The Temptress (39 page)

‘Enough,’ bellowed Luc, changing from joviality
to scary dominance in the blink of an eye, making all of us jump. ‘You will
not
address the woman I love as a whore.’

‘Love,’ she gasped.

‘Yes, love,’ he replied, his tone softening
considerably. ‘I am sorry if I inadvertently hurt you in any way, Myrtille, but
ours was a marriage of convenience, we were both clear on this fact from the
start, we laid our cards on the table and formed a solid financial union. If
you have fallen in love with me, then I am sorry, but this is not my problem. I
however will be clear on the fact that I am not, nor have I ever been in love
with you. I came to you broken, because my heart already belonged to the woman
at my side. I have never stopped loving her and I never will. Pick up the brown
envelope on the table. You will find divorce papers. I expect you to sign them
now. I will not be tethered to someone so toxic for another moment.’

‘I will do no such thing,’ she snapped back. ‘
You
do not divorce
me
. I am going to seek a divorce for unreasonable
behaviour and adultery. I intend to destroy you financially in the process as
well.’ She tossed her head back as she smirked, believing the game to be over,
only she had no idea what lay in the other envelope on that coffee table.

‘I am curious, what did I do that made you hate
me so much?’ Luc asked. ‘I stayed faithful to you for five years of marriage. Given
you knew of my sexual reputation when you met me, you should be thanking me for
not straying sooner.’

‘Thanking you!’ she hissed, fury seeping from
every pore. ‘You fucked everyone but me! The only time you touched me was our
wedding night and you were so drunk you didn’t even realise it was me. You
called me …
Lulu
. You whispered
her
name in my ear on
our
wedding
night. I will never forgive you for this,’ she bit angrily, the first trace of
raw emotion I’d ever seen flickering in her eyes. I dropped my head to my
chest, feeling awful. She wasn’t a nice woman, but to have fallen in love with
a man who was in love with someone else can’t have been easy. To be so close,
but to be on the outside looking in? I felt a shiver run down my back and Luc
ran his hand gently up and down my arm.

‘I had no idea you felt that way for me,
Myrtille, I only had a vague recollection of my behaviour that night. I am truly
sorry, but I repeat, it was not a marriage born of love. It was never going to
be and I made this clear before we proceeded. If you crossed that line, then I
am not at fault. I will not apologise for my heart already belonging to Lulu.
Finding her again has made me realise how unhappy I have been for the last five
years. You should view this as a chance to start over, to free yourself of a
man who can never love you in return and try again with one that might.’

‘I
will
be freeing myself of you,’ she
snapped. ‘I will be the one pursing a divorce, not you. I will be releasing the
news of your ongoing affair and this …
child
of yours as of tomorrow
morning. You will no longer be able to trade in any stocks or securities
associated with our bank and your accounts will be closed first thing in the
morning. No one will touch you when they hear that we no longer want your
business. No one crosses a Bouchon and gets away with it,
no one!
’ she
sneered, with a combined look of contempt and triumph written all over her
face.

‘I think you might want to ask Raul to step
outside for a moment,’ I advised her, as I leaned forward and picked up the TV
remote.

‘Raul stays with me, I will not be ganged up on
by the two of you.’

‘I would
strongly
recommend that you ask
him to wait for you in Reception. I am about to show you why you won’t be
proceeding with that headline, why you
will
sign Luc’s divorce papers
and why he will be free to continue buying and selling Bouchon shares as long
as he, or any of his associates, continue to trade. I think once you see what I
have to show you, you’ll realise that I’m not …
horsing around,
’ I added
with a poignant stare. She blinked at me a few times and the colour quickly
drained from her face again as she obviously twigged why we’d been dropping
horse references from the moment she entered the room.

‘You have nothing on me,’ she hissed, but
sounded unsure of her convictions. ‘You are trying the bluff on me.’

‘Then please, ask Raul to take a seat and I’ll
have Violet bring some popcorn in a fodder bag for each of you to enjoy the
show,’ I suggested, with a shrug.

‘Raul, laissex-nous maintenant,’ she barked
with a click of her fingers. He did as he was told, not hesitating to look back
this time as he closed the door behind him.

