Chapter 346
Chapter 346
He stood with his back to her, the apron barely covering half of his body, revealing the sharp lines of his shoulders tapering into a narrow waist.
As if sensing her gaze, he shifted subtly, just enough for the contours of his muscles to become pronounced beneath his skin.
Audrey was caught so off guard that she broke into a sudden fit of coughing.
Yann moved to her side without hesitation, gently patting her back as she doubled over. Her foot hooked around the trash can just in time for her to spit out the food she could no longer swallow.
He handed her a glass of water, which she drank in one long gulp, but the coughing persisted, until her eyes began to water.
“You gave Sylvie the day off… just so you could do whatever the hell you want?”
Yann’s face, all sharp lines and clean angles, was the picture of masculine calm as he looked down at her. Not even his jaw showed the faintest hint of softness.
Yet his eyes held a kind of quiet, wounded loyalty, the look of a dog who had done everything to please its master and was still somehow scolded.
Audrey found herself flustered beneath his gaze, as though she were the one who had crossed a line.
And yet, it was he who had been so brazen in his teasing.
Waving him off, she turned to resume eating her spaghetti, but the heat of his stare pressed against her back like sunlight on bare skin.
She paused, then reluctantly turned to face him again.
“We had sex yesterday. The doctor said we need to slow down.”
“I know,” Yann replied, bending forward until their foreheads touched. “I just want to take some photos of you.”
This would be her last pregnancy. He had made up his mind about that. There would be no more swollen bellies, no more growing curves, so he wanted to remember this moment.
Plenty of people took maternity photos.
But to him, Audrey’s pregnant form was something sacred, something that belonged only to him.
And he wanted it captured perfectly.
Audrey regarded him with deep suspicion.
She didn’t buy the innocence of his offer, not when he was standing there nearly naked, dressed only in an apron.
But under the weight of his unwavering gaze, she eventually gave in. She set her plate aside and went to the bedroom in search of something suitable to
wear.
She chose a white dress shirt and wore it backwards, tying the sleeves behind her back so that her belly was left exposed just enough. Paired with a low-
waisted skirt, it would do.
At four months along, she had gained nearly fourteen pounds, most of it in her belly. Her chest had grown, too, and lately her face had taken on a rounder softness. Even her legs had filled out slightly.
By the time she returned, Yann was already adjusting the settings on his DSLR camera.
“You’re seriously using a full camera setup for this?” she asked, surprised.
1/4
Chapter 346
She had assumed he’d just snap a few shots with his phone.
Without responding, Yann handed her the
he had prepared. “Wear this.”
Audrey held the garment up, frowning.
It was barely more than lingerie, and now, it covered even less than before.
She looked at him with grave doubt. Clearly, the man was suffering from some form of artistic madness brought on by self–restraint.
Still, under his gaze, equal parts hope and pleading, she relented.
The room was warm enough that she wasn’t cold, but shame flushed her cheeks as she changed and emerged, wrapped tightly in a coral fleece robe.
“How do you want me to pose?”
“Over here,” Yann said, gently guiding her toward the window.
He dimmed the lights, letting a single beam fall across the curtain. Audrey stood behind it, her silhouette faint and dreamlike against the fabric.
“Take off the robe.”
She didn’t move. Instead, she glared at him with all the fire she could summon.
Yann, unfazed, peered through the lens to find the perfect angle, then reached over and slipped the robe from her shoulders himself.
“Look at me,” he said.
She nearly rolled her eyes into the back of her head.
Turning sideways, tilting her chin, she followed his directions with just enough effort to keep him from scolding her. After a few adjustments from him, she gave up entirely.
‘Whatever,‘ she thought. ‘It’s not like he’s ever going to print these. They’ll just sit
Con some USB stick, hidden from the world.‘
Though Audrey moved as directed, she was careful never to look directly into the lens. When she wasn’t turning her face away, she was subtly lifting a hand to obscure part of it.
In her mind, no matter how far she let this go, there was one line she wouldn’t cross.
Yann, utterly absorbed, continued adjusting the lens. The rhythm of it all was relentless.
At one point, Audrey caught a fleeting glance beneath his apron and immediately understood why the session had dragged on this long.
