Page 14 of Friends with Benefits (Club Risqué)

If she was sad that her life revolved so completely around the man, then she still wouldn't change anything at all, except to put their relationship on a more open, permanent, and official basis. Christian was her life, and she was content to follow wherever it was that life led her.

As long as she was with him, everything else was just fine.

He seemed unaccountably strained when he came to visit her that fateful evening.

Taryn had tried to get him to sit down so she could massage his tension away, but Christian had pulled her hands away from him and told her they needed to talk.

Hope had blossomed in her heart so hard and fast that she had to fight to keep her excitement in check. Had he finally realised he wanted her in his life on a more personal basis? Perhaps the imposed absences had spurred him into asking her to live with him at last, so their time wasn't so fragmented.

Her chest squeezed in delight and the love she felt for him quivered on the tip of her tongue, ready to be given freedom at last.

Struggling to keep a lid on her feelings for him, until he had at least said his piece, Taryn sat dutifully on the edge of the couch facing the love of her life and waiting as patiently as she could for him to make all of her dreams come true.

ChapterTen

Christian rubbed his hands over his face. He was clearly agitated, and Taryn wished she could ease his obvious anxiety, but she guessed it was a big step to ask someone to share your life, even if they had been together for years. Obviously, he still wanted to do things right.

"I didn't realise this would be quite so difficult," he sighed, turning more fully to look at her, only to wince when he did.

Taryn was a little nonplussed at the expression and the way he quickly looked away again, but she placed a comforting hand on his forearm and squeezed it in support. "Just say what you need to say, Christian, I don't need a lot of fanfare."

He gave her a slightly confused look but nodded all the same. "I want to get married," he blurted out in a rush.

Okay, so it wasn't the most romantic of proposals, but Taryn didn't care. Her heart was full to bursting and she wanted to get up and scream and laugh and dance around the room, she was so deliriously happy, but Christian was still so quiet and serious that she kept the lid screwed tightly in place on her rioting emotions.

The fact that she did seemed to fill Christian with relief, and his shoulders drooped into a relaxed slump.

Taryn laughed despite herself. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" she teased.

Grabbing her hands in his own, Christian turned to stare at her, his face earnest. "I guess I was stressing myself out over nothing." Christian blew out a long, noisy breath. "I really didn't expect you to take it so well."

Taryn raised her eyebrows in surprise. Wow! Maybe he really hadn't been entirely sure about her feelings, after all, even though Taryn, herself, had always thought the way she felt about him was way beyond obvious. After all, why else would a woman put her life on hold for a man for years on end?

"You have no idea how much easier you're making this than I expected, Tara." Christian smiled, albeit a little wanly. "I honestly thought you might freak out on me or something."

Taryn laughed, glad she'd kept a lid on all those rioting emotions if that was all Christian was worried about. She even bit her tongue at correcting his use of her name, a mistake he still made far too often, since this was neither the time nor the place for that lecture.

"It all happened so suddenly," Christian went on earnestly, and Taryn frowned. He thought this was sudden?

"I wasn't looking for a relationship and I never planned to fall in love, it just happened…"

He sucked in another hefty breath and dragged his fingers through his hair, and Taryn had to wonder if he wasn't altogether happy with his newfound revelation. He somehow didn't seem to be quite as joyful as she expected him to be at such a time and that dimmed her own enthusiasm slightly.

Of course, she knew that he had always been reluctant to have a relationship, so this was a big change, and it was true that Krista was still rather clingy, but Taryn's own special relationship with Christian's mother would ease the way.

Privately, she was pretty sure that Krista would be overjoyed. After all, she often referred to Taryn as the daughter she'd never had.

"But when I met Bianca at the BDSM club I've been visiting, it just hit me between the eyes, and I knew I was lost. She understands me in a way that no one in my life ever has. When we scene together, it's just so right! Everything with her allows me the kind of control that's been missing from my life for so many years, while everything's been so up in the air and my life has revolved around keeping everybody else happy. I can't believe you're being so understanding about this…"

Christian words droned on,but Taryn's brain had stalled.

Scene? BDSM? Bianca?

The blood drained from her face and tears threatened to erupt behind her eyes as her subconscious caught on to the implications before her active mind was ready to admit it to herself.

There had never been any promises of exclusivity between them, such was the nature of their ‘no strings’ relationship. But she’d naively believed…

It was all too much. Taryn swallowed convulsively past a lump in her throat so large it threatened to suffocate her. Her face tingled and she couldn't tell if she was hot or cold, pale, or red with mortification.

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