He leaned up to her, during it all, and whispered that he loved her. She sped up, and placed her head by his, confessing her love to him as well, finishing at the same time, shivering in pleasure.
Afterwards, they talked about their lives and how much had changed in the two years.
“I cannot believe I found you,” he said as he kissed her hand, a romantic motion he always took during their talks.
“A true act of fate,” she said, confidently. She realized, in this moment, it was the true bravery and fearlessness, a conditioned hope from a young age, that her brother had taught, her that had led her down this path.
“I wish I would’ve been able to meet Frances,” James said, as if reading his wife’s thoughts. She nodded, wanting nothing more herself.
He started again, “but I really feel like I feel him here, alive in this house, and alive in you.” She nodded, leaned back, and pulled him down to her, placing her head on his chest. Together, they watched the night sky move, stars pop and flutter across the black abyss, holding onto nothing but one another and all the potential that their futures contained.
Conclusion
Years later, they would come back with their three sons and sit in this same field, picnicking and making the annual trip to her parents’ home. Her sisters were both married now, with children of their own, and together the cousins played in the open fields, baked with their mothers and aunts, and listed to stories from their grandfather, fathers and uncles.
Elizabeth sat on the family porch, holding James’ hand, and watching this, her three sons, embracing a life that she had, not too long ago, had left, and having been born in a life that she had come to on the wings of fate and chance. And here her life was before her, a visual image, a husband she loved dearly, and her three sons, the eldest named after her best friend, hero and devoted brother.
Mail Order Christmas
A Western Mail Order Bride Romance
This deliciously dirty story is a part of Susan Fleming’s super-charged, highly lewd collection of love and lust, written in 2015. Those who attempt to steal any part of this goldmine and take it as their own risk being a fiery, hot death from a hunk bearing copyright notices—and she’s not about to play with you.
This is a work of fiction—although we wish that people like this really existed, it’s nothing more than a figment of a very, very overactive imagination. Any resemblance to someone you know, a place you love or anything you hold dear to your heart is nothing more than a craving in your heart that these carnal desires and actions were true!
It goes without saying that this book oozes with erotic sex appeal, and is filled to the rafters with a smorgasbord of acts that you certainly wouldn’t tell your grandmother about. Bodice-ripping, panty-dropping and glasses-steaming, the scenes contained herein are wickedly naughty!
Although all the saucy characters are flirting with forbidden desires and sometimes taking the naughty fruit they really shouldn’t be, all are consenting adults over the age of 18 and not blood-related. What they are is passionate and eager to explore their carnal desires all day long.
In short, this book is going to get you very, very hot!
© Susan Fleming
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any many whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination. Please note that this work is intended only for adults age 18 and over. All characters represented are age 18 or over.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Mistaken Letters
Chapter 2: Traveling Far From Home
Chapter 3: Holidays Are Exciting
Chapter 4: Wedding Bells and No Regrets
Chapter 5: Getting Married
Chapter 6: Revenge
Chapter 7: Kidnapped
Chapter 1
The Mistaken Letters
Misty Sue Allen was having a great day. She had two letters delivered in the same day. That was almost unheard of where she was from. Sitting down in her small room, she hurriedly opened them both scanning through them.
At first, she was torn, they were both written for different reasons. She had gotten a job offer at the same time as getting a letter for being a mail order bride.
Comparing the letters, she thought the handwriting looked similar and compared the notes. First looking at the handwriting and then the signatures. Realizing they have come from the same person had her flabbergasted while she tried to figure it out. She wondered if he knew he sent them to the same person, or if it had been an accident.
It was from the same man and he did not seem to realize he had sent them to the same woman. Jonas Elderwood. He described himself as being tall with sandy blond hair and blue eyes. His family was part German, part Swedish and were original settlers here two generations ago. Misty was a little impressed he knew his lineage and could talk about it like that. He was a rich rancher who had struck oil and gold and then bought a ranch down in California. He described a life that she had only dreamed off in her richest of fantasies. His station in life was higher than hers, by far. She wondered why she'd offer for her, as a mail order bride, but she wasn't going to overthink it, this was the best she was probably going to get and if it worked out like she hoped, it could change her world and give her a life she's only ever dreamed of.
She was born and raised on a small ranch in the North Dakota. Her father had raised her and her sisters, since the passing of their mother. Once she had reached the age of maturity, she had assumed the responsibilities of motherhood, since no one else was here to do it. She had been groomed since she was a child to be a wife and a mother.
