The Ceo's Contracted Mistress
The Ceo’s Contracted Mistress Chapter 35

Bobbie was working at the desk overlooking the back yard while the kids played a game of tag, stopping occasionally to jump in a massive puddle formed from the rainstorms the day before. It wouldn’t take long before the puddle was evaporated. Or at least she hoped. She frowned as they all jumped into it at the same time.

Olivier was downstairs in the office he’d shown her earlier with Meri talking to his father on the phone. They’d asked Bobbie to participate but she’d declined citing she had too much work to do and neither of them had pushed her. Slowly her fury with Meri’s family was waning but she still wasn’t ready to deal with Levi.

She was currently researching articles for one of the other lawyers in Grady’s firm and was deep in as she scrolled through the library on her laptop. Making notations and clipping parts of the files to the main case file, she clenched a pen in her teeth and typed on her keyboard. Occasionally flicking a glance to the back yard and then back to her screen.

She jumped when a knock on her door happened, and she felt a frisson of nerves. It worsened when she heard Riggs outside telling whoever it was, they had to leave before Olivier got pissed. She g*****d and wanted to yell down the stairs to him but then the reverberation of him stomping up furiously made her spin her chair in the direction of the kitchen area. Clearly Riggs had let him know already there was someone unwanted on the other side of the door.

“Stay there,” he pointed at her seriously. “If the kids come in, keep them on this side of the house. Henri will stop them from going out front.”

“Who is it?” She questioned but he just held up his hand and tore the front door open.

She leaned sideways trying to see past his frame, but he blocked the entrance.

“What are you doing here?”

“I want my maman, and the girls want their mamaw,” a woman’s voice spoke brusquely. “She won’t come to us, so we came to her.”

“Fiona, get back in your car and go home. How did you get through the security at the main gate?”

“It’s Pascal,” she shrugged. “I’ve known him since we were kids. If you’re trying to keep us away from your family, you need to hire a guard we don’t know so well.” Her voice was mocking.

Olivier’s growl of frustration made Bobbie sigh and get out of the chair. “Olivier, let her in. She needs to see her mother, let her see her mother.”

“She doesn’t want to see her,” Olivier said simply, “the answer is no.”

Bobbie looked to Meri who had just reached the top of the stairs. It was evident she’d been crying downstairs and was standing in the kitchen twisting her hands nervously.

“Olivier, open the door and let them in. Meri needs them as much as Fiona needs her. Christ almighty, the caveman gene is strong in you Villeneuve men.” She stepped under his arm and got in front of him, pushing him backwards, calling over her shoulder she waved, “come in Fiona. Meri is in the kitchen. Coffee is on. Sera and Shiloh, the kids are playing out back. You can go through the house and replace them. Make sure you tell them your grandfather is not with you or Max will likely have an episode.” She shoved Olivier further back, “move your stubborn a*s.”

He stared at her, “why?”

“Because your mother needs her. She needs her mother. Piss off.”

“I said it before and I’ll say it again,” Fiona said with a quiet smile, “I really like her.” She paused as she stepped inside, “for the record, I didn’t know.”

“It’s fine,” Bobbie shook her head. “It’s not the time. Your mother is worried for you. Go talk to her.” She looked down to her belly, “congratulations on defying the statistics.”

“Thanks. I’m seriously considering suing the surgeon.” Fiona grumbled as the two small girls pushed past Olivier and raced towards Meri.

“I know a good lawyer,” she grinned back as Fiona gave a squeeze to her bicep.

Bobbie couldn’t help but smile as Meri hugged the small girls tight, rubbing her hands in their hair and holding them to her waist. Tears streamed down her cheeks and Bobbie knew she had done the right thing making Olivier let them in.

“How did you get this address, Fiona?” Olivier demanded

“Grandfather,” she grinned a smile which reminded Bobbie of Olivier’s smirk.

“Gael?”

“Inadvertently. He was there yesterday at the house to tell Papa to back the hell off and let maman come home when she was ready. He gave the girls his phone to play games on while he threatened our father away from their ears. I took the phone and found the file he had on Bobbie and got her phone number.”

“Your grandfather has a file on me?” Bobbie felt her heart plummet to her stomach.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Fiona grinned at her, “it was only information to add you and the twins to his will. You’re getting an equal share.”

“I don’t want his money.” She protested

“None of us do, it’s dirty,” Olivier grunted as he walked past his mother, pausing to k**s her tear-stained cheek. “I’m going back to my office.”

