Page 29 of Friends with Benefits (Club Risqué)

The company might have belonged to his father, but the board would decide who would take his father's place during his illness and after his death. Of course, no one had been as invested in that outcome as Christian had been, but his youth and relative inexperience had counted against him at the time.

BDSM had given him a much-needed perception of control where previously there had been none.

Trinity - he had to remind himself to think of her as that now - had been an absolute godsend. He hadn't fully appreciated it at the time, but she had subtly wooed and indulged everyone with her easy-going charm and genuine interest, and they had warmed to her, which in turn meant they’d warmed to him.

Things had almost gone horribly wrong when he’d introduced Bianca as his escort, and later his wife.

She had mostly been bored and uninterested and it had shown. Furthermore, where his colleagues and business acquaintances had adored Trinity, they had disliked Bianca intensely and made sure Christian knew it.

Instead of the subtle schmoozing Trinity had achieved with grace and aplomb, Bianca had flirted with those men who oozed wealth, even in front of their wives and girlfriends, which had caused inevitable friction. And she had dismissed those whom she didn't feel matched her standards. Something she didn't always get right.

She had once haughtily brushed off the CEO of one of the biggest conglomerates Christian wanted to do business with, insulting the man by treating him as if he were one of the wait staff.

Not only had it not been good for business, but It was one more thing to cause dissent between them.

Bianca became infuriated, and that made her behaviour all the more unacceptable as she became malicious and vindictive towards the wives who had spurned her, insulting their outfits, or making snide remarks about their weight.

Eventually, he had stopped taking her, instead being accompanied by a work colleague, a practice that continued to this day. He was only stuck this time since he was on a protracted trip and it hadn't made sense to drag someone away from work for an extended period just for the sake of a couple of events. He had planned to go alone, if necessary.

Christian couldn't help hoping Trinity would decide to honour their contract. There would undoubtedly be a lot of his business associates who would be overjoyed to become reacquainted with her.

Taking a deep breath, Christian headed for Trinity's office to face the music, slightly unsure of what sort of a reception he'd get.

ChapterTwenty-Two

This was awkward! That was the litany that kept turning over and over in Trinity's head after Christian showed up in her office that evening.

How could a process that was so familiar and a person with whom she had been so intimate equal something so incredibly uncomfortable? It wasn't as if she hadn't been expecting him.

It just didn't make sense.

They’d already talked. She’d told him that she had decided to uphold the contract, and he’d agreed he wanted the same. But now that bit was over with, everything had become stilted and the conversation seemed to have dried up.

Maybe this wasn't going to work after all. They were never going to manage to play together if they couldn't relax around each other; it just wasn't going to be conducive to a satisfying scene for either of them.

She felt as if they were both tentatively walking over the eggshells of their past.

It was Christian who broke the impasse they seemed to have come to. "Come here, Trinity."

His voice held that deep, indomitable command that had her feet walking toward him before her brain properly considered the options. It was an inherent 'Dom' thing. Something every single one of them seemed to possess.

As soon as she was within arm's reach, he wasted no time pulling her to him and crushing her to his chest.

The action took Trinity by surprise. The way things had been going, it certainly wasn't what she’d expected, and her mouth opened in a little moue of surprise as he all but squeezed the air out of her.

Taking advantage, Christian dipped his head and grabbed her hair in a firm grip that sent tingles rushing from her scalp, then doing the samba in her belly before dancing right on down to her girly bits with a cha-cha-cha. Then his mouth plundered, and his tongue plunged in a way that made her desperate to find out just what else he had learned to do with it since he’d discovered the lifestyle.

He kissed her until she thought she might pass out from lack of air. Until the tingles that she was feeling spread all the way down to the tips of her toes.

There was a subtle confidence and control about Christian’s actions that was definitely new. It was nothing loud and brash, and somehow, it affected her more that way.

But despite the no-nonsense hand gripping her hair, the strong arm banding her waist, and the way his mouth marauded over her own, everything else was strictly PG. His hands didn't wander and neither did his mouth—as much as she might have secretly wanted them to—and by the time he let her up for air, Trinity felt completely dazed and extremely compliant.

"Kneel!" he commanded when he finally let her go, and she gracefully dropped to her knees without hesitation, spreading her thighs and laying her palms upward upon them in a typical gorean slave pose, her gaze shifting downward in automatic deference.

She thought she heard a quiet, indrawn breath from Christian but knew better than to look. A wave of peaceful acceptance washed over her, leaving her mind completely calm, and she embraced it all.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she waited patiently for her Master to speak, feeling completely in harmony with herself and the situation, for the first time since Christian had walked back into her life.

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