The Virgin's Debt to Pay

She was looking at him, eyes huge, and for a second he could almost have imagined that she looked...hurt. A ridiculous notion.

Nessa shook her head and some long tendrils of red hair framed her face. ‘No. I will not take the easy way out and cause my family distress. I promised Paddy that I wouldn’t go to Nadim or Iseult.’

Luc was intrigued by this apparent loyalty. ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t go to Nadim myself.’

An expression of panic crossed her face. ‘I thought you didn’t want this news to get out either!’

‘I don’t. But from what I know of the Sheikh, I think he would appreciate the need for discretion on his family’s behalf. It would affect his name and reputation too.’

Nessa wrung her hands in front of her and it only drew Luc’s attention to where the shirt strained slightly over her breasts. He dragged his gaze up.

‘You have no right to involve them.’

Now he really wanted to know why she was being so stubborn on this. ‘Give me one reason, Nessa, and make it a good one.’

She looked at him as if he was torturing her and then she answered with palpable reluctance. ‘When our mother died Iseult was only twelve; I was eight. Our father couldn’t cope with the grief. He went off the rails, and developed a drink problem. Iseult went to school, but she did the bare minimum so that she could take care of the farm, the horses and all of us.’

Nessa glanced away for a moment, her face pale. Luc felt at an uncharacteristic loss as to what to say but she looked back at him and continued. ‘If it wasn’t for Iseult shielding us from the worst of our father’s excesses and the reality of the farm falling to pieces, we never would have made it through school. She shouldered far too much for someone her age...and then Nadim came along and bought the farm out and she felt as if she’d failed us all at the last hurdle.’

Nessa drew in a breath. ‘But then they fell in love and got married, and for the first time in her life she’s really secure and happy.’

‘Married to a billionaire, conveniently enough.’ The cynical comment was said before Luc had even properly thought about it, and it felt hollow on his lips.

Nessa’s hands clenched to fists by her sides. ‘Iseult is the least materialistic person I know. They love each other.’

Luc was a bit stunned by her vehemence. ‘Go on.’

She bit her lip for a moment, and he had to stop himself from reaching out to tug it free of those small white teeth.

‘My sister is truly happy for the first time in a long time. The only responsibility she now bears is to her own family. They had problems getting pregnant after Kamil so this pregnancy has been stressful. If she knew what was going on she’d be devastated and worried, and Nadim would do everything he could to help her. He might even insist on coming all the way over here, and she needs him with her now.’

She added impetuously, ‘If you do talk to Nadim, I’ll leak it to the press about the money going astray. Maybe they’ll be easier on Paddy than you’ve been.’

Luc just looked at Nessa for a long moment, and he had to admit with grudging reluctance that her apparent zeal to protect her family was very convincing. He’d never seen a mother bear with cubs, but he had an impression of it right now. And he didn’t like how it had affected him when she’d mentioned her sister’s happy family. For a second he’d actually felt something like envy.

It reminded him uncomfortably of when he’d been much younger and he and other kids from the flats would go into Paris to pick pockets or whatever petty crime they could get away with. Stupid kids with nothing to lose and no one at home to care what they got up to.

One day Luc had been mesmerised by a family playing in a park—a mother, father and two children. The kids had looked so happy and loved. An awful darkness had welled up inside him and he’d tasted jealousy for the first time. And something far more poignant—a desire to know what that would be like.

His friends had noticed and had teased Luc unmercifully, so he’d shoved that experience and those feelings deep down inside and had vowed never to envy anyone again. And he wasn’t about to start now.

But eclipsing all of that now was the carnal hunger building inside him. He’d thought of little else but that incendiary kiss the other night. When he’d sought Nessa out after the party he’d told himself he could resist her. But the thick sexual tension in the air mocked him.

She called to him, even in those plain, unerotic clothes. She called to him, deep inside where a dark hunger raged and begged for satisfaction.

Suddenly it didn’t matter who she was related to. Or if she was playing mind-games. She threw up too many questions, but there was only one question he was interested in knowing the answer to right now, and that was how she would feel when he sank deep inside her.

Luc closed the distance between them, and reached out to slide a hand around Nessa’s neck, tugging her closer. Her eyes went wide and her cheeks bloomed with colour. She put a hand up to his and said, ‘What are you doing?’

Luc’s gaze was fixated on her mouth and he had to drag it away to look into those huge hazel eyes. ‘Do you really expect me to believe that you’re just an innocent who would do anything for her family? And that the other night was pure chance and chemistry?’

For a taut moment, Luc held his breath because he realised that some small kernel of the little boy he’d once been, yearning for something totally out of his orbit, was still alive inside him. He waited for Nessa to gaze up at him with those huge eyes and move closer, to tell him in a husky voice, Yes, I’m really that innocent. The worst of it was, he wasn’t entirely sure that he wouldn’t believe her.

But she didn’t. She tensed and pulled back, jerking free of Luc’s hand. Glaring up at him. ‘I don’t expect you to believe anything, Luc Barbier. You’ve got eyes in your head and if you choose to view the world through a fog of cynicism and mistrust then that’s your prerogative.

‘As for the other night—it was madness and a mistake. You won’t have to worry why it happened because it won’t happen again.’

Nessa had almost moved past Luc when his shocked brain kicked into gear and he caught her hand, stopping her. Every cell in his body rejected what she’d just said. She was walking away again. A savage part of himself rose up, needing to prove that she wasn’t as in control as she appeared.