‘Fuck, you look sexy as hell,’ he groaned. ‘If you knew what thoughts are running through my mind right now.’
‘So tell me,’ I whispered in his ear, biting his lobe. ‘You know how much it turned me on in Paris when you told me all of the things that you wanted to do to me. That I was praying you’d do to me.’
‘O, I did so much more and you loved every second of it, ma belle. I want to …’
‘Lulu, sorry to interrupt but she’s on her way up. Do I bring her straight in?’ came Violet’s voice.
‘Merde,’ muttered Luc, gently lifting me off him, but retaining his grip around my waist.
‘Yes please Vi and you have free reign to say what you like,’ I advised, with a wink up at Luc who chuckled, while Violet burst out laughing.
‘O game on,’ she uttered.
‘Ready?’ I asked him.
‘Oui, bien sûr,’ he confirmed, as he clasped my face to kiss me again. ‘I want this woman out of my life for good. I should never have married her, I should have waited for you.’
‘You could have waited forever, we may never have found each other. We should at least thank her for bringing us together,’ I smiled. ‘Why did you never divorce her?’
‘I had no reason to, until I found you again. I knew there was a risk of my business being affected if I tried to leave her, where was the incentive?’
‘I was your incentive?’ I asked, looking up into his beautiful brown eyes, feeling my stomach fluttering at the thought that I was so important to him he was prepared to risk everything.
‘I told you, you are my purpose in life, Lulu McQueen. I came from nothing, I could live with nothing again if I had to. As long as I have you and my son in my life, I am a rich man.’
‘You never have to worry about me, I’m not going anywhere, money or no money,’ I reminded him, with a delicate kiss.
‘Thank you, that means a lot. You are wearing your pendant,’ he observed, his eyes lighting up again as he looked down between my breasts.
‘I adore it and what it means, I’ve not taken it off since you gave it to me,’ I whispered and quickly kissed him back, then pulled out of his embrace, straightened my jacket and ran my hands over my hair, wondering if I had flushed cheeks from our intense kissing. I looked up at Luc surprised as he put his arm around my waist, pulling me into his side.
‘You are mine, I do not care who knows it,’ he shrugged.
‘O I think she’ll know exactly how you feel,’ I grinned as I flicked my eyes down to where his suit was bulging from his erection.
‘Well, I am in desperate need of fucking you, so let’s make this fast,’ he growled. My stomach twisted nervously as there was a knock at the door. Seconds later Violet appeared, letting Myrtille barge past her with her nose in the air. She lost her usual poise as she saw Luc standing at my side and her jaw dropped.
‘I have Mrs. Le Grand and Lurch here for you, sorry we took so long, they walk at a trot rather than a canter, I felt like extracting a riding crop and whipping them to go faster.’
‘That’s ok Violet, I’m sure she’ll be back in the saddle before we know it. She’s obviously feeling a little nervous given her blackmailing scheme ends one way or another today.’
‘Neigh, I think she’s shocked to see her stallion here with a thoroughbred instead of a knackered old mare like her,’ Vi grinned and I felt Luc stifling some laughter, as I did, while Myrtille’s face went bright red and Raul shifted uneasily on his feet.
‘Shall we get on, I do have the bit between my teeth ready to proceed,’ I smiled, as I gestured to the sofa.
‘Yes, I’d better leave you to it, it’s unfair of me to make her the butt of my tales,’ Vi giggled.
‘Giddy up then,’ I nodded, as she gave me a wicked grin and closed the door. Myrtille’s face changed from bright red to pale in an instant, as her eyes roved back and forth between Luc and I, trying to work out what was going on and I wondered if she’d realised why we were playing with her. ‘It appears the cat has your tongue today,’ I suggested as I took a seat, Luc sitting next to me and immediately putting his arm around me.
‘I find you and your staff highly unprofessional, not to mention that you sit so … brazenly with my husband.’
‘The husband you offered me two million pounds to sleep with, you don’t appear to value an incredible man who should be considered your most prized possession,’ I reminded her, Luc squeezed me tightly and kissed the side of my head, showing his appreciation for my support. ‘I suggest you sit before you pass out, you look nervous, anxious and irritated all in one go.’
