by Abby Green
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 mig
ht 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.
He could remember the look of pure happiness on Angel’s face when she’d returned from meeting Ari at his office to discuss the designs. For some reason Leo had decided to stay at home to work that day, and he’d walked into the hall when he’d heard her return. She’d been humming. But the minute she’d seen him her face had changed to wariness. She’d stopped humming.
Leo had walked over to her and all but dragged her into his study, where a passion like nothing he’d ever experienced before had made him take her on the edge of his desk like a hormonal teenager.
Now she just looked at him, her mouth looking bruised. Her eyes looking bruised. With hurt?
‘I am well aware that Ari is a happily married man, and I can assure you that even if I had designs on the man, which I do not, he’d be about as likely to look at me twice as you will ever believe I’m innocent of trying to steal from you.’
Leo’s chest tightened. ‘Which is impossible.’
She hitched in a little breath, barely perceptible, but he’d heard it. ‘Exactly’ was all she said, but with a curious resignation in her voice. Almost defeated.
Later, when they returned from the opening night of a new restaurant, exhaustion was creeping over Angel in earnest. That little exchange in the jewellery workshop earlier had taken more out of her than she cared to admit. She was caught in such a bind. Apart from the fact that if she was ever to defend herself to Leo about that night in the study he’d have to trust her word, at this stage she was all too aware of Delphi’s wedding looming on the horizon, and how important it was that nothing jeopardise it. Defending herself was futile. She was angry with herself for even wanting to be able to do so. For even feeling the need. As if Leo would ever show her another side of himself. She was damned because of who she was, no matter what.
She trailed Leo up the main staircase, hardly able to lift her head. She even bumped into him at the top of the stairs and gave out a yelp of fear when she felt herself falling backwards into thin air.
In a second Leo had turned and caught her, hauling her into his body. He looked down at her, frowning. ‘What is the matter with you?’
Angel shook her head. Despite the aching tiredness, she could already feel the predictable response heating up in her body. Stirring it to life. ‘Nothing, I’m just … a little tired.’
Leo continued to look down at her, until Angel started to squirm uncomfortably in his arms. Abruptly he let her go and backed away. Angel felt curiously bereft, and nearly fell down in shock when Leo just said, ‘Go to bed, Angel. I have some calls to make to New York. I’ll be on the phone for a couple of hours.’
Angel nodded, and tried not to acknowledge the stab of disappointment low down in her belly. Just before she turned away she stopped and said, ‘I’m going to be out all day tomorrow with my sister. We’re shopping for our dresses.’
And then she said hesitantly, ‘I never said thank you for making sure Delphi’s wedding could be organised so quickly.’
Leo’s face was cast in shadow, so Angel couldn’t see his expression, and all he said was ‘It was part of our agreement, remember?’
Angel’s mouth felt numb. ‘Of course.’ And she turned and went into her bedroom.
Leo knew he should be making his calls—they were important, and an entire boardroom was in New York right now, waiting for him to contact them—but … he couldn’t get Angel’s face out of his head. And the dark shadows of tiredness he’d seen under her eyes. He couldn’t get the roller coaster of the past days and nights out of his head, when everything as he knew it had been turned upside down and inside out. When only one thing seemed to make sense: Angel Kassianides in his bed.
It was as if the fog and haze that had clouded his brain since he’d caught Angel in the study was clearing slightly, and the extent to which he’d become consumed by her shocked him. The anatomy of their relationship was so utterly different from any other he’d known. And he still couldn’t get a handle on Angel. She was an enigma. A dangerous enigma.
He couldn’t get out of his head the way she’d just thanked him for organising her sister’s wedding. When she had been so quick to jump on it and use it as a bargaining tool—no doubt ensuring her own future as well as her sister’s. There had been something about it that niggled at him now.
Leo knew that she’d had plenty of opportunity to speak with her father, and yet she hadn’t. On the few occasions she’d gone out it had been to meet her sister. She’d gone nowhere near her own home. So that pointed to her father not being involved. But Leo knew he would be a fool to let go his suspicions entirely.
One thing he knew: the more time he spent with Angel, in bed or out, the less logical he became. Maybe it was time to start pulling back, getting some perspective on things.
He finally picked up the phone, and spent the next couple of hours doing his best to forget all about the woman asleep upstairs.
A week later Angel lay in bed. Alone. It was late. Leo had rung earlier to say that he had to work late and that she should eat at home. It wasn’t the first night in the past week that this had happened, and, rather than making Angel feel relieved at having a reprieve of sorts, it made her feel slightly nervous.
Leo had been so all-encompassing, so passionate since the moment they’d met, that it was a shock to see this more distant side to him. She heard a noise then: the unmistakable sound of Leo moving ar
ound his room. She held her breath, but as the minutes ticked by he didn’t come in.
Angel turned over and stared into the dark. She hated the fact that she couldn’t feel relieved he wasn’t coming in. Hated the fact that her body throbbed with need. She closed her eyes, but opened them again quickly when lurid images filled her mind. She’d never thought that sex could be so … so … exciting. And addictive. She felt like some kind of sex addict; the minute she saw Leo her hormones seemed to go into overdrive and she had zero will-power when it came to resisting him. He only had to look at her and she caught on fire.
Angel couldn’t help but suspect that this had to be part of his plan of revenge. After all, he was so much more experienced than her.
She tried her best to sleep, but even after everything had gone silent next door sleep still eluded her, so she gave up and sat up, swinging her legs out of bed. She’d get some water from the kitchen …
Padding down through the quiet villa, Angel felt a jolt, thinking back to the party that night, all those weeks before. Never in a million years would she have imagined that she’d be here, ensconced as Leo Parnassus’ mistress.
Too late, just as she was pushing open the kitchen door, she realised that she wasn’t the only night visitor. Leo sat at the island in the middle of the kitchen, illuminated under a circle of low light from overhead. He looked up as she came in. He was eating something. Angel instinctively started backing away, feeling as if she was intruding on a private moment. ‘Sorry. I didn’t realise you were up.’
Leo waved a hand, gesturing for her to come in. ‘You couldn’t sleep?’
Angel hovered awkwardly and shook her head, ‘No.’ She felt self-conscious in loose pyjama bottoms and a skimpily clinging vest top, but knew it was silly to feel self conscious when this man seemed to know more about her own body than she did. Not that he seemed inclined to be all that interested any more. Insecurity lanced her. ‘I just wanted to get some water.’
