Adored By The Rancher: Mail Order Brides Box Set

by Dreams, Brittany

  “’Special’ refrigerator?” he echoed.

  Sara opened the door like a showroom assistant and revealed the shelves stocked with medical-grade containers of blood. “We get a shipment in every week from the local bank,” she said. She selected one and tossed it to him. Lance caught it. “Think of it like a juice pouch. Just stick in a straw and suck it up.” She smiled and closed the door. “You should only need one a month, but I’ve known some vampires to require more. If you start to develop a habit, though, I’m authorized to cut you off.”

  He laughed. “You make it sound like it’s a drug,” he said. He held up the bag. “I thought vampires were supposed to drink this stuff.”

  “Well, you are,” she said. “Think of it in terms of having a chemical imbalance – like bipolar disorder – and this is the medication you have to take in order to regulate your moods. If you take too much, it can have an effect on you. Same as if you decided not to take your meds, at all.”

  “Have you ever known a vampire to refuse blood?” Lance asked, genuinely interested.

  “Once,” Sara said. She folded her arms under her ample breasts, her black and grey striped shirt cut low in front to show off her cleavage. “It wasn’t a pretty sight. He was staying here for a month, and for some reason he just went off the blood. He became violent, like someone going through withdrawal. I had to call Matthew, and he sent a couple of people in to collect the guy and take him off to some kind of vampire rehab center.”

  “Wow,” Lance said, chuckling and shaking his head. “I had no idea such things existed.”

  “Up until a few days ago, you probably thought vampires were fictional,” Sara said with a knowing smile. “But now you know differently. They’re an entire race of people.”

  “You’re not one?” he asked.

  “No. I’m what they call a sympathizer. I had a friend in school, this guy I had a crush on for years – Ray – who turned out to be one. He had kept it secret, scared to death someone would find out and he’d wind up dead. Because that happens. You don’t hear about it, but there are Van Helsings everywhere who won’t hesitate to stake a vampire.”

  “Wooden stakes really do kill vampires?”

  “Well, anything shoved through your heart is going to kill you, no matter what you are,” Sara said, full lips curved in a playful smile. “Vampires are quick healers, and they’re long-lived, but they aren’t impervious to death. If you take the stake out, they stand a chance at healing and coming back. But shoot them in the head with any regular bullet, set them on fire, stab them with a knife…anything that can kill a regular person can kill a vampire.”

  “So I guess holy water and crosses are a myth, as well.”

  “Despite what they said in Fright Night, you don’t even need faith for it to work. There are atheist vampires out there, too.”

  Lance found himself liking Sara immediately. She had the kind of casual, easy-going manner he admired, especially in women. Nothing seemed to faze her. She also had a good inside track on the whole vampire thing, something he could use to his advantage in learning about his new existence.

  “Is anyone else staying here, right now?” Lance asked, when they sat down to dinner an hour later.

  “Just one other guy.” Sara placed a steaming tamale on a plate and passed it to him. “His name is Eric. He just arrived two days ago. Keeps to himself, mostly. Comes and goes without a word to me, which is fine. He probably won’t be staying more than a week. Some vampires stay a few days, others will hang around a few months. I don’t mind.” She began unwrapping the corn husk wrapped around her own tamale. “I’ve always been like that, myself – doing my own thing, taking off whenever I felt like it.” She broke off a piece of masa and popped it into her mouth. “So, how long do you think you’ll be staying?”

  Lance shrugged. “I hadn’t really thought about it,” he said. “This is all so new to me.”

  “Matthew said you might be kind of uncertain. From what I understand, it can take some getting used to, especially when you come into it as suddenly as you did.” Sara broke off another piece of tamale and blew on it. “When I heard about the accident on the news…I won’t lie, I broke down crying.”

  “You did?”

