Page 19 of Her Billionaire Boss
I glanced over at Charlotte, who hadn’t taken a seat.She lingered beside me like I was some kind of camouflage.
That wouldn’t work.
I’d wanted to be gentle, to introduce her to the job slowly and give her time to get comfortable.Now, that perception seemed so at odds with what I knew about her as a person.She didn’t do anything slowly.She rushed straight into things.And straight out of them, when given a chance, but we’d already discussed that.
“I’ll let Charlotte explain that,” I said and took the chair at the head of the table, which they’d left open for me.“Charlotte?”
I don’t know what I’d expected her to do.Mumble and stammer her way through some kind of spur-of-the-moment presentation?Get overwhelmed and excuse herself?In that moment of hindsight, before she began to speak, I thought,What have you done to her, you stupid ass?
But after a split second of wide-eyed, frozen panic, something in her changed entirely.
“What if Ascend wasn’t an escape, but a way of life?”she began, as if reading from a script.“Not a place that a guest escapes to once every two years, if their budget and their schedule allows, but an oasis of kinky self-care as close and as accessible as their gym or their hair salon.A secret known only to a select few, nestled atop a luxury hotel catering to the tastes and expectations of our existing brand.”
Had my jaw dropped?It felt like my jaw had dropped.
“I’m talking about Ascend Manhattan.An invitation-only, dues-based luxury kink club right here in New York City, hidden away in a new flagship property for non-kink guests.Clients of the club can visit without fear of exposure, owing to the highly sought-after dining experience of our Michelin-starred restaurant.”
“Which restaurant would that be?”Jack asked with a little chuckle.
“The one we create.Which is more of a ‘you guys’ problem.I’m just the idea man.”She moved smoothly past Jack’s interruption and continued.“I recently had the opportunity to stay at Ascend Red—”
There were a few sly looks around the table.
Charlotte didn’t let them shake her at all.“—and it was a gorgeous property.But it was a pain in the ass to get to, and after a while, became too much of a good thing.A kink club here in the city would allow invited patrons to visit at their convenience, without ever stepping on an airplane.For guests who don’t live in the city, that’s where the hotel would come in.They could stay on property and enjoy the city.It will be far less immersive than Ascend Red; the need for that destination will never be eclipsed by Ascend Manhattan.But it can give former Ascend Red guests a taste of what they remember from their previous visits and entice those who haven’t given Ascend Red a try yet.”
“What’s the legality here?”Neveah asked, leaning forward on one elbow.
“I’m not a lawyer,” Charlotte said, opening her hands to defer to Neveah.“But at present, there are other kink clubs operating in the city due to an absence of law in that domain.”
“Neveah, you lead on this one,” I interjected.
“Is this going to be a totally new build?”Leo asked in his slightly accented English.He was another hire from my college days, though it had taken a decade to get him to leave Beijing to come work for us in New York.
“I’d like it to be,” I answered him.“Do you think we can poach that Pratchett guy who did Glynn’s last resort?”
Leo shook his head.“He’s retired.And there’s no way we were getting him away from Glynn, anyway.”
“Damn.”I hated to ever admit that the competition had done something well, but Carrie Glynn’s Nassau resort was a sight to behold.“Try, at least.For me.Send him a fruit basket with a picture of an eight-figure check in it.”
I wasn’t entirely joking.
“Is the hotel portion significantly tied to the club portion?”Poppy asked.
“They’re fully independent from each other,” Charlotte answered.“They share the same building, and guests of Ascend Manhattan may choose to stay in the hotel, but they’re two separate entities.”
“The club can lease the space from the hotel, but operations will stay separate,” Jack said, seemingly warming up to the idea.
Charlotte nodded.“Different staff, different entrance, they won’t even share the same elevator bank.”
Leo made a note about that.
“That way, we can assure our clients total discretion,” she went on.“Ascend Manhattan will remind our Ascend Red guests why they should make plans for another trip to the island and maybe convince new members to give Ascend Red a try.We’re getting their money, either way.”
The chuckle that went around the room was one of mutual understanding.All she’d had to do was walk in and say, “Hey guys, let’s print money.”In a way, she had, but in a guest experience-focused language we were all used to speaking.
“Thoughts?”I asked.
“If we can be sure we’re protected, legally, this could be a game changer for our kink-friendly properties,” Neveah said, approving the idea with caution.
