The Virgin's Secret by Abby Green Page B

him finding her creeping through the villa. He’d pushed the unease aside. Even those three hours waiting for her to return had been torturous. He’d actually been nervous that she wouldn’t return. That, despite everything he had on her, she would defy him. Leo noticed his hands had gone into fists now, just thinking about it. He forced them to uncurl.
    He thought of how she’d looked when she’d returned, with shadows like bruises under her eyes…
    She’d come into his family home to steal from them.
    With more effort than he liked to admit, Leo pushed down the concern. A tight coil of desire held him in its grip. Tonight he’d have her, and he’d no doubt that within a very short space of time she’d prove to be as dismayingly predictable as every other woman he’d ever met, ultimately using emotion arising from intimacy, thinking that she could manipulate him.
    He heard a noise at the door and turned around slowly. It was time for Angel to face the consequences of her actions.
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    Angel’s skin prickled when she was shown into a dining room by a smiling housekeeper and saw Leo standing with his back to her. The windows were open and the curtains fluttered on the breeze. She had no idea how to act in this situation. No ideawhat was expected of her. She felt acutely lonely all of a sudden.
    Leo turned around slowly, and the impact on her senses was nothing short of cataclysmic. She’d not really noticed what he was wearing in her room; she’d been too shocked and groggy. But now she saw that he was dressed in a pair of lovingly worn and faded jeans, which clung to him like a second skin. The material stretched over powerful thighs and long, long legs.
    A black polo shirt made the brown of his eyes seem even darker, his skin seem even more olive. His shoulders were almost too broad for the material, and huge biceps bulged from beneath the short sleeves.
    â€˜Come and see the view, Angel.’
    I’m already looking at it , she felt like blurting out slightly hysterically.
    Knowing she was in a situation she couldn’t get out of, her fate sealed by her own stupidly impetuous actions and her wanting to make everything all right for Delphi, Angel walked over to Leo, very self-conscious in her plain black shift dress. Hair pulled back. She coloured when she saw his gaze drop. She’d viewed him on Google him in a moment of weakness and seen exactly the kind of woman he went for: invariably tall, blonde, soignée. Experienced. A million miles from herself.
    â€˜Very demure,’ he murmured when she came close.
    â€˜If I’d known casual was okay I would have worn jeans too,’ she said stiffly, her gaze resolutely fixed on the view of Athens spread out below them. Not even that spectacular vista could distract her from the man beside her.
    â€˜I like to be casual at home, Angel, so here you can wear what you want…even go naked if you wish,’ he finished softly.
    Angel coloured even more at his mocking tone, wondering what on earth he saw in her. ‘I don’t think so.’
    â€˜Pity.’
    She heard him pour some wine into a glass, and then he was offering it to her. She took it—anything to try and give her some courage.
    â€˜What do you think of the view—it’s amazing, no?’
    Angel snuck a quick look up; Leo was staring out, his profile to her, showing that he had a slight bump in his nose, and she could see the faint raised line of the scar over his lip. Hurriedly she looked back, afraid to be caught staring.
    â€˜Yes, it’s truly beautiful.’ Amidst everything, she thought of something else, and looked at her watch to check the time. ‘Actually, any minute now…yes, there. Look—’ Angel lifted her hand to point to where the evening lights were coming on to illuminate the Acropolis, far below in the distance.
    She heard Leo’s intake of breath and couldn’t look at him,