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“Stick with me, kid. I canteach you all about unhealthy.” She made a finger gun and aclicking noise.
“I have no doubt aboutthat, princess.” My chest ached suddenly. I went through my mentallist of blood clot symptoms; I was still a little jumpy aboutthose. It was almost worse to realize I was fine, just emotional,precisely what I’d decided not to be about Charlotte.
“Look, I have to go towork,” she said, glancing off-screen. “Are we cool again? Notbreaking it off?”
“We’re cool again.”Technically, I was more selfish than cool, but I couldn’t resisther.
“Wanna do something dirtywhen I get off work?” She brightened at the prospect.
“Sure thing. Call me.” Forher, I would drop whatever I had going on.
We ended the call, and Ihung my head. I’d wanted to the right thing. Be the bigger man anda better friend.
But I wasn’t a better man. I was weak,and at the moment, Charlotte was my biggest weakness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
(Charlotte)
From our weird phone callon out, everything about the Ascend Red trip had accelerated at adizzying pace.
First of all, the emailfrom Matt’s assistant had been…
Eye-opening.
Sure, Matt had warned me that I mightbe shocked, but I’d had no idea how frank it would be. There was aquestionnaire with sections about blood play, water sports—not thekind with boats involved—, various types of bondage, electricalstimulation, even some things I had to look up.
For the most part, I was down foranything not involving bathroom activities. I’d carefully tickedoff the correct boxes and sent it back with copies of my driver’slicense, passport, most recent STD screening results…
This place wasthorough.
Ascend Red had beendescribed both in the email and by Matt as an invitation-only sexisland, whereas the other Ascend properties were more likelaid-back all-inclusive swingers resorts. I’d taken the exclusivityof Ascend Red with a grain of salt. As a marketinggimmick.
It most certainly was not.The list of “member conduct” had all the things I’d hoped it wouldhave regarding consent, but the privacy policy was seriousbusiness. It flat out mentioned blackmail and criminal penalties.In other words, the people who came to Ascend Red were the kind ofpeople who had something to lose.
Getting to the islanditself had been an exercise in unbelievable luxury; first-class toMontego Bay, limo to the marina, then a yacht out to the open sea.I'd even been escorted through customs in a priorityline.
A speedboat took me fromthe yacht to the docks at Ascend Red. As soon as I stepped onto theconcrete pier, my giddiness at the luxury accommodations plungedinto a slap of reality. Matt owned all of this. The dock, the boat,the castle that gleamed on the small island's highest peak. It allbelonged to one man, and he was the one who'd sent forme.
Matt very much stoppedbeing my brother's best friend in that moment, and became someoneelse in my mind, someone mysterious and powerful. Maybe that wasthe point of the yacht and the boat and even the freaking castle:to flaunt his total control over this tiny kingdom of debaucheryand establish himself as an island of his own.
A slender woman in a surprisinglyconservative gray suit met me dockside, smiling warmly."Charlotte?"
"That's me," I said, looking behind meinstinctively to pick up my carry-on, but like every other step ofthe way, someone magically whisked it away for me.
"I'm Miranda," the womansaid. Her deep blue lipstick and sleek, slicked down ponytailshould have been out of place with the rest of her outfit, butsomehow it all worked. She tapped something on the tablet shecarried like a clipboard, her eyes darting from mine only brieflyto complete the action. "Mr. Ashe has been informed of yourarrival."
"Cool, so he's..." I looked past her,as if I would see him stride across the beach toward us. But therewasn't anyone on the beach. The only people currently on the pierwere guys moving luggage and tending to boats. Whatever elsehappened here on this island, it was happening behind the tall,forbidding stone wall ahead of us.
"You'll be taken to hisprivate residence after check-in." Miranda reached into her bag andretrieved a phone. "I'll need any of your devices with recordingabilities. While you're here, feel free to take and make calls fromthis satellite phone, in unrestricted areas, of course. But allrecording devices are strictly forbidden inside thecompound."
"Right." I'd known aboutthat from the documents I'd received before my trip. I slipped myphone from my back pocket and reluctantly—but only because I wasaddicted to it—turned it completely off. It was a small price topay for what I knew was about to be an unforgettable week. And Iunderstood the need for privacy. Not only were some of the island'sclients rich and powerful, but even the most anonymous person onthe planet wouldn't be able to truly let go if they knew theremight be a lasting record of their deeds.
"There is a red icon on the lock screenthat will instantly summon resort security to your location. If youpress it by accident, don't worry. Sometimes it happens and they'reused to it, but they do have to respond in person." She tapped hertablet again. "And we did receive your NDA and signedacknowledgement of receipt and review of thehandbook..."
I nodded along, but her inventory wasclearly for herself.
"All right, it looks like everything isin order. We can go inside." Miranda made an "after you" gesture,and I walked ahead of her down the pier.