Chapter 17: Do You Want to Try It?

By the time Christian made it back to his penthouse, the lights were still on and Diane lay sprawled on the two-sitter couch with her head resting on a throw pillow.

He released a deep sigh as he took a moment to take in that scene. He wondered how tired she was to sleep off there.

Quietly, he made his way to the master bedroom to freshen up. Half an hour later, he came back to the living area. He glanced at Diane before making his way to the kitchen to see the dinner she left for him.

"At least she knows how to heat food in the microwave," he said, applauding her in his head.

Christian ate quietly on the kitchen island in order not to wake her up. Since he had some food at the roundtable meeting he came from, he didn't eat much as he put away the reminder inside the refrigerator and washed the dirty dishes.

Walking back to the living room, he was in time to see Diane sitting up on the couch with confusion masked in her brows.

"When did you get back?" she asked softly as she cast her gaze on him. "An hour ago," Christian replied as he picked up a remote to increase the temperature in the room.

As it was raining heavily outside, it was getting cold inside.

Just as Christian turned to go back to the kitchen, he heard her yelp. "Oh no! The laundry."

Diane had slept off on the couch while doing her dirty laundry. In the middle of it, she became so tired that she couldn't help wanting to rest her body for a while, but she ended up sleeping for almost two hours.

This was one of those moments where she loved getting extra help. If only she was that close to Christian, she could have found out when his housekeeper would be coming around so she could help her with her laundry.

Without stopping in his steps, he said to her, "I already took care of it. You can go back to sleep if you want."

Instead of going back to sleep, Diane sat upright and picked up the remote to turn on the TV. Sleep had vacated from her eyes and as she didn't have anything better to do, she thought she could watch something on the big screen.

In her mind, Christian would finish whatever he was doing in the kitchen and walk away. But contrary to her expectation, he returned to the living room with two cups of hot-coloured tasty liquids and handed one to her.

"Thank you." She received the red mug with two hands. And as the sweet chocolate aroma filled her nose, her insides warmed up and she could no longer resist drinking from it.

This was exactly what she wanted for that kind of weather and Christian had always been good at making her best kind of drinks for the rainy days.

Out from the corner of her eyes, Diane watched as Christian found himself on a single couch and sipped his coffee. The next minute, she picked up the remote to search for movie channels but never found anyone to her taste. Finally, she gave up and shut the TV off.

Silence stretched between them as they drank their hot beverages and listened to each other's breathing.

"I discussed with my lawyers after you left this morning." Christian suddenly kicked off the conversation. "I know everything that went wrong in your marriage."

Diane paused with the rims of her mug on her lips. The next second, she went into a coughing fit.

"I didn't give you that hot chocolate drink to choke on," Christian commented off-handedly as he watched her face turn red.

It took a short while for Diane to recover from that little episode of shock. At least, it was not strong enough to make her develop myocardial infarction, so her life was preserved.

"I didn't know there was nothing like privacy between your lawyers and I even though you are their boss," Diane managed to say out of embarrassment.

She was also disappointed as if she knew that the things she said would be going directly into his ears, she would have been clear with instructions for his lawyers.

To think that Christian now had first-hand information about an intimate part of her marriage, Diane couldn't help shuddering.

"Don't hate them too much. There was a complication along the way, so they had to tell me everything so we could rub heads together," Christian said, knowing the kind of thoughts going through her mind at the moment.

Diane looked a little stunned as she realized a point. "You tell your lawyers what to do?"

Christian spread out his hands, not denying the fact. "Not all the time though," he clarified.

While Diane was still trying to understand what he meant by that, he threw her off balance with his next statement.

"I don't know how comfortable you are living like this, but I think you should see a doctor real quick regardless of your marriage coming to its end."

She didn't need to be in a relationship to find out what was wrong with her body and get it sorted out.

If it was something that required treatment or surgery, she could start preparing for it.

"I know," Diane mumbled and drank from her mug without meeting his gaze.

After a while, Christian put his coffee cup down on the stool and crossed his leg over the other with his gaze pinned on her.

"If you don't mind, can you share what you were able to do with your husband?"

Diane shook her head, outrightly refusing his request. But that was okay for Christian. He was not in the least bit bothered by her response.

"If you two couldn't have sex, what about fingering? Did it work?"

As those questions reached Diane's ears, she felt her body tingle. It has dawned on her without a doubt that they were having 'that' conversation even though she could choose to walk out on him.

To his last question, she slowly shook her head and that only made him sit up straight.

"Although we never had sex when we dated, we did other kinds of things we were both comfortable with and that included me fingering you," Christian said and continued without taking his gaze off her. "I remember everything being fine down there, so what happened after you got married?"

Diane looked into her mug and thought distractedly, 'It's getting cold. I think I should finish it now.' Then Christian watched her chugging the whole thing down her throat and sighed softly.

That was a cue that she didn't want to answer the question so he rose to his feet and walked up to her.

Even though she could see his feet right in front of her, Diane did not make any move whatsoever. She turned into a complete statue.

"Do you want to try and see if it will work?" she heard him ask from above her head and stilled.

The next second before she could blink and recount what she just heard to herself, she felt him sink into the space next to her and froze.

Christian could barely hear her breathing anymore, but he wasn't worried. He just reached out to grab the mug from her hand and set it on the stool beside the couch. Next, he put his hands on her shoulder and forced her to face him.

What Diane saw in his eyes was a kind of spark she hadn't seen in ages. To think that the air around him could just suddenly change within a few seconds.

"Christian…" her lips drawled as she felt his face come in closer. Was he going to kiss her?

Christian drew in close as his gaze rested on her lips. But when she thought he was going to kiss her lips, he moved to her neck to whisper next to her ear, "Relax, I will be gentle."