Exotic Nights. Natalie Anderson
approaching the house. It had eclipsed the disappointment he’d felt that her effect on him hadn’t grown less in the interim.
Her guilt had been obvious from the moment she’d gone straight to the kitchen entrance rather than come to the main door. And then, when he’d seen her creeping through the house like the little thief she was, something hard had solidified in his chest.
He hated to admit it but he had thought that perhaps he’d judged her too swiftly. Seeing the evidence of her avarice in front of his eyes tonight had made a fool of him again. She was no innocent. Hadn’t years of witnessing hardened New York socialites in action taught him anything?
As he poured himself a drink now, and threw it back in one gulp, he told himself that his decision to come home and the speed with which it had been expedited had absolutely nothing to do with the woman sitting on the couch behind him. He knew exactly how he was going to deal with her and get her out of his system, so that he could get on with his new life here in Athens.
Angel sat on the couch, cradling her glass, and felt as if she was waiting to hear a sentence pronounced. Leo kept his broad back turned to her for long moments, and the tension in her body was beginning to ratchet up, despite the calming effects of the alcohol.
Eventually he turned around, and Angel almost breathed a sigh of relief. Leo’s face was stark, unreadable. Not once had he cracked a smile, shown a glimmer of humanity … apart from when he’d tended her cut. Angel remembered the way he’d sucked her finger into his mouth and quivered deep in her belly.
She swallowed. She thought of how his lazy, easy American accent had made her assume he was just one of the guests at the villa that night … She’d never have suspected she’d ever hear the steel running underneath the velvet caress of that voice. But he was Leonidas Parnassus. Practically the uncrowned King of Athens. And she was his bitter enemy. Even more so now.
There was a final reckoning to be had between their families, and Angel was very afraid this was going to be it. She tried to force the fear down—after all, what else could happen to them now? She thought of Delphi then, and felt slightly sick.
Leo came over and took a seat on the couch opposite Angel. He sat back and crossed one ankle over one knee. He spread a hand out across the back of the seat, making the material of his shirt stretch enticingly across his chest. It was a dominantly masculine pose. Angel could feel her face heat up and willed it down.
‘Why did you come here the night of the party?’
Angel couldn’t believe it. Weariness tinged her voice. ‘I already told you. I had no idea where we were headed. I couldn’t have just walked out; I would have lost my job on the spot.’
‘But you lost that job anyway,’ he pointed out silkily.
Angel held in a gasp. How did he know that? Not that it would have taken a rocket scientist to deduce that her behaviour that night might result in that. Did he know that she’d been working as a chambermaid in the plush Grand Bretagne Hotel since then, and was doing regular double shifts? No doubt he’d love to know that she’d felt compelled to find jobs in areas where her name would require the minimum amount of investigation. She’d been conscious of Delphi still being in college, and had not wanted to draw any potential press attention by going for something more high-profile, only to get knocked back because of their name. Humiliation was becoming annoyingly familiar in this man’s presence.
Leo took a sip of the drink he’d carried over. ‘My picture was splashed all over the papers here the week I arrived. Your father has been scrabbling around like a rat in a sinking ship looking for someone to rescue him—and you expect me to believe that you saw me at the pool-side that night and had no idea who I was?’
She shook her head. She truly hadn’t known, having instinctively shied away from reading anything about the Parnassus family and their triumphant return. It had been too close to the bone on so many different levels. Also, she’d been preoccupied with her sister’s news.
Angel sat forward, hands clenched around the glass. From somewhere deep and protecting came a dart of anger at his high-handed arrogance, at how threatened he made her feel. ‘Believe it or not, I had no idea. Aren’t you satisfied that your family has done its level best to ruin mine?’
Leo let out a short, sharp laugh, making Angel flinch. ‘I fail to see where the satisfaction comes when it’s clear, based on the evidence tonight—which, I might add, is recorded on CCTV—that you are intent on re-igniting this feud. No doubt you have something to gain from it—most people would have moved on from the drama of the Parnassus family coming home.’
He sat forward then too, his eyes flashing sparks. Angel wanted to cower back, but held strong and cursed herself for provoking him. For a moment she’d forgotten all about why she was here in the first place. He scrambled her brain that much.
His tone was withering. ‘And do you really want to play the game of apportioning blame?’
Angel felt something cold trickle down her spine when Leo’s eyes turned dark and deadly.
‘We have done nothing to affect your family directly. Your father’s greed and ineptitude has seen to the demise of the Kassianides shipping fleet. All we had to do was merge with Levakis Enterprises, and that in itself highlighted the inherent weakness of your father’s position.’
Angel swallowed. Everything he said was true. She couldn’t really blame him or his father for having done anything concrete. Her father had done it all by himself.
‘However,’ Leo continued, sitting back like a lord surveying his subject, ‘it leaves me with an interesting dilemma.’
Angel said nothing. She’d no doubt that Leo was about to enlighten her.
‘While we’ve managed to get our due revenge in seeing the Kassianides fortune reduced to nothing, lower than even we were ourselves seventy years ago, I must admit that it feels somehow … empty. Since seeing the extent of your sheer boldness, I find myself desiring something of a more … tangible nature.’
Panic struck Angel. She felt as if an invisible noose was tightening around her neck. Desperation tinged her voice. ‘I’d call going bankrupt pretty tangible.’
Leo leant forward again, utterly cold, utterly ruthless. ‘The bankruptcy is for your father, not you. No, I’m talking about something as tangible as my great-uncle being accused of raping and then murdering a pregnant woman from one of the wealthiest families in Athens. As tangible as an entire family forced into exile from their homeland because of the threat of a criminal investigation they couldn’t afford, and the possibility of my great-uncle facing the death penalty. Not to mention the scandal that would linger for years.’
‘Stop,’ begged Angel weakly. She knew the story and it always sickened her.
But he didn’t. Leo just looked at her. ‘Did you know that my great-uncle never got over the slur of being accused of that murder and eventually killed himself?’
Angel shook her head. She felt sick. This went far deeper than she’d ever imagined. ‘I didn’t know.’
‘My great-uncle loved your great-aunt.’ Leo’s mouth twisted. ‘More fool him. And because your family couldn’t bear to see one of their own darlings slum it with a mere ship worker, they did their best to thwart the romance.’
‘I know what happened,’ Angel said quietly, her insides roiling.
Leo laughed harshly, ‘Yes, everyone does now—thanks to a drunken old fool who couldn’t live with the guilt any more, because he’d been the one who committed the crime and covered it up, had it paid for by your great-grandfather.’
Her own family had murdered one of their own and covered it up like cowards.
Angel forced herself to meet the censure in Leo’s eyes even though she wanted to curl up with the shame. ‘I’m not to blame for what they did.’
‘Neither am I.