The Virgin's Debt to Pay by Abby Green

Author:Abby Green [Green, Abby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2018-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

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.

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