‘I do not know what game you are playing, Ms.
McQueen, but it does not amuse.’

‘It is not I that likes to play games, Mrs. Le
Grand, I leave that to you, it appears that you’re quite the master. Setting me
up to snare your husband, trying to blackmail me and blacklist him and my
favourite of all your games. Pony play.’ I pressed the start button on the DVD
and sat back, not taking my eyes off hers for a second, even when Luc kissed my
temple. The look on her face as the recording started to play was priceless. I
so owed my father for this. The minute I knew she was going to try and strong
arm me, I’d tasked him to resume his duties and utilise his skills. He’d flown
to Paris immediately with an ex-colleague and had set up a temporary office in
The Domville hotel. They’d been following and investigating Myrtille, while she
was doing the same with Luc and me, but she’d been totally unaware of that fact.
She’d put the fear of God into me last week, reducing my deadline to one week
instead of two, I’d been so worried Dad wouldn’t be able to find any dirt on
her in time. Luckily he’d called me on Sunday morning to say he’d hit the
jackpot with this tape. A tape showing Myrtille, out in the forests of Le
Chesnay, near Versailles. A
naked
Myrtille with a bit between her teeth,
leather reigns attached, a saddle on her back and a butt plug up her backside,
with a long black horse tail protruding from it.

‘Arrête,’ she whispered. ‘Stop, please.’

‘Really? It’s not quite
Black Beauty
is
it, but the filming quality is so sharp and clear.’

‘I said stop it,’ she ordered, her voice
trembling.

‘But we haven’t got to the highlight of the
film. Luc, what’s a horse orgy called in French?’ I asked as I turned to give
him a smile.

‘You have made your point, Ms, McQueen,’ she
said quietly. ‘It seems I underestimated you.’

‘Yes, you did,’ I replied, as I pressed stop
and turned to face her. ‘This is why I’m so good at my job, people always
underestimate me. I was prepared to walk away, to let you and Luc come to some
mutual understanding over the state of your marriage, but you threw my attempts
to stop this in my face and
dared
to threaten my son.’

‘
Our
son,’ Luc growled, with a
surprising level of anger in his tone.

‘So, it appears we have a standoff,’ she stated
as she straightened herself up, trying to regain some dignity, which given what
we’d just seen was fairly difficult.

‘It appears we do,’ I confirmed. ‘You will call
off your press release tomorrow, there will be
no
“leaks” regarding my
relationship with your husband, or the fact that you hired me to try to entrap
him. I also have audio recordings of our sessions, which are lodged with my solicitor,
along with a copy of this DVD. You do
anything
to try to ruin my
reputation, or Luc’s, or come at me through my son, all of this will be made
public knowledge. I’m sure the fall out for you will be far more severe, than
the headline of a respected and trusted financier re-uniting with an old lover
and a child he didn’t know existed. I won’t be returning your deposit, it will
be put in trust for my son, as means of compensation for what you’ve forced on
a five year old little boy. A little boy who’s confused over suddenly being
told he has a father who wants to meet him. I have to deal with the potential
disruption to his life dealing with that. Half a million doesn’t even began to
cover the emotional trauma you’ve put us through by forcing this situation on
him, or for poor Luc, who has to be patient until our son is ready to meet him,
when all he wants to do is just hug him and hold him in his arms. I have
nothing
left to say to you, Mrs. Le Grand, never contact me again and do
not
test me again. You hired me to end your marriage and I have done so. Our
professional relationship is over,’ I warned her, the shake of emotion in my
voice suddenly obvious. ‘Are we clear?’

‘Oui, yes we are clear,’ she replied, with her
head down and her fingers tightly knotted together in her lap.

‘Excellent. Then I will leave you and Luc to
discuss the divorce papers he’s had drawn up and your private financial affairs.’
I quickly stood up and blew out a deep breath, suddenly hit with relief that it
was all over. Luc shot to his feet beside me and dragged his knuckles softly
down my cheek.

‘Stay, I have nothing to hide from you.’

