The Ceo's Contracted Mistress
The Ceo’s Contracted Mistress Chapter 34

Bobbie was making coffee in the morning when she heard the stomp of the kids’ feet on the stairs.

Max slid into the kitchen, “where’s Papa?”

“I don’t know,” she made a face. “I got up and he appears to have gone out.”

Ollie ducked under her arm, “Mom! Where did he go? Is he coming back?”

“Well, yeah, he’s coming back but I’m not keeper. If he needs to go out, he needs to go out.”

“What time is it?” Max asked frowning.

“It’s just coming on seven.”

“Are you going into the office today?” Lark asked.

“No,” she felt she was under interrogation by the three of them. “I’m working from home. Grady is going into the office. He hasn’t been there in two weeks. He has stuff to do.” She moved to the tray of fruit she needed to finish cutting up.

“Is Mom working today?” Lark asked

“Yes. She’s getting dropped off by your dad today,” Bobbie stared at the coffee dripping through to the pot longingly. “They’re gone already.

“Can you call Dad and ask him when he’ll be home?” Ollie asked, evidently unable to move past the man’s absence.

“Ollie, your dad hasn’t abandoned you. He must have had something to do. He is a businessman.” Bobbie rolled her eyes.

“What does he do?” Max asked as he looked through the pantry for breakfast.

“He runs banks,” Bobbie simplified the man’s job.

“Good morning,” Meri’s voice cut into the conversation.

“Good morning Mamaw,” Ollie raced to her and hugged her with Lark close behind. Max approached Meri with his hand shoved deep into a box of cereal.

She ruffled his hair, “good morning girls. Good morning, Max. Hungry?”

He nodded and looked to Meri, “maman and papa were in the treehouse last night in the thunderstorm. Then papa slept with me and then he was gone when I got up. Do you know where he went?”

Meri chuckled at Bobbie’s g***n and patted her shoulder, “no Max, I do not know where he went but he could have gone to work.”

“Where would he work?”

“He owns banks all over the world including here in Houston,” Meri smiled. “There is a huge office building in the city here.”

Max moved back to the pantry, “do we have pop tarts?”

“No.” Bobbie motioned to the refrigerator, “I made you all overnight oats last night. Grab the ones I labeled for you and take it to the table. I’m making a fruit salad. Go sit down and I’ll bring it right out.”

The front door opening made the three kids race to it.

“Dad! Where were you?” Ollie squealed as she met him at the front door. “Uncle Riggs and Uncle Henri! You’re here too!” She clung to his neck as he lifted her into his arms.

Max shrunk his nose up at them, “why are you all sweaty?” He shoved a spoon into his container of oatmeal and shoved an oversized chunk into his mouth.

“We went for a run,” Riggs said. “Morning Meri. Morning Bobbie!” He looked into Max’s bowl, “what are you eating?” Max held up his spoon and he ran his finger over it.

“Good morning.” Bobbie smiled over her shoulder at the three men, her eyes lingering on Olivier. He was sweaty in a tank top and a pair of shorts. His golden skin glistening and he hadn’t shaved, and he gave off a primal masculine vibe which called to her. “They’re eating oatmeal for breakfast. I made extras. In the fridge.”

Olivier set Ollie on her feet and moved behind her and kissed her cheek, “good morning, chérie. How did you sleep?”

She turned her head and smiled, “very well. Thank you. I had a whole bed to myself. It never happens. You were with Max. Lark was with Ollie. It was great. I was a starfish all night.”

“A starfish?” Henri asked curiously

She laughed and assumed a pose where she stretched her arms and legs out, “starfish.”

Henri laughed at her words.

Olivier wrapped his arms around her middle since her hands were in the air and hugged her from behind. “Tonight, they can all sleep with you, and I’ll take Ollie’s bottom bunk. My feet hung off the end of Max’s bed.”

Lark spoke up, “Ollie is going to sleep at my house tonight. Max too if he wants. It’s soccer night and we always sleep at my house after soccer.”

Olivier tensed behind her, “soccer night?”

“Yup. Soccer.” Bobbie nodded as she leaned backward into him, “you ready for your first soccer game?”

“He’s ready and we have security ready.” Riggs slapped his back as he moved past the couple and reached into the fridge, “I’m taking one of these oatmeal things. These are good.”

“Glad you like them,” she laughed. “I prepped a bunch of them last night when Olivier was doing bedtime stories.”

“Ollie,” Riggs spoke as he moved to sit opposite her at the kitchen table, “no jumping anyone at the field tonight, right?”

“That jerk better not push my brother.” She retorted with a grunt. “I’ll kick his a*s.”

“Language,” Bobbie called out.

“Butt,” she corrected with a half smile.

