Flora's Defiance Read online

Page 3


  Although every attempt had been made to shield Angelo’s privacy it had slowly become abundantly clear to Flora that Willem’s stepbrother had been heavily involved from the outset in all attempts to persuade the young couple to enter a rehabilitation programme. He had also done everything that he could to protect his stepbrother’s child from harm.

  In recent months, Mariska had virtually never been left to rely on parental care alone. Either she had been in day care or in her nanny’s care, and when Willem and Julie had partied and Anke had deemed her charge to be at risk she had taken Mariska to Angelo’s home. Yet, even with all those safeguards in place, Flora’s niece could still easily have been killed along with her parents when Julie had chosen to take her daughter out of day care early one afternoon without telling anyone and had got into Willem’s car with her. Mariska’s very survival was a small miracle.

  A stiff late spring breeze gusted down the street of tall, narrow and highly ornamental buildings that bordered the canal Flora was walking alongside and her tears chilled on her cheeks. She stepped hurriedly out of the way of a cyclist riding past and sucked in a steadying breath while she paused to consult the map she had bought to help her negotiate the maze of streets.

  It was an effort to think straight while she was being eaten alive by a great burst of angry resentment and regret. But her half-sister was gone and nothing could bring Julie back. Yet on whose say-so had Flora been excluded from knowing about and trying to help the young couple? Flora had a very strong suspicion about the identity of that culprit. While the social workers had been bound by rules of confidentiality, only Angelo van Zaal would have dared to leave Julie’s one close relative in ignorance of her plight.

  When she’d first moved to Amsterdam, Julie had sent her sister loads of photos, so now Flora had little difficulty picking out the bright blue-and-white-painted houseboat from the others moored on a quiet stretch of water overlooked by a picturesque terrace of gabled houses. After all, she had a framed sunlit picture of that same evocative scene sitting in her home. She stepped onto the deck and as she did so the door of the cabin opened, framing the tall black-haired male whose inexcusable silence over the past year had stoked her umbrage.

  For an instant, Flora froze, her wide green eyes locking onto Angelo van Zaal. He looked strikingly elegant if out of place in his formality in a dark grey business suit and silk tie. The suit had the exclusive fit of a tailored designer garment, framing wide strong masculine shoulders and hugging lean hips and long muscular thighs. As he stepped outside the breeze ruffled his luxuriant black hair above his lean, darkly handsome features. The sheer impact of his physical charisma hit her like a sudden blow to the head, leaving her dizzy. She collided with sapphire-blue eyes and her tummy shimmied like a jelly while her breath feathered in her throat.

  ‘What on earth are you doing here? ‘ she demanded tautly.

  ‘This seemed to be an opportune time and place to talk to you.’

  ‘It’s a little late for that now, isn’t it? ‘ Green eyes flashing as emerald as jewels in sunlight, Flora stalked past his tall still figure into the saloon of the houseboat. The spacious interior had a bare look, for all the surfaces were clear and a stack of cardboard boxes spread out from one corner. ‘In fact I would say that talk of any kind between us now would be a waste of your valuable time.’

  Unaccustomed to such a bold unapologetic attack, and with his handsome mouth in a sardonic line, Angelo studied her. Colourful copper-coloured hair falling in a lavish windblown cloud round her shoulders, Flora wore a short black trench coat, jeans and a green sweater, and even in that casual garb she looked amazing, he acknowledged with distinct reluctance. She had the transparent alabaster skin of the true redhead and soft pink self-conscious colour defined her cheekbones while he studied her, quietly marvelling at the amount of emotion she contrived to emanate even when she was silent. Trembling with the force of her fury, Flora undid her coat, dropped it down on a seat and spun back to face him.

  ‘How could you not tell me what was going on here?’ she demanded in ringing reproach. ‘Willem and Julie were my family as well. At the very least I had a right to know that Julie was taking drugs!’

  ‘She was an adult of twenty-one, Flora. She made her own choice, which was that under no circumstances were you to be told about their problems.’

  Flora lifted her chin in challenge. ‘Meaning?’

  ‘Exactly what I said. I did speak to her and I know for a fact that her social worker urged her to confide in you, but your sister didn’t want you to know that she had got caught up in drugs and I was not in a position to go against her wishes.’