  She nodded. “I told you – I’m a fan.” She looked down at her plate, almost shyly, her cheeks darkening with a blush. “I kind of had a crush on you back in high school, when I saw you in your first film. I started following your career after that. I couldn’t believe it when they said you were killed. I kept saying ‘please, don’t let it be true.’ And then Matthew called me, and explained what happened.” She shook her head. “I swear, he was in the right place at the right time that night. He saved your life.”

  Lance pressed his lips together. “Not really,” he muttered. “He just gave me a new life. The life I had wasn’t ‘saved’ – it’s gone. I’ll never get it back.” He picked at his food, suddenly not feeling very hungry as he thought again about everything he had lost. With a sigh, he pushed his plate away. “I’m sorry. I think I’m going to go lie down for a while.” He got up from the table, excused himself, and retreated to his room. He paced around in tight circles for a bit before dropping down onto the bed with a weary sigh.

  ***

  In the week that followed, Lance began to open up again. Sara made it easy. She could get his mind off his troubles and make him laugh. She challenged him to games of Monopoly and Trivia Pursuit. They watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy together and she would recite along with the dialogue, which prompted him to tease her about being a nerd – a title she seemed quite proud to wear.

  Sara did what she could to teach him about vampires based on her own knowledge. Lance had discovered that Matthew and Sherman had not been kidding about the increased strength. One day, he had come in to find Sara trying to fish something out from under the refrigerator using a spatula. Without thinking, Lance had grabbed hold of the bulky appliance and hoisted it up as easily as lifting a child.

  After dinner, they moved to the living room to relax and talk. Lance decided to ask her about her friend Ray. “You never told me what happened to him.”

  “Remember that guy I told you about, who refused to drink blood?” Sara asked, and Lance nodded. “That was Ray. He was living here with me, because he was too scared to go anywhere else. I still don’t know why he did it, but I think it had something to do with why he was always so afraid of someone finding out what he was. Maybe he thought if he could stop drinking blood, he’d stop being a vampire.” She shook her head and sighed. “It doesn’t work that way, though.”

  Lance poured some of the bagged blood into a wine glass and sipped at it. Once he had a taste, he found he could not stop until he had finished the entire quart. “It feels like my body craves it,” he said, swirling the thick, blue-red liquid around in the glass like a fine merlot.

  “It will,” Sara confirmed, enjoying her own tall glass of Dr. Pepper on ice. “A healthy vampire will crave it, and once you have what your body needs, you’re good.”

  “Have you ever wanted to become one?” Lance asked. “A vampire, I mean.”

  She shrugged. “I thought about it,” she said. “I suppose if I was faced with a life or death situation like you were, I might say yes because there’s still a lot of things I want to see and do. But I don’t think about it all the time, like ‘what would it be like?’ or ‘if only I could be a vampire.’” She sat with her feet up on the sofa, one knee under her chin. “If you could go back to that night, would you have turned down Matthew’s offer?”

  Lance ran his finger around the rim of his glass. “I don’t know. A week ago, I would have said ‘yes.’ In a heartbeat. But lately, I’m starting to realize that I should start looking at it as the second chance it is and think in terms of what I want to do to help others.”

  “That’s good,” Sara said, with a smile that dimpled her cheeks. “I’m glad you’re starting to accept it. I know how hard this has been for you, and I hate seein
g you so unhappy. You’ve always been a good person. It’s one of the reasons I always admired you. You’ve always been so generous, so compassionate. That part of you is still there.”

  “You think so?”

  She nodded. “I know so.”

  Lance gazed at her for a moment. Setting his glass aside, he reached out and took hers, placing their drinks on the coffee table. He leaned in toward her. Sara did not pull away. She allowed him to kiss her lightly on her plush lips. Lance brought one hand up to her cheek. He burrowed his fingers into the thick hair behind her ear and pulled her to him. The kisses continued, becoming firmer, more intense. Mouths slid together, opening, tongues colliding. Lance hooked her around the waist with his other hand. Her arms circled around his shoulders. She made soft little sounds in the back of her throat, her breath becoming labored with excitement. Lance found himself growing aroused.