‘No. I’ve already interfered enough in your
marriage, this is between you and your wife. Your finances don’t concern me,
they’ll
never
concern me, ok?’ I nodded as I kissed his fingers and he
let out a sigh, nodding his agreement in return. I didn’t look back at her as
he held my hand and walked me to the door.

‘I will not be long, ma belle. Wait for me?’

‘Now we’ve found each other again, I’d wait for
you forever,’ I whispered as I kissed him, making him smile. ‘Thank you for
allowing me to handle that, I know it can’t have been easy for you.’

‘A ride in the park,’ he winked, making me
giggle.

‘You think this is funny,’ hissed Myrtille
behind us. ‘You were
my
husband, you cheated on me.’

‘I think that we just proved you cheated first,
Myrtille,’ Luc snapped, as we turned to face her. She’d risen from the sofa and
was glaring at us, her face puce with anger.

‘You cheated long before I. You married me when
you were already in love with another woman. With this …
putain!
’ she
snarled.

‘How dare you …’ Luc started to growl, but I
cut him off and walked toward her. This was between us now. I faced her, sure
the anger in my eyes reflected her own. She was used to getting her own way,
but we’d trapped her and backed her into a corner, forcing her to comply with
our demands, something I was sure she’d never encountered before. No wonder she
was furious, but I’d had enough. I slapped her as hard as I could across the
face.

‘You call
me
a whore?’ I bit. ‘I didn’t
interfere in your marriage until
you
paid me to, well after you were
already horsing around, while Luc stayed faithful. You have no one to blame but
yourself. You married a man knowing it was for convenience, while I may feel
sorry for you that you fell in love with him and it wasn’t reciprocated, that’s
not my fault and it’s not Luc’s either. You treated him abysmally, paying me to
try to destroy him, using our son against us. I’ve been restrained up until
now, but call me a whore again and I won’t be held responsible for my actions.’

‘Very well, I’ll call you a bitch instead,’ she
shot back, returning my slap with one of her own. I gasped and shoved her,
making her stumble back against the sofa. She quickly righted herself and flew
at me, her fingers clawing at my face, knocking me to the ground as she
shrieked and unleashed a torrent of abuse in French. I was so stunned that I
didn’t have time to react before Luc yelled at her in his native tongue and
hauled her off me, throwing her back onto the sofa. She quickly huddled up in
the corner as he helped me up and checked for damage.

‘I’m fine, honestly I’m fine,’ I reassured him,
though I was shaking with anger. I wanted to get in a boxing ring with this
woman, use that session to pour out all of my frustrations with her at what
she’d done to us. ‘Please, just sort this out. Get her out of your life once
and for all. You deserve better.’

‘I have better, ma belle, I have you,’ he
confirmed, as he ran his knuckles down my cheek. I heard Myrtille mutter
something and fixed her with a glare as I left them to it. I leaned back on the
door as I pulled it to behind me and blew out a sigh of relief, then grimaced
as I heard him roar at her in French. I knew he’d been holding back for my
sake, well it seemed she was about to get both barrels and then some. I hastily
made my way to Reception, leaving them to duke it out.

‘So?’ asked Violet, her eyebrows raised in
anticipation. I glanced around looking for Raul. ‘Don’t worry, I told him he
had to wait outside. I wasn’t sitting here with him, he gives me the willies.
Was he one of the riders that was fucking her?’

‘I have no idea, I couldn’t bring myself to
watch past seeing her all kitted out. Henry gave me the précis after reviewing
it. I really owe him a big bonus after the last few weeks.’

‘She’s backed down though, right?’

‘She has, eventually,’ I nodded with a smile,
suddenly swaying on my feet. I grabbed the edge of the desk to steady myself.

‘You need coffee and something to eat, I warned
you not to skip lunch,’ Vi chastised, as she shot around the desk. She led me
to the sofa, sat me down and brought me a hot drink, along with my avocado
sandwich and caramel square. My absolute favourites. I wolfed them down, I was
ravenous now I had that under my belt.

‘I pity the girl we take on to do your job,’ I
smiled as I reached over and squeezed her hand. ‘She has the most enormous
shoes to fill.’

‘Sorry horse shoes was that?’ she asked, trying
to keep a straight face, until we both burst out laughing.