The Ceo's Contracted Mistress
The Ceo’s Contracted Mistress Chapter 13

Bobbie’s eyes were burning. She was exhausted. She was curled up on her side, aware she’d barely slept an hour. It was now just coming on seven and Olivier was already out of the bed, had showered and had disappeared into the larger outer room of the suites.

She m****d and looked at her phone. She and Everly had been texting for the last fifteen minutes devising a plan of action for the day. She sat up in the bed. Today was the day she was going to throw their children’s lives into utter chaos. It could either make them happy or terrify the hell of them. Likely it would be somewhere in the middle.

She sat up in the bed and pushed her fingers through her hair only to replace it matted and in knots. She was verifiably wrecked. She g*****d as she felt the very real reminder of the reason for her fatigue pulsate between her legs. She wanted nothing more than a long hot soak in a jacuzzi, like she used to do when she was with him in the past.

She found the t-shirt she’d had on the night before and grimaced. How the hell was she supposed to go back to her room wearing just a t-shirt? As if he’d heard her internal struggle, Olivier walked into the room with purpose.

“Good, you’re finally awake.” He walked towards her and tilted her chin to look down at her and then he laughed. “You look like you were up all night.”

“I was,” she croaked out.

“Someone was screaming very loud and lost her voice,” he mocked her kissing her nose.

He deposited a stack of clothes beside her. “Clothes. Get dressed. I want to meet my kids.”

“Olivier,” she protested at his immediate change in posture she put her hands around his wrists. “Listen to me. You’re going to meet them. You’re going to meet them today but I’m not springing you on them like a surprise birthday party. Let me go talk to them first and then I’ll call you down. I know them and if you just walk in and I say this guy’s your daddy, Ollie’s going to come out swinging and Max will shut down.” She squeezed his hands. “Please. Trust me. I know how important this is. I need them to love you and accept you and to do that, I need to have a very real conversation with them first. Please.” She implored him, trying valiantly to make him hear her words.

“You will call me the minute you’re done talking to them? I don’t want to wait all day.”

“You won’t have to. They’re up already. I’m going to go back to my room. Shower very quickly and brush this out,” she held up the tangles, “and then Everly is going to bring them to my room. While I talk to the twins, she’s going to tell Lark just in case the twins need their friend for support. When the twins are up to date, I will message you right away. I promise Olivier. If you’re worried, I’m going to run, you can station a guard at my door. I’m fine with it. I know I’m asking you to trust me when just this week you thought I was a swindling w***e, but I’m begging you to trust I know what is best for them right now.”

“I trust you,” he shrugged. “You love your children too much to rob them out of spite Bobbie. I will be here waiting for your call.”

“Okay,” she smiled and exhaled. She moved to stand and then grimaced as her legs shook under her. “I feel like I ran ten k.”

He hugged her to his chest with a wide smile, “best workout I’ve had in a long time.”

She giggled as he tangled his hands into the knot at the back of her head. “You made a mess of my hair.”

“If we had time, I’d spend time just brushing this out for you but I’m anxious.”

She stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I’ll get dressed and go down. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done talking to them.”

He turned his face and captured her lips kissing her slowly and leisurely. “Thank you, Bobbie.”

“Don’t thank me yet. Wait until I leave you alone with them. They’re heathens.” She laughed as he growled at her. “Hey, I’ve been a single mom for eight years. I’m looking forward to going shopping alone, maybe a spa day at an actual spa instead of in my bathroom with three kids begging for me to put cucumbers on their faces or,” she clapped her hands excitedly, “you can take the calls from Ollie’s teachers when she punches another kid in the face.” She punched the air excitedly. “I’m so looking forward to saying, ‘uh, let me get her dad.’”

She chortled with laughter at his stunned silence and then her air was whooshed from her lungs when he lifted her up in the air and slammed her onto the mattress and covered her body with his.

“You are having a lot of fun at my expense.” His long leg was between her thighs, his elbows on either side of her head.

“You have no idea,” she grinned unabashedly at him. “Maybe you can sign up with Grady to be Scoutmaster.”

He nuzzled her neck playfully, “you are tormenting me.”

