seen who was at the gate. For a disturbing second he’d almost believed he was imagining her.

And yet he couldn’t deny that he’d felt a rush of pure sensual excitement at seeing Angel approaching the house. It had eclipsed the disappointment he’d felt that her effect on him hadn’t grown less in the interim.

Her guilt had been obvious from the moment she’d gone straight to the kitchen entrance rather than come to the main door. And then, when he’d seen her creeping through the house like the little thief she was, something hard had solidified in his chest.

He hated to admit it but he had thought that perhaps he’d judged her too swiftly. Seeing the evidence of her avarice in front of his eyes tonight had made a fool of him again. She was no innocent. Hadn’t years of witnessing hardened New York socialites in action taught him anything?

As he poured himself a drink now, and threw it back in one gulp, he told himself that his decision to come home and the speed with which it had been expedited had absolutely nothing to do with the woman sitting on the couch behind him. He knew exactly how he was going to deal with her and get her out of his system, so that he could get on with his new life here in Athens.

Angel sat on the couch, cradling her glass, and felt as if she was waiting to hear a sentence pronounced. Leo kept his broad back turned to her for long moments, and the tension in her body was beginning to ratchet up, despite the calming effects of the alcohol.

Eventually he turned around, and Angel almost breathed a sigh of relief. Leo’s face was stark, unreadable. Not once had he cracked a smile, shown a glimmer of humanity … apart from when he’d tended her cut. Angel remembered the way he’d sucked her finger into his mouth and quivered deep in her belly.

She swallowed. She thought of how his lazy, easy American accent had made her assume he was just one of the guests at the villa that night … She’d never have suspected she’d ever hear the steel running underneath the velvet caress of that voice. But he was Leonidas Parnassus. Practically the uncrowned King of Athens. And she was his bitter enemy. Even more so now.

There was a final reckoning to be had between their families, and Angel was very afraid this was going to be it. She tried to force the fear down—after all, what else could happen to them now? She thought of Delphi then, and felt slightly sick.

Leo came over and took a seat on the couch opposite Angel. He sat back and crossed one ankle over one knee. He spread a hand out across the back of the seat, making the material of his shirt stretch enticingly across his chest. It was a dominantly masculine pose. Angel could feel her face heat up and willed it down.

‘Why did you come here the night of the party?’

Angel couldn’t believe it. Weariness tinged her voice. ‘I already told you. I had no idea where we were headed. I couldn’t have just walked out; I would have lost my job on the spot.’

‘But you lost that job anyway,’ he pointed out silkily.

Angel held in a gasp. How did he know that? Not that it would have taken a rocket scientist to deduce that her behaviour that night might result in that. Did he know that she’d been working as a chambermaid in the plush Grand Bretagne Hotel since then, and was doing regular double shifts? No doubt he’d love to know that she’d felt compelled to find jobs in areas where her name would require the minimum amount of investigation. She’d been conscious of Delphi still being in college, and had not wanted to draw any potential press attention by going for something more high-profile, only to get knocked back because of their name. Humiliation was becoming annoyingly familiar in this man’s presence.

Leo took a sip of the drink he’d carried over. ‘My picture was splashed all over the papers here the week I arrived. Your father has been scrabbling around like a rat in a sinking ship looking for someone to rescue him—and you expect me to believe that you saw me at the pool-side that night and had no idea who I was?’

She shook her head. She truly hadn’t known, having instinctively shied away from reading anything about the Parnassus family and their triumphant return. It had been too close to the bone on so many different levels. Also, she’d been preoccupied with her sister’s news.

Angel sat forward, hands clenched around the glass. From somewhere deep and protecting came a dart of anger at his high-handed arrogance, at how threatened he made her feel. ‘Believe it or not, I had no idea. Aren’t you satisfied that your family has done its level best to ruin mine?’

Leo let out a short, sharp laugh, making Angel flinch. ‘I fail to see where the satisfaction comes when it’s clear, based on the evidence tonight—which, I might add, is recorded on CCTV—that you are intent on re-igniting this feud. No doubt you have something to gain from it—most people would have moved on from the drama of the Parnassus family coming home.’

He sat forward then too, his eyes flashing sparks. Angel wanted to cower back, but held strong and cursed herself for provoking him. For a moment she’d forgotten all about why she was here in the first place. He scrambled her brain that much.

His tone was withering. ‘And do you really want to play the game of apportioning blame?’