Henri made his way to the coffee pot, “Bobbie, may I?”

“Mi casa es su casa,” she quipped as she finished putting the fruit salad together unable to stop smiling with Olivier’s arms still wrapped around her.

“Pour me one,” Meri begged, “I have to call home today and I’m going to need the stodgy thick liquid courage Bobbie calls coffee in my veins before I do.”

“It will be okay, Meri.” Bobbie reassured her with a small smile. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“My father could have shot my husband?” she whispered jokingly but Bobbie saw the sadness in her eyes.

Riggs was looking at his phone and frowning and then called to Olivier, “hey Ollie, Cleo has shown up at the magazine offices in New York. How do you want us to handle it? She’s looking for you. She wants to talk.”

“Have security inform her I’ve gone back home. Have her arrested for trespassing. I filed the restraining order Friday so she shouldn’t be there.”

“Who’s Cleo?” Max asked as he listened in on the adult conversation.

Meri sighed, “she is my cousin’s cousin.”

“What?” Lark asked in confusion.

“My mother has a sister named Simone. My aunt Simone is married to Mitchem which makes him my uncle. Mitchem has two sisters. Each of those sisters has a child. One is named Cleo and one is named Bernard.” Meri explained and it was clear from the way the three kids all frowned they were even more confused by the explanation than what she’d started with. She shrugged, “they are my uncle’s niece and nephew from his side of the family.”

“They’re your family?” Bobbie asked Olivier feeling bile rise in her throat.

“Not my family,” he shook his head in protest of her words. “They are not my b***d. They were around when I was growing up. We would see them at family reunions, weddings, funerals and so on but they are not my family. They’re related to mom’s side of the family. My grandfather had hired Bernard for some time but terminated his employment. Cleo, he had no use for since she was a girl.”

“Why is she looking for you dad?” Ollie asked curiously over a spoonful of oatmeal.

“She’s crazy?” Henri questioned in a mutter earning a chuckle from Riggs.

“She wants a job,” he offered to his daughter and pressed a k**s to the top of her head as he moved to sit at the kitchen table with the kids and his friends.

“Doesn’t she have a job?” Meri asked curiously, “she’s the CEO of a fashion magazine, isn’t she?”

“Not anymore,” Olivier met her gaze directly and watched as her mouth rounded in surprise. “I bought the magazine.”

“Why would you buy the magazine,” Meri grimaced.

“Who do you think Bernard’s playmate was nine years ago?” Olivier flicked a glance to Bobbie and then back to his mother.

Bobbie felt her heart clench at the revelation to Meri and wondered how the woman would respond to Olivier’s words. It was apparent while Meri knew the bulk of the story and how Bernard was involved, somehow Cleo’s involvement hadn’t been reported to her. Knowing they were Meri’s family made Bobbie’s heart ache.

Meri’s lips thinned into a straight line as she looked at her son. She looked to Bobbie and then back to Olivier. “You took her job?”

“The magazine was poorly run. I can’t have a company go under as soon as I buy it out now, can I?” he didn’t back down from Meri’s gaze.

“You should talk to your grandfather,” Meri said suddenly.

“Why?” Olivier asked curiously as he plucked a melon ball from the bowl of fruit Bobbie had just placed in the middle of the breakfast table.

“Because as much as you are a Villeneuve, you’re also a Moreno and I think he would agree with me making her unemployed is too light a penalty.” Meri sipped her coffee, “maybe she needs a one-way trip to the Bayou.”

Meri’s words made Bobbie gasp. “Meri!” she squeezed her shoulder warningly and flicked a glance at the kids.

She glowered at Olivier who threw his head back and laughed.

“Chérie, I told you before, my maman she is not all sweet and innocent. She is a Moreno.”

“Can we change the topic please?” Bobbie sighed and plunked down at a chair. She looked to the three kids, “after breakfast, brush your teeth and get ready for the day. It’s a beautiful day outside. I have a lot of work to get caught up on. No shenanigans today. No experiments,” she gave a pointed glance at Max, “and no leaving the street. You can ride bikes to the cul-de-sac and nowhere else.” As Riggs opened his mouth to protest her letting the kids play on the street she glared at him, “figure it out Riggs. It’s what they were allowed to do two weeks ago. Olivier promised me their lives wouldn’t be affected.”

“Fine, I’ll sort it out,” he gave Olivier an annoyed glance.

“Bobbie, I have to ask if you’ve been to the basement since you’ve been home?” Olivier questioned. “I’d meant to ask you earlier but with all the craziness of the last few days it’s slipped my mind until we were out for a run this morning.”

“No, it’s an unfinished basement and the only thing down there is my Christmas and Halloween decorations. I bought a five-bedroom house in a gated community on a paralegal salary. The basement was the least of my concerns.”