  ‘I don’t believe that.’ Flora dealt him a furious unimpressed look, convinced that he was simply trying to palm her off with excuses. ‘You always do as you like, Angelo. You’re a strong man. You’re no one’s whipping boy!’

  ‘Believe me when I tell you that it was a huge struggle to keep the communication lines between me and Willem and Julie open. Their lifestyle was abhorrent to me but for their daughter’s sake it was imperative that I still retained access to them,’ Angelo retorted grimly. ‘Had I gone against your sister’s wishes they would no longer have trusted me and Mariska would have suffered …’

  ‘So you got involved and I was left on the outside, kept in ignorance of what was happening in Willem and Julie’s lives until it was too late,’ Flora condemned with unconcealed bitterness.

  ‘I made Mariska’s needs my priority,’ Angelo countered without apology. ‘I did the best I could in a very difficult situation.’

  ‘Well, the best you could wasn’t good enough, was it? ‘ Flora threw at him fierily, her temper rising again like steam inside a kettle as the sheer awfulness of what she had learned that morning bit into her like painful claws on tender flesh. ‘Less than a year after Mariska’s birth, your stepbrother and my sister are both dead and their child is an orphan!’

  His superb bone structure rigid, Angelo surveyed her with cool ice-blue, astonishingly clear eyes set above the smooth olive planes of his handsome face. His eyes had the shockingly vivid clarity of a glacier lake she had once seen in the Alps, she thought absently. It struck her that so far nothing she had said had moved him in the slightest and his rigorous self-control seemed to mock her emotional state.

  ‘Willem and Julie were a fatal combination,’ Angelo murmured in a tone of flat finality. ‘Willem was weak and troubled, and before they even met Julie was a habitual drug user.’

  As the ramifications of that accusation sank in, shocking Flora all over again, she released a jagged laugh of disbelief. ‘How dare you try to blame Julie for what happened to them? How dare you insinuate that she was the prime instigator?’

  ‘I am telling you what I know to be the truth. I have no desire to malign your memory of your sister.’

  Flora shot him an enraged glance, green eyes luminous as green glass on the seashore. ‘Then don’t do it.’

  ‘I did not hurl the first stone,’ Angelo countered levelly, his attention wandering to the way the fine wool sweater lovingly moulded the small pouting curves of her breasts and defined the slight bump of her prominent nipples. He suspected that she wasn’t wearing a bra and the full taut sensation of heaviness at his groin increased as he imagined peeling off that sweater. It took enormous self-discipline to wrench his mind back from that erotic reverie and her ability to distract him without even trying to do so infuriated him.

  ‘You could have told me that Willem and Julie had got involved in drugs! ‘ Flora slung at him in a seething undertone, her eyes bright with antagonism and accusation. The growing tension in the atmosphere only put her more on edge. ‘And you could have told me that I had to conceal where I got that information from.’

  ‘As I’ve already said, when I was unable to persuade either Willem or his wife to stop using drugs or even to enter counselling, my main goal was to protect Mariska from their excesses.’

  Flora snatched in an audible breath in an
effort to calm her teeming emotions down to a more controllable level. She folded her arms tightly and crossed the floor, her slender spine stiff as a pencil. The dreadful compulsion to stare at him had her in its hold, though, for when she looked once she always had to look back at him again and admire his amazing bone structure, dazzling eyes and tall, powerful physique. That he could stun her even in the midst of a bitter argument outraged her sense of what was decent. In measured rejection she fixed her eyes on the view of the quiet canal beyond the window. ‘It’s so unfair that you’re trying to foist the blame on Julie.’

  ‘I am not trying to do that,’ Angelo rebutted, his attention jerking away from the snug fit of her jeans over her heart-shaped derrière, for his imagination had really not required that added stimulus in her radius. His susceptibility to her every move around him galled him and gave him a disturbingly unfamiliar sense of being out of control. ‘But I must be honest with you, even if you find that honesty offensive.’

  ‘It is deeply offensive that you should accuse my sister of having been an habitual substance abuser,’ Flora pointed out thinly, turning back to him for emphasis while her tongue slid out to moisten the dry curve of her lower lip.