“I sure am,” she giggled as he tickled her side. Her phone buzzed on the nightstand, and she made a face. “That will be Everly asking me where I am.”

“I will leave you to get dressed.” He stood up and pulled her into an upright position. He kissed the top of her head and then turned away and headed back to the other rooms. He motioned to a cup she’d not noticed on his side of the bed. “Drink the tea.”

She grabbed the pile of clothes and made her way to the bathroom, taking the tea with her. Someone might consider food in the bathroom gross but as a single mom, she’d eaten more snacks in the bathroom hiding from kids than she cared to admit. Drinking a tea was nothing. She quickly freshened up and found her contact lenses and put them in, blinking at her reflection. She looked rough. No wonder Olivier had teased her. She splashed water on her face and got dressed before making her way back to the living area of the suites. Bobbie could feel the nerves rising up in her chest.

“I’m ready.” Her voice wasn’t near as raspy as she stood barefoot in front of him where he stood looking at his phone.

He laughed at her appearance. “You are out of practice, chérie.”

“Excuse me?”

“You used to be able to get cleaned up and come out to me looking ready to tackle the world. Right now, you appear every bit ready to take a walk of shame back to your room.”

She grabbed a throw pillow off the sofa and whacked him with it. “Walk of shame?”

“Do you remember some of the things we did this morning? You need to spend some time in church for the wicked things you begged me to do. Definitely shameful.”

“A church would collapse on you if you set foot in it,” she hit him again with the pillow fighting the tugging of a smile at her lips.

“It seems we are both sinful,” he winked at her from where he sat on the sofa. “Match made in heaven?”

“Or hell,” she quipped and headed for the elevator swiping the key card. “Do you have more than one of these?”

“Yes, it’s the extra I had brought up with your clothes earlier. You can come and go as you please.”

She was almost at the elevator when he called out.

“Bobbie do not take too long. Also, make sure you impress upon our children I am claiming them, and I am not letting them go and you are part of the package. Where you are, I will be. I meant what I said last night. As of last night, we are a couple. Exclusive. You don’t date anyone but me. We will be married as soon as possible.”

She turned and sighed deeply, the heavy feeling in her chest beginning to weigh her down. She’d been trying to keep things light and playful, but his words sucked it out of the room. She couldn’t fight a billionaire for her children, and she knew it, but she would be lying if she didn’t say she wasn’t terrified by his words. She had so much she wanted to say but instead she simply nodded at him, holding his gaze for a moment and then swiped the card on the elevator.

Her heart was thundering as she made her way to their floor and then entered her room. It took only eight minutes from the time she entered until the time she’d showered and roughly pulled a brush through her hair. She grabbed her phone and sent a text to Everly. “Ready”

She sat on the sofa and scrolled nervously through her phone as the stomping of the kids racing across the hall filled her ears. Her heart was thudding so painfully in her chest her ribcage ached. The story she and Olivier had agreed upon in the early morning hours when they’d finally prepared to sleep echoed in her head. A variation of the truth.

“Mom!” Ollie screamed and raced into the room and lunged at her. “I missed you!”

“I missed you too.”

“What’s that?” Max pointed to a mark on her neck. “Did you hurt yourself?”

Everly behind the kids mouthed the word hickey and she g*****d, “yeah, I was going to use my flat iron on my hair but burned myself. It will heal fast.” She pulled her observant little boy into her arms and hugged him tight as she used the excuse, she’d heard Everly use to the kids a million times in the past.

Everly made a signal she was going to leave and wiggled her hand by her ear in a sign for her to call when she was done. Bobbie nodded at her and smiled at the heart shape the other woman made with her hands over her chest in her direction. She blew a k**s at her and then waited for the door to close.

She sat on the sofa cuddling a child on either side of her and then exhaled slowly. “Ollie and Max, mom has some things she really needs to talk to you about. Do you think we could have a serious conversation?”

“Am I in trouble?” Ollie asked immediately her eyes widening.

“No,” Bobbie giggled at her question. “In fact, this isn’t a bad thing. This is a very good and exciting thing, but we need to talk about a few changes which are going to happen.”

