Love on the Rocks
Nov 13, 2021 6:01 am
Resurrection is available on Preorder
I am very excited to share this new series with you. If you would be interested in reading and reviewing the books in this series click here https://forms.gle/2nD8KqfwKUZjikyb9
Wear your Poppy with pride ❤️
I get poppy nails done every year in November too. Here’s this year’s set.
Also, for all my UK readers, I’ll be attending the Books on the Beach signing Event in August 2022. I know that seems like such a long way away, but there are so many awesome authors attending this event, including my good friend, Delta James, all the way from the US, that tickets are almost sold out!
But if you live close by, or fancy a day trip to Blackpool, those that are left are available here:
Buy Link: http://booksonthebeach2022.eventbrite.com
And there’s also a dedicated Reader Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/booksonthebeach
Welcome back to Club Iniquity
It always seemed like nothing could affect the unshakeable foundation their marriage was built on… Until they decided to start a family and their dreams started to crumble around them.
A Christmas gift of an all expenses paid trip to a tropical island paradise offers them the chance to reconnect away from the pressures of everyday life.
But after all the disappointment and the downward spiral into bitterness and blame, will it be enough to resurrect their ailing relationship?
In case you missed it here is a sneak peek excerpt from Resurrection,
Prologue
“I’m worried about Sophie,” Lucy told her fiancé, Ash. “I’ve never seen her like this before.”
“Really?” he asked. “The two of you have been through so much together. I find it hard to believe that she’s never been down before.”
Lucy shook her head. “I know it sounds weird, but seriously, even when Mom died, she wasn’t despondent the way she is now. I mean, yes, she was upset, and, for a while she was scared, when there was a chance she might get taken into care, but she was never outright depressed. And right now, that’s exactly how she seems to me. It’s like she’s closed up inside herself, closed herself off to everyone, and I don’t know how to reach her.”
Ash pursed his lips and looked pensive for a moment. He’d hit rock bottom and turned his back on society during a particularly black period in his life; both figuratively and literally. Was he measuring his own perception against Sophie’s actions?
And if he was, that was a good thing, right?
Lucy had her own experiences to call on. That was precisely why she was worried about Sophie.
When everything had gone wrong in Lucy’s life, she’d always had Sophie. Her sister had been right there by her side. Maybe it was easier, because they’d been living together so there’d been no escape from the one person who had her best interests at heart.
But that wasn’t the situation anymore. Lucy saw Sophie infrequently since she’d moved out of her sister’s house and in with Ash. And while, in theory, Sophie had Sam, it was pretty evident that their relationship was struggling.
Either because of, or in spite of, whatever personal turmoil they were experiencing; that connection wasn’t effective right now and Lucy feared for Sam and Sophie’s marriage.
The thought alone was astounding. They’d always been so strong together.
Ash sighed. “From what you’ve described, it sounds like she has a habit of bottling everything up and putting on a cheerful face. Obviously, I don’t know her as well as you do, since it’s barely been five months since I met her, but I have noticed the deterioration.”
Lucy nodded; she could see the logic in his assertion.
“Of course, if that’s the case, then there are probably years of pent-up emotions that she’s stored up inside and not found a healthy outlet for,” Ash warned.
A shudder rippled down Lucy’s spine at the thought. It was true. Sophie had always seemed to weather everything like it was water off a ducks back. Had her sister just been in some kind of denial which had suddenly become too compounded to deal with anymore? She was no kind of psychologist, but none of that sounded good.
Suddenly, the plan she’d hatched to cheer her sister up seemed decidedly inadequate. Perhaps she should just send her to therapy, instead. But that would demand the kind of agreement that she didn’t think Sophie was ready to give.
“What are you thinking?” Ash demanded, uncannily cognisant of her emotions, just like usual.
Lucy flopped back in her chair and sighed. “Well, I had this hare-brained idea that we could send Sophie and Sam on a trip to Elysium for Christmas,” Lucy replied. “But now I’m not so sure.”
Elysium was a private, tropical paradise in the Caribbean which housed a luxury holiday resort called Eden. It was where she and Ash had met.
Lucy hadn’t known it at the time, but Ash was one of the ten, uber-wealthy investors who had purchased the uninhabited island and transformed it into the destination it was today, complete with casino, spa, and kinky lifestyle club.
Ash considered for a moment and then nodded his dark head. He’d kept his shoulder length hair and closely cropped beard - a far cry from the pictures she’d seen of when he’d been a sharp Stock market whizz-kid. But when he turned those intense, dark eyes on her, they still made her shiver. She wondered if he was remembering their own stolen moments on the island.
“Well, the idea has some merit,” he finally agreed. “There’s a limit to what we can do to help Sam and Sophie sort out their differences, that really is up to them. But the one thing we can do is send them to Elysium. However, both hotels are already booked solid for the Christmas and New Year period…”
Lucy’s face dropped. She hadn’t considered that.
