Charlotte, a failed artist, finds herself stuck between the man she loves and her fiance who loves the power and control he has over her.
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Charlotte knew she had met the love of her life, Chase Sinclair, when she was only 20. Their relationship...
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Chapter 2
Charlotte sat there and thought she was dreaming. She had dreamed about him almost every night, and in her dreams, he was always the same young man she met all those years ago. However, now standing before her was a man she didn't recognise. He looked older. His face had filled out, and he no longer looked like a boy but a man. His sharp jawline was dusted with ginger stubble that made him look roughish. The sun made his hazel eyes glow, and his hair looked even redder than she remembered. His white shirt did nothing to hide the lean muscles underneath, and his black pants made him seem taller than she remembered.
She tried to say anything, but no words came out. She never thought she would see him again, and while her body and heart remembered him, her mind was a mess.
"Charlie?" His deep voice washed over her like a fresh breath air as her name rolled off his tongue. A name no one called her anymore. She didn't remember closing her eyes, and when she opened them, he was standing in front of her. Life continued around them, but at that moment, there were only the two of them.
"Charlie, is that you?" She lifted her sunglasses onto the top of her head as he took a seat in front of her in as much shock as she was. Her skin broke out in goosebumps, and she nodded as she couldn't find any words to explain or express what she was feeling.
He stared into the face that haunted his dreams almost every night. Green eyes he would spend hours getting lost in. However, there was something in her eyes now that looked haunted. They no longer looked as green as he remembered, and they seemed dull, almost like no one was home. The longer he stared at her, the longer he got an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He wasn't sure why, but she looked different. Older and sadder.
"When did you move back?" He finally asked as he tried not to dwell on why she didn't look like he remembered. He watched her frown, and a crease formed between her eyebrows as if it had aged before she was ready. Last he heard, she was living in London and had no desire to move back home.
"I've been back for around three months. I live in Bellevue Hill now." He tried not to show it, but her voice surprised him. The British accent was noticeable, but the effect it had on him was something he hadn't accounted for. He left like it had lit up his body with a thousand lights at just the sound of her voice. He felt his skin tingle, and he wanted to bask in this feeling he hadn't felt since she left him all those years ago.
"What are you doing out this way?" He wanted her to keep talking because her voice was something he missed so much but he would never admit to.
"I just came from the publishing company. I also come here to write a lot." He looked down at the table and smiled when he saw what she was reading. He looked back up to her face and saw a blush spread across her cheeks as if it embarrassed her to be seen reading his book.
"So, what do you think?" He asked, nodding his head towards her book, and he watched as she lovingly ran her hand across the top cover. She had always been supportive of his writing, and if there were 1 opinion that mattered most, it would have been hers because the fantasy romance series was loosely based on their own story. She had been his inspiration, his muse to write the first book, and as he wrote, he found his main heroine to be more and more like his Charlie. However, that felt like a lifetime ago.
