by K. Anderson
Thankfully, his heart seemed to be healing now. When she first left, tossing her red hair to the side, the pain had almost killed him. He had vowed to never love a woman again. He turned back to the website. None of the women on the first page caught his eye. Most of them looked like tarts with too much make up on.
Why was he doing this, Jack asked himself with annoyance? It had been his sister Helen’s idea. He had told her everything about Clarissa and her advice had been to look for someone else as quickly as possible. The longer he lingered, the more the pain remained. The online mail order bridal agency had been her grand idea and thinking about it, Jack thought it made perfect sense.
It would be like a business deal. He would tell her what he wanted and she in turn would tell him her expectations. If they agreed, then they could move to the next step. Perfect. No romantic nonsense and any of that love business. He had no intention of laying his heart out to be hurt again. This time he would be in charge.
He pressed a key for the next page and it was at the bottom that he saw a picture which blew him away. Her name was Leila Wakefield and she had smoking grey eyes framed by bushes of eyelashes. He felt a stirring in his loins, which he dismissed as having not being with a woman for a long time.
He liked her pouty lips and oval face devoid of make-up except for a little lipstick. She had shoulder length blond hair, which fell to the sides of her face. Unfortunately, the picture went up to her waist and he could only imagine the rest of her. She was as different to Clarissa as any woman and he thought that might be what drew him to her.
His ex-girlfriend had a huge bosom, which he later came to learn was as a result of the surgeon’s knife and she was short with fiery red hair. His one condition of his future wife was that she would not be a red head. Jack now believed the stereotype that they had fiery personalities to be true.
He read her hobbies. She liked horse riding and reading. With a dismissive click, Jack pressed “message me.”
Dear Leila,
My name is Jack Farley and I live in Lainey in Texas. I rear horses and train horses for sale. I see that one of your hobbies is riding horses. You’d like it here then. My ranch is in Lainley, just west of Odessa in Texas. If you’re interested, email me and we can take it from there. I’m looking for a committed woman to settle down with and have children with.
Sincerely,
Jack
He read over the message and satisfied he pressed “send’. The message made no promises of romance just a business deal between two people who could help each other. He closed the website, deciding he had spent too much time on it. If this Leila did not work out, he would give up on finding a wife through the agency.
Jack found the ranch’s interactive website and logged in. It made it so much easier to check on the status of the ranch with a click. The fifty rooms were eighty percent occupied and he felt happy with that. Not that he needed the money, but Jack believed in being a success in everything that he did.
The bulk of his money was from the family. His family, several generations and counting had been the first to explore oil in Texas. Their wealth had spread to the banking industry, health and it was as though the Texan economy was dependent on the Farley’s. Jack’s own pet project was Ranch J, his pride and joy.
He enjoyed working with horses and over the years his ranch had built a reputation as the place to buy the finest horses. The restaurant and the rooms had come by purely as an accident. Numerous people visiting the ranch had asked about sleeping quarters and that’s how the expansion had come about. Now Ranch J consisted of fifty ensuite king sized rooms and a restaurant that could rival any five start establishment.
Jack though concentrated more on the horse rearing side of the business and left professionals to run the hotel. Satisfied with the figures from the ranch guesthouse records, Jack switched off his lap top, stretched and left the house headed for the kitchen. He poured himself a cup of coffee and carried it to the deck, off the living room.
The deck was the least furnished part of the house. It contained a simple round table with four chairs. From where he sat, he could see the stretch of a thousand or so miles that was the ranch property. Jack’s house stood atop a hill, from where the view of the sunrise was stunning. Orange light flooded the valley below, as though someone had lit an orange torch and shone it directly over the land below.
His thoughts turned to Clarissa as they inevitably did when he saw beauty, such as the sunrise. One thing that was in no doubt was that Clarissa had been a beauty and she had known it too. She had flaunted it, wearing short shorts that barely covered her pubes and strolled around the horse stalls with no thought to the men whose mouths she left drawling.
Jack had tried to speak to her about her public displays but she had laughingly teased him about being jealous. He was a possessive man and preferred his business to remain his. If a woman was his, he didn’t mind if she walked in the nude around the house, but once in the view of other people, he liked his women to dress decently.
He could have lived with Clarissa’s indecency when it came to dressing, as a matter of fact he had been forced too. Like most arguments they had, she had won and had continued prancing around the ranch half clad. He had gritted his teeth every time he saw her and she, the tease that she was, exaggerated the sway of her walk and bent over unnecessarily in front of his employees.
That was not her only vice. Clarissa spent money like it grew on trees. Whenever she went off to town, Jack spent the day with water in his belly. Then come afternoon, the packages would start to arrive, adorned with designer logos. He had tried to explain to her the economics of wealth. The only way to keep your wealth and preserve it for the next generation was to use it prudently.