“Why a five bedroom?” Henri asked curiously. “There was only three of you.”

“There’s not a house in this development under five bedrooms.” She shrugged. “Five bedrooms, four bathrooms and the garage are all standard. My neighbors are lawyers and business owners like the Hoffmans, an orthopedic surgeon on the other side of me and her husband who is an airline pilot. The house across the street which just went up for sale is owned by a college professor and his wife who is an astrophysicist.”

She turned back to Olivier, “what did you do to my basement?”

“It’s finished now.” He gave a shrug.

“Define finished?”

“As in it’s a finished space.” He didn’t back away from her frown, “I need a spot to workout. You weren’t using the space. I put some exercise equipment down there and a couple of other things.”

She pushed away from the table, “what is a couple of other things?” As Max and Ollie started to move from the table she shook her head, “you stay here and finish your breakfast. You can check it out after.”

She made her way to the closed door at the top of the stairs near her pantry in the kitchen and pushed it open and flicked the lights on. She took the stairs two at a time, noting immediately even the staircase had been changed from the bare stair treads to an encased flight. She got to the bottom and looked around in amazement.

What had once been a cold dank place where she threw her artificial Christmas tree was now warm and inviting. The concrete walls were finished and painted a warm honey color. Though it should be dark due to the smaller windows of the basement, the overhead lighting lit the space up brightly. A large seating area was at the area closest to the stairs facing a fireplace. The large creamy colored suede sofa was plush and overstuffed, and she could immediately picture the four of them snuggled on it watching a movie on the oversized television against the wall.

Large glass doors cut off the other end of the basement. Between the seating area and the glass doors was clearly a play area for the kids. A reading nook with a heap of books and games and puzzles stacked in a short bookcase. At the bottom of the stairs a closed door and she opened it and noted the storage place for all her decorations, with everything neatly stowed on shelves. To the left of the space was a gym with exercise equipment and a wall of mirrors all neatly tucked away in the room. If she hadn’t opened the door, she would never have seen the space. She moved reluctantly towards the French doors and looked over her shoulder as Olivier joined her.

“What’s this?” she looked through the doors to the oversized desk in the room.

“Go in,” he spoke with a wave of his hand. “I knew you had a desk upstairs, but I’ll need a place to work from home as well.”

“So, you built yourself an office in the basement?” she tried not to be irritated with him as she pushed the doors open. “I know you’re a big guy, but you really need a desk so big?” Bobbie let her eyes travel the oversized desk taking up almost the width of the room.

He chuckled, “two workspaces, chérie. If you need to get away from the kids upstairs, there is space down here to work. If you want to work at your desk overlooking the yard, you can or you can work here. There is space if I’m down here working and the kids want to do homework with me, its possible. I remembered how much peace I got from having you in the room with me when I worked in the hotel room years ago. When I asked the guys if there was any room on the main floor to expand your work area to suit us both, they told me not unless you wanted to give up the laundry room and storage area of the main floor. Then when they were running wiring, the contractor asked me why we weren’t just doing this area as well. At the time, we had already agreed to live together thus I didn’t think you’d mind too much having a shared space.” He moved behind the desk and motioned at the two chairs, and she wondered how she had missed one of them. “I thought it would be a fun surprise for you.”

“It’s very nice,” she whispered as she looked around and noted the office had cabinets and storage space. Photographs of the kids adorned the wall, and her college diplomas were framed and hung. She traced the photo of her and the kids in a hammock, “I didn’t even notice this missing from the wall upstairs.”

He chuckled, “the interior designer I was using told me it was the perfect serene photograph.”

She circled the desk, stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek, “thank you Olivier. This is very thoughtful.”

“You’re welcome,” he motioned to a monitor on the desk. “The monitor is wired to a series of cameras outside to allow you to watch the kids from down here and there is a speaker on a couple of the cameras out there. If you want to give them a good scare, you can tell the kids off from the basement.”

She giggled at his words as he wound his arm around her waist.

“There is one other thing,” he said and sat his bottom on the edge of the desk pulling her to stand between his thighs.

“What?”

“The money.”

“What money?”

“All the money you paid back,” he gave a sigh. “If anything, I owe more than eight times the amount in child support for the last eight years.”

“You don’t owe me nearly a million dollars in child support Olivier.”

“Bobbie, with my income, ten thousand dollars a month for nearly ninety-six months is easily almost a million dollars.”

“Ten thousand dollars a month?” she snorted at him. “Who pays that in child support?”

“It’s what I would have paid at the beginning. It’s not even taking into account their schooling which I should be paying for, all their extra curricular activities, medical expenses, clothing, tutoring and so on. You forget, I’m a very wealthy man. Any judge would have taken one look at my personal wealth and quite possibly would have doubled the amount per child. Ten thousand for them is peanuts. I make it in interest in a day.”