‘I have no intention of staying for any longer than is necessary,’ she replied, as she perched herself on the edge of the seat, looking awkward and stiff, Raul sliding into place behind her.
‘You might find side saddle more comfortable,’ I suggested. Luc lost his composure and burst out laughing.
‘You think this is a laughing matter,’ she spat. ‘I warned you of the consequences. I have the might of the Bouchon bank behind me, you think you could meet with Crédit Agricole and the Bank of China without me knowing? You think you and your whore could get away with having an affair without my knowledge?’
‘Enough,’ bellowed Luc, changing from joviality to scary dominance in the blink of an eye, making all of us jump. ‘You will not address the woman I love as a whore.’
‘Love,’ she gasped.
‘Yes, love,’ he replied, his tone softening considerably. ‘I am sorry if I inadvertently hurt you in any way, Myrtille, but ours was a marriage of convenience, we were both clear on this fact from the start, we laid our cards on the table and formed a solid financial union. If you have fallen in love with me, then I am sorry, but this is not my problem. I however will be clear on the fact that I am not, nor have I ever been in love with you. I came to you broken, because my heart already belonged to the woman at my side. I have never stopped loving her and I never will. Pick up the brown envelope on the table. You will find divorce papers. I expect you to sign them now. I will not be tethered to someone so toxic for another moment.’
‘I will do no such thing,’ she snapped back. ‘You do not divorce me. I am going to seek a divorce for unreasonable behaviour and adultery. I intend to destroy you financially in the process as well.’ She tossed her head back as she smirked, believing the game to be over, only she had no idea what lay in the other envelope on that coffee table.
‘I am curious, what did I do that made you hate me so much?’ Luc asked. ‘I stayed faithful to you for five years of marriage. Given you knew of my sexual reputation when you met me, you should be thanking me for not straying sooner.’
‘Thanking you!’ she hissed, fury seeping from every pore. ‘You fucked everyone but me! The only time you touched me was our wedding night and you were so drunk you didn’t even realise it was me. You called me … Lulu. You whispered her name in my ear on our wedding night. I will never forgive you for this,’ she bit angrily, the first trace of raw emotion I’d ever seen flickering in her eyes. I dropped my head to my chest, feeling awful. She wasn’t a nice woman, but to have fallen in love with a man who was in love with someone else can’t have been easy. To be so close, but to be on the outside looking in? I felt a shiver run down my back and Luc ran his hand gently up and down my arm.
‘I had no idea you felt that way for me, Myrtille, I only had a vague recollection of my behaviour that night. I am truly sorry, but I repeat, it was not a marriage born of love. It was never going to be and I made this clear before we proceeded. If you crossed that line, then I am not at fault. I will not apologise for my heart already belonging to Lulu. Finding her again has made me realise how unhappy I have been for the last five years. You should view this as a chance to start over, to free yourself of a man who can never love you in return and try again with one that might.’
‘I will be freeing myself of you,’ she snapped. ‘I will be the one pursing a divorce, not you. I will be releasing the news of your ongo
ing affair and this … child of yours as of tomorrow morning. You will no longer be able to trade in any stocks or securities associated with our bank and your accounts will be closed first thing in the morning. No one will touch you when they hear that we no longer want your business. No one crosses a Bouchon and gets away with it, no one!’ she sneered, with a combined look of contempt and triumph written all over her face.
‘I think you might want to ask Raul to step outside for a moment,’ I advised her, as I leaned forward and picked up the TV remote.
‘Raul stays with me, I will not be ganged up on by the two of you.’
‘I would strongly recommend that you ask him to wait for you in Reception. I am about to show you why you won’t be proceeding with that headline, why you will sign Luc’s divorce papers and why he will be free to continue buying and selling Bouchon shares as long as he, or any of his associates, continue to trade. I think once you see what I have to show you, you’ll realise that I’m not … horsing around,’ I added with a poignant stare. She blinked at me a few times and the colour quickly drained from her face again as she obviously twigged why we’d been dropping horse references from the moment she entered the room.
