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Chapter One
Ansley King stood in front of her twenty-four-carat-gold-plated mirror in her bedroom back home, straightened her jacket, flipped her hair to the side, then raised her chin.
Perfect.
She had chosen her clothes with great consideration for the task at hand and decided that a light-gray ensemble would work better than an all-black one.
The six-inch glass-rimmed heels donning her feet were made especially for her by her favorite designer and was by far her favorite shoe of all time—okay, maybe not all time, but definitely for the season at least.
Her skirt was cute and flimsy with a hem that danced just above her knees. She coupled that with a silk, sleeveless, thin-strapped top and then added a pristinely cut take-no-prisoners business jacket.
She looked professional but not unapproachable, which was exactly the look she was going for.
“And what are you up to now, Miss Ansley?” The disgruntled voice belonged to their housekeeper, Katrina Bell, and Ansley couldn’t help but smile.
Ansley spent every other night in her penthouse apartment in the city, but she usually came home to her family mansion in the country at least one night a week, where she visited friends and took care of whatever business she had going on. This time it was her cousin Josh who brought her home.
“Well, good morning to you, too, Katrina,” Ansley said brightly to the severely dressed though impeccably groomed older woman. Katrina immediately tsked away at Ansley’s disorderliness while she picked up the discarded clothes Ansley had scattered around her room in her bid for the perfect powerful-but-pleasant business suit.
Katrina would never admit it, but she looked forward to the nights that Ansley spent at home even if it was only to give Ansley a hard time about it.
Katrina Bell had been with the Kings since the beginning of time, or rather that was what it felt like for Ansley. She loved the older woman like a second mother, including when her resting face was usually set to cantankerous even though she had the softest heart tucked beneath her permanently peeved expression.
“What’s she up to now?” a second voice asked from the doorway of Ansley's bedroom. It must belet's all be up in Ansley’s business daytoday, Ansley thought.
She didn’t bother with a polite greeting for the second newcomer. Instead, she stuck her tongue out and received the same gesture from her cousin Josh, who was living with the Kings while he was between countries, traveling.
As a seasoned travel blogger, the lanky and very cute Josh never stayed long. She missed him when he was away, but whenever he was home she made sure she cleared her plans to see him.
Except for this time—he was only stopping over for the night and had an early flight to catch, taking him off to who knows where. They had dinner last night, and he had been so tired he crashed straight after.
When she said seasoned travel blogger, she didn’t mean he traveled to exotic islands with lush vegetation, deep-turquoise seas, and luxury accommodation. Oh no. Josh preferred to document the visits he made to some of the scariest places on the planet. Places that were infested with snakes, or tribes that were so completely off the grid, no one knew they existed.
It was a dangerous job, and she worried for him, but he loved it. She had tried numerous times to set him up on dates, usually virtual dates because he was never home, hoping one of her friends would be able to ensnare him and keep him home, but she had run out of friends.
“I don’t know what trouble she’s brewing now, but do we want to know?” Katrina asked, her arms folded as she slipped in alongside Josh, and they both stared her down.
“If you two must know, it’s not called trouble, it’s called spreading the joy. One good deed at a time. At this precise moment, my gorgeous friend Bethy, is on the other side of the world, on a secret island, where she’ll get to tick off something rather huge on her bucket list, and I made that happen.” She had gifted her friend an all-expenses-paid trip to an island called Elysium, where naughty things,wink, winkwere allowed to happen, as a birthday present.
“And what was the thing on her bucket list?” Josh asked.
“That I can’t tell you,” Ansley said immediately. If nothing, she was flawlessly trustworthy, and she would keep Bethy’s innermost desire a secret because it wasn’t her story to tell. But for all she knew, her friend was probably already having her ménage à trois as she spoke.
Wait, no. It wasn’t a ménage à trois Bethy was after. Ansley had looked it up, and what Bethy desired was called areverse harem. Like a harem but in reverse. Three guys or more, should she wish, to one girl. And good for her.
Ansley herself was still a virgin, but she had logged in a reminder that on her twenty-fifth birthday she would get herself laid if the opportunity hadn’t presented itself by then. She had no illusions of grandeur regarding the act itself; she was good at taking care of herself anyway, but she certainly had no intention of dying a virgin.
“I hope you didn’t send that sweet girl on some wild-goose chase just to tick off something on her bucket list. In other words, I hope you haven’t corrupted her with your shenanigans,” Katrina said, sighing.
“I would never,” Ansley replied with fake shock, while Josh had a good chuckle. Although it was more like a wildcockchase. She couldn’t help but giggle at her private joke, but dammit, she wanted Bethy to have her cock and eat it too. All three of them. She deserved every bit of it too. Now she couldn’t wait for an update from her accountant friend.
“Did it have anything to do with you turning a perfectly fine establishment into a brothel when you had three naked men arriving at your table from the restaurant kitchen?” Katrina then pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows: any higher and they would've blended into her hairline. "Brothel" was exactly the kind of word Katrina would use.
“You did what now?” Josh asked.
“Hey, how did you know about that?”
“I overheard her father having a heated phone conversation with Juliano, who is the owner of the restaurant, Juliano’s. He wanted her father to make sure she stayed away from his son because all she had to do was bat her eyes at his son, and suddenly he was allowing three naked men to appear out of his restaurant’s kitchen, which is an upmarket establishment with a prominent patronage. Because of her, they got a scathing review from some food critic.”
