Cinder's Rising
By Jenika Snow
3/5
()
About this ebook
READER NOTE: Please note this story was part of the Midnight Seduction box-set, which is no longer available. *This is a modern day re-telling of the classic Cinderella.*
When Cinder Franco finds herself in a new city after fleeing an abusive home, she hopes to start fresh. Her new job may be cleaning up after others, but it pays her bills and keeps her off the street. And right now that is all she can hope for.
Ryder Prince has never taken anything for granted. He has worked his way to the top of his career to become one of the most renowned surgeons in the country. But because he has immersed himself in his career, he has found himself alone and detached when it comes to the female population. When he hires Cinder, he instantly sees a light in her eyes. She has been hurt, he can see that, and there is something inside of him that wants to help her.
As time progresses and his feelings for her grow, he knows there is something special about her. He wants her, wants to protect and shelter her. When Ryder has to attend a charity event he invites Cinder as his date, hoping that things can naturally progress forward despite her dark past, and the fears they both harbor. But Cinder flees after her emotions get the better of her, and it is up to Ryder to show her that she is worth so much more than she gives herself credit for. It is up to him to show her that to him she is his world now.
Read more from Jenika Snow
DILF Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bride For Order: Mail Order Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cocky: A Taboo Short Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rowdy (A Taboo Short) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Claimed As His: Mail Order Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sugar is Sweet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Baby Deal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Venom's Revenge: Ruthless Rejects MC Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bring Me Back Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Dominic's Touch Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As Luck Would Have It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unwrapped Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Falling Under Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Frailty (The DarkShine) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSugar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rooney's Pain (Ruthless Rejects, 2): Ruthless Rejects MC Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fighting to Forget Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Cinder's Rising
Related ebooks
Monster Bully Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSugar is Sweet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stalked Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bearing it for the Outlaw Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ride Her Hard Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Outlaw Stakes His Claim Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dominic's Touch Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwrapped Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Falling Under Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Baby Deal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wanted by Her Two MC Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bring Me Back Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Her Bodyguard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Convict Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Claiming Macie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beast: The Soldiers of Wrath: Grit Chapter, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As Luck Would Have It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Caveman's Possession (Cavemen, 2): Cavemen, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Virgin Next Door Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King: The Soldiers of Wrath: Grit Chapter, #2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Caveman's Virgin (Cavemen, 1): Cavemen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loving a Vampire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Biker Next Door Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crave Her Curves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fighting to Forget Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mountain Man's Curvy Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Playing With the Biker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Addicted to Her Curves Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Contemporary Romance For You
Hopeless Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ugly Love: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Icebreaker: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Cinderella: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5November 9: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confess: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Your Perfects: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before We Were Strangers: A Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Starts with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe Someday Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The True Love Experiment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Point of Retreat: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slammed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Italian Summer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scandalized Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maybe Not: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spanish Love Deception: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beautiful Disaster: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ruin Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beautiful Bastard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe Now: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Without Merit: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Something Borrowed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Intense: Erotic Short Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Perfect: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Cinder's Rising
5 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Cinder's Rising - Jenika Snow
When Cinder Franco finds herself in a new city after fleeing an abusive home, she hopes to start fresh. Her new job may be cleaning up after others, but it pays her bills and keeps her off the street. And right now that is all she can hope for.
Ryder Prince has never taken anything for granted. He has worked his way to the top of his career to become one of the most renowned surgeons in the country. But because he has immersed himself in his career, he has found himself alone and detached when it comes to the female population. When he hires Cinder, he instantly sees a light in her eyes. She has been hurt, he can see that, and there is something inside of him that wants to help her.
As time progresses and his feelings for her grow, he knows there is something special about her. He wants her, wants to protect and shelter her. When Ryder has to attend a charity event he invites Cinder as his date, hoping that things can naturally progress forward despite her dark past, and the fears they both harbor. But Cinder flees after her emotions get the better of her, and it is up to Ryder to show her that she is worth so much more than she gives herself credit for. It is up to him to show her that to him she is his world now.
