The Temptress (20 page)

I climbed out of my car, wincing as I put weight
on my right leg. The bruising and swelling had worsened overnight and made it
difficult to bend. Dom had been over the moon, insisting that I couldn’t
possibly drive in this state, so he’d driven, dropping Tristan at school and
now me at the office.

‘Honestly, you should be wearing flat shoes,’
he scolded, eyeing up the elegant heels of my favourite Louboutins.

‘Lulu McQueen would not be seen dead in flat
shoes, Dominic McQueen, and no self-respecting gay man would expect me to be
anything other than fabulous, no matter what may have occurred,’ I advised with
a roll of my eyes.

‘Should you even be at work? You hardly slept,
I could hear you crying from the spare room.’

‘I’m sorry for ruining your night of sleep
too,’ I sighed. ‘It was just such a shock. I need some time to figure things
out and you know me, work is my best distraction.’

‘Fine, today I’ll let you be distracted, but
tomorrow we’re talking about how you’re going to handle this. You can’t live
minutes from Tristan’s father each weekend and do nothing about it.’

‘I need time, Dom. I have so much going on in
my head right now, please, just give me the week to work this out,’ I pleaded.

‘Fine, but Friday night we’re finding a cosy
booth at Krave, with some bottles of Champagne and the three of us are going to
hash this out.’

‘Please don’t tell Coco yet, she’ll want to
come and talk about my feelings. I’m not ready to deal with my feelings at the
moment.’

‘You know she’ll kill us both, right? I mean
five years ago you went looking for him, now you’ve found him you’re having a
time out and not telling your best friend?’

‘I know,’ I groaned. ‘Please just give me the
week. It’s too much to handle at the moment.’

‘Fine, but I’ll send her your way when she’s
breathing fire and ready to kick some arse. Pick you up at five?’

‘Sure, and no speeding in my car, or you’ll
have me breathing fire as well,’ I warned. He winked and blew me a kiss before
wheel spinning away. I didn’t even have the energy to yell after him. I just
sighed and pulled out my key card, opening the ground floor entrance door and
making my way to the lift. My office was in its own self-contained two storey
building. It used to be an auto workshop, which was handy for the large ground
floor space with work pit. Mike had his workshop down there and it was usually
where I parked my car, the company Merc and the works van, which came in handy
for all kinds of infiltrations required, from Gas company inspections to TV
engineers. I stuck my head in, to find him smoothing decals onto the van for a
catering company. ‘Morning,’ I called. He looked around in surprise.

‘You’ve left that car on the street?’

‘No,’ I laughed. ‘As if! Dom dropped me off,
I’m having trouble bending my knee. Thanks for last night, you did a really
good job.’

‘If I had, you wouldn’t be looking like your
favourite puppy died and standing on one leg like a flamenco,’ he frowned.

‘You did a great job,’ I repeated. ‘The fact it
all went south was my fault, not yours. And I trust it doesn’t need repeating
that whatever you heard or saw was confidential.’

‘Well it obviously did need repeating, as you
told me last night,’ he chuckled.

‘Sorry,’ I sighed, with a gentle shake of my
head. ‘I’m on edge.’

‘Understandable. Just let me know if there’s
anything I can do,’ he offered with a smile.

‘Thanks, Mike. I’d better get up there. Violet
will be waiting with my coffee and messages and I need to debrief with Henry
before the staff meeting. See you up there at ten?’

‘Sure, Ms McQueen,’ he nodded. I headed up in
the lift and sure enough, there was Violet with a smile for me.

‘Morning, Violet,’ I smiled. I was going to
have to force my smiles today, no matter how nice it was to see any of my team.
My head was just too full of complex decisions that needed to be made.

‘Morning. How did it go last night? Henry and
Mike have been very evasive,’ she confirmed, as she held out my travel mug of
steaming caffeine.

‘How about you give me fifteen minutes, to
confer with Henry, then come to my office and I’ll fill you in?’ I suggested.
She looked at me surprised, her hands already clutching the diary and her note
pad and pen. Every morning she’d walk with me into my office to discuss the
night’s events and our day ahead. But today wasn’t an ordinary day.

‘O, ok. I’ll be there at quarter to nine. Is
there anything I can do for you in the meantime?’