Now that she was of an age to be married, her father was looking for a husband. Misty had taken matters into her own hands, hoping she could find a husband for herself. It’s not that she didn’t trust her father’s ability to find her one, but the pickings were slim in the far north. She didn't want to raise children here, and she did want children.
Having seen families die from the harshness of the cold and snow during the winters, or starve because they weren't able to preserve enough food, she knew it wasn't where she wanted to stay.
The winters were cold and harsh and many people did not survive the year. Her father could not afford to take care of her and her six sisters anymore. There were just too many mouths to feed and he couldn’t provide for them all. Their cows last year had not survived the start of winter, and they would not have enough meat or food available this year since they had so few babies in the spring. With no cows to sell to others for food either, they had no money for flour or salt.
She knew her father was arranging marriages for her sister's when they were old enough but for right now, she was the eldest and it was up to her to help, the others were not ready to be married quite yet. Hopefully her father would understand and appreciate what she was doing. The man he'd found for her was not one she wanted, and so she had to take matters into her own hands. The man her father had found for her was too old, and lived down the road. Since she had no intention of staying in North Dakota, he wasn't a good choice.
Jonas’ wife had died after the birth of his last child according to the letter he sent when seeking a nanny. She wondered again if he knew he had sent them to the same person. The letters contained different information on his life and what he was looking for. The letters were written as if to be delivered to two different people. It was somewhat ironic when she thought about it.
The man looking for a wife was also looking for a nanny for his children. She could provide either or both roles, and she wondered if she should write him back as his bride to be, or as the potential nanny. She really wanted a husband and children, so that her life would be fulfilled. The letter he had written to his mail order bride had
left no mention of his children. Wondering what was wrong with his children, she contemplated if she should go to this man or keep looking.
On paper, both roles sounded almost too good to be true. There had to be a catch, perhaps it was the children. Maybe they were too much for some people to handle and he didn’t want to scare his bride to be, with mention of his demon spawn.
She decided that she would respond to him as his mail order bride. If the children were too much to handle, she would have an out as his wife, they could still hire a nanny. Penning a short response to his letter she would send it by telegram the next time she was in town.
A few days had gone by when she got her response from Jonas. He was glad she had written and he was eager to meet her. He wrote of the travel she would have to do, and that he would cover the cost of her trip. Which was a good thing, since her father had very little money to spend on it. If she was going to pack up and go out there, she needed to start soon. She didn’t have much, besides her hand-me-down clothes and her few personal possessions. Misty Sue was only nineteen, young and beautiful. She was smart, and knew her role in her life.
She felt bad for her sisters, who were being foisted off on the first men who would take them as wives, just to keep them fed and clothed. She had done things for herself, pawning a few of the things she had in order to put an ad in a paper as a mail order bride, and another looking for a job. It wasn’t the only things that she capable of doing, but it is what she wanted most. She loved children, and had enjoyed raising her sisters.
Helping care take for her younger siblings had made her capable of watching children. Her father had taught her how to read and write and do math. He'd needed help with the financial books and had expected his oldest to help.
As she grew, she'd taught the younger girls the same skills, realizing they'd need them in order to do more in life besides just have babies. It made it so she could teach the basics to young children if she got hired as a nanny or to her own if she had any. She knew she'd been lucky her father didn't think women should be seen and not heard. Her father valued intelligence, and had allowed his daughters freedoms many other fathers might not have. She'd miss him. She loved her father dearly, and she would miss him.
She did not really want to be a nanny. That job could have an expiration date, where-as being a wife generally was a safer bet. With both letters from Jonas, stuck them in her bag. Humming to herself as she packed her bags. As soon as she got a response from Jonas containing the travel arrangements, she would start heading out there.
“Misty?” A knock on her small bedroom door startled her. She was the only sister to not have to share a bedroom and she knew when she left, the next oldest would get her room if she wanted it. When you had as many sisters as she did, you didn't always get your own space.
“Yes, what is it?” She said as she opened the door. Two of her younger sisters came in and looked at her. At fourteen and sixteen, she knew the older of the two was almost to an age where their father would try to marry her off soon, too. She wished the girls had more time to grow up and have a life of their own.
Out here, in the bitter weather, she knew that best chance of survival was not taking any additional resources from them and hoping that they found suitable matches with husbands who could provide for them. It was rough being a female in this era; you had to rely on men for everything.