“You do not,” she made a face at him.

He raised an eyebrow.

“Do you?” she blinked rapidly. “Olivier, how wealthy is wealthy. The tabloid s**t Grady, Everly and I were reading said billionaire, but we figured it was exaggerated somewhat to boost your company’s values or something. That’s what Grady suggested to us.”

“Not exaggerated,” his tone was neither arrogant nor proud. He simply stated it matter-of-factly. “Many times, over in fact. My personal wealth is enough I never have to work another day in my life, and I’d still never see a dent in my balance.”

“Oh,” she looked around. “You’re slumming it here, aren’t you?”

He threw his head back and laughed, “no. When I told Lark I didn’t have a house, I meant it. While my parents and grandfather have huge estates over hundreds of acres, I never wanted such things. My favorite place in the world growing up was my grandmother Veronique’s house near Lafayette. It truly was in the bayou. It was and still is, a cozy three-bedroom house. My grandfather, her husband, was a wealthy man from New Orleans who got lost in the bayou and my grandmother saved his a*s. The only way she would agree to be with him was if he agreed to spend half of their lives in her hometown. They did half the year in New Orleans and half the year in the little house he built her on the site of the house she was born in. To me, her house felt more like home than any other I had ever been in until I came here. Your house is a home. It is special.”

“Thank you,” she whispered unable to meet his eyes, staring at the sweat stain of his t-shirt. “You really need a shower.”

“I do but there was a point to the story before we got sidetracked.” He sighed deeply, “the money you put back in the account I opened for you.”

“What about it,” she made a face. “I don’t want it back Olivier.”

“I don’t want you to take it back.” He shook his head. “I closed the account out. The money in it was donated to a diabetes research organization.” At her surprised glance he shrugged, “I knew you would be too proud to take it back.”

“You donated it?”

“I did. However,” he chewed his bottom l*p in an uncharacteristic display of nerves, “I paid out the mortgage outright on the house and paid off the loan on your car.”

She stepped backwards, “you did what?”

“Bobbie, hear me out.” He raised his hands defensively, “I knew you’d be pissed.”

“And you did it anyway?”

“I knew you’d refuse for me to pay you child support if I’m living with you. I owe you a shitload in backpay and I know you won’t take it either,” at her hard stare he continued, “but paying off your mortgage for a house I’m hopefully going to be living in with you, I figured was the path of least resistance. I mean, I am expecting to be living here. Are you going to charge me rent?”

“No,” she swatted at his mocking question. “I’m not charging you rent but Olivier you should have mentioned it to me.”

“I had intended to mention it to you when I took you for dinner on Wednesday when my parents were going to keep the kids and we were going to have a date night, but my secret plans blew up because my father turned into a lunatic.”

“Ugh,” she g*****d as he tugged her closer to him and wrapped his arms around her waist again.

“I’d ask you to forgive me but I’m not sorry,” he grinned down at her, his thumbs rubbing the small of her back.

“No s**t,” she growled as she placed her palms against his chest.

He rested his forehead against hers, “are you really angry?”

“No,” she scowled, “well yes but not really. You can’t keep doing s**t like this.”

“You’re right I can’t.” He grinned unrepentantly, “you have no other debt. I checked. You are the most frugal person I’ve ever run a credit check on. Everly told me you use some kind of manila folder system for budgeting.”

“Olivier!” she smacked him for his teasing, and he kissed her forehead. “Chérie, I respect you were a single mom raising two kids and your mother taught you the value of a dollar. The kids have wanted for nothing and it’s because you took care of your expenses smartly. I’m impressed. You also don’t need to this any longer. Buy what you want when you want. I’ve opened a joint account,” he motioned to a card and envelope on the desk, “the card to access the account is there. Any expenses for the house, including groceries and whatever the kids need, you use this. The money you earn at your job you can spend as you wish.”

“This is too much,” she whispered.

“It’s not nearly enough,” he whispered back. He was just about to lower his head to k**s her when the crash of the kids running down the stairs to the basement with Max screaming for his Papa caught their ears. “I swear to God, Max is the world’s biggest cockblock. It’s as if he knows when our lips touch,” His frustrated comment delivered tongue-in-cheek.

She roared with laughter at his words and pulled away from his embrace. “Go take a shower, you fool.”

He placed a quick k**s to her lips and stepped away to ruffle the kids’ hair as he promised to come right back down and check out their new play area with them after he was cleaned up. He winked at her as he took the stairs away from her and left her with three squealing kids excited about the new array of toys and books in the area. Bobbie couldn’t help but smile as the arrogance of him was seeping back and the hesitation he’d had the day before was fading away.