The Temptress (50 page)

‘Luc, this is so beautiful, how did you do all
of this?’

‘I told you with motivation, let alone money,
one can achieve anything if you desire it enough,’ he replied, not releasing
me. ‘And I desire you, Lulu McQueen, like no one in my life before.’

‘So I feel,’ I blushed, his erection lying
heavy on my stomach. ‘What’s the special occasion? I feel like you have all of
my friends and family in hiding, about to leap out for some surprise party.’

‘No, tonight it’s just you and me and Mrs
Pattison when we are ready to eat.’

‘We’re eating in here?’

‘Oui, ça va?’ he enquired.

‘Oui,’ I confirmed with a happy smile. ‘This is
far prettier and more romantic than any restaurant you could ever take me to.
What have I done to deserve this?’

‘You need to do nothing to deserve anything
from me but be yourself, ma belle,’ he confirmed, reaching up to hold my chin,
his thumb sweeping back and forth over my lower lip, making my breath hitch.
‘We have been together for so short a time in reality, yet I feel as if we have
been together for an eternity. Imagine the depth of my feelings for you after
years together, even oceans cannot run this deep, man will explore galaxies
billions of light years away before anyone can comprehend the love for you that
that fills my heart, that spills out and orbits my very soul,’ he whispered,
his voice full of intensity and emotion, his eyes swam with unshed tears, tears
that were flowing down my cheeks at the beauty of his words and what might be
behind their intentions. ‘My love is blinding, scorching, a raging inferno that
will burn anyone who tries to harm a single hair on your head, or that of my
child. I have experienced endless despair, gnawing hunger, painful years of
loneliness, the terror of nightmares and the icy fingers of the extreme cold
that came to claim my life, but nothing,
nothing
brought me to my knees
until my heart was pierced by these stunning eyes of molten lava, until our
hearts beat in unison after our bodies had merged that night six years ago,
nothing has crippled me before, nor since, until fate brought you back to me,
along with the most precious gifts ever bestowed, your love and my son. Tonight,
Lulu McQueen, you bring me to my knees again,’ he nodded as he lost his battle
to contain his tears too and sank to his knees in front of me, clasping my
hands which were shaking. I was breathing so fast I was close to
hyperventilating.

‘Luc,’ I whimpered, as I tried to choke back
tears of complete emotion at his heartfelt and sincere words, hardly daring to
hope that he may be about to propose to me.

‘I don’t want to waste another six years, those
years held no comfort for me, I lived in purgatory knowing what I’d had and
lost, I would live a hundred of my lives again, but never those. You are mine,
heart, body and soul, you and my boy are my raisons d’être, let me be yours,
let me be everything you ever wanted or needed, Je t’aime, de tout mon coeur,
with everything that I am, marry me, ma belle,’ he begged. Luc didn’t beg, he
demanded, he ordered, he controlled, yet with me he was prepared to be
vulnerable, to strip away the years of defences he’d built to simply survive,
that,
along with his love for me and our son, told me everything I needed to know
about this incredible man on his knees in front of me. I lowered myself down to
my knees too as I smiled at him through my tears.

‘Those were the most beautiful, sincere and
heartfelt words anyone has ever said to me, Luc Le Grand. I will never forget
them and I will never take them, you, or your love, for granted. I know how
lucky I am and everything you feel for me, I feel in return. I’m
The
Temptress
, I was sent to tempt you, yet just like that first night in
Paris, it is you who tempts me, you always have and I know beyond a shadow of a
doubt that you always will. Ours is a love that will transcend time, it will be
written about, become a classic, that one in a million attraction and true love
that walked hand in hand the instant our eyes met, people will read our story
wishing for a fraction of what we will have had. Of course I’ll marry you, if
you’d just said the words “marry me” I’d have said yes, but I love you even
more for baring your heart and soul to me, for telling me what I mean to you.
Especially for showing me today, with all the little touches in the house, that
you’ve made it into a place I’d love to call home for our family.’ I smiled as
he blew out a deep breath and we wiped each other’s tears before he clasped my
face and kissed me again. A tender spine tingling kiss, before he buried his
face in my neck as we held each other tightly. This was up there with holding
Tristan in my arms for the first time.

