Romance: Seducing The Quarterback (30 page)

Warning

This book contains explicit content intended for readers 18+
years old.

If you are under 18 years old, or are not comfortable with
adult content, please close this book now.

The bumps and grinds of the coach chafed her. She was bruised
where no woman ought to be. Maybe it was because she was tense from harboring a
secret that made the knocks and bumps of the coach land that much harder. She
had carried the secret all the way out from Wichita. And she hoped and prayed
it would never catch up with her.

Cora was a mail order bride. Or rather her sister Hailey
was. After her beautiful sister was widowed and lost her only child, she had
answered an ad and began corresponding with a cowboy. He sent her a proposal, a
ticket and some cash to travel on. Then she died. She got a crush wound from a
horse. It was so sudden. It was so unfair. 

Cora went through everything her sister had and discovered
the contract between her sister and the cowboy who lived near the wicked Dodge.
It was the one confidence that she and her sister had not shared. Cora wept as
she poured over the tender correspondence between them.

She was broken hearted. There was nothing more for her in
Wichita. Cora packed up her belongings, with ticket and cash in hand and brought
her sister back to life. From the moment she boarded the coach, she was Hailey
Blevins.

By the time the stage pulled into its station, Hailey knew
she had opened sores or blisters in spots where her clothing rubbed every time
the carriage rocked. She was never so glad for anything as to have the ride be
over. She began it with a sense of fresh start and excitement if not a healthy
dose of fear for what she was about to get into.  But now, as the carriage
stopped and they were in Dodge, she had a real sense that she just wanted it to
be over with. To hurry on with getting married to her cowboy.

She smoothed her hair out of reflex. There wasn't a whole
lot that running her hands over the length of what used to be fresh, wheat
colored curls was going to do to her appearance but it was worth the try. When
that carriage door opened and she crawled out, he would be there. The man who
would be her husband. Charles Anthony Halverson, a cowboy on the Dokes-Dalley
Ranch.

She swallowed, drawing up her road-dust parched throat and
summoned her courage. She took the hand of the driver, and extended her foot
forward. She ached. It hurt to move. To stretch. She could not remember how
many miles ago that she had done so. She found footing on the sidewalk and
remained with hand held with the driver until she was upright and able to
stand. She looked around. If Charles Anthony Halverson was meeting her at the
stage, he was late. She hoped he had not been killed by Indians. She heard of
such things.

She said, “Will you be so kind as to point him out to me?”

The driver stepped into the saloon and scanned the room.

“I don’t see him in there, directly,” he said.

“Well I’ll just sit in here until he comes for me,” she
said.

“Ma’am that is no place for a lady,” said the driver.

“If it’s good enough for my husband to be, it’s good enough
for me,” said Hailey.

Hailey pushed through the double doors and took a seat at an
empty table. The bartender approached her. 

“Ma’am,” he nodded.

“Sarsaparilla, please,” she ordered.

“There’s a restaurant down the way,” he replied. “They also
serve sarsaparilla. I think you would be much better off if you take your
business there.”

Hailey trembled. Her intended husband had not met her at the
stage. He was not in the saloon where he was reputed to frequent and now she
was being shooed off to a restaurant. She was beginning to think she had been
jilted.

“I think I will just go find a room at a hotel,” she said
dejectedly. “If you would just point me in that direction, that will do.”

She rose, clutched at the handle of her bag, when two dirty,
drunken men cackled at her.

“Move out of the way, Lem,” they said to the bartender.
“She’s ours.”

“Leave her alone. She’s a lady can’t you see? Wandered in
here by mistake,” the bartender said.

One of the two dirty men backhanded the bartender and he
went down. Hailey trembled. Her body hurt from sitting in the stage and the
exhaustion of the long ride was now slamming her. She thought she might vomit.
It would serve the drunken fools right.

As she swayed she was struck with an idea. She would catch
them off guard and swing at them with her bag. It was the only plan she had.
She was pretty sure the one ally she had in town was now out cold. The two
filthy men salivated, snarling as they approached her like rabid dogs. 

