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?’
Angel’s fragile hopes died there and then. She tried to summon her strength and pull free, and regretted it immediately when it merely gave Leo more room to hold her even tighter against him. Her breasts were crushed against his chest. They were pressed together, torso to torso, hip to hip. His breath feathered near her mouth—when had his head moved so close?
She tried to pull back and his fingers tightened in her hair. She winced, even though he wasn’t really hurting her. His mocking smile sliced through her defences.
‘You can’t be so naive as to believe you’re getting away that easily, Kassianides, can you?’
Cold fear trickled through Angel. For a second she was distracted enough to ask, ‘What do you mean?’
‘There was another reason I was going to come for you.’
Angel shivered inwardly, he sounded so implacable. ‘There was?’
He nodded, his face so close now that she felt as if she was drowning in the dark golden depths of his eyes. Her hands were between them, resting on his chest, where they’d gone in an instinctive move to steady herself. She could feel his heart beating steadily underneath them and it made her want to move her hips. She stayed rigid.
‘You’ve kept me awake for weeks.’ He grimaced. ‘I tried to deny it, ignore it. But this desire wouldn’t abate. I’m not in the habit of denying myself anything, or anyone I want. As much as I despise myself for feeling this … I want you, Angel.’
Angel’s brain couldn’t compute the significance of what he was saying, and certainly couldn’t compute the tumult of emotions that had threatened to swamp her when he’d called her Angel. All those nights she’d woken sweating from torrid dreams … he’d been thinking of her too?
She tried to push back again, but Leo held her effortlessly. His head bent closer and Angel twisted hers away in desperation. He whispered near her ear with deadly silkiness, ‘You came here that night to humiliate my family, and you tried to humiliate me. And you came here tonight to steal from us. You won’t get away with it, Angel. You can’t expect to keep playing with fire and not get burnt.’
Angel turned her head back, seriously panicked now. She’d never stolen anything in her life! ‘But I wasn’t. I—’
But the rest of her words were silenced under the devastating crush of Leo’s mouth to hers. He was ruthless, he was angry, and he plundered and took until Angel felt weak tears smart at the back of her eyes and her hands were fists trying to beat ineffectually against his rock-hard chest.
A weak moan of pleading came from deep in her throat. Finally Leo pulled away, and she felt his chest moving against hers with his harsh breaths. It should have disgusted her, scared her, made her recoil when she saw the heated look in his eyes, but it didn’t.
It made her quiver deep down inside, somewhere very vulnerable. As if she’d been waiting for this. As if, despite everything, this somehow felt right. In that moment Leo’s hand gentled on her head, his fingers massaged her skull, and the movement weakened her further. She couldn’t cope with tenderness, gentleness. She felt a thumb move across her cheek, and only realised then that a tear must have crept out.
Leo smiled, but it was tight. ‘The tears are a nice touch, Angel, but unnecessary—along with trying to pretend that you don’t want me.’
He shifted slightly, so that Angel fell more into the cradle of his lap, and she gasped when she felt the hard evidence of his arousal against her belly. The shocking reality of it made moisture gather between her legs in a very earthy recognition of a mate. She couldn’t believe she was having this reaction, and yet from the moment she’d seen him emerge from the pool …
She was caught by his eyes as if hypnotised. Everything melted away: who she was and why she was there.
When Leo bent his head again, this time he wasn’t cruel and harsh. His touch was firm and seductive. His mouth settled over hers and caused a deep sigh to move through her.
With an expertise she dimly acknowledged Leo forced her mouth to open to him, touching his tongue to hers and causing a flash flood of liquid heat to her groin. Angel moved instinctively, barely aware of what she was doing, just sensing that she wanted … more.
Leo hauled her even closer, growling something in his throat as his mouth continued its dark magic on hers. Angel was vaguely aware that her hands had unfurled and had climbed up over those impossibly broad shoulders. She was now clinging to his neck, arching her body into his, fingers tangling in the surprisingly silky strands of his hair.
When Leo took his mouth from hers she gave a little mewl of despair. She opened heavy eyes to see him smile with sinful sexiness and her heart turned over. A lock of glossy black hair had fallen forward onto his forehead and Angel pushed it back with a trembling hand, barely aware of what she was doing, just following some deeply felt instinct.
Leo’s hand settled at the waist of her jeans, and after a heart-stopping moment snaked under her top. The feel of him touching her bare skin made her pulse rocket skywards. His hand crept higher and higher, to where she could feel her breast grow tight and heavy, until after an excruciatingly slow moment he cupped the soft mound and pulled the cup of her bra down.
Angel bit her lip. She was seriously out of her depth, and she felt as if a part of her was standing apart and watching with mounting horror as she let him touch her so freely. But she was caught in the grip of something so powerful she couldn’t move.
Leo moved his thumb back and forth over the tight puckered tip, and then