Dedication
Dedicated to my mom. She was a wonderful mother, wife, nurse, and grandmother, but lost her fight with cancer far too soon. She may no longer be with us anymore, but she left me with a lifetime of wonderful memories that I get to share with my children, keeping her memory alive.
Life is so short. Cherish every moment as if it were your last.
Cinder’s Rising was part of the Seduction at Midnight Anthology. Below are the other titles that were included in the box-set:
Beautiful Dreamer by Lacey Thorn
Rescuing Red by Susan Hayes
Wonderland by Catalina Harper
Stardust by Kali Argent
Goldie by Erika Reed
Beauty by Laurie Roma
Chapter One
The drugs scattered around the floor were not an unusual scene for Cinder Franco. The sight of the garbage that covered the rundown apartment she called home, of the scent of sweat, stale cigarettes, and the sight of passed-out junkies, was what she’d become used to. This had been her life since she could remember it, since she’d been born into a world where nothing mattered but getting another fix, of whoring out bodies because that was how dinner would get on the table. She grabbed the bag she’d packed two nights ago, stared at the scene in front of her again, and knew that leaving them like this was the only way she would survive.
At twenty-three, she should have had a college education, a job, maybe even someone that loved her. As it was she’d the cigarette burn marks on her thigh to show that the only kind of love she’d gotten while growing up was the twisted kind. Her mother was on the ratty, stained and scarred couch with a man—whom she’d only known for the past day—draped over her.
Cinder’s older brother was on the floor with a coke-residue-covered mirror beside him. And her stepfather’s remains sat on the mantle, his cheap urn the product of what their family could afford at the time. But even then she felt no sympathy for the man who had tormented her as a child, and the only one she’d ever known as her father. He had called her horrendous names while she grew up, hated everything about her because Cinder was the product of her mother cheating on him.
She had nothing else keeping her here, holding her to this cesspool of degradation and filth. Maybe leaving sooner was what she should have done, should have been her goal, but a part of her loved her mother and brother. They were all she had in this shitty world, all she’d ever known. So, she finally had the strength to move on, to leave them behind her as they lay there passed out from drinking and doing drugs. They wouldn’t know where she went, wouldn’t miss her presence.
She’d been nothing but their mule, their slave to help them when the trip went wrong, and when they had no one else to turn to. She would no longer work for them, to help support their habit and be an enabler. If that meant they’d die in their own filth, then Cinder had to move on and leave them behind. Only the ones who wanted to be saved could be, and her mom and brother didn’t want that for themselves.
Turning away was one of the easiest things she’d ever done. She had a bus ticket, and the only material possessions that meant anything to her were packed in her ratty backpack. This was the first day of the rest of her life, or that is what she told herself as she moved out of the crack house and away from the only things she’d ever known.
Half an hour later, she was at the bus station, her future not looking so grim any longer, and the prospect of what she could do with her life shining brighter than it ever had. Sitting on the bench and lifting her legs up, she stared around at the other people waiting to get on the bus. She wrapped her arms around her knees when a gust of wind whipped by her. The scent of oil and dirt in the air was thick. Cinder stood and fished out a few quarters from her backpack, grabbed her bag and walked over to the vending machine. Once she had a cheap granola bar, she headed back over to the bench and people watched, because if she didn’t find something to occupy her mind, she’d go crazy worrying about what her next step would be.
Chicago was only a few hours away, and although she could have gone someplace less populated, she figured her best option for finding a job and starting over would be there. Grabbing the paper she’d got when she arrived at the station, she opened it up to the classifieds. A lot of the positions open were ones where experience or a degree was needed, and aside from her high school diploma and her experience flipping burgers and cleaning motel rooms, she was not qualified for any of them. But then she saw one particular ad for a housecleaner.
The ad was pretty basic, not giving many specifics aside from the address of where to go and a number, and that it