The Temptress (16 page)

‘Isabelle?’ came his concerned voice as he
stepped closer. I quickly wiped my face and reached out to grab my clutch and
my book.

‘I’m sorry, I need to leave.’ I shot to my feet,
tearing my eyes away from the picture of my face lying on the countertop. A
face that looked so happy, free and relaxed. So
sated
after a night of
exquisite passion. He leaned forward to pick it up, hastily putting it back
into his wallet as I slipped his room key back into his pocket. I was done,
this wasn’t worth two million pounds, I was not destroying him, not when he
hadn’t done anything wrong.

‘You’re upset, you know this woman? She’s your
sister, maybe?’ he queried, looking at me puzzled, then took a sudden shocked gasp.
‘She
was
your sister?’ His voice broke as he asked the last question and
shot off his stool, looking at me confused and hurt. I shook my head and I
couldn’t help myself, I reached up to palm his cheek, to run my thumb over his
prominent cheekbone, over the face I knew so well. I did see it every day, but
not just in my dreams. I saw it reflected in the face of my son, the face of
his
son. A son he didn’t even know he had. He drew in a sharp breath as he captured
my wrist, the atmosphere between us changing in an instant, heat shimmering in
the small space between our bodies as his eyes darkened with desire and his
posture straightened. Damn it, he’d realised it was me. Before I had a chance
to react, his free hand shot up to my head and removed my blonde wig, tossing
it to the floor, my brown hair tumbled free and cascading down my shoulders.
‘Lulu, ma belle, c’est vraiment toi? It’s really you?’ he choked.

Hearing my name pass his lips, his nickname for
me of “my beauty” and feeling the need in him the moment he realised it was me,
was too much. I was overcome with emotion to have the father of my child
standing right in front of me, his face and body telling me that he still
wanted me every bit as much as I wanted him. But I had so many questions that
needed answering, before I even thought about what that meant in the grand
scheme of things and it wasn’t like I didn’t know where to find him now. I
could come to The Domville any weekend to see him. I tore my wrist from his
grasp and ran for the exit, my heart pounding, hearing him call my name behind
me.

‘Tell me you’re there with the car, Mike,
please,’ I begged, as I ran through the lobby, noticing people looking as I
tried to wipe the tears from my face.

‘I’m at the car, but I’ve got to drive around,
one minute.’

I wasn’t sure I had one minute, I could hear
footsteps running behind me, the noise of metal toe taps clattering on the
marble floor. I reached the side door and yelped as my shoulder connected with
the immobile glass. Damn it! It was locked. With seconds to spare before he
caught up with me, I jumped through the narrowing gap of the revolving door,
begging the segment to move faster as I looked over my shoulder to see him
approaching at speed. The gap closed, leaving no room for him to join me and I
heard him curse as he slammed into the glass separating us, making it shudder.
We stood in our own little sections, one piece of glass separating us, him
taking a step towards me as it jerked forwards inch by inch, as I took one
back, our eyes locked the entire time, both panting. Nothing could protect me
from the inferno blazing between us now. It was no longer one sided. The
thought that he’d not reacted like that until he knew for sure it was me, was
heady. It was as if he’d turned off the tap of his sexual desire the morning I
left and meeting me in the bar earlier, that tap had started dripping as his
body reacted to mine, to the stirring of an echo in his memories. But it wasn’t
until his brain registered who I was that the tap couldn’t contain the force
behind it any longer and now it was flowing nothing could stem the tide. He
shoved a hand through his hair as he tried to catch his breath and I saw him
whisper my name as he stepped up to the glass separating us and put his palm
flat on it. I moved forwards, without even thinking about it and did the same,
feeling as if our skin was actually touching, that nothing could separate us.
Time hadn’t, what was a measly piece of toughened glass? I felt a cool breeze
as we continued to slowly move and looked behind me, a gap appearing to the
outside. I looked back at him as I reached down with one hand and pulled off my
one heel. He shook his head as I moved my palm away from his and removed my
other heel, ready to run. I reluctantly turned my back on him as I waited to
squeeze out.

‘Where’s the car, Mike?’ I demanded. ‘I don’t
have much time.’

‘Left down the front of the hotel and I’m at
the end of the walkway, I can see the curve of the revolving door from here.’

