Lavish Obsession
Charlotte Byrd
Contents
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Part One
Chapter 1 - Easton
Chapter 2 - Easton
Chapter 3 - Easton
Part Two
Chapter 4 - Easton
Chapter 5 - Easton
Chapter 6 - Everly
Chapter 7 - Everly
Chapter 8 - Everly
Chapter 9 - Everly
Part Three
Chapter 10 - Easton
Chapter 11 - Easton
Chapter 12 - Easton
Chapter 13 - Easton
Chapter 14 - Easton
Chapter 15 - Easton
Chapter 16 - Easton
Chapter 17 - Easton
Part Four
Chapter 18 - Everly
Chapter 19 - Everly
Chapter 20 - Everly
Part Five
Chapter 21 - Easton
Chapter 22 - Everly
Chapter 23 - Easton
Chapter 24 - Easton
Chapter 25 - Easton
Chapter 26 - Easton
Chapter 27 - Easton
Part Six
Chapter 28 - Everly
Chapter 29 - Everly
Chapter 30 - Everly
Chapter 31 - Everly
Chapter 32 - Everly
Part Seven
Chapter 33 - Everly
Chapter 34 - Easton
Chapter 35 - Everly
Part Eight
Chapter 36 - Everly
Chapter 37 - Everly
Chapter 38 - Everly
Chapter 39 - Easton
Chapter 40 - Everly
Tell Me to Stop
Also by Charlotte Byrd
About Charlotte Byrd
Copyright © 2018 by Charlotte Byrd, LLC.
All rights reserved.
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Cover Design: Charlotte Byrd
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This book is a word of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Visit my website at www.charlotte-byrd.com
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About Lavish Obsession
I don’t know who to believe, but I know that this place is full of lies and secrets.
Easton Bay has risked everything to protect me, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t do what they had accused him of.
I am in love with him. I am supposed to be his wife, but this changes everything. The King has turned on him. I’m Easton’s only hope.
But it’s only a matter of time before they turn on me, too.
Is my fate is sealed?
*Previously published as Throne of York
Praise for Charlotte Byrd
“Decadent, delicious, & dangerously addictive!” - Amazon Review ★★★★★
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“Captivating!” - Crystal Jones, Amazon Review ★★★★★
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"Exciting, intense, sensual” - Rock, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
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“Sexy, secretive, pulsating chemistry…” - Mrs. K, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
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“Charlotte Byrd is a brilliant writer. I've read loads and I've laughed and cried. She writes a balanced book with brilliant characters. Well done!” -Amazon Review ★★★★★
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Also by Charlotte Byrd
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Tell me Series
Tell me to Stop
Tell me to Go
Tell me to Stay
Tell me to Run
Tell me to Fight
* * *
Tangled Series
Tangled up in Ice
Tangled up in Pain
Tangled up in Lace
Tangled up in Hate
Tangled up in Love
* * *
Black Series
Black Edge
Black Rules
Black Bounds
Black Contract
Black Limit
Lavish Trilogy
Lavish Lies
Lavish Betrayal
Lavish Obsession
Standalone Novels
Debt
Offer
Unknown
Dressing Mr. Dalton
Part One
Chapter 1 - Easton
When I first see Everly…
I’ve been watching her.
I saw her name on the list.
There were others, too, but she stood out.
I’ve never done this before. I never sought out one of the women, let alone approached her.
I pretended that everything that happ
ens here on this forsaken island wasn’t my business.
I thought that if I didn’t get involved, then it wouldn’t be my fault. But that’s not how life works, is it?
You are involved, all of the time.
You make decisions about your values all the time.
What you do or don’t do.
What you buy or don’t buy.
I tried to wash the guilt away. I tried to close my eyes to all the horrors that take place around me.
Even after they took Alicia away from me.
I thought I was in love with her and I wanted to run away with her. Yet, when they took her away from me, I believed them.
I closed my eyes to all the anger, and the hatred, and everything that I knew deep inside of myself to be true.
I closed my eyes to the truth that I felt deep inside of me.
You know that feeling that makes your skin crawl when something bad is about to happen?
You know those little goose bumps you get when you feel like something just isn’t right?
You know that voice in the back of your head that tries to warn you, no matter how nice everything seems to be?
Those are signs you shouldn’t ignore. But I did.
I experienced them.
I lived them.
And they became my mistakes.
Standing here, watching this room full of people talking, laughing, mingling, I realize what I knew all along.
I didn’t need to overhear my father talking to his closest advisor to confirm the truth. That nauseous feeling, those goose bumps down my arms, that sickening feeling in the back of my throat - those were all proof of it.
My father had Alicia killed, and I was too stupid, no, too naive, not to see it.
Is that why I’m here in this room with drapery around the walls and everyone dressed in their black tie best? Perhaps.
I’m here to find her.
Everly March.
I saw her name on the list and something drew me to her.
Her first name, flowing and never-ending, reminds me of a river or a rushing brook.
But her last?
Quick and strong and powerful.
