It’s as if no time has passed. She tastes the same. When she parts her lips, allowing my tongue to possess hers, I fall in love all over again—over and over again.
I slide my hand down her back, scooting her down the bed. She follows me, wrapping her arms around my neck, keeping me close. Bending my knee, I slide it between her legs, placing my arms on either side of her head, and bend down, caging her in.
“Hey, Mase. Wait.” She speaks the words between our kisses. I slide my tongue along the soft, smooth skin of her neck. She tilts her head back and taps her hands against my shoulders.
“What is it?” I break my mouth away from her skin, concerned. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I stare into her eyes, hanging on the words she’s about to speak.
“Everything’s perfect.” She lifts her hand and rakes her fingers through my hair, brushing the ends away from my forehead. She grins, her perfect soft lips curling into a smile. “I was just wondering, what do you think the chances are that you were serious about getting another cat?”
My body shakes above Charlotte’s as I let out a laugh. She lifts her legs, running them along the sides of mine. Her chest lifts from the mattress as she laughs with me.
“Charlotte,” I groan. “I’m trying to be sexy here.” Still grinning, I lean down and press my lips to hers. This time I take it slow, feeling as if everything in my life is just as it should be. Perfect. When I pull away, I stare into her eyes, already knowing the answer to her question.
“I think the chances are pretty good.”
Charlotte
“YES, RIGHT THERE.” I groan into Mason’s shoulder as he rubs out a knot in my back. We’re set up in the worst possible back massage position ever with me practically hugging him, but when he started rubbing the tension out of my back, we’d originally had other, sexier plans.
He pressed his finger into one of my sore spots, and I about died from happiness and begged him to keep rubbing. That was twenty minutes ago. The poor guy kept growing hard through his jeans when I’d moan, then his breathing would hitch, and he’d start kissing whatever skin he could get to while still rubbing my back.
“I promise, just a little longer, and you can do whatever you want to me,” I whisper into his ear as sultry and dirty as I can. I need more pressure on my back, and I’m greedy enough to sound slutty to get it.
“Feck me, Char. You wouldn’t even have these knots if you’d just listen to me once in a while,” Mason mutters irritatingly in his ever-growing Irish dialect. It’s gotten so much better since he moved back.
“What am I supposed to do, Mase? Let him stay under there? That’s cruel.” I mock gasp but press my chest closer to his, so he doesn’t stop massaging.
“Yes, you are supposed to leave him under there and let him learn we aren’t going to rescue him every time he decides to do it,” Mason scoffs, adjusting his hold on me, bringing his fingers lower on my back, rubbing and sliding his hands closer to my panty line.
Dammit, I want more before he turns this into sexy times.
“Mason, he’s blind. He can’t see his way out,” I argue and decide to give into what he wants and rub against his erection.
Mason groans and tugs me closer, moving his hands to cup my ass.
“Baby, he’s a cat, he can figure it out. The more you crawl under that bed to get him, the worse your back is going to get. You keep stretching it all out of whack.” Mason kisses my neck and rocks into me.
I swallow and rub against him, harder this time. He isn’t wrong. Every time Patches, our kitten, has gotten stuck under the bed, under the dresser, or basically, under anything, I squeeze my body into the awkward space, pinching my neck and back muscles to reach him.
“What if we forget about him, and he dies under there? He never makes a sound, just stumbles into things, and that’s how we know he’s in the room.”
I gasp for breath as I pull Mason’s shirt over his head. My shirt is already gone, so are my pants, but his fingers are about to rip the fabric of my boy short undies.
“Shit,” Mason gasps and stands with me, heading to our bed. He’s kissing me passionately, tearing off his jeans and boxers, positioning himself at my entrance when we hear a loud crash in the hall. He stops kissing me, and we both sit up. Another crash echoes from our kitchen. Mason groans and brings his hand to cover his eyes.
“He’s trying to find us.”
Another crash booms, closer to the bedroom, and I smile.
“We just need to disaster proof the apartment, that’s all,” I shrug like it’s totally fine. Patches broke three glasses, bumping into the coffee table and trying to jump onto the counter just last week. We’ve only had him for two months, but they have been an exhausting two months.
“Were there no other cats at this shelter you went to?” Mason asks lightheartedly, moving away from me to go see what damage our small kitten has caused. I get this question frequently when Patches makes a mess. There were several other cats but none as soft and perfect as Patches, and the fact he was blind just sealed the deal. He was going to be ours to fix and help, and I loved him completely.
We tiptoe to the door and look out. A glass vase with flowers lays shattered on the floor as well as a few porcelain coffee coasters. Both of which we’d gotten as engagement gifts.
Mason and I had moved into a larger apartment, closer to Limerick where he works and where I have a photo studio. I have a place for families to come in and get staged pictures done, which makes me a decent living, but it’s the newborn photo shoots that have my phone ringing off the hook. I swaddle babies in little furs and props. One I recently took of a newborn was of the babe inside her father’s farmers cap. The family about died from cuteness overload. I started six month ago, and with my blog and website, everything has just taken off.
Mason proposed six weeks after we reconnected in my tiny bakery apartment, and we spent every night together after that. I met his parents again, and when I did, his mother, Darcy, whispered in my ear, “Welcome to our family.” It opened up this place in me still starving for familial connections. Sam, Emily, and George, Mason’s dad, were my family now.
