by Poppy Flynn
So what the heck did all that mean? Had he arranged some kind of secret assignation with the mystery blonde? Was that the cause of the all fired hurry to get back to his hotel after their mysterious disappearance from the ball? Was she waiting for him back at his hotel, waiting for Christian to dispatch his date, so they could move on to their own brand of dessert?
No! she scolded herself as she walked slowly across to the double doors leading to her building's vestibule and trying her best not to dwell on the fact that he hadn't even stopped long enough to ensure that she made it inside safely.
You're being stupid and reading into things that aren't there. There's probably a perfectly good explanation as to why he cut the evening short and chose to go back to his hotel for the night. And it's not as if he left you miles from the entryway. It's just a few yards, and it's not like you're not capable of looking after yourself!
Trinity kept up the internal monologue all the way into her building and up the escalator. By the time she crawled into her bed—alone—she had almost managed to convince the devil on her shoulder that it was wrong, but as she pulled the covers up over her and snuggled down into the bed which suddenly seemed too big and lonely, she couldn't help the shiver of apprehension that shuddered down her spine.
She closed her eyes and wagged a metaphoric finger at herself, determined to maintain some positivity. You're just cold!
Chapter 17
Christian barely contained the urge to punch his hand right through the plasterboard wall of his hotel suite. Frantically pacing from one side of the lounge area to the other to try to work off some of the fury and frustration he was feeling, he stilled, let out a fierce, frustrated growl, and rubbed his hands harshly over his face before tunnelling them into his hair and fisting them tight. The unrelieved pinpricks of pain went a little way to easing his rage. He huffed out an audible breath then sucked it all back in again in an attempt to calm himself.
He knew he hadn't treated Trinity with the care and respect she deserved when he'd cut their night short and dumped her, unceremoniously, outside her apartment building before tearing off, but at the time, he hadn't been thinking straight. His mind had been one thick blur of red rage and molten lava that was straining to erupt, and he hadn't wanted to put Trinity in the firing line when he knew his temper was right on the tipping edge of pure rage. Better to get her out of the way and deal with those consequences later…and pray to God that she was prepared to listen.
Christian grabbed his phone and tried his lawyer yet again. Must be the fourth or fifth time tonight already. He knew it was late, but goddamn it, he was desperate! He barely avoided launching the handset and smashing it into the ground when his call went to voicemail yet again. The only thing that stopped him was the chilling knowledge that he desperately needed to contact his bloody lawyer, and he wouldn't be able to if his phone was smashed to pieces.
Hanging his head and pausing to try to get his brain into gear, Christian struggled to think of an alternative avenue of counsel.
Hitting upon another idea, he scrolled through his contacts with renewed hope. Maybe his friend, Logan Thornton, could help. True, he wasn't a personal lawyer but a corporate one, but he'd had to train for every eventuality before he specialised. Surely, he'd at least be able to point him in the right direction. There must be some kind of central register, some way of checking the authenticity of Bianca's outrageous claims. Although knowing the woman as well as he did, he wasn't naïve enough to put anything past her.
Goddamn it all! The anger swelled all over again as the memory of what she'd told him earlier this evening threatened to erupt all over again. He'd never felt violent toward a woman in his entire life, and he wasn't proud to admit that if the conniving bitch was in the room with him right now, he'd have a hard time not clamping his hands around her neck and squeezing until she ceased to be a thorn in side. The vividly gruesome and rather bloodthirsty pictures running on a loop, like a film reel, in his head brought him up short.
Shit! What the hell was he thinking? He wasn't this person. He just needed to calm the fuck down and start thinking logically. This wasn't the end of the world. It was just the shock and the threats that had him on edge, had his temper spiking precariously, and behaving like a bloody uncivilized caveman. But, Jesus, surely, anyone would have the same kind of reaction to that kind of immoral and malevolent provocation.
Sucking in another steadying breath, he tapped the screen to call Logan with shaking fingers and rubbed a sweaty hand across his mouth. He needed to get his shit together, so he didn't babble like a madman when Logan answered.
Christian couldn't help the groan of relief when the call connected.
"Hey, man, are you okay?" came the disembodied voice at the other end of the line.
"Hell, no!" Christian replied honestly, forgetting even the courtesy of a greeting in his relief. "I really need some help!"
"No offense, but you sound like shit, buddy," Logan returned seriously. "What's going down?"
"It's Bianca," Christian told his friend in a strained voice. "She turned up at the charity gig I took Trinity to this evening."
"Damn, they didn't get into it, did they? Is Trinity all right? She doesn't deserve that kind of crap from your ex. How did she even know you'd be there?"
Christian shook his head at the deluge of questions. "I don't know, and I don't care, right now. I have bigger issues to worry about."
"Lay it on me then, and I'll do what I can to help," Logan offered with genuine generosity.
Christian finally dropped the bombshell, his voice strained, as if saying the words out loud had the ability to confirm the awful truth…hell, they might already be true, but saying them just brought it all into glaring reality. "She claims that we're still married. She says the decree absolute was never filed."
