The Temptress (30 page)

‘I guess,’ she grinned, as she bit the tip of
her index finger.

‘That’s as good as a yes,’ Dom laughed. ‘We
know you too well, Coco Barrella.’

‘Let’s do a proper toast. To my super talented,
stunningly beautiful, face slapping, over grown bush best friend, Coco,’ I
smiled, holding up my glass.

‘Right,
that’s
it, get the sick bucket
for Dom as I’m flashing my neatly trimmed snatch to put these vicious rumours
to bed,’ she uttered, as she stood up and whipped her jeans and knickers down
in one go, making me burst out laughing and Dom spit his champagne all over his
designer jeans.

Lulu

The following Monday

‘You’ll be a good boy for Claire tonight, won’t
you, darling?’ I asked Tristan as I held him against my shoulder tightly.

‘Can’t you come home after school too?’

‘I’d love to, but Mummy has a meeting at work
and is staying out with a friend tonight.’

‘With Coco? She could come and stay with us too.’

‘Not with Coco, darling. She’s busy as she
starts her new job today.’

‘Uncle Dom?’

‘No, darling. Not Uncle Dom,’ I replied, as I
kissed his temple.

‘Who then?’

‘Has anyone ever told you that you’ve very
nosey,’ I laughed as I gave his nose a tap with my index finger.

‘Yes, you,’ he smiled as he tapped mine back. ‘Will
you be home for breakfast?’

‘I’m not sure,’ I answered, honestly. ‘But I’m
going to pick you up from school tomorrow afternoon and we’ll have the whole
night to ourselves. That’s a promise. We can play Lego, have whatever you want
for dinner and I even bought you a brand new Elmer story, which we can read in
bed together, ok?’

‘Ok,’ he giggled. ‘I love you, Mummy.’

‘I love you too,’ I smiled, my eyes filling
with happy tears. Every time he said it he broke my heart. ‘You’ll never know
how much.’

‘To the end of your life and beyond?’

‘And further,’ I nodded, as I gave him another
kiss. ‘Come on then, you’d better go in,’ I sighed, reluctantly setting him
down on the floor and straightening his blue jumper, before offering him his
little elephant rucksack which had his colouring pencils, drink and snacks in.
‘See you tomorrow,’ I whispered as I clasped his face and kissed his forehead.

‘Tristan,’ yelled his best friend Bryce, from
where some of the children were playing as they waited for the bell to ring.

‘Go and join him, have fun.’

‘Bye, Mummy,’ he smiled and ran off, making me laugh
to see him and Bryce trying to do some cool dude hand shake and totally mess it
up. He was growing up way too fast. I headed out to the taxi, thanked him for
waiting and gave him the office address. I sat back in the seat and stared out
of the window, my mind racing. I was missing driving my car, but until this
situation with Mrs. Le Grand was resolved, I couldn’t afford for her to find
out where I lived. So it was taxis in the morning, then Mike and his evasive
driving dropping me off at night. Even seeing Luc for the last two nights had
been a clandestine undercover operation again. I smiled and felt my cheeks heat
up at the memory of the things he’d whispered in my ear last night when we’d
said our goodbyes. I’d been surprised, I’d only seen the sexually domineering
side of Luc, other than that day in Paris. The last two nights we’d been out to
eat and to walk around the city, once Tristan was in bed asleep. It was my turn
to point out some of the sights of my home town and Luc had been respectful,
romantic and tender. Not that we’d had sex, in any shape or form, but he’d held
my hand, threading his fingers through mine, told me how beautiful I was, what
I did to his heart and mind, not just his cock. He’d made me laugh as well. I’d
forgotten how much he’d made me laugh that day in Paris. Most of my memories
had been of that mind blowing night in his apartment. I felt my phone vibrate
in my bag and saw it was my personal one, biting my lip excited to see that it
was a text from him.