Hailey stepped back, winding up. She cocked her arm, was
ready to let fly when someone caught her wrist from behind her. She looked over
her shoulder to an extraordinarily handsome man. He was massive and almost too pretty
to be a man.  But he was indeed a man. She could feel it. She looked up as he
looked down. This was her intended. It had to be Charles Anthony Halverson.

Hailey looked straight ahead, her wrist manacled in the
large hand of her intended husband. The two filthy men were now stepping back,
apologizing.

“Hey Charlie,” they said. “We were just playin’ with her.
She’s none the worse for wear.”

“Beat it,” ordered the tall handsome man behind her. He
still had hold of her.  She liked the way he made her feel. Warm and strange.

Hailey sensed a lecture was upon her. Everyone around her
had scurried away.  She now had her first private moment with the man she
traveled all the way from Wichita to marry.

“Were you advised not to come into this place?” he asked her.

“I have no idea to whom I’m speaking,” she said wrenching
her hand away from his grip. “You could at least introduce yourself.”

“I don’t need to,” he asked. “You know who I am. Your safety
is at issue.”

“It always is, is it not?” she replied smartly. “And so it
would have been a really good idea if the man who was going to marry me was at
my stage the moment I got off.”

“Are you saying you would not be in here if it were not for
me?” he asked.

“I am saying I am tired. I am hungry. I am sore. I want to
go home,” she said.

He was quiet. He leaned back and looked her up and down like
he was weighing his options. A slight snarled tugged his upper lip. He leaned
down and picked up her bag. He took hold of her elbow and guided her out to a
buggy.

Without asking or warning, his strong hands were at her
waist. He lifted her into the passenger seat. He took his place next to her,
snapping the reins to make the horses pull. There was a huge sense of relief
that Hailey was safe and where she belonged. It was a whole lot better than the
wandering feeling she had had before he showed up.

She was also secretly pleased that her husband to be was a
true sight for sore eyes. He was tall and handsome and his hair was the same
color as hers. It fell in a soft wave across his head and tousled in soft curls
that wrestled beneath his hat.

Hailey spied out of the corner of eyes that his legs were
long. He was long. He was a good bit taller than her. Warmth stirred in her
stomach when she thought of that.  But not enough to keep her belly from
growling. 

She reached into her drawstring bag for some bread she had
wrapped up in a kerchief but the kerchief was empty. It didn’t matter. She was
sure she was too tired to eat. The buggy bumped and she teetered into his hard
body. He was so warm and comfortable, she leaned against him and closed her
eyes.

Hailey awoke. He nudged her gently.

“Wake up,” he said. “This will only take a minute.”

She squinted. The daylight was going. The big hands lifted
her again, and she was on the ground. He took her hand and together they
entered a chapel where a minister as waiting for them. She knew. He was going
to get the marrying over with as soon as possible.

“Wait a minute,” she said.

“We have not been introduced and you expect me to marry
you?” she said.

“I was thinking I would take you to my home and it would not
be decent for an unmarried woman to share the roof of an unmarried man. I would
leave you here in Dodge but I don’t feel you would be safe. I am only thinking
of you,” he said. “Charlie Halverson.



“Charles,” she said.

“Charlie,” he corrected. “And you are?”

“Hailey Elise Blevins,” she replied.

“You don’t say?” he arched his brow. “Well now, Miss
Blevins. That will be the last time you’ll give that answer when someone asks you
your name,” he said softly.

He pulled a paper out of his shirt pocket and some silver
and handed them to the minister.  Hailey and Charlie signed a book of the
preacher’s. He read a brief script.  He and his wife witnessed their vows and
that was that. She was now Mrs. Charles Anthony Halverson.

“You may kiss the bride,” announced the preacher.

Hailey wasn’t really paying attention to details until the
preacher said those words.  She came back to reality. Charlie took her face in
his large, powerful hands.  He looked her in the eyes with a dreamy, almost
mournful look and slowly lowered his mouth to hers.  

