The Temptress (24 page)

I reached up to touch my lips, as my eyes stung
with tears I wasn’t prepared to shed here in the office. I’d crossed far too
many lines already. I looked up quickly as I heard the door open, to see Violet
enter with a large deli bag in her hand.

‘Are you ok? He just left.’

‘I’m fine,’ I nodded, giving her a smile to
reassure her, as I quickly tucked the private card back in its envelope. ‘Why
are you here, you were supposed to be out?’

‘I was worried about leaving you with him, so I
had the deli deliver lunch for us both. I can eat back at my desk, but if you
want some company I can stay.’

‘Sure,’ I smiled. ‘Anything to distract me from
what just happened. I’m so sorry you missed your nooner.’

‘Please,’ she laughed with a flick of her
wrist. ‘I can have hot sex whenever I want, living with my stud muffin. You
don’t get to have it very often, but from the colour on your cheeks and the
sparkle in your eyes, I’m thinking someone totally stole my nooner idea.’

‘No,’ I protested, feeling my cheeks heat up
even more, as I rummaged for my sandwich, with a suddenly ravenous appetite.

‘Hmmm, fine I’ll say no more, but you’re not
fooling anyone. You really like this guy and I can see why. Gorgeous looking,
tall, well built, sexy, charming, romantic and
seriously
domineering.’

‘Tell me about it,’ I sighed as I took a bite
of my sandwich. She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know.

‘
She’s
here and her creepy sidekick’s
with her,’ Violet announced over the intercom. ‘They’re on their way up in the
lift.’

‘Ok thanks. Just bring them straight down,’ I
confirmed, activating the recording equipment. I’d already copied the one of
Luc and I and deleted it from the company servers. I didn’t need the staff
listening to me coming in my office, or that conversation. I clenched and
released my hands a few times, they were shaking. Mrs. Le Grand may well be a
horrible woman, but what I’d just done with her husband was inexcusable. Marriage
vows should be sacred, no matter how unhappy either party may be. I threw my
shoulders back and quickly re-arranged my hair as I pulled myself together,
ready to do battle. Violet knocked and opened the door, Mrs. Le Grand sweeping
in, with no thank you to her. I felt my stomach roil, she had on the most
sickly smelling lavender perfume that clashed with the lovely scent of my
roses. We stood still for a second, appraising each other. Her hair had been
pinned up, making her harsh features even more severe. What had Luc been
thinking marrying this woman? No money could surely ever compensate him for the
lack of love or passion for the last five years?

‘Miss McQueen,’ she stated coldly.

‘Mrs. Le Grand,’ I replied, as I gestured to
the sofas, aware that Raul had slunk in behind her. ‘I won’t offer you a drink
as you made your distaste for our coffee quite clear on your last visit.’

‘I have distaste for many English things,’ she
replied, with a look at me that spoke volumes of her absolute dislike of me too.
Good, it seemed we could stop pretending. I took a seat and waited as she
slapped Raul’s hands when he tried to remove her vulgar floor length brown fur
coat.

‘Non, this will be a short meeting,’ she bit as
she glared at him, before taking a seat opposite me. ‘You have good news for
me, Miss McQueen?’

‘Not exactly,’ I replied.

‘You have me fly all the way from Paris for
nothing?’ she hissed, narrowing her eyes at me.

‘No. I felt that what I had to say warranted an
explanation in person. You were very generous with your offer, too generous,
but I’m afraid that I can’t fulfil the contract and it’s null and void. If you
want evidence of your husband having an affair, you will have to find someone
else to provide that to you. I’m not able to assist.’

‘And what exactly makes you think that you’re
in a position to negotiate here?’ she smirked.

‘I don’t think it’s co-incidence that you chose
me, Mrs. Le Grand. You were already aware that your husband and I have history,
which means that any photos I secured of our meeting in the bar that night will
not help your cause. If it came out that we had sexual history and you were
paying me to bring him to his knees, it would simply look like the case of two
vindictive and money obsessed women trying to ruin a man. Besides, I have found
no evidence of him having an affair to date. There’ll be no charge to you, but
this is where our relationship ends.’

