Exotic Nights: The Virgin's Secret / The Devil's Heart / Pleasured in the Playboy's Penthouse. Natalie Anderson
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felt when her father had sent her to a remote and ultra-conservative catholic boarding school in the wilds of the west of Ireland. Somehow she didn’t think that even the worst of her experiences there would come close to what Leo had described.
She felt hollow inside. ‘Please, will you just tell me what it is you want or let me go?’
Leo sat forward, elbows on his knees, glass held casually between long fingers. Supremely at ease, as if he hadn’t just related what he had.
‘It’s quite simple, really. I wanted you the moment I saw you, and I want you now.’ His lip curled. ‘Despite knowing who you are.’
Angel could feel her mouth opening and closing like an ineffectual fish. ‘You don’t. You can’t.’
In a flooding of panic, Angel stood up. She carefully placed the glass down on a nearby table and hoped Leo wouldn’t notice how badly her hand was trembling.
Leo stood too, and they faced each other across the expanse of a few feet.
‘Sit down, Angel, we’re not finished yet.’
Angel shook her head mutely, feeling the world start to constrict around her. Leo shrugged as if he didn’t care. She tried desperately to block out the way he looked so intimidatingly huge opposite her.
‘You’re going to pay me back for everything you’ve done to me, and you will do it in my bed. As my mistress.’
Angel nearly burst out laughing, the need to release some of her pent-up panic almost emerging as hysteria. It faded, though, when she saw the look on his face. Her belly quivered.
‘You’re serious.’
‘Of course I’m serious. I don’t joke about things like this.’
A pulse beat in his jaw, making Angel’s belly clench.
‘Do you think I’m so naive as to assume your father is just going to roll over and take what’s coming to him? I want you, and I want to keep you close, where I can see you—away from your father and his machinations. If that heat between us is anything to go by, I don’t imagine it’ll be unpleasant for either of us.’
Angel’s belly quivered even more strongly and she felt slightly faint.
‘You want to sleep with me?’
His mouth quirked dangerously. ‘Among other things.’
‘But …’
‘But nothing. Everyone saw you and I at that party. I am not about to let you capitalise on that now that I’m back. Not to mention tonight’s fiasco. You’re a danger and a threat. You’ve had the audacity to come into my home twice, and now you’ll pay for it.’
‘But my father—’ She stopped. He will kill me, Angel thought, with a mounting dread that had been born long, long ago.
Leo waved a hand in an abrupt gesture of insult. ‘Your father I don’t much care about. I’m hoping it’ll cause him the maximum amount of humiliation when he sees his precious eldest daughter taken as mistress by his enemy. Everyone will know exactly why you are with me—warming my bed until I’m ready to move on, perhaps even settle down. Whatever you and he had planned, this will play out on my terms. And you can tell him that taking you as my mistress will afford him no honey-trap favours. Things still stand as they are. We certainly won’t be bailing him out.’
Angel just looked at him, barely believing the direction their conversation had taken. She didn’t see the point in revealing the reality of her dismal relationship with her father. He’d believe that as quickly as he’d believe her intentions had been honourable this evening.
So many things were impacting upon Angel at once, not least Leonidas Parnassus’ cold and calculating words. She wanted to shout out that she didn’t want him, that she didn’t desire him, but her mouth wouldn’t formulate the words. And in all honesty she was afraid of his reaction if she did say that. She was still smarting from what had happened in the study. She was far too vulnerable to him.
Feeling so cornered and impotent finally woke her from the stasis that had gripped her. He couldn’t force her to do this. ‘I’ll gain nothing from this liaison because I won’t do it. You couldn’t pay me to be your mistress.’
Feeling panic escalate, right then Angel thought that even if he called the police and they charged her with trespass it had to be a better option than facing what he spoke of.
He looked at her steadily from under hooded lids. A flash of cynicism twisted his features for a moment. ‘You’re absolutely right. I wouldn’t pay you. But you’ll do it because you can’t not. The desire between us is unfortunate, but tangible. You went up in flames in my arms just now, and you owe me after this stunt tonight.’
Derision laced his voice. ‘Despite your words, as soon as you’re in my bed you’ll try and seduce as much out of me as you can. Playing hard to get might be a part of your repertoire, but I don’t do games, Angel, so you’re wasting your time.’
All Angel could feel was mortified heat enveloping her at remembering how she had come apart in his arms, literally. She made a jerky move towards the door, praying that he wouldn’t touch her. She stopped when she felt safer. Leo hadn’t made a move to stop her, but it didn’t make her feel reassured. She turned back to face him and tipped up her chin.
‘I won’t be doing it because you’re the last man on earth I’d willingly sleep with.’
She turned around, but just when she was about to put her hand on the doorknob she heard him drawl from behind her, ‘Do you really think I’m about to let you walk out of here?’
Angel hated herself for not just turning the knob and walking out. She turned around again and tried to inject confidence into her voice. ‘You can’t stop me.’
Leo stood tall, legs spread, hands in pockets. He smiled, but it was feral.
‘Yes, I can.’
Angel felt hysteria rising. She backed up to the door and felt for the knob in her hands behind her back, ready to run.
‘What are you going to do? Kidnap me? Lock me away?’
Leo made a disparaging face. ‘You’ve been watching too many Greek soap operas.’
He walked towards her then, and Angel gripped the doorknob even tighter, her whole body tense. He stopped a few feet away.
‘Quite apart from the fact that I caught you in the act of stealing, and could call the police in for that alone, I will let it go—because I don’t want our relationship to be mired in any more controversy than it’s already likely to be when the press finds out.’
Angel blurted out, ‘But we won’t have a relationship, and I wasn’t—’ She stopped abruptly. Obviously Leo hadn’t watched long enough to see her take the will out of her pocket. Which would mean that she’d have to explain how she’d got it. So either way it was still theft, albeit not by her. She was back to square one: damned by the actions of her father and her own impetuous desire to rectify matters.
Angel longed to toss her head and tell Leo she’d prefer to see the police, but she realised that she couldn’t do that. It would cause the whole thing to explode in the press and she couldn’t do that to Delphi. The noose was tightening.
Leo merely stood there and rocked back on his heels for a moment before saying, ‘We do have a relationship, Angel, it started the evening of the party. And since then I’ve found out quite a wealth of information about you.’
Angel’s hands were gripping the doorknob, shock still reverberating through her. ‘What kind of information?’
‘Well,’ Leo started almost conversationally, ‘I found out that you went to art college and studied jewellery design. And yet at no point since leaving college have you made any attempt to leave home, which can only point to a close relationship