Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
As the billionaire owner of Ascend Red, an exclusive island resort for kinky, hand-selected clientele, Matthew Ashe prides himself on making fantasies come true. When Charlotte Holmes walked into his life, she quickly became his fantasy. But now, their stay is almost over, and their future is waiting.
Charlotte knows that she’ll have to adapt to Matt’s life of luxury, but she doesn’t expect to be thrown into the deep end quite so soon. A weekend party at his family’s estate gives Charlotte a taste of how the exceptionally wealthy live—and highlights just how different she and Matt are, despite their scorching compatibility in bed.
When they stumble into a family secret, Matt and Charlotte are forced to confront their differences, fears, and insecurities…and the reality that their match made in paradise might not work in the real world, after all
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER ONE
(Charlotte)
Matt loves me.
I combed my fingers through his dark hair, lifting the strands idly and letting them fall. He’d slept for the past hour like this, his head nuzzled against my breasts, one hand cupped between my legs.
Of course, he would sleep like that.
Chuckling softly to myself, I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. I should not have woken up at six in the morning, but my sleep schedule had been messed up ever since I had arrived at Ascend Red. Late nights of relentless sex followed by waking in the midafternoon had confused my body to the point that I was jet-lagged without changing time zones. But now, it was six forty, and there was no way to ignore my bladder anymore. I gently eased Matt’s arm off me, not wanting to wake him. With a sleepy groan, he rolled away and took most of the duvet with him.
Yeah, if he wanted to be my boyfriend, he would have to work on the covers-hogging.
I tiptoed through the weak bars of early daylight the morning cast through the shutters and left the lights off in the bathroom. I’d done a lot of crying the night before, trying to break things off with him. My eyes throbbed. My mouth felt sticky and disgusting. I decided to brush my teeth before going back to bed.
Emotional catharsis might be healthy for the soul, but it’s hell on a person’s body.
I padded back out to the bedroom and found Matt sitting up, rubbing his eyes.
“Sorry if I woke you,” I apologized.
He yawned, stretching out his ridiculously muscled arms. A dark curl flopped over his forehead, and he pushed it back with a smaller, follow-up yawn before answering hoarsely, “No, it’s fine. I needed to get up and consult Miranda about our travel itinerary before it gets any later. I don’t want to end up flying coach on some shitty discount airline, if we can avoid that.”
“So, there are limits to the humble billionaire thing.” Though it had been my idea to leave—I’d insisted the night before that it was what I wanted—a pang of disappointment struck the pit of my stomach. “We can always leave tomorrow. Or the next day.”
His eyes narrowed. “You seemed very sure of your decision to leave last night. You’re not saying this because you want to accommodate what I want, are you?”
“First of all, fuck you for knowing me so well.” I slipped under the sheets beside him. “Second, no. I promise. I do want to leave, but I’m not in as big a rush to do so in the light of day.”
“And in light of the fact that you don’t have to run away from me anymore?” He arched a brow.
“There’s that too.” I was profoundly uncomfortable with, and deeply doubtful of, the idea that anyone could love me. Running away had been my first instinct. “Sorry about that.”
He caught my chin in his hand and tipped my face up to his. “Don’t apologize because you had feelings that weren’t the same as mine.”
“They are the same,” I hurried to assure him. “I love you—”
He cut me off with a kiss. The bastard had the audacity to look as hot as he did and not have horrible morning breath. I couldn’t even get mad at the clichéd way he’d interrupted me.
Life was not fair.
I leaned into him. My soft moan caught between our mouths, and he echoed it, his tongue sweeping against mine as he held my face like I was a priceless, delicate thing. My hands found their way to his chest. I let myself get lost in him, in the sheer pleasure of what was such simple contact when compared to all of the other, hornier things we’d already done.
When he came up for air, he covered my hand with his, holding my palm flat over his heart. “Sorry. I can’t get enough of hearing you say that.”
Dazed, I ran my tongue over my lower lip. “Say what?”
“Wow, I’m a better kisser than I thought I was.” He gave a short laugh. “I can’t get enough of hearing you say that you love me.”
“It’s the novelty of it. You’ll get sick of me, soon.” I leaned up for another kiss, but he evaded me.
“Seriously, if we’re going to leave today, I need to call Miranda.” He reached for the phone.
I leaned over him and laid a hand on his forearm. “Wait. I meant what I said about spending a few more days.”
I’d originally planned to stay for two weeks. And while I wasn’t thrilled that Matt had been hiding out at his sex resort to avoid reality, I didn’t want to leave a place he loved after the constructive, but painful, conversation we’d had last night.
“Even though I’m surrounded by phonies, apparently?”
I wished I hadn’t said some of the things I’d said to him the night before. He’d needed to hear them, but I could have been a lot gentler.