Angel felt something cold trickle down her spine when Leo’s eyes turned dark and deadly.

‘We have done nothing to affect your family directly. Your father’s greed and ineptitude has seen to the demise of the Kassianides shipping fleet. All we had to do was merge with Levakis Enterprises, and that in itself highlighted the inherent weakness of your father’s position.’

Angel swallowed. Everything he said was true. She couldn’t really blame him or his father for having done anything concrete. Her father had done it all by himself.

‘However,’ Leo continued, sitting back like a lord surveying his subject, ‘it leaves me with an interesting dilemma.’

Angel said nothing. She’d no doubt that Leo was about to enlighten her.

‘While we’ve managed to get our due revenge in seeing the Kassianides fortune reduced to nothing, lower than even we were ourselves seventy years ago, I must admit that it feels somehow … empty. Since seeing the extent of your sheer boldness, I find myself desiring something of a more … tangible nature.’

Panic struck Angel. She felt as if an invisible noose was tightening around her neck. Desperation tinged her voice. ‘I’d call going bankrupt pretty tangible.’

Leo leant forward again, utterly cold, utterly ruthless. ‘The bankruptcy is for your father, not you. No, I’m talking about something as tangible as my great-uncle being accused of raping and then murdering a pregnant woman from one of the wealthiest families in Athens. As tangible as an entire family forced into exile from their homeland because of the threat of a criminal investigation they couldn’t afford, and the possibility of my great-uncle facing the death penalty. Not to mention the scandal that would linger for years.’

‘Stop,’ begged Angel weakly. She knew the story and it always sickened her.

But he didn’t. Leo just looked at her. ‘Did you know that my great-uncle never got over the slur of being accused of that murder and eventually killed himself?’

Angel shook her head. She felt sick. This went far deeper than she’d ever imagined. ‘I didn’t know.’

‘My great-uncle loved your great-aunt.’ Leo’s mouth twisted. ‘More fool him. And because your family couldn’t bear to see one of their own darlings slum it with a mere ship worker, they did their best to thwart the romance.’

‘I know what happened,’ Angel said quietly, her insides roiling.

Leo laughed harshly, ‘Yes, everyone does now—thanks to a drunken old fool who couldn’t live with the guilt any more, because he’d been the one who committed the crime and covered it up, had it paid for by your great-grandfather.’

Her own family had murdered one of their own and covered it up like cowards.

Angel forced herself to meet the censure in Leo’s eyes even though she wanted to curl up with the shame. ‘I’m not to blame for what they did.’

‘Neither am I. Yet I paid for it all my life, I was born on another continent, into a community in exile, learning English as my first language when it should have been Greek. I saw my grandmother wither away a little more each year, knowing that she’d never return to her home.’

Angel wanted to beg him to stop, but the words wouldn’t come out.

Leo wasn’t finished. ‘My father was so consumed it cost us our relationship. And it cost him his first wife. I grew up too fast and too young, aware of a terrible sense of injustice and a need to put things right. So while you were going to school, making friends, living your life here in your home, I was on the other side of the world, wondering how things might have been if my father and grandmother hadn’t been forced out of their own country. Wondering if I might then have had a father who was present, not absent. Wondering what we had done to deserve this awful slur on our name. Do you have any idea what it’s like to grow up being reminded that you don’t belong somewhere every single day by your own family? Like you’ve no right to put down roots?’

Angel shook her head. She didn’t think he’d appreciate hearing about how lonely she’d felt when her father had sent her to a remote and ultra-conservative catholic boarding school in the wilds of the west of Ireland. Somehow she didn’t think that even the worst of her experiences there would come close to what Leo had described.

She felt hollow inside. ‘Please, will you just tell me what it is you want or let me go?’

Leo sat forward, elbows on his knees, glass held casually between long fingers. Supremely at ease, as if he hadn’t just related what he had.

‘It’s quite simple, really. I wanted you the moment I saw you, and I want you now.’ His lip curled. ‘Despite knowing who you are.’

Angel could feel her mouth opening and closing like an ineffectual fish. ‘You don’t. You can’t.’

In a flooding of panic, Angel stood up. She carefully placed the glass down on a nearby table and hoped Leo wouldn’t notice how badly her hand was trembling.

Leo stood too, and they faced each other across the expanse of a few feet.

‘Sit down, Angel, we’re not finished yet.’

Angel shook her head mutely, feeling the world start to constrict around her. Leo shrugged as if he didn’t care. She tried desperately to block out the way he looked so intimidatingly huge opposite her.

