I hadn't spoken a proper sentence in an hour.

After our shower together, Ben and I had grabbed a small bite to eat before situating ourselves in his open living area.

He still had a few important emails to reply to and so forth, which made me wonder exactly why he was so intent I spend the day with him with his lack of free time.

I desperately needed to text Mr Capra and inform him that his son was making me seduce Tony, but couldn't, since I hadn't yet felt comfortable talking about our breakup. The one person I trusted most in this world had no idea.

Mr Capra, being quite traditional, had always been against open relationships, but had on some level understood why it had been open between Tony and me. He had even met Tony, as I'd brought him as my date to a gala held a little over a year ago.

I knew that Tony's company was a rival of Capra corp, but at the same time a gut feeling told me there was something else to explain why Ben had assigned me this job.

"How did you come to know about my past?" I decided to ask him.

I was wearing a pair of his boxers and his simple white tee shirt, since I had no clothes with me besides the evening gown. Ben, on the other hand, had surprised me by wearing sweatpants and a hoodie. I could never have imagined him wearing something as casual and comfy as that, but couldn't deny how irresistibly sexy it made him.

"What do you mean?" He replied without looking up from the screen of his Macbook, typing away without worry.

I shifted on the other side of the couch, knees pulled up to my chest while I leaned my side against the backrest, "it's in no way public information. Only two people knew about it... your father and Vince."

Ben sighed, but didn't let this interrupt whatever email he was working on, "what are you implying, Sofia?"

He knew exactly what I was after, and I began to grow agitated and frustrated that he wasn't willing to just tell me the truth.

"You're a bad liar, sweetheart," he continued, realising my mood was plummeting, "that ballet story..."

I shook my head at him, shifting again in hopes of making him finally make eye contact with me. He didn't.

"I'm a fantastic liar. We both know you fell for the ballet story," I reminded him, heart thudding painfully at the realisation that whatever he was hiding was sure to hurt me, "please, tell me the truth. It was either Mr Capra or Vince who told you, no?"

Instead of replying, Ben finished up his email and sent it, before closing the laptop calmly and reaching over to place it on the coffee table. He then finally turned towards me.

"My father told me."

He was studying me carefully, but showing no emotion. I blinked a few times slowly, on some level already having known that Mr Capra had been behind all this.

"Sofia, listen..." Ben cleared his throat and pinched the bridge of his nose, this conversation clearly one he didn't want to have, "he didn't tell me for any other reason but to keep you safe and happy. I fucked it up, not him."

He was referring to what happened in my hotel room in Brussels.

"I'm sorry," he added, the words seeming very foreign.

I nodded and glanced down at my lap.

"Has he told you anything else?" My mind went back to Tony, on some level knowing that Ben knew, but also not wanting it to be true.

I felt incredibly betrayed by Mr Capra, someone I considered to be the father and true friend I had never had. It baffled me as to why he would blab about my past to his son of all people, after so many years of keeping it a secret as I had wished for him to do.

Whatever Ben would reply to my question with I would trust, since on a twisted level my trust for him began growing after he told me about what his father had done.

"No, he hasn't," he replied curtly after a moment of silence, eyes focusing in on mine, "why?"

I blinked slowly, having expected a completely different answer.

"Oh," I cleared my throat and nodded, "no reason."

A bubbly gut feeling told me to keep pressing him, but I quieted it down and believed there was no way he'd lie to me; no way he was hiding anything else.

As weird and uncoincidental as it felt, I forced myself to trust and believe Ben, and that the only reason he was making me work with Tony was pure business.

"Are you alright?" He asked me, a well concealed hint of nervousness in his voice.

"No, but it's okay," I offered him a shrug, "your father's the only person I've ever fully trusted. It kind of hurts that he'd tell you about my past, especially after all the shit I told him about you."

Ben completely ignored the last part of what I'd told him, bless his soul.

"He cares for you," he reminded me slowly, "you know that."

"I do. It's just... I need to talk to him about this," I shook my head to myself, "I feel really let down."

"Alright."

We sat there in silence for a moment. I was just staring off into space, wrapping my head around the fact that I now had to watch what I said to Mr Capra. I also had no idea how to approach this with him, but that was a problem for another day.

"What are you thinking about?" Ben cleared his throat after the lengthy moment and shifted on the couch. I looked up and over to find his dark eyes studying me carefully, gaze running over my features with a hint of uncertainty in them.

I offered him a halfhearted smile, assuming he was nervous of having done something wrong, "nothing. You haven't done anything wrong here, Ben. If you're worried about us not being okay, you shouldn't be."

"Good," a small smile almost hesitantly tugged at the sides of his lips as he motioned for me to move toward him, "come here."

I couldn't help but let my smile widen just a hint, despite this rather devastating discovery still very much under Ben Capra's spell.

Relieving myself of my concerns and pains momentarily, I slowly moved closer to him on the couch.

He kept motioning with his hand, growing amused at how slow I was being, "and here I thought you'd jump me, darling."

A quiet laugh bubbled up from between my lips and I shook my head, trying not to let worrying thoughts ruin my day. I would talk to Mr Capra tomorrow and sort everything out.

Once I was close enough, I moved swiftly to straddle his lap, my hands cupping his jaw in the process and body obliviously leaning against his, taking us both aback slightly.

His smile widened into a lopsided grin as he took me in with his hands soon resting on my thighs.

"Are we good, Sofia?" Ben's tone lowered and he grew serious for a moment, making my smile fade as well.

It wasn't like I fully trusted him, especially after everything, but there was no other choice at this point. I believed what he'd told me, but somewhere deep down feared that I'd come to regret it.

"Yes," I murmured and leaned in to kiss him gently, managing to catch a glimpse of how his eyes fluttered shut in an extremely arousing way.

"Good," he mumbled against my lips, kissing back without a second thought.