Friends with Benefits (Club Risqué Book 5)

Chapter 15

Christian Knightley let himself into the hotel suite that was to be his home for the next few weeks and looked around. It had functionality as well as high-end elegance with its own kitchenette and mini bar, a sensible working area with a decent chair, and a large, comfortable bed. But, by God, he hated living out of a suitcase!

He was almost thirty-four years old, time he started to settle down.

The thought came out of left field and Christian couldn”t help laughing out loud—cynically—because that had really gone so well for him in the past, hadn”t it?

He tried not to think about his ex-wife and all the damage and upheaval she had wrought on his life and those close to him.

No one to blame but himself, of course. He had accepted that years ago.

Her presence might have destroyed all the good things in his life, but that wouldn”t have happened if he hadn”t allowed it in the first place. So while she might have engineered the damage, the buck stopped with him.

Christian strode to the mini bar and poured himself a whisky, using one of the heavy, lead crystal rocks glasses. He dispensed with the ice and downed it in one shot.

The thought of Bianca always left a bad taste in his mouth. Jesus, he still couldn”t believe he”d been gullible enough to be taken in by the woman.

The only thing that had saved him was the fact that all of his wealth was ambiguous.

His family”s wealth was still in the hands of his mother. His business wealth, at that time, had still been tied into the company. And his personal wealth was locked inside an ironclad trust fund, which hadn”t matured until he turned thirty.

When Bianca had divorced him with the clear belief that, since there was no prenup, she would get half of a huge fortune, she had been very sadly disappointed. She’d been entitled to less than half of the twenty thousand he had in his checking account.

While Christian lived well, it was all funded by independent sources.

His parents hadn”t believed in turning a child into a mini-millionaire, so whatever money he had, Christian had been expected to work for.

He’d never been so happy about anything in his entire life.

The look on Bianca”s face when she realised her divorce settlement for the eleven months they’d been together before she petitioned, was a paltry five grand, had almost been worth the torment she’d put him through.

Well, maybe not, but it had certainly been a satisfying form of retribution. She could have earned more by getting herself a job.

Still, the woman had lived in the lap of luxury for the best part of a year and had taken away many more thousands worth of gifts, gowns and jewellery. Although she hadn”t been too pleased to find out that the sports car she was using was on a lease in the company name and she didn”t have any claim on it.

Her expression had been priceless when her own lawyer pointed out she would have to give it back. And Bianca had retained the most prestigious firm of divorce lawyers she could find, thinking they would manage to finagle millions from him, keeping her a wealthy woman for the rest of her life.

It was rather satisfying to know that what she’d managed to get from him would have, mostly, gone to cover their fees.

Served her right, he thought darkly. The woman was nothing more than a vicious, conniving predator. Christian was glad he’d managed to bring attention to the fact that she”d been trawling the BDSM community looking for rich marks for whom she could pretend to be the perfect partner.

He wasn”t even sure why she chose that particular avenue, since, in retrospect, he didn”t believe she was even a submissive. But somewhere along the line, she must have decided it was good for a quick buck.

Christian had put paid to that particular line of revenue by ensuring that she was blacklisted by all of the prestigious clubs. She could trawl those that hadn”t been interested in putting out a memo to block her membership, but since they were the less circumspect clubs, she wouldn”t find the type of wealthy marks she was looking to fleece.

Christian had been shocked when his company lawyers had unearthed the fact that Bianca had been married twice before, despite being only twenty-six when they’d met.

Karma seemed to have seen her coming because she hadn”t made much out of either of those, either. Her first husband had been declared bankrupt when his finances had been investigated during the divorce proceedings, and the second had insisted on a prenup, which she hadn”t been expecting.

Sadly, it seemed both of them had been too embarrassed at being taken in to do anything to stop her, in case it brought the spotlight onto their gullibility.

Christian had had no such qualms. He’d even cited the other two men in his case to back up his claim.

Luckily, his old friend Logan Thornton had been heavily invested in one of the most prestigious clubs in the country and, being a lawyer as well, he had facilitated the matter.

Recently, Logan had become involved in one of the clubs fairly local to him, though not one Christian frequented. But that might change now the place had been turned around and was quickly establishing itself as a highly reputable establishment.

With the endorsement of its flagship namesake, the east coast incarnation of Club Risqué was quickly becoming the place to practise the lifestyle.

Christian was going to find out for himself during the next few weeks, with the guest recommendation membership Logan had expedited for him.

In fact, thinking of that reminded him that he was expecting an email with the details of the submissive he’d asked to be paired with for the duration of his visit.

The thought gave him something rather more palatable to think about and he flipped open his laptop to see if there was any information.