The Virgin's Secret

by Abby Green

  He strolled in and looked at Angel’s handiwork; she took in his expression nervously, valuing his opinion. He picked up the bracelet and then the earrings, turning them this way and that. Finally he put them down and said, ‘You’re really good—you do know that?’

  Angel half shrugged, embarrassed. ‘It’s what I love to do, so if I can make a living out of it then I’ll be happy.’

  Leo put out a hand and trailed a finger gently down her injured jaw. ‘It’s almost healed.’

  Angel nodded. ‘I can put some make-up on it for tomorrow night, when we go to Lucy and Ari’s for dinner.’

  He nodded and then backed away, but for a second Angel could have sworn he’d wanted to say something. She forgot about it, though, when they settled down to eat dinner, after which Leo went into his study to work for a while, and Angel went to her workshop to do some last-minute checks on the jewellery for Lucy. Tomorrow she’d go into town and buy some boxes to package them before they went for dinner.

  The following day Leo stood at the window of his office in Athens, looking out at the view, but not registering it. He was consumed with one thing, one person: Angel. She was turning him upside down and inside out. For someone who broke out in a rash at the thought of waking up in a bed with a woman, now he couldn’t relax properly unless he knew Angel was going to be the first thing he saw every morning.

  The guilt of how his behaviour had put her in danger still made him feel nauseous, and yet she’d begged him not to do anything to her father, reminding him that her father would capitalise on the slightest hint of enmity to fuel their feud. The best form of revenge was ignoring Tito, even though it killed Leo to do so.

  In the days after she’d been hit it had been easy to restrain himself from touching her sexually. His concern had overridden his desire, and he had also felt something else more disturbing: the knowledge that his making love to Angel had become imbued with something much more ambiguous than revenge. Something that came with silken ties binding around him tightly. Silken ties that reminded him of a time when he’d vowed never to allow someone to get close enough to arouse this awful welling of emotion and feeling.

  He shook his head. He hated being introspective, so when his thoughts were cut abruptly short by a soft knock he welcomed it, saying, ‘Come in.’

  His PA opened the door. ‘Ari Levakis is here to see you.’

  ‘Thanks, Thalia, send him in.’

  He smiled when he saw Ari walk in, and greeted him heartily. They sat down to discuss the business at hand, neither one needing to stand on ceremony, both trusting each other as only men of a similar standing could.

  After an hour of intense discussion Ari sat back with a coffee cup in hand and looked at Leo. Unaccountably Leo felt the hair tighten on the back of his neck.

  ‘I spoke to Angel yesterday. She says she’ll have the jewellery ready for this evening when you come to dinner. I hope she hasn’t been under too much pressure to get it done.’ Ari frowned. ‘We haven’t seen either of you out lately, so I hope you haven’t been slave-driving her.’

  Leo smiled tightly and fought the image of coming home every evening that week and finding Angel immersed in her task, covered in the fine dust of the precious metals and stones she’d been working with, dressed in the ubiquitous vest tops and battered dungarees, which always had an instantaneous effect on his arousal levels.

  Leo realised he still hadn’t answered Ari; he’d got so caught up in his own memory. He flushed, and probably sounded harsher than he’d intended. ‘Not at all… We’ve both been happy to take a break from the social scene. She has been working hard at it, but she’s enjoyed doing it.’

  That was true. She’d been oblivious to him several evenings, until he’d come in and taken the headphones of her iPod out of her ears, and then she’d turned to him and smiled…

  ‘When I first heard you were seeing her I had my doubts. After all…she is who she is, and she’d turned up like that at your father’s house.’

  Leo looked at Ari, and something must have shown on his face because Ari spread his hands in a gesture and said, ‘What? You can’t blame me, Leo. Everyone was thinking the same thing. Athens is full of beautiful women and you went for the most unlikely one—some would have said the most unsuitable one. No one would have blamed you if you’d ignored that whole family in the street.’

