The Virgin's Secret

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.

‘Oh, Angel, my sweet Angel, don’t cry—please don’t cry. You can’t cry, because I need to hear you say what you just said again.’

Through her gulping sobs Angel got out, ‘I…love…you…Have done for ages…’ She ended on a wail. ‘And I’m really happy I’m pregnant with your baby.’

Leo wrapped his arms tight around her again, and all he said was, ‘So am I…so am I…’

When her crying turned to hiccups Leo led her back to a chair and knelt down before her again, and made sure she’d taken a drink of water. Angel felt raw and open. As if her beating heart was lying there between them, telling him how vulnerable she was. He’d said all sorts of things, and patently he wasn’t upset about her being pregnant, but he hadn’t said that he cared for her…

‘Angel, what you heard that day outside the office—’ Leo grimaced and looked shamefaced ‘—was me being an absolute coward. The truth is that the moment I saw you by the pool that night I wanted you. And then afterwards, when I found out who you were, and then saw you sneak into the house…’

He tried to explain. ‘I’d just decided to come home to Athens, and the enormity of what our family had been put through was still so fresh in my head…and suddenly you were the enemy. It changed everything.’

He shook his head. ‘It’s no excuse at all, but when I thought you were about to walk away I remembered Dimitri Stephanides. I was determined to use anything I could to bind you to me. So I used Delphi and Stavros’s marriage, completely misunderstanding the reason why it was so important to you.’

Leo caught her hand and kissed it. ‘When Ari confronted me that day about you he caught a raw nerve. I was just realising that what I felt for you went so much deeper than desire. My whole life I’ve blocked out emotions, avoided intimacy, terrified of my world falling apart the way it did when I was a kid. I couldn’t articulate any of that to him, and when he was all protective of you I lashed out, because I was jealous. Jealous of him feeling like he had some right to protect you from me…’

Leo put his hands back around Angel’s belly, and she covered his hands with hers. He looked up, his eyes blazing.

‘My childhood fears were nothing compared to what it was like to contemplate trying to live without you. Angel, I love you, and I love this baby. And I want you to come home with me and marry me and be my wife.’

She opened her mouth but he stopped her, as if anticipating something.

‘And it’s not just because you’re pregnant.’ He bent his head and pressed a kiss to her belly. He looked up. ‘It’s because I can’t live without you, and if you don’t come back home with me then I’m going to move here to be with you, because I’m not leaving

your side ever again.’

Angel bent forward and took Leo’s face in her hands. Her heart was so full she felt it could burst. ‘The evening you stepped out of that pool you stole my heart, and I haven’t been the same since. Ask me again.’

‘Only if you kiss me first… God, Angel, I’ve missed you so much.’

With her heart in her mouth, Angel bent forward and kissed Leo sweetly, tenderly, until he wrapped one hand around the back of her head and pulled her closer, and the kiss quickly developed into something else much hotter.

Breathless, Angel pulled back. ‘Ask me again.’

Leo’s eyes burned, and his hand on her belly was like a brand. ‘Angel, will you marry me? Because I love you more than life itself and quite simply can’t function without you.’

‘Yes, Leo, I will, and I want to go home with you.’ Angel thought of something then, a dark cloud on the horizon. She bit her lip and Leo, immediately concerned, said, ‘What is it?’

Angel’s hands tightened on Leo’s. ‘Your father…he must hate me. He can’t possibly welcome this.’

Leo smiled. ‘Do you know that I always assumed my father had chosen Olympia to be his bride out of logic and respect, a reaction to my mother’s histrionics? It was the one thing I admired him for, and the reason I always thought I’d be able to stay away from messy emotions. But I was wrong. He loves Olympia, he never loved my mother, and that was the problem. I never saw that, though, until recently. He’s an old man, he’s got his lifelong wish to be at home. He’s quite happy to bury any ill feeling between our families, and certainly doesn’t hold you responsible.’

Relief burst through Angel, but even so she said, ‘You’re not just saying that?’