Honest question, why do so many people like Charlotte so much? She is a cold fish, an ice queen. I don't see the appeal. She's attractive, but that isn't enough to counteract her personality. Sure, she is thawing out at a snail's pace, but I don't think she's worth the interminable wait.
Let's just say that she eventially warms up to the MC. Based on her personality, the first time she disagrees with anything he does, she will turn on the freeze again. See what happened when the MC saved her daughter.
Plus, she is no fun. End of story.
Any of the other LIs are much better, in my opinion.
Her coldness and detachment build as a protective reaction due to resentment and betrayal (she was left alone with two children), fear (she fears that something bad may happen to her family), PTSD (she was raped and beaten), and plus to it, she suffers from panic attacks.
To me, women like Charlotte are like the defenseless Rose in Antuan de Sent-Exupery's "The little prince" - in a time when they were young, naive, sweet and touching, until they encountered any problems in relationships with men. These problems were not solved, frustration and misunderstanding only accumulated until it resulted in separation and loss of a partner. The unspoken contract between a man and a woman for such women is terminated - Rose asked to close her with a cap, water her every morning and every evening, and in return she gave the Prince her beauty, smell and feeling of love. The transformation of such women into ice queens is not accidental - when a woman urgently needed support, protection, empathy, attention and love, she not only did not receive it, but also experienced pain and suffering from her boyfriend/husband. A woman closes herself, tries to protect herself from the outside world, building up a shell or building an ice castle, because she has only 4 thorns:
«You know...my flower...I'm responsible for her. And she's so weak! And so naive. She has four ridiculous thorns to defend her against the world...»
No matter how long a woman imagines herself to be independent and strong, she still wants love, warmth and the opportunity to shift all life problems to her man. Believe me, sooner or later every woman will want it, but she won’t admit it to you. There’s another question, a different one - who will she allow to see herself so vulnerable, weak and defenseless? Only to whom she completely trusts and loves.
As soon as she feels trust and love, they melt and warm her cold heart, and such woman will become different – back to the same girl she was before or maybe a bit different. She will be very generous in love, but will also be insatiable and will try to get what she has deprived herself of all the years of managing her ice castle.
The MC will take Charlotte to heaven, give her a world of pleasure, passion and love, and after a long sex session,
he’ll lick her, coaxing a few more multiple orgasms, until she really gets too swollen and painful to continue. She lays on the pillow gasping and panting with her chest, face and neck bright red. Through a slit of loosely drawn curtains the light of an early summer morning illuminates their sweaty pressed to each other bodies, his mouth still on her nipple, tongue running in lazy circles, his fingers gently, almost teasingly, touches her cleavage, descends lower to her stomach, circling in simple patterns, and then ascends upward to her tangled strands of hair that have fallen on her face, removes them, and kisses her slightly swollen lips from endless kisses...
I hope you change your mind about Charlie and give her some love.
P.S.: the MC really needs to start getting in shape - the sex marathon is coming!