He was pissed and Bobbie couldn’t help but recognize the straight posture and the way he clenched his fists like Ollie did when she was too emotional. She let him go and then motioned to Meri. “Why don’t you and Fiona go chat on the porch.” The women simply stared at each other and then Bobbie tried again, “girls, Max, Ollie and Lark are playing outside in the treehouses.”

The two girls went outside in search of Ollie, Max and Lark and Bobbie moved back to her computer screen, trying not to feel like a third wheel in her own house as Fiona and Meri stood facing off in her kitchen.

“Maman,” Fiona scolded suddenly, her tone accusing, “you scared the hell out of us.”

“I’m a grown woman of sound mind and body,” Meri retorted. “My daughters decided to treat me like I was a fool for being angry. None of you listened to me. None of you cared about my thoughts or how I felt.”

“Maman,” Fiona said sadly.

“No,” Meri held up her hand. “Your father and Timon were wrong and when I tried to put my foot down, you and Elise treated me like a child. Told me to let the men handle it. What they did to Bobbie was wrong. You should have been right there beside me telling them to right their wrongs and instead you were condescending.”

“You ran away from home in the dead of night!”

“No. I left my husband who was trying to seduce me into staying with him and giving into him. Told me I couldn’t last a night without him in my bed, and I’d see reason by morning. Arrogant fool.”

Bobbie fought the grin on her face as she openly eavesdropped.

“Ew,” Fiona gasped. “I did not need to know such things!”

“Tough. We’re older, not dead. We have s*x. Plenty of it. He overestimated his s****l pull. Thinks his skills are so great I’ll forgive him for calling Bobbie a w***e just because he whipped his willy out. If ever there was a perfect example of a man thinking with his d**k –”

“Maman!” Fiona was stunned at her mother’s language. “What has gotten into you?”

Bobbie was laughing outright now as she struggled to maintain her concentration on her work. She rose from her desk and moved outside to supervise the children. She grabbed her insulated mug of coffee and pushed out the door. Work could wait until the two women settled their differences.

“Mom!” Ollie screamed, “Sera and Shiloh are here.”

“Yes, I see.” She grinned as she sat down on the top step of the porch. “You good Max?”

“Yes, I’m good.” He shoved his glasses up his nose. “We’re going up the treehouse and showing them how they connect in the yards.” He paused, “it’s just them and their mom, right?”

“Yes, Max.” she gave a laugh as she watched the four kids run to the treehouse and climb the ladder. She had a flashback of climbing it the night before wearing nothing but her short night shirt and Olivier biting her a*s cheek as he climbed up behind her. She pressed her palm to her cheek and sighed.

The high pitch of raised voices inside the kitchen made her cringe but she caught sight of Henri around the corner of the house, and he shook his head with a smirk. He was making sure they were safe. She patted the step next to him and he moved to sit beside her.

“The Villeneuve women are nuts,” he whispered as he took a seat, carefully looking over his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t heard. The large man with the dark hair and eyes studied their surroundings carefully.

“I think it’s the clan in general,” she retorted equally quiet. “They’re clever though. Who would have thought to hijack Gael’s phone to get my address?”

“Never underestimate a single one of this family,” he grinned. “If they want something, they get it.”

The joyful cheer of Ollie shouting with glee as she raced across the bouncing bridge towards the Hoffman yard made them both laugh.

“The bridge was her idea,” Bobbie offered. “Insisted the yards had to connect by their treehouses. There was an entire fence down the middle of our two yards with a swinging gate. Had to pull it all down.”

“Something Olivier would have done,” he smirked. “Second year of college, me and Riggs were in one room and he and Soren were in another. He knocked the walls down between our two rooms with a sledgehammer. Crazy fucker.”

“He did not!”

“Yes, he did,” Henri laughed, “he said it took too long to open the door, go into the hall, and go in the other door whenever he wanted us. I’d say it was laziness but really, he liked having us close.”

“What about when you had girls over?”

“We never had girls over.” Henri gave a playful innocent battering of his eyelashes.

“Bullshit,” she leaned her shoulder into his.

“We didn’t. We went to their rooms and then left to sleep in our beds. Except Ollie. He had one experience in a girl’s room and said he’d never get over the filth of the place. We told him he wasn’t there to inspect the room, but he said it grossed him out to consider bugs or mice could be crawling on him he’d never go into a college girls’ room again.”

“Oh my god,” she laughed at Henri’s story.

“We made fun of him for weeks. Riggs bought a giant remote-control spider and made it come out from under his bed as he was climbing into it. Screamed like Ollie,” he pointed to where her daughter was shrieking as she went down a fireman’s pole. “Maybe louder.”

“He doesn’t like bugs?”

