Mrs R (Mrs R & Mr V #1) (50 page)

“Luc! What a lovely surprise.” Rachel leaned in for one of his
continental style kisses. She was a little perturbed at his stiff body language
and when she really looked at him she could tell immediately there was
something wrong. The thumping in her chest dulled only to be replaced by a wave
of nausea. This was going to be bad – she just knew it. If what she
suspected had happened then she needed to be somewhere private in case she had
a meltdown.

“Angela, Mr Vincent and I will be in my office. Please don’t
let anyone disturb us.” Angela’s eyes widened at Rachel’s instruction but she remained
quiet and just nodded.

Rachel led a suspiciously quiet Luc into her office. Her guts
were twisting with Luc and Joe being in such close proximity and she vowed to
have that chat with Joe as soon as possible. It was ridiculous to put herself
through this unnecessarily. Once safely inside, she motioned for Luc to sit but
he was too busy pacing to notice.

“Luc, honey what’s the matter?” Rachel’s eyes searched his face
for any clues, but all she saw was tension and it worried her that the boy she knew
to be normally so laid back was clearly distressed over something.

“Rachel, oh god, something bad has happened. Don’t go mad
because I’ve totally sorted it but I need to tell you. You’ve got the right to
know.”

Rachel’s stomach lurched and an impending sense of doom
pervaded the room. She hesitated to ask, fearful of his answer but she had to
know. “Have the twins found out? Tell me Luc, please. Oh god I’m going straight
to hell. What did they say? I need to speak to them…will they even want to talk
to me now. Oh I’m such a terrible mother.”

“What? No – wait. Fuck no - Rachel the twins don’t know.
I promised you they would never hear it from me and that still stands. I will
never betray you Rachel I swear.”

Rachel let out the breath she had been holding. In her opinion,
nothing could be as bad as having Jess and Lucy find out that their mother had
an affair with their best friend just a few months after their father died. She
couldn’t think of any way to explain it to them that made it acceptable in
their eyes and she wouldn’t expect them to understand or forgive her, or Luc.

“Well – what on earth could be so bad that you had to
come here and scare me half to death wondering what the hell is going on?”

“I took a photo of you.”

It was a statement designed to capture her full attention and
he succeeded. Her eyes widened at his statement.

“Luc? What photo?” Her voice trembled and Rachel looked
terribly confused.

Running a hand over his face, he paused and stared at her. It
was possible after this that she would never speak to him again and Luc needed
a moment to curb the spike of panic that had erupted in his chest at the
thought. Taking
 
a deep breath he
reached into the back pocket of his jeans and reluctantly retrieved his iPhone.

“I took a photo without your permission and kept it. Then I
found out that spiteful bitch Chloe nabbed my phone and found it. She didn’t
know it was you but she made a copy on her own phone. Then she had the fucking
audacity to try and blackmail me into going back out with her by threatening to
post it on Facebook, and I knew that if Jess and Lucy saw it they would
recognise you.”

Rachel was immediately relieved mentally reiterating that
nothing could be as bad as her daughters discovering their mother had been
fucking around with their best friend. Nonetheless, something was obviously
distressing him. “Wait, Luc you’re not making any sense. So what if she saw my
photo? You could have given her a perfectly reasonable explanation for it
– you were staying with us for long enough.”

“Umm; not really Rachel.” His mouth screwed up on one side and
she could see him chewing the side of his mouth. The boy was nervous. Her
stomach rolled in response.

Luc bowed his beautiful head in shame; his blond fringe
flopping forward to hide his face. Rachel moved towards him and took his chin
in her hand forcing him to look at her. The pain in his eyes made her chest
tighten and intuitively Rachel suspected the photo was not as innocent as she
had initially imagined. At this point she was incredibly aware of the
difference in their ages, feeling more like a parent that she had ever done
before in his presence. She tried to remain stoic even in the knowledge that
something bad was coming.
 

“Let me see the photo baby boy” she urged tenderly. His
discomfort was more than she could bear.

Luc sighed and flicked his finger over the homescreen and she
felt his body go rigid tentatively holding out the phone for her to see. She
squinted trying to focus on the image on the small screen and as soon as she
realised what she was looking at her fury was instant and she lost it big time.

“What the fuck? Are you shitting me? When did you…? How on
earth…? Oh my fucking god!” she screamed at him. Her hands fell to her sides
and she fell backwards on to her sofa covering her bright red face with both
hands. “Luc, what the fucking hell were you thinking?”

Rachel felt the sofa dip with Luc’s weight as he came and sat
next to her. He was leaning forward resting his arms on his thighs looking
thoroughly miserable. The vile language erupting out of Rachel’s mouth was
enough to indicate how high her stress levels were at this revelation. His
voice was raspy and low as he tried to explain how much he’d needed a small
reminder of how fucking sexy she was. Rachel slumped a little hearing his
confession and even through her anger she was both flattered and a little bit
heartbroken for him.

When he spoke his voice was thick with regret and she wasn’t
sure if it was because he had taken the photo or because it had been
discovered. “Rachel, please, I’m so sorry. It was selfish of me; childish;
immature, I know all that, but I couldn’t resist. This is all I had left of
you.”

Luc’s voice cracked and a lone tear rolled down his face and
Rachel understood for the first time properly how much the boy had invested
emotionally in their relationship. He had fallen for her and she had sent him
away. As necessary as it had been, it still must have hurt him immensely. Her
fury was slowly being replaced by the need to comfort him.

“I’ve retrieved the copy from Chloe and she won’t dare to come
near me ever again. I toyed with the idea of never telling you but my
conscience wouldn’t let me. I’m so sorry I let you down.” He sniffed and a
piece of Rachel’s heart broke. She wrapped her arms around his head and pulled
him in close. He clutched her tight apologising over and over and she murmured
reassurances into his hair.

