A Fall From Grace. Mail Order Bride Western

by Brittany Dreams

  “So I have actually acted out the second of two fantasies of my own,” he huskily. “I want you to think about what you want to happen next.”

  “I have a whole list of things I want to happen next,” she said flirtatiously.

  “Then send me that list,” he replied.

  Today had been the first time where Dana could really see Jeff as the boss and not some average Joe that she had been trysting with. He did a double take above the door.

  “We’re on camera,” he remarked.

  “That’s on the list,” she replied without missing a beat.

  He wagged his head, knocked off kilter by her remark.

  “Okay I gotta go or I am going to have sex with you right here in the lobby,” he laughed.

  “That’s also on the list,’’ she said coolly.

  He kissed her softly, quickly.

  “I can’t wait,” he whispered.

  Chapter Seven

  Dana’s boss did mind that she was late in getting back. The one time that she actually came back late, happen to be the one time her boss emerged from her office and needed something.

  Fortunately her reputation was so good that she escaped with a lecture. Cheryl covered her. As she sat at her desk, Dana realized that she was allowing this affair she was having with her billionaire bad boy to affect her livelihood.

  It would be some time before she follow through with that task of sending Jeff that detailed list of her fantasies. Not just because she got into trouble but because her experience with Jeff was so rich and present with her that she was unable to. It was like trying to think of what she wanted to eat when she was stuffed with an amazing dinner.

  She literally could not eat. She gave her lunch to Cheryl though she should be starved. She ate a light breakfast, skipped lunch and burned up a lot of calories. She just wasn’t hungry. Something had changed for her. She just wasn’t sure what.

  It was like Cheryl said, that sometimes things turned. Dana had just gone on another wild emotional ride with Jeff. Maybe it was time for her to put the brakes on. At least she was hungry again.

  Cheryl made her share the details and occasionally as Dana was recounting the details of their passionate exchanges, Dana felt her desire for Jeff bubble up a little. But she was way too satisfied, she really didn’t feel like seeing him soon.

  The thing about cooling it on the texts to Jeff was that he had done the same. For the remainder of the week, she had not heard from him. Dana relied on the fact that they had an agreement that they would communicate with one another if their interest had changed.

  It was Jeff’s idea to have that agreement so she believed he would honor that. But their encounters went from hot and heavy to cool and the longer she went without hearing from him, Dana wondered if the promise Jeff made her make wasn’t just something he said. She officially began to mope.

  The flowers that he sent her refused to wilt. They stayed fresh forever both at home and at work and they were becoming an annoying reminder to her. She tossed both vases in the trash can.

  Once she was home, she wasted the better part of the evening searching him on the internet. She searched him in the news for fresh stories. She wondered too if the photographer who had hid camera broken, had been able to publish any of the pictures he took of them.

  Jeff’s name and picture cropped up at a new charity event, not a sporting event but a gala and he had a date. Dana burned with jealous. She sat up straight on the couch, stiffened with reaction.

  She started searching Jeff’s date’s name. The woman was a high powered executive, maybe not in the financial league as Jeff was but she was a player. Dana was just an assistant.

  She told herself that she was the kind of woman that a person like Jeff would only sleep with on the fly. Like on the first day of meeting, as she had with him. She told herself she had wanted him to take her ‘around the world’ as she called it, but now she realized she could not separate her feelings from the sex they had.

  As Dana studied Jeff’s date to this charity event, Dana decided the date was the kind of woman that Jeff would fall in love with and it hurt. She didn’t think she had any business of being jealous or hurt, but she was.

  Dana started doing math. Jeff wasn’t calling, he said he went on plenty of online dates and he knew how to work it when it came to seducing her. Well if Jeff had other women, he could live without Dana. Dana went on the dating website to take remove her profile.

  At work she very seriously broke it to Cheryl that Dana was going to tell Jeff that she was through with hi. That it was over between Jeff and her, that their getting together was something she actually regretted. In perfect timing, office services delivered a package to her.

  “Apparently he doesn’t know,” Cheryl said dryly.

  A package from Jeff didn’t change things. It was sent to her from overseas.

  “He’s in Taiwan,” said Cheryl. “He is a business tycoon. He does occasionally have to do some kind of business besides monkey business. Could be why you haven’t heard from him.”

  Dana didn’t soften, even when she opened up the box and saw an intensely beautiful traditional Chinese dress.

  “Lovely,” said Cheryl. “If you aren’t keeping it, I want dibs. I figure if I starve myself now I can wear it by my birthday.”

  Dana read the card.

  “Can’t wait to see you in this, at dinner. Let’s actually eat this time,” he wrote.

  “I am going to send it back,” Dana announced.

  “Why?” Cheryl demanded.

  “Because this is a concubine’s dress,” Dana said. “That what he thinks of me as.”

  “Well you kind of gave him that impression when you told him that’s what you were looking for,” said Cheryl. “Was he supposed to magically know that when an adult says something she really doesn’t mean it?”

