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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...’
He smiled and it was the smile of the devil. ‘It’s not nearly enough. Yet. Come fly with me, minou.Come on...’
She didn’t understand what he was asking, but then he flicked his finger against the very heart of her. She tumbled blindly over an edge she had no chance of saving herself from.
If Luc had ever wanted to assert his dominance, he just had. With pathetic ease.
It took a long moment for Nessa to come back to her senses. She felt undone but deliciously sated. And yet there was something deeper, throbbing with need inside her, an instinctive knowledge of something even greater to come.
‘Ca va?’
Nessa opened her eyes to see Luc looking at her. If he’d looked smug or remotely triumphant she might have wakened from this craziness but he didn’t. He looked slightly...fascinated.
She nodded. She didn’t know what she was but it was better than okay.
Luc’s hand moved up to cup her breast, fingers finding and pinching her nipple lightly. Immediately her body was humming again, as if she hadn’t just orgasmed.
She realised that Luc’s chest was within touching distance and reached out shyly to touch him. Tentative, but growing more adventurous when she felt how warm he was, and the latent steel of his body underneath.
‘You really don’t have to pretend, minou.’
He sounded slightly amused. Nessa’s hand stopped and she looked at him. ‘Pretend...what are you talking about?’
‘Pretend to be some kind of innocent. I told you I don’t get off on games. It’s really not necessary. I want you, more than I’ve ever wanted anyone else.’
She wasn’t pretending; she was innocent! His face suddenly looked stark, as if he hadn’t meant to say those words, and treacherously it robbed her of any words of defence. Somehow she knew that if she said anything, this would all stop and she wasn’t ready for it to be over.
So she did the most selfish thing she’d ever done in her life and said nothing. She touched him again, placing her mouth over his blunt nipples and exploring with her tongue, feeling ridiculously powerful when she heard him hiss between his teeth and felt him catch her hair again, winding it around his hand as if he needed to restrain her.
It was an incredible aphrodisiac to know she had any kind of effect on Luc Barbier.
She explored further, down his body, tracing her fingers over abs so tight that her own quivered in response. And then she reached his belt. There was a moment, and then he said gruffly, ‘Keep going.’
So she undid the belt, sliding it through the loops, then his button and the zip. She could feel the potent thrusting bulge under the material and her hand started to shake as she drew the zip down.
Luc muttered something in French and then he was standing up and pushing his trousers down and off, taking his underwear with them. And now he was naked and fully aroused and Nessa couldn’t speak, taking in his virile majesty.
‘Touch me.’
Nessa sat up and reached out, curling her hand tentatively around Luc’s rigid erection. She found it fascinating—the silky skin pulled taut over all that potent strength. There was a bead of moisture at the top, and, acting completely on instinct, she leant over and touched it with her tongue, tasting the tart saltiness. Her mouth watered and she wanted to wrap her whole mouth around him but he was pulling her away saying, ‘Stop...or I won’t last.’
Luc’s brain was so fused with lust and heat and need that it was all he could do not to thrust between the tempting lushness of Nessa’s lips. All rational thought had gone. He couldn’t wait. He needed to feel her whole body around him, not just her mouth.
He moved over her, between her spread legs, and for a second the way she was looking up at him, with some expression he’d never seen on a woman’s face before, almost made him stop, and take a breath. This was too crazy. Too rushed. He needed to get his wits back...
But then he felt her hands on his hips as if guiding him into her and he was lost again, drowning in need.
Nessa was filled with a raw sense of earthy urgency so sharp and intense she found herself reaching for Luc, wanting to bring him closer. He knelt between her legs, spreading them wider with his hands.
Nessa was vaguely aware that her shirt was open, her breasts bared and her skirt ruched around her waist. But any selfconsciousness fled when the head of his erection nudged against where she was so hot and wet. She instinctively circled her hips up to meet him.
Nothing could have prepared her though for that first cataclysmic penetration. She felt impaled. Luc was too big. He looked at her for a moment with a line between his brows and her heart stopped. Did he know? But then he slid in a little further. The discomfort faded as he filled her more, all the way until she couldn’t breathe.
As he started to move in and out he lifted her leg and wrapped it around his hip, making him move even deeper inside her. Nessa was clasping his shoulders, needing something to hold onto as tension wound into a tight ball deep inside her.
She’d never felt anything like the glorious glide of his body in and out of hers. She was utterly consumed with the moment and what this man was doing to her.
She wrapped both legs around him now, digging her heels into his buttocks, wanting, needing more. Sweat made their skin glisten and their breathing was harsh as they both raced to the pinnacle of the climb.
Luc’s movements became faster and Nessa could only cling on for dear life as the oncoming storm hurtled towards her. He arched her up towards him and found a nipple with his hot mouth, sucking it deep, and at that moment Nessa was flung into the eye of the storm and she cried out a release that went on, and on, and on.
Luc went taut above her and she felt the warm rush of his release inside her but at that point her brain was too burnt out to think of anything else but the oblivion that extreme pleasure brought in its wake.
After a long moment, with Luc’s body embedded in hers, Nessa felt as if she were claiming him. Immediately she rejected it as a ridiculous notion. Luc Barbier was not a man who would ever be claimed. That much was obvious.
She unlocked her arms from around his neck. His breath was warm against her neck. He moved then and she winced as tender muscles protested. He didn’t look at her as he pulled away and stood up.
Nessa felt self-conscious and realised how wanton she must look, spreadeagled and with her clothes in total disarray. She started to pull her shirt back over her chest, and her skirt down, feeling cold. She had no idea how to behave in this unorthodox and totally new situation to her—post-sex etiquette. In a stables. On sheets.
Luc was just standing there, half turned away, like a statue. Nessa’s hands stilled and she came up on one elbow. Something caught her attention, a long angry scar that zigzagged down Luc’s back. She remembered feeling it under her hand in the throes of passion. But it hadn’t registered fully.
She sat up. ‘What is that on your back?’
Finally, he looked at her and his face was expressionless. Little alarm bells went off.
‘My scar?’
She nodded, horrified to imagine him suffering such violence.
‘It’s a reminder from a long time ago to not forget who I am or where I came from.’
Nessa didn’t like how it almost sounded like a warning. ‘That sounds serious.’
Luc looked at her. ‘My scar isn’t serious. What is serious is that we didn’t use protection.’
Nessa insides seized with icy panic when she remembered feeling the warm rush of his release. How could she have let that happen?
And then she ordered her sluggish brain to kick into gear and breathed a sigh of relief, tinged with something much more disturbing, like regret. Which was crazy. After her experience losing her mother, Nessa had never relished the prospect of becoming a mother that could die and potentially devastate her family. No matter how cute her little nephew was, or how envious she felt when she saw his special bond with her sister.
She’d taken birth control in college but had stopped soon after leaving, not deeming it necessary when it had never been necessary there. Now she felt supremely naive and foolish.
She forced herself to look at Luc. ‘I’m at a safe place in my cycle.’
Luc made a mirthless, almost bitter sound. ‘I’m supposed to take your word for it?’
Anger surged at herself for being so lax and at his accusatory tone. She stood up, pulling her shirt together and her skirt down, hair wild and loose. She mustered up every atom of dignity she could given the circumstances and said coolly, ‘Well, you’ll have to just take my word for it. There were two of us involved, so why weren’t you thinking of protection?’
* * *
Because for the first time in a long time he’d been a slave to his base desires, and protection had been the last thing on his mind.