‘You have no idea how happy you have made me,
ma belle. All other days now pale into insignificance,
this
is now the
best day of my life,’ he stated sincerely. I laughed as I wiped my eyes,
thankful he had hidden my makeup and provided me with tissues.

‘I’m sure you’ll say that the day we get
married, then again when I’m pregnant, then when I give birth.’

‘Mais oui, of course, I told you every day with
you gets better and better,’ he chuckled as he sat back on his heels and
reached into his pocket. He pulled out a Havershams ring box and told me to
close my eyes. I felt him sliding the ring onto my finger, then his lips
grazing mine again. ‘I am so in love with you, Lulu McQueen,’ he murmured. ‘I
cannot wait to call you Lulu Le Grand and to start filling all of those
bedrooms.’

‘
Two
of those bedrooms,’ I laughed.

‘We will discuss this another time, but I am a
man who gets what he wants. You may open your eyes, as with anything from this
moment forward, if you are unhappy you tell me and I will fix it. Let it not be
said that Luc Le Grand cannot keep his woman happy.’

‘That works both ways,’ I told him as I blinked
a few times, to see his brown eyes sparkling with happiness. He held the tips
of my fingers and indicated with a downward nod for me to look at my ring. I
was speechless when I saw it. I could have been looking at my eyes, the colour
was nearly a perfect match, a large round yellow diamond with an orange hue,
surrounded by a halo of channel set white diamonds on a platinum band, it was
simply stunning. I looked up at him and opened my mouth to tell him with the
exception of him and Tristan, it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,
but nothing came out.

‘I did ok?’ he asked with a frown. I nodded as
I burst into tears again and covered my face, embarrassed. I heard movement and
felt myself being lifted up to my feet and he enveloped me in his arms.

‘I’m sorry … I love it, I love it …
so much
,’
I mewled between breaths.

‘Never apologise for happy tears, if ever they
are sad tears then I will apologise for putting them on your face. Happy tears
I will accept every day for the rest of my life. Come and be seated, Mrs
Pattison has made us a delicious celebratory meal. Tomorrow, your close friends
and family will arrive and we will celebrate again, with everyone that you care
about.’

‘You’re too perfect,’ I sighed as I looked up
at him in awe. ‘How did I get lucky enough to be spotted by you in that club
and chained up in your apartment?’ He chuckled.

‘I spotted you before the club, you were
talking to your friends so animatedly you did not see me watching you in the
bar earlier. I was entertaining two of my clients, but you tempted me to lose
focus, I could not take my eyes off you. I overhead some of your conversation,
your name, where you were from, this sexy accent, that you had not experienced
good sex in a long time, it would have been remiss of me not to follow you and
offer my services,’ he grinned.

‘That’s how you knew my name to write on your
card!’ I exclaimed. ‘Stalker.’

‘I also need to visit that pharmacy you
suggested, as the burning in my loins has increased substantially seeing you in
this dress. In fact I’m so hard right now, that I’m thinking we will need to
open the soundproof playroom tonight, I do not want to scare Tristan and Claire
when they hear your screams of pleasure.’

‘What are you planning on doing to me?’ I
asked, as he held out my chair for me.

‘In homage to our first magical night, I am
wearing a navy suit as I attempt to tempt you to come home with me, I will tell
you in graphic detail what I plan to do to your body with my fingers, tongue
and cock, then dangle you from the ceiling with chains again as I tease you to
the point of exhaustion. Just when you think the night can get no better, then
I will take you to my bed to fuck you into next century. Or would you prefer
some gentle
making of the love
?’ he winked, as he popped the cork on
some Champagne.

‘I’ll take my dirty mouthed dominant Frenchman
and a fuck into next century, please,’ I grinned. ‘Maybe you can wake me with
the making of the love?’

‘For you, ma belle, anything, especially if it
leads to more purple elephants.’

