Page 43 of Friends with Benefits (Club Risqué)

"I was the one who allowed it, Christian," Trinity argued, more than prepared to shoulder her share of the blame if that's the game they were playing.

"Yes, you did," he agreed. "But you were barely nineteen, and I was old enough to know better. I should never have taken advantage of you the way I did; that was unforgivable."

Trinity shook her head. "I knew what I was doing, Christian. I wanted you. If we're going to start apportioning guilt here, then I was just as guilty of taking advantage of your need and vulnerability at a time when you so desperately needed someone to hold onto and provide a getaway from everything else in your life. I had an ulterior motive, too, you see."

"How could you have, Trinity?" he disagreed. "Everything that happened between us happened on my terms and, looking back, I can see that those were purely selfish."

"Quit with the self-castigation, Christian." Her tone held hints of both impatience and irritation now, and the furrow between her brows was more pronounced.

Maybe that’s why she blurted out the next words without thinking them through. "I wanted more from you than you were prepared to give, Christian. You were nothing but honest about your own expectations. If either of us was acting under false pretences, then it was me, because I agreed to your terms, but all the while, I was hoping to maneouvre that into something more. I thought that if I was there for you, if I insinuated myself into your life, if I provided everything you needed without making any demands, then, one day, when everything settled down, you'd realise I'd always been there for you and you'd love me the way that I loved you. It was a gamble, Christian. One that didn't pay off, but people who gamble need to be prepared to lose. That's the nature of the game. I was just arrogant enough to believe I could win. So now who's the selfish one…or maybe just the stupid one?"

"Except you were never stupid, and I knew you loved me, Trinity, so I should never have accepted those odds. I knew there was always the possibility of you being hurt, but I played with your feelings anyway, when I should have been a better friend and cut your losses."

"How could you have known? I never told you."

Christian moved his hands up until they were cupping her face and his eyes bored into hers. "Ah, baby, sometimes you don't need the words to be said out loud to know that they're true," he whispered, his mouth close enough that she could feel his breath on her own. "I knew because no one would have done what you did for me, for so many years, unless they loved me."

He didn't give her any further opportunity to argue, instead slanting his lips across hers in a demanding and possessive kiss that stole her breath and made her tummy do that familiar flip flop.

Trinity melted into him and threw her arms around his neck, the feel of him pressed up against her, and the thick evidence of his desire surging against her stomach, making all of her nerve endings ping and fizz.

She was done for, damn it.

She knew beyond any doubt that while whatever feelings she had for Christian Knightley might have lain dormant for the past few years, now he was right here in front of her, they had come out of hibernation.

Moreover, now that they had been perked up with a little bit of slap and tickle, they were just as strong as ever. The lifestyle they both now shared simply served to add a new dimension to what they had enjoyed together in the past and that sweetened the pot all the more, calling to Trinity on an even deeper level. The knowledge made her mewl in despair, and Christian stole the opportunity to tangle his tongue with hers when her lips parted.

Trinity burrowed into him, desperately trying to get closer. If all she had of him was a few short weeks, then she was going to milk every drop of happiness and ecstasy out of them and then wring out a little bit more to sustain her through those cheerless days when she would have nothing left but her memories.

It was nothing premeditated. Trinity didn't even think about it; she simply couldn't help herself. She was his to do with as he wished; she always had been.

Christian truly was her kryptonite and she could deny him nothing; she didn't want to.

What she wanted was to enjoy each and every second they had together while she had the chance, and if that was wrong, then so be it.

She thought she must have transmitted her need to Christian, because it seemed he read her without words, swinging her up in his arms without barely lifting his lips from hers as he did so.

"Where’s your bedroom?" he whispered against her mouth.

"Hall…left," was all she managed to get out while Christian swung around and stalked off.

A minute later, he laid her on the rumpled bed. If anything crossed his mind at the sight of it, he neither verbalised it, nor let it cross his expression.

Shrugging out of the jacket he was still wearing and tearing off his shirt, Christian followed her down. This was no time for niceties. Pure lust was driving this ship right now.

ChapterThirty

Christian tugged sharply on the sash that secured her robe then simultaneously pushed it open and down her shoulders until it trapped her arms within its folds.

Wasting no time, he bent his head, pulled a stiff, pouting nipple deep into his mouth and suckled hard until Trinity arched up against him in a silent entreaty for more, sexy little sounds of need falling unconsciously from her lips.

He smoothed his fingers down the flat plane of her abdomen and under the waistband of the sexy little boy shorts she was wearing, finding her wet and swollen. Trinity’s hips canted up to beg for his touch, to invite him inside and he took the invitation, plunging two fingers, glossy with her desire, into her needy sheath. Damn, she was tight.

He didn't pause, just plunged his fingers in and out, relishing the slick sounds of her wetness until the constraints of her underwear irritated him enough to do something about it.

Pulling out and lifting from the bed in one fluid move, Christian stripped off the rest of his clothes, and the protest Trinity mouthed at the initial loss was replaced with what he could only describe as a purr of approval as she looked him frankly up and down.

Sitting up quickly, Trinity freed her arms and reached for his cock.

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