“But…” Ash continued. “They can use my private cabana. It might even be better for them to have complete privacy. Getting away from everything and having a chance to relax and have some fun away from all the stresses and strains of home life might at least help them reconnect enough to get a healthy dialogue going between them.”
Lucy beamed and gave an excited clap as she bounced in her seat. “Yay! That would be awesome,” she told him.
Ash’s brow furrowed. “Just don’t expect it to be a magic fix though, Lucy,” he warned. “One holiday is not going to be the answer to all their problems.”
Lucy nodded and leaned forward to kiss her fiancé. “I know,” she responded. “I just thought it would help shake things up a bit. You know, get them away from the drudgery and grind of everyday life. Maybe inject a little bit of excitement into the pair of them and help them get a bit of perspective. God knows, they both look like they need it.”
Ash hooked his hand behind Lucy’s neck and pulled her in for another, more lingering kiss.
“Now that, I can do,” he said when he finally lifted his head. “Leave the details to me and I’ll get it sorted out.”
Sophie stared at the contents of the envelope her sister Lucy had just passed to her. It contained a Christmas gift, and even though Sophie really wasn’t feeling the Christmas spirit this year, she went through the motions of opening it to keep her sister happy.
She let out a silent gasp, and for a moment, as she studied the contents, she felt a little of her old spark. A tiny flare of excitement and anticipation. The kind she’d always lived her life by; a determination to wring every last drop of joie de vivre out of it. She’d vowed to have that outlook after losing her mother to cancer. Sophie had been fifteen years old, and her mother had just turned forty. She had learned at a very impressionable age that sometimes life was too short not to embrace it; to make the most of out of whatever curve ball it might throw at you, because before you knew it, it might be gone. But still the brief spark* flickered and died just as quickly as it had come when she realised how broken everything in her own life was right now.
It had been broken before.
When her mother died.
When Lucy had to give up college and fight to keep Sophie out of the foster system.
When the bailiffs had come knocking on the door demanding the shortfall of their mothers’ medical bills.
When they’d been forced to sell the family home to pay off the debtors and move into a crummy, dilapidated, one bedroom flat and share a bed.
When Sophie had been forced to forego college herself so she could help Lucy pay the bills just to keep that roof over their head.
Even when her life had been turned upside down when her sister’s callous ex had dumped all Lucy’s belongings on Sophie’s doorstep while her sister was recovering from surgery after a miscarriage. She’d taken her sister in happily and done what she could at a time in Lucy’s life when her sister had hit rock bottom. And Sophie had done her best to lift her back up again, even though the timing wasn’t great, since she and Sam had decided it was time to start a family and they needed both the privacy and the room.
But throughout it all Sam had been by her side. First as her best friend, then as her boyfriend, and later as her husband.
It didn’t mean any of it had been easy though. Just that Lucy strove hard to remain cheerful and always see the best in things.
A positive mental attitude could help you through the worst times of your life. She’d always believed that… until now.
Now, try as she might, she couldn’t find anything positive about her current situation and she didn’t know what to do about it.
Not that she hadn’t tried; but everything she did just seemed to make things worse… to the extent that, for the first time in her life, she had simply crawled inside the shell she used to hide all her pain and hidden there herself.
Was there any point in putting herself out there where Sam was concerned, just to have it thrown back in her face again?
Case in point; the tell-tale gap he kept between them when Lucy had beckoned Sam over and motioned him to sit down next to her in order for them to receive their gift. It had been so obvious that Sophie had shifted over and widened the gap to give him more room, while her heart cried that he didn’t want to touch her in even the most innocuous of ways.
Sophie knew he was struggling too, and the thought of a future without him scared her more than she was prepared to admit. He’d been her soul mate for more than a decade. She could barely remember life without him.
She’d been just twelve years old when they’d first met and he’d quickly become her BFF, despite being a boy and two years older. They’d started dating officially when she was fifteen, shortly before her mother had died. To this day, Sophie still wondered if her mother, who had initially insisted she was far too young to date a seventeen-year-old, had given in because she knew her days were numbered and she’d decided Sam would give her the support and understanding Sophie was going to need, since Lucy was away at college.
They’d married young. She’d been just eighteen years old, and Sam, twenty. They’d celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary earlier that year. He’d been the most important person in her whole world for so long that the thought of losing him struck terror in her heart.
But instinctively, she knew that’s exactly where things were heading if they didn’t resolve their current issues.
Would going away give them the chance to do that?
Or would it just bring things to a head that much quicker?
One of the reasons Lucy had retreated inside herself was that it was safe. The two of them co-existed in a reciprocal, in not harmonious, existence*
They might be leading almost entirely separate lives right now, with Sam sleeping in the spare room Lucy had recently vacated, working late, and eating alone when he finally returned home for the night, but at least they weren’t arguing any more.
