Marriage of Convenience

Chapter Fifteen

And then there was silence, and stillness, like the eye of a storm. Leo's body went rigid on top of hers, and the taste of fear was on his lips which were still clamped over her mouth.

Then all was violence, movement, and noise as Leo's body was dragged from her, the sound of ripping fabric, the tearing of brown silk as Theo pull him to his feet, flinging him against the wall. 

Freya opened her eyes, relief at Theo's timely arrival warring with panic as his glittering eyes swept over her lied body, her near-naked breasts, her wildly tangled hair. And his eyes held murder, dark, icy murder.

She tried to tell him it wasn't what it seemed, that she had not been a willing partner in that hot embrace, that he had saved her from possible rape, but the sounds she made were thickly incoherent and he turned from her as though she sickened him and she saw the lean, strong hands curl into fists as he swung round to tell Leo, 'Get out before I tear you apart.'

Leo hauled himself together as Freya scrambled to her feet, tugging the two parts of her ripped shirt together, her breath coming raggedly. The younger man wasn't leaving without taking what he had come for, but Freya saw how his hands shook as he tucked his shirt back into his tight trousers.

Theo's face was set, the darkly tanned skin pulled tight over jutting bones, danger clear in every line of his athletically powerful body, so Freya had to give Leo a grudging ten marks for courage as he sauntered over to the sofa and began to pick up the piles of notes.

'On my way, mate,' he drawled. 'But I can't leave without taking my little gift, can I? Might hurt the lady's feelings.'

'Did you give him that?' Theo's eyes flicked coldly to her then back to Leo, and the harsh, intense tone made her blood run cold.

'Yes.' There was no point in lying, no point at all, and she felt dizzy, the room swaying, and she wished she could faint because she'd rather be unconscious, in a coma, than have to try to explain all this away.

She closed her eyes briefly, fighting rising nausea, and she didn't see what happened next but she heard Theo's voice, dark and deadly, 'Get out. Now, before I plaster the wall with you.' And no one who wasn't a suicidal i***t would ignore that kind of threat, because it filled the small room, turning the air sharp with violence, and she dragged her eyes open to see Leo running out.

He had left the money behind, and Theo grated, 'Pick it up.'

He looked as if he hated her as if the very sight of her disgusted him, and she stared at him with huge grey frightened eyes, her body shaking, sweating although she felt very cold.

The evidence he had walked in on was damning in itself; the money she'd admitted she'd given Leo Isaac made everything worse. She was going to have to tell him the truth about the way she'd been blackmailed, explain that she'd rather part with a slice of her inheritance than bring shame and embarrassment and possibly something much worse on to the sick old man who had been the only person she had ever received anything remotely like affection from during the past ten years.

Agitation made her voice shake as she took a tentative step towards him, her hands outspread in involuntary prayer.

'Theo let me explain.'

'Just do as I said,' his voice lashed her. 'Pick that stuff up. And don't say anything, not a word; otherwise, I might forget you're a female.'