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  A Tempting Bride

  Vanessa Rose

  © Copyright 2018 by Vanessa Rose. All rights reserved.

  No part of this novel may be reproduced, duplicated, distributed or transmitted in either electronic or print form. Neither may it be stored in a retrieval system, database or in any form without prior written consent from the author.

  Table of Content

  Chapter 1: Up with the Sun

  Chapter 2: The Challenge

  Chapter 3: Far North

  Chapter 4: Sad Eyes

  Chapter 5: The Dance

  Chapter 6: The Road Ahead

  Chapter 7: Brand New Girl

  Chapter 8: The Lady of the Manor

  Chapter 9: Miracle in Celina

  5 Bonus Books:

  The Billionaire’s Secret Baby

  The Billionaire’s Temporary Bride

  The Doctor Got Me Pregnant

  The Navy SEALs Secret Baby

  The Billionaire’s Secret Contract

  Chapter 1: Up with the Sun

  Jeri Foster always woke up before the sun. There was something magical about turning over to see pale gray light pouring through her window, most of the world still asleep. Like the planet was made only for her.

  So what if she was a little lonely?

  Tossing the sheets aside, she stumbled past her mother’s bedroom, the sound of her soft snores giving her a false veneer of harmlessness. Once she woke up, it would be an entirely different story. A person could share a roof with family and feel lower than the soil that she was about to till.

  Jeri wiped the sleep from her eyes and headed towards the bathroom. A few handfuls of cold water across her face, her shoulder length ebony hair tied into a messy bun, and she grabbed her blue jeans and her favorite flannel. Next came the boots. She never bothered to bat the caked-on dirt away; she saw no sense in that when they would only become filthy all over again. If she was being honest, she liked wearing the stains of her toil.

  It wasn’t like the farm was yielding anything.

  They were trying their hand at corn. It seemed the logical choice. Not only was it a popular staple of people’s diet, but it fed the livestock at the neighboring spreads before they were slaughtered and made into entrees. She’d heard it said once that everything was corn, that they were a people of corn, and all she needed was one fine harvest to make good on their debts and get out from under them.

  Despite her best efforts, the scarecrow dressed in one of her old sweaters and a now too tight pair of jeans looked stronger than the wilting stalks. How was such a thing even possible? Her muscles ached, and her boots were about to become one with the soil, so why couldn’t she yield a cash crop? What was she doing wrong?

  “You know its man’s work, right?”

  Jeri startled at the sound of her mother’s voice and narrowed her eyes at the woman in her only good skirt, all white polka dots against a yellow background, and a gold top that barely matched. She gingerly stepped closer to the stalks and fingered the thinning leaves with a smirk.

  “If you were a boy maybe you could have handled it,” she scoffed. “Maybe then he would have stuck around.”

  The veiled insult was not lost on Jeri, and she folded her arms across her chest and jutted her chin into the air.

  “So what would you have me do, Mama?” she asked. “Leave it all to rot and pray for some kind of miracle?”

  “Like you landing some buck from outside the county lines and giving us a chance to make a go of it?”

  She didn’t have the time or the energy to go out and flirt. And what would it really matter? Jeri wasn’t the only soul struggling in these parts. The land was too arid to make anything worthwhile grow. She’d heard of chances up North, and a few times, she’d thrown her hat into the ring.

  “We could hire some help if you didn’t waste what little we had on playing at something that you’re not.”

  Jeri wanted to swallow the words back as soon as they hit the air, and despite the fact that she had grown into her curves, she started to shrink into her skin as she waited for the smack that always came when she fell out of line.

  “One of us has to make an effort,” her mother said. “The way you smell, you should sleep in the stables.”

  The words hurt more than her hard palm.

  “What?” she challenged. “No back lip? No saying that it’s all my fault?”

  Jeri sucked in a deep breath and slowly shook her head. When had she let herself get beaten down to this point?

  “Thought so,” she said. “Weak. Like your louse of a father. Run away like any other coward with what tail you got between your legs. Like what you have tucked in those jeans counts for anything that anyone would want.”

  The woman let her words seep into her daughter’s brain as she moved away with a dark laugh and climbed into her beat up sedan to speed away from their house. Their shack. Jeri waited until her taillights evaporated into the horizon before falling to the ground and picking at the dirt under her jagged nails.

  “There’s nothing wrong with me,” Jeri muttered. “Someday… someone…”

  Even that sounded like a pipe dream, and she fell to her back and watched the sun rising higher among the clouds. Jeri smoothed her hands through her matted hair and imagined her own miracle. Male, female. It wasn’t about romance. It was about someone seeing that she worked hard and focused. She remembered trying to show her father as much when one bucket of water made more than she did. Working overtime to keep the splashes in line, she hoped to see his smile when she rivalled the rain and showed up to nurture the seeds that had yet to sprout. With chubby legs and weakening arms, she made the pass three times. Her father simply pulled the pail from her tiny fingers and told her to bring more next time. The feeling that she would lose her limbs in a puff of smoke intensified with each trip back and forth, and when she could no longer stand the strain, Jeri lost the water well beyond the plot, and she could not hold back her tears when his shadow hovered over her bent body, and his lips curled into a silent jeer.

