ROMANCE: His Reluctant Heart (Historical Western Victorian Romance) (Historical Mail Order Bride Romance Fantasy Short Stories)

by Jane Prescott

  Ok just play it cool, don’t do that stupid snort thing you always do when you meet a hot guy. Whatever you do pleeease don’t do it.

  “Hey what’s up?”

  “Miranda I want you to formally meet Austin, from Austin. We were just catching up and I told him that he just had to meet my new roommate from Minnesota.” He looked at me and smiled and immediately I was taken in by that pearly white smile. Suddenly without me realizing it, I did that stupid snort and watched Sharae’s face contort trying not to laugh at me. Austin just laughed along with me to cover my embarrassment.

  “We talked for a quick second during the reading. But it’s nice to formally meet you, Miranda.”

  “Nice meeting you too, Austin.”

  “Ok,” said Sharae` “I have to run to the restroom for a moment, so Austin if you could keep her company until I come back that would be great.”

  I knew what she was trying to do. She was leaving the door open for Austin and me to break the ice and possibly get something going between us. But that was crazy because she’d just told me that he was attached to some blonde bombshell with a superiority complex. Well it’ll be nice to play the game just for a little while.

  “So it was nice getting to meet you again.”

  “Nice meeting you too Austin.”

  “Well you know where I’m from, but can I ask where you’re from?”

  “St. Paul, Minnesota. The place is stuck in a time-warp. Needless to say when I moved her to go to USC my parents lost their minds and tried everything to keep me from the doom that was awaiting me in California.”

  “Yeah my parents thought that moving here was going to change me somehow. They said it was way too liberal and thought that I’d be some pot smoking hippie when I’d come back for the holidays.”

  “Oh my gosh—“

  “Yeah my parents are really out there.”

  “How old are you?”

  “I’ll be twenty in a few weeks actually. You?”

  “I’m twenty two, but some people tell me I come off a little older looking than that.”

  “What made you start coming to this book club?”

  “Well originally my girlfriend wanted to expand my mind and dragged me down here. But I grew to like it after a couple of visits and started coming down here on my own. We’re broken up now, but I find myself coming down here a lot just to learn a few things about sex you know.”

  “Why did your girlfriend stop coming?”

  “Hmm, well at first it was because her schedule at school was a little hectic. But now we’re broken up so she decided that it was best that she stopped coming.”

  Oh so he’s single then? Thanks a lot Sharae!

  “How come your boyfriend didn’t bring you down here himself?”

  Oh my gosh is he flirting? I think he might be flirting, what do I do? What do I do? Just be honest, you’re single. Tell him!

  “I’m actually single at the moment, just hanging out. It’s my first time here because Sharae wanted to show me around. I mean I’ve been here for over a year now but I never really got to know the city.”

  It was something about being around him that made me feel comfortable and able to talk freely. He was very nice to me and I couldn’t take my eyes off of those beautiful teeth. Gosh his hair was so shiny that I could totally see myself running my hands through his short locks.

  “Well you know when you were reading the book I thought you were awesome. You have a really great speaking voice. Do you do any public speaking?”

  “My major is in Theatre so I’m used to projecting and acting out things.”

  “Cool. I used to do theatre when I was in high school, musicals and all of that. But now I major in philosophy and minor in biology.”

  “Wow you’re really smart then.”

  “Yeah, I guess so. Oh, actually I think there’s a party that you might enjoy coming to.”

  “Really? What kind of party?”

  “Just a regular party with some friends and frats around the campus, just a few drinks and some music, nothing serious. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

  Oh my gosh seriously? He’s inviting me a party? Wow this is it, a real party and I don’t have to do anything for it.

  Sharae was a slick devil. She’d planned this out carefully because it’d been about ten minutes at this point and she still hasn’t come out of the bathroom. I’m not sure that leaving me hanging though was a good thing to do at this moment. I was hypnotized by the sight of this guy and who knows what I’d be willing to say. I really need her to come out of there and be my life line here…

  Omg, oh my god his eyes are gorgeous! There are all twinkly… it’s so sweet.

  I liked the fact that this really hot guy was standing in front of me treating me really nice, especially since there weren’t any guys in the last year that had been so gracious. But then again, I could have been reading entirely too much into it and maybe he really was just inviting me to a party. Either way it would be a great way to get out of the house, so I guess I will have to go and make the executive decision to just say yes.

  “Okay. do I need to bring anything?”

  “Just bring that beautiful smile, or and you can bring Sharae too if you want.”

  “Great, when it is?”

  “Friday night at 8:00 is perfect, and if you give me a pen I can give you the address, Or if you’d like to give me your number I can text you the address later.”

  Give him your number! Do it, that way he can just text to see if he can learn more about you later on! Leave the door open!

  “Sure, I can give you my number.”