His lips were so soft. And when he pressed them slowly,
brushing them against hers, her nerves buzzed. Like a wildfire, she body was
rushed with heat. She shivered with his touch and her breath hitched in her
chest. Something told her he was just teasing her. Taking it easy on her. It
was a good thing. She could probably not handle it if he came on to her any
stronger.

She was glad that she married but part of her was sad. She
had hoped as a little girl that when she grew up to be married that the
ceremony would be filled with her family and friends. A ten-minute ceremony on
the fly was not what she had envisioned.  And it was her one and only chance at
getting married.

She was also heart sick that she had married under a false
pretense. Her poor new husband was none the wiser. He had married the wrong
sister. The only sister.  But not the sister he contracted to marry. She would
make it up to her handsome new husband by being the best, most dutiful and
loving wife ever.

Once again the powerful hands on her waist swung her into
the buggy. Lifted her like she was a broom he put away. Charlie snapped the
reigns before wrapping his giant arm around her, encouraging her lean on him as
he drove off.  It wasn’t a very long ride but it was just long enough to make
her feel tortured. The blisters from the long ride were unbearable.

She tried not to make complaining faces but the pain from
some of the bumps and grinds were impossible to mask. He caught on to her
discomfort.

“Almost there,” he assured her.

There. It was not the cowboy shanty she expected to have to
simply tolerate. From what she gathered after reading Charlie’s letters she
expected the house she would come to live in to be a dusty dirty rough
structure with dirt floors and glassless windows. It was what she envisioned.
She was willing to set her relatively comfortable life in Wichita for that
notion if it meant keeping the dreams and memory of her sister alive.

But as the road arched up the hill, now lined with
equestrian and cattle fences, she spied a beautiful home at the end of a long
drive. Set off to the side of it were other neatly built structures. A massive
barn. What looked to be a storehouse and what looked like a small house where
she guessed the cowboys lived. This must be where she and her new husband would
make their home.

But the buggy moved past the little cluster of structures
and the barn on to the main house.  Hailey was confused but she assumed he knew
what he was doing.  She just followed his lead. He lifted her off the buggy.
She assumed that while she was married and still lithe, he would be doing that.
She would have to eventually do it for herself or lose the ability to.

An older man and a woman came out of the house and greeted
them. They began unloaded the buggy.

“Evening Mr. Halverson,” said the older man.

“Evening Hale,” said Charlie.

“You’re a married man then sir?” asked Hale.

“I am indeed. This is Mrs. Halverson, Hale and Willa. This
is Hailey. Hailey these are two of the finest people you’ll meet just about
anywhere,” said Charlie.

“Thank you, sir. Please to meet you, missus,” said Hale.
Willa just smiled.

When the house servants carried their bags into the house
ahead of them, Hailey grabbed Charlie’s arm. His eyes were smoky as they
glanced her grip on him.

“They called you ‘sir’,” she said confusedly.

“Yes. They work for me,” he explained softly.

“But you’re a cowboy,” said Hailey.

He tilted his head. “Yes, I am. I’m a cattleman. A rancher.
This is my ranch.  Well, our ranch.”

Hailey was stunned. She paused, trying to sort it all out.

“Do you mean to say you didn’t understand that when you
agreed to marry me?” he asked.

“No I didn’t,” she replied. A sudden unexplainable surge of
emotion pushed against the back of her eyes.

He cupped the back of her neck and kissed her on top of her
head. 

“There there. It will be alright,” he assured her.

Hale and Willa appeared again, the buggy now completely
empty.

“Wasn’t quite sure if the wedding was on or not,” said Hale.

“Apparently it is on,” remarked Charlie.

Hailey had no idea what that meant.  Maybe it was why
Charlie was late in picking her up.

“Hailey,” said Charlie, “Why don’t you go on with Willa
there. She has some food and a bath all ready for you.”

“A bath?” said Hailey with surprise.

“Yes,” said Charlie with a wink. “We have those here in
Dodge too.”