  “I don’t know Cheryl,” Dana declared. “I don’t know if I meant it or not. I know he can’t just not call me.”

  “Sounds like you need to figure out that double standard thing,” her friend said to her.

  Dana went back to her desk and decided once and for all, she would send Jeff a text that she was through with him and that she would mail the dress to his house. She put the dress in her closet behind her desk.

  Somewhere in the late afternoon, her cell phone started buzzing off the hook. A backlog of messages started coming through and she got an endless stream of notifications, all from Jeff. He had been texting her all along. The messages had somehow gotten stuck.

  She read them, one by one, and quickly learned that he had been called away suddenly on business. There was a major issue with the internet and cell phone service where they were.

  After she had read and re-read the messages, it was clear to her Jeff Edgarian has the hots for her as badly as she had them for her. Dana felt sick to her stomach that she had allowed fear to make her act so impulsively.

  She hoped like hell she hadn’t ruined everything. She grabbed the dress and as soon as it was quitting time, she went home and prepared for an intense photo shoot. She had pictures to send to Taiwan.

  Chapter Eight

  Dana stopped off at a mom and pop’s store to pick up a bottle of wine before heading home to her small, now really cute rental. She was about to pour her heart and soul into the erotic pictures she was going to send to Jeff and she wanted the wine to set the mood.

  Once home, she lit candles and scoped out space, creating scenarios for staging. She skipped dinner again and poured herself a glass of wine. She studied the dress he sent her. It was red with more of an orange tint to it. The embroidery and ribbing was true red. She got an idea.

  Dana had quite the underwear collection. She pulled out all the pieces that had red prints. She was going to be sporting more than just the dress in these pics. She also gathered some of her costume jewelry -- crystal beads and pearls and big dangling earrings -- and got busy.

  Her camera had a time so she was able to stage her pictu
res and shoot until she was excited about what she saw. She knew that he would be pleased when he saw the pictures too. That was if the break-up email she had sent him didn’t turn him off forever.

  Dana had no idea if Jeff would get emails in relatively real time or whether like her, he would get a whole stash of pictures all at once. She could only hope that these works of art that she was creating for him would show him that she hadn’t meant what she said. She didn’t want to break up. Dana uploaded them as soon as she took them.

  Her rental house had a beautiful bay window that was the center piece of the very small living room. Dana had taken two days to paint the window until it was show piece. The window had a bed that was large enough for her to curl up in. This would become her stage.

  She set the camera up, set the timer and quickly arranged herself in the window. It was such a glamorous shot. Dana leaned against one wall of the window, extending her torso so that the flatness of her stomach was accentuated. She crossed her legs but balanced them on her high heels so that all her muscles were flexed.

  Her body was smooth and taut and looked sumptuous decked out in the satin of her red floral underwear. In one picture she was painting her toes in the same red as the dress. She liked that picture especially and felt that he would too.

  Next she put on the dress, but removed her underwear so that she had nothing else on. She left most of the garment unbuttoned so that when she sat in the sill of the bay window, the skirt fit tightly around her firm thighs but the bodice of the dress loosely draped.

  The curves of her breast were exposed just so and though Dana was on the thin side, the angles made them appear wondrously full. She liked the pictures so well that she created a folder for them on her computer and kept them for herself as well.

  Luckily there was no hold up in the delivery of her email and Jeff was getting them almost right away. She forgot that she was twelve hours behind him so that while it was about nine at night for her, it was nine in the morning for him.

  “In a meeting right now,” he wrote. “You’re killing me. You’re beautiful.”

  “I just wanted you to see I got my present,” she wrote back.

  “I have another present for you,” he wrote. “I’ll deliver that one in person.”

  So he was talking to her, she thought. Maybe she had not done any damage after all with that impulsive email. She was very glad he liked the shots of her but she was very insecure.

  She realized she only felt secure when he was right there in front of her. The reality of internet dating -- in fact the only reality of it -- was that it all happened so fast. She had feelings for him that should have taken a long time to nurture.

  This was her first experience in all of this. What if Jeff was so jaded that he got past the experience of quick, strong emotions and just took the interaction for what it was? Fun hooks ups?

  “I’ll be home in a few days,” he wrote. “By the time I’m off work and through with the business development dinners, you’re going to be at work. Talk to you soon.”

  She was happy to get a response from him but some part of her was expecting a stronger reaction. Talk to you soon, she read again. Dana was officially lovesick, neither happy if she broke up with him nor at ease if she was in it with him. She was not going to feel better until she saw Jeff again.

  Chapter Nine

  That was the last time that Dana and Jeff communicated until the following weekend. She had came to peace with the fact that she would accept however the relationship resolved. She was even willing to accept she might never see him again.

  Friday night had fallen on her little rental. She decided she would spend it in the dark. She sat in the living room with the lights out, gazing out the bay window, out to the street. She heard the unmistakable sound of someone coming up the walk. She didn’t know a soul in the neighborhood.

  She had no idea who it might be. Jeff was the only person she knew in town besides Cheryl and neither of them knew where she lived.