Trinity sat in her office trying to keep her mind on the payroll and the spreadsheets she was supposed to be dealing with, but after spotting her fourth mistake, she closed the programme down, before she ended up making some colossal error in somebody's paycheck.
She hadn't seen Christian since the night of the fundraiser, and apart from one terse message the following day, to say he'd been caught up in something unexpected and would be in touch when it was resolved, she hadn't heard from him. That had been four days ago, and she still didn't know quite how to take his untimely withdrawal. She only knew that with every passing day, she lost a little bit more hope, and the burgeoning optimism, which had been sprouting and flowering under the heat of his presence, shrivelled and died a little bit more with every passing hour of no communication, shuffling back inside the shell where it had lain for so many years until Trinity was, once again, a pale shadow of the woman she might have been.
She felt like she'd been eviscerated all over again. Jeez! Why did she lay herself open to this kind of hurt?
Because you're foolish enough to love someone who never wanted you and has never deserved you, the vicious little devil on her shoulder whispered obnoxiously in her ear.
"Shut up!" she shouted out loud, trying to quell the malignant taunts that urged her to turn her back on Christian, to give up on him before he had a chance to defend himself.
Or before he has a chance to break your heart all over again. You should call it off now, take control and end things on your own terms, before he humiliates you like he did the last time.
"No! There's probably a perfectly good explanation. I don't have any reason to doubt him. He's never lied to me—that has got to count for something!" Trinity denied the cynical inner voice out loud, refusing to give in to her fears until she had a justifiable cause.
Jesus Christ! Now she was talking to herself.
The woman turned up thirty minutes before the club was due to open. Later, Trinity would wonder if that had been a deliberate attempt to catch them when they were preoccupied with checking that everything was ready. It was always a bit of a circus trying to have it all up and running smoothly before the doors opened�
��checking all the staff had turned up, making certain there were enough Dungeon Monitors, since many of those positions were filled voluntary by members who wanted to offset their fees. Also, they had to check the programme and participants for the display platforms and ensure all of the club commitments were on schedule and juggle any last-minute changes that inevitably cropped up. If she had known the woman better, she would have known it was indeed a premeditated attempt to catch them off guard.
She swirled into Trinity's office as if she owned the place, and Trinity felt a visceral jolt when she recognised the obnoxious woman from Tuesday evening's charity event. She was dressed in unrelieved black leather fetish wear; a waist cinching balconette corset, which highlighted her astounding figure and offered up her mostly naked breasts, as if on a platter, and a tiny, impossibly tight skirt teamed with heels so high they made Trinity's eyes water at the thought of the pressure they must put on the arches of her feet.
The long blonde hair was artfully highlighted in several different shades to stop it looking brassy, and her big blue eyes and pouting pink lips were cleverly made up to give her an aura of innocence that Trinity didn't trust an inch.
Determinedly shelving the intrusive feelings of inadequacy she felt at being caught in a comfy tunic and leggings in subdued shades of greens and brown and a pair of ballet flats that did absolutely nothing to improve her stature—in fact, if anything, she was irritatingly aware that they probably added to the elfin look now that her hair was back to its usual spiky red—Trinity schooled her features into an impassive and unrevealing mask and cursed the fact that she had gone without makeup today.
Well, she hoped that's how she came across anyway. Underneath it all, her heart was slamming out of her chest and her palms were decidedly sweaty, but there was no way she was giving this woman the satisfaction of knowing any of that. She instinctively knew that even the slightest indication of any weakness would be ruthlessly used against her.
"How can I help you?" she asked with cool professionalism, hiding her irritation that the woman had just sauntered in and folded herself elegantly into a chair without even being invited.
The blonde fluttered her eyelashes. Did she really think that kind of act was going to work in here?
"Oh, I do apologise," she began breathily. "It's just that my husband has a guest membership at your club while he's here on business for a few weeks and I really wanted to try to get in tonight so I could surprise him with my little visit."
Trinity frowned and tapped a button on her keyboard so that her monitor flickered to life and wondered whom she could be referring to. Katie hadn't given any indication that this woman was married. Quite the opposite in fact. Still…
"If your husband is a guest, then there's probably not a lot I can do, I'm afraid." Practicality took over and Trinity dropped straight into business mode. "Club Risqué is very exclusive and doesn't accept unsolicited membership applications. The only way to get in is by sponsorship recommendation or as a guest, and if your husband is already attending as a guest on somebody else's membership, then he can't invite guests of his own."
"Oh, he doesn't know I'm coming," the woman pouted. "Things have been a little strained between us recently, but we've reconciled, and I wanted to surprise him. Isn't there any way…"
She trailed off like a little girl lost, and Trinity sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She briefly wondered why the woman hadn't sought out Micah. She looked like the type who would be more than happy to use her womanly wiles on any man, if it helped her to get her own way. Then again, Micah was unusually perceptive, and it was damn hard to scoot anything past him, so perhaps she had made the right choice for this play.
"Do you know who your husband is here as the guest of?" she enquired politely. "It might be possible for me to put you on as a guest couple."