  ‘Even if I know that to be true?’ Instantly engaged in picturing the effect of that small pink tongue tip on a highly sensitive part of his own anatomy, Angelo surveyed the sultry raspberry-tinted fullness of her mouth with driven concentration. She was making him feel ridiculously like a sex-starved adolescent boy and his hands clenched into defensive fists by his side.

  ‘How could you possibly know such a thing to be true?’ Flora flung in angry, scornful dismissal of that claim. She clashed head-on with his electrifyingly blue eyes, which might as well have been lit by tiny blue flames for she had the sensation of heat dancing over her entire skin surface. She flushed and her nipples tingled almost painfully while a scratchy sensation of warmth and awareness settled between her legs. In an uneasy movement, she shifted position off one foot on to the other.

  ‘I know because I had Julie privately investigated before she married Willem,’ Angelo admitted with unapologetic gravity. ‘As a student in London your sister was running with a druggie crowd and regularly took ecstasy and cocaine. Even though she was pregnant she brought those habits to Amsterdam with her and it wasn’t long before my stepbrother joined her and the two of them began to experiment with heroin.’

  As Angelo spoke Flora had fallen very still and her eyes were very wide and dark with dismay. ‘You had Julie investigated? There must be some mistake?’

  ‘There was no mistake,’ Angelo told her steadily, noticing how pale she had become, noting too how that pallor merely accentuated her bright copper hair and lustrous green eyes. Even her prickly argumentative nature could not detract from her considerable appeal. ‘The report was done by a reputable firm and it was very detailed. I’m afraid that even as a teenager your sister was a heavy user of recreational drugs—’

  ‘It’s not possible. When Julie was a student, she was living with me,’ Flora confided, and her voice slowly trailed away as she took that thought to its natural conclusion and looked back in time, a sinking sensation forming in the pit of her stomach.

  Unfortunately, Julie had moved into Flora’s flat and started college during what was a very fraught period in her older sister’s life. Flora had had to put in very long hours at work while being harassed by a bullying boss. She had also been struggling to keep a demanding fiancé happy and she had not been able to give her half-sister the time and attention that she would have liked. Even so, she valued her memories of their time together back then and had seen nothing in Julie’s behaviour that might have suggested that there was anything seriously amiss in her life. Certainly Julie had enjoyed a very active social calendar, but then so did most students, Flora reasoned ruefully. She did recall the very late hours the younger woman had kept and Flora, who’d had to be at work early, had usually been asleep by the time her sister came home. Julie had also been very prone to changeable moods and staying in bed all day at weekends, but that kind of behaviour could surely be ascribed to many teenagers?

  ‘If Julie took drugs in those days, and I’m not sure I can accept that that could be true,’ Flora breathed abruptly and without warning discovered that her eyes were prickling with tears, ‘I hadn’t the slightest idea of what she was up to.’

  Angelo, who had a conscience as tough as the steel his factories manufactured, saw moisture shimmer in her beautiful green eyes and he closed the distance between them without even being aware of a prompting to do so. Bare inches away from her, he faltered to a halt and hovered, suddenly uncharacteristically uncertain of what to do next because he was a man who had always walked the other way or turned a blind eye when women got upset. But he stared down into her tear-wet face and in an action that felt ridiculously natural to him, but which was actually not at all his style, he reached for both her hands to hold them firmly within his.

  ‘Don’t cry,’ he told her urgently. ‘Don’t blame yourself for this fiasco. Many well-intentioned and experienced professionals tried and failed to help Willem and Julie. Sometimes no matter what you do you can’t change things. What happened to them is in no way your fault.’

  And Flora recognised his sincerity and finally accepted that the sad tale he was telling her was indeed the truth as he knew it. Guilt cut through her, though, like a knife as her first thought was that she had failed her sister when Julie had needed her most. While they’d been living together, she should have realised that Julie had problems and watched over her more closely. She should have refused to accept the seemingly little white lies and excuses that, even then, she had suspected her sibling was prone to hiding behind and probed more deeply, asking the awkward prying questions that she had swallowed back for the sake of peace. In those days, Flora had been afraid to tax their new sibling bond by acting too much like a pseudo-parental figure. And tragically that dangerous desire to be liked and to seem younger and more hip had evidently ensured that Julie had been free to take the first fatal steps towards becoming a drug addict.

