The Temptress (27 page)

‘Or what?’

‘She’ll go ahead and publish the pictures,
saying that she came to me in good faith to see if you were being unfaithful,
that I went behind her back and slept with you to obtain her money.’

‘She’s blackmailing you?’ I snapped, fury flooding
my system.

‘Yes,’ Lulu confirmed with a nod, as she
dropped her hand and looked up to hold my gaze. She looked worried, which did
nothing to ease the tension I was feeling. I flexed my neck from side to side.
Sleep with me and take two million pounds, or be blackmailed and quite possibly
ruined in the process, I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t stripping off for
me now.

‘So why are you here removing the recording
devices?’ I demanded, confused.

‘We have history, I couldn’t do that to you,
you’ve never done anything to hurt me. Not until you just spanked me that is,’
she added with a glare, as she rubbed her backside with her palm, making me
smile. Good, it stung, I’d meant it to. It went some way to making her feel
pain like I had when I woke up six years ago to find she’d fled. ‘She wants to
ruin you, Luc. She says that she wants evidence to divorce you, to show that
you can’t be trusted. She says it will ruin your business if people believe
that they can’t take you at your word, they won’t entrust you with millions of
their hard earned pounds.’

‘I’m confused. A simple divorce I could
understand, it is hardly a conventional, or happy marriage. But to want to
bring me down in such a fashion? This I cannot comprehend. I’ve never been
anything but respectful of her, why would she want to do this to me?’

‘For such a sexually aware man, are you really
so blind?’ she asked, shaking her head.

‘Blind to what?’ I asked, unclear of what Lulu
was implying.

‘She’s in love with you,’ she sighed, with a
look of disbelief on her face that I had not reached this conclusion myself,
but why would I? The woman was a bitch, never a polite word to say to me,
always sneering at my accomplishments.

‘Non!’ I laughed. ‘This is preposterous, you are
wrong. She is most definitely not!’

‘Luc, look at you,’ Lulu sighed. ‘You’re … well
you’re obviously stupid for starters. Trust me, she’s in love with you and she
hates that you’re not with her.’

‘What would make you think this?’ I asked,
beyond curious.

‘She told me without actually saying the words,
Luc, it was written all over her face. She wants to hurt you, to hurt you the
way that you’ve hurt her for years by rejecting her. She says that you only had
sex the once and that …’ Lulu broke off and shook her head.

‘And what? That we only had sex the once I can
believe, I have a vague memory of attempting to perform with her and waking up
in her bed the day after our wedding, but since then we have slept in separate
rooms.’

‘It was your wedding night when you had sex
with her, she said you were drunk.’

‘Mon Dieu,’ I groaned. ‘I
forced
her?’

‘No,’ she shot back. ‘She didn’t say that, she
was upset because apparently as you … came, it wasn’t her name you cried out.’

‘I see,’ I nodded as I sat back in my chair
relieved. I may detest the woman, but to have forced myself on her would have
been deplorable. I studied Lulu’s face for a moment and her cheeks went an even
deeper shade of pink. ‘It was your name I called, instead of my wife’s?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered, embarrassed. ‘And she
knows that you’ve been carrying my picture in your wallet and for …’ she broke
off again.

‘For what?’

‘She says that she’s heard you say my name when
you’re dreaming.’

‘Now this I can believe,’ I smiled. I spent
most of my time in our Paris house in my study, often waking up in my office
chair in the middle of the night. ‘I dream of you often, ma belle.’

‘Don’t! It’s wrong,’ she retorted quickly.

‘Why is it so wrong for a man and woman who
have such intense chemistry to desire each other?’

‘For us it is,’ she replied defiantly, that
stubbornness I’d seen in her the first night we’d met rearing its head again.

‘Then why are you here?’ I snapped. I was fed
up with these games. I’d never wanted anyone as much as I wanted this woman.
She was sending me constant mixed signals and had been part of an attempt by my
wife to plot my downfall.

‘I felt I owed it to you to warn you what she
was going to do to you.’

‘At risk of her ruining your own reputation?
Why would you do this?’

‘Because it’s the right thing to do!’ she cried
out. ‘I’ve always felt guilt at provoking men to invite me or my girls to their
suites, then turning over that evidence to money digging wives, but until last
week I did it, my pay check was more important, but now it’s you? I just ... I
can’t.’