  The sound of a key turning in the front door lock made them break apart like guilty teenagers. Eric entered. A tall and lumbering fellow with shaggy black hair and a full beard, he cast a wordless glance in their direction before continuing on to his room.

  Suddenly feeling self-conscious, Lance looked over at Sara, who looked away while wiping at the corners of her mouth with her fingertips. This was a bad idea, Lance thought with a grimace. How do I even know if I can have normal sex anymore? He thought about his newfound strength. What if I lose control and hurt her?

  “I, ah…think I’m going to take a drive,” he said. Finishing off his glass of blood, he got up. “I’ll be back in a bit.” He tried not to think about the look of confusion she gave him as he grabbed his keys off the table by the front door. That was a shitty thing to do, he chided himself. This is like Olivia all over again: you rushed into things with her, and you wound up running away.

  This is different, he argued back. I’m a goddamn vampire, now.

  He got into his car, turned around at the end of the cul-du-sac, and sped off. An hour of mindless driving found him right back at the house. He sat in the car for a minute, gripping the wheel. She knows what you are. She isn’t going to reject you. She wants you as much as you want her. Now, go in and hope that she forgives you.

  All the lights were off when he stepped into the house. He couldn’t even hear the television in Sara’s room, which struck him as odd because he knew she would often watch a movie after turning in for the night. He went to her bedroom door and knocked lightly. “Sara?” he called softly. “Look…I want to apologize…”

  The door opened. Sara stood there in an oversized t-shirt. “Shut up,” she said. Grabbing him by the collar, she hauled him into her room and closed the door behind them. She had her mouth on his a moment later. Lance cast aside the last of his reservations. Wrapping his arms around her, he returned the kiss full-force. They swayed around the room, bumping into the dresser and rebounding to the bed. Sara’s hands moved down between their bodies to the front of Lance’s jeans. She grabbed the hard swelling of his cock through the denim, making him groan. Quickly, she unzipped him and pulled him out. She dropped to her knees in the thick shag carpet and looked up at him as she took his cock between her voluptuous lips.

  “Fuck,” Lance muttered. He could feel his blood pounding through his veins. For some reason, his skin felt more sensitive. He wondered if it was another perk of being a vampire – heightened sensation. Just when he thought he would blow his load, Sara got to her feet and pushed him back to sit on the bed. She climbed up over him, and that’s when he realized she had nothing on under her night shirt. She tossed her head and smiled as she straddled his hips. Reaching down, she guided the head of his cock to the slick folds of her entrance. They both groaned when she sank down onto him.

  Lance spread his hands over her ass, kneading the round cheeks with his fingers as she rocked up and down on him. She took a moment to pull her shirt off and throw it aside, leaving her naked, her tits pressed right up into his face. Lance mouthed across each one, sucking and licking at her nipples. He could hear the rapid thump-thump of her pulse, felt the movement of her blood through her veins as his lips ghosted up along her throat. He felt something sharp against his tongue and realized it was his canine teeth becoming elongated and turning into fangs. Something in him, a deep-rooted need born of his vampire nature, wanted so badly to bite, to feed. Then he remembered what Matthew had told him about biting a healthy person, and how it could result in death. Shaking off that urge, he tucked his head against Sara’s breasts, embraced her, and focused on the purely sexual feelings moving through him.

  “Lie back,” she told him breathlessly, her palms against his shoulders. Lance let her guide him down to lie flat. Pulling up off his cock, she turned around to face the other direction. Reverse cowgirl, he thought, with a grin. His hands settled on her hips and he watched as she slid down on him again. She rolled forward and back, her ass rising and falling faster with every stroke. Her whimpers became short, desperate mewls of pleasure. Lance could only marvel at the sight, this beautiful naked Latina riding his cock while he remained fully dressed in jeans and t-shirt. He could hear and feel her getting wetter, until she pressed herself down on him, taking him in to the root, and let out a long, whining outcry of release. Just feeling her quiver around him triggered Lance’s orgasm. He gasped, shoulders arching up off the bed as he came.

