The Virgin's Debt to Pay

The weight in Luc’s chest didn’t abate as the woman led them further into the room. No one had ever looked at him as Nessa just had, without any guile or expectation for a salacious story.

CHAPTER SEVEN

NESSA WAS STILL irritated by the interruption earlier. Luc had looked as if she’d delivered an electric shock rather than asked an innocuous question. She was also still mulling over how he’d been deliberately ostracised from this milieu, and how it had obviously affected him.

They had just finished the sumptuous dinner when Nessa snuck a glance to where Luc was seated opposite her. He was talking to an older woman on his right-hand side, and as Nessa looked at him his eyes met hers and a shaft of sensation went straight into her gut.

She quickly looked away and put her napkin to her mouth, almost knocking over her glass in the process, in a bid to disguise that she’d been staring. When she could risk another glance, she saw the tiniest smile playing around the corners of his mouth, and it couldn’t have been due to what the woman was saying because she looked all too serious.

Damn him. Nessa wanted to kick him. He must know exactly what his effect on her was—he’d been the one to awaken her, after all. She felt intensely vulnerable and averted her eyes from then on. Then the chairman got up to make a speech, so thankfully she could focus on that and not Luc. She tuned most of it out except the bit where he said, ‘...and we’d like to say welcome to our newest import, all the way from France. Luc Barbier stunned the crowds today with a spectacular win...’

Nessa looked at Luc and saw him incline his head in acknowledgement of the chairman’s gushing praise. The expression on his face was cool, not for a second revealing anything. Nessa wondered what he was thinking. She was surprised at the affront she felt on his behalf that he hadn’t ever been invited before now.

Then she got a mention too and her face flamed bright red as everyone in the room turned their attention to her.

When the speech was over the guests got up to go to a different room where soft jazz was playing. Nessa felt awkward standing alone, not sure if Luc was going to leave her to her own devices now that everyone was lining up to speak to him. She longed to take off the shoes, which were killing her, but to her surprise Luc came straight around the table and walked up to her.

‘So, what was making you look so angry during the chairman’s speech?’

Nessa blanched. She was far too expressive for her own good, useless at hiding anything. The thought of him noticing her reaction was beyond exposing. Luc wasn’t budging, waiting for her reply.

She blurted out, ‘Well, it’s not as if you’re new to the scene here, is it? You’ve been here for a couple of years, had plenty of horses in races and won more than your fair share, not to mention your accomplishments in France.’

Luc’s tone was dry. ‘This community is a tight-knit one. They don’t allow entry purely by dint of your owning a stud and racing stables.’

‘That’s ridiculous. You have as much right to be here as anyone. You have a brilliant reputation. Paddy—’ She stopped abruptly and bit her lip.

Luc arched a brow. ‘Paddy what?’

She cursed her loose tongue. ‘Well, you probably won’t believe me, but Paddy idolises you. You’re all he talked about for the first few months he was working for you. To be honest I think part of the reason he’s in hiding is because he’s so mortified that he let you down...’

Luc looked at Nessa. He knew vaguely that he should be working the room, capitalising on being welcomed into the fold, but he was more intrigued by this conversation. Disturbingly he did seem to recall Paddy Jnr’s rather puppy-like manner and the way he’d followed Luc around for the first few weeks. When Paddy had first

disappeared Luc had recalled his slavish devotion and had seen it in a more suspicious light. But now...

Nessa went on. ‘He thinks you’re a maverick, and he admired your unorthodox methods.’

Luc battled with the urge to trust what Nessa was saying. ‘You say one thing but his actions say something else. They’re nice words, Nessa, but I don’t need staff idolising me. I just need people I can trust.’

‘Who do you trust?’

‘Almost no one,’ Luc answered and for the first time in his life it didn’t feel like something to be proud of. Disgruntled at the turn in conversation, and not liking how Nessa’s affront on his behalf made him feel, he took her arm and led her into the other room where couples were already dancing.

But as soon as they approached the dance floor she became a dead weight under his hand. He glanced at her and she was pale and had a terror-struck expression on her face. Something sharp lanced him in his chest. ‘What’s wrong?’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t dance.’

‘Everyone can dance. Even me.’ He hadn’t actually intended on dancing but now he was intrigued.

She started to pull away. ‘No, really, I’ll just watch. There have to be any number of women here who’d love to dance with you.’

Luc couldn’t say he was unaware of the fact that a few women seemed to be circling, but apparently he was with the only woman in the room who didn’t want to be with him. It was a novelty he didn’t welcome.

He moved his hand down her arm to her hand and gripped it firmly and tugged her very reluctant body onto the dance floor.

* * *

Nessa felt sick. This was her worst nightmare. She hated dancing in public with a passion and could already hear the laughs and jeers of her brothers ringing in her ears. Come on, Ness, you can’t actually trip over your own feet—oops, she just did!