His advice had gone in through one ear and out the other and she had continued to spend it like it was her last day on earth. Another thing that grated his nerves was Clarissa’s attitude towards his parents. Their house was on the other side of town and Jack had managed to keep Clarissa away from them. She would pout whenever he went for dinner at his folks’ alone.
How could he explain to her that while her sexiness appealed to him, it would not work with his parents? They were conservative and just nice people. Had she been a more reasonable person, she would have learnt to dress decently when it was required. As it was Clarissa was stubborn and she flat out refused to dress down when the occasion called for it. Clarissa had gone up there on her own, wearing one of her short shorts and spaghetti tops, three quarter of her tits hanging out.
As his sister Helen had laughingly told him later, their mother’s jaw had to be picked from the ground after Carissa left. What had gotten to him was her quick dismissal of his parents as boring old farts. That and her attitude towards money had left a bitter taste in her mouth. Helen had told him in no uncertain terms that Clarissa was a gold digger.
The last straw had been Carissa’s announcement that she had no intention of having children. Jack’s heart had turned to ice. A family was important to him. He had told her so in a cold voice, which she had dismissed with a wave. Children interfered with your fun, besides what was the point? Why spoil your life? She had said this while sidling up to him and giving him her sexiest smile. It did not work. He shrugged her off. Children were the one thing that he was unwilling to comprise on.
His parents had kept their counsel to themselves but he had seen the look they exchanged when he told them that Clarissa was gone for good. He had laid down the law. No more spending money. Defiant, she had stormed off to their bedroom, packed all her things and left without a backward glance or thought.
Being a proud man, Jack never called her or tried to get her back. She did not contact him either. Sometimes he could almost imagine that he had dreamt her up. The silence between them continued and he worked at healing his wounded heart and pride. Helen had come to his rescue with the mail order bride idea.
Chapter Three
The wording of the email was cold; almost as if it
were a business correspondence. Leila frowned. Her eyes moved to his profile picture. He was ruggedly handsome and she liked his sky blue eyes and the hint of a smile on his lips. His chest was wide and he wore a white casual shirt with the top button undone.
To Leila’s shame, she felt her body react at the sight of Jack Farley. She smiled to herself and decided to answer his email. She would be just as business-like as he was, though she would have liked some hint of romance.
Dear Jack,
Thank you for your email. I must say that this is my first time to look for a partner online and after seeing your profile, I think it was the right thing to do.
I too seek a permanent relationship and someone committed to marriage and family. I must tell you from the beginning that I too love children and I hope to have some in the near future. If you’re not sure about children, please let me know, as this is something that’s very important to me.
Other than that, I consider myself a pretty simple person. I admire that you live on a ranch, I did too, before I had to sell it to pay off my late husband’s debts. I was married for only two years.
Let me stop there and hope to hear from you.
Sincerely Leila
Her fingers trembled slightly as she sent the email. Leila hoped that she hadn’t blubbered on too much but she needed to let him know from the start that she intended to have children. People told each other when they were dating that they liked children only to turn around once married and say they did not want kids. Leila knew it personally from her experience with Horace.
Leila logged off and contemplated the rest of her day. It was seven in the morning; she had cleaned up the house, showered and dressed. This was what she detested about living in a condo. There was not much to do with oneself. She resisted the temptation to check if he had replied to her email.
Feeling restless, Leila decided to go to the animal shelter where she volunteered her services earlier than usual. Leila hated to be idle and being near and working with horses was a hundred times better than staying home. She wore fitting jeans and the center’s official blue and grey t-shirt, and at the door, she slipped on a pair of sneakers.
Rather than use the elevator, Leila opted for the stairs, taking two at a time. Once downstairs, she headed for the parking lot and slid into her two-seater. The California sun was already out; warm at this time of morning, but in a few hours’ time, Leila knew that it would be unbearably hot. That was the one thing she would miss about California and her friends, though most of them were had dispersed to different parts of the country.
As she drove, her mind strayed to Jack and her instant attraction to him. She hoped that he would respond to her email. Something drew her to him and while the obvious answer was lust, Leila couldn’t believe that her sole attraction to a man could be his looks. He was very different from Horace.
Jack’s face possessed a kind of animal magnetism and the way he held his broad shoulders promised of a skillful lover. Inexperienced as she was, Leila knew that Horace was not much between the sheets. He had been a selfish lover, only interested in satisfying his own needs and as soon as he was done, his style was to roll off her body and fall into a stupor accompanied by unattractive snoring.
The number of nights she had lain next to him in frustration was countless. Leila had taken to creeping to the bathroom to satisfy her body craving for release. It was shameful for a married woman but Leila had no choice. It was either that, or jump at the first attractive man she saw. She was a passionate woman and had Horace been more of a lover, Leila would have enjoyed their intimate moments more.
The shelter was located about ten miles from her condo, and as she drove through the graveled road, she could smell the sweet scent of hay mixed with manure. Leila parked her car and headed to the office adjacent to the café.
“Morning Maggie,” Leila called out gaily to the middle aged bespectacled lady who manned the reception.
