Anyone But You: A Beautiful Curvy Girl Second Chance Romance

By Emma Ashe

The boy she knew is gone. The man standing in his place is everything she shouldn’t want…
But cannot help craving.
Ava Day and Griffin Ward were best friends—until a terrible fight tore them apart. Five years later, a super-exclusive, possibly magical, definitely steamy dating app reunites them.
And all the feelings Ava thought she’d buried came rushing back.
Griff was shocked when An Indecent Apposal matched him with Ava—although maybe he shouldn’t have been. He’d always loved her smart mouth and wicked curves. Plus, they had serious history. No one understood his messed-up family like she did.
But he’s still furious over the way she left and the fury is giving his need for her an…edge.
They think they can get each other out of their systems. They think they’ll be happier with anyone else. They’re wrong, of course—not that it doesn’t stop Ava from forging ahead with her cross-country move and Griff from holding onto his grudge.
But sometimes the hardest fights taste the sweetest when they’re won.
*An Indecent Apposal is a spicy new romantic series filled with hot, dirty billionaire alphas and the beautiful, curvy girls who tame them. Perfect for a quick bedtime read or a quicker reader blush, you’ll love the sexy love story, Anyone But You, a second chance romance. One of the best new short reads of the year!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wickosity Media, LLC
• Release date: Dec 29, 2020

Book preview

www.emmaashe.com/books

ALSO BY EMMA ASHE

An Indecent Apposal Series

Something Real, Book 1 (Prequel - FREE)

Show Me Your Secrets, Book 2

Claiming The Secretary, Book 3

Second Chance Romance, Book 4

All For Her, Book 5

Better With You, Book 6

Anyone But You, Book 7

When He Found Her, Book 8

Then She Saved Him, Book 9

Wasn’t Supposed to Happen, Book 10

…

An Indecent Apposal Volume 1, Books 2-4

An Indecent Apposal Volume 2, Books 5-7

An Indecent Apposal Volume 3, Books 8-10

———

Deeper Than Love Series

Deeper Than Desire, Book 1 (Prequel - FREE)

Deeper Than Destiny, Book 2

Deeper Than Lies, Book 3

Deeper Than Secrets, Book 4

Deeper Than Temptation, Book 5

…

Deeper Than Love Volume 1, Books 2-3

Deeper Than Love Volume 2, Books 4-5

———

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CONTENTS

ALSO BY EMMA ASHE

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

DEDICATION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

EPILOGUE

TEASER CHAPTER 1

LEAVE A REVIEW

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book wouldn’t even be here without the encouragement of some of the finest writers I know. Thank you for cheering me on Skylar Hill and Cici Coughlin.

DEDICATION

For Tony

CHAPTER 1

Ava Day was pretty sure there were worse things than a pervy Santa Claus trying to stick his hand up her elf skirt, but honestly?

At the moment, she couldn’t think of anything.

I will stab you with my fork, she told him, knowing her expression was dead-pan from exhaustion and that it probably made her look like a total serial killer, but she did not care.

Did. Not. Care.

She lifted her plastic fork to make her point. Take your hand back.

Pervy Santa did. Oops. I didn’t realize. No need to get fussy about it. He shifted around on the mall bench they were sharing and watched the shoppers trail past. It was five days to Christmas and everyone looked frazzled.

I need a smoke, he said at last.

Good because I need you to go away, Ava told him, spearing a particularly juicy looking cherry tomato from her food court salad. This is my break. I don’t have to deal with you for another ten minutes.

Ho! Ho! Ho! He grabbed his padded belly. "Someone’s a grinch!"

She held up her fork again, watching his watery blue eyes fly wide. Doesn’t matter that it’s plastic, she told herself. If you stab hard enough, it will break off in his thigh.

Pervy Santa—whose real name was Paul, but Ava couldn’t see him as anything other than Pervy Santa—jumped to his feet and made a show of stretching his back. Yeah, think I’ll take that smoke break. He looked down at her salad and stroked his white beard. You should eat more of those. You have such a pretty face.

Maybe I’ll stab him anyway, she thought, but Pervy Santa scurried off before she could. Ava watched him disappear around the corner of Williams-Sonoma. It should’ve been a relief to be rid of him, but now she’d lost her appetite.

She put her salad to one side, fury and embarrassment making her chest go tight. Honestly? It wasn’t like P.S. was the first jackass to say something like that to her.

Ava was bigger. This was not a newsflash. She’d gotten the memo all the way back in second grade when Jenny Connor found a scale in the girls’ gym bathroom and made everyone weigh themselves.

Even then, Ava was almost exactly two times the weight of Jenny Connor. She was one and a half times the weight of Jenny’s flying monkeys, Corrie and Kada.

And when Ava had to focus on those calculations, it might’ve been the reason she began to hate math.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, tried to shut out the rumble of people and the whine of piped-in Christmas carols, and pictured herself pushing away the memories—and when that didn’t work, she pictured herself pushing Pervy Santa off a cliff.

So much better, she thought, chest suddenly loosening. She stabbed the cherry tomato once more and popped it into her mouth.

Two more weeks, she reminded herself. You only have to survive two more weeks and then you can collect your paycheck and head out for San Francisco.

And start her new life.

Ava didn’t add the last part, but then again, she didn’t need to. Ever since she’d received the job offer from 74 Canal, a famous art gallery, she’d been counting down the days—and trying to earn extra money wherever she could.

Hence, Pervy Santa and the mall.

Usually, she worked for her parents’ catering company, and while she loved them and the work was pretty fun (though also intense), photographing wedding spreads or holiday luncheons for Instagram wasn’t giving her the same creative fix doing animal photography did. Technically, work at 74 Canal might not either, but it would definitely teach her the ins and outs of running her own gallery.

Ava went back to her lunch—which was might as well be her dinner because the holidays didn’t stop for breaks. It was well after seven, and they still had a line sixty-people deep wanting their pictures taken with Pervy Santa.

Ava?

She looked up, instantly recognizing the dark-haired woman heading toward her. Vivian—Vivi to her friends—Angelo was one of Atlanta’s most celebrated bakers. She was known for her curves, her exquisite cakes, and, well, her attitude.

Ava thought she was pretty much made of amazing and also kind of sort of slightly terrifying ever since she’d watched her chew out a group of frat boys who’d come into the Angelo Bakery to buy a stripper cake, the kind a girl would jump out of. Vivi had made one guy cry.

She swallowed. Hi, Vivi.

Hi. Vivi dropped onto the bench next to her, brown eyes gone bright. Look. We gotta talk. You haven’t been to the shop in weeks and I’ve been trying to find you.

Ava blinked. Blinked again.

Vivi sped on, words tripping out of her at about a hundred-miles-an-hour: "I called your parents’ catering company. They said you weren’t there so I asked if I could have your cell number because it was really important and then they asked me what was so important and I told them I might have a job lead for you. For the record? I don’t. But this is what I had to do to find you."

She finally took a breath and Ava didn’t know what to say. Oh, wait, yes she did. That’s a little creepy.

I know, right?

No. Clearly, Vivi did not know or she wouldn’t be doing this. Ava looked around, wondering if there were any security guards within screaming distance. There weren’t, but there was a jaw-droppingly gorgeous guy in a suit, waiting on their right.

Ava didn’t know tons about clothes—even less about men’s clothes—but she was pretty sure anyone sporting a suit like that didn’t shop at Ponce City Market. They paid people to shop for them at Ponce City Market.

But this is important, Vivi continued. "So it was worth