Evernight Publishing
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2013 Doris O’Connor
ISBN: 978-1-77130-397-2
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
As always, thanks to my fabulous Editor and all the team at Evernight, my family for putting up with the netbook being attached to my fingertips, and the fabulous Jo for her 'rediting' skills. A special thank you to Sukhi, for those magic words... You know that virgin selling herself... it would make an excellent story. It did!
And to Tony – I love you.
THE BILLIONAIRE’S UNWANTED VIRGIN
Doris O’Connor
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
"Sir, we have a problem."
Lakota “Lance” Kemnay scowled at the sheets of rain obscuring the impressive view of London's skyline his ridiculously expensive roof top hotel suite usually afforded. Rivulets of water ran down the glass, as though the sky was weeping with him. Not that one tear had left Lakota's dark eyes. Tears were useless, and a ploy for women to get men wrapped round their little fingers.
He turned around to face his right hand man and vastly over-paid head of his legal team. Percy held a file in his hands, and his face looked as grim as the summer storm raging outside.
"My mother, Lord rest her soul, would have said your face will get stuck like that, Percy." Lakota twisted his lips into the semblance of a smile, but Percy didn't respond. The only other time his unflappable man had been that grim had been when he'd passed on the news of Zeb's death. Surely there could be nothing else that warranted such drama.
"Another problem?" Lakota shook his head and forced himself to put the glass of whiskey in his hand down slowly. "Does this have anything to do with my brother?"
At the other man's nod, Lakota pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Even in death, Zeb caused trouble.
"How much will this cost me to fix?" he asked.
"I'm not sure your money will help here, Sir. You see, it seems your brother made a rather unusual acquisition before his death—in your name."
That got Lakota's attention. Something about the inflection Percy put on unusual made the fine hair on his neck stand to attention. He was not going to like this acquisition.
"His latest acquisition killed him. How terrible can this one be?"
Percy cleared his throat and shuffled the papers in his hand.
"Well, Sir, you see, he bought you a virgin."
Percy took a step back at Lakota's not quite human growl in response, and put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture.
Lakota uncurled his clenched fists and forced himself to breathe slowly.
"You mean there are still such elusive things as virgins?" He spat the words out through gritted teeth. "And my brother has somehow managed to find me one?"
"It would seem so, Sir. I have a letter here from him that explains all the details of the transaction. He calls it the perfect solution to your problem. Which it may well be, if we can keep this transaction out of the papers. That scandal would not work at all, for what we have in mind, Sir."
No, it certainly wouldn't. Lakota's heart gave a painful thud against his back bone. If this virgin was indeed the solution he would grasp this opportunity with both hands, and consequences be damned. There was just one problem.
"What sort of a woman would auction off her virginity to the highest bidder?"
Percy shrugged his shoulders.
"As to that, I can't possibly hazard a guess, Sir. I'm in the process of collecting all the necessary background information for you. In the meantime, here's her picture taken from the auction site.”
Lakota glanced at the image passed to him and swore.
****
"Alice. Alice, wake up. You have got to see this. I told you that other picture was too tame."
Alice groaned and woke up with a start. She hadn't meant to fall asleep on her shift, but the all night café had been unusually quiet, and she'd been on her feet non-stop for the previous twenty-four hours. Beth had had a bad night the night before and mama had been exhausted, so Alice had foregone sleep herself, until this latest crisis had passed. Little Beth's episodes were getting closer together, and lasted for longer. If they didn't find the cash for the experimental treatment soon… Alice shuddered, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. No, she would get the money. This ridiculous plan had to work.
Sara literally quivered with excitement. Her spiral red curls bounced around her head, as she shook Alice by the shoulders again.
"Okay, okay, I'm awake. Stop trying to give me whiplash. Where's the fire?"
"I'll let a fire under your ass in a minute, girl. Come on! You need to see this on the boss's big screen. I've been following this all day on my phone, but I must be seeing wrong, and the auction is almost over, but holy shit, girl."
Alice allowed herself to be dragged to the office; not at all sure she was going to like what they were going to see. Sara drummed her long, fire engine red nails on the scuffed wood of the office desk and muttered under her breath, as she waited for the ancient desk top to fire up.
"Come on, come on already."
Alice shook her head and tried her best to get rid of the last remnants of sleep clouding her consciousness.
"Finally!" Sara punched the desk, and Alice suppressed a smile. She might have only known Sara for a few short months, but they'd become fast friends. They'd bonded over the ridiculous hours they worked at the café, and avoiding the lecherous hands of beer gut lorry drivers, who were the mainstream clientele of the twenty-four seven café on the outskirts of town. The occasional hot guy who walked through the door was immediately nabbed by the bubbly Sara, who exuded confident sex appeal like the sirens of old folklore. No man seemed able to resist her once she set her sights on them, and Alice envied Sara and her easy way with men.