  Ari only knew the half of it. What would he say if Leo told him what else had happened? Would Ari have jumped to the same conclusion, damning Angel before she’d had a chance to defend herself? Would he have used his knowledge to blackmail her into becoming his mistress? Leo got up, suddenly feeling agitated. Would Angel have ever become his mistress of her own volition?

  Leo struggled to articulate some platitude, feeling like a fraud, and not liking his defensiveness. ‘Our shared history is our business…there is a certain…synchronicity to how we came together.’

  When he said those words Leo had a disturbingly vivid memory of how Angel had felt that first time he’d taken her, how she’d arched beneath him and entreated him to keep going, and how it had taken all of his skill and restraint not to hurt her. Sweat broke out on his brow. He was feeling seriously cornered.

  Angel knocked on the outer door of Leo’s office. His PA Thalia looked up and smiled warmly. The two had met when Thalia had come to the villa one night to work late with Leo.

  ‘Hi, Angel. He’s with Ari Levakis, but they should be done soon. I’m going out for lunch now.’ The other woman started to get up from behind her desk, ‘He knows I’m going out, but just in case he’s forgotten could you remind him I’ll be back at two?’

  Angel smiled. ‘No problem. I just brought him some lunch.’

  She watched Thalia leave and then put the small brown paper bag on the desk and walked around the anteroom. It and the whole building screamed wealth and prestige. She’d been on her way home from picking up boxes for the jewellery, and while she was out had decided to make a visit. Angel hadn’t been to Leo’s office before, and butterflies were beating a symphony in her chest.

  She looked at the paper bag and grimaced. She’d bought him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Was this the most stupidly transparent thing she’d ever done?

  She jumped when the doorknob rattled and the door opened slightly. Leo’s meeting must be over. She held her breath, but no one came out. With the door ajar, she could hear the deep rumble of Ari’s voice.

  ‘Lucy and I really like her.’

  Angel’s heart stopped cold, and her breath with it, as she listened. Leo’s voice came, deep and strong.

  ‘I know you do.’ He said nothing else for a moment, and Angel could imagine him raking a hand through his hair. Even without seeing him she could sense that he was irritated, and wondered why.

  ‘Look, Angel and I…it’s just a temporary thing. I have no desire to settle down with the first woman who crosses my path in Athens.’

  Ari’s voice was dry, and further from the door. He must have moved back into the room. ‘I appreciate that she mightn’t be the most…appropriate…wife material.’

  Angel winced, and felt as if a knife were skewering her insides. Leo laughed then, and the knife sank a little deeper.

  ‘Angel becoming a permanent fixture in my life might be taking my father’s tolerance levels a little too far, and Athens is still reeling with our association as it is.’

  Ari laughed briefly. ‘You certainly know how to stir it up, Parnassus…but does Angel know this?’

  The temperature in Leo’s voice went down a few hundred degrees. ‘Angel knows exactly what to expect from this relationship.’

  The tone of Ari’s voice told Leo that he wasn’t intimidated. ‘Like I said, Lucy and I really like her. I just hope she does know what to expect, we’d hate to see her get hurt…’

  A dangerous quality came into Leo’s softly spoken words. ‘Is that a warning, Levakis?’

  Ari was undeterred. ‘Take it how you want, Leo… I just don’t think Angel is li
ke the other hardened socialites of our circles. Once I might have assumed it, but after getting to know her…’

  Leo’s voice was hard. ‘You don’t have to worry. Angel and I know exactly where we stand.’

  Ari laughed briefly. ‘Lucy sent me here with a flea in my ear…so we’ll see you and Angel later. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished pieces.’

  Angel didn’t wait to hear the rest. On legs that were numb, and feeling as if every ounce of blood had drained from her body, she stumbled back out of the anteroom and all but ran to the lift.

  It was only when she was descending that she remembered leaving the brown bag behind. Dread struck her to think that Leo might find it, but she had no intention of going back. She could only stumble out of the lift, into the street, and get away from Leo’s office as quickly as she could.