Mason’s big elaborate proposal took place at the cliffs. There was a candlelit dinner at a table set for two and zero tourists around. We had the cliffs completely to ourselves. With the sunset over the waves, it was the most perfect moment of my life.
“Disaster proof, huh?” Mason jokes as he bends down to scoop up our white, furry ball of destruction. Patches rubs his face against Mason’s and purrs. My heart melts as I pet him and watch the man I’m going to marry nuzzle the kitten right back.
I’m so happy, it sometimes feels like I’m not living a real life. All I know is I’m grateful for those oddly synced moments that make no sense, where fate steps in and throws one hell of a wrench into things. Without it, I wouldn’t have met my Mason, my best friend—my family.
Thank you so much for reading this little book -We hope you enjoyed Mason and Charlotte. If you did, please consider leaving a review and letting us know! We love hearing from our fans!!
BRITTANY’S Thanks (Mason)
It’s funny how life works out sometimes. I remember back in September of 2018 I was in the hospital for over a week. I had met Ashley in a blog group (I think) and saw her post about her debut novel, Glimmer. There were only two things I knew about Glimmer. One was that it was an MC (Motorcycle Club) book, which I had never really read before, and two, I had no idea what Ashley’s writing was like. I remember downloading Glimmer on my phone the day it released and turning to the first page. Before I dug in, I turned to my husband and said, “You want to know what’s funny?”
“What’s that?”,he asked.
“I just downloaded this author’s debut book. I think she lives in Oregon. Anyway, I haven’t even read it yet and I already know that if I ever decide to co-write a novel, I would want to write one with her.”
Laughing, he looked at me like I was crazy. “Really? How do you know tha
t if you haven’t read it yet? What if it isn’t as good as you think it is?”
“I don’t know.” I smiled and shrugged. “I just know.”
Needless to say, Glimmer had been amazing and pretty much confirmed every expectation I had conjured up in my mind. So, if you haven’t by chance read it, you should do so now. But two months later I found myself asking Ashley if she would like to co-write a novel with me. I came to her with one idea. A man in an airport with cat ashes. The rest is history.
They say that if you ever want to co-write with someone, it needs to be the perfect match. You need to be able to be open minded to others ideas, work at a similar pace and all that. And somehow, I had already known I could do that with Ashley before even reading one single word she had ever written.
Writing Charlotte and Mason’s story has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had. Writing with Ashley has been one of the best things I could have ever done. I mean, how is it possible that something like co-writing a full-length novel, could be one of the best, most enjoyable, least stressful things I’ve ever done in my career?
I believe it was because of Ashley. I think it was always meant to be. Charlotte and Mason were always meant to be. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you for making this process so easy. Thank you for proving every stigma about the co-writing process wrong. Thank you for being my best friend. I love you. Here’s to hopefully many more love stories. Charlotte and Mason are just the beginning.
I would also like to say a quick thank you to our readers. Without your continued support and excitement, I don’t think this story would be the same. A huge thank you to my family as always. I love you all more than you know.
Ashley’s Thanks: (Charlotte)
Co-writing this project was so different than anything I imagined. I heard people talk about how stressful and difficult it would be, but it wasn’t. It was the most fun I’ve ever had writing, and I can’t wait to do it again. Charlotte was such a fun character to write and she is definitely a 50/50 mix of both Britt’s brain and my own. She wasn’t just left to me to figure out and neither was Mason. We labored to develop these characters together and worked to fuse them into a story that would make you laugh and swoon. So, a huge thank you to my best friend and co-writer; Brittany. She works hard, loves hard and dreams big. I’d choose her to be my person over and over again.
A huge thanks to our reader group for all your support. Alora Kate for helping our design dreams come true, Sandy our editor for putting up with all our craziness. Our formatter at Just write creations, thank you so much and Lips Services; thank you so much for helping us share this book.
ASHLEY’S LINKS:
www.ashleymunozbooks.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleymunoz_author/
FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/ashleymunozauthorpage/
Book Beauties: https://www.facebook.com/groups/700042813665618/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07H76L9R5
BRITTANY’S LINKS
https://www.brittanytaylorbooks.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorbrittanytaylor
Instagram: www.instagram.com/authorbrittanytaylor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brittany-Taylor/e/B078KYZH1D%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Charlotte
Chapter 2: Mason
Chapter 3: Charlotte
Chapter 4: Mason
Chapter 5: Charlotte
Chapter 6: Mason
Chapter 7: Charlotte
Chapter 8: Mason
Chapter 9: Charlotte
Chapter 10: Mason
Chapter 11: Charlotte
Chapter 12: Mason
Chapter 13: Charlotte
Chapter 14: Mason
Chapter 15: Charlotte
Chapter 16: Mason
Chapter 17: Charlotte
Chapter 18: Mason
Chapter 19: Charlotte
Chapter 20: Mason
Chapter 21: Charlotte
Chapter 22: Mason
Chapter 23: Charlotte
Chapter 24: Mason
Epilogue: Charlotte
Acknowledgements
Contact
What are the Chances Page 25