Lulu

‘Morning Violet, how are you?’ I asked as I saw her
smiling face, she gave me the biggest wink I’d ever seen which had me burst
into laughter. ‘Someone got very lucky.’

‘Seriously, do you ever just have to tell Luc to
put the brakes on every now and then? I can’t keep up with Jared sometimes,
he’s constantly aroused.’

‘I hear you, how do you think I got in this
state again,’ I nodded and looked down at my obviously pregnant stomach.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Great actually, though I’ve got to say I’ll be
happy in five months when it’s over, Luc’s gone into overdrive on the
protective front, which means he’ll be bursting in here any minute to tell me
off for sneaking away for a work catch up.’ I’d come to hide in the nursery.
The rocking nursing chair, with its comfortable footstool, was one of my
favourite places to sit.

‘Well I don’t know why you’re FaceTiming me
anyway, not that I don’t love seeing you and catching up, but you have more
important things to focus on at the moment. Everything’s in perfect control. Faith
has the New York office running like clockwork, Jackson is over there at the
moment doing the first round of interviews for an IT assistant for her, he’ll
run the shortlist past us for an agreement on selection. Chloe is about four
weeks away from the Paris office opening, the fact that we were able to take
over Luc’s old offices there has really saved us money. Contracts have gone out
to all the staff and you’ve seen the turnover for Sweet Temptation Limited the
last few months, it couldn’t be going better.’

‘Because you’re doing an amazing job at the
helm Vi, and it doesn’t hurt that I’m married to a financial genius who keeps
making us ridiculous amounts of money on our assets.’ It was true, we’d gone
from strength to strength. We’d recruited more males for surveillance and
distraction work in all three locations, had to increase the number of girls
and the back office staff. Henry was in charge of the Tech teams and Vi and I
had made him a partner, Jackson had such a great IT team, selected to complement
each other’s skills, so with four of them across the sites we pretty much had
the equivalent of the genius of Ian Smith, who no one could rival. Even Mike,
Sandra and Hilda had assistants and had their pay boosted for becoming heads of
their departments for the brand. ‘Any unusual cases to make me laugh? It helps
keep the blood pressure down.’

‘Well you know Frankie’s client, Mr. Simmons?
The one who was having two hour long massages, twice a week in his house and
locking the door?’ Vi asked, as she got closer to her screen and lowered her
voice. I nodded. ‘She managed to get in and set a camera, turns out he wasn’t
having massages at all. He wasn’t even in the room with the masseuse.’

‘So he locked the room for two hours and
disappeared?’ I asked, confused.

‘No, he had a secret passageway hidden behind a
bookcase that led to a room that it seems even his wife was unaware of, it
wasn’t on the blueprints of the house Jackson secured either, Mr. Simmons paid
a lot of money to someone to keep that quiet.’

‘Playroom?’ I asked, repressing a smile at the
thought of ours down in the basement.

‘Of sorts,’ she giggled. ‘Let’s just say a baby
Le Grand would be very at home in there.’

‘A nursery?’

‘O yeah, complete with adult sized nappies,
cot, baby changing table, the works!’ she nodded with a big grin as I
shuddered. ‘You really see everything on this job, Frankie says it’s one thing
she could really do with unseeing, especially when she had to watch the footage
of his nappy being changed.’

‘Stop,’ I laughed. ‘I’ll be using this nursery
that I’m hidden away in before I know it, I don’t need that visual. Thank God
Luc’s only sexual kink is dominance.’

‘Well Mrs. Simmons was mortified,
understandably, but very impressed with our services. Not only will she get a
decent pay out, but the Honourable Lord Simmons will be disgraced in the
process.’

‘Maman?’ came a little voice from out on the
landing.

‘In here, darling,’ I called. ‘O Vi, you’re
doing amazingly. I’d better go, I’m needed.’

‘I can’t wait to hear if everything’s ok with
the baby when I see you later at the party. I’m beyond excited and Mike has even
polished the limo ready to bring us all later.’

‘I’m so looking forward to seeing you all later
too,’ I nodded and smiled as I looked over at the door that had been opened.

‘Good luck, Lulu. Love you.’