‘You have nothing on me,’ she hissed, but sounded unsure of her convictions. ‘You are trying the bluff on me.’
‘Then please, ask Raul to take a seat and I’ll have Violet bring some popcorn in a fodder bag for each of you to enjoy the show,’ I suggested, with a shrug.
‘Raul, laissex-nous maintenant,’ she barked with a click of her fingers. He did as he was told, not hesitating to look back this time as he closed the door behind him.
‘I do not know what game you are playing, Ms. McQueen, but it does not amuse.’
‘It is not I that likes to play games, Mrs. Le Grand, I leave that to you, it appears that you’re quite the master. Setting me up to snare your husband, trying to blackmail me and blacklist him and my favourite of all your games. Pony play.’ I pressed the start button on the DVD and sat back, not taking my eyes off hers for a second, even when Luc kissed my temple. The look on her face as the recording started to play was priceless. I so owed my father for this. The minute I knew she was going to try and strong arm me, I’d tasked him to resume his duties and utilise his skills. He’d flown to Paris immediately with an ex-colleague and had set up a temporary office in The Domville hotel. They’d been following and investigating Myrtille, while she was doing the same with Luc and me, but she’d been totally unaware of that fact. She’d put the fear of God into me last week, reducing my deadline to one week instead of two, I’d been so worried Dad wouldn’t be able to find any dirt on her in time. Luckily he’d called me on Sunday morning to say he’d hit the jackpot with this tape. A tape showing Myrtille, out in the forests of Le Chesnay, near Versailles. A naked Myrtille with a bit between her teeth, leather reigns attached, a saddle on her back and a butt plug up her backside, with a long black horse tail protruding from it.
‘Arrête,’ she whispered. ‘Stop, please.’
‘Really? It’s not quite Black Beauty is it, but the filming quality is so sharp and clear.’
‘I said stop it,’ she ordered, her voice trembling.
‘But we haven’t got to the highlight of the film. Luc, what’s a horse orgy called in French?’ I asked as I turned to give him a smile.
‘You have made your point, Ms, McQueen,’ she said quietly. ‘It seems I underestimated you.’
‘Yes, you did,’ I replied, as I pressed stop and turned to face her. ‘This is why I’m so good at my job, people always underestimate me. I was prepared to walk away, to let you and Luc come to some mutual understanding over the state of your marriage, but you threw my attempts to stop this in my face and dared to threaten my son.’
‘Our son,’ Luc growled, with a surprising level of anger in his tone.
‘So, it appears we have a standoff,’ she stated as she straightened herself up, trying to regain some dignity, which given what we’d just seen was fairly difficult.
‘It appears we do,’ I confirmed. ‘You will call off your press release tomorrow, there will be no “leaks” regarding my relationship with your husband, or the fact that you hired me to try to entrap him. I also have audio recordings of our sessions, which are lodged with my solicitor, along with a copy of this DVD. You do anything to try to ruin my reputation, or Luc’s, or come at me through my son, all of this will be made public knowledge. I’m sure the fall out for you will be far more severe, than the headline of a respected and trusted financier re-uniting with an old lover and a child he didn’t know existed. I won’t be returning your deposit, it will be put in trust for my son, as means of compensation for what you’ve forced on a five year old little boy. A little boy who’s confused over suddenly being told he has a father who wants to meet him. I have to deal with the potential disruption to his life dealing with that. Half a million doesn’t even began to cover the emotional trauma you’ve put us through by forcing this situation on him, or for poor Luc, who has to be patient until our son is ready to meet him, when all he wants to do is just hug him and hold him in his arms. I have nothing left to say to you, Mrs. Le Grand, never contact me again and do not test me again. You hired me to end your marriage and I have done so. Our professional relationship is over,’ I warned her, the shake of emotion in my voice suddenly obvious. ‘Are we clear?’
‘Oui, yes we are clear,’ she replied, with her head down and her fingers tightly knotted together in her lap.
