The Temptress (49 page)

Luc was right, best day ever.

 Lulu

Sunday

David, Luc’s chauffeur, had turned up this morning to
collect us all and we’d headed out into the country, ending up at Luc’s house.
I looked at him curiously, I’d thought we were going out for Sunday lunch. He
smiled at me as he deftly undid Tristan’s seat belt on the car seat and lifted
him out, carrying him on one hip as he held out his hand for me and led me to
the front door. He opened it and gestured for me to go in first, but I stalled
in my tracks. It hadn’t been that long since I’d last been here, the walls had
still been bare plaster, but now they were painted in a soft dove grey, just
highlighting the brilliance of the white gloss on the original dado rails.
There were a couple of cosy leather arms chairs by the fireplace and some
artwork on the walls, pieces I recognised after he’d been asking me my tastes.
I walked in as he gently guided me forward, closing the front door behind him
and opened the door to the formal lounge, which was done in the same colour
palette, filled with distressed white baroque furniture. I could just imagine
afternoon high tea being served in here in winter time, with a roaring fire and
glasses of champagne.

‘How?’ I uttered, as I looked up at him.

‘Money is a powerful commodity and motivator,’
he chuckled. We wandered over to the door off the hall to the dining room. It
was sumptuously done in deep purples with silver and lime green accents, with
the largest table I’d ever seen in the centre and more stunning original
chandeliers to match those in the hall.

‘You did it all in the colours I said I liked,’
I whispered, as I looked up at him. We’d spent one morning in bed, with him
asking me what I’d do if it was my house. He just smiled and kissed the top of
my head.

‘When you come to stay, I want it to feel like
home, to both of you. Come, let me show you upstairs.’ He carried Tristan up
and stopped on the first floor, heading to a room at the front of the house,
over his study and turned the handle, just pushing it slightly, without us
being able to see inside. ‘Now, this is a real surprise, I want you both to
close your eyes,’ he warned. Tristan giggled and covered his eyes with his
hands. Luc raised his eyebrows at me, so I smiled, shaking my head and closed
them. I felt him take my hand and lead me forward, then he told me to stop and
gently nudged my shoulder making me turn slightly. When he spoke, telling us we
could open our eyes again, he sounded almost nervous and I heard Tristan’s
scream of delight before I even managed to take in what I was looking at. Luc
set Tristan down and he wasted no time racing around like a crazy thing as I
covered my mouth with my hands, shaking my head as tears filled my eyes to take
in the sight before me. ‘You don’t like it?’ Luc asked, looking at me
concerned.

‘I
love
it,’ I whispered, as I clasped
his hand tightly again and tried to take it in. What had been a massive empty
bedroom with its own built in wardrobe and en-suite, had been turned into
Tristan’s dream bedroom. There was a large wooden painted tree in the corner,
supporting a sleeping platform. A large grey elephant was reaching up with his
trunk to feed on the leaves with the steps up to the bed built into his back.
There was another bed under the tree and all of the walls had been painted in a
zoo theme, full of elephants of all sizes. He had a desk, a gaming corner with
an X-box, a whole stack of brightly coloured boxes to put his toys in, some of
them full already and his own flat screen TV. The large sash windows had
painted white shutters to close at night and the old floorboards had been
covered in a soft beige carpet. Tristan had already made it up to the top bed
in the tree and was shouting for me to go up and have a look.

‘Go, it’s a proper staircase,’ Luc smiled. He
stood with his arms folded across his chest as I carefully climbed up and sat
on the end of Tristan’s new bed, which was nearly a double.

‘Tristan, what do you think?’

‘Awesome,’ he nodded, spotting a small slide
down the other side of the elephant and launching himself down it with a
squeal.

‘This is your room, Tristan, when you and Mummy
come to stay here, do you like it?’ Luc asked, as he scooped him up from the
floor.

‘I love it, Daddy.’ He flung his arms around
Luc’s neck and kissed him. Luc laughed and set him down and let him carry on
exploring, as I came down the slide as well and launched myself into his arms,
plastering his face in kisses.

‘This is so beautiful, thank you, thank you,
thank you. You’ve no idea how happy he is,’ I uttered, stunned at what he’d
done for us.

‘I think I do,’ he laughed, as Tristan tugged
on my trousers.

‘Mummy, I’ve got my own bathroom. Come and
see.’

I was completely amazed, Luc had even had a set
of elephant steps made to help Tristan reach the sink to wash his hands, and
the wardrobe had some clothes in for him. He’d already got a box of the loose
Lego out and was playing happily on the floor, so Luc showed me the remaining
guest rooms, all of which had been painted cream and had the same white baroque
furniture to match the range in the lounge and the few pieces he’d had in his
room.

‘I wanted these rooms to be somewhat finished
in case we invited anyone over when you’re here, so I chose plain cream, you
can do them however you want if you’d like to change them.’

‘You must have spent a fortune.’

‘I have a fortune,’ he reminded me, leading me
upstairs. The guest room had been done in cream as well and he let me into the
hobbies room, which had been turned into a pink and white feminine office.
‘This is for you, in case you ever need to work when you are here, somewhere
quiet but in earshot of our boy.’

‘Luc,’ I shook my head, he’d even kitted it out
with a brand new Mac for me, iPad docking station, bookshelves, Peter Smith
artwork and comfortable seating. I didn’t have time to explore as he ushered me
out and across to his bedroom. I was lost for words as I took it in. I’d shown
him wallpaper I loved, it was silver with pink and white lovebirds in cages
scattered across it, and the back wall had been done in that very paper, the
rest of the walls were white. I had a huge dressing table stocked with my
favourite toiletries and perfume, but what really took my breath away were
black and white canvases on the wall opposite the bed, loads of them, pictures
of me, of Tristan and the two of us together. Tears were flowing freely as I
buried my face in Luc’s chest, overcome with emotion. He held me tightly with
one arm, the other stroking my hair. He’d turned his house into a home, a home
for the three of us, it was obvious without him even saying it.

