The Bad Boy's Biggest Mistake (5 page)

“You’ve got a right to know, and I’ve been a
complete bastard to you.” He handed her the photo. “Get some coffee, and I’ll
grab your bed shirt. I’ll tell you the truth.”

She took the picture from him. He walked out the
door without looking back. Gazing down at the woman, Vicki wondered if she
really wanted to know the truth about her. She loved Tristan. Her whole life
was devoted to him. How could she handle it if he was really in love with his
wife? Being the rebound woman wasn’t on her list.

You’ll
never know unless you open up.

What if there was more pain than she could handle?

Moving toward the kettle she filled it with water
and started making cups for a hot cup of coffee. There was nothing she could do
unless she knew the truth. Tristan was willing to give a part of
himself
to her, and she wanted to know more.

While she waited for the kettle to boil she kept
looking at the woman. Kate had an easy smile. Her hair was blonde, and she
possessed startling blue eyes. Vicki’s own hair was blonde but had seen better
cleaning days. Instead of blue eyes she had green.

Shaking her head, she poured the coffee and made her
way into the sitting room. Tristan held one of his shirts in his hand. He’d
removed his shoes and loosened the buttons on the shirt he wore. His trousers
were gone, and he sat in boxer briefs.

“I thought you’d gotten rid of all my clothes,” he
said, pointing at the shirt.

“I was getting around to it.”

Vicki took the shirt and went back to the kitchen.
She may have been naked in front of him seconds ago, but that didn’t mean she
was comfortable being naked in front of him now.

Chapter
Four

Tristan waited for her to come back through to the
sitting room. One of his memories of her house was when they’d moved the coffee
table out of the way and made love on the floor. Those times were long gone as
he observed her walking back to take a seat next to him on the sofa. The
distance between them felt huge even though they were seated on either side of
her large sofa.

“I’m ready,” she said, handing him a cup.

He’d never wanted her to know the ugliness of his
past. What he’d tried to do to keep his wife happy. None of it succeeded. Kate
wanted something from him he couldn’t give her. He should have gotten a divorce.
He knew that now. Kate was still a good friend.

Sipping at the dark liquid he winced at the bitter
taste. Vicki may be able to pour a decent beer, but make a coffee she couldn’t.

“Sorry, I haven’t improved any. Stefan drinks tea or
fruit juices when I’m around,” Vicki said.

After tasting her latest attempt at a good coffee he
could see why. He wouldn’t fault Stefan for no longer liking coffee. Vicki
sipped at hers without wincing.
Brave girl.

“I’m ready when you are,” she said.

He took another sip of the brutal coffee before
turning fully toward her. Seeing her walk into the other room had made him
realise he only had two options. Option one was to walk out and leave her
alone. Maybe if he left her alone Vicki would start a life somewhere without
him where he didn’t get a say in what she did. His second option was to be open
with her and risk losing her love.

Vicki kept pushing him away, so he was shocked for
her to even be in love with him. Taking a breath he saw her holding the picture
of Kate.

Part of him still didn’t want to open up to her. He
needed to.

“Wait. Before you get into your story of why you’re
separated and whatnot, can you tell me if you love her?” Vicki asked.

“No, I don’t love her. Kate and I married because we
were in the lifestyle. We both thought we’d be able to satisfy our wants and
desires. None of it turned out to be so. We were not suited for each other as anything
but friends,” he said, admitting the truth.

“You’re still friends.”

He nodded. Tristan wasn’t going to lie to her even
though the temptation was there.

“Tell me what you want to tell me,” Vicki said,
settling back.

“Kate and I met at a different club. This one wasn’t
run by William. I can’t even remember the bloody name of the thing. All I
remember was it was a bad club. The atmosphere and the way the club was set out
held the feel of a real
BDSM
club. The people,
however, were nothing like the people I know. I don’t know. Maybe I was
pampered into a persona of how a person was supposed to be.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“I have strict rules of making sure a person has a
safe-word that they use. Yours was butterflies, remember?”

“Yes.” Her voice was a mere whisper.

“Anyway, there was no safe-word. When a woman
shouted no the men just kept going. There was no stopping them. There was so
much abuse going on. I met Kate as she looked as disgusted as I was. I found
out she was a lawyer and liked to be dominated. She was looking for someone to
take her needs to the next level.” He stopped to take a sip. Kate, at the time
had looked so fresh-faced and new to the scene. The truth was a whole different
ball game. “We left the club, and I made William aware of it. I don’t know what
happened to it, but Kate and I never went back there. We started meeting on
weekends, and I trained her to be my sub. She was amazing and responsive, and
soon, the weekends turned into weekdays. Before we knew it, we were dating, and
I was introducing her to other friends.”

Vicki sat back listening. He saw the pain in her
eyes. She deserved to know the truth. His and Kate’s relationship didn’t have a
happily ever after.

“We got married, and then Kate started to want more.
The spanks needed to
be
 
harder
. From my hand to the cane and
more until eventually I hit her to the point that she bled.” Tristan licked his
lips recalling the vile taste in his mouth at seeing the blood. “Kate liked
it.” He ran a hand over his face. “She liked it so much that we’d fight. When
we were doing a scene she’d tell me to go harder and harder, but I couldn’t.
She tried to control the scene and screamed at me to give it to her.”

“It sounds awful.”

“It was. Being part of it was the worst. I couldn’t
give her what she wanted, and in turn she couldn’t give me what I wanted.” He
stroked Vicki’s hair. The colour was a darker blonde than his wife’s. Kate
wasn’t his wife. She was a name on a piece of paper linked to his. “One day I
came home to find Kate trussed up and bleeding. A guy who liked to inflict pain
with knives and shit was there. I went mad. I’m not going to go into the gory
details. What I saw on Kate’s face made me realise we were mismatched.”

