The Virgin's Debt To Pay: The Virgin's Debt to Pay / Surrender to the Ruthless Billionaire. Louise Fuller
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in the middle of the stables when she realised that they were empty. She looked around and remembered belatedly that the stallions had been moved up to different paddocks and stables for a few days while these were being repainted and renovated.
There were white sheets piled high in a corner along with painting and cleaning paraphernalia. Nessa told herself it was just as well as she turned around to leave. The last thing she needed was to be caught again in the wrong place—
Her heart stopped when she saw the tall broad figure blocking the doorway, with only the moon behind him as a silhouette. Too late. Luc.
She could see that his bow-tie was undone and top button open, his jacket swinging loose and his hands in the pockets of his trousers.
He moved forward into the stables and she saw his stern expression revealed in the dim lighting. Immediately the space felt claustrophobic. Nessa’s body tingled with awareness as he came close enough for her to see that there was also barely leashed anger in his expression.
She swallowed. ‘I know I shouldn’t be here—’
‘That’s not important. We need to have a little chat.’
Surprise robbed her voice for a moment and then she said, ‘About what?’
Luc folded his arms. ‘About why you’ve omitted to mention the not inconsequential fact that your sister is married to Sheikh Nadim Al-Saqr of Merkazad, and that he owns your stud farm.’
He continued, ‘I’d imagine one million euro is short change to Sheikh Nadim Al-Saqr, so what the hell is Paddy doing jeopardising his career for a handout he could’ve begged off his brother-in-law, and why didn’t you just pick up the phone to Nadim to sort this mess out?’
Nessa went hot and then cold as the significance of this sank in, and the realisation that someone must have recognised her at the party.
She said carefully, ‘I didn’t think it was relevant.’
Luc looked even more stern. ‘Not good enough.’
Nessa swallowed. She knew she couldn’t avoid an explanation. ‘Nadim did buy our farm but he put it back into our name as a wedding gift for Iseult, my sister. It’s ours again, he’s just one of the shareholders. And I didn’t want to involve him because this has nothing to do with Nadim or Iseult. My sister is due to have a baby in a couple of weeks and they don’t need the stress.’
Luc stepped closer but Nessa was trapped, with a stable door at her back and nowhere to go. She was acutely aware of his tall, lean body and his scent.
‘There’s more to it than that,’ he said. ‘You and your brother avoiding asking for help just proves you’re both involved in something that’s gone beyond your control. I’m guessing Nadim wouldn’t approve, and you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you.’
In a fierce low voice Nessa replied, ‘No. It’s nothing like that. Why must you be so cynical and mistrustful?’
‘Because,’ he answered smoothly, ‘I was born that way and nothing I’ve experienced has ever proved me wrong. Life favours the opportunistic. I should know.’
I was born that way. Nessa couldn’t stop a rush of curiosity and pity. The second time she’d pitied him this evening. But then she crushed it. Luc Barbier was the last man on the planet who needed anyone’s pity.
He said, ‘You could be free to walk away if you asked Nadim for help.’
Luc heard himself say the words even as something inside him rejected it immediately. Let her walk away? A hot surge of possessiveness rose up inside him. He wanted her.
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