From
USA Today bestselling author K. Webster comes a brand new forbidden
romance that's going to leave you speechless.
Money can buy anything. And anyone.
As the head of the Constantine family, I’m used to people bowing to my will.
Cruel, rigid, unyielding—I’m all those things. When I discover the one woman
who doesn’t wither under my gaze, but instead smiles right back at me, I’m
intrigued.
Ash Elliott needs cash, and I make her trade in crudeness and degradation for
it. I crave her tears, her moans. I pay for each one. And every time, she comes
back for more.
When she challenges me with an offer of her own, I have to decide if I’m
willing to give her far more than cold hard cash.
But love can have deadly consequences when it comes from a Constantine. At the
stroke of midnight, that choice may be lost for both of us.
Book
1
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I don’t want to clean.
I want to sit behind a desk and crunch numbers. Talk shop. Plan expansions. My dad is an economic analyst, which is what I want to be too. I’d always imagined us going into business together and heading up our own firm.
Cleaning won’t get me there.
I suppose playing nice with Manda the Maneater is my only resort at this point.
For the next hour, I rush through all the offices that don’t need much more than the trash cans emptied, and then make it to the CEO’s office. One day, I’ll have an office like Winston Constantine, but I won’t be some old fuddy duddy. I’ll be a boss babe with style. My employees will love me, because I imagine I’ll be cool as hell. Rather than hire a boring interior designer like whatever robot chose the furniture and décor for Halcyon, I’ll do it all myself.
I’m once again daydreaming of my future that seems more and more murky these days as I fumble through my email on my phone to find the code to get into Big Man’s office. Of all the offices, this one is the coldest and most boring. As though whoever Winston Constantine is, he doesn’t do any sort of work, but instead gazes out the windows all day.
Finally, I locate the code and punch it in.
It’s like twelve numbers long, and I fail a few times before it grants me entry. With a sigh of frustration, I push the door open and drag my rolling cart in after me into the dark office. I hit the light switch with my elbow and leave my cart in front of the door to prop it open. I fidget with the dumb uniform skirt I have to wear and wonder if anyone would notice if I wore jeans instead.
I grab the duster and make a beeline over to the painting on the wall. It’s the best part of the office besides the cool desk that moves up and down and the windows overlooking the most picturesque parts of New York City. I touch the bottom of the frame to check for dust. As I imagined it to be, there’s not a speck.
I’m just moving to the bookshelves when I hear a creak.
“You’re supposed to clean it, not pretend,” a deep, furious voice growls, scaring the ever-loving shit out of me.
“What the fuck, man?” I snap, whirling around, dropping my duster in the process. “You can’t just sneak up…” I trail off as I drink in the man sitting in the desk chair.
Holy shit.
Was he here the whole time?
Fucking creepy!
But there’s nothing creepy about his looks. He’s not a fuddy duddy either, if this is Winston Constantine. He’s fine as hell.
Older. Dressed to the nines in a three-piece navy suit that looks custom-tailored and expensive. A handsome, villainous smirk on his face. His dark blond hair is shorter on the sides and longer on top, styled perfectly, making it look as though he came from a photoshoot at Gucci or something. Just enough scruff to give him an edge despite his otherwise clean-cut appearance. It’s his eyes that are mesmerizing.
Dark blue. Intense. Penetrating.
For some reason, it makes me think about my ex-boyfriend, Tate. The exact opposite of this man. Soft and sweet and gullible. Tate and I were a high school thing, but the moment we graduated a couple of weeks ago, we amicably broke it off knowing we were headed in different directions. This guy looks anything but soft, sweet, or gullible.
He looks scary.
Scary hot.
But still scary.
I clear my throat. “Sorry. I’ll just empty your trash and be out of your way.”
“No,” he rumbles, his voice dripping in a menacing tone. “I’ve been waiting for you. It’s time we chat, little girl.”
Reviews by the
Wicked Reads Review Team
Mary – ☆☆☆☆
What would you do for money? Would you degrade yourself or walk away? Ash
Elliott has got to find a way to make money to cover her college or lose it
altogether. Cleaning the luxury business offices of the Constantine family is
not going to get her the money. But when Winston Constantine makes her an
offer, even though it is a sick one, she can't refuse.
Winston Constantine usually gets what he wants, when he offers Ash money to do certain
things, he thinks she will refuse, but she talks back to him and does them
anyway. This makes him happy to pay her whatever price she asks for.
While Winston and Ash continue with this whatever you want to call it relationship,
her triplet stepbrothers are a terror to her. They try to control her in every
way. All Ash wants to do is get away from them and go to college. And with
Winston's depraved help, she just might be able to.
This story is different, but nothing you shouldn't expect from author K.
Webster. It is taboo, a little dark, with a Cinderella twist. I found that I
liked Winston and Ash; yes, I dated an older guy before and saw nothing wrong
with their relationship. I wasn't crazy about some of the things Winston wanted
her to do, but that is just me. I really liked the story overall and cannot
wait for the next one to see what happens. So if you like K. Webster and her
dark, taboo stories then you will enjoy this one too.
Shannan – ☆☆☆☆
K. Webster hits another home run with the new series Cinderella. Stroke of
Midnight is the first book in the series, a 2020 take on a classic tale.
Winston Constantine owns the city. His name alone demands respect. Money can
buy you anything: your fantasies, your enemies, and your happiness. Winston
demands order. When he finds his current office cleaner isn't doing the job to
his expectations, he confronts her. Planning on embarrassing her and firing her
and the company that employs her, his plans are derailed when he sees her face
to face for the first time.
Ash Elliott thought her college tuition was going to be paid for until her
father took most of that money to shower it onto his new wife. Now it's on her
to pay for college and taking the cleaning job was her way to do it. Doing
anything she can to get away from her evil stepmother and her awful triplet
stepbrothers, who make her skin crawl. When Winston Constantine confronts her
for slacking on her job, he demands things from her she isn't sure she's
willing to do, but when he offers money for each thing she does to embarrass
herself, she finds it turns her on as much as it disgusts her.
I was instantly invested into this story. I have to know how it plays out in
the next installment.
K.
WEBSTER is a USA Today bestselling
author. Her titles have claimed many
bestseller tags in numerous categories, are translated in multiple languages,
and have been adapted into audiobooks.
She lives in “Tornado Alley” with her husband, two children, and her
baby dog named Blue. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, drinking copious
amounts of coffee, and researching aliens.
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it's too hot for Amazon! Don't worry because titles like Bad Bad Bad, This
is War, Baby, The Wild, and Hale can all be found for sale on
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Hosted by
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided
a free copy of Stroke of Midnight (Cinderella #1) by K. Webster to read and
review for this tour.