She fluttered her eyebrows again. "Oh, umm…I don't know for sure, but I think it might be a friend of his called Logan Thornton?" she couched it like a question, and Trinity gritted her teeth. There was no way this woman was as ditsy as she was making herself out to be. Trinity had seen her in action the other night and clearly remembered the catty way she had spoken to Katie. The saccharine sweet persona she was trying to embody now might have fooled her if she hadn't already seen a different side of her in action. But she had, and it was obvious that she didn't recognise Trinity from the ball, or she probably wouldn't have tried to lay it on so thick.
Bringing up Logan's guest details, and seeing Christian's name stated on the guest list, Trinity looked back at the woman with a hint of cynicism. "I think you must be mistaken about who your husband's sponsor is. Logan does have a guest cited against his membership, but the gentleman in question isn't married," she said coolly, trying not to let her disquiet show on her face.
"Are you sure? Maybe he just didn't change his details yet. Like I said, we've recently been separated, but the divorce was never finalised, and we decided to give it another go. My husband's name is Christian Knightley, and I'm Bianca Knightley.
Trinity hastily hid her face behind the monitor. She was sick to her stomach and felt like the slightest wrong move might make her vomit. Heat swept the back of her neck and prickled her face and she swallowed convulsively, desperately trying to rid herself of the metallic taste that had her salivary glands doing a tap dance on her tonsils.
Surreptitiously wiping her clammy hands down her leggings, Trinity breathed carefully through her nose and tried to ignore the pain that was tearing through her chest as if someone had ripped her open from sternum to gut. There was no way she was giving this woman—or any fucker else for that matter, she thought viciously—the satisfaction of knowing how much she hurt.
Pretending that she was accessing other files on her PC, Trinity tapped on a few more keys in order to calm herself and buy a bit of time. She cleared her throat and took a sip of water from the glass on her desk, swallowing carefully before she trusted herself to speak.
"Why don't you take a more comfortable seat?" she said carefully. "And I'll see what I can do." She indicated the lounge area of her office then felt the blood draining from her face as the memory of Christian spanking her on the very seat where Bianca was carefully arranging herself came thundering into her mind.
Oh fuck, she was going to puke!
"Excuse me a moment. I don't have the authority to deal with this," she excused, rapidly executing the lock functions to secure her computer, before hastily making her way to the door. "I need to see if I can locate Master Flynn."
Trinity sprawled over the sink in the private washroom off the employee's lounge. It was quiet and rarely used, like the lounge itself, which was why she had dived in there.
Closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, she thought back to the woman in her office and the fact that she had left her there unattended and abandoned. Oh, well, that was too damn bad right now.
A moment later, Trinity jolted, and her stomach roiled again when a hand settled at the base of her spine and a cold, damp cloth was pressed against her forehead. Dragging in a settling breath, she opened her scrunched up eyes and raised her head to see Micah in the mirror. He said nothing while he rinsed out the cloth and reapplied it, dabbing across the rest of her face first before handing her a bottle of water.
Trinity took it gratefully. "What are you doing here?' she croaked, her throat feeling raw and acidic. She took an appreciative sip of the water.
"One of the club subs mentioned that she'd noticed an unfamiliar woman snooping around your office and you were nowhere in sight, so I asked around and my inquiries led me here. Are you up to sitting down in the lounge?"
Trinity nodded and Micah supported her until she was settled.
"The woman in my office, don't let anyone allow her into the club," Trinity rasped. "She's a sneaky one; she'll take herself down there if she gets the chance."
"Don't worry," Micah reassured, "I had one of the subs offer her refreshments to keep an eye on her. Now what's al
l this about? How has she upset you?"
"Who says she upset me?" Trinity asked belligerently. "Maybe I'm just ill."
"And maybe I'm the pope, but then we'd both be deluded!" Micah retorted. "Now spit it out!"
Trinity sucked in a breath and looked at the ceiling, willing the tears to stay out of her eyes as she answered him, "She says she's Christian's wife."
Micah sat bolt upright and swore. "Did she give a name?" he demanded.
"Of course, she did." Trinity laughed humourlessly. "She gave her name as Bianca Knightley, what else?"
"Well, that explains how she got past the front desk," Micah reasoned. "They only have an alert out on the name Bianca James."
"What do you mean? What alert?"
"Before Christian was even granted a guest pass, there was an alert out to this, and every other club that was prepared to take note, not to allow membership to a Bianca James. Logan has always made sure it was enforced at this and the other Club Risqué."
"That doesn't make any sense, Micah," Trinity replied tiredly. The effort of putting a brave face on things had taken its toll and she felt suddenly deflated. "If she knows she's banned from membership, why would she try to sneak in here…I mean, I know why she'd want to do that under other circumstances, but not while Christian is here to challenge her story. And she knew he was going to be here. She didn't deny that they'd been separated, but she claims the divorce was never finalised and they had been reconciled and said she wanted to surprise him."
"You're right," Micah considered. "Something certainly isn't adding up. Maybe I should give Logan a call."
Trinity listened to one frustrating half of the conversation, which didn't shed much light onto the situation. She managed to ascertain that Logan wanted them to keep Bianca at the club but keep her in the office area until he arrived.