Misty did not like it, but that is the way it worked. She hoped that if she did get married, her husband would let her have some freedom to make decisions and choices in her life. That is the one thing she hated the most about being a woman. They had to rely on the whims of man, and hope he felt good natured towards his wife or daughters for them to ever have anything. She despised living her life without getting a say about anything. While her father tried hard to raise them, he was pretty stuck in his ways about being right most of the time. The girls had to go with whatever decision that he made, whether they liked it or not. Their father didn't usually make impulsive decisions, or selfish decisions, but he was unbending once he made a decision.
“Do you really plan on going through with this?” Tessa asked her and her big blue eyes looked concerned. She didn’t comprehend all that this choice entailed, she was more concerned with her sister leaving them to go so far away. Her other sister just stood there staring at her, looking like she was going to cry. It made Misty feel bad and she needed to reassure both of them.
“I’ll be fine Tessa; this is what’s best for everyone else. I'll send money when I can to help with food for the winter. Have faith, okay?” Misty told her, trying to make her feel better. Giving her sister a hug, she realized that the longer she stayed here, the more her family would worry. She just needed to move out, get her feet under her, and be able to write home telling them everything was working out. It was the best way for her to live her life, and let them know she had made a good choice. If it worked well for her, perhaps her father would consider doing the same for her younger siblings.
Even better if she could send some money back home to help her poor father out so he didn’t have to marry off all her sisters. There were a few who probably wouldn’t do well with just any old husband. While Misty could probably adapt and do okay with any generic man who was a decent person, she knew her sisters were not all like her. They were softer of heart, and would need to be handled gently. Some of them would need the right husband to end up happy long term.
Not to mention the youngest of the girls was a total hot head, and with a harsh, mean husband it would break her spirit. She was a tough girl, but inside she had a heart of gold. She had a few years to go before they had to worry about her being of marriageable age, but Misty still worried about her.
Misty just wanted to survive. It wasn’t the highest of aspirations in life, but when it came to starving to death, it was the better alternative. She could make do with very little from a husband. It would be nice to find a man that loved her and treated her well, but it wasn’t the most important part of this arrangement. Most importantly she needed a roof and food from the man she was going to marry. It wasn’t a very romantic dream, but it is what she needed at this moment.
She could worry about the rest later.
Chapter 2
Traveling Far From Home
Misty traveled on a combination of stagecoaches and trains to get across the land to the ranch where she was headed. She would stop every few hundred miles in a big city to leave a telegram for Jonas and tell him of her progress. She did not have time to wait for a reply, but she was hoping he got the notes to tell him she would be arriving. She was scared, and elated at the same time. She knew that this was supposed to be some grand adventure, and she was already tired of traveling after just a few days. She wasn't sleeping well on the trains, or coaches and she was worried something bad would happen to her.
Being a female traveling alone was a very risky thing for her to do but she hadn't been able to afford a travel companion and the money Jonas had sent needed to go to her father. Once her father had seen the money she'd put into his hand before she left, he'd stopped telling her he didn't think it was a good idea. He swallowed his pride and accepted what she'd given him for their family. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to get them through half the winter if he was careful with it. If she could send just a little more, she could at least get him through the winter.
Misty stepped out of the telegram office and was headed back to the train station. As she walked she was looked in all the windows of the shops. The bigger cities she passed through had more people and shops to look at it.
It broke up to monotony of traveling, but she had never seen such shops before in her life. She marveled at some of the things in the windows. Wondering what a few things were for, since she had never seen them. She had passed a few bakeries and other shops selling food stuffs. They left her feeling hungry and a bit depressed that she did not have the money to try any of the things she saw.
A bit dejected, she hung her head whil
e heading the rest of the way back to the train to ride it to the next stop. She had seen a beautiful dress, but knowing that she'd never afford such finery, she just window shopped and looked at it. Maybe her husband to be would indulge her since Christmas was coming and he'd get her a new dress.
After sending her last telegram, she was happy that she was nearing the end of her journey. She was walking and not really paying attention to the people around her. If she had been, she might have noticed the foul smelling man following her. He had been trailing her since she had left the telegram office. He was a grimy looking man, as if he hadn’t had a bath in years. You could smell him from fifteen feet away and it was strong enough to knock out an ox.
A glint flashed in his eyes as he spotted the empty alleyway Misty was about to cross in front of. He had been following her long enough to know she was alone. A young woman traveling alone was an easy target for a man like him. He quickened his step to intercept her as she started crossing the alley.
ROMANCE: Badass Boss (Billionaire Alpha Bad Boy Romance) (Western Mail Order Bride Calendar Contemporary) Page 18