  Just as I was giving him my number Sharae appeared again after ten minutes of talking. Just like I thought she would, I gave him my number and hoped that he would text me tonight. Not that I was expecting him to like ask me out or anything, but I was certainly hoping that maybe I could get to know him a little better. I would have to fill Sharae in later about what happened, but I was hoping that this would be the key to everything that I’d been waiting for.

  *******

  After that long night I was a little exhausted but I couldn’t wait to tell Sharae the scoop about what happened after she “went to the restroom”. She told me that she’d been talking to him while I was sidetracked by the rows of vibrators and films. She said while speaking to him she found out that he was single after dumping skinny Minnie for cheating and she saw it as an opportunity for me because he had a slight thing for bigger girls like me. That was something that I really didn’t see coming. I never would have imagined that he was into more than just the girl he’d been dating. She told me that he actually begged her to introduce us so that he could try to get to know me a little better. According to Sharae, he’d noticed me the moment that he walked in and made a point to sit next to me to see if he could try to break the ice with me. I didn’t know what else to say, he intended to take my number the entire time just so he could reach out to me. This was completely strange to me because in Minnesota if a person really liked you then they simply came to your house and asked you out. Or, they simply called you up and said how they felt about you, there were no games to play and no run around. It was simple and easy.

  Sharae told me that it would be good if I went because Austin was more than anxious to get to know me. She also told me that not only did he like girls my size, but it was almost an obsession he had with them. I wasn’t sure how to take that word “obsession”, but I knew that he was hot and it was going to be more than worth it to hang out with him. In my mind we were already dating, and that night I knew that he was going to be my new focal point when I used my toy tonight. The truth was, I wasn’t ready to retire that yet because I still needed it, for a little while at least. I just couldn’t give up that awesome feeling that I had when I let it make contact with my body… I couldn’t wait for the party on Friday. I really looked forward to it.

  “So what are you going to wear on Friday?”

  “Oh I didn’t think ab
out that, but he did say that it was casual. So I figure a pair of jeans and a nice blouse.”

  “ No honey, you wear this type of stuff all of the time. You’ve got to try something else—a little lipstick, some blush, eye shadow, or something.”

  “That’s not going to work for me Sharae. I’m not pretty like you.”

  Sharae gave me a look as if she heard me saying something absolutely stupid and shook her head. She walked over to me and patted me on the shoulder.

  “You have got to stop thinking about yourself like that. I told you before that you are absolutely beautiful. Clearly I know it, Austin knows it and so does everyone else. Regardless of how you feel about yourself this is a great opportunity to mingle with some hot college guys and really solidify something for yourself.”

  I took a small deep breath and sighed, “Yeah I guess that’s true. I probably should get to know this guy a little better.” I smiled and Sharae smiled back. In the one night that we’ve hung out, she quickly became a good friend and confidant to me. I hoped that one day I would be as brave and fun loving as her. I was going to take her advice and try to spruce up for the night and then I would try to reel him in as quickly as possible. Who knows, I certainly wouldn’t mind him becoming hypnotized by my new look, I didn’t want to look so basic when I arrived. I jumped up and grabbed Sharae`s hand and led her to my bedroom.

  “Help me! I have no fashion sense and there’s nothing here that I can wear.” I pulled open the doors to my closet and showed her every single item in the closet. Nothing in it was fashionable it was basically just a bunch of sweaters and pants hanging in the closet. I didn’t own one pair of high heels either; I was going to need a lot of Sharae’s help. She gave my closet a sour look but she didn’t seem to fazed by it and she simply closed the closet door.

  “Don’t worry about it, we’ll work on this. Just know by Friday you’re going to be one hot sexy plus sized darling, deal?” I nodded my head in agreement and Sharae smiled back.

  Friday came up pretty fast and after days and days of anticipation, Sharae came running through the apartment shouting for me to come out of my room. When I came out she was holding several bags of clothes from all brand name places. These stores were designed specifically for plus sized girls, and I couldn’t help but shake my head at what I thought she was holding in those bags. The reality is I was sure she was going to put me in something revealing so I figured that I should just go with it, after all Austin would be there and I did want to keep his attention.

  “What is in all of these bags?”

  “This, my dear, is a fool proof plan to catch a hot guy.” She reached into the bags and pulled out lots of dresses, every single of them was short enough to showcase my thighs, and of course, they all would showoff my big breasts.

  “Is there anything in here that isn’t low cut?”

  “Nope.” She said, and with that she threw me into the bathroom to shower and then she proceeded to attack me with pounds of makeup, eye shadow and lipstick. She didn’t let me look in the mirror but she did get me prepared for the night’s event by asking me lots of personal questions.

  “So, Miranda…when’s the last time you let a guy spread your hips?”

  “Whaa?”

  “You know spread your hips, blow your back out, show you the night of your life—you know sex.”

