Seducing His Convenient Innocent

She finished the piece and sat looking at the keys, not daring to look up at him. When his hand rested on her bare shoulder she stiffened, her eyes wide. What was he doing?

She turned and looked at his hand, unable to move any other part of her body. She should get up, should step away, but she couldn’t. Paralysed by fear, she dragged in a ragged breath.

As if her stillness had given consent, his hand moved lower, down over her chest, and she gasped, moving backwards on the stool, only to come against the firmness of his body.

‘Don’t,’ she said, snatching at his hand as it slipped alarmingly lower. Inside the fabric of her gown. Instinctively she curled herself inwards, hoping the movement would prevent what he was trying to do, but the fabric slackened, enabling him to fully grasp her breast.

‘What are you doing?’ she shouted.

The room echoed with the sound as she tried to avoid him, but his grasp tightened painfully on her breast and she was trapped between his body and his arm. How could this be happening?

‘I’m giving you what you want.’ His voice had changed, become hard and menacing. His face was so close to hers now she could smell stale alcohol on his breath.

‘No. No. This isn’t what I want.’ She struggled again and his grip on her tightened, his free hand now pressing down on her other shoulder.

‘Don’t be shy, Rio. I know you want it.’ He groped at her breast. Pain shot through it. Sickness filled her. She had to stop this. Had to get away.

She pushed against the piano with a discordant jangle of keys. Her heels making it difficult, she scrambled to her feet. Finally, she was free of him, but so shocked by what had just happened she stood there, panting wildly as she looked at him.

Too late she realised her mistake. She should have run when she’d had the chance. He moved quickly, his body pressing hers against the keys, his mouth claiming hers in a cruel kiss. He roughly pulled her dress up, his hand grasping at her thigh as his body pushed her even harder against the piano.

The sound of her dress ripping galvanised her into action and she pushed against him. ‘Get off.’

He was too strong for her. ‘I like it rough,’ he said as he tried to kiss her neck, his stubble scratching her skin, his foul breath making her retch.

‘No,’ she screamed as panic tore through her. He couldn’t do this to her. He couldn’t. She fought harder, screamed louder. ‘No. Stop it.’

‘What the hell?’ Another voice mingled with her scream and Hans let her go. She sagged in relief as his weight suddenly moved away from her. Anger took over and she watched Hans being manhandled off her by two other members of the orchestra. Then shock set in. The whole thing had lasted only minutes, but it had felt like hours. Rio slithered to the floor, her arms clutching the piano stool as if she’d been cast into the sea and it was all she had to hold on to.

She rested her head on her arms, not wanting to watch now as the scuffle continued amidst Hans’s angry accusations. How could he accuse her of leading him on? How could he say she had been up for it?

Tears slipped from her eyes. What had just happened?

‘Are you hurt?’ A woman’s voice, gentle but filled with anger, made her lift her face. Rio glanced around the room like a scared rabbit. ‘He’s gone.’

‘Thank goodness.’ She shivered, the shock of her ordeal really taking effect now. ‘God knows what he would have done if you hadn’t shown up.’

‘Evil bastard,’ the woman snapped. ‘Thank heavens the room was double-booked and that I had Philip and Josh with me.’

‘Double-booked?’ She looked up in confusion, not really knowing where she was any more. Nothing seemed to make sense.

The older woman placed her jacket round Rio’s shoulders, which, instead of comforting her, only made her shiver even more. ‘Don’t worry about that now. Just be safe in the knowledge that as soon as the police get here he will be locked up and will never be able to do this to you or anyone else again.’

‘What do you mean?’ Her eyes were wide with fear and shock, tears threatening once again.

‘The police will need your statement, as soon as you are able to, that is.’

‘The police?’

‘Yes. I called them whilst Philip and Josh wrestled him off you.’ There was a hint of humour in the older woman’s voice now and Rio gave a weak smile, finally realising who the woman was. Judith Jones, one of the company’s newest members, a fabulous conductor and now her saviour.

Rio tried to stand, the ripped front of her dress falling away. She gasped in shock. Had he done that to her? Hans? ‘My dress.’

Judith hugged her. ‘The dress isn’t important, Rio. All that matters is that we found you in time.’

Rio sniffed as the reality of Judith’s words sank in. ‘If you hadn’t come along...’ The implication hung in the air.

‘But we did,’ she soothed. ‘And you can give your statement to the police.’