If barely speaking could be considered an improvement.
But Lucy would take that over him deciding to call it quits and move out, no matter how uncomfortable things were at times.
Sam took the tickets and details out of her nerveless fingers and Lucy let them fall into her lap.
She idly wondered what he was thinking, but she didn’t look because she was scared of what she might see in his face.
Twelve months ago, they would have been so excited to get this. In fact, they’d discussed saving up to go when Sophie had entered Lucy into a competition to win an all-inclusive holiday at the resort.
Now? She wasn’t even sure he’d want to go with her, so it was best to keep quiet and say nothing, even if she did come across as ungrateful.
Instead, she leaned forward and grabbed the mug of Lucy’s speciality boozy-cinnamon hot chocolate with marshmallows and real chocolate shavings and allowed the alcohol to temporarily warm the cold places inside her.
“Wow! This is…Very generous of you, Lucy; Ash,” Sam responded politely. Lucy listened, but she couldn’t discern his real feelings.
“You need to get moving right away,” Ash told them. “The car will be here to pick you up and take you to the airport in ninety minutes. Luckily you don’t need much more than shorts and swimwear.”
Sophie still said nothing, but Lucy decided to take matters into her own hands. Jumping up off the sofa, her sister turned and held out her hand to help Sophie up. “Come on, I’ll help you pack,” Lucy said without waiting for any kind of response.
She went through the motions. Finding her case and her passport. Packing the things Lucy directed her to pack. Standing by while she watched her sister rummage through her wardrobe when she wasn’t content with Sophie’s lacklustre responses. She wondered vaguely if Ash was doing the same with Sam.
And that was how, ninety minutes later, on the day before Christmas, Sophie and Sam found themselves sat on opposite sides, in the back seat, of a luxury town car speeding their way to a private airport, for a helicopter flight to paradise.
Sam looked at his wife from the corner of his eye as the chauffeur driven car ate up the miles. She was huddled into the opposite corner, her arms folded around her midriff like she was hugging herself and staring blankly at the scenery that rushed by outside the window.
He blew out a frustrated breath and Sophie looked at him sharply before looking away. She’d taken it the wrong way. He could tell by the way her back was suddenly ramrod straight, tension radiating off of her.
Sam resisted the urge to rub his hands over his face. She’d take that the wrong way too. Just like she did everything he said or did these days.
He’d honestly thought he’d been doing the right thing, moving into the spare room. He’d thought a little bit of space would give them the opportunity to regroup; a way to circumvent the constant bickering. But Sophie had taken it as a rebuff and shut down, withdrawing into herself completely.
It was his fault they were in this predicament; he knew. He just hadn’t been able to get past the feeling that he’d become some kind of stud horse. His only value in whether or not he could perform for the seven minutes required to ejaculate the necessary amount of sperm in order for his wife to conceive.
And every time she didn’t, he felt more and more of a failure. More like he couldn’t give Sophie the one thing she craved more than anything.
More than him.
He’d been reduced to nothing more than a sperm donor. A baby-making tool. And lately, one that was defective.
Well, that’s how he felt anyway.
So much so that it had gotten so he couldn’t even get an erection. That was a first. It was also embarrassing and humiliating, and it made him feel less of a man.
And, of course, Sophie had taken that the wrong way too. Decided that it must be because he didn’t find her attractive anymore.
The arguments, the frustration, the tears, and the recriminations had all accumulated to an extent where Sam had felt it was better to give them both a reprieve. But just like every step he took in their relationship these days, that had proved to be an error.
Perhaps this trip would turn out to be another misstep. Who knew?
But the truth of the matter was something had to give. They couldn’t carry on living the way they were. It wasn’t healthy for either of them.
He wanted to fix things with Sophie, he really did. But at the moment it was like he couldn’t do right for trying and his own soul was feeling mightily bruised.
And everything was so damn precarious that if either of them pushed too hard, he just didn’t know which way things might shake out.
Could be that they fell to pieces completely.
If you have read Masters of Paradise would you consider leaving a review on Amazon for me?
Happy reading ☺️
Freebies and Recommendations
Kinky Bedroom Games
https://books.bookfunnel.com/kinkybedroomgames/81c7qy8ka3
ARC reviewer openings
I am very excited to share this new series with you. If you would be interested in reading and reviewing the books in this series click here https://forms.gle/2nD8KqfwKUZjikyb9
Keep in touch with all things Poppy follow me everywhere!
FB page - https://www.facebook.com/clubrisque1
FB group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2351026058496857
BB - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/poppy-flynn
Website - https://www.poppyflynnsaucyauthor.com/
Meet the Masters of Paradise.