‘You care about me,’ I stated, as my chest
puffed up and my heart swelled, hope was not lost.

‘We have a connection,’ she shrugged and
quickly broke my gaze again.

‘Mais oui, of course we do,’ I confirmed, as I
moved to the edge of my seat and clasped my hands, ‘but it wasn’t strong enough
to keep you from running from me six years ago. What has changed? Maybe the
fact that you now know of my financial status?’ I tested.

‘How dare you!’ she snapped back, her amber
eyes heated with fire that spoke right to my core. ‘I just turned down two
million pounds for you. My business affords me a very nice lifestyle. I don’t
need
a man with money.’

‘Let’s say I believe you, that you are not
financially motivated, I want to know what has changed. Why you see a
connection now that you did not back then?’

‘I did feel a connection back then, Luc, but I’ve
grown up and matured now. I’m not that scared young woman anymore,’ she said so
quietly I barely heard her.

‘That’s why you ran from me? I
scared
you?’
I uttered, horrified. Yes I could be dominant in the bedroom on occasion, but
never without consent. She felt bullied into what we had done together?

‘Not like that,’ she replied quickly, flashing
me a reassuring glance, that eased my mind and had me breathe a sigh of relief.
‘I was scared because … I fell for you too fast, I’ve never slept with a man
that quickly before, nor have I since and the way you … the sex was …’ she
raised her eyebrows as she shook her head.

‘Intense, erotic, mind blowing and unmatched in
the history of this universe,’ I suggested, as I nodded my head. ‘I felt it
too, I also felt empty and broken to find you gone in the morning. Which took
me completely by surprise. I have never formed an attachment to any of the
women I slept with, Lulu McQueen. They were toys, playthings to satisfy my
sexual cravings. Yet with you … it appears we fell for each other, but time has
been a cruel mistress putting distance between us.’ We stared at each other, a
silent understanding passing between us, one of regret. I suddenly felt choked
up, a ball of emotion catching in the back of my throat, the sting of salt in
my eyes. I shook my head and rolled my shoulders, this was not a pleasant or
familiar sensation. Luc Le Grand did not do emotions or tears. ‘So, this is
your way of an apology,’ I asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence and
tension. ‘For breaking my heart all those years ago? For turning me into a
shell of a man and accepting a life with her to further my business career, as
a means of distraction?’

‘I guess,’ she mumbled, as a sob left her lips.
I shot to my feet and strode over to the bed, feeling my stomach twist in agony
at the sound of her tears. It seemed I was not the only one with a belly full
of regret, something that oddly eased my sudden bout of pain. I hauled her up
into my arms and sat back down onto the bed, cradling her against my chest,
breathing in her unique scent that spoke a thousand words to my mind, body and
soul.

‘Then let me do something for you,’ I murmured
against her strangely coloured hair, quickly realising that she was wearing
another wig.

‘I don’t need anything from you. I don’t
deserve anything from you, not after doing what I did to you last week.’

‘You are here, being honest with me are you
not?’ I asked, she shrugged and buried her face in my chest, her whole body
trembling, as mine heated up to have her so close. ‘We can both turn this
situation to our advantage.’

‘How,’ she mumbled.

‘As soon as I saw you last week Lulu McQueen,
as soon as I felt that surge of happiness to have you back in my arms, I
realised just what depths of despair with her I had sunk to. You woke me up,
made me realise that there is more to life. I have already started divorce
proceedings and am solidifying my financial position, to brace myself for
whatever blow she will inflict. I am well aware of what my wife is capable of,
given my connection to her family’s financial institution and how I have
benefitted from this over the years. In a few weeks I should have obtained the
necessary backing from some of her competitors to ensure that I will survive
whatever she throws at me. I will have nothing to lose, she has overstated her
hand.’

‘What if she hasn’t? You could lose
everything.’