Alice's experience in that department went no further than the odd fumble and sloppy kiss. At twenty-five her innocence was downright embarrassing, and when she'd admitted as much to Sara one night when they'd both been rather worse for wear, Sara had come up with this crazy plan. Alice hadn't taken her too seriously at first, but then Beth's health had taken a turn again, and she'd run out of options.
It was only sex, after all. How difficult could it be? And she had to lose it sooner or later, so why not make some money out of it, and help her niece in the process.
"Oh my God! Looooook. I told you this would work." Sara's excited screech shook Alice out of her musings, and she sat down on the wonky office chair with an inelegant thump. The auction site had loaded, and her heart stopped. That couldn’t be her page. It just couldn't. For starters the sultry seductress staring at the screen wasn't the sedate picture Alice had put up. No, this one was one of her in last year's far too slutty Halloween costume, and unless she was mistaken, it had been Photoshopped, too, to show even more skin.
However, it wasn't the picture that caused her to hyperventilate, and the room to go into a spin. It was the figure that showed as her final bid, the auction having closed five minutes ago.
It seemed she had successfully sold her virginity for an obscene amoun
t of money. Who in all that was holy was Zeb2909high-life, and what on earth would she have to do for £650,000?
Sara's hand on the back of head, forced it down between her legs.
"Breathe. Don't pass out on me now. I told you this would work. It just needed the right incentive. You're not mad with me are you? Alice? Alice, breathe, just breathe, okay? This is a good thing, a really, really good thing. You can afford the treatment now, and your mum doesn't have to sell her house."
Over the roaring in her ears, Alice registered the desperate cadence to her friend's voice, and she shook her hand off and forced herself to breathe slowly. In through her nose, out through her mouth, in-out. She could do this. She straightened up slowly and forced a smile on her lips for Sara.
"You're not gonna pass out on me, are you?" Sara's worried face swam into her vision, and Alice blinked several times to bring her friend into focus.
"No, I'm fine. It's just … it's so much money. Who does that?" She blinked again and pushed herself closer to the screen to make sure she hadn't imagined that figure, but, sure enough it still said the same. "What have I let myself in for? What if he's some sort of pervert?"
Sara pulled her in for an unexpected hug.
"Well, then he's a very rich pervert." She clicked on the bid history and whistled through her teeth. "Look at that. The day I changed the picture, he put up a maximum bid. It doesn't say what that was, but no one else stood a chance. Man, whoever he is, he really wants you."
"That's what worries me," Alice said. "Why all that money for me? What on earth does he expect me to do, apart from the obvious?"
She worried her bottom lip with her teeth and tried to ignore the butterflies taking up residence in her tummy. Sara just laughed.
"Hey, maybe he is like, you know the guy in Pretty Woman. Too much money to know what to do with, and he liked what he saw. What's not to like after all. I keep telling you, you're stunning, especially when you don't hide that body in dirt cheap clothes."
"That's not helping. I'm no hooker, Sara. At least she knew what she was doing. Fuck it, I have no clue, and he's got to be into something dodgy to pay that much."
Sara squeezed her shoulder. "You'll be fine. I know a guy who's a whiz kid with computers. I'm sure we can trace this Zeb guy and find out a bit about him. How hard can it be? And then if he does look dodgy, you can tell him to stuff it."
The words were meant to comfort, but they had the opposite effect on Alice. Dodgy or not, unless he was an axe murderer, and they would hardly be able to find that out in advance, how could she turn down that amount of money? It was the solution to all their problems, and it would literally mean the difference between life and death for Beth.
Alice swallowed past the lump in her throat. No, whatever happened, she would have to go through with it. Lie back and think of England, she could do that. It was one night, after all. That's what the bid said. One night out of her life and it would mean the world to Beth and her mum.
How hard could it be?
****
Incredibly hard as it turned out to be. Sara's friend had not been able to find out a thing about the person who made that astonishing bid. Every move had been blocked, and the ominous e-mail Alice had received asking her to await further instructions had not helped to calm the army of ants marching under her skin now.
Neither had the difficult conversation she'd had with her mum, when she explained why she had to go away for the weekend. Her mum's eyes had widened and then filled with tears, and she'd pleaded with Alice not to go through with it.
"I know we need the money. God knows I know we do, but not like this, Alice. I didn't even know you still were a virgin." Her mum had colored then, her discomfort at discussing this with her obvious. "I just assumed you must have … well, you know … ages ago like your sister did."
"After what happened to Mary, how could you think that, Mum? She put me off for life. Well, maybe not life, but I was determined to not just throw it away. I was going to wait…" She'd clamped her mouth shut instantly, but it had been too late.
"See! This is what I mean. You've waited for that someone special, and now you're going to throw it all away to some stranger you've never even met? It's wrong, Alice. So very wrong. I can't let you do this. I can't."