  ***

  The next morning, Lance emerged from Sara’s bedroom to find a note on the floor just under the door. He frowned and bent to pick it up.

  ‘Glad to see you’re adapting to your new life. I was hoping you two would hit it off. I’m headed back to L.A., now. Enjoy! – Matthew (a.k.a. Eric)’

  “What the hell…?” Confused, Lance looked up to see the door to Eric’s room standing open. He peered inside. Everything looked neat and in order, ready for the next visitor. And then it hit him: the whole time, Eric had really been Matthew, there to check on Lance and make sure he would be all right. He ‘masked’ himself. Lance started to laugh. “Damn!”

  Sara wandered out, dressed again in her night shirt and a pair of panties. “Everything okay?” she asked, hugging Lance around the waist.

  “Yeah,” he said, smiling and returning her embrace. “Everything is great.”

  The End

  Gravel Rider

  Description

  Joss Griffith was all alone in the world now after her mother’s death. She the only family she had known all her life. Now that she was gone, she had to rediscover herself. She couldn’t stay at their house anymore. She had grown up there and watched her mother struggle with depression for years. She had been sick since they lost her father and brother. Her mother had not taken the news too well and this had made it difficult for Joss to grow up, but not anymore. She was going on a road trip. He needed to do that all by herself but she didn’t know she would meet the love of her life. She had not expected her life to take a dramatic turn not until when she met Ben Brighton…

  Chapter 1

  Joss Griffin sat in the car at a gas station wondering what she would do with her life. She had recently lost her mother and there was nothing more left for her in San Diego, California. She wanted to get out of the city and travel to any place that wouldn’t remind her of her ugly past. She had decided to start making new memories just days after her mom passed on. Her best friend, Lucy Anderson had just taught her to drive. She barely stepped out of the house when her mother was still alive. She had been sick for years, which had had an effect on Joss’ life. Joss had been home schooled since the third grade after her father and brother perished in an accident. Her mother, Jessica Griffin had been diagnosed mentally unstable months after. She had been afraid of the dark, or even stepping outside. Thus, she had insisted that Joss should never go out, for any reason.

  “Don’t go out there sweetie, there is danger everywhere.” Jessica warned her daughter whenever she stepped outside. She had grown up with no friends and no social life. However, she had always managed to sneak out of the window, and played with her neig
hbor, Lucy. The Andersons had loved Joss and always invited her over to their house.

  “But mom, I need a friend to play with.” Joss had said one day after her mother warned her from going outside.

  “You want to leave me all alone like your brother and father did?” Her mother would ask.

  Joss would coil herself into a corner, fearing the beating her mother would give her if she went outside. She had not been old enough to realize that her mother was not well. She was raised in a state of fear and isolation and now that her mother was gone, she had no idea where to begin. She barely knew the neighborhood. Her mother would prepare meals for four, include his deceased father and brother. The food would go stale after days while Jessica still insisted that they would come.

  “Mum, they are gone; they will never come back to us.”She would say to her mother. She had wanted her to be well again.

  “Don’t say that Joss, your brother and father will be back shortly.” Jessica would tell her.

  Joss was interrupted by a knock on the car window. A tall masculine figure stood beside her car. He signaled her to let the window down which she did. She had been lost in her thoughts that she had forgotten she had been occupying the gas pump for minutes.

  “Hey, are you okay?” The man asked, smiling at Joss.

  “Um, yeah. Am alright.” She replied.

  “You’ve been here for ten minutes. Do you need help with anything?” he insisted.

  “No. I think I am fine.” She lied. The reason why she had been sitting in the car was because she had never used the gas pump before and she was too embarrassed to ask. She had recently learned how drive, how could she know how to fill up the car?