Shackled by Diamonds

Something looked different in Leo’s face.

‘Lonely?’ he supplied.

Her expression changed.

‘Yes,’ she admitted.

‘So was I,’ he said. He saw her disbelief and went on. ‘Oh, there was a houseful of servants—several housefuls!—but my parents didn’t bother with me. My father was a workaholic and my mother a society queen. I only became interesting to them when I was old enough to be put to work in an office or tout around socially to catch the interest of young women with commercially and politically influential fathers.’

There was a cynical note in his voice that Anna would have had to be deaf not to hear. But her ear heard something else as well. Something she would never in a million years have associated with someone as sublimely pleased with themselves as Leo Makarios.

It was sadness.

Something moved in her. She did not know what, but it disturbed her.

Made her want to reach across the table.

Take his hand.

Almost, almost, she felt her hand move. Then, with an effort of will, she halted it. Leo Makarios was nothing to her. Nothing except a man tormenting her, night after night, with the hopeless, helpless, shameful desires of her own body.

And yet—

The waitress reappeared, with graceful motion, carrying two tall glasses full of crushed ice and a blend of orange and scarlet juice. Anna was grateful for the diversion—and the quenching drink after so much salty water.

She sipped thirstily through the straw as Leo did likewise.

Then she sat back, lifting her damp, drying hair from her neck.

‘It’s still so hot!’ she exclaimed, arching her throat.

Leo’s eyes were riveted to her. He could not help it. The gesture she was making was so unconsciously sensual—her slender arms lifted, her swelling breasts thrust upwards by the movement, her long, loose tousled hair, the languorous tilt of her throat—that his breath caught in his body.

Thee mou, but she is beauty incarnate…

A wave of emotion went through him. It was desire. He knew it must be.

But it was more—what he could not say, could not name. But it was strong, and powerful.

And very, very disturbing.

Abruptly, he pushed his empty glass away from him and got to his feet.

‘Time to go,’ he said.

‘Damn, I’ve caught the sun!’

Anna examined the skin on her forearm.

Leo glanced away from the road for a moment as they drove away from the beach.

‘You haven’t burnt, don’t worry. A light tan will only flatter you.’

She made a face.

‘One of my selling points is my pale skin. I try never to tan—even on a tropical shoot. Oh, well.’ She shrugged. ‘Too late now.’

It was, too, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to care much about losing her ivory skin tones. After everything else that was happening to her, it seemed very trivial. She brushed off the sheen of salt crystallising on her skin. ‘I need a shower,’ she said.

Leo kept his eye on the pitted road. Nobly, he forbore to suggest that she take one with him. He even tried extremely hard—and failed—to stop his imagination supplying the details. Imagination, he found, was quite enough to make his body react in hopeful anticipation. Uncomfortably, he shifted in the driving seat. He kept his gaze doggedly ahead. Hell, he must have been insane to make the deal he had at lunchtime—letting Anna have a night on her own.

His eyes narrowed.

And yet—and yet it was extraordinarily pleasant to have their armistice. Have Anna lose her dogged, resentful hostility towards him even for this short interlude.

But why should it just be for an interlude? Why not for as long as we are here?

The thought came unbidden, and took hold.

The afternoon had been good. They had passed it in inconsequential conversation, with him talking about the island, her asking the kind of questions any visitor would ask. And as for that spontaneous surfing session, it had been—

Fun, that was what it had been. The word was the only one that fitted.

A sense of astonishment filled him. Of all the experiences he might have imagined with Anna Delane, having fun—boisterous, seaside fun—was the very last he would ever have thought of.

But fun it had been. Simple, uncomplicated, almost childlike fun…

He eased back in his driving seat. Well-being suffused through him. At his side, Anna’s silence no longer seemed aggressive and adversarial—just…peaceful.

He went on driving, heading west into the lowering sun.

Anna was drying her freshly washed hair when Leo knocked on her bedroom door and walked in. For a brief moment his eyes flickered over her in a way she was hotly familiar with. She felt a flush of heat go through her body but crushed it back. This was her night off. She’d earned it. Earned it being ‘civil’ to Leo Makarios all afternoon. Doing that definitely deserved a reward!