Ce soir, ma belle. I eagerly await your
answer as well as your body. Luc x

I closed my eyes, as I imagined what it was
going to be like to sleep with him again. My three month rule was well and
truly out of the window. I was amazed I’d held out the five times we’d met,
well four if you took into account that he’d made me come in my office last
Monday morning. After all, my three month rule was to try to get to know a man,
to see if he could be a part of Tristan’s life and with Luc it wasn’t like I
had a choice. At some stage I’d have to come clean, regardless of what happened
between us, he might want to be a part of his son’s life and I had no right to
stop him. Not sleeping with him for another few weeks wasn’t going to change
that outcome, so why not enjoy myself with a man who seemed genuinely sincere
about wanting me? A man I already knew I was on the verge of falling in love
with, a man who could quite possibly be falling in love with me too, one with
whom the sexual chemistry was incredible. Given that I knew what a horrible
piece of work his wife was and that he was pursuing a divorce, I didn’t feel
like I was betraying her in any way, or breaking up their marriage. It was over
before I came into the picture, she’d been trying to tempt him with other women
before she approached me. I opened my eyes and picked up my phone again,
smiling as I tapped out my response.

Then I look forward to giving you both. Lulu
x

I’m not going to be able to focus all day
now. I should have cancelled my meetings and spent all day and night with you x

Lovely as that sounds, I’m seeing your wife,
remember? Focus, your work is important. Millions are at stake x

For you I could be tempted to give it all
up. I will call you later to see how it went with Myrtille. Do not let her
bully you, I will do all that I can to protect you from her. You are very precious
to me Lulu McQueen x

Thank you x

I held my phone to my chest as my stomach
fluttered at his comments. I was like a teenager, in the midst of those first
few dates when excitement levels were high and the possibilities were endless.
I quickly sent a text to Coco wishing her good luck on her first day and rang
Parkers Florists to double check that they had the order ready of flowers,
gourmet truffles and the congratulations balloon to be delivered to her at
work, from Dom and me. He’d said he’d sort something himself, but I knew him too
well. He always said it and never actually followed through on those
statements. It was an endless source of amusement to our family that each year
he was late with my birthday card and present, given we were born on the same
day.

‘So?’ grinned Violet, as she handed over my
coffee and we headed down to my office. ‘You look happy.
Very
happy.’

‘I am, thank you. I’ve had a lovely weekend
with two incredible men.’

‘Two?’ she gasped, her jaw dropping, making me
laugh.

‘My son and then Luc,’ I smiled.

‘Wow and I had a whole vision of some sexy
ménage à trois going on there for a second.’

‘No, no ménage and no sex. Just talking and
getting to know each other.’

‘Not even kissing?’ she uttered, quickly
opening my office door. I blushed as I stepped in. ‘O yeah,’ she nodded. ‘There
was kissing alright, it’s written all over your face. I have to say I’m
surprised with your skills you can’t hide your personal life from shining
through.’

‘You and me both. How was your weekend? No
winking I noticed.’

‘No,’ she groaned as we took our usual places.
‘Bachelor golf weekend with the boys. Couldn’t even have phone sex as he was
sharing a room. Let’s talk work and take my mind off the fact that he’s not
home until tomorrow?’

‘Sure,’ I nodded.

‘Staff meeting at ten as normal. A Mrs. Blakely
at eleven, she says Mr. Blakely’s coming home from work late stinking of
perfume every night.’

‘CEO?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ she nodded.

‘I’ll guess affair with the PA,’ I volunteered.

‘Just what I was thinking,’ she laughed. ‘We’re
so cynical.’

‘We’ve seen too much not to be.’

‘Well that’s one thing Jared doesn’t have to
worry about. Not that you’re not hot, Lulu, but I’m all about men. Jared shaped
men.’

‘Pleased to hear it,’ I grinned.

‘You have a Mrs. Ashton at one p.m. Mr. Ashton
has gone from a regular three times a week to suddenly avoiding sex. I did want
to suggest she check for crabs when she mentioned he was scratching his groin a
lot, but thought we’d lose some very detailed surveillance money.’

‘Hmmm, the girl I allocate that job to is going
to love me,’ I chuckled.

