Page 97 of Forgotten Promise

“We’ve always been good at the physical aspects of our relationship.”

Benjamin might be pissed, but that emotion faded in comparison when stacked next to his arrogance. “Better than good,” he corrected.

She resisted the familiar urge to put him in his place because his cocky comment was only helping to prove her point.

“We are amazing together in bed, and until John, I was pretty sure there was nothing we could have done to improve on it.”

“God. You’re not kidding. The three of us…” Benjamin said.

“Fireworks,” she finished. “But this’s what I’m saying, Benjamin. We come together and everything else in the world vanishes.”

She waited, giving him a chance to shoot yet another smart-ass line back at her, so she was surprised when he nodded. “It does.”

“We’ve always been so good in bed that we let it carry the relationship. It’s the other places where we fall apart.”

“Other places?” he asked.

“Our communication sucks.”

He snorted, and this time, it was driven by amusement rather than anger. “You can say that again.”

“There are times when you talk,” she said, “that it takes all I have not to rip your throat out.”

Benjamin laughed loudly. “Jesus. That’s beautiful,” he teased. “You should write greeting cards.”

“The problem,” she said, stressing the words, “is I’ve been letting my feelings overwhelm me and rather than talk about them, I keep shutting down and walking away.”

Benjamin nodded slowly.

She raised one eyebrow at him when he didn’t say anything. “And you,” she said, pointing her finger at him, driving it into his chest as she spoke each word, “do the same. Damn. Thing.”

He gave her a rueful grin. “You’re right. I do.”

“I was devastated when you broke up with me after Paris, but I didn’t tell you that, didn’t let you know how much it hurt me. Didn’t confront you about the confidential information I thought you shared. Not once in ten long years.”

“I wish I’d known. I don’t know how I could have fixed things, but I would have tried. I swear to you.”

She had trust issues when it came to Benjamin, but right now, she believed every word he said because she knew he was telling her the truth.

“You left Hawaii without saying goodbye.” Old Kailani might have tempered those words, spoken them in a “couldn’t care less” tone. Or she might not have said them at all.

This Kailani let him see how much his departure hurt.

And for the first time, he cracked open the door to his emotions as well, though she was slightly surprised by what she saw. “You asked Selene to dissolve our trinity, Kailani. What did you expect me to do? Stick around so you could kick me some more?”

“I—” she started, but Benjamin cut her off.

“How else would Selene have known about my request? Are you telling me the counselors briefed her on our fucked-up binding ceremony? That our shit was a priority during a crisis?”

“I told her about your request. On the plane. But, Benjamin, I didn’t ask her to dissolve it.” She paused, recalling the conversation she and Selene had had on the jet. Selene had pointed out that if one of them became Grand Master, they would have the power to set Kailani’s trinity aside. Kailani had actually had that same thought herself, but she’d dismissed it after the night they’d all spent together in Denver.

“I didn’t think Selene would dissolve the trinity after becoming the acting Grand Master for the very reasons you just said. The society is at war. I thought she would be too overwhelmed by the fact our leaders and members are going missing and our headquarters is compromised, to give a shit about one unhappy trinity.”

“Then why didn’t you speak up?” he asked.

“I…should have, but when you didn’t say anything, I thought…” She paused. “I didn’t realize you thought I’d asked Selene to do that.”

No wonder he left.

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