‘You’re going to pay me back for everything you’ve done to me, and you will do it in my bed. As my mistress.’

Angel nearly burst out laughing, the need to release some of her pent-up panic almost emerging as hysteria. It faded, though, when she saw the look on his face. Her belly quivered.

‘You’re serious.’

‘Of course I’m serious. I don’t joke about things like this.’

A pulse beat in his jaw, making Angel’s belly clench.

‘Do you think I’m so naive as to assume your father is just going to roll over and take what’s coming to him? I want you, and I want to keep you close, where I can see you—away from your father and his machinations. If that heat between us is anything to go by, I don’t imagine it’ll be unpleasant for either of us.’

Angel’s belly quivered even more strongly and she felt slightly faint.

‘You want to sleep with me?’

His mouth quirked dangerously. ‘Among other things.’

‘But …’

‘But nothing. Everyone saw you and I at that party. I am not about to let you capitalise on that now that I’m back. Not to mention tonight’s fiasco. You’re a danger and a threat. You’ve had the audacity to come into my home twice, and now you’ll pay for it.’

‘But my father—’ She stopped. He will kill me, Angel thought, with a mounting dread that had been born long, long ago.

Leo waved a hand in an abrupt gesture of insult. ‘Your father I don’t much care about. I’m hoping it’ll cause him the maximum amount of humiliation when he sees his precious eldest daughter taken as mistress by his enemy. Everyone will know exactly why you are with me—warming my bed until I’m ready to move on, perhaps even settle down. Whatever you and he had planned, this will play out on my terms. And you can tell him that taking you as my mistress will afford him no honey-trap favours. Things still stand as they are. We certainly won’t be bailing him out.’

Angel just looked at him, barely believing the direction their conversation had taken. She didn’t see the point in revealing the reality of her dismal relationship with her father. He’d believe that as quickly as he’d believe her intentions had been honourable this evening.

So many things were impacting upon Angel at once, not least Leonidas Parnassus’ cold and calculating words. She wanted to shout out that she didn’t want him, that she didn’t desire him, but her mouth wouldn’t formulate the words. And in all honesty she was afraid of his reaction if she did say that. She was still smarting from what had happened in the study. She was far too vulnerable to him.

Feeling so cornered and impotent finally woke her from the stasis that had gripped her. He couldn’t force her to do this. ‘I’ll gain nothing from this liaison because I won’t do it. You couldn’t pay me to be your mistress.’

Feeling panic escalate, right then Angel thought that even if he called the police and they charged her with trespass it had to be a better option than facing what he spoke of.

He looked at her steadily from under hooded lids. A flash of cynicism twisted his features for a moment. ‘You’re absolutely right. I wouldn’t pay you. But you’ll do it because you can’t not. The desire between us is unfortunate, but tangible. You went up in flames in my arms just now, and you owe me after this stunt tonight.’

Derision laced his voice. ‘Despite your words, as soon as you’re in my bed you’ll try and seduce as much out of me as you can. Playing hard to get might be a part of your repertoire, but I don’t do games, Angel, so you’re wasting your time.’

All Angel could feel was mortified heat enveloping her at remembering how she had come apart in his arms, literally. She made a jerky move towards the door, praying that he wouldn’t touch her. She stopped when she felt safer. Leo hadn’t made a move to stop her, but it didn’t make her feel reassured. She turned back to face him and tipped up her chin.

‘I won’t be doing it because you’re the last man on earth I’d willingly sleep with.’

She turned around, but just when she was about to put her hand on the doorknob she heard him drawl from behind her, ‘Do you really think I’m about to let you walk out of here?’

Angel hated herself for not just turning the knob and walking out. She turned around again and tried to inject confidence into her voice. ‘You can’t stop me.’

Leo stood tall, legs spread, hands in pockets. He smiled, but it was feral.

‘Yes, I can.’

Angel felt hysteria rising. She backed up to the door and felt for the knob in her hands behind her back, ready to run.

‘What are you going to do? Kidnap me? Lock me away?’

Leo made a disparaging face. ‘You’ve been watching too many Greek soap operas.’

He walked towards her then, and Angel gripped the doorknob even tighter, her whole body tense. He stopped a few feet away.

‘Quite apart from the fact that I caught you in the act of stealing, and could call the police in for that alone, I will let it go—because I don’t want our relationship to be mired in any more controversy than it’s already likely to be when the press finds out.’