‘You too Vi, bye.’ I quickly turned off my iPad
and patted my lap. ‘Lottie, what’s wrong?’ I asked, as my beautiful little four
year old daughter came in with tears rolling down her cheeks. She scrambled up
onto my lap, being careful not to crush my stomach. I’d carefully explained
that I had a brother or sister in it for her, so she wasn’t to jump on me
anymore.

‘Tristan said you’re going to hospital.’

‘I am, darling. But only to have a scan, to
find out how your brother or sister are doing.’

‘You’re coming home?’ she asked, her little bottom
lip wobbling as she looked up at me.

‘Of course I am,’ I nodded with a smile, as I
tucked her long brown hair behind her ear. Just as Tristan had all of Luc’s
features, Lottie had mine. Right down to the rare large round amber eyes. She
was so beautiful, sweet and caring and she was mastering French so fast, her
accent was impeccable. ‘We have Daddy’s birthday party tonight. Your Grandma
and Grandpa are coming, Uncle Dom and Calvin, Auntie Coco, Violet, Jared, Henry,
Mike and Trey and some of the girls from work. Do you think I’d want to miss a
party like that?’

‘No,’ she replied, shaking her head seriously.
‘Can I wear my pink Princess dress?’

‘You can wear whatever you want, my darling. You’ll
look beautiful whatever you wear. Shall we go and get it all out ready for
later?’

‘Yes, please,’ she beamed, brightening up
immediately. I gathered her in my arms and carried her out and over to her
room, opposite Tristan’s. In typical Luc fashion he’d spared no expense, but
instead of a bed up in a tree, Lottie had a castle with turrets. Her room was
done in hot pink and white with loads of sparkle and twinkling fairy lights. I
got her dress out, to excited squeals and claps from her and she insisted on
getting ready now, so I took some time to do her long hair in a braid down her
back and fix her tiara.

‘You are the most beautiful princess I’ve ever
seen, Lottie Le Grand,’ I smiled, wiping my eyes as she twirled for me
giggling. ‘I love you, for the rest of my life and beyond.’

‘I love you too, Maman,’ she announced, as she
flung her arms around my neck and pursed her lips for a kiss.

‘Why don’t you go and see Daddy in his office,
show him how pretty you look and tell him I’m nearly ready to go, ok?’ She
nodded and flew out of the room, she loved her Daddy so much, or Papa as she
called him. Luc and Lottie usually conversed in French to help her learn and
Tristan and I were fluent now too. I sighed happily and quickly tidied up her
room, putting away her dolls and tea set, then headed over to knock on
Tristan’s door.

‘Come in,’ he called and looked up from his
X-box game, pausing it as I poked my head around the door. Where had my little
boy gone? He was ten now, so tall and good looking. He was going to be such a
heart breaker. Gone was the jungle themed bedroom, instead it was all in cool
shades of turquoise and white. The one thing he’d kept was his elephant
staircase up to his new simpler sleeping platform. He still had a fascination
with elephants, pretty much all animals now, but instead of our monthly visits
to the zoo, now it was an annual trip for his birthday. He’d kill me if I told
anyone, especially his dad who he looked up to so much, but he still pulled
Eric out of hiding every now and then to sleep with, particularly if he was
sick. I’d caught him with Eric tucked under his arm a few times when I’d crept
in at night to check on him. ‘Hey, Mum. Are you off now?’

‘We are. I know Claire’s about, but keep an eye
on your sister for me will you? She was in tears earlier thinking I was going
into hospital and not coming home.’

‘Sorry, I did try explaining,’ he replied,
pulling a face of remorse. He adored her and she adored her big brother too.
They got on so well, he’d been so excited when she was born, wanting to help
with feeding, her bedtime routine and especially reading to her at night. He’d
been mortified when she no longer wanted him to read his old Elmer books to her
and asked for a Disney Princess one instead.

‘Mrs Pattison will do you some lunch, don’t
overdo it as there’ll be lots of food tonight.’