  Can’t count on you to get anything right.

  He kicked the dirt at her side and took up the bucket as he grumbled under his breath. Moving past her again and again, ignoring the tears that she tried to keep at bay, Jeri grew reflective. If the man had only invested in a hose and stopped playing it old school, they might have stood a chance and reaped what they tried to sow.

  Never happened.

  Jeri stretched away from the stalks and walked towards the edge of her family’s plot. Weak? Was she weak when she bested Tommy Snider in a footrace and slammed a fist into his face for good measure? When she swung the bat hard and managed to beat out an inside of the park home run when she had no choice but to play with the boys? And maybe they still couldn’t afford a hose. But now Jeri possessed the strength to never let one drop of water ever fall. No boy could do better.

  Her eyes moved down to the breasts that nearly busted through her flannel. No boy could… but in some ways, in so many ways, she was a woman. Maybe not of the preening princess variety. But she had urges in the moments before she fell asleep. Despite the use of her own hands, sometimes she wanted something… someone even stronger to send her to the place where her happiness finally reached its pinnacle. To marvel at her scent and say that she was the most unique lady underneath it all.

  Chapter 2: The Challenge

  “There’s the toughest tomboy in these here parts!”

  Jeri smiled at the sound of the clipped voice that drawled with the best of them. If a girl was blind, she might picture a muddy cowpoke in rank jeans and a tee just coming in from the fields and looking to test his luck.

  But Kevin Bartlett never had one wavy dark hair out of p
lace and dazzling green eyes. Time was when she fancied him and wondered what it would be like to follow him after he delivered the meager bit of mulch that they could afford and feel his mouth on hers. Her mother said he was the wrong sort, but had Jeri chalked that up to the woman’s inherent distaste for all men.

  Until she saw Bartlett kissing one of the boys from Tilden’s spread over a cup of coffee and a plate of seasoned fries. Sad for a second, Jeri connected the dots and realized that for once her mother was not being mean for the simple sake of playing the bitch. As Bartlett smiled into the boy’s blonde hair, she wished him well, catching his drift and thinking that he was a good catch for any man.

  “You’re early, Bartlett,” Jeri teased. “Did you miss me that much?”

  “Always. Here you are. Scratching two rocks together to make fire. Turn a profit yet?”

  “Hardly,” Jeri said as she reached for his hand and quickly kissed his cheek. “We’re treading water without a lake. You want some coffee or---”

  “The dragon lady around?” he asked.

  No one who had to stay with her mother ever wanted to hang around the house. Bartlett had made the move a few times to keep her company and lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

  “You don’t have to worry about that today,” she said. “Off getting her hair done. She says it’s the one luxury that she can still afford.”

  “Then I will take the luxury of your company.”

  Bartlett offered his arm, and they entered the kitchen. She started to brew a fresh pot as he glanced around the room and whistled.

  “Such a small place,” he started. “But you keep it real neat and tidy.”

  “That’s my mom,” Jeri said as she poured out a serving and plopped two teaspoons of sugar into the cup. “I’m on the outside. Corn don’t push out of the ground on its own.”

  “Hardly enough for a proper pudding when this is all that you have to work with.”

  Bartlett stopped mid-sip, and he gingerly lowered his cup to the tabletop as he waved his hands before his face.

  “Not like you don’t try,” he said. “When I’m out on the road… when the other buyers complain that I’m giving them a raw deal, I tell the tale of the Foster girl and how much she can do with so little money to spare. Save one mother’s makeover once a week.”

  The air between them was light and easy again, and Jeri tightened the clumped hair at her neck with a sigh.

  “Have to do some good somewhere,” Jeri said. “Not like I’m going to win any beauty contests.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short,” he said. “Always sort of thought that you had nice eyes.”

  She felt her cheeks warm under his compliment, and Jeri patted her hand before leaning back in her chair.

  “So why so early?” she asked. “Not like you’re going to meet your quota hanging around here.”

  “Very true, Jeri,” he countered. “But I’m here to give you a real chance of getting out from under. If you’re up to the challenge.”

  Never one to wilt like a flower in the afternoon breeze, Jeri pressed her elbows to the table and cupped her chin in her hands.

  “Do tell,” she said as she lifted her eyebrows. “You know we’ve been looking for a partner to lighten the road. Did you come through?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Bartlett shifted his chair to her side, his hand on her arm as he nuzzled her hair with his nose.

  “Don’t play games with me,” Jeri said.

  “I’m not,” he swore. “I’m here to make all of your dreams come true. You open to listen?”

  “Depends. What are you selling this time?”

  Bartlett pushed away from the table, the coffee cup still in his hand as he gazed out the smeared bay window.

  “Ever think that a little time away from here might net you enough cash to make the place swing?” he asked.

  “Only every day of my life,” Jeri said. “So what’s your point?”

  Bartlett polished off the coffee and pressed his hands to the table as he stared into her eyes.

  “I know a man up near Celina. Having a hell of time keeping help around. And I told him that I knew someone to help him out and then some.”

