Page 27 of Friends with Benefits (Club Risqué)

Trinity ignored that, too. She couldn't deal with that kind of distraction right now, however harsh it seemed.

Christian draggedin a noisy breath and huffed it out again, accurately reading her reticence. There were limits now, he realised sadly. Limits that his own stupid actions had invoked. There would never be any going back to the way things had been in the past.

The thought had him tightening his hold on her in something akin to desperation, as if he could bind her to him forever. Even though he'd only just found her again and had no idea who she was nowadays, or the submissive she'd become. He only knew that the idea intrigued him, and he desperately wanted to explore it.

But that was for later. They still had to get through this minefield first.

Collecting his thoughts, he continued where he’d left off.

"Looking back, I don't even know why I couldn't see that it was all about the money. Maybe because I was too busy tripping over myself trying to keep her happy. Of course, nothing was ever good enough for Bianca and all she did was criticise; I should have spent more time or money, we should have gone away for longer, I didn't take her to nice enough places, the jewels I bought her weren't elaborate enough, the apartment we lived in wasn't fancy enough or in a good enough area. The car I gave her wasn't expensive enough. Every moment I spent with Mother, no matter how brief, was time I wasn't spending on her. Not that I was that interested in spending time with her anymore at that point. But I can say that I was guilty of trying to hold my marriage together, no matter how acrimonious it seemed to have become, so I tried to run interference between Krista and Bianca. I felt like my entire life had become one careful balancing act, trying to keep them both happy. God, it exhausted me! Every minute of the day was all about her, but whatever I did for her, it was never good enough."

He laughed bitterly. "God, what must that sound like after everything you sacrificed to do things for me. Maybe this was karma's way of kicking me up the butt for taking you for granted and making our relationship all about me," he scoffed.

"There's a difference, Christian," Trinity said honestly. "Everything I did for you, I did because it made me happy to serve you. I got my own reward from being able to give you that."

Christian clasped her face in both hands and placed a tender kiss on her quivering lips. It was brief, but it still stirred up a whole host of conflicting, confusing feelings inside her.

She shook them off by directing him back to his confession. "So, what happened in the end?"

Christian sat back again and went on, but this time, he seemed more resentful than sad. "Bianca was one of those women who could see an opportunity in anything. Eleven months in and she decided she'd put in enough hard work to be able to fleece me, and Krista had unwittingly given her the perfect opportunity to claim a divorce. She cited that I neglected her by spending too much time with my mother, even though my relationship with Mum was all but broken, since I'd pulled away so much trying to keep Bianca happy."

Trinity found herself leaning into Christian and petting him like she would a wounded animal, with empathy, but also a healthy dose of caution in case it turned around and bit.

"Of course, it came as rather a shock to her, when she laid claim to half my wealth, to find many of the luxuries she had enjoyed, the car, the apartment, were leased by the company. The several holiday homes I took her to, while family places, still belonged to my mother, so she had no claim on any of them, and while I could claim against my trust fund for individual purchases which had to be agreed by the trust managers, the trust, itself, didn't mature until I turned thirty. In the end, all she got to claim against was the few thousand I’d saved from my salary within the company, and since she had such expensive tastes, most of it had already been spent on her. She managed to get her hands on a whole five grand and most of that got blown on the expensive divorce lawyer she hired to screw me over."

Trinity snuggled closer, aching for the man who had been so abused by the wife who was supposed to have loved him. What was wrong with the woman? Christian was beautiful, thoughtful, and hot!

Trinity would have given her soul to have had just a little bit of what Christian had given Bianca.

Not the material stuff. She’d never been interested in that. But the love and the commitment…and the time.

She couldn't help but wonder just how heartbroken Christian had been at being deceived so badly by the woman he had made his wife. And as for the tear in the relationship between Krista and Christian…well, it didn't bear thinking about.

Krista had never mentioned any of it, Trinity realised.

But then that was probably her own fault. During the short while they had maintained contact, Trinity had made it quite clear the subject of Christian was off limits.

Then another dreadful thought occurred to her. "Christian, when you said you and Krista were estranged, what exactly does that mean?"

Christian swallowed and his face contorted. "It means I haven't spoken to her in over four years."

Trinity gasped. "How can that have happened? Why didn't you sort this out?"

He blinked his eyes, and Trinity swore they glistened a little more than was normal before he pulled himself back together. "Mother made it clear that she didn't want anything to do with Bianca. It was a difficult time, and I was trying to keep them both happy but ended up keeping neither of them happy.

When Bianca dropped the bombshell about the divorce, I was actually relieved. I thought if I could just get things tied up, get Bianca out of the way, then I could patch things up with Mum and give her the good news. In the meantime, I decided it was probably best to give her a little space, so she could calm down. I didn't want to risk doing anything to damage what was already a rocky relationship. I thought if I just left it until everything was settled, then we could start with a new slate without that shit storm hanging over us."

Burying his head in her neck once more, Trinity had to strain to hear his muffled voice. "That was a mistake. By the time Bianca had finished dragging everything through the mud and I had surfaced for long enough to pull my head back together and start moving forward, Mother was gone."

"Gone?" Trinity reiterated, thinking she must have misheard. How could she be gone?

"I couldn't get hold of her on the phone," Christian said tonelessly. "It was clear that she'd blocked my personal number, but the landline kept coming up as unobtainable, so I went out to the house to see her. Imagine my surprise when I found a new family living there. She'd sold the estate, the one that had been in our family for generations. The place I imagined I would live some day and bring up a family of my own. If there was ever anything that brought home the fact that she was done with me, that was it."

"I can't believe she did that!" Trinity was beyond shocked. The estate and the grand house that went with it was Christian's birthright. Krista had loved that place; it had been her late husband's heritage. What state of mind must she have been in to go and sell it? It just didn't make sense.

But what did make sense was how much Krista’s actions had hurt Christian at a time when he was already vulnerable. She wondered if that was why he hadn't made any attempt to find his mother and, tentatively, asked as much.

"Trinity, I try to ring my mother every year at Christmas and on her birthday. Even now, she still has my number blocked. It wouldn't surprise me if Bianca sent some evil messages to Krista from my phone, making out they were from me, the same as she did with you. I knew what she’d said to you, because she made the mistake of not deleting the message. She thought blocking the number meant it wouldn’t be visible, but that’s not the case."

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