The Virgin's Secret

Angel’s hands clenched on the back of the chair; she could feel her ponytail coming loose. ‘I told you. The night of the party I had no idea where we were going. I worked for that catering company, they didn’t tell us until we were on the way for security reasons.’

He all but laughed out loud. ‘And once you and your father knew that Georgios was away, you took advantage of the opportunity. The only thing you didn’t factor in was my return.’

‘Th…there was nothing in the press.’

Leo glowered, and Angel quailed even more. Now she’d made it sound even worse. No way could she reveal that she’d been helplessly drawn to scanning the papers every day to read about his movements.

‘I came a week early, hoping to surprise a few people. We’re very aware—’ his mouth tightened ‘—more so now we’re in transition of power, that people will believe we’re an easy target to take over.’

Angel had a nauseating realisation. ‘You saw me arrive. The security guard checked with you…’

Leo indicated to Angel’s right-hand side, and she looked over to see an ante-room off the study, the door through which he had appeared. In it, she could clearly make out a glowing wall of cameras, showing flickering black and white images. CCTV cameras. One of which looked directly over the main gate. He’d watched nearly every step of her progress. She felt sick when she thought of how she’d crept through the house. Her naivety mocked her. Of course she’d never have got near this place if he hadn’t been here. She looked back.

Leo’s face was so harsh that Angel felt a jolt of pure fear go through her. This man was a million miles from the seductive stranger she’d met that night.

‘Your audacity is truly astonishing. Clearly you have the confidence born of your position in society, even if you don’t hold that position any longer.’

Angel could have laughed if she’d had the wherewithal. Tito might have been wealthy once, but he was a despot and had controlled all their lives with a

tight fist. It hadn’t been audacity that had led her to that gate; it had been sheer fear and a desire to right a wrong.

‘I wasn’t coming to steal anything, I swear.’

Leo gestured back to the will sitting on the table and completely ignored her statement. ‘What were you hoping to glean from it?’ He laughed harshly. ‘That’s a stupid question. No doubt your father was hoping to use inside information on my father’s estate to undermine him in some way. Or were you going to use the information to do a bit of honey-trapping, maybe? You’d have enough information to try and winkle out some more? Take advantage of the kiss we shared that night?’

Angel flushed hotly when she thought of that kiss, and then remembered her father’s gloating talk last night. That was exactly how her father would think. Too late, she saw the hard, unforgiving look come into Leo’s eyes, his jaw tense. Clearly he was misinterpreting her misplaced guilt.

Once again she knew that it would be futile to tell the truth. Leo Parnassus would be more likely to believe in Santa Claus than in her innocence, especially when the circumstantial evidence was so damning. All she knew was that she needed to get out of there. She was feeling increasingly hot and bothered under his intense and concentrated regard.

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?’