‘Have the back door open and be ready to drive
the minute I hit the back seat,’ I warned, edging closer now the gap was nearly
big enough for me to get through.

‘Lulu, are you in physical danger?’ came
Henry’s concerned voice.

‘No, but he knows it’s me and I can’t handle
him right now, he’ll have too many questions and I don’t want to lie. I need
time to think this through. God damn it, this was a mistake, I should have
walked away the minute I knew it was him.’

‘What’s done is done. We’ve done our job to the
best of our ability. As soon as you’re safely in the car I’ll pack up. I’ll
review the footage in the morning before we debrief, ok?’

‘Yes,’ I sighed, as I heard Luc shouting my
name again, then his fist banging on the glass, swearing in French as I started
to squeeze through the gap that had opened up. The minute I was out I didn’t
look back, I started running like my life depended on it. The small night
lights along the path were like a runway, guiding me to Mike and the waiting
car I could just see further ahead in the dark. I heard my name being yelled
again and looked behind to see him running after me, lost my footing and went
flying, bouncing ungainly on the concrete slabs below winding myself. ‘Shit,’ I
muttered, as I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the dizziness that had
hit me from the shock of the fall. My right hand, which I’d held out to cushion
the fall, had a sharp pain shooting through it and my knee was killing me. God
knows where the shoes, book and clutch were, as I wasn’t holding them anymore.
I just wanted to lie there, to close my eyes and sob with frustration at the
whole bloody mess I was in. Suddenly I felt weightless, as a pair of hands
lifted me up, then gently set me down on my feet, steadying me as I wobbled. He
slowly turned me around and leaned me back against the hotel wall, breathing
heavily as he clasped my face and turned my head to each side, looking for
damage.

‘Merde, are you ok?’ he demanded, tearing his
eyes from mine to scan my body and assess the damage. My hand was throbbing, so
was my knee, but they were overshadowed by the emotions I was feeling to be
back here, pinned against a wall by such a magnetic alpha male.

‘Yes,’ I whimpered, my entire body trembling.
He moved closer, it was different this time, without shoes, even with my
height, I was only level with the hollow of his throat, instead of those
irresistible lips. Instead of pressing up against me, as he had all those years
ago, I felt myself being pulled tightly against him, my face buried in the
curve of his neck, his strong, powerful arms tightening around me. Memories
came flooding back as I felt his hard, warm body against mine, his heart beat
flexing against my chest and that large hard shaft of his pulsating against my
stomach. Memories of our hot bodies writhing, coated in perspiration as he
brought me to one climax after another. God I wanted him again, so badly.

‘Are you sure?’ He asked again, one of his
hands twisting in my hair, gently pulling my face up to his. I cast my eyes
down, unable to look at him. Unsure of what to say if he asked what the hell
was going on. ‘
Lulu,
look at me, regardez-moi,’ he demanded, forcefully.

‘I can’t,’ I whispered, totally confused at
which emotion I should be tuning into. The pain of my bruised body or the pain battering
my chest, the excitement or the nerves to be so close to him again, the sexual
longing his presence had awoken, or the feeling of fear that his horrible wife
was going to rip the two of us to shreds. I was convinced now that she knew
exactly who I was, she’d searched me out and sent me to him at the last minute,
blind, knowing that I’d find it hard to pretend and knowing that he still
carried a torch for me after all this time. I was her scapegoat. I was the
woman she was going to vilify for breaking up her marriage.

‘Regardez-moi!’ he commanded sharply.

‘Mike, go help her out,’ Henry exclaimed.

‘Miss McQueen?’ Mike questioned.

‘I’m fine, I promise I’m fine,’ I replied
firmly, hoping they’d know I was talking to them and not to Luc.

‘I’m not,’ snapped Luc. ‘You sit talking with
me, you know who I am and you say nothing. Rien du tout! You are wearing
different hair and these,
damn lenses
that cover the beauty of your natural
eyes. Lulu, what the
hell
is going on?’

‘I’m sorry, I saw you and I just … I should
have walked away,’ I whispered, staring at the gap in his white shirt which
he’d left unbuttoned at the top, showing me a glimpse of his hard smooth chest
that I just wanted to kiss.