‘Yes,’ Rio said shakily.

‘After you have done that, you will come to my home. I will personally take care of you tonight—unless there is someone else you’d rather be with, because you shouldn’t be alone.’

‘No,’ Rio whispered sadly. How could she go to Lysandros now? After all she’d just promised him? She couldn’t spend the night with him now. How could she even see Lysandros, let alone begin to tell him what had happened? Xena was busy this evening, and there was no way she could tell her yet either. ‘No, no one is home tonight.’

‘That’s settled, then. You will stay with me,’ Judith said firmly.

Rio smiled weakly. She should be with Lysandros tonight, should finally be discovering the joy of giving herself to a man. But how could she do that now? How could she allow any man to touch her again? Even the man she was beginning to fall in love with?

CHAPTER ONE (#u1d006571-bbe1-5d44-b146-dc8632070d9d)

IT HAD BEEN six weeks since Rio had seen Lysandros. Six weeks since she’d said to him with her new-found flirty confidence that she wanted to spend all night with him. And six weeks since her world had been torn apart, destroying that confidence, ending her fragile hope that she and Lysandros could be beginning something special.

That life-changing moment after the recital had left her no option but to stand up the man she’d lost her heart to, the man she’d been ready to give everything to. She’d ended things between them, refusing to see or speak to Lysandros. That afternoon had been the last time she’d played the piano, the events that had unfolded as Hans had arrived in the practice room now making it impossible for her to go near a piano, let alone play.

Now another life-changing event meant that at any moment Lysandros would come striding into the hospital room where his younger sister—her best friend, Xena—lay sleeping, looking battered and bruised from the car accident late last night.

‘Xena.’ Lysandros’s voice snapped Rio from her thoughts as he surged through the door of the dimly lit private hospital room, his focus completely on the sleeping form of his sister.

Rio’s heart pounded hard as she watched, almost in slow motion, Lysandros walk back into her life. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t make her presence in the large comfortable chair in the corner known. Instead she watched as he stood on the other side of Xena’s bed, looking down at his sister. His stubble-covered jaw clenched, giving away the hurry in which he must have left Athens. He spread a hand over his chin as if he was trying to gain control, trying to work out what to say, what to do. He still hadn’t even realised she was there.

With a sense of desolation more profound than she could have ever dreamed possible, Rio sat silently, watching the man to whom she’d lost her heart. As if that very thought made her presence felt, he turned to look at her, the emptiness in his eyes breaking her heart.

‘Rio?’ For a moment he seemed speechless, unable to say anything. ‘When did you get here?’

‘Early this morning.’ She didn’t know what to say to him. The way he searched her face, looking into her eyes for the answers she couldn’t give him—answers about more than what had happened to Xena—almost tore her heart in two.

‘How much longer is she likely to sleep?’ His voice was firmer now, his shock at seeing her gone, as he walked to the bottom of his sister’s bed. His height dominated the room, crowding her thoughts. The dark grey suit he wore only emphasised his muscular physique, reminding her how it had felt against her body when he’d kissed her. It had felt good. Right. But that had been before. That had been when she’d been a different person.

Aware that he was waiting for an answer, she dragged her thoughts back in line and resisted the urge to stand up and try to match his height. Instead she remained seated, hoping it would give off the message that she was as totally unaffected by him as she’d claimed when she had broken things off.

‘When she first came round, she was very distressed. She couldn’t remember anything, so the doctors gave her a sedative.’ Rio focused her attention on Xena. She couldn’t look at Lysandros. Not into those coal-black eyes. She didn’t want to see the questions. The accusations. ‘They said she will be sleepy for some time and are worried the knock on her head has affected her memory.’

‘Her memory?’ She had his full attention now. And the full force of his scrutiny.

‘She doesn’t recall the accident, or any other recent events, but as she knows who she is, the doctors are saying it’s her way of coping. She is blocking it out.’ Rio gulped back a wave of emotion. She had to be strong, had to focus on what Xena needed. Right now, nothing else mattered, not even her and Lysandros.

‘What happened?’ The question was firm, but by the look on his face she knew he was struggling to comprehend his sister’s injuries, intensifying her own guilt at what she’d done to him. She didn’t know how she was going to answer that and keep Xena’s recent relationship from him. A relationship that was now over. It might be the reason why Xena was here in hospital, but it was no longer of any importance or relevance. Just as all she and Lysandros had shared was no longer of importance.