Page 47 of Friends with Benefits (Club Risqué)

"It's not that," Trinity replied, settling on an abbreviated version of the truth…or at least the truth as it had been before he had mentioned Bianca. "I'm just having a little bit of trouble melding the past and the present. These people still think of me as Tara, and that's not who I am anymore, and neither is it who I want to be.

It's just one of those things I have to come to terms with in my own time."

ChapterThirty-Three

Since Christian didn't know how to respond to that, he remained silent until the song ended. He chose to hold her close, instead, hoping he could convey his understanding and sincerity by touch alone, so that maybe Trinity would feel a little more secure within the circle of his arms.

They had a way to go yet; he didn't kid himself on that. He was honest enough and mature enough to realise that he’d damaged something inside Trinity and what resided there now was fragile and needed nurturing. But those were things he could only prove with time and the absolute, enduring commitment, which he’d failed to give her the first time around.

She said she was a sure thing, and she might have given him a second chance, but Christian wasn't arrogant enough, these days, to believe that she would wait around if he messed up a second time.

That, at least, was one thing he had Bianca to thank for—she had successfully cured him of that particular stupidity.

Trinity was standingat the dessert bar, wondering if she had any room for a third selection from the delicious and decadent selection, when a woman she recognised as another businessman's wife came to join her.

"God, it's just too much, isn't it? I think I've gained ten pounds just looking at this spread!" the woman exaggerated with a groan.

Trinity grinned back at her. The woman had curves in all the right places and while wasn't a stick insect by any stretch of the imagination, she wore the body she'd been blessed with proudly and didn't strike Trinity as the type who starved herself unnecessarily.

"I think you're safe as long as you don't inhale too much," she joked back.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm just trying to decide how much overtime I'm going to have to pay my physical trainer, if I indulge any more. I've already clocked up an extra glass of champagne and a rather decadent cocktail along with my last indulgence from the dessert bar. Oh, sod it!" she declared, reaching over and adding two tiny morsels to a plate then eyeing them considerately before she huffed out a defeated breath and brought her attention back to Trinity.

"You're Tara, aren't you?" she enquired, her head canted to one side. "I'm Katherine…well, Katie, actually, but always Katherine at these swanky dos."

Trinity immediately liked the woman, who looked to be in her mid-thirties, and her blunt sense of humour drew her like a magnet.

"Actually, it's Taryn," she found herself saying, much to her own surprise. "Tara is a nickname Christian uses at these dos, and not one that I'm particularly fond of," she admitted. Maybe this was the compromise she'd been trying to find.

"Urgh," Katie exaggerated the unladylike noise. "These things are so damn pretentious sometimes, aren’t they? You can't tell me they don't all go home with a skin full of alcohol and boink each other's brains out…well, except for Maud Engadine. I think she might crack a rib if she tried anything that passionate!" She nodded to a painfully frail old lady who Trinity knew had just turned ninety.

"I bet she was a right goer in her day, though," Katie finished with a cheeky wink, and Trinity couldn't help the bawdy laugh that erupted from her belly.

Turning back to the dessert table with a more toned-down snigger as a couple of the closer patrons frowned and glanced their way, Trinity grabbed not one but two of the tasty morsels. They were only tiny anyway. Barely more than a mouthful, and it wasn't as if she had ever needed to watch her weight.

In general, she ate healthily, but one of the benefits of the genetic soup which had formed her tiny stature was that it also seemed to have gifted her with a faster than normal metabolism.

"Watch out; witch alert!" Katie muttered as she crowded next to Trinity and hastily looked away from wherever she'd been gawking. "What the hell is she doing here? I thought we'd finally seen the last of that tramp."

Trinity tried to peek surreptitiously over Katie's shoulder to see whom she was referring to, but her lack of height left her with a distinct disadvantage.

Not that it mattered. As soon as she caught the affected, haughty voice, which was now commenting rather rudely to her new friend, she knew she'd discovered the source.

"God, Katherine! Do you really think having more dessert is a good idea? You know all those calories are going to park themselves straight on your ass, and I don't think you can afford to pack any more down there. Lewis will be looking around for a trimmer model if you're not careful!"

The voice was attached to a stunning but clearly rather nasty woman in a skintight, blood red dress, which left nothing to the imagination. She struck a contrived pose with her hand on the hip, which she stuck out exaggeratedly, while she deliberately flicked her long blonde hair over her bare shoulder and looked Katie up and down with bored blue eyes that telegraphed her obvious disdain.

Trinity noticed Katie's free hand fist while the other tightened around her plate before she swirled around and transformed before her very eyes.

"Bea, darling," she said in a completely contrived voice, full of blasé nonchalance. "Please don't imagine that I have anything to worry about there. Lewis just adores having something to hold onto." She swept her hand deliberately over her shapely hip. "And while he appreciates a nice rack, he's one of those old-fashioned sorts who prefers it to be completely natural." Katie looked down at her generous cleavage before treating the blonde to a wide, saccharine smile and a pointed look at her obviously silicone enhanced figure, which had her looking like a real-life Jessica Rabbit, with her admittedly spectacular bust and impossibly small waist.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you."

The woman's retort sounded almost like a threat, and Trinity frowned, wondering if she’d imagined it until Katie muttered "bitch"' under her breath as she watched the other woman slink off from beneath lowered lashes.

"Problems?" Trinity asked mildly. She didn't like to get muddled up in anyone else's drama, but Katie was clearly bristling with outrage and upset, and there was a suspicious sheen of moisture in her eyes that Trinity didn’t think had anything to do with her temper.

Katie took a deep breath and steered Trinity over to a vacant seating arrangement on the periphery of the festivities, which was conveniently flanked by a large potted palm that afforded them a modicum of privacy.

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