  Now is probably a good time to tell her that you haven’t gone that far in your life. She might laugh so just prepare yourself now.

  “Um…never.”

  “As in never at all?” I shook my head to her question and I was so embarrassed that I could feel myself turning red from the embarrassment of my confession.

  “Well don’t be embarrassed about that Miranda. Maybe you’ll get lucky tonight and Austin will help you out.”

  “Oh gosh, I don’t even want to think about that. I would like to get to know him better though.”

  “Well don’t worry honey, ‘cause after he sees you in your outfit he’s going to give you all the best he has.”

  I couldn’t help but already feel sexy and I hadn’t even gotten dressed yet. I wanted to know how Austin would feel seeing me in a new outfit. I certainly knew if my mom saw what I was doing she’d probably be ecstatic, this was something that she’d kill to see me doing—getting gussied up for some guy that barely even knew me. I knew there was a chance that I could really get a genuine kiss tonight, and as long as I got that, I would feel perfectly content.

  “Ok now take a look at yourself and tell me what you think.” When I did, I did not recognize the person staring back at me, this girl was freaking hot and nowhere in sight could I find that naïve girl from St. Paul. It was fabulous and I felt like attractive for the first time in my life. Now, it was time to fight for my right to party with Austin from Austin.

  When we got there the party was in full swing and everyone who was anyone was there. I saw sorority girls from some of the top organizations in Greek life, student council members, and just about every other person that was well-known on campus. This party was everything Austin said that it would be, but I had yet to run into Austin. I was kind of getting worried that maybe he wasn’t there and I was beginning to feel a little let down by this. I was almost ready to go home, but Sharae wasn’t going to let me do that.

  “Just have a good time and mingle. Austin will probably be down in a minute. After all, this is his house.” The moment after she said that, he appeared, with his beautiful bright eyes and pearly smile as he came down the staircase and made eye contact with me. He looked very happy to see me, and I would have to admit that I was very happy to see him too. My heart was pounding a mile a minute the closer and closer that he got to me, and I could sense his musk all the way across the room. When he finally came close to me I almost passed out from excitement, but I tried hard to keep it sexy and cool, with my hand pressed firmly on my hip.

  “Hi Miranda, you look great.”

  “Thank you, you look great too. This is a nice house.”

  “Yeah thanks, I hate living on campus so my parents gave me the money to rent a house while I’m here.”

  “Well, it really is nice.”

  “I’m glad you made it Miranda, I was wondering if you wanted to come outside with me for a little while. I’ll bring you a drink too so we can chat.”

  “Okay.”

  He grabbed my hand gently and led me outside where a beautiful bench and table was sitting waiting for us. No one else was out there and it was very nice and quiet.

  “Thank you so much for inviting me.”

  “No problem, thank you so much for coming. I don’t know if Sharae told you but I really was looking forward to meeting you again.”

  This was it, he was going to tell me how much he liked me now. Yes! Okay wait, just play it cool.

  “Because one of my frat brothers saw you and he told me that he wanted your number, he was just too shy to ask you for it.”

  Wait…what? A friend of his wanted to talk to me? What kind of a let-down was this? I spent all this time getting gussied up for him and he was just trying to run a play for a friend of his. How crazy was that? Seriously what a way to lead a girl on! A ‘friend of his’ wanted my number. There was no way that I could come down from the embarrassment that I was about to endure from this debacle. Damn, I still have to play it cool. When in doubt, just do like I did in high school and play dumb.

  “Oh really?”

  “Yeah his name is Mark, and he’s a really good guy. I told him that I would talk to you and try to get you all set up for him…”

  Oh great “Well that was really nice of you to do that for him.”

  “Not really.”

  “What does not really mean?”

  “It means that I’m not a hundred percent sure that I’m willing to let you go. Fact is, I like you too. I think you’re one big beautiful package of sunshine. I think I’ll have to owe him one because I don’t think I’m willing to give you up.”

  Oh my gosh, that was
the sweetest thing that I’ve heard in my life. He really did like me, and just as I was about to speak, a guy that was just about the same height as Austin came walking timidly from the house and was heading towards us. He was just as cute and when he stopped about five yards away from us I knew it was the friend that Austin was supposed to be helping. The look in Austin’s eyes told me as much.

  “Hey Austin.” He said sweetly, and Austin looked highly upset. “Miranda, this is Mark. He’s been dying to meet you for a while now.”

  “It’s nice to meet you Mark.”

  “I was just telling Miranda that you wanted to meet her, but I think I’m going to have to owe you one because I would like to get to know her.”

  “Hell no dude,” he said gruffly but in a joking tone. “I want to get to know this beautiful goddess. You’re going to have to move on dude ‘cause I don’t mind fighting over her. She’s beautiful.” Mark sent a playful wink in my direction.