grimaced. ‘That is still one way for me to go, certainly,’ he agreed, and watched the telling little flinch that she gave up. ‘However, you do still have the other way to pull this around, Miss Moyles…’She even flinched at the formal Miss Moyles now. ‘You could still try utilising the only asset you have as far as I am concerned and make me an offer I won’t want to refuse?’
He was talking sex again. Natasha went icy. ‘The money is peanuts to you, isn’t it?’
He offered a shrug. ‘The difference between the two of us being that I am wealthy enough to call it peanuts, whereas you are not.’
That was so very true that Natasha did not even bother to argue the point. Instead she made herself look at him. ‘So you want me to pay the money back with—favours—’ for the life of her she could not bring herself to call it sex ‘—and in return you will promise me you will not take this to the police?’
Leo smiled at the careful omission of the word sex and for once the smile actually hit the dark of his eyes. ‘You do the prim stuff exceptionally well, Natasha,’ he informed her lazily as he began to walk towards her, putting just about every defence mechanism she possessed on stinging alert. ‘Shame that your hair is floating around your face like a siren’s promise and your lips are still pumped up and hot from my kisses, because it forces me to remember the real you.’
Fighting not to flinch when he reached out to touch her, ‘I want your promise that if I do what you w-want me to do, you won’t go to the police,’ she insisted.
His fingers were drifting up her arms. ‘You do know you don’t have anything left to bargain with, don’t you?’
Pressing her lips together, Natasha nodded, her heart pounding in her chest when his fingers reached her shoulders and gripped. ‘I’m relying on your sense of honour.’
‘You believe I have one?’ He sounded genuinely curious.
She nodded again. ‘Yes,’ she delivered on a stifled breath. She had to believe it because it was the only way she was going to cope with all of this.
He drifted those light caressing fingers along her shoulders until they reached her smooth skin at her nape, making her jump as a long thumb arrived beneath her chin to tilt up her face. His warm, whisky-scented breath had her lips parting like traitors because they knew what was coming next.
‘Then you have my promise,’ he said softly.
It was the most soul-shrivelling thing Natasha had ever experienced when she fell into that deal-sealing kiss.
Then her mobile phone started ringing, shocking them apart with Natasha turning to stare down at the phone in surprise because she thought she’d killed it when she’d thrown it to the floor.
Leo went to pick it up, since she didn’t seem able to move a single muscle, stepping around her and reminding her of a big, sleek giant cat, the way he moved with such loose-limbed grace. Without asking her permission, he sanctioned the call and put her phone to his ear.
It was some fashion designer wanting to know why Cindy had not turned up for a fitting. ‘Natasha Moyles is no longer responsible for her sister’s movements,’ Leo announced before cutting the connection.
Natasha stared up at him in disbelief. ‘What did you say that for?’
He turned a mocking look on her. ‘Because it is the truth?’ She went to take her phone back. He snatched it out of her way, then slid it into his jacket pocket. ‘Think about it,’ he insisted. ‘You cannot continue play your sister’s doormat while you are in Athens with me.’
And just like that he brought the scene in Rico’s office pouring back in. Rico hadn’t only involved her in his thieving scam, but he’d been treating her like his doormat, too! Natasha turned away, despising herself for being so gullible—despising Rico for making her see herself like this! And then there was Cindy, her loving sister Cindy playing the selfish, spoiled brat who took anything she felt like because she always had done and been allowed to get away with it!
Then another thought arrived, one that hit her like a brick in the chest. Cindy didn’t even need Natasha to keep her life running smoothly because arrangements were already in place to hand her singing career over to a professional agency. One of those big, flashy firms with the kind of high profile Cindy had loved the moment its name was mentioned to her. From as early as next week, Natasha would no longer be responsible for Cindy at all, in effect, to free her up to concentrate on her wedding preparations and her move to Milan!
And she’d just found the reason why Cindy had been doing that with Rico. Cindy was about to get everything she’d always wanted—a high-profile management team that was going to fast-track her career and more significantly her absolute freedom from the restraints the sister she resented imposed.
She lifted a hand up to cover her mouth. Her fingers were trembling and she felt cold through to the bone.
‘What now?’ Leo Christakis shot at her.
She just shook her head because she couldn’t speak. Cindy being Cindy, she just could not let Natasha walk off into the sunset with her handsome Italian without going all out to spoil it. I’ve had your man, Natasha. Now you can trip off and marry him. She could hear Cindy’s voice trilling those words even though they had not yet been said!
Cindy’s little swansong. Her wonderful farewell.
‘She set me up,’ she managed to whisper. ‘She knew I was going to meet Rico today so she made sure she got to his office before I did and set me up to witness her doing—that with him.’
‘Why would your own sister want to set you up for a scene like that?’
‘Because I’m not her real sister.’ Natasha slid her fingers away from her mouth. ‘I was adopted…’ By two people who’d believed their chances of having a child of their own had long passed them by. Five years later and their real daughter had arrived in their arms like a precious gift from heaven. Everyone had adored Cindy—Natasha had adored her!
A firm hand arrived on her arm to guide her down into the chair again, then disappeared to collect a second brandy. ‘Here,’ he murmured, ‘take this…’
Natasha frowned down at the glass, then shook her head. ‘No.’ She felt too sick to drink anything. ‘Take it away.’
Leo put the glass down, but remained squatting in front of her as he’d done once before. Strong thighs spread, forearms resting on his knees. His suit, she saw as if for the first time, was made of some fabulously smooth fabric, expensive and creaseless—like the man himself.
And his mouth might look grim, but it was still a mouth she could taste; she felt as if she already knew it far more intimately than any other man’s mouth—and that included Rico.
‘Stop looking at me as if you care what’s happening inside my head!’ she snapped at the way he was squatting there studying her as if he were really concerned!
He had the grace to offer an acknowledging grimace and climbed back to his full height. So did Natasha, making herself do it, feeling cold—frozen right through, because it had also just hit her that she was on her own now. No sister. No fiancé. Not even a pair of loving parents to turn to because, although they’d loved her in their own way, they had never loved