  A little later, as Angel polished and finished off the pieces she’d made for Lucy, she bitterly castigated herself. What had she expected, truly…? That Leo had somehow miraculously come to have feelings for her? She was his mistress; he’d taken her because he desired her, because he’d had the power to give Delphi her wedding and because he’d believed Angel guilty of a crime. Since Leo had learnt what had really happened the lines might have got a little blurred for Angel, but after hearing that conversation evidently Leo hadn’t felt the same way.

  She was the naive fool who had allowed herself to believe that the tenderness he’d displayed in recent weeks had meant something.

  Angel’s hand went to her belly and she bit her lip. The other night when Angel had all but begged Leo to make love to her they hadn’t used contraception. Angel had assured Leo that she was at a safe place in her cycle, but now she wasn’t so sure.

  The thought that she might get pregnant made her go cold all over—especially after hearing Leo’s stark words to Ari today. One thing was crystal-clear: this relationship was heading for closure, and sooner rather than later. Angel knew that Leo would not appreciate being forced into fatherhood by a Kassianides, and what if he thought she’d done it on purpose? She had an awful feeling that he still didn’t trust her entirely.

  The phone rang then, making her jump, and Angel reached for it. Leo had insisted on getting a phone installed in her workroom.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Why didn’t you stay?’

  Angel’s heart tripped, and she gripped the phone with two suddenly slippery hands. The sandwich—he must be mortified.

  ‘I…had to get back to package up the pieces. I only dropped in to say hello, but you were busy.’

  He said nothing for a moment, and Angel could imagine him sitting in his palatial office.

  ‘Thank you for my lunch.’

  Angel laughed, and it sounded false to her ears. ‘Oh, God, that. I don’t know what—’

  ‘It was sweet.’

  Angel was glad she was alone, because a raging fire of humiliation was burning her up from her toes to her head.

  ‘I’ll be home at seven. See you then.’

  And the connection was terminated. Angel’s heart was thumping out of control; she felt shaky and clammy all over. She was a mess. She was in love. And she was doomed. The Parnassus family were going to have the last laugh after all.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THAT evening, after they returned from dinner, Angel felt like a limp rag. For once in her life her joy of making jewellery had been eclipsed by something else, Leo, and protecting herself around him. She marvelled at how men could have no feelings invested in a relationship and yet make you feel as if you were the only woman in the world.

  All evening Leo had been solicitous. Angel had told herself it was just for show, but when Lucy and Ari had briefly left the room to tend to their children Leo had turned to Angel and taken her face in his hands, pressing a hard kiss to her mouth almost as though he couldn’t help it, as though he needed it, and her body, traitor that it was, had responded.

  It had only been when they’d heard a teasing, ‘You know, there are some spare rooms upstairs if you like…’ that they’d broken apart. Angel had felt unbelievably raw and shaken.

  ‘Penny for them?’

  Angel looked sharply at Leo from where she was taking off her shoes inside the door of the villa. She looked down and shrugged minutely, feeling the intense need to self-protect.

  ‘Nothing, really—just that I hope Lucy likes the earrings and bracelet. It’s the first time I’ve done something in a while and—’

  Leo was close, and when Angel stood he tipped her chin up with a finger, making her burn inside.

  ‘She’ll love them. Ari loved them. You’re extremely talented.’

  Angel blushed and could have kicked herself. Why, oh, why couldn’t she pull off the whole insouciant thing?

  He came too close then, and took her arm just above the elbow. She trembled and tried to pull away. His eyes flashed a little.

  ‘A nightcap?’

  Angel answered on instinct, needing to get away, ‘Leo, I’m really—’

  ‘Please?’

  Something in his face made Angel stop. Her heart beat faster. She shrugged minutely. ‘Okay, I guess…’

  She followed Leo into the palatial drawing room, a little perplexed. If she didn’t know better she’d imagine that he wanted to talk to her about something.

  He asked her what she wanted, then poured a Bailey’s for her and a whisky for himself. He handed her the drink.

