True Love
(Book 3) – Chapter 110

Susanna led the girls to the rooms, opened the first door and showed Zoé in.

-This will be your room, Miss.

-Just mine?

-Yes, your friend’s room will be next to you. This is the one you will share with young Jean Pierre.

-Share? She asks astonished.

-That’s what Monsieur Dubois has said, Mademoiselle.

-Oh, God! she exclaims.

-Don’t worry, I’ll be here with you, it’s all right. Her friend encourages her.

After settling in and freshening up a bit, the girls went downstairs, Antonie had sent for them. So Susanna took them to the terrace where Mr. Dubois was waiting for them, ready to have breakfast.

The friends, a little nervous, approached the old man sitting at the table soaking up the sun, he looked so elegant and so refined that it was frightening.

-Ah, you’ve settled in, I’m glad. Come and sit down beside me. They obey a little nervously. -Do you like your rooms?

-Yes, they’re very nice, thank you.

-Not at all. I just want you to be comfortable here during your stay.

-You’re very kind.

-I’m not, little one. I’m just doing what’s best for me.

The girls’ eyes widen like saucers when they hear the gentleman’s words… he was too direct in saying things. He didn’t care if he hurt a person or not.

-Don’t make those faces, it seems my son hasn’t filled you in on everything about me.

-Looks like he hasn’t! Zoé replies.

-I do all this to replace out how true this union is… don’t take me for an idiot, if my son thinks he can hire a woman to be his wife and then get his inheritance he is very wrong.

-That’s not so, Mr. Dubois.

-You can be a very good actress my dear… only I will be able to tell if you are really in love with my son. And that’s why you’re here, I prefer to keep you very close. Although I don’t like visitors.

Zoé looked at what was going to be her future father-in-law and thought that the best thing to do was to run away from that place, abandon everything and disappear. At that moment, Susana arrived pushing a metal cart with plates on it.

-All right, let’s have breakfast. The old man says smiling.

The breakfast was quite uncomfortable for the girls, as they did not feel comfortable knowing that they were not welcome in that house. And who knows how long they would have to stay there.

-I hope they get something nice to do in their days here. Says the old man, standing up after breakfast. – They can do whatever they like.

-Thank you very much. Zoé says just to be polite.

When Dubois Sr. left, the girls could finally breathe, being near that man made them unable to breathe. It was a strange sensation, as if breathing near him was a crime.

-Dammit! That man is a demon. You heard what he said, he hates us. He doesn’t want us here. The brunette lets go.

-It’s horrible, I understand why Jean doesn’t want to leave with him. Imposing a woman on him must be so humiliating for him.

-But what he’s doing isn’t right either, he’s buying you. If this old man replaces out, things will get very ugly.

-You don’t say, he’s liable to put me in jail.

-We should run away.

-You’re crazy, if the old man doesn’t come after us, the son will.

While Jean was in a meeting, in which he wasn’t paying any attention at all. Her thoughts were focused on one thing… or rather, one person.

He still didn’t know how he was going to handle the matter between him and Zoé, living in his father’s house was going to be a problem… he was sure that the old man was going to accommodate them in one room. Surely the brunette would be screaming her head off.

He smiled a little, imagining her expression when she knew they would be sleeping together. That was something he applauded the old man for. At least he’d have her in bed. The problem was going to be if she would let herself be seduced.

-Jean! Jean! Adrien called him out of his thoughts. He blinked, sitting upright in his seat.

-He blinked, sitting upright in his seat.

-Did you hear what I said? Everyone in the room stared at him.

-Yes. No… excuse me!

A few hours later, the meeting was over and the Frenchman was picking the bridge of his nose… if he didn’t concentrate on his work, he would be ruined.

-Jean, what’s wrong with you, man? You’ve been the most lost today in the whole meeting.

-I know! It’s just that this whole marriage thing, dad and Zoé are driving me crazy.

-I’m reminding you that it was you who wanted to get involved in this matter. -I know!

-It’s all because of the old man and his bloody threats.

-You can still cancel.

-I won’t. -I’ll go ahead with the show. Besides, I’m getting closer every day to taking my future wife to bed. He smiles with his hands behind his head.

-You must be crazy! To come to marry that girl just to sleep with her. His brother smiles.

-It’s not just that, it’s… it’s having her, making her my submissive. She’s been the only one who’s ever given me a hard time and the only one who’s ever turned me down so much. That I know now it’s a challenge for me to have her in my bed.

-Maybe it’s an obsession, brother.

An obsession thought Jean, he didn’t think so… she was like a challenge, never had a woman resisted him so much. Least of all a stripper. That was what had captivated him the most, that she was what she was and wouldn’t leave him.

His ego was pissed off, but it comforted him to know that from that night on he would have her in his bed. And that green-eyed brunette wasn’t going to get away from him.

Zoé kept pacing around her friend’s room. She knew that soon Jean would arrive, and after dinner she would have to get into that room with him. And the way that man was, she was sure he wouldn’t want to sleep on the floor. Ha! As if that were possible.

Stop it Zoé, you’re going to make a hole in the floor… and your dear little in-law won’t like it.

-Maya, please, you’re not helping me much. She said squeezing his hands.

-You don’t gain anything by staying nervous, what’s done is done… you’ll have to sleep with him.

-It’s not as easy as they say, I don’t want to sleep with him in the same bed.

-It’s not that bad either, Jean is as he wants to be. Relax my friend, I don’t think he’ll force you to do anything you don’t want to do.

And that’s what the brunette was afraid of… she knew she could give in to the charms of that French playboy. She wasn’t indifferent to him, and any time he thought of touching her, she’d drop like a fly. Damn it! exclaimed the brunette to herself.

At that moment the door of her room was opened letting Susanna in, Zoé gave a jump when she saw her and the young girl did the same.

-I’m sorry, miss, I just came to inform you that the young Dubois have arrived home. And Mr. Dubois is waiting for them in the dining room.

-Yes, yes, thank you, Susannah.

The friends look at each other’s faces, Zoé looks like a piece of paper and her friend only silently keeps a comical smile on her face. Armed with courage, they head downstairs.

When Zoé sees Jean talking to her brother and her father, she feels as if her heart is going to burst out of her mouth. This was the beginning of the performance, and she’d better play the damn part of her life. Otherwise that Frenchman was going to make him pay for it.

She walked with firm steps towards him, who looked at her from the corner of his eye and then admired her from head to toe. He gave her a faint smile that caused a strange tingle in her belly.

The young woman approached him, and without saying a word, planted a k**s on the lips of the one who was supposed to be her fiancé. She immediately received an answer from the Frenchman who wrapped his arms around her.

When he broke away, he looked at her with a malicious gleam in his eye…

-What a welcome! That’s how any man with b***d in his veins marries. He whispers close to her lips.

-He just acted!

Jean’s smile dropped a little, she really knew how to bring a man down…

But my daughter-in-law is a real rascal… a few hours and she already misses her fiancé, I like that. Scoring points, scoring points, guys. says the old man.

They all sat at the table while dinner was being served, there was not the sepulchral silence that there used to be in that house. Since the girls had arrived the house had come alive.

Jean thought it was a little more inviting now with Zoé and Maya present, it didn’t look so bad in her father’s house. She had hated having dinner with him before, but with Zoé by his side it was a little more pleasant. And since she would be his wife on a permanent contract, eating with her father would end up being something he did often.