‘Two-thirty is Mr. Wallace. Insists his wife’s
vagina is larger than it used to be. When I asked him if he’d spotted any
unusual behaviour, he said he’s come home from work to find the “Denzel
Washington” lookalike Sky engineer fixing their box on more than one occasion.’

‘Sounds like it’s her box he’s tinkering with,
rather than the Sky one, doesn’t it?’ I smiled with a shake of my head.

‘Four o’clock is Mrs. Beasley. Her husband only
ever wants anal and has started suggesting it would be fun if she fucked him
with a large strap-on. The last straw was last night, he tried to sit on her
face to make her rim him. She was mortified and reacted by viciously biting his
balls, drawing blood, making him scream like a woman and run to the bathroom,
putting him off coming near her for the rest of the night. He slept in the
spare room with a bag of ice wedged against his testicles. She thinks he may be
gay.’

‘How do you manage to get all this information
in a preliminary phone call?’ I laughed.

‘It’s a unique and rare talent,’ she giggled.
‘I so love this job.’

‘And I so love having you here. Please don’t
ever leave me.’

‘Never,’ she scoffed. ‘Right, lastly you have
the bitch at six. I’m tempted to attach a leash to her lap dog and secure him
to the lamp post outside while the two of you duke it out. I don’t like you
being in there, two against one.’

‘I’ll be fine.’

‘It worries me,’ she frowned.

‘Vi, I’ll be fine,’ I repeated, firmly.

‘Please can I have your permission to play with
her? It’s killing me being all nice and polite.’

‘Give it your best,’ I nodded. ‘The more wound
up she is the more likely she is to lose her cool and give away more that I can
use against her.’

‘Well I’m not going anywhere until she’s left
and I know you’re ok. Mike’s ready with the limo for you tonight. What are you
wearing?’

‘I think my long champagne glitter dress and
that set of sexy black lace lingerie I have in the wardrobe. I’ll team it with
those black heels with the silk ties I can criss-cross up my legs.’

‘Nice, I’ll go and lay it out for you while you
check your emails. Deli sandwich for lunch or are you feeling Sushi?’

‘No fish!’ I uttered, looking at her horrified.

‘So, someone’s definitely planning on getting
up close and very personal tonight,’ she giggled with a clap. I laughed.

‘You’re as bad as Coco and Dom, Violet
Embleton!’

‘Well you look happy, you’ve got this glow
going on and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the glow.’ She leapt up and
raced to my desk to answer the phone as I shook my head. I was happy, even with
“The bitch” to face later. Like Luc said, I just had to stall her a little bit
longer and he’d be ready to take whatever she wanted to throw at him.

I shook myself down and checked my dark grey
textured Ted Baker suit with tapered ankle trousers. I’d teamed it with my
black patent Louboutins and a black cotton shirt with silver cufflinks. My hair
was in a loose chignon and I’d carefully done my lashes and eyeliner to enhance
my best features. A click of the recorder and I was ready. I smiled as I let my
fingers trail over the dozen red roses that Luc had sent to me earlier, with
the saucy message inside. Red was unusual. Every day he’d sent yellow and
orange. Today red. I didn’t want to think about what he was trying to signify with
that. I had too much to focus on right now.

‘Mrs. Le Grand and creepy
Lurch-a-like
sidekick,’
announced Violet as she opened the door, comparing Raul to the servant in
The
Addams Family
. I suppressed a giggle as Mrs. Le Grand shot her a glare. ‘Please
let me fetch you a cup of “disgusting” English coffee?’ Violet offered with a
straight face. ‘The face you pull on tasting it would really be a definite
improvement.’

‘How
dare
you,’ she hissed. ‘I have
never been so insulted in my life!’

‘I really find that very hard to believe,’
Violet scoffed.

‘Do you have any idea who I am?’

‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise that you had a
mental impairment too. If you’re not sure of your name I could always sew a name
label in the collar of your hideous fur coat for you? Have you had it checked
recently? I think it was made from foxes with mange. It looks like you have
fleas.’