‘Excellent. Then I will leave you and Luc to discuss the divorce papers he’s had drawn up and your private financial affairs.’ I quickly stood up and blew out a deep breath, suddenly hit with relief that it was all over. Luc shot to his feet beside me and dragged his knuckles softly down my cheek.
‘Stay, I have nothing to hide from you.’
‘No. I’ve already interfered enough in your marriage, this is between you and your wife. Your finances don’t concern me, they’ll never concern me, ok?’ I nodded as I kissed his fingers and he let out a sigh, nodding his agreement in return. I didn’t look back at her as he held my hand and walked me to the door.
‘I will not be long, ma belle. Wait for me?’
‘Now we’ve found each other again, I’d wait for you forever,’ I whispered as I kissed him, making him smile. ‘Thank you for allowing me to handle that, I know it can’t have been easy for you.’
‘A ride in the park,’ he winked, making me giggle.
‘You think this is funny,’ hissed Myrtille behind us. ‘You were my husband, you cheated on me.’
‘I think that we just proved you cheated first, Myrtille,’ Luc snapped, as we turned to face her. She’d risen from the sofa and was glaring at us, her face puce with anger.
‘You cheated long before I. You married me when you were already in love with another woman. With this … putain!’ she snarled.
‘How dare you …’ Luc started to growl, but I cut him off and walked toward her. This was between us now. I faced her, sure the anger in my eyes reflected her own. She was used to getting her own way, but we’d trapped her and backed her into a corner, forcing her to comply with our demands, something I was sure she’d never encountered before. No wonder she was furious, but I’d had enough. I slapped her as hard as I could across the face.
‘You call me a whore?’ I bit. ‘I didn’t interfere in your marriage until you paid me to, well after you were already horsing around, while Luc stayed faithful. You have no one to blame but yourself. You married a man knowing it was for convenience, while I may feel sorry for you that you fell in love with him and it wasn’t reciprocated, that’s not my fault and it’s not Luc’s either. You treated him abysmally, paying me to try to destroy him, using our son against us. I’ve been restrained up until now, but call me a whore again and I won’t be held responsible for my actions.’
‘Very well, I’ll call you a bitch instead,’ she shot back, returning my slap with one of her own. I gasped and shoved her, making he
r stumble back against the sofa. She quickly righted herself and flew at me, her fingers clawing at my face, knocking me to the ground as she shrieked and unleashed a torrent of abuse in French. I was so stunned that I didn’t have time to react before Luc yelled at her in his native tongue and hauled her off me, throwing her back onto the sofa. She quickly huddled up in the corner as he helped me up and checked for damage.
‘I’m fine, honestly I’m fine,’ I reassured him, though I was shaking with anger. I wanted to get in a boxing ring with this woman, use that session to pour out all of my frustrations with her at what she’d done to us. ‘Please, just sort this out. Get her out of your life once and for all. You deserve better.’
‘I have better, ma belle, I have you,’ he confirmed, as he ran his knuckles down my cheek. I heard Myrtille mutter something and fixed her with a glare as I left them to it. I leaned back on the door as I pulled it to behind me and blew out a sigh of relief, then grimaced as I heard him roar at her in French. I knew he’d been holding back for my sake, well it seemed she was about to get both barrels and then some. I hastily made my way to Reception, leaving them to duke it out.
‘So?’ asked Violet, her eyebrows raised in anticipation. I glanced around looking for Raul. ‘Don’t worry, I told him he had to wait outside. I wasn’t sitting here with him, he gives me the willies. Was he one of the riders that was fucking her?’
‘I have no idea, I couldn’t bring myself to watch past seeing her all kitted out. Henry gave me the précis after reviewing it. I really owe him a big bonus after the last few weeks.’
‘She’s backed down though, right?’
‘She has, eventually,’ I nodded with a smile, suddenly swaying on my feet. I grabbed the edge of the desk to steady myself.
‘You need coffee and something to eat, I warned you not to skip lunch,’ Vi chastised, as she shot around the desk. She led me to the sofa, sat me down and brought me a hot drink, along with my avocado sandwich and caramel square. My absolute favourites. I wolfed them down, I was ravenous now I had that under my belt.
The Temptress Page 32