‘No thanks, that smile and a coffee were all
that I needed,’ I replied. ‘See you in a while.’ I made my way past the meeting
room, staff room, Hilda’s dressing room and wardrobe and stopped outside
Henry’s office, taking a deep breath. He’d have the footage of Luc in his suite
last night and I hoped I wasn’t about to witness him with another woman in
there. It would kill me. Knowing he’d had sex since we parted ways was one
thing, seeing it was something else altogether. I tapped the door with the toe
of my shoe, my hands being full and heard him heading over.

‘Morning, Lulu, come on in,’ he smiled. I set
my briefcase down by his desk, my eyes adjusting to the relative darkness of
his room. This was where he tinkered with the surveillance equipment and
reviewed data. He tended to work with the lights off and just a desk light, or
head cam spotlight to focus in on what he was working on. ‘I came in early to
review the footage as I knew you’d want to see it. How are you?’ he asked,
pulling out a chair for me.

‘Tired, as you probably are. I’ll get Sandra to
put some extra hours on for you, you’ve gone above and beyond for me.’

‘There’s no need, you pay me handsomely as it
is and I wanted to help. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for
you when he turned around last night, then to have to sit and talk to him?’

‘Yes, well little sleep and aches and pains
from falling over as I tried to run from him, haven’t helped my confusion at
the dilemma I’m in,’ I replied. ‘I’m not sure I want to see the footage, can
you just give me the key points?’

‘Sure,’ he nodded, as he sat down next to me.
‘He was back in his suite within about ten minutes of you leaving and had a
drink as he checked your bag. He discovered your phone, which I’d just managed
to wipe, here’s your new one,’ he advised, as he pushed an identical iPhone my
way. ‘Already loaded with all of your old data but it’s a new number, I wasn’t
sure what you were going to do, if you were going to see him again.’

‘I’m not sure yet either,’ I replied as I
picked up the phone, with a picture of Tristan as my wallpaper.
That
would have led Luc to have even more questions.

‘He found a business card in your bag, so he
tried your phone, then did something on his, a message or email, but he got
really mad at one point and threw his glass, before making another call. I
think it’s safe to say that he checked the website and knows why you were
there.’

‘Great,’ I groaned. ‘That means he has my email
address too and can find the office by looking at Companies House records for
the registered business address.’

‘If you don’t want him to have access to the
building that’s easy, unless someone unwittingly invites him in. You’ll have to
decide if you want to update the team, put him on the banned access list, but
that won’t help if he decides to turn up and hang around outside to wait for
you.’

‘He’s a busy business executive, Henry. He’s
not going to spend hours hanging around outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of
me, like a teenager with a crush.’

‘I’d say that’s exactly what he could do, based
on what he did next, I really think you ought to watch,’ he advised, turning
the screen towards me and pressing play. ‘I’ll go and make a coffee. Want
another?’

‘No, I’m good thanks,’ I replied with a quick
smile up at him, as he stood and disappeared. I turned my attention back to the
screen, sighing to see him sitting on the bed with his head in his hands. ‘I’m
sorry,’ I whispered, feeling my eyes watering at how sad he looked. At what I’d
done to him. He got up and shrugged off his jacket, then crouched to clear up
his broken glass. My breath caught in my throat as he straightened up and
unbuttoned his shirt, shrugging it off his powerfully broad shoulders, his
muscular upper torso making my core clench. I stared at his large toned biceps
as he fiddled with his trouser button and zip while he kicked off his shoes.
Seconds later he dropped his trousers and boxers and I gasped. He was hard,
again. However big I’d tried to remember, however big his erection had felt
against my stomach last night, with layers of clothing between us, was nothing compared
to seeing it on camera. Naked. I put a hand on my chest, which was heaving in
response to the sexual desire flooding my system as he bent over, to remove his
socks, the sight of his bare backside draining my mouth of saliva. When he got
in the shower, water and soap all over his ridiculously sculpted body, then
grasped his cock tightly in his right hand, I felt like I should look away.
These cameras were illegal and this was a triple X-Rated film I was watching. I
was virtually panting as he stroked himself to completion and touched the
screen with tears clinging to my lower lashes, as he called my name on his
release. He really hadn’t forgotten me. I quickly stopped the video, I’d seen
enough. I wiped my eyes and checked myself in the mirror, before Henry knocked
and came back in.

‘Where are you up to?’ he asked.

‘I’ve seen enough, I stopped when he was in the
bathroom.’

‘He’s got it bad for you, Lulu. I fast
forwarded through it, he packed and spent the night alone. I have access to his
calendar, he had flights to Monaco this morning, he’s not back until Friday
morning so you have some time to decide what to do.’