  “Who is it?” she asked as the person knocked.

  She didn’t want to answer the door.

  “It’s me, Jeff,” said Jeff. “Open up.”

  She was seized suddenly with fear. She didn’t want to have to face him.

  “Uh,” she made a noise.

  “Come on you have to. This stuff is melting all over my hand, I need help,” he said.

  She opened the door and he quickly handed her an ice cream sundae in a cup. He had fibbed.

  “That wouldn’t melt all over your hands,” she said.

  “No but you will I hope. What happened?” he asked, a stern look in his eyes.

  She turned her head.

  “Don’t do that,” he said. “I thought we had a deal.”

  “I freaked out,” she sighed. “I hadn’t heard from you. I saw you in the news with another woman,” she said.

  “What?” he asked with his brows raised.

  “I checked the news. You were in China with another woman. There was some press about a gala.”

  He rolled his eyes.

  “I was in Taiwan with another woman, not China. But on business. We had separate hotels. Did you read the article?” he asked.

  “No,” she said timidly.

  ‘“That picture was a stock photo. It was old. My companies release press all the time when business is hot. That’s all that was. Yes, she does work close with me sometimes during business but we are not a thing. We were kind of involved but we aren’t at all now. I am not interested in her.”

  There wasn’t a hint of the guy with a great sense of humor that she met at the Woodmont Grill.

  “When you dropped me off after lunch I started getting weird feelings,” she said.

  “So you could have talked to me about it,” he said. “Wait before we finish that thought, do you mind if we sit down? Are you going to at some point invite me in?”

  She was reluctant.

  “I am not a rich,” she replied softly.

  “Well that’s a random declaration,” he said sharply. “Is that the real problem here?”

  “I am not in your league,” she said. “I am not the woman you went to China with.”

  “Taiwan,” he corrected. “I was kind of hoping you would be the woman I was having a lot of fun with.”

  “I apologize,” she said. “That actually isn’t the issue. I got into this thing with you because I let myself get hurt in my marriage. I needed attention. I didn’t have a partner. I thought that getting together this way would be the way to avoid getting hurt. In some ways, it’s left me feeling lonelier than when I was married.”

  “Open your mouth,” he said.

  She did. He spooned ice cream into her mouth.

  “You work on that and listen. So back when I asked you what you wanted out of this and you told me, do you remember anything?”

  She thought about it and she took a guess.

  “That you got really hot?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said playfully.

  “You fed me fries,” she answered.

  “All lovely answers,” he said. “Think harder.”

  Dana had no clue.

  “You never asked me what I wanted,” he said seriously.

  She was stunned at his reply. Had she really been so self-centered? He was right. She had never asked him what he was there for.

  She replied, “You said you were experienced at this. I just assumed you were you know.”

  “A playah?” he asked. “If I were that, why would I go to the trouble of telling you about myself so that it wouldn’t get in the way of us? I mean if I was in it just to fuck you would I tell you who I was? I wouldn’t take you to lunch and stuff. ”

  Dana’s head spun.

  “Are you saying I’ve been negligent of you?” she asked.

  He shrugged.

  “Okay I have,” she admitted. “And I haven’t paid attention. I freaked out I am sorry. I am new to this and this has happened fast. I am not rich.”


  “So you keep saying,” he replied. “I’ll make sure not to come to you if I am low on cash.”

  “I get what you’re saying Jeff but you dated the woman in the picture because you had something in common with her. I can’t have those conversations with you about business that she can.”

  “What did I say when we first met? I just want what everyone else wants,” he said exhausted. “I thought you got that.”

  “I did. I got scared because I thought maybe you didn’t mean it,” she said.

  He slipped another spoonful of sundae into her mouth.

  She regarded him. He was really adorable. And he was so much more than the press releases she read on the internet. He was a person. Flesh and bone in an amazing package, with personality on top of that. She could not have done better than if they had met a different way.

  He looked over at the bay window and smiled.

  “Is that the famous window?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she replied softly.

  “And you never did send me that fantasy,” he said quietly.

  She knew he was being funny but her question was real.

  “Do you really want to still do that stuff?” she asked him seriously.

  His eyebrows nearly flew off of his face.

  “Are you kidding me? I want to know all of it,” he said. “Go get the dress. Put it on and come out here.”

  Dana dashed into her room, grabbed the dress and then zipped into the bathroom to freshen up and change. She bent over at the waist and flicked her hair a couple of times so that it would be nice and full when she went back into the living room.

  The lights, which she had turned on to answer the door, were back down to dim. He had found the matches and lit candles so the room glowed. Dana glided through the room to him, walking coolly in her ultra high heels.

  Jeff cupped her head, his fingers threading her hair, while he kissed her sensually. His lips were cold from the ice cream but warm soon enough. They were sweet and tasted of Carmel. He danced her back in the flickering light to the window’s edge.

  He encouraged her to sit in the window and to run through the poses of the pictures she sent him, while he sat with a front row seat in her living room. Though the room was darkish, she could see he liked to watch.