  After a long moment that seemed to stretch taut between them he said, ‘Angel, I think we both know that any arrangement we had is out of the window. I won’t and can’t stop you if you want to leave.’

  Angel’s heart clenched so tight she thought she might faint for a second. Her hands unconsciously clenched around her glass, and she was glad she was sitting down. ‘I—’ she started to say, but Leo was still talking.

  ‘But I don’t want you to go, Angel.’

  Her heart started to beat again. ‘You don’t?’ she croaked.

  He shook his head. ‘We’re not finished yet. I still want you.’

  We’re not finished yet. I still want you. Nothing about love or feelings. But, like earlier, she reminded herself: what did she expect after overhearing his conversation with Ari?

  ‘The jewellery workspace is yours, Angel—yours for as long as we’re together. After this commission from Ari, and with a little advertising, you’re going to be inundated with commissions. This could be the start of a real career for you.’

  He wasn’t even asking her to stay just because she might want to. She couldn’t let him see that she was hurting so much inside.

  She smiled, but it felt tight. ‘So you’re saying that if I stay with you, until such time as you or I grow bored, you’ll help launch my career? And what if I don’t want to stay?’

  Leo’s eyes turned very black; his jaw tensed. ‘I don’t think you’ll have any problem setting up on your own, Angel, but you can’t deny that this is a launching pad that would put you at a whole other level.’

  Angel felt sick. What he was doing was so cruel, and yet…he was also handing her the moon, sun and stars. He was right. With patronage from him, her career would be assured. Could she do that, though? Share his bed knowing that some day in the future he’d be letting her go, albeit leaving her with a glittering career as a token prize?

  Suddenly all the ambition that Angel had always harboured felt very flat. She knew if she had the choice that she’d take Leo’s love over the launching of a successful career. A career could always be pursued—but true love? Clearly love was not a word in his vocabulary, and if he ever did come to settle down it would be with someone eminently more suitable than her.

  Angel felt as if she was breaking into little pieces inside, but she took a studied sip of her drink and then looked up. ‘Do you know the only reason I didn’t leave my home before now?’ She laughed briefly. ‘No doubt you must have wondered what on earth I was doing there when my father so evidently hated my guts.’ She looked away, and then b
ack again. ‘I stayed for Delphi. Because after Damia’s death she was lost, went in on herself. Irini, her mother, is next to useless, my father is cut off from human emotion…and poor Delphi was there all on her own. So I promised that no matter what I’d stay with her until she was ready to leave. I was hoping after college I’d persuade her to move out with me, but then father’s business started to unravel and we just didn’t have the money. Delphi’s studying law. I worked to help her get through college, but it meant we couldn’t leave home.’

  Leo was as silent and still as a statue.

  ‘I’ve been waiting for a long time for my freedom, Leo. Now that Delphi is married to Stavros I can finally go and live my own life.’

  Leo’s jaw twitched. ‘And that’s what you want? Despite what I can offer you?’

  Angel nodded and forced a brittle smile. ‘Getting the commission from Ari is more than I could have ever hoped for in the first place. And I think you must have realised by now that I was never proper mistress material.’

  Leo stood tall and dark and dominant. Unmoving. No emotion flickering across his impassive face. Finally he said, ‘I have to go to New York tomorrow on business. I’ll be gone for about two weeks. I would just ask that you think about what I’ve said and then decide. I won’t push you for a decision now.’

  Angel nodded slowly, feeling as though she was being impaled. ‘Very well.’

  And that was it. Angel got up and put her glass on the drinks board. She turned and said, ‘I’m tired. I’m going to bed.’

  ‘Goodnight, Angel.’

  And she walked out of the room, knowing that it would be the last time she saw Leo Parnassus.

  Leo walked into the villa two weeks later and knew instantly that Angel was gone. He had never, ever faced this prospect: a woman walking away from him. In his supreme arrogance he’d not contemplated that she might go. And yet he hadn’t called or made contact because something superstitious had stopped him—almost as if he didn’t know, she wouldn’t have left. But she had.