It’s almost as if it brings the flowing water to a sudden stop.
Everly March.
Everly March.
Everly March.
I say her name over and over again. Who are you? And why did you bring me here?
I scan the room in search of her and it doesn’t take me long. I walk by people, leaning in and listening until I hear her name.
I stand a little bit away from her, just enough so that I don’t come off as a creep. And I watch and wait until her date leaves her side.
I finish a drink and get another. I continue to wait.
It is these moments that I return to over and over again, when we are apart.
The shine of her hair.
The snugness of her dress around her hips.
The way she scrunched her shoulders down, either out of shyness, or anxiety, or just to stay warm.
Her high cheekbones and large bright eyes make her face radiate and I find myself drawn to her.
It takes everything in my power to keep my distance. It’s not that I want her, which I do, but it’s more that I want to meet her.
Her beauty is effortless, and I immediately feel the pull of attraction.
But the pull is more than that.
It’s like there’s a gravitational pull around her.
She is the sun and she’s drawing me to her.
When I can’t stand not being close to her any longer, her date finally leaves.
There’s my opening, my chance.
I approach her carefully, not because I’m afraid of spooking her, but I’m afraid of what that would do to me.
“Hello, there,” I say softly from behind.
I see her considering one of the options from the silent auction.
The one she’s looking at is offered by a family friend of my father’s.
“Considering bidding on that yachting weekend in Newport?” I ask.
She turns around and examines me carefully. Her eyes narrow, then relax, and then she gives me a smile.
“Yes, that’s right,” she says with a tinge of sarcasm. “The highest bid is probably around $100,000. So, I’d have to work two and a half years at my current job and save every penny just to match it.”
Of all the ways I’d thought this conversation could’ve possibly gone, this was not it.
I don’t know who I expected to get, but this woman with a strong wit and a sharp tongue was not it.
Her reaction amuses me; it draws me in even more.
I can’t help but give her a wink.
“I’m Easton,” I say, holding out my hand and waiting for the moment when she will finally let me touch her.
The moment is all too brief, unfortunately.
Before I even have a chance to say another word, her date comes back. It’s as if he was waiting, watching.
He wraps his arm firmly around her waist.
She is mine, his body language says. Stay away. Keep away. Get the fuck away.
I look at him and watch as his nostrils flare out.
His eyebrows furrow, his jealousy is about to be pushed over the edge.
I see him getting closer to that edge and I want to push him over it.
I want her to see the coward that he really is.
I want her to see that this isn’t the good kind of possessiveness, the kind that makes a woman feel wanted. No, he is all weakness and he knows it.
“Easton, this is my…friend…Jamie.”
She pauses in the middle, considering just the right description for what he is.
She does not use the word date, but friend.
This does not go unnoticed.
Chapter 2 - Easton
When I try to warn her…
“Actually, she’s my date,” Jamie corrects her.
I raise my eyebrow in a show of acknowledgment.
He’s trying to rattle me.
Trying to shock me.
Trying to throw me off kilter.
I’m not going to give in.
“I was just talking to Everly about the silent auctions here. What will you be bidding on?” I ask.
He takes a deep breath for a moment of consideration.
He’s not going to bid on anything.
He doesn’t have the money, but there’s no way he would ever admit it.
We stare at each other for a moment, without saying a word.
“I think I’m going to go for this weekend trip to Paris,” I say in the most smug and entitled way possible.
I pick up the pen and fill out the form next to the package.
“It’s all for a good cause, right?” I mumble under my breath.
“It’s supposed to be a silent auction,” Jamie says, pulling Everly closer to him.
She shudders a little bit at how forceful he is, and I clench my jaw.
I want to punch him in his face, but that’s not a wise decision.
Everly knows nothing about me.
I need her to trust me.
I’m not going to get anywhere with her if I knock out her conniving, lying, asshole of a date.
“Yes, of course. But I doubt that the foundation will be against a little competition. Especially, if that makes the bid go higher.”
When he doesn’t respond, I turn toward him and hand him my pen.
“Go ahead, kid,” I say, squaring my shoulders with him.
I cross my arms across my chest, narrowing my eyes.
“Don’t call me kid,” he says, grabbing the pen out of my hand.
Everly tugs at him, whispering something into his ear that I can’t quite make out.
“I know.” He shrugs her off and walks away.
She wraps her hands around her arms as she stands next to me, watching Jamie walk around the tables and reading about each of the packages.
She glares at me and s
hakes her head, and then after a moment, she goes up to him and takes his arm.
This isn’t going well.
It’s the wrong approach.
But I have to keep trying.
She tries to pull him away, but he refuses to go.
I have successfully challenged his ego, which was my intention all along.
She tries again.
She’s whispering, but I hear her mention that he doesn’t have the money to bid on any of it.
I smile.
I don’t either, of course.
I mean, who the hell does? Besides my father.
And I know exactly how he got all of his billions, which doesn’t exactly make me race into that line of work.
Of course, Jamie doesn’t know any of this.
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