  ‘Julie had such a h-horrible childhood!’ Flora stammered chokily, unable to silence the words brimming to her lips in her need to defend her late sister from the bad opinion he must have formed of her. ‘She used to see my father out shopping in town with Mum and I and she had to pretend she didn’t know him, even though he was her father as well. His affair with her mother, Sarah, was a big secret and it meant that for years and years while Julie was growing up she had to live a lie. That background left scars, of course it did. She lived to be noticed, she craved love and attention—’

  ‘It’s not your fault, querida. You were not her mother. You had no control over her. What, realistically, could you have done to change anything?’ Angelo replied soothingly, his dark deep drawl fracturing as he stared down into her tear-bright green eyes.

  That close to his lean, powerful body, Flora could smell the distinctive scent of his skin, an intoxicating mixture of citrus overlaying husky male, and as she drank in that aroma it made her tremble. A little inner voice whispered caution, warned her to step back and keep her distance from him, but her feet might as well have been nailed to the floor. She could feel herself beginning to lean forward, her attention locked to those unforgettable features of his, memorising the high line of his patrician cheekbones, the stubborn strength of his jaw and the arrogant jut of his classic nose. He drew her like a rock in a violent storm at sea.

  He bent his proud dark head and parted her lips with his wide sensual mouth and it was as if she had been waiting all her life for that one kiss as it ran through her like a depth charge and struck deep in a sensual and potent explosion. Her hands flew up and clenched into his wide strong shoulders. It couldn’t be him, she thought momentarily in wonderment, it couldn’t possibly be Angelo van Zaal who was making her feel as though she were racing with her heart pounding on a wild roller-coaster ride. The pall of apprehensive isolation and loss tha
t had dogged her since she had flown out to Amsterdam was suddenly banished.

  One kiss led straight into the next and her fingers dug into his jacket for support to keep herself upright. Shaking, she felt a shudder rack his big powerful body against hers and she exulted in the hand he closed to her hip to press her into provocative contact with the hard swell of his erection. Something that had turned her off other men turned her on with him. The very knowledge that she aroused him went to Flora’s head and because of what had happened in the past she gloried in that intoxicating proof of his masculine response to her. She was dizzy, exchanging feverish kisses while the passion exploded through her like a shot of brandy on an icy day. Heat sizzled through her veins and pooled low in her tummy. She discovered that she couldn’t make herself let him go for long enough to catch her breath.

  ‘You’re wearing far too many clothes,’ Angelo said thickly.

  Flora looked up at him, revelling in the temperamental glimmer of stormy blue visible below his dense black lashes. She was amazed by the discovery that he was not one half as calm, cool and controlled as she had always believed. There was a wild hunger in that appraisal that gripped her imagination like a key to a locked door, promising her a glimpse of the unknown. Angelo was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, but until that heady moment of recognition he had always been a closed and forbidding book to her. Just then seeing him look at her as though she were the most desirable woman alive was balm to a self-esteem that had once been battered to pulp when the man she loved rejected her.

 