Angel blurted out, ‘But we won’t have a relationship, and I wasn’t—’ She stopped abruptly. Obviously Leo hadn’t watched long enough to see her take the will out of her pocket. Which would mean that she’d have to explain how she’d got it. So either way it was still theft, albeit not by her. She was back to square one: damned by the actions of her father and her own impetuous desire to rectify matters.

Angel longed to toss her head and tell Leo she’d prefer to see the police, but she realised that she couldn’t do that. It would cause the whole thing to explode in the press and she couldn’t do that to Delphi. The noose was tightening.

Leo merely stood there and rocked back on his heels for a moment before saying, ‘We do have a relationship, Angel, it started the evening of the party. And since then I’ve found out quite a wealth of information about you.’

Angel’s hands were gripping the doorknob, shock still reverberating through her. ‘What kind of information?’

‘Well,’ Leo started almost conversationally, ‘I found out that you went to art college and studied jewellery design. And yet at no point since leaving college have you made any attempt to leave home, which can only point to a close relationship with your father.’

Angel bit back the explanation. It was her sister she was close to, her sister she cared for, and her sister she had tried to create a stable environment for, because they’d never got it from their parents. After Damia’s death, when Angel had come home from school in Ireland, she and Delphi had turned to each other for support.

A look of mock sympathy came over his harsh features. ‘But since the collapse of Tito’s business you’ve had to make ends meet by working for that catering company, and now working as a chamber maid for the Grand Bretagne. Tell me,’ he said musingly, ‘it must be hard, changing the sheets for people who were once your peers … I did wonder why someone as educated as you had resorted to menial work, but then I realised that you obviously want to avoid any unnecessary investigation into your disgraced name. No doubt you figured that you’d re-emerge on the social scene and find yourself a rich husband once the Kassianides name had lost some of its notoriety.’

Angel could feel the colour draining from her face at having it confirmed that he knew where she worked, and why she’d taken those jobs, albeit not quite for all the reasons he’d so cynically outlined. She thought of her dreams to set up a jewellery-making studio as soon as she had enough money. She thought of the aching disappointment she’d had to keep to herself every day that she hadn’t yet been able to realise that dream.

‘You have it all wrong. So wrong.’

He ignored her, and she could have had no warning for what he was to say next.

‘Most interesting of all, perhaps, is that I also know that Stavros Eugenides and your sister are so-called sweethearts and want to marry, but his father won’t let them.’

Angel’s legs nearly gave way. ‘How do you know that?’

He ignored her question. ‘I will ask you this—is it important to you that your sister marries Stavros Eugenides?’

Angel felt sick inside. Her brain clicked into high gear and she shrugged minutely, trying not to let it show how hard her heart was thumping. She knew instinctively that if Leo guessed for a second just how important it was he’d go out of his way to not let it happen.

She tried to smile cynically, but it felt all wrong. ‘They’re young and in love. Personally I think it’s too soon. But, yes, they want to marry.’

‘I think you’re lying, Angel. I think it’s of the utmost importance to you and her that they get married. After all, why would you have gone to speak on their behalf with Dimitri Eugenides otherwise?’

Angel found herself starting to tremble violently. How on earth did he know this? Was he a magician?

‘I—’ But she got no further.

‘I think that your sister is looking to get herself a rich husband just before you lose everything. If she can get engaged before the truly pathetic state of your father’s affairs becomes public then she’ll be safe. And you, by proxy, will be taken care of too.’

Angel shook her head, as much in negation of what he said than anything else.

Leo grimaced. ‘In some ways I can’t blame you. You’re two poor little rich girls, just trying to survive. Unfortunately you don’t seem to be aware that most of the world has to work to make a living to get through life.’

Angel shot into action and launched herself at Leo, her two hands aiming for his chest, but before she could hit him he’d caught them in the tight grip of his own hands.

Angel glared up, incensed to be feeling so weak and ineffectual. ‘You have no right to say those things. You know nothing about us. Nothing—do you hear me?’

Leo looked down at Angel for a long moment, slightly stunned by the passion throbbing in her voice. He could see the twin thrusts of her high breasts against the thin material of her top. Immediately his body responded. Who was he kidding? His body hadn’t cooled down one bit since the study. And yet how dared she stand there and speak to him as if he’d just insulted her grievously?