The fabric at his groin had noticeably shifted, and suddenly everything made sense.
Exhausted from all the posing and being positioned like a prop, she snatched the camera out of his hands. “Alright. My turn. Let’s see how you like it.”
“Are you serious?” he asked, raising a brow but clearly intrigued.
“Dead serious.”
If anyone could shamelessly work a camera, it was Yann.
He perched himself on the windowsill, one leg bent, the other extended to the floor, the apron still just barely maintaining decency.
Muscles coiled and tensed beneath flawless skin. He exuded the kind of casual virility that felt almost staged, except it wasn’t. The room seemed to swell- with it. Every frame she snapped was pure physical charisma.
5340
73%
‘God, if I cropped his head off and posted these to an adult site, they’d go
viral in minutes, she thought.
After a few satisfying clicks of the shutter, the camera ended up back in Yann’s hands.
“Let’s take one together,” he said.
“What? No. Absolutely not…”
But before she could argue, he’d set the timer.
The shutter began capturing a series of frames, most of them mid–protest, her rolling her eyes or swatting his arm away.
Eventually, laughter dissolved her resistance. Somehow, one thing led to another, and they ended up tangled in bed, the night spiraling into something far less innocent than photography.
The next morning, Audrey opened her eyes to find everything around her already tidied up.
The chaos from the night before had vanished, as if it had never happened.
She went about her morning routine, and when she turned off the computer, she noticed the USB drive’s available storage had obviously decreased.
She stared at it for a beat, then swiftly unplugged it, buried it in her bag, and walked downstairs with an air of calm detachment.
“Mrs. Winifred,” Zoe greeted her warmly, having prepared breakfast according to Sylvie’s detailed recipe notes.
That afternoon, Audrey packed her things for the trip back to Ashbourne.
Lena called, saying she was coming over. Upon hearing Audrey was leaving, she insisted on picking her up at the airport.
When they arrived in Ashbourne, the town was just experiencing its first snowfall of the season. The snow, mixed with rain, melted quickly upon touching the ground.
From then on, Lena was practically a daily fixture at Hillcrest Gardens.
“Yann! Where’s Audrey?”
“Have you seen Audrey?!”
“Where is she?!”
“Auuudreeey!”
Driven to his limits, Yann gave Lena a flurry of tasks just to get her out of the way. He signed her up for competitions, sent her to rehearsals, even arranged for her to play a supporting role at Pantheon Films.
Finally, Audrey’s ears could rest.
At six months, the babies underwent a prenatal screening. Quentin accompanied her to get a 4D ultrasound.
There they were, three tiny, wrinkled little creatures. The two boys were crammed together, fists pressed against one another like they were about to brawl. The girl, a little off to the side, was sticking out her tongue.
Audrey stared at the image, momentarily emotional. She hadn’t even realized she was crying.
Yann wrapped an arm around her, gently massaging her lower back. After the genders were confirmed, Logan found another excuse to pay Amelia a visit.
He said he needed to help name the babies.
“They’re not even your children,” Audrey snapped. “Why are you so eager?”
Chapter 346
“I’m their grandfather!” Logan replied indignantly..
“Do you even have a family genealogy to go by?”
“No, but that’s why I’m coming to you for ideas.”
“Their parents will name them. Thank you very much. You can relax.”
Logan didn’t give up easily. Even after Amelia turned him down more than once, he kept showing up. But Amelia had already gone off with Cecilia to a city down south.
Rumor had it there’d been a string of murders there, and the authorities had received anonymous autopsy reports, sharply written analyses that had helped push the cases forward.
Cecilia suspected the reports had been written by her grandson.
Amelia thought the idea was absurd, even outrageous, but went along anyway. They bickered the whole way, only to end up asleep on each other’s shoulders the moment the plane took off.
Back in Ashbourne, Logan tried and failed yet again to reach Amelia. On his way home, someone threw a sack over his head and dumped him into a maintenance pit near the heating lines.
At his age, the fall wasn’t kind. He fractured his ankle.
Now in a wheelchair, Logan rolled himself straight to Yann. “I’m telling you. It has to be Richard, that bastard!”