    The Sheikh Crowns His Virgin Read onlineThe Sheikh Crowns His VirginA Baby on the Greek's Doorstep Read onlineA Baby on the Greek's DoorstepThe Innocent's Forgotten Wedding Read onlineThe Innocent's Forgotten WeddingIndian Prince's Hidden Son (Mills & Boon Modern) Read onlineIndian Prince's Hidden Son (Mills & Boon Modern)The Greek's Surprise Christmas Bride Read onlineThe Greek's Surprise Christmas BrideCinderella's Desert Baby Bombshell Read onlineCinderella's Desert Baby BombshellThe Greek Claims His Shock Heir Read onlineThe Greek Claims His Shock HeirSecond-Time Bride (HQR Presents) Read onlineSecond-Time Bride (HQR Presents)The Greek's Convenient Cinderella Read onlineThe Greek's Convenient CinderellaThe Italian Demands His Heirs Read onlineThe Italian Demands His HeirsThe Italian's Inherited Mistress Read onlineThe Italian's Inherited MistressCinderella's Royal Secret Read onlineCinderella's Royal SecretHarlequin Presents: Once Upon A Temptation June 2020--Box Set 2 of 2 Read onlineHarlequin Presents: Once Upon A Temptation June 2020--Box Set 2 of 2A Baby On The Greek's Doorstep (Mills & Boon Modern) (Innocent Christmas Brides, Book 1) Read onlineA Baby On The Greek's Doorstep (Mills & Boon Modern) (Innocent Christmas Brides, Book 1)The Italian in Need of an Heir Read onlineThe Italian in Need of an HeirBought for the Greek's Revenge Read onlineBought for the Greek's RevengeThe Greek's Christmas Bride Read onlineThe Greek's Christmas BrideSold for the Greek's Heir Read onlineSold for the Greek's HeirA Stormy Greek Marriage Read onlineA Stormy Greek MarriageJewel in His Crown Read onlineJewel in His CrownCastiglione's Pregnant Princess (Vows for Billionaires) Read onlineCastiglione's Pregnant Princess (Vows for Billionaires)Her Italian Boss Read onlineHer Italian BossA Vengeful Passion Read onlineA Vengeful PassionChristmas Promises: The Christmas Eve BrideA Marriage Proposal for ChristmasA Bride for Christmas Read onlineChristmas Promises: The Christmas Eve BrideA Marriage Proposal for ChristmasA Bride for ChristmasThe Petrakos Bride Read onlineThe Petrakos BrideMarried by Arrangement Read onlineMarried by ArrangementDuarte's Child Read onlineDuarte's ChildAn Insatiable Passion Read onlineAn Insatiable PassionA Fiery Baptism Read onlineA Fiery BaptismThe Trophy Husband Read onlineThe Trophy HusbandAn Arabian Courtship Read onlineAn Arabian CourtshipMistress Bought and Paid For Read onlineMistress Bought and Paid ForThe Greek Tycoon’s Convenient Mistress Read onlineThe Greek Tycoon’s Convenient MistressIndecent Deception Read onlineIndecent DeceptionThe Vengeful Husband Read onlineThe Vengeful HusbandThe Veranchetti Marriage Read onlineThe Veranchetti MarriageGreek Tycoon's Disobedient Bride Read onlineGreek Tycoon's Disobedient BrideDa Rocha's Convenient Heir Read onlineDa Rocha's Convenient HeirThe Arabian Mistress Read onlineThe Arabian MistressBride for Real Read onlineBride for RealThe Greek’s Chosen Wife Read onlineThe Greek’s Chosen WifeThe Sheikh's Prize Read onlineThe Sheikh's PrizeThe Cozakis Bride Read onlineThe Cozakis BrideThe Italian's Wife Read onlineThe Italian's WifeThe Greek Tycoon’s Disobedient Bride Read onlineThe Greek Tycoon’s Disobedient BrideDa Rocha's Convenient Heir--A Billionaire Baby Romance Read onlineDa Rocha's Convenient Heir--A Billionaire Baby RomanceThe Desert King's Blackmailed Bride Read onlineThe Desert King's Blackmailed BrideNaive Bride , Defiant Wife Read onlineNaive Bride , Defiant WifeA Ring to Secure His Heir Read onlineA Ring to Secure His HeirThe Desert Bride Read onlineThe Desert BrideDon Joaquin's Pride (Presents, 2127) Read onlineDon Joaquin's Pride (Presents, 2127)The Stephanides Pregnancy Read onlineThe Stephanides PregnancyGreek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress Read onlineGreek Tycoon, Inexperienced MistressBond of Hatred Read onlineBond of HatredCrime Of Passion Read onlineCrime Of PassionThe Greek Tycoon's Blackmailed Mistress Read onlineThe Greek Tycoon's Blackmailed MistressThe Unfaithful Wife Read onlineThe Unfaithful WifeRafaello's Mistress Read onlineRafaello's