The Temptress

by C. J. Fallowfield

  ‘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.’

  Epilogue

  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.