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)
And when she put it like that, it was difficult to argue.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
(Matthew)
When I got home, the apartment was dark. At first, I worried that Charlotte wasn’t able to find the light switches. Then, my phone pinged.
Meet me upstairs.
I threw my bag, keys, and jacket on the floor and headed to the elevator as fast as my bum leg allowed.
“I’m in here!” Charlotte called as I exited. The doors to the master suite were propped open. “I’m putting things away.”
That was a good sign. Not just a sign that she’d spent a lot of money, but that she planned to stay. At least, for a while.
But I was not prepared to see how much real estate she’d taken up in the empty second dressing room.
Charlotte stood in the middle of the once stark white room, surrounded by racks and shelves and jewelry cases popping with color. She was as colorful in a lacy, hot pink bra and matching panties with little bows and naughty diamond cut-outs that gave flashes of her totally bare vulva.
“Did my princess do as I instructed?” I asked.
There must have been twenty pairs of high heels, alone. She even wore shiny pumps to match her new underthings.
“I did,” she said solemnly. “But never do that to me again?”
“Do what?” Send her on a shopping spree? “You’re not going to get self-conscious about spending my money, are you?”
She shook her head firmly. “No. Never. Today was awesome. But it started out overwhelming. Luckily, I ran into a friend.”
“You have friends in New York?” She’d never mentioned that, and I felt guilty that she’d come here to spend a week without making plans to visit them. “If you had told me—”
“She’s a new friend. We met at Ascend Red.” She gave me a saucy little smirk. “At the roulette table?”
“Ah.” I knew exactly who she was talking about. “I thought they holed up in their compound in the Hamptons.”
“Usually, they are,” Charlotte explained, turning to one of the recently empty clothing racks, now stuffed full. “She was visiting her sister in the city and couldn’t resist the shopping. I get the feeling she’s kind of a clotheshorse.”
I moved to one of the glass-topped jewelry cases, now filled with all manner of sparkly objects. “You don’t say?”
“And get this: She grew up poor. Like, poor poor. So, she knows all the things I need to learn and how weird it’s going to be for me.” Charlotte stopped herself. “I mean, if this becomes a long-term, serious—”
I caught her up in the crook of my arm and drew her to my side. “You know my feelings on that.”
She giggled and pushed away, refusing to address it by changing the subject. “Anyway, Sophie told me that rich men like it when you spend their money. That it makes them feel important and horny.”
“You’re definitely making me feel one of those things right now.” Her ass looked fantastic in her tiny pink thong. “And I would love it if you continued to spend my money, if it means coming home to this view.”
“She also said you’d like it even more if I spent over the fifty thousand.” Now, Charlotte sounded nervous. “So I spent…”
I waited expectantly while she bit her lip and looked truly remorseful.
“A little over two hundred thousand.” She held her breath, waiting for my reaction.
I didn’t have one, other than to be impressed. “Nice.”
“Nice?” Her eyes boggled. “I spent as much as some people spend on a house and you think that’s nice?”
“I think it’s yet another sign that we live in a capitalist dystopia from which none of us will escape, but when in Rome…” I spread my hands. “That’s not very much money at all, to me. I make more than that in interest on my bank account in a day.”
That was the wrong answer. She utterly deflated.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked.
She stepped back, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I cannot comprehend the amount of money you have.”
“It’s an immoral amount,” I agreed. But I wouldn’t go into all the philanthropic shit my money did annually. Frankly, it wasn’t enough.
“I…” She looked down. “Wow, I feel like such an asshole now. I was so proud of blowing all this money.”
“Hey. Don’t feel guilty.” I gestured around at all of her new treasures. “I’m stoked that you did this.”
“Yeah?” She asked, sounding unconvinced.
“First of all, you have nearly filled up this closet. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a good sign that you plan to stay.” I didn’t give her a chance to argue, though she opened her mouth to. “Second, if you look as good in the rest of this as you look in what you’re wearing now? I’m the luckiest man on the planet.”
“Yeah?” Her mouth slanted in a reluctant smile. “Okay. I guess I’ll believe you.”