MistressBittersweet Passion Read onlineBittersweet PassionDamiano's Return Read onlineDamiano's ReturnRavelli's Defiant Bride Read onlineRavelli's Defiant BridePrisoner Of Passion Read onlinePrisoner Of PassionReluctant Mistress, Blackmailed Wife Read onlineReluctant Mistress, Blackmailed WifeThe Ruthless Magnate’s Virgin Mistress Read onlineThe Ruthless Magnate’s Virgin MistressThe Sheikh's Innocent Bride Read onlineThe Sheikh's Innocent BrideThe Desert Sheikh’s Captive Wife Read onlineThe Desert Sheikh’s Captive WifeThe Greek Demands His Heir (The Notorious Greeks Book 1) Read onlineThe Greek Demands His Heir (The Notorious Greeks Book 1)The Dimitrakos Proposition Read onlineThe Dimitrakos PropositionThe Frenchman's Love-Child Read onlineThe Frenchman's Love-ChildDon Joaquin's Pride Read onlineDon Joaquin's PrideThe Marriage Betrayal Read onlineThe Marriage BetrayalDark Angel Read onlineDark AngelA Vow of Obligation Read onlineA Vow of ObligationThe Greek Commands His Mistress Read onlineThe Greek Commands His MistressThe Italian's Christmas Child Read onlineThe Italian's Christmas ChildUnlocking her Innocence Read onlineUnlocking her InnocenceThe Sheikh's Secret Babies Read onlineThe Sheikh's Secret BabiesEmerald Mistress Read onlineEmerald MistressChristakis's Rebellious Wife Read onlineChristakis's Rebellious WifeRuthless Magnate, Convenient Wife Read onlineRuthless Magnate, Convenient WifeA Mediterranean Marriage Read onlineA Mediterranean MarriageMistress And Mother Read onlineMistress And MotherThe Secret Valtinos Baby Read onlineThe Secret Valtinos BabyExpectant Bride Read onlineExpectant BrideTrophy Husband Read onlineTrophy HusbandTempestuous Reunion Read onlineTempestuous ReunionThe Billionaire's Bridal Bargain Read onlineThe Billionaire's Bridal BargainAngel of Darkness Read onlineAngel of DarknessZarif's Convenient Queen Read onlineZarif's Convenient QueenThe Greek Tycoon's Defiant Bride Read onlineThe Greek Tycoon's Defiant BrideMarried to a Mistress Read onlineMarried to a MistressLeonetti's Housekeeper Bride Read onlineLeonetti's Housekeeper BrideFlora's Defiance Read onlineFlora's DefianceHis Queen by Desert Decree Read onlineHis Queen by Desert DecreeSecond-Time Bride Read onlineSecond-Time BrideChallenging Dante Read onlineChallenging DanteClaimed for the Leonelli Legacy Read onlineClaimed for the Leonelli LegacyThe Secret His Mistress Carried Read onlineThe Secret His Mistress CarriedThe Italian's One-Night Baby Read onlineThe Italian's One-Night BabyThe Heat Of Passion Read onlineThe Heat Of PassionDesert Prince, Bride of Innocence Read onlineDesert Prince, Bride of InnocenceA Deal at the Altar Read onlineA Deal at the AltarRoccanti's Marriage Revenge Read onlineRoccanti's Marriage RevengeA Savage Betrayal Read onlineA Savage BetrayalThe Secret Wife Read onlineThe Secret WifeLynne Graham's Brides of L'Amour Bundle Read onlineLynne Graham's Brides of L'Amour BundleThe Spanish Billionaire’s Pregnant Wife Read onlineThe Spanish Billionaire’s Pregnant WifeThe Italian Billionaire's Pregnant Bride Read onlineThe Italian Billionaire's Pregnant BrideVirgin On Her Wedding Night Read onlineVirgin On Her Wedding NightHarlequin Presents January 2015 - Box Set 2 of 2: The Secret His Mistress CarriedTo Sin with the TycoonInherited by Her EnemyThe Last Heir of Monterrato Read onlineHarlequin Presents January 2015 - Box Set 2 of 2: The Secret His Mistress CarriedTo Sin with the TycoonInherited by Her EnemyThe Last Heir of MonterratoThe Pregnancy Shock Read onlineThe Pregnancy ShockThe Reluctant Husband Read onlineThe Reluctant HusbandThe Greek's Blackmailed Mistress Read onlineThe Greek's Blackmailed MistressOne Night with His Wife Read onlineOne Night with His WifeThe Italian's Inexperienced Mistress Read onlineThe Italian's Inexperienced MistressThe Sicilian's Mistress Read onlineThe Sicilian's MistressContract Baby Read onlineContract BabyJess's Promise Read onlineJess's PromiseThe Mistress Wife Read onlineThe Mistress WifeThe Secrets She Carried Read onlineThe Secrets She CarriedThe Billionaire's Trophy Read onlineThe Billionaire's Trophy