‘I see,’ she smirked as she slowly and
carefully peeled off her expensive looking leather gloves. ‘Maybe you haven’t
considered the fact that I simply paid you to see if my husband was having an
affair, then was mortified to discover that not only did you have a sexual
history, that you neglected to mention to me when I secured your services, but
you tempted him into kissing you that very same night. I could be viewed as the
injured party here, Miss McQueen.’ She snapped her fingers and Raul opened an
envelope and stepped around to drop photos onto the coffee table, of Luc and I
in our embrace outside the hotel. I swallowed hard. Damn it! I’d been so thrown
by it being him, that I hadn’t been vigilant enough to notice that someone else
was watching us.

‘You deliberately withheld who he was from me,
you arranged a last minute meeting, sending me in unprepared without a photograph.
Had I have known, I’d never have accepted.’ I bit back.

‘And where is your proof?’ she laughed. ‘It is
your word against the upset wife from a highly respected family, a wife who has
proof of you overstepping your brief and I’ll warrant that these flowers in
your office can be traced back to him.’

‘I don’t appreciate your insinuations.’

‘And I don’t appreciate a
putain
kissing
my husband, a husband who has never strayed in all our years of marriage,’ she
hissed, throwing daggers in my direction as I tried not to react to her calling
me a whore and took some deep calming breaths. I had the recording of our first
meeting, I was recording this meeting, but they were last resorts if she backed
me into a corner that there was no other way out of. It could end my business
if all of this came out and I had no doubt that she knew that, she’d planned
this with the very intention of blackmailing me. ‘I could publish these
pictures now and expose you and your underhand tactics, but that isn’t enough.
I want my husband to pay for what he has put me through. For five years I have
lived in your shadow, for no one could compare to his precious “Lulu.” I’ve had
to endure his sly glances at that photograph of you that he carries in his
wallet, hear your name rolling off his lips when he’s fallen asleep in the
lounge or his home office. You have stolen a part of my life from me, Miss
McQueen.’

‘That’s not my fault,’ I objected.

‘You think I care? You think that this eases my
burden to hear this?’ she snapped. ‘Non! You may technically have been absent
for the last six years of his life, but you are to blame for the state of my
marriage.’ She threw her head back, looking down her nose at me in contempt and
suddenly I saw it. That tiny glimmer of hurt in her eyes that she was trying
desperately to conceal, making me gasp as the cobwebs were blown from my eyes.

‘You’re in love with him,’ I whispered,
suddenly feeling sorry for her. ‘That’s what this is all about. You love a man
who doesn’t love you in return and you’re taking that out on me, somehow
thinking I’m to blame in all of this and using that with the intention of
hurting him in the process.’

‘Love? You speak nonsense,’ she snapped back,
rising suddenly to her feet.

‘I don’t think I do,’ I replied, standing to
face her. ‘I spent one day and night with him, six years ago and I’ve never
forgotten him. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live with such a
charismatic, handsome and sexually alluring man for five years, to be his wife
and to not hold his attention.’

‘I didn’t come here for your pity,’ she bit, as
she thrust her head forwards, her glare piercing in its attack.

‘Then what did you come for? I’m not going to
be some pawn in whatever game you’re playing, no matter what amount of money
you think will buy my compliance.’

‘You think you have a choice,’ she laughed. ‘I
don’t. I have thrown countless attractive women in his path and yet he resists.
He will only break for you, of this I am certain. If I am to be backed into a
corner, then so shall you be. You have two options, Miss McQueen. Fuck my
husband and bring me evidence of this when I return to meet with you next week
and I will pay you handsomely, as agreed. Refuse and I expose you, as the old
lover who abused her entrusted position as head of her agency. You’ll not only lose
your fee but quite possibly any future clients. What woman wants to pay for
discrete entrapment and have her hand in that exposed? No one will trust you
when I am finished with you.’

‘That’s no choice at all,’ I uttered,
horrified. ‘Why are you so hateful?’

‘I am not as cruel as you would make me out to
be, I am prepared to accept pictures or recordings of you in the act where your
face is not shown. Bring enough stills to prove this and you’ll receive your
fee. Refuse and I have no choice but to ruin both of your reputations in the
process.’