‘Non! You should have told me, you should have
told me it was you, but instead you deceive me, then when the game is up you
flee. Encore, you flee, just like Paris. I spend the best night of my life with
you and wake in the morning to find you gone. Do you have any idea what that
did to me? I returned to The Domville and waited in the lobby for hours hoping
to see you before you left for the airport. Why do you keep running from me?
God damn it, look at me! I need an explanation. For then and for tonight.’ He
pulled harder on my hair, tipping my chin right up into the air and glared down
at me. He was furious and he had every right to be. ‘Mon Dieu, woman, what hold
do you have on me after all these years,’ he muttered, as his lips crashed down
onto mine, his hand in the small of my back pulling me even closer to him. Sparks
flew as our mouths melded, longing pooling between my thighs as I reached to
clutch his powerful shoulders, before one hand snaked up to grasp at his hair,
ignoring the pain in my wrist. I already felt light headed after my fall, a
kiss like this wasn’t helping, I felt like I was about to pass out. He still
kissed like a conquering warrior, plundering and taking everything in his path,
until nothing was left standing but him and his spoils. He groaned loudly, my
name tangled up somewhere in my mouth, between our duelling and hungry tongues
and I heard a discreet cough in my ear piece, snapping me back to reality. I quickly
let go and shoved his shoulders, catching him by surprise. He staggered
backwards, trying to right himself as I ran the few remaining steps for the
car, ignoring the throbbing pain in my knee and jumped into the backseat.
‘LULU!’ he roared, his beautiful face contorted with rage, as I slammed the
door and Mike put his foot on the accelerator. I turned to look out of the back
window, to see him standing in the middle of the road, my shoes in one hand, my
clutch bag in the other, staring after us as we sped away.

‘Shit!’ I moaned and threw myself back against
the seat.

‘What the
hell
just happened?’ exclaimed
Mike.

‘Possibly the end of my career,’ I sighed, as I
reached up to touch my lips, still swollen from that brutal kiss. A kiss that
had me longing for more. I winced at the pain in my hand, my wrist was already bruising.

‘Are you ok?’ asked Henry.

‘I think I’ve sprained my wrist and my knee is
bleeding quite badly,’ I advised, as I looked down to where my dress was ripped
and covered in blood. ‘I can patch myself up at home.’

‘That’s not what I meant, Lulu. It’s
him
.’

‘You think I don’t know that,’ I bit, I was so
frustrated and confused.

‘What the
hell
is going on?’ demanded
Mike again, shooting me a glance in the rear view mirror. ‘Who is this guy?’

‘I told you before, an old flame,’ I sighed.

‘I’d say that’s the understatement of the year.
Does he know?’ asked Henry.

‘Know what?’ I asked, as I leaned my head back
against the headrest and closed my eyes, cradling my aching wrist against my
chest.

‘About Tristan?’

‘No,’ I whispered, fear suddenly gripping me in
an icy embrace. Even forgetting Mrs. Le Grand’s scheming for now, even
forgetting my feelings for a man I barely knew, how was I going to handle
knowing the father of my son spent every weekend not half an hour away from my
home. From his own son. They had a right to know each other, but that made me
even more scared. ‘How did you know, Henry?’ I asked.

‘I should have seen it earlier, but I was
distracted with you knowing him. The resemblance is remarkable.’

‘What resemblance, what’s going on?’ Mike
repeated.

‘Luc Le Grand isn’t just a guy I had a fling
with, Mike. He’s Tristan’s father,’ I sighed.

‘Holy shit,’ he muttered. ‘Does he know?’

‘No!’ I replied quickly, opening my eyes. ‘We
went our separate ways, I had no way of finding him again.’

‘Well that nipper is going to be one good
looking dude if he follows in his father’s footsteps,’ Henry said.

‘He really is,’ I agreed, with a gentle smile.
‘Can you do me one favour before you pack up, Henry?’

‘Sure?’

‘I dropped my clutch bag when I fell, which
contains my phone and he has it now. Can you somehow turn it off, or remotely
wipe the data, until I figure this all out, I don’t want him to be able to use
it to find me. I need a time out to decide how to handle this.’

‘Piece of cake!’ he announced proudly. ‘Who
needs Ian Smith when you have Henry Barking on the case? I’ll pick you up a new
one in the morning and upload the cloud data onto it, it will be like you never
lost the original.’