Talos Claims His Virgin. Michelle Smart

much longer could this go on?

      Paris was a city of culture. It had accommodated and celebrated its orchestras for centuries. But the other orchestras weren’t housed in a flea pit like the Théâtre de la Musique; a glorified music hall. Once, it had been full of pomp and glory. Years of neglect and underinvestment had left it teetering perilously, almost into the red.

      A large figure in the stalls to her right, in the most expensive seats in the house, made her blink and look twice. Even as she squinted to focus more clearly the thumping of her heart told her who the figure was and explained the prickling sensation on her skin.

      Immediately her thoughts flickered to Prince Talos. There was something about that man and the danger he exuded that made her want to run faster than if a thousand spotlights had been aimed at her. His breathtaking physical power, that gorgeous face with the scar slashing through the eyebrow, the voice that had made her blood thicken into treacle...

      Juliette, the violinist she sat next to, dug a sharp elbow into her side.

      Sebastien was peering at them, his baton raised.

      Amalie forced her eyes to the score before her and positioned herself, praying for her fingers to work.

      Being at the back of the eighty-strong number of musicians usually made her feel invisible—just another head in the crowd, with the spotlight well and truly away from her. She couldn’t bear having the spotlight pointed at her, had actively avoided it since the age of twelve. More than that: she had cowered from it.

      She couldn’t see him clearly—indeed, she didn’t even know for certain that it was him sitting in the stalls—but she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone in the audience had their eyes fixed firmly on her.

      * * *

      Talos watched the evening unfold. The orchestra was a professional unit and played with a panache even the most musically illiterate could appreciate.

      But he wasn’t there to listen.

      Once the concert had finished he had a meeting with the owner of this ramshackle building.

      He’d originally planned to take his jet back to Agon and visit his grandfather, relieved that his two-month search for a violinist was over. Amalie Cartwright’s belligerence had put paid to that.

      Looking at her now, the fingers of her left hand flying over the strings of her violin, he could not believe her rudeness. Her thin, pretty face, with a sprinkling of freckles over the bridge of her straight nose, gave the illusion of someone dainty, fragile, an image compounded by a form so slender one could be forgiven for worrying about her being blown over in a breeze. She had the elegance so many Parisian women came by with seemingly no effort. He’d seen that earlier, even when her rich brown hair had been hidden under the hat she’d worn to keep the chill in the air at bay.

      But looks could be deceiving.

      She’d dismissed performing the solo at his grandfather’s gala and, by extension, had insulted the Kalliakis name. And her jibe about the French royal family having their heads removed had been a step too far.

      Amalie Cartwright would take the solo. He would make sure of it.

      And what Talos Kalliakis wanted, he got. Always.

       CHAPTER TWO

      AMALIE BURIED HER HEAD under the pillow and ignored the ringing of her doorbell. She wasn’t expecting any visitors or a delivery. Her French mother wouldn’t dream of turning up unannounced so early in the morning—anything earlier than midday she considered to be the middle of the night—and her English father was on tour in South America. Whoever it was could come back another time.

      Whoever it was clearly had no intention of coming back another time.

      The ringing continued, now accompanied by the banging of fists.

      Cursing in English and French, she scrambled out of bed, shrugged a thick robe over her pyjama-clad body and, still cursing, hurried down the stairs to open the front door.

      ‘Good morning, despinis.’

      And with those words Talos Kalliakis brushed past her and entered her home.

      ‘What the...? Excuse me—you can’t just let yourself in,’ she said, rushing after him while he swept through her narrow house as if he owned it.

      ‘I told you I would be speaking with you today.’

      His tone was neutral, as if he were oblivious to her natural shock and anger.

      ‘And I told you this is my day off. I would like you to leave.’

      He stepped into the kitchen. ‘After we have spoken.’

      To reiterate his point he set his briefcase on the floor, removed his long black trench coat, which he placed on the back of a chair at her small kitchen table, and sat himself down.

      ‘What are you doing? I didn’t invite you in—if you want to speak to me you will have to wait until tomorrow.’

      He waved a dismissive hand. ‘I will take ten minutes of your time and then I will leave. What we need to discuss will not take long.’

      Amalie bit into her cheek and forced her mind to calm. Panicked thinking would not help. ‘This is my home and you are trespassing. Leave now or I will call the police.’

      He didn’t need to know that her mobile phone was currently atop her bedside table.

      ‘Call them.’ He shrugged his huge shoulders, the linen of his black shirt rippling with the movement. ‘By the time they get here we will have concluded our conversation.’

      She eyed him warily, afraid to blink, and rubbed her hands up her arms, backing away, trapping herself against the wall. What could she use as a weapon?

      This man was a stranger and the most physically imposing man she had met in her life. The scar that slashed through his eyebrow only compounded the danger he oozed. If he were to...

      She wouldn’t be able to defend herself using her own strength. It would be like a field mouse fighting a panther.

      His top lip curved with distaste. ‘You have no need to worry for your safety—I am not an animal. I am here to talk, not to assault you.’

      Would the panther tell the field mouse he intended to eat her? Of course not. He would insist it was the last thing on his mind and then, when the little field mouse got close enough...snap!

      Staring into his striking eyes, she saw that, although cold, they contained no threat. A tiny fraction of her fear vanished.

      This man would not harm her. Not physically, at any rate.

      She dropped her gaze and rubbed her eyes, which had become sore from all that non-blinking.

      ‘Okay. Ten minutes. But you should have called first. You didn’t have to barge your way into my home when I was still sleeping.’

      An awareness crept through her bones. While he was freshly showered, shaved—minimal stubble today—and dressed, she was in old cotton pyjamas and a dressing gown, and suffering from a severe case of bed hair. Talk about putting her at an immediate disadvantage.

      He looked at his watch. ‘It is ten a.m. A reasonable time to call on someone on a Monday morning.’

      To her utter mortification, she could feel her skin heat. It might not be his problem that she’d had hardly any sleep, but it was certainly his fault.

      No matter how hard she’d tried to block him from her mind, every time she’d closed her eyes his face had swum into her vision. Two nights of his arrogant face—there, right behind her eyelids. His arrogant, handsome face. Shockingly, devilishly handsome.

      ‘This is my day off, monsieur. How I choose