“Hi Leila, you’re in early today but we’re not complaining. Joe will be glad to see you, we’re a little short this morning,” Maggie said briskly.
Leila smiled and signed into the volunteer book. She had worked as a volunteer since she became a widow. It had kept her going on the days when she felt like covering herself in a blanket and retreating from the world of the living.
“Thanks Maggie, see you later,” Leila said with a wave.
She headed straight for the stalls where she knew the horses waited to be brushed down and the stalls mucked out. The two years she had spent at the center meant that she qualified for level four duties which included training new riders, but Leila preferred to work at the basics. Minutes later, she had joined two other volunteers, a young man and a girl, mucking out the stalls.
With only short breaks for tea and lunch, the afternoon found Leila taking out the horses to different pastures where they spend the rest of the day. She laughed gaily when a filly ran straight past her, determined to find his way out to the fields only to find the gate from the barn padlocked.
By the time she got home at seven in the evening, Leila was bone tired. She liked it that way because she had less time to worry about her advancing age and lack of a suitable marriage partner. There was hope now and she quickly jumped into the shower. As the hot drops pounded her body, she visualized Jack and his wide shoulders and she felt her body shudder.
It was strangely erotic to think of a stranger this way, his arms roaming over her body and Leila found herself groaning in the shower. She laughed at herself and got off the shower. Her laptop was on the dining table and after dressing; she turned it on, her heart pounding in anticipation. There was a message from Jack and she read it greedily, taking in the contents with surprise.
Dear Leila,
What a pleasure to hear from you. I’m not a man to waste time once I find what I’m looking for and in this case it is you. You’re very beautiful and you sound like the perfect woman for me. I would like to invite you to Texas to spend a few weeks with me. We can get to know each other better that way and know whether we have a future together.
Please don’t feel worried or frightened, I assure you that I’m a gentleman and have no intention of causing you harm in any way. Let me know and I’ll make arrangements.
Sincerely,
Jack
Leila didn’t know what to make of the haste with which the invitation had come. She thought that the process involved getting to know each other better via email but it seemed that Jack thought otherwise. She had to admit that his confidence excited her and aroused her curiosity as to the kind of man he was.
Before she changed her mind, she wrote off an email right away and told him she would be happy to go to Texas. He wrote back twenty minutes later with details of a flight in three days’ time. She got a little irritated at that. The polite thing would have been to ask her when she preferred to leave but it seemed that Jack did not adhere to common social graces.
Chapter Four
Leila was disappointed to say the least that Jack did not take the time to meet her at the airport. In his place was a man with graying hair who introduced himself as Tom, the driver. He carried her bag to a nice looking car and opened the door for her. She sank into the car, grateful to be shaded from the Texan summer heat.
The pink sundress she had chosen for the trip already clung to her body and she craved for a cold shower. She gazed outside as they left the airport and liked what she saw of Texas. Plains stretched for miles and she noticed that most properties were ranches. Animals dotted the plains from long horned cows to specks of white sheep.
Thirty minutes later, they came off the highway and she saw the sign Ranch J, curved into a tree at the junction. What she saw took her breath away. Jack had mentioned a ranch but at the end of the road was a hotel with all the trimmings of a large hotel. People milled at the entrance and she could make out tables set along the balcony of an expansive building.
Before they got there, the car branched off to the left and she saw th
e ranch then. The barns were modern structures of steel, with most been outdoors and she could see the horses happily munching on their feeds. The car followed a paved road that seemed to go uphill. When the main residence came into view, Leila inhaled deeply.
She had been into some of the most beautiful houses in California but this one topped them all. Nestled atop a hill, it glistened in the afternoon sunlight almost as though it were part of nature. It made her even curious to meet the man who owned all these yet had to go to a bridal agency to get a wife. Leila would have thought he would have hundreds of women lined up to marry him.
The car came to a halt and Tom hurried to her side to open the door. She stepped out and closed her eyes for a moment to savor the breeze blowing across the hill.
“Ranch J has that effect on visitors,” a deep voice drawled near her.
Leila’s eyes popped open and fell on the most gorgeous man she had ever laid eyes on. His eyes were not quite sky blue as she had thought from the picture, instead they had hints of green in them. She scanned him unashamedly, her eyes running over his chiseled arms and heavily muscled chest.
“Do you like what you see?” he asked, his voice laced with amusement.
Leila blushed and struck out her hand. When his large one enclosed hers, her legs turned to jelly at the electricity that she felt with the contact. From the way his eyes flamed, she imagined that he felt it too.
“I’m Jack Foley and welcome to Ranch J. I’m sorry I wasn’t at the airport to meet you.”
He left it at that and the lack of an excuse irritated Leila. Still, with a body like that, she was willing to forgive him anything. He took her bag from Tom and carried it effortlessly towards the house. She followed closely behind, admiring the view his posterior gave. His wide shoulders narrowed into slim hips and she could see from his stride that he was a man used to working outdoors.
