Once in Paris (5 page)

He searched her face with quiet, thoughtful eyes. His expression became somber. “So would I.” He put his empty glass down on the table. “Tell me about your father. What did he do?”

“He was a loan officer in a bank,” she said. “He wasn't handsome or terribly intelligent, but he was kindhearted and he loved me.” Her eyes grew sad with the memories of him. “Mother never had time for me, even when she was at home. She worked a six-day week at the jewelers, and she always seemed to feel that Dad didn't give her the life-style she deserved. He was a failure in her eyes, and she never stopped telling him so.” She grimaced. “One day he went to work and we got a phone call just after lunch. They said he'd started toward an office to talk to one of the vice presidents and he just folded up. He died right there of a heart attack. Nothing they did brought him back.”

“I'm sorry. It must have been rough.”

“It was. Mother didn't really even mourn. And just three months later, there was Kurt, and suddenly I didn't have a family I belonged in anymore.”

A long silence fell between them. Then he said, “I never had a family at all. My parents died when I was in grammar school, in a plane crash. I went to live with my father's father in America. He had a small oil transport fleet and a smaller construction company. My first job was helping to put up buildings. I learned it from the ground up, the hard way. Grandfather never pampered me, but he loved me. He was Greek, very old-world even after becoming a naturalized American citizen.” He chuckled at the memory of the gruff old man. “I adored him, rude manners and all.”

“But your last name doesn't sound Greek,” she said.

“It was Pevros, before he changed it to Hutton, after a wealthy family he'd read about in the States,” he replied. “He wanted to be American all the way. I still have French citizenship, but I could qualify as an American citizen, having spent half my life in New England.”

“You said your grandfather had a small con
struction company,” she murmured. “But yours is enormous and international.”

His broad shoulders rose and fell. “I had a sort of sixth sense about mergers that paid off big. Once I got the hang of it, there was no stopping me. I sold the oil tankers and parlayed the proceeds into an enterprise that became the core company of an empire.” His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “Margo's father had a chain of building supply companies in Europe,” he recalled. “The merger led to a marriage and ten of the happiest years of my life.” His face seemed to harden to stone. “I thought she was immortal.”

Impulsively, she laid her hand over his big one on the table. “I still miss my dad,” she said softly. “I can only imagine how it must be for you.”

His hand stiffened. Then it relaxed and turned, enveloping hers in its warm, strong grasp. “That empathy of yours saved me,” he said, searching her eyes quietly. “If you hadn't taken me home to my hotel that night in Paris, I really don't know where I would have ended up.”

“I do,” she murmured dryly. “You'd have
ended up with that industrial-strength blonde, being rolled for your wallet!”

He chuckled. “I probably would have. I was too drunk to care what happened to me.” His eyes softened. “I'm glad you were there.”

Her fingers curled trustingly into his. “I'm glad I was there, too.”

His eyes grew slowly darker as they stared intently into hers. His thumb began a lazy stroking motion against her palm. She felt the sensation all through her body, as if he was touching her bare skin instead of just her hand.

He saw the reaction and deliberately enlarged the area of her palm that he was stroking. He hadn't wanted women in his life since Margo's death, and he certainly shouldn't be encouraging this green little innocent. But she made him feel kingly when she looked at him with those soft, drowning eyes, when she trembled from the merest touch of his hand. Any man could be forgiven for being tempted.

Her breath was choking her. She looked at him with an ache that made her sick all over. “I don't suppose you'd like to stop that?” she asked unsteadily.

“Why?” he asked softly.

“Because I'm getting this awful ache in a
place I can't tell you about,” she whispered tightly.

His hand tightened around her soft fingers. He wasn't thinking about right and wrong anymore. He had an ache of his own, and he needed something to numb it before it doubled him over.

“Suppose I told you that I have a similar ache?” he asked huskily, holding her gaze with steady, hot black eyes.

“In a…similar place?” she asked outrageously.

“Tell me where yours is,” he murmured wickedly.

“Just south of my navel,” she said bluntly, and her mouth felt bone dry. “And my breasts hurt,” she added huskily.

His eyes fell to them with keen, sharp interest and he saw the peaked nipples under her thin top. His intake of breath was audible.

“Nobody ever looked at me there, or touched me there,” she whispered when she saw where his eyes were riveted. “I've saved it all up.”

He felt as if the world were crashing down on his head. He had to stop looking at her, thinking of her, wanting her. He'd put her right out of his mind until he'd come to Nassau.
Then he'd seen her again, at her stepfather's, and all the wicked, forbidden longings had surfaced again at his first sight of her after the months of absence.

His fingers edged between hers in a sensual caress. “I'm thirty-seven,” he bit off.

“So what?” she asked breathlessly.

“So you aren't even legal yet.”

“Excuses, excuses,” she muttered huskily. Her lips parted as the sensual caress of his fingers threatened to stop her heart. “For God's sake, can't you just do something? Anything!”

His eyes narrowed to slits as he looked at her. “With Mary right in the house and Arthur likely to come looking for me any second?”

She groaned aloud.

He made a rough sound under his breath and glared at her. He jerked his hand back and stood up, turning his back to her while he fought to stop himself from reaching for her, right over the table.

He jammed his hands hard into his pockets and grimaced when he saw how it outlined the raging, highly visible arousal he couldn't help.