“I’m sorry baby boy. I never meant to hurt you so badly. You will
never know how much you helped me. I love you Luc. I’ll always love you, but
there was never going to be a future for us, you knew that from the start. I
don’t know how to say it so that it won’t hurt you, but you have to move on
Luc.” She felt him nod. “And…and now I’m with Joe; he’s what I want Luc.”

The boy in her arms stilled and sniffed loudly wiping his face
with the back of his hand. Rachel loved those hands and even now the sight of
them made her tingle with the happy memories of how they felt all over her
body. “I’m happy for you Mrs R, honestly I am..” Rachel smiled at Luc’s use of
the nickname he gave her. She no longer detested hearing it. “I hope Joe Mason
knows what he’s got in you. I’m guessing he turned out not to be short, bald
and fat then?” Rachel chuckled; holding his face in her hands she wiped his
tears away and kissed him tenderly on both cheeks. He in turn gave her a big
hug wrapping his long arms around her and pulling her close.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?”

Rachel and Luc sprang apart at the booming sound of Joe’s roar
as he slammed open the door to her office and marched over to them. “Get off
her now.” He was looking daggers at Luc; his hair mussed as if he had been
raking his hands through it repeatedly and his eyes as graphite as she’d ever
seen them. The man was intimidating at best but add a layer of barely
controlled aggression and he was close to frightening.

Looming over them Rachel could see he was barely holding on to
his temper. If she thought his behaviour outside the court room was overbearing
the time her opposing counsel had decided to lay into her, now was on a totally
different level. While part of her was excited that he was so jealous –
she knew him well enough to feel anxious about his reaction to finding Luc
hugging her in more than just a friendly way. Their embrace was familiar and
hardly appropriate for a mother to be in with the male best friend of her
daughters. Still, Rachel felt the need to intervene quickly.

“Joe calm down. It’s ok.” Rachel stood up moving in front of
Luc effectively blocking him from Joe’s reach.

The murderous expression on Joe’s face and his predatory manner
said otherwise. “It most definitely is
not
ok when I come in here to find
my
girlfriend wrapped around another man. Correction;
boy
.” The word ‘boy’ was spat at Luc.

“Joe; don’t be horrible. Luc was just visiting.” Rachel was now
bright red in the face providing Joe with further suspicion that she was
covering for Luc. Turning his gaze towards the boy next to her Joe took a
moment to study Luc properly; he knew a guilty man when he saw one.

He couldn’t explain why he had felt so uneasy knowing Rachel
was in her office alone with Luc Vincent, but now it seemed evidently clear. He
had been fretting as to why her daughters’ friend had just shown up out of the
blue and made the decision to see what was going on for himself – now he
wished he hadn’t. If felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room and
he could only focus on how intimate the boy looked with Rachel.

“So please then tell me What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?” Joe
hissed. Luc stiffened at the menacing tone in Joe’s voice. He was clearly no
match for the big guy and having no desire to be on the receiving end of Joe’s
wrath any longer, decided to hit the road. He had done what he had set out to
do and felt that it was now up to Rachel to explain. Judging by the tension
emanating from Joe Mason, Luc didn’t want to make it worse for Rachel by giving
his version of events – he doubted the man would appreciate it and Luc
was keen to hold on to his body parts. Part of him however, couldn’t resist
riling the man – this was
his
Mrs R after all and he wanted Joe to have to work for it.

Feeling brave Luc stood up and dipped his head close to
Rachel’s ear whispering caustically “He’s just charming Mrs R – I can see
the attraction.” He outwardly appeared not to be at all fazed by the extremely
large angry man looking to rip him in half at this point.

Joe shot him a look of pure disdain then slowly turned to
Rachel. “What did he just say?”

“Nothing Joe. Honestly, I’ll explain everything – it’s
not what it looks like.”

“Are you fucking him?” Rachel gasped at Joe’s question that
sounded more like an accusation, and Luc froze on the spot. He couldn’t judge
at this point if Joe was going to make a move on him or not but decided he
couldn’t know Rachel very well at all if he thought her capable of cheating on
him. Turning on his heel to meet the fury head on, Luc pointed his finger right
in Joe’s face.

“Who the fuck do you think you are talking to mate? You need to
get your head out of your arse and apologise. I could care less what you think
of me, but you don’t get to speak to Rachel that way. You have no idea who she
is if that’s what you think she’s capable of. Show some respect or piss off.”

Joe’s fists were balled at his sides and he was shaking with
restraint but he was actually growling which made Luc’s stomach flip with fear.
Trying desperately not to crumble in the wake of the big man’s ire, Luc decided
It was definitely time to go. He didn’t want things to get any worse for Rachel
and she looked so distraught he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold
himself back from physically comforting her. He instinctively sensed that Joe
would lose it completely if he did that, so in a tone laced with affection Luc
told her, “The man clearly has issues so I’m going to leave now Rachel. I think
it’s for the best before your boyfriend decides to kill me.”

Rachel sighed; Joe grunted through gritted teeth something
about it not being a moment too soon, and Luc went to retrieve his phone from
the coffee table. Unfortunately, the home screen lit up under his touch to
reveal Rachel’s naked legs and arse; a good portion of her chest area and a lot
of her hair.

“Shit” gasped Luc as his heart actually missed a beat and he
prayed no one, especially Joe had seen the image. Rachel froze as Luc swiftly
pocketed his phone but the speed at which Joe launched himself at the boy
defied logic. He had him up against the wall with one hand around Luc’s throat
and the other holding his wrist without even breaking a sweat.
 

“Give it to me” Joe demanded; the red-hot rage from minutes ago
now replaced with a terrifying calmness. No one was in any doubt that he meant
Luc’s phone.