‘Awesome,’ he grinned. He had a crazy appetite,
but seemed to burn it off, never putting on any weight. Having a pool and gym
helped me too, I could eat whatever I wanted and just burn it off with a
morning swim, as well as hot sex with Luc of course. Tristan leapt up and
joined me at the door. ‘I’ll come down to see you off.’

I knocked on Claire’s bedroom door to let her
know we were leaving, she was reading on her sofa. She’d bitten my hand off
when I’d asked if she’d consider coming to live with us when I got pregnant
with Lottie. We’d allocated one of the back en-suite bedrooms as hers, on the
same floor as Tristan and Lottie. She usually had the weekends off and we’d
given her a car so she could come and go as she pleased when Lottie had gone to
bed, or she’d drive Tristan to school and drop Lottie at nursery if I couldn’t
make it. I worked from home now, overseeing the management side of my business
from my upstairs office, only going in for monthly partner meetings or if there
was a crisis. Luc pretty much worked from his offices in London now, paying for
his Paris clients to come to him whenever possible and using a meeting room in
The Paris Domville if he had to visit. He tried to have no appointments on a
Monday or Friday, so he could work from home as well. With two children, those
daytimes were some of our rare quality alone times. Not that either of us
begrudged having them, we didn’t, but being able to have some time on our own
to lie in, cuddle on the sofa in peace, or even head down to the playroom for
some fun, without anyone trying to find us, was nice sometimes. He was such an
amazing father, I guess lacking in love as a child meant he knew exactly how
fatherhood shouldn’t be done. He made sure he attended every one of Tristan’s
school plays, sports days and all the parent teacher evenings.

Tristan and I had moved in with Luc soon after
he proposed and we’d enrolled Tristan at the local school to start at the
beginning of that Autumn term. His best friend Bryce was leaving his old school
anyway at the same time, as his parents were moving out to Dubai for work, so
it seemed the ideal time to make that break. We’d kept my house in case Luc
needed to stay over after a late working night, or if we had a night in the
City with friends. Tristan had settled into his new school really fast and
given it was smaller, he’d received so much more personal attention and was
really blossoming in terms of his intelligence and personality. Lottie would be
starting there in September herself, for Tristan’s last year, before he was
enrolled as a day boy at the prestigious Dunsmaster School, a private school
about a fifteen minute drive from us.  I smiled as Tristan and I walked across
the hall, Luc was standing waiting for me by the front door, Lottie sitting on
his hip with her head on his shoulder.

Even now, even after five official years
together he still took my breath away every time I saw him. He got better
looking with age, even dressed casually like this in dark indigo jeans with a
white shirt rolled at the sleeves, and at forty years old, he was a head
turner. His eyes glazed as he smiled at me, making me blush. His love for me
was written all over his face, as I hoped mine was for him. Our small and very
personal wedding day had been so emotional. He’d recreated our engagement night
in the orangery, so we’d married in front of my parents, Dom, Calvin, Coco,
Violet and Tristan under a canopy of fairy lights and hundreds of flickering
candles. If I’d thought he had a way with words when he proposed, it was
nothing compared to his vows. Even Dad had cried, there was no mistaking his
tears for dust in his eye this time. I was so proud to become Lulu Le Grand, it
even tripped off the tongue as well as Lulu McQueen, if not better.

‘Ma belle, you look radiant this morning,’ he
smiled, dipping his head to kiss me, his free hand gripping my backside and
pulling me closer to make it last.

‘Ewwww, get a room you two,’ groaned Tristan,
covering his eyes, with Lottie giggling.

‘I shall be saying the same to you in a few
years’ time, my boy,’ laughed Luc as he ruffled his hair.

‘Many years’ time,
many
,’ I corrected.
My little boy wasn’t going to be kissing anyone until he was at least eighteen
and the thought of darling little Lottie being interested in boys filled me
with horror. I gave them both a kiss and cuddle before Luc took my hand and led
me out to a beautiful summer’s day, opening the door to his latest Aston
Martin, which only came out if we were going anywhere without the children. I
looked out of the window to see Tristan standing in the doorway, holding Lottie
as they both waved us goodbye and I took a deep shaky breath as I choked back
some tears and waved back.