Hard Choices — Ashe Barker

The Hardest Word:

The Hardest Word charts the sensual journey of Freya North and Nick Hardisty. Unable to speak since early childhood Freya's fortunes change dramatically when she finds herself holding the winning Euromillions Lottery ticket. Over forty million pounds richer, she still can't buy the one thing she really wants -- a skilled Master to train her in the fine art of submission.

Her first ill-fated approach to Nick Hardisty, a Dom who comes highly recommended, earns her a punishment spanking at his BDSM club. From the outset Nick is able to find ways around and beyond Freya's communication issues to release her innermost submissive instincts. Fascinated, intrigued, and hopelessly attracted to Freya, Nick does agree to train her, but on his terms not hers.

Freya moves into his home for one month. The deal is total obedience, and absolute submission. But while her body, and her emotions, are an open book, she doesn't reveal to him the true extent of her wealth.

As their relationship develops and deepens, how long can Freya keep her secret from the powerful Dom who insists on total honesty from her in every respect? As her two separate lives threaten to collide, Freya is torn between the stern Master she has come to adore, and the opportunities her wealth provides, to grow into the strong, independent woman she longs to become.

Hard Choices by Ashe Barker

Book Three in the The Hardest Word serial



Is true submission the one thing money can't buy?



A month with the Dom of her dreams. Just one month to learn all that he can teach her, as well as to convince him that he's the Master she wants. The Master she needs. Forever.

But her training ended in disaster when Nick asked her to do the one thing she could not willingly accept -- hand her body over to another Dom. Alone again, confused and heartbroken, Freya tries to rebuild her shattered life. However, soon she has no choice but to appeal to Nick for help once more. How will he respond?

Despite his insistence that their relationship is temporary, Nick has missed his silent pupil, and when she returns to his home he's determined to keep her there this time. But when his family responsibilities intrude on their fragile truce they turn to an unlikely source for help.

Nick's friend Dan introduces them to his friend Tom Shore, whose West Yorkshire moorland farm offers the perfect solution to Nick's problem. Freya enjoys the company of Tom's new bride, Ashley, and that of Dan's enigmatic brother Nathan Darke and his brilliant submissive, Eva Byrne. And the surprise return of someone from Freya's past further enriches her growing circle of friends. But when personal tragedy strikes, will her Master be able to set aside his bitterness at her betrayal or was their fragile relationship doomed from the beginning. When everything is at stake, both Freya and Nick face the hardest choice of all.

Do opposites attract, or are some differences just too wide to bridge? And is true submission the one thing money can't buy?



Ashe Barker

About the Author:

Until 2010, Ashe was a director of a regeneration company before deciding there had to be more to life and leaving to pursue a lifetime goal of self-employment.

Ashe has been an avid reader of women's fiction for many years -- erotic, historical, contemporary, fantasy, romance -- you name it, as long as it's written by women, for women. Now, at last in control of her own time and working from her home in rural West Yorkshire, she has been able to realise her dream of writing erotic romance herself.