Margo was the only woman who'd ever been able to do this to him instantly. It seemed that the long abstinence was making him careless,
and vulnerable. He had to get this wide-eyed innocent out of his life.

She was already inside the house by the time he turned around, heading right toward the front door.

He went after her, noticing when he joined her at the curb that she wouldn't look at him.

“Sorry,” she said through her teeth. She was clutching her purse as if she expected it to make a break for freedom. “I don't honestly know what came over me. Maybe it's some tropical virus that makes your mouth independent of your brain.”

He chuckled in spite of himself. “Not quite. But it seems to be contagious.”

She wouldn't look at him. “Don't make fun of me, please.”

“I don't know what else to do,” he said bluntly. “I'm not seducing children this week. Sorry.”

She glared up at him. “I was trying to seduce
you
,” she pointed out. “With no success whatsoever, I might add. I guess I'll have to find some sort of school where they teach seduction and take lessons.”

He burst out laughing. “You shameless hussy!”

“Thanks. I'll file that compliment along with all the others.”

“It wasn't a compliment.”

“If you don't do it, he will,” she said, suddenly serious. “I'll throw myself in Nassau harbor right in front of the Prince George Wharf before I'll let Sabon touch me!”

“What do I have to do with him?” he asked, genuinely puzzled.

“He likes virgins. Virgins!”

“Ah,” he murmured. “I begin to see the light. If you become suddenly experienced, he'll lose interest, you think?”

“Yes, I do. And if you'd cooperate, I'd be right off the endangered species list. But, oh no, you can't make one little sacrifice for my whole future! Excuse me for asking you to risk your body in bed with me!”

His eyebrows levered up as he stared down at her. “Careful,” he said softly. “You're walking on broken glass.”

“I'd like to create some,” she muttered. She looked away from him and sighed loudly. “Well, I'll go to the casino over on Paradise Island tonight. Surely there's some man desperate enough to give me what I need….”

He jerked her around and held her bruisingly
by one arm. His black eyes blazed down at her. “Don't you dare,” he said in a voice that sent chills down her spine.

“Well, you won't!” she protested.

“Maybe I will,” he murmured. He was disturbed, and he looked it. He felt Margo's loss keenly, still, and even to think of sleeping with another woman seemed like adultery. But Brianne was young and sweet and loving, and it wouldn't be any hardship to give her what she wanted. On the other hand, she was painfully young and impressionable. If it hadn't been for the specter of Philippe Sabon lurking somewhere in the shadows, he wouldn't even be considering this harebrained proposition in the first place.

“You just hold your horses,” he said shortly. “Don't lead with your head.”

“Advice, advice,” she muttered. “Why don't you just back me up against a wall and give it your best?”

He dropped her arm. “You incredible child!”

“I'm not a child, thank you.”

“You're outrageous,” he continued.

“Totally. It comes from living among idiots.” She stared at him with quiet, soft eyes.
“I'll wear you down,” she promised. “Day by day.”

He stared at her with mixed emotions. “Whatever happened to virginal terror?”

“I don't know. I'll ask someone.”

“Aren't you afraid of the first time?”

“With someone like you? Are you crazy?”

He laughed in spite of himself. His eyes twinkled with humor. “All those expectations. I'm getting older. What if I can't live up to your expectations?”

“Oh, but you can,” she said with solemnity. “You want to. You just think I'm too young. I'm not, you know. I grew up around people older than me, and I've always been more mature than my own age group.”

“I'm not making you any promises,” he assured her. “I said I'd think about it.”

She shrugged. “Take your time. No rush. But if that lobo wolf comes looking for me, I'm coming after you, and I don't care what time it is.”

“How is he supposed to know, at your age, that you're still virginal?” he asked reasonably.

She glowered at him. “Because, unknown to me, Kurt had a private detective following me from the day I went off to school,” she mut
tered. “I was watched like a hawk, and two months ago Kurt demanded that I have a physical to make sure that I hadn't caught some virus he said I'd been exposed to.” She shivered at the thought of what the doctor had done to her. “Part of the physical included a gynecological exam,” she added. “I had no idea that the doctor was going to do that, until I was in the examination room and the nurse had me on my back.” She let out a breath. “I yelled the place down, but the doctor had the information Kurt wanted.”

“No reputable doctor…” Pierce began furiously.

“He wasn't a reputable doctor,” she returned. “He was barred from practice in the States and came down here to run some sort of clinic.”

“I see.”

“I never connected it until Sabon started turning up at the house at all hours and watching me like a hawk.” She lifted her gaze to his hard face. “I'm not scared of much,” she said, “but that man gives me the shivering willies.”

“Don't feel bad. He has that effect on some men.”

She lifted her eyebrows. “On you?”

He chuckled. “I was a drill rigger for a couple of years.” He held out his big hands and showed her his knuckles, replete with tiny white scars.

She pursed her lips. “Tough guy, huh?”

“Yes,” he said simply. “And I'm not afraid of much, either.”

She searched his eyes. “What scares you?”

He leaned close to her, so that his eyes filled the world. “Sex-crazed virgins,” he whispered.

He looked and sounded so wicked that she burst into helpless laughter. “I asked for that one,” she murmured through her chuckles.

He laughed with her. He'd never known anyone like Brianne. She was changing him, changing his life, his world. She made the sun come out again, brought back the rainbows. He didn't dare consider the implications of what he was feeling. He turned away and went to find Arthur to tell him to bring the car around, so that he could drive them back into Nassau.