Max frowned, “I don’t like change.”

“I know,” she laughed, “but I’m hoping you like this one.”

She took a deep breath and then let it out, “mommy’s going to start with a story. A long time ago, before you were born, mommy used to work in a coffee shop here in Houston.”

“A coffee shop?” Max curled his nose up. “Really?”

“Yes really. Why is it so strange?”

“Because you’re a paralegal.”

“This was before I was a paralegal.”

“Oh,” Ollie nodded.

“Anyway,” she continued, “I was working, and I met a nice man. He offered me a job and it paid a lot more money than I got at the coffee shop, and it helped me to take care of Auntie Rosamunde when she was sick.” She gave the abridged version of events, “but mommy started to have feelings for the man who offered me the job.”

“What do you mean have feelings?” Max screwed his nose up in disgust. “Like love?”

She chuckled, “yeah.”

“Did you k**s him?” Ollie’s eyes were huge now as she stared at her mom incredulously.

“I did. He liked me too. We kissed a lot.” She made big eyes at them.

“Like Everly and Grady?”

“Even more,” she tickled Max’s waist when he made a gagging noise.

“He was your boyfriend?” Ollie was clearly excited to know her mother had a scandalous side.

“He was,” Bobbie lied without remorse. “I thought he was the best boyfriend in the world.”

“Did you break up? Why didn’t you stay with him?”

“Well,” she put a serious expression on her face at the pleasure in Max’s tone at the question, “then bad things happened, so yes, we broke up.”

“Did you cry?” Ollie asked sadly.

“I cried a lot.” Bobbie admitted to the kids.

“But why?” Max asked earnestly.

“Well. One night two people came to see me, and they told me bad lies about my boyfriend.” She let the word roll off her tongue, “they told me he was an extremely dangerous man and mommy was in a lot of danger because of him and because of it, mommy ran away. I was very scared of him, and I moved to Dallas to stay hidden.”

“He was a bad man?” Max asked, now his eyes wide like Ollie’s.

“No, mommy said they lied to her,” Ollie corrected him, “right mom?”

“Yup. They lied. Then, when mommy was gone, they lied to him and said I was stealing from him and had taken money and things which belonged to him and ran away with his stuff.”

“You thought he was a bad man and he thought you were a thief? You’re not a thief mom. You don’t even let us try the grapes in the supermarket.” Max shook his head. “Why did the people lie?”

“Well, I don’t know and it’s not really important. What is important is, mommy found out on Friday the people lied to us. He is going to replace out why those things happened. He’s going to take care of it and mommy doesn’t have to worry anymore. I don’t need to be scared.”

“Were you still scared of the man even now mom? Before Friday?” Ollie asked curiously.

“I was,” she nodded. “They made me think he was a very mean and very dangerous person but he’s not. Mommy had been right when she first met him when she thought he was the best man she’d ever met.” She exaggerated for their benefit.

“He’s not really a bad guy? He’s a good guy? Like the hulk?” Max asked curiously. “Everyone thinks he’s bad but he’s good.”

“Not quite like the hulk,” she chuckled.

“Is he big and strong?” Max pushed clearly wanting her old friend to be a superhero.

“He is.”

“Did you see him?” Ollie asked curiously, “you said he was going to take care of it. Did you see him?”

“I did.”

“Was he happy to see you? Is he going to be your boyfriend again?” Ollie asked her hands clasped in front her face nervously.

“Well,” she took a breath, “there is more to the story. Can you be a bit more patient so I can finish it off?”

Both kids nodded excitedly, clearly thinking the story was as romantic as a Disney movie.

“When mommy ran away because she was scared, she found out she had babies growing in her belly. She had to be extra careful to keep them safe and protected from the people she thought could hurt her and her babies.”

“You mean us!” Max said jumping up and down on the sofa. “You had to keep us safe.”

“Exactly.”

Ollie wrinkled her brow in confusion, “but he wasn’t a bad man. You didn’t really need to keep us safe from him.”

“Right,” she said as she turned her head to look at Ollie almost seeing the cogs of her mind turning. “When people tell lies, especially ones like these ones, lots of people get hurt. In this case, those people told lies and mommy’s feelings got hurt and the man’s feelings got hurt and you got hurt.”

