Romance: Luther's Property

by Laurie Burrows

  ‘Does that mean that you’re still determined to go with that mail order bride thing?’

  Leila nodded. ‘I am though I haven’t found someone yet.’

  ‘I don’t know Leila, you’re young and beautiful and if your patient, you’ll find someone. Mail order bride is such an outdated thing.’

  ‘It maybe but it worked back in the day and I’m sure it will work now. Besides, both of us will go into the relationship knowing what we want. No games. Besides if it works out, that means that I’ll not be alone for Christmas.’

  ‘You’re obsessed with the holidays. Loads of people are alone, and they manage. Plus you have a running invitation here.’

  Leila could just imagine spending the holidays with Susan and her hubby. They were both wonderful people but she hated to be a third wheel and their baby was due around that time and the last thing they needed was a guest. Leila sighed.

  ‘Do you mind terribly if I run off?’ Leila asked.

  ‘Before dinner?’ Susan said aghast.

  ‘Yes, pretty please. I feel lousy and I’m not the greatest company,’ Leila pleaded.

  ‘Just this once but I insist that you carry something to eat. I’ll have cook pack something for you,’ Susan said.

  Left alone, Leila’s thoughts strayed to Christmas. Theirs had always been a magical day, with her waking up at the crack of dawn to raid her stockings. The holidays were filled with good memories mixed with painful ones. Barely a year into university, Leila had lost her parents in quick succession.

  Her mother had passed on first from kidney problems while her father had lasted two months after that. Leila had known immediately that her dad had died of a broken heart. He parents had loved each other with a passion and devotion which Leila herself had hoped to find with Horace. It had not taken her to know that she had made a terrible mistake. With the death of her father, Leila had jumped into a relationship with Horace and was dazzled by the night life and good times that he had offered.

  Naively, she had thought that once they got married, they would both settle down into growing their own family. Horace had continued partying on as though he was a bachelor. Many nights, she slept alone, curled up into a tight ball of loneliness. Not that when he was home they spoke much. She had realized to late how little in common they had. The only thing that had kept her going in those days was the thought of the children that they would have.

  She remembered the night that Horace had told her that he had no intention of having children.

  ‘Please, just one,’ Leila had pleaded, tears rolling down her cheeks at the thought of never holding her own child.

  ‘This is not up for discussion. Let’s just enjoy our lives. You only live once you know.’

  Days later he had finally admitted to her that he could not sire children and the knowledge had broken her heart into pieces. He had contracted mumps as a child and it had affected his fertility. She had thrown herself into life on the ranch and just when she thought she had come to terms with it, Horace had gone off and gotten himself killed.

  This would be her second holiday since his death. Christmas reminded her of just how alone she was. Leila had no intention of spending another holiday alone, even if it took getting a husband through the mail order agency.

  Chapter Two

  Jack Farley scanned the profiles of available women on the mail order bridal agency website with detachment. He had only one reason for wanting a wife and that was to give him children. After Clarissa, he had no wish for emotional entanglements with any woman. The thought of Clarissa filled him with a dull ache.

  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 Lainley 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 en-suite 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 t
urned 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.