“Here’s the thing. He loves camping and hiking and we’ve stayed in places on fishing trips which would make the strongest men’s skin crawl and it doesn’t fizz him a bit. Put a bug where it shouldn’t be, and it freaks him the hell out.”

“Interesting,” she smirked.

“If he pisses you off, a strategically placed plastic spider in a box of his favorite cereal will make everything right in your world.”

They both laughed loudly and then looked over their shoulders at the creaking of the screen door opening.

Olivier stared down at them frowning. “Do I even want to know?”

“Just telling Bobbie about the time you went to the girls’ dorm and found bugs.”

He shuddered exaggeratedly, “I have never seen such filth in my life, and I have slept on a riverbank with alligators nearby.” He perched up on railing above Bobbie. “I told maman and Fiona to talk in my office. They were starting to scream, and I didn’t want the kids to be upset. I also figured they were disrupting your work.”

“I came outside to give them privacy.” She admitted as she sipped her coffee.

He scowled, “how do you still have coffee left?”

“I made a second pot. Riggs took a cup outside, and I put the rest in my mug.” She held up the oversized mug for him to inspect. He ripped it from her hands and chugged it, “hey!”

“I’ll make another pot. I need the caffeine. Between Fiona and Cleo, I’m ready to commit murder.”

“What is Cleo doing now?” Henri leaned his back against the stair rail, kicking his long legs out down the stairs.

“Offered to get me information on Bernard if I give her job back to her.” He looked out to the kids running through the yard. “I missed nearly nine years. There is nothing she can offer me which will make me reconsider.”

“You took everything from her.” Bobbie said quietly, trying not to scold.

“I did. She took everything from me.” His eyes were fixed on Max who was holding a plastic sword high over his head screaming he was the pirate king, and he was going to steal the girls’ gold. The girls all shrieked in mock terror as they raced around trying to hide their loot of rocks and sticks.

“You got it back,” she reminded him.

“Not soon enough. Let’s let her suffer a decade and I’ll give it some thought then,” he was unwavering in his resolve.

“It’s hardly the same thing,” she protested again.

“Isn’t it? Her new husband realized she wasn’t going to be able to fund his lavish lifestyle and he bailed. He’s only twenty-one. Fresh off the runway. Looks like she lost her partner too.”

Bobbie grimaced, “how old is she?”

“Forty this year.”

Bobbie pursed her lips and nodded her head, “good for her for bagging a young one.”

“Good for him for landing a sugar mama and then bailing when he realized it was all bullshit and Botox.” Olivier was smug as he pulled his legs away from Bobbie’s swatting hands. “Hey, she’s the enemy. Stop thinking of her in a positive light. If she had balls, I’d have buried her somewhere.”

“Where is Bernard?” she asked curiously.

“In safe place. He’s breathing if this is what you’re concerned about.” Olivier averted his gaze again. “Until I replace the copy of the cohabitation NDA he stole, he can continue to breathe. Once I have it in my possession, Gael can do with him what he wants. I believe he mentioned an old oil well.”

“Olivier!” Bobbie couldn’t believe her ears. “Not funny!”

“Who is laughing?” he questioned as he met her eyes directly. “It’s either an alligator farm or an oil well. We’re still debating.”

Henri chuckled as he rose from his seat, “on that note, I’m going to go water the flowers in the front of the house.”

“I don’t have flowers in the front of the house,” Bobbie was confused.

“You should get some. Maybe daisy seeds and just use Bernard for fertilizer and let him push them up,” Henri grinned as he and Olivier smacked hands in a strange handshake

“Oh you,” she kicked a foot out at him. “I can never tell if you’re f*****g with me or not.”

After Henri walked away Bobbie looked up at Olivier where he stood still hungrily watching the kids playing in the yard, “Olivier, does he really still have the agreement?”

“He does. He’s said if anything happens to him, it gets released to the press.” He cast a downward glance at her, “don’t worry. We’ll replace it. Gael has several leads on where he could be stashing his treasure trove of all his nefarious blackmailing items.”

“He has a treasure trove?”

He nodded, “my great-aunt married a man from a very shady family in Texas. Wrong side of the tracks if you will. His sister, Bernard’s mom was my great-aunt’s sister-in-law. She was known for pulling cons and embezzling and so on. Ran an insurance scheme where she made a ton of money. Gael hired Bernard fresh out of college, partly to f**k with me because I refused to work for him and partly because Bernard came with inherently sneaky skills. Gael cleaned him up and set him up with a decent paycheque. Bernard did a lot of Gael’s dirty work in blackmailing people to get what he wanted. If Gael wanted a company, Bernard was the guy to replace the s**t to tilt things in Gael’s favor.”

