The Virgin's Debt To Pay: The Virgin's Debt to Pay / Surrender to the Ruthless Billionaire

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.

He pulled her back in front of him. ‘You want me.’

She bit her lip and looked down. She shook her head. Luc tipped her chin up feeling even more savage. ‘Say it, Nessa.’

She looked at him, eyes huge and swirling with emotion but Luc couldn’t draw back now. Eventually she said with a touch of defiance, ‘I might want you but I don’t want to.’

Something immediately eased inside him. She glanced down again as if by not looking at him she could avoid the issue.

‘Look at me, Nessa.’

For a long moment she refused but then she looked up, eyes spitting golden sparks, and it ignited the fire inside him to a burning inferno of need. He pulled her closer again. She put her hands up to his chest. ‘No, Luc. I don’t want—’

But he stopped her words with his mouth and used every ounce of his expertise to show her how futile her resistance was. Whatever else was happening around them, whatever she was saying, he could trust that this was true at least.

CHAPTER FIVE (#ue951d490-a22d-500b-aa06-b9c42860d06c)

NESSA WANTED TO resist Luc—she really did. She hated that he still patently believed she’d orchestrated the other night. And that he most likely didn’t believe what she’d told him about her family.

But it was hard to think of all of that when his mouth was on hers and he was sliding his tongue between her lips and possessing her with such devastating ease. Big hands moved down her back to her buttocks, cupping them and bringing her in close to where she could feel the bold thrust of his arousal. For her. Not for one of the stunningly beautiful women at the party. Her. Nessa O’Sullivan.

He drew back then and Nessa realised she was welded to him. Arms and breasts crushed against his chest. One arm kept her clamped to him, not letting her escape for a moment. He undid her hair so that it fell around her shoulders. He looked at it for a moment as if mesmerised and something inside Nessa melted.

He wrapped some hair around his hand and gently tugged so that her head came back. And then he kissed her again, dragging her deeper and deeper into the pit of a fire that she knew she couldn’t walk away from again. She’d barely been able to the last time.

He pulled her skirt up until she felt cool air skate over her heated skin. He palmed the flesh of her buttocks and the place between her legs burned with damp heat.

She broke away from the kiss, breathing rapidly, and looked at him. Her heart was racing. She couldn’t look away from his eyes. They held her to account and she couldn’t lie.

‘What do you want, Nessa?’ His fingers moved tantalisingly close to the edge of her panties. Her breathing quickened. One finger slid under the material, stroking. Her legs were weak.

‘Do you want me to stop?’

No! shouted every fibre of her being. Nessa couldn’t explain it and wasn’t sure if she even wanted to investigate it, but she realised at that moment that she trusted him. She wasn’t sure what she trusted exactly. Maybe it was that he wouldn’t lie to her or spout platitudes. And so she convinced herself that if she said yes to this...whatever it was...she’d be under no illusions that emotions were involved.

He drew back marginally. ‘Nessa?’ And there it was—a glimmer of concern, showing a side to this darkly complex man that she suspected not many people ever got to see. She knew he would let her go if she insisted, even if his pride demanded her capitulation. Even as they both knew she would capitulate all too easily. But, she wanted this man with every cell in her body. She’d never wanted anything as much.

‘Don’t stop,’ she whispered, reaching up to wind her arms around his neck again, pressing her mouth to his. Luc didn’t hesitate. He gathered her even closer and backed her into the stall behind them, where she’d seen all the white sheets piled up in readiness for the work.

Nessa felt a soft surface at the backs of her legs that swiftly gave way, and she fell into the pile of sheets.

Luc looked down at Nessa, sprawled before him. Her skirt was up around her smooth thighs, and her untucked shirt strained across her chest. Her red hair spilled across the white fabric. It was probably one of the least romantic settings for lovemaking, but it was one of the most erotic sights Luc had ever seen. He was no longer aware of anything but the pounding in his blood and the need he felt in every cell of his body.

A small voice tried to get through to him, to remind him that he was no longer this uncivilised man, but it fell on deaf ears as he started to take off his clothes with the singular intention of joining their naked bodies as soon as possible.

Nessa stared up at Luc. The intense expression on his face might have scared her if she didn’t feel as though she might have a similar expression on her face. He pulled off his jacket, dropping it to the ground, and then his bow tie. He started to open his shirt and Nessa’s eyes grew wide as his magnificent chest was revealed bit by glorious bit until he was naked from the waist up. She could hardly breathe.

He came down over her, arms bracketing around her body, and his head dipped to hers, mouths fusing again in a series of long, drugging kisses that made Nessa want more, much more.

By the time he was opening her shirt, she was arching her back towards him in silent supplication. He pushed apart the material and pulled down the lace cups of her bra, exposing her breasts to his dark gaze as he rested on one arm beside her.

‘Si belle...’ he murmured before dipping his head and surrounding one tight peak in wet heat. Nessa might have screamed, she wasn’t sure. She just knew that Luc’s mouth on her bare flesh was almost more than she could bear. And he was remorseless, ignoring her pleas for mercy.

His mouth moved down over her belly, and he pulled up her skirt so that it was ruched around her waist. He stopped for a moment and looked at her in the dim light, watching her expression as his hand explored under the waist of her panties before gently pushing them down her legs.

Nessa sucked in a breath. This was more exposed than she’d ever been in her life, and yet it didn’t scare her. She felt exhilarated.

Luc’s gaze moved down her body and his hand rested between her legs, cupping her. Slowly, he started to move his hand against her and Nessa gripped his arms like an anchor.

He watched her again as one finger explored in a circle, through her secret folds of flesh and then right into the heart of her. Nessa’s back arched and she squeezed her eyes shut. It was sensory overload. Her legs were splayed and Luc’s hand was a wicked instrument of torture, as one finger became two, stretching her.

She lifted her head. ‘I can’t...’ Was that her voice? So needy and husky?

‘Can’t what, chérie?’

‘Can’t cope...what you’re doing, it’s too much...’