‘I
won’t
be forced into sleeping with
your husband and no amount of money will change my mind. He doesn’t deserve
this, he’s been faithful to you!’

‘Then you have a difficult choice. It is time
to decide what is more important to you. Two million pounds and the ability to
continue your business, or the welfare of my husband? I will give you another
week to make up your mind, when I return to see you I shall expect an answer.’

‘Then if all you have is a dark, murky picture
of a kiss between two old lovers, I’ll take my chances, expose me,’ I
countered, folding my arms across my chest, determined not to back down to her.
I had proof of what she was trying to do, it would be ugly to be dragged
through the papers, but she’d come off looking worse when they heard that she
was blackmailing me, with the sole intention of hurting her husband.

‘You continue to underestimate me,’ she purred,
unexpected excitement in her tone as she stepped towards me and reached out to
pinch the fabric of my blouse between her fingers. I slapped her hand away as I
glared at her. ‘He has been here today, I can smell him all over you. A slight
nudge in the right direction will have him falling into your bed so fast and
I’m sure that you have not forgotten what a skilled lover he is. Surely opening
your legs again for him is a small price to pay for a secure financial future?
I will return in a week for your answer, if you have not provided me with the proof,
then I have one card left up my sleeve that I am sure will convince you. Trust
me, you are out of your league in this game. Make a choice, his reputation or
yours.’ She gave me a triumphant smile, as if my compliance was a done deal,
then turned on her heels and stalked towards the door, Raul throwing a smirk
over his shoulder at me.

I sank down onto the sofa with my head in my
hands. This was so fucked up! I’d worked too hard at my business to have it
dragged through the mud, but Luc didn’t deserve this either. I looked at the
photographs on the table in front of me, they were clear enough to be obvious
it was me, given I was missing my blonde wig. How could I have missed someone
watching? Dad had taught me better than that. I’d been lulled into a false
sense of security, thinking I was the one doing the observing that night. I
looked up as I heard a knock at the door.

‘Lulu? It’s Violet. Can I come in?’

‘Of course,’ I called, quickly turning the
photos over.

‘She makes my skin crawl,’ she announced as she
stepped inside. ‘Are you ok?’

‘I will be, it’s just been an eventful few
hours.’

‘What can I do to help?’ she offered.

‘Honestly, I’d love a coffee, then could you
hold all calls and interruptions, I need to think about how I’m going to handle
this.’

‘Sure thing,’ she nodded and disappeared. I
pulled off my heels and tucked my legs up on the sofa as I grabbed a cushion to
hug to my chest. I needed to focus. She’d been one step ahead of me from the
get-go and that wasn’t continuing, I needed to call for some help. ‘Here you
are,’ Violet called, startling me from my thoughts as she set my coffee in
front of me and another chocolate caramel square. ‘You will let me know if
there’s anything else I can do?’

‘Of course I will,’ I smiled gratefully. ‘I’m
sure there will be, but I just need to think this through first.’

‘Ok,’ she nodded, giving my shoulder a
reassuring squeeze and pulling the door behind her. I nursed my coffee, taking
occasional sips as my mind raced through what needed to be done first. I grabbed
my iPad and sent some messages, pulling in some favours, then returned to my
desk to ask Henry, Mike and Violet to come in and see me, pulling my heels back
on and sitting back down to wait for them. They all gathered and looked at me
expectantly.

‘Henry, did we clone Luc’s room card key last
week?’ I asked.

‘Yes, I have a copy in my office, ready for
when we go in to remove the equipment.’

‘I’ll need that please. Violet, I need you to
speak to Hilda to put together a new disguise for me, one I’ve not used at The
Domville before, that will ensure I’m not recognised if I’m caught on film, can
you go and organise that for me immediately? I’ll need to take it with me when
I leave in about half an hour.’

‘Of course,’ she nodded, jumped up and
disappeared.

‘Mike, do you have plans tonight?’

‘No, what do you need?’

‘I think that I may have someone watching me. I
need to go home, I promised Tristan I’d be home to give him dinner and put him
to bed tonight, but I don’t want to risk being followed. Can you lose a tail?’