Exotic Nights

But he just stopped for a moment and put a finger to her mouth. ‘Shh.’

Then he pulled the apron away, and her bump was bared in all its tiny proud glory, revealed in her figure-hugging black stretchy top. Leo put his hands over it, fingers stretching out around the sides. Angel held her breath, her eyes widening at seeing him like this, prostrate at her feet.

The feel of his hands on her belly was bringing up so many emotions. Angel looked at Leo, and she could see a look of wonder come over his face. She shut down the impulse to indulge in a dangerous fantasy.

‘Leo, why did you come here?’

He shook his head, his hands still on her belly. ‘How can you ask that? You should have told me, Angel.’

Shame lanced Angel. Leo being disappointed was so much worse than Leo being all arrogant and demanding. She hung her head. ‘I didn’t know until about two months ago, and then when I found out …’

The moment she’d found out about the pregnancy hormones had taken over, and the thought of bumping into him, or seeing him with a new woman, had been too much to bear. So, like a coward, she’d run to the farthest place she’d known.

Angel lifted her head, feeling some fire come back. She couldn’t think with Leo looking at her so closely, touching her. She stood up with effort, dislodging his hands, and stepped away. Instantly she felt bereft.

‘Look, Leo, our relationship was never about a happy-ever-after, even if you did want me to stay on as your mistress. I overheard your conversation with Ari Levakis in your office.’ Angel waved her hand in agitation, aghast she’d let that slip out so easily. ‘What I heard doesn’t matter. The thing is, I knew that things would come to an end eventually.’

Her eyes flicked to him, but he looked stonily impenetrable. Angel was so emotional at the moment the smallest thing could set her off. ‘Look, Leo, if you’ve come just to ask me to be your mistress again—’

He crossed his arms and sent a pointed look to her belly. ‘I think that we’ve gone beyond that point now, don’t you?’

She reacted from a deep desire to self-protect. ‘Leo, I won’t have you think that just because I’m pregnant I’m going to submit to some sort of marriage of convenience. I know from what I heard you tell Ari that you’d no plans of settling down with me—I can only imagine how the thought of having to settle down with a Kassianides must turn your—’ ‘Angel, stop talking.’

Angel stopped. Emotion wasn’t far away. Leo’s arms dropped and he came closer. Angel would have backed away, but a table was behind her. She put up a hand. ‘Leo, please don’t …’

‘Don’t what, Angel? Touch you? I can’t help it if we’re in the same room. What else? Don’t come after you? I can’t help that either. I would have gone to the ends of the earth to find you.’ His voice was rough.

Angel’s heart started beating very rapidly. ‘Leo, stop this. Don’t think

you’re going to get the package now, just because you’ve found me and I’m pregnant and it’s all convenient. That’s exactly what I don’t want.’

Leo seemed to ignore what she’d said, and reached out to loosen the pin holding her hair up. She hadn’t had it cut in months and it had grown longer, falling heavily around her shoulders.

‘You seem to be doing enough thinking for the both of us.’

He was twining a piece of her hair around his finger, and Angel felt curiously paralysed. He came closer, until she could feel her belly touching him. A fire started down low, preparing her body for him in a way that she hadn’t felt for long weeks.

‘When you left me, Angel Kassianides, I went to a dark place.’

Angel looked up, mesmerised despite herself. ‘You did?’

Leo nodded and grimaced. ‘I came home from New York, found your note and you gone. I trashed the jewellery workshop and promptly flew back to New York for a month, where I spent far too much time in a dingy Irish bar.’

He laughed again mirthlessly. ‘Then, even though I couldn’t even look at another woman, I thought I was over you, I came back to Athens and proceeded to be such an ogre that I made Calista cry, fired countless employees, and currently Ari and Lucy aren’t talking to me.’

Angel gasped. ‘They’re not?’

Leo shook his head, still twirling Angel’s hair around his finger. ‘It was only after those two torturous months that I finally allowed myself to admit to my hurt that you’d chosen to walk away rather than stay with me. And then I had to convince your sister to tell me where you were.’

Angel took a breath, feeling as if she was stepping into a void. ‘But, Leo, you weren’t asking me to stay. You were telling me what you’d give me if I’d stay. It was conditional.’

Leo stopped playing with her hair and looked at her properly, and for the first time Angel saw the vulnerability in his eyes. ‘I didn’t have the guts to ask you to stay just because you wanted to. I was too terrified of you saying no, because I’d never given you a choice in the first place. I thought my only option was to try and force you into it.’

Angel shook her head; something very fragile was beginning to bloom in her heart. ‘To be honest, I probably still would have walked away.’ Angel could see the effect of her words on Leo, the tightening and closing of his face, the dimming in his eyes, but before he could retreat into some protective shell completely she took his hand and held it to her breast, under which her heart beat fast.

‘Not because I didn’t want to stay. Because I wanted to stay too much.’ She shook her head and felt tears well. She didn’t care any more. She couldn’t keep it in. Not with their baby growing in her belly. ‘I love you, Leo. I fell in love with you so hard that it knocked me for six. I couldn’t bear the thought of staying with you only until you grew bored and decided to take a new mistress, or a wife.’

Leo gave a groan that sounded like a man on death row being given a reprieve. He reached out and pulled Angel into him, wrapping his arms tight around her. A great big sob was coming up from deep down inside Angel, and the enormity of it all was hitting her. Leo pulled back, and was blurry in her eyes, and she felt his hands come to her face, thumbs already catching the tears that were falling.