“What do you mean?” Vicki asked.

“Kate was happy. She was in pain, but there was real
happiness on her face. Nothing I did would ever match that. I’m a Dominant,
Vicki. I’m not a sadist or a masochist. What Kate wanted she needed a real
professional for, which wasn’t me. I found her someone to take care of her
needs.”

“You mean to tell me Kate is with someone right
now?”

Tristan nodded. Last time he heard was about a year
ago. Kate was in a tight relationship with the man he’d left her with. They
were very much in love, but the guy didn’t need Kate’s hand. Their devotion to
each other was in a collar and the trust between them. Tristan understood it.

“What I didn’t know when I first met Kate was the
fact she’d been very heavily in the lifestyle. She wasn’t green or anything.
Several of her previous relationships were the same. From what I could figure
out, Kate had been like that since she’d lost her virginity at eighteen. She
told me she loved the pain and couldn’t stop no matter how hard she tried.”

He let his words penetrate her mind. “So that’s it.
That’s my story,” he said. Now he needed to wait to see what Vicki did next.

****

Vicki didn’t have a clue what to do or how to
respond to his confession. He stared at her waiting. Their coffee was cold. She
couldn’t bring herself to drink a single drop until he finished his story.
Biting her lip she stared at the length of her living room.

“You don’t love your wife?” she asked.

“No. I care about her as a friend. There is nothing
else going on between us.”

She didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. He was
alone, and from the sounds of his past he’d done some things he wasn’t proud
of.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said.

“Then don’t say anything. Just promise me
something.”

Turning to look at him, she saw the sincerity in his
eyes, which made everything feel worse. For
all of his
tattoos and bad attitude, Tristan wasn’t a bad man. She’d learned that about
him early on in their relationship. He didn’t like hurting people. “What?”

“Don’t leave Law Castle without consulting me.
Please, I don’t want you running out because of me.” He rubbed his eyes when
she kept her mouth shut. “I know I don’t deserve your time. I’ve done
everything to push you away.”

“Then why are you here now?”

“Because I can’t bear the thought
of having another day without you inside it.
Tomorrow is
Monday. Stefan lets you have Monday off, right?”

She nodded. Stefan liked her working Wednesday through
to Sunday. Monday and Tuesday were her days to do what she wanted.

“Would you have lunch with me tomorrow?” he asked.
“Will you come by the station? And we’ll have lunch and talk.”

“Why?” she asked. Tristan had spent a great deal of
time trying to push her away. She couldn’t understand why he’d changed.

“I need you to be with me. I have to make this
right.”

“Tristan, you don’t have to make anything right. It
didn’t work between us.”

“You know damn well that wasn’t true. Until I opened
my fucking mouth we were going great.” He stopped, reaching out to stroke her
arm. “You were going to have my baby, Vicki.”

Whenever she thought about the baby tears filled her
eyes. This was no different. She and Tristan had a rocky past. Nothing she ever
did would escape that. Their past was part of who they were. “I’ll have lunch
with you.”

“Good. You don’t have to make it. I’ll order
something in.”

She nodded, glancing at the clock.

“I’ve got to go,” Tristan said.

Vicki watched as Tristan changed. “Did you expect to
stay here the night?” she asked.

He nodded. “I thought we were going to fight, and I
wanted to be prepared. You need privacy now. I accept that.” He quickly dressed
and put his shoes on.

She walked to the door with him. He turned and
cupped her cheek. “I really am sorry for the baby.”

“So am I.”

“No, you don’t understand. I always wanted to be a
dad. I’ve wanted it for as long as I could remember.”

“Then why didn’t you have a child with Kate?”

“Kate didn’t want one. She got her tubes tied to
make sure we’d never mistakenly get caught.” His smile was sad. “I have to
wonder why we ever married.”

“You must have loved her at some point.”

“I loved the idea of being with someone with similar
feelings. Kate and I were as different as chalk and cheese. There was nothing
holding us together apart from our own fantasy.” Tristan stroked her cheek. “If
only I’d met you first.”

Before she asked him another question, Tristan
opened the door and left. He didn’t turn to look back at her. Tristan just kept
walking. She watched him walking until he disappeared from sight.

Walking back into her home she picked up their used
cups and placed them in the sink. She grabbed some cake she’d made earlier from
the fridge, placed a slice on a plate, and took it through to her sitting room.
Turning the television on Vicki made
herself
comfortable. She became aware of the ache between her thighs and couldn’t stop
remembering the last time Tristan visited her to her house.

****

Every
Sunday without fail Vicki dropped off baked goods to the station and any place
who’d take her cooking. Connor Andrews supplied most places with his abundant
baking while she did others. Baking helped her to relax and allowed her to
pretend she wasn’t lonely. Being lonely sucked, and with her parents in the
city she didn’t get a lot of chance to visit. Zoe worked on Sundays or spent a
great deal of time with her three men.

Vicki
refused to come between lovers, and she saw the love sparkle among the four
people whenever she was near them.

Grabbing
a bag of cheesy potato chips to go with the sandwich she’d made, Vicki settled
down on her sofa. She was flicking through the television when her front doorbell
rang. Letting out a frustrated moan she placed her food on the coffee table and
then answered the door.

Tristan
stood with Chinese food. She didn’t know how he got the food seeing as a
Chinese takeaway had yet to open up in Law Castle.