Pleasure &
Pain

Kim built the life she was taught to want. Chris awakened everything she was taught not to.

At thirty she's the youngest CIO in the history of one of Virginia's largest financial institutions. She has parents who still call every Sunday, a best friend who'd bury a body for her, and a corner office with a view.

Then Chris finds her eleven years after one night cost him his pro football dreams and ended their friendship. He's steadier, softer, and honest about everything except one important detail.

When Kim finally learns what Chris has been carrying, she doesn't walk away, she stays. And staying is what brings Jalen into her life.

Travon Nancy was a top-three pro basketball prospect before he ever played a college game. Katrina Monroe had been beside him since sophomore year of high school.

Katrina was a sharp, funny, and on her way to a mechanical engineering degree. According to everyone with an opinion, she was not the kind of woman a man like him ends up with. Lose weight. Study less. Pay attention. Be easier to handle and photograph.

One week before the biggest tournament of his college career, he made her the ex-girlfriend. Then he won a national championship, went number one, and married Veronica Riddendale, the university president's daughter. She was raised her whole life to be exactly what Travon believed he'd earned.

Veronica keeps his schedule. She keeps his image. She keeps a tracker on his phone and a policy on his life.

It takes a string of hard lessons for Travon to understand what the word trophy actually means. By then, Veronica had gone from wanting him home to wanting him gone. He still went looking for Katrina, but some doors don't stay open forever.