  “Why can’t he keep workers?” Jeri asked.

  “Things are different up north,” Bartlett said. “Or maybe it’s just a stubborn streak. But then you know all about that, right?”

  Jeri conceded the point and flexed her hands behind her head as she waited for him to explain his offer.

  “My man is named Christopher Hawkes. Strange guy. Looks like Apollo but never steps out to take a taste.”

  “Poor baby,” Jeri crooned. “That why you want to get close to him?”

  “He is not my type, Jeri,” Bartlett said. “I like ‘em dark with deep voices.”

  “And yet we never made it.”

  “In another life… if I was a different kind of man, you’d be the end all.”

  Jeri lowered his hand to the table and kissed his fingers before patting his wrist.

  “And yet you’re going to pawn me off on this broken boy.”

  “Far from a bad call!” Bartlett insisted. “He needs someone who knows how to make pennies out of dirt. A little time with him and were talking bills. Hawkes will pay you for your efforts.”

  “Then what?” Jeri asked.

  “Then you funnel some real cash into this place,” he said. “Hire some boys for your mama’s eyes. And… and Jeri?”

  Bartlett held her hands with a smile. If her father were still around, he would have seen this sort broken and bloodied before he even had the chance to step away from their small patch of land.

  But her father was no longer in the mix.

  “What do I have to do?”

  Bartlett stood up and snapped his fingers, speaking with his hands as he talked fast.

  “Come with me to Celina,” he said. “Pretty damned sure that I talked you into a job. And when you work hard, everything will click into place.”

  Just the idea of a change of scenery caused the gears in her brain to grind, and she shook his hand with a smile.

  “So that’s a yes?” he asked with a knowing wink.

  “I can’t say no to you,” Jeri said. “You are too sweet.”

  “Cuts both ways,” he said. “So do you want to pack a bag and come with me now?”

  It was tempting, but Jeri couldn’t leave without speaking to her mother and her dime store makeover.

  “How about you come back around before you leave town?” she said.

  “Promise me that you’ll still say yes?”

  Jeri nodded, and Bartlett gently kissed her cheek as he rubbed his hand up her back.

  “I’ll be here when you need me.”

  As soon as he was gone, Jeri looked around the room. Never had she once felt ashamed for the way that they lived. Every stick of furniture and the walls keeping the weather out was a product of hard work. But she could only do so much with so little. Jeri rushed to her room and started to pack. This was a chance for a change if Bartlett was to be believed. Jeri zipped her bag shut as she checked the clock on her bedside table, hoping that her benefactor only had a few calls to make. The sound of tires crushing against the dirt lightened her heart, and she was ready to lean on Bartlett for strength when the front door flew open.

  She saw her mother perfectly coiffed with a frown on her face.

  “Where do you think you’re going, little girl?”

  Jeri swallowed hard and clutched the handle tighter as she tried to stand her ground.

  “I… Bartlett came by with a job offer,” Jeri said.

  “Like you don’t have a job around here.”

  “I didn’t say---”

  “You dumb, ugly girl!”

  The sting of her slap caused Jeri to reel back, and she kept her body from falling to the floor by steadying herself against the shelf of pictures behind her. An image of a wedding strewn with flowers. Her mother clutched her bouquet in her hand
s, turning her dark knuckles from midnight to mud. The first sign. Jeri cast a glance to the image from the day she was born. A little girl swathed in pink as her mother faintly smiled at the camera.

  Her father was out of the frame. No doubt he wanted a boy; despite the masculine nickname, she could not recall one moment when he looked at her with anything close to love. But sometimes he kissed her mother and told her that they would make it right before the next harvest.

  Until he grew bored and Jeri had to pick up the load.

  “Mama, I have a chance to help out,” she said. “Bartlett said that---”

  “You taking that fag’s word for something close truth?”

  Another hard hand to her face caused Jeri to lose her footing, and she brushed a bit of blood from her hair as she stood up and glared into her mother’s eyes.

  “Don’t’ call him that,” Jeri warned. “He’s never been anything but nice to me.”

  “Seems like someone’s forgetting all the times that you cried into your pillow and hoped that he might turn from a fluffy frog into a full prince.”

  That was years ago, and Jeri couldn’t believe that her mother failed to see how she had moved past it. How she had worked the land hard and kept her in haircuts.

  “Maybe I’m not doing this for you,” she said. “Maybe it’s time to make my own way so everyone can forget that you ever had a daughter.”

  Jeri picked up her bag and hurried down the dirt road, her mother screaming after her that she would be nothing but sorry for making the wrong call. Jeri wanted to see Bartlett’s promise come to pass, and when his car sidled up beside her, Jeri opened the passenger’s door, tossing her bag in the backseat as she grabbed his arms.

  “Show me the way. I’ll follow your lead.”

  Chapter 3: Far North

  “And you’re sure he’ll go for it?”

  Jeri watched with baited breath as Bartlett turned the car farther north. Even before Celina came into view, she could sense the change in the air and the possibility of growing something from the ground still having some water left to spare. Bartlett steered his car down a winding road, and the sight of a large house surrounded by tall grass caused her heart to jump into her throat.