With ruthless intent, he drew her in closer to his body. There were two twin flags of colour high in Angel’s cheeks. Leo caught both her hands in one of his and caught her neck with his other hand, drawing her close. The tension spiked between them. He lowered his head, his mouth close to hers, and had to bite back a groan. She smelt so … so clean, and pure. With a hint of enticing musk. Just enough to make his body throb with need. This woman, she knew exactly what she was doing.

‘I haven’t finished with you, Angel.’

‘Yes, we have finished. I’d like to go now.’

Leo could hear the tremor in her voice. Her breath tantalised him. He longed to crush her sweet, soft mouth under his again, but something made him hold back.

‘We haven’t finished because I’m not done telling you what I know. I can offer you something that despite your lofty protestations I don’t think you’ll be able to refuse.’

Angel finally jerked away from Leo’s hands and stepped back, crossing her arms over her chest. The fact that he knew so much and could turn her upside down with just a touch was devastating. ‘There’s nothing you could say that I want to hear—’

‘I can persuade Dimitri Eugenides to give his blessing to a wedding between his son and your sister.’

Angel’s mouth was still open. She shut it again abruptly. She hated what she was giving away, but she had to ask, ‘What … what do you mean?’

‘Ah,’ Leo mocked. ‘Not so sure now that they’re too young to marry?’ A look of unmistakable triumph came into his eyes.

He was right, damn him, but for all the wrong reasons.

‘Just tell me what you mean,’ Angel bit out, vulnerability clawing through her.

‘It’s very simple. Dimitri wants to do business with me. The last time I was here he told me about the romance between his son and your sister, and thought he’d please me by telling me how much he disapproved, knowing of the history between the families. It had little significance for me at the time. Now, though, it has become … more significant. I can guarantee that as soon as it becomes apparent you’re my mistress he’ll be tripping over himself to make amends, terrified that I’ll remember his less than favourable remarks. I can make it a condition of that business that he allows Stavros to marry your sister.’

Angel shook her head even as her heart fluttered with hope. ‘He won’t allow it, he hates our family.’

Leo waved aside her concern and said arrogantly, ‘He’ll do whatever I ask, believe me. The man is desperate to enlist my favour.’

Without really thinking, Angel found a chair nearby and sank into it. Her brain was buzzing. With a click of his fingers Leo had honed in on the one thing that Angel wanted most in the world—to be able to make things right for Delphi. She looked up at Leo, standing there like a marauding warrior, legs planted wide apart.

She didn’t care what he thought; she just knew she had to do whatever it took. She stood up again. ‘I presume your condition for doing this is to make me agree to become your mistress?’

Leo’s mouth thinned, and a hint of anger came into his eyes. ‘Don’t try and dress this up into you being the unfortunate victim. We both want each other, Angel, you just seem determined to deny it.’

‘But essentially you won’t help Stavros and Delphi unless I agree to go to you?’

Leo shrugged insouciantly. ‘Let’s just say that then I would care even less what happens to them than I do right now. Why would I put myself out like that unless I was getting something in return?’

‘Me,’ Angel said flatly, but with an awful telltale quiver of physical response in her belly. She couldn’t even tell herself that she was immune to or disgusted by Leo’s offer, and she hated herself for it. Her conscience pricked her. How could she walk away from this opportunity for her sister and Stavros to be happy, no matter how it was coming about?

Angel’s mind became very clear as she saw all her options dwindle away. Delphi was the best part of three months pregnant, and wouldn’t want the ignominy of everyone knowing that on her wedding day.

‘If I agree to this, I have a condition of my own.’

Leo’s eyes flashed a warning. ‘Go on.’

‘I want Delphi and Stavros to be married as soon as it can be arranged.’

That look of cynicism that Angel was beginning to recognise all too easily crossed Leo’s face again.

‘Don’t think that by having them marry as soon as possible it’ll indicate the end of our affair, Angel. I won’t let you go until I’m good and ready.’

Angel’s belly quivered again. How would he react when he discovered she was a virgin? He didn’t strike her as the kind of man to entertain novices in his bed.

Leo was looking at her assessingly. ‘But I don’t see why I can’t fulfil that request. Not when you’re mine from this moment on.’

Angel felt the colour drain from her face.

Leo didn’t like the way Angel had just paled so visibly. He strode over to where she stood and snaked out a quick hand to caress the back of her neck again. He felt the silken fall of her hair over his skin, and it made his voice rough with suppressed desire. ‘There’s no time like the present. I’ll have my car take you home, so you can pack some things and be brought straight back here to me.’

Just like that.