‘I already know what to do,’ I sighed. ‘Work
wise that is, I can’t do this to him. For starters it’s a conflict of interest,
then there’s the fact that he’s Tristan’s father. No amount of money is worth
this.’

‘So you have four weeks, don’t go after him
again, but if he is cheating with another woman, we can use that. That’s not a
conflict if he’s really having an affair. You said there was a lot of money
riding on this.’

‘There is,’ I confirmed, taking a sip of my
coffee, remembering what that sort of sum would mean to me. ‘But even if it was
twice as much, I’m not prepared to deliberately entrap him. Fair enough, leave
the cameras and gather the evidence when he’s back, until our timeline is up.
If he does cheat, I’ll decide what to do then. But we won’t be the ones to push
him into an affair.’

‘You’re a good woman, Lulu McQueen,’ Henry
advised, squeezing my shoulder.

‘Am I?’ I asked. ‘You think so, now that all of
a sudden I’ve grown a conscience because it’s someone I care about? What about
all the men that had no intention of cheating, until either myself or my girls
took them to the brink and used that against them?’

‘They didn’t have to invite you up to their
rooms, that was their choice.’

‘Well I’m not feeling good about it this
morning. I’d better go, Violet will be waiting for me.’

‘Let me get the doors for you,’ he suggested,
bending down to pick up my briefcase for me. I gave him a grateful smile, but
inside I was in turmoil.

Violet sat shaking her head, as I fully
appraised her from when I’d left the office last night, to when I’d stepped out
of the lift and seen her this morning. She disappeared and returned with an ice
pack for my knee and a stool to elevate my leg. She was so efficient.

‘You’re really thinking of going straight?’ she
asked. I nodded as I bit my lip. She was sharp and knew my business almost as
well as I did. I really valued her opinion. ‘Wow. What about the girls, will it
mean laying any off?’

‘No, it will just mean more surveillance work,
which ironically is the harder and more time consuming approach. I’ve been
thinking instead of relying on Ian, who seems to be getting too busy to handle
us, I could take on someone myself. We could branch out into proper Private
Investigation work as well. Maybe approach legal firms and offer our services
to hunt down recipients of wills, there’ll be more than enough to keep us busy
and the cash flowing in.’

‘Great idea,’ she nodded.

‘I’ll speak to Ian personally, he’s given us
many years of excellent service. He may have someone he can recommend for the
post. I could always convert my bedroom here to an office for them. I haven’t
spent the night here in forever.’

‘Not since Tristan,’ she nodded. ‘So, what are
you going to tell Mrs. Le Grand?’

‘I want to see her face to face. I’m convinced
she sent me there knowing exactly who I was, knowing that if he was going to
stray, there was potential for him to do it for me. I want to know how she
found me. A photo and a first name and she tracks me down? I don’t like being
used in whatever scheme she has going on. I know it will likely cut my fee, or
I’ll lose it altogether, but proof of an affair is all I’m prepared to offer.’

‘I’m not going to pry, as this is personal for
you,
very
personal, but if you need anything, I’m here. You know that
right?’ she asked, giving my hand a squeeze.

‘Thank you,’ I nodded gratefully. ‘Can you get
hold of Mrs. Le Grand straight away and tell her I need to see her in person. With
the exception of the weekend, I’ll fit her in anytime, I need to get to the
bottom of this, but I’m liable to lose my cool if I speak to her today. I’ll
ring Ian now. As I only have one appointment later today, maybe we can sit in
here and brainstorm some ideas for moving us forwards with the PI work?’

‘Got it,’ she confirmed. ‘Anything else for now?’

‘I’m in the mood for sugar, if you could order
up some pastries and cakes for everyone that would be great, but warn them to grab
some fast, as I plan on eating myself happy again today and woe betide anyone
who tries to take one I’m eyeing up.’ I gave her a smile and a wink, to let her
know I was ok when she hesitated at the door, when inside I felt like a lone
sock being bounced around the inside of a tumble drier. All of my emotions were
spinning so fast it was hard to find one to cling onto, to focus on. I covered
my eyes with my hands as I tried to calmly breathe. Was this how badly he
affected me? About half an hour in his presence, then a few minutes of watching
him on camera? Granted he was naked, looking like …
that
, but seriously?
‘Work,’ I muttered to myself, I had a lot of work to do, even more given my
sudden change of heart. So much to sort, so much to sink my teeth into. That
should help me take my mind off my sexy Parisian man.