Her mother had broken down into floods of tears, and they'd sat and held on to each other for ages. But Alice's mind was made up. She simply had no choice. When the expensive limo had pulled up outside their modest house three hours ago, she'd hugged her still worried looking mum and climbed in.
The liveried driver had been courtesy itself; taking her overnight bag off her, and had not batted an eyelid at the outfit she'd chosen to wear. Dressed in baggy jeans, sandals, and a long flowing top that completely obscured her body she looked better served to visit a monastery than go to an assignation.
There was no way she could bring herself to wear the 'fuck me dress' Sara had insisted she ought to wear for her date. This wasn't a date. It was a business transaction at best, and she didn't want the guy she was about to meet to get any funny ideas. Lord only knew what he must think of her as it was. The best she could hope for was to hold onto her dignity, and she hoped he would not make her feel like a whore.
She started when they pulled up outside imposing gates that opened as if by magic. Alice had no idea where exactly she was, other than somewhere in Hampshire and not that far from the coast. She had caught the odd glimpse of the sea in the distance as they sped effortlessly along the country lanes. Any attempt at conversation with the driver had been thwarted by his polite, monosyllabic responses. He had enquired after her comfort, reassured her that she could help herself to anything in the mini fridge on board, but he hadn't divulged any personal information, not even his name. She was simply to call him driver.
Clearly whoever she was meeting valued his privacy to such a degree that he lived behind six foot walls in the middle of nowhere. The car glided along a seemingly never ending driveway until they finally pulled outside an imposing looking mansion. It wouldn't have looked out of place in a horror movie with its grey imposing brick work, but it also reeked of understated elegance and extreme wealth. Surrounded by cultured gardens, and sculpted trees, it looked like heaven and hell all rolled into one. Utterly secluded, and so quiet the birdsong seemed unnaturally loud when driver opened the door for her and gestured to get out.
A small, wiry looking man bounced on the soles of his feet with nervous energy at the top of the steep stairs leading up to the entrance, and Alice's stomach dropped. Was this him? A shiver went through her at the thought. Not that he looked menacing, exactly. He had to be in his fifties, with a receding grey hairline and small green eyes that studied her from behind silver rimmed glasses. He held a manila folder in his hand and now looked from the folder to her with a frown on his face.
"Miss Wanderlund?" he asked, when she reached the top of the stairs. His frown changed to a smile at her nod in confirmation, and his eyes narrowed. He almost looked thoughtful, as though he was silently assessing her, and Alice wiped her sweaty palms on the side of her jeans.
"You're not exactly what we were expecting?"
She shrugged her shoulders, feigning a nonchalance she was far from feeling. In fact, if her stomach churned any more she would be sick right on top of his polished loafers. She straightened her shoulders and took some degree of courage from the fact that she now looked down on him. At five foot eight, Alice was not small, and this employee—for she realized he had to be another representative of this Zeb person—barely reached the top of her nose. She had to suppress a smile at the shiny bald spot right under her vision, and some of her nervousness fled.
"Well, I am Alice Wanderlund, so I'm not sure who else you would be expecting." There was a slight wobble in her voice, but she was quite proud of the fact that she managed to form the words at all, past the huge lump clogging up her throat.
"Forgive me, it wasn't my intention to be rude. I am Percy Nevin." He extended his
hand, and Alice shook it dutifully. It was a surprisingly strong handshake, and this time when he smiled, there was genuine warmth behind it.
"I hope you had a pleasant journey here. You will want to freshen up I expect and—"
"Actually, Mr. Nevin, I'd just as soon get this over with, so if you don't mind can you take me to whoever … err … well…" She couldn't bring herself to say the words. To say it out loud would make it all seem even more sordid.
He smiled again and stepped aside for her to pass. The coolness of the entrance hall raised gooseflesh on her exposed arms, and she wrapped them around herself, as she gingerly slid her feet along the marble flooring. A huge curved staircase led up to the top floor, and numerous doors led off the entrance hall downstairs.
"If you'll follow me to the courtyard. I will have some refreshments brought for you, and I'll see whether he's available."
Alice frowned at the deliberate avoidance of his employer's name. At this rate they would probably do the deed with her blindfolded and gagged. She shivered again, and rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. That thought should have her run away screaming, surely, rather than have her secretly excited. This wasn't some romance novel, and she was not about to meet some dashing hero. Someone who had as much money as this Zeb had to be butt-ugly or something. That was just the way it worked, wasn't it? And why did she wonder about this now? It wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference, because he'd bought her to do with her as he pleased.
Again she suppressed a shiver, and she breathed a sigh of relief when they stepped out of the cool house and into the courtyard. The sun warmed the little square, and she slid onto one of the garden benches scattered around the fountain in the middle with a grateful sigh. Ivy clung to the brickwork giving the house a much more welcoming feel.
The Billionaire's Unwanted Virgin Page 1