‘There’s no rush, maybe we could try weekends here
first and see how it fits, but one day, I really hope that you’ll both want to
be here. There’s an excellent primary school in the village. Dunsmaster, a
highly respected private boys school is not too far away for when he turns
eleven. This could be our family home for life. We’d never have to move again.
There’s enough room for lots of little Le Grands when the time is right.’

‘I’m not filling the other four bedrooms with
babies,’ I mumbled. ‘Two maximum.’

‘Are we negotiating babies?’ he chuckled. ‘I’m
renowned for my negotiating skills.’

‘Not when my vagina’s involved you’re not, or
you’ll never have “tight” sex again.’

‘You could have decapulets and still rival any
woman I have ever been with.’

‘So romantic,’ I laughed, pulling away to wipe
my eyes. ‘No way am I having ten more. Two and you have a deal.’

‘We’ll see,’ he smiled, sweeping my hair over
my shoulder and taking me to the new dressing table, sitting me down on the
stool as he pulled out some cotton wool and my eye makeup remover, then crouched
down as he cleaned off my mascara and eyeliner.

‘How are you so loving and caring?’ I asked.
‘You’re a miracle, my miracle.’

‘When you live life without love it becomes
easy to recognise it and want to cherish it. I told you, you’ll never lack for
anything as long as you’re with me.’

‘Mummy?’ came a startled voice.

‘Upstairs, darling,’ I called. Luc went to open
the door to show him where we were and we led him around each and every room on
each floor, so he knew his way around and wouldn’t be frightened again, with
the exception of the playroom which Luc thankfully kept locked. Mrs. Pattison
was cooking lunch for us in the kitchen and soon had Tristan sitting up on a
stool at the kitchen island, licking cake batter off a spoon, but as soon as he
finished lunch, he disappeared back up to his new bedroom to play and was more
than happy to hear that Luc wanted us to stay the night. Mrs Pattison wanted to
know what Tristan’s favourite meals were and Luc told me that we’d be eating
without Tristan tonight, that Claire would be coming to stay to keep an eye on
him while we went out. He confirmed that Coco and Dom had been in on his plans,
helping him with the photographs and booking Claire for the night, which
explained their sudden departure after nearly letting something slip on the
phone last night. So when it was time for Tristan to eat I showed Mrs Pattison
how to make my macaroni cheese soufflé, Claire coming just in time to join him
for some. He was so happy to see her and she was in awe at the house, I still
was. They went to sit in the family room to watch the Lego movie, as I helped
Mrs Pattison clear up, despite her protestations that she was fine.

Luc appeared just in time for Tristan’s
bedtime, looking dashing in a navy suit and a white shirt, unbuttoned at the
neck with no tie. Tristan insisted on the two of us and Claire all coming up to
his bed, where we each had to read him a chapter of his story. Claire offered
to sleep in his spare bed, in case he woke up scared. She had her own bedside
light under the shelter of the tree and was happy to read. I kissed them both
goodnight when Luc checked his watch and told me I needed to go up and get ready,
that everything I needed was already laid out on the bed. He was almost right,
I had a gorgeous set of matching gold lace knickers and bra with tiny pearls
sewn into them, some stunning new gold laser cut designer heels and a white
bodycon dress with gold edging. He’d even purchased me a gorgeous little gold
glitter clutch by BoBelle London, that Coco knew I’d been eyeing up. I roughly
pinned my hair up and sat at the dressing table, surprised to find no makeup.
He’d put all of my usual moisturisers, cleansers, toners and serums, but not
one scrap of makeup. I could have sworn I’d seen some earlier when he’d opened
one of the drawers to get the cotton wool. I headed to the bathroom and checked
there, shampoo, conditioner, dental supplies, no makeup. Damn it. It wasn’t
like I couldn’t get away without wearing any, I had flawless skin, dark lashes
and my eyes definitely helped, but I was so used to wearing it. I put my phone
in my clutch, surprised to find a load of tissues inside it, but he’d said not
to be long, so I hurried to the bedroom door. I was at the top of the stairs
when I saw that there were orange, yellow and red rose petals sprinkled from
the bedroom door, all the way down the stairs.
What was going on?
I
followed them down to the landing, resisting the urge to go and check on
Tristan, and continued to the ground floor, across the hall and into the
kitchen, totally baffled. The petals headed all the way up to the French doors,
which led out onto the patio. There was a hand written note taped to the glass
saying:

I did as instructed, putting the key in my
clutch. It was only when I turned around that I noticed the glowing candle bags
lining the path down to the orangery, from which a gentle soft light was
emanating. I walked carefully in my new heels and opened the door, feeling the
heat rising from the pool as I stepped inside, the sight that met my eyes
taking my breath away. As if Luc standing waiting for me, with his hands in his
pockets, wasn’t bad enough, hundreds of candles had been lit all around the
edges of the pool, spheres of light were floating in the water and nets of
fairy lights created a canopy above us. I felt like Daniel Craig during the
scene in
Skyfall
when he floated across the beautifully lit lake towards
the Casino in Macau. It was stunning and I could hear the faint sound of
A
Thousand Years
by Christina Perri playing in the background. The reason for
my lack of makeup and the tissues became clear as I felt my eyes watering
again. Luc strode over, gripping my backside as he kissed me with purpose,
breaking away when I whimpered and grasped his powerful biceps for support. I
blinked a few times as I tried to refocus.