‘Lulu, the businessmen of the calibre I deal
with are astute enough to set aside personal and professional dealings. Many of
the men I manage portfolios for have had me set up funds for their mistresses,
not to mention their secret offspring. Myrtille will certainly be able to throw
a curve ball in my path, but with the backing of another AAA rated bank, she
will not knock me back to the point that I have to pick up the pieces and start
over, from scratch. So, I suggest that you put up your cameras and turn on
those microphones, let her see and hear me making love to you. She doesn’t even
have to know that it’s you, you can have your team doctor the tapes to
eradicate any parts that give away your identity. Together we can create
evidence of the affair that she requires. You take this to her in a few weeks when
I am ready to face her and her legal team and you get to walk away with two
million pounds of her money, with your business and reputation intact, I get the
divorce that I want anyway and she thinks she has won. Everyone is happy.’

‘You told me once that Luc doesn’t make love,’
she giggled, the noise making me smile.

‘For you I’m prepared to try new things, ma
belle,’ I murmured as I kissed her hair. ‘For you I could be tempted to try
anything
.’

‘I can’t Luc, what happened today in my office
can’t happen again,’ she replied firmly, but there was a noticeable waiver in
her tone.

‘You want me as much as I want you, Lulu, I can
feel it in your body, hear it in the rapid beat of your heart, your heavy
breathing and the fluctuations in your voice. Do not lie to yourself.’

‘Even if I do, I don’t want you like this, as
some strategic move in a game between you and your wife,’ she muttered
stubbornly, shifting slightly in my lap, rubbing across my erection and making
me hiss between my teeth at the sensation of the much needed friction.

‘Lulu, do you have any idea what restraint I am
showing right now?’ I groaned as I fell back on the bed, bringing her down with
me, sprawled on my chest, her hip hard against my stiff cock.

‘As much as I am. Trust me I know how hard it
is.’

‘It’s very hard,’ I chuckled, as I thrust my
hips up to grind further into her, offering me some temporary relief again, as
the pressure sent a surge through my throbbing shaft.

‘Not that,’ she gasped as she slapped my arm.
‘Well actually yes, that is very hard. I meant being here with you, seeing you,
smelling you, feeling your muscles rippling under mine,’ she sighed as she
trailed her fingers gently up my large bicep, making me groan. I felt it all
the way to my quivering and frankly desperate cock. I quickly shifted, rolling
her onto her back, enjoying the sound of her whimper as her sore backside met
with the firm mattress beneath her. I straddled her, pinning her hands above
her head as I gazed down at her surprised face.

‘Accept my proposal,’ I demanded. ‘Sex with me
for two million pounds cannot be such a chore, surely? And if she tries to
break her word and refuses to pay you, I will,’ I shrugged, as I stared into
her luminous eyes. She quickly closed them and took a deep breath.

‘I can’t, please don’t do your Jedi mind
control thing when you have me drop my knickers quicker than a whore on a
sexual world record attempt. I was so ashamed of my behaviour last time and
this morning.’

‘You are no whore!’ I snapped back. ‘No one had
ever resisted me for so long until I had to woo you for an entire day! This may
seem fast to you, but trust me, that was a record for me. Usually I would have
women back in my hotel suite in under an hour.’

‘Hotel suite?’ she frowned.

‘I had a suite in Paris for the women I picked
up, so it seems I am the whore, not you. You did not see it, I was so taken
with you that I took you to my apartment, yet another first for me. You tried
resisting this morning, you’re trying to resist me again now, but it’s futile,
we’re meant to be together you and I, Lulu McQueen, I feel it deep in my soul.
Breathe, or you will pass out and I’ll be forced to kiss you to revive you.’

‘That would suck,’ she nodded as she took in a
gasp. ‘You’re
so
bad at kissing.’

‘I could spank you again,’ I chuckled. ‘Lulu,
look at me. You know the state of my marriage, it is hardly as if I am cheating
on a woman that I have a happy life with, I don’t understand why you resist
me?’ Her body had already submitted, her thighs had automatically parted when
I’d rolled her onto her back, allowing me to settle between them. Her breasts
had swelled, the hardness of her nipples pressing into my chest and her breathing
was so erratic. Even her soft lips had swelled, her teeth and her tongue
caressing them every so often, making me long to do that myself. I wanted this
woman more than anything, but I’d stated my intentions with her, she was yet to
state hers and for something more than a sexual relationship, something I’d
never really had before, I needed her to meet me halfway. I needed her to admit
that she wanted me as much, to agree for us to attempt this together.