“How did we get hurt?” Max was confused.

“He’s our dad,” Ollie said suddenly and looked at her mother for confirmation. “Right mom? He is our dad. If he was your boyfriend and you had babies in your belly, he is our dad.”

Bobby couldn’t speak due to the emotion clogging her throat. It choked her and made her chest ache. She could only nod.

“We have a dad?” Max made a face. “I thought we were like the family in the book with just one mom.”

“Yeah, stupid, because she was hiding us from a bad guy who wasn’t a bad guy,” Ollie pushed him as if he were annoying.

Bobbie recognized her daughter was feeling emotional and the need to punch something was as big in her as it had been in her father the night before. She passed her a pillow and Ollie clenched it in her fists. Bobbie watched sadly as both kids processed what she’d told them so far.

“Is he angry?” Ollie asked suddenly.

“Not at you or Max,” she spoke softly touching her daughter’s cheek gently.

“At the bad guys though? Is he mad? Does he want to punch them in the face?”

Bobbie nodded as she recalled the way Olivier had punched the mirror. “He’s pretty angry, yeah.”

“Does he know about us?” Max questioned quietly, playing with his mother’s hair absently, moving to sit on her lap without even realizing what he was doing.

“He does.”

“Does he want to meet us?” Ollie asked as she put her head on Bobbie’s shoulder as if unable to look at her face.

“Oh, does he ever,” Bobbie admitted with a low laugh. “If he had his way, he’d be here right now with me telling you all of this.”

Max was surprised and looked at her his eyes wide. “Is he here?”

“He is.”

“What is his name?”

“Olivier. Olivier Villeneuve.”

“It’s like my middle name!” Max declared proudly.

“And almost like my name,” Ollie smirked not to be outdone. “Did you name us after our dad?”

“I did.” She smiled at the question.

“He really wants to meet us?” Max was vibrating on her lap, making Bobbie aware of how much her little boy really wanted to meet his father. He had gone from not wanting a man around to desperately wanting his father in less than five minutes.

“He does. In fact,” she gave a tweak to his nose, “do you remember in the elevator on Friday night when we were coming back from the swimming pool. The man in the elevator?”

“The one with the special key card?” Max asked his eyes getting really big.

Ollie clapped her hand over her mouth and tears welled in her eyes.

“Oh baby, why are you crying?” Bobbie asked her, hugging the sobbing child.

“I swore in front of my dad, and I didn’t even know,” she wailed loudly. “I wasn’t a good girl.”

Bobbie chuckled at the words, “mommy swore in front of him too. In fact, he told mommy she needs a swear jar. He still likes me.”

“He does?” Ollie was sobbing full on, her arms wrapped around her mother’s neck.

“He does, even with my bad mouth and I promise Ollie, he already loves you so much. He spent all night looking at all your photos from when you were born right up until now.”

She sniffed against Bobbie’s neck and Bobbie grimaced as she felt snot wiping across her skin. Gross. She leaned back away from the kids and noted even Max’s eyes were watery. She hugged them tight and rubbed their backs

“Are you sure he won’t be mad I swore?”

“I promise honey, right now you could rob a bank and he’d drive your getaway car for you. He’s feeling very badly we’ve all lost so much time. He just wants to be near you.”

“Where does he live?”

She made a face, “well, he is staying here in the hotel right now, but he wants to come and live with us.”

“He does?” Max started shaking again, nerves trembling through his body. “In our house?”

“That’s what he said.”

“He wants to be with us?” Max asked again tears streaming down his face, “I get to have a dad like Lark does?”

“Yes, Max. You do but only if it’s what you want.”

Both kids nodded vigorously, and Bobbie realized she was crying right along with them. She held them against her for several minutes while they processed their thoughts

“Mom?” Ollie asked quietly from where she sat with her head on Bobbie’s chest.

“Yes, baby?”

“Can you call my dad to come see me now?”

She closed her eyes and gave a sigh of relief. They were handling it very well. She grabbed her phone and sent a single worded text. “Come.”