Page 9 of Forbidden Until Midnight

The dizziness caused by all the questions made her sway and she was beginning to slide to the ground when Santo came back around the corner. He reached for her and pulled her against him. And for just a moment she sank into him. Into his strength, into the protection he offered her, the strength of him.

He gave her that one moment before drawing her away from what Tony and Dilly were doing. She let herself be tugged along by the sheer power and determination of Santo, despite wanting to do nothing more than sink to the floor and cry.

‘What did you do with my phone?’ she asked with numb lips.

‘Pictures.’

‘You took pictures?’ she demanded, outraged. ‘Ofthat? Ofthem? Why would you—’

‘Keep your voice down,’ he all but growled, casting looks about them to see if she had drawn any attention to them.

When he had taken her as far away from her fiancé as he was apparently comfortable with, he pushed her gently back into another recess on the opposite side of the wine cellar.

Eleanor hastily wiped at the tears that had fallen on the way, scrubbing at her cheeks as she wanted to scrub at her eyes, her ears and her heart.

Oh, God.

‘Listen, Eleanor—’

She started to shake her head. She didn’t want to listen to anything. Tony had cheated on her.

‘Eleanor,’ he said, taking her shoulders and shaking her a little. ‘You have to listen to me.’

Eleanor clenched her teeth together. ‘Okay,’ she said, even though all she could hear was Dilly’s moans of pleasure, turning her stomach.

‘They’re going to tell you that it wasn’t as bad as you think. They’re going to tell you that it was just a mistake, that he loves you and that it’s not worth throwing your future away for,’ Santo said, his tone dark, his voice full of gravel.

Eleanor bit her lip, the tears building and acid scratching at the back of her throat, wanting to get out.

‘Eleanor, are you listening to me?’

She wasn’t, but she nodded, looking up to find Santo staring at her with an intensity that surprised her.

‘Don’t let them convince you it was nothing. If you feel yourself wavering, if you feel yourself thinking that they might be right, look at the photos. Don’t let them force you into a marriage you don’t want,’ he commanded.

A low moan came from deep within her.

‘Eleanor, this is important,’ he said, shaking her by the shoulders a little.

‘My father wouldn’t do that,’ Eleanor insisted, trying to pull out of his hold. ‘When he finds out about this, he’ll go mad. There’s no way he’ll let Tony get away with this.’

Santo looked back at her with pity in his eyes. As if she were being naïve. As if she didn’t know her own father.

‘He won’t!’ Eleanor cried out, pushing back against Santo. ‘Why would you say that?’ she demanded. ‘Why would you even think that?’

Santo stilled, something dark filling his intent gaze. He opened his mouth to answer, but her mother’s concerned voice came from over Santo’s shoulder.

‘Eleanor, are you okay?’

Eleanor pushed Santo aside and, shrugging off his jacket, she ran into her mother’s arms.

With her head buried against her mother’s chest and her eyes filled with tears, she didn’t see the look that passed between Santo and her mother, Analise, and, even if she had, Eleanor wouldn’t have cared. Her heart was breaking in two and she thought she’d never recover.

CHAPTER THREE

New Year’s Eve seven years ago, Oxford

SANTOCOULDN’THELPHIMSELF. He didn’t know whether to be impressed or outraged by Edward Carson’s arrogance. Supposedly on the back foot after one of the most shocking scandals ever seen by the group of twelve families that met each New Year’s Eve, the man was hosting this year—at his own home—as if it were equal, nay, even superior, to the exquisite locations of previous years.

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