“Jesus Christ.” Bobbie muttered and covered her face with her hands.

“Chérie, you’re reached at least four for today,” he smirked.

“I assumed the swear jar is on hold,” she looked up curiously.

“Why? I don’t need to be living here to get blown,” he laughed loudly at her outrage.

“Finish your story!”

“Bernard kept all of his evidence in a secure location. All of the dirt he has collected on behalf of Gael and likely evidence he’s had for his own personal gain are in a location only he knows. We haven’t been able to get it from him. Gael is confident he’ll replace it.”

“But if anything happens to him, someone must know to release it, if it’s what he’s threatening. Is Cleo still helping him?”

Olivier shook his head, “no. She’s not and we can’t figure out who his accomplice is now. Bobbie, I don’t want you to worry about it.”

“If the document gets out, the world will know the mother of your twins was your …”

“Don’t you say it,” he turned to her seriously, squatting and holding her hands in his. His dark eyes stared intently into hers. “The only person in the world who believed the document was anything more than the equivalent to a pre-nup, is the person I’m looking at.”

“Bernard did. He specifically said I was your,” she looked to the kids and didn’t say the word. “All I know is, if he interpreted it that way then the rest of the world could to. Olivier, I don’t want the kids to grow up and replace on the internet their mother was your paid companion.” She whispered sadly.

“They never will. I promise you. Bobbie, I will never let such a thing happen. The worst-case scenario is we get blackmailed for a payout.”

“Or Bernard dies before Gael replaces his stash,” she hissed back, “and it gets released.”

“We’ll keep him alive,” he said seriously

“I cannot believe you’re just talking about him dying like this,” she looked away uncomfortably. “You said you weren’t in the mob.”

“I’m not. I’m of Villeneuve and Moreno b***d. You don’t f**k with us and expect to come out unscathed. We don’t work that way. Why do you think my own father is pacing a hole in his rugs at home? Does he miss his wife? Definitely. Is he worried I’ll destroy his life? Probably.”

“You wouldn’t destroy your father,” she scoffed.

“No. I would not but it’s fun to make him sweat,” he grinned suddenly rising to his feet and pulling her upright. “Come here.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. “For the most part, I’m screwing with you a lot. Bernard is safe and unharmed in his own home with a couple of guards to keep him from doing anything stupid until we replace the documents. I have Gael working on this with my security team because Gael is far more unscrupulous, and he knows Bernard far better than I do. As I said earlier, he was an acquaintance for me, but he is family and a long-time employee to Gael.”

“Does he still work for him?”

“No. He fired him three years ago for stealing.”

“This guy sounds like a real douchebag.”

“He really is.” Olivier agreed as he kissed her temple. “I do not want you worried about him or the NDA, okay? I’m sharing information with you because it involves you to an extent and I don’t want to keep you in the dark.”

“Thank you.” She had a thought, “Gael just agreed to help you?”

“I might have bargained if he replaces the NDA, he can meet the kids. Let’s just say, he’s highly motivated.” She frowned and he mistook her frown for condemnation, “I told him it had to be supervised.”

“It’s not that,” she made a face, “I just don’t like the kids being a bargaining chip.”

“I would have introduced him eventually anyway,” he shrugged, “can you trust me? I don’t want to hide things from you. I want to be transparent.”

“Yes. Thanks for telling me the truth.”

“You’re welcome. Can I k**s you?”

She stepped closer to him, winding her arms around his middle, “you want to k**s me?”

“I really want to k**s you.”

He was lowering his mouth to hers when the cheer of kids screaming from the treehouse how kissing was gross, Max the loudest of them all, made them both burst into laughter.

“Cockblocks,” Olivier grinned. “I’m kissing you anyway.”

“You should.” She giggled as he pressed his lips to hers.

The screen door opening stopped their k**s as soon as it started.

“I’m never kissing my girl again,” he complained as he stepped away, glaring at his sister. He patted Bobbie’s cheek and grabbed her mug with the promise to make more coffee.

“Nerd,” Fiona said as he pushed past her.

“Tree hugger,” he shot back nudging her as he moved inside. He paused and stepped backwards and kissed his sister on the cheek. “Je t’aime. I’m glad you’re here.” He grinned, “your eyes are all swollen and puffy. Pretty soon your ankles will be too.”

As he disappeared into the house, running away from his sister’s slaps, Bobbie was reminded as cold as the vibes he gave off could be, he was a very loving, family-oriented man. She pushed the negative thoughts of their earlier conversation away and begged herself to focus only on this positive thought. Family meant everything to him. Protecting his family was paramount to the man he was. He would keep them safe from Bernard and his threats to expose the NDA.