Hey all,
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: Sharing
of this story is suggested, encouraged and applauded, but the author’s name IS
NOT to be removed from it for any reason whatsoever. Please do not offer it
for sale; it is a free read story for CJ England’s fans and designed only for
those who are 18 and OLDER.
All characters in this story
have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation
whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even
distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all
incidents are pure invention.
~~~***~~~
“Oui.”
Givré pointed to where two couples were sitting at a group of gaily lit
tables. Candlelight and tinsel made the
area festive and bright. “I saw it
there.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Lara glowered at Givré. “We do not have rats on board The
Lucky Lady.”
“Do not worry,” Givré said encouragingly. “This rat, it is very tame. It even gives the kisses to the pretty
redhead.”
“Givré—” Amy shook her head at him. “What are you talking about?”
Suddenly, Callie laughed. “Oh, my God.
He’s talking about Mandy Hinshaw.
She brought her pet ferret, Crikey.”
“Did I not say
so?” Givré looked puzzled. “She says she writes the sensual stories just
like our CJ.”
“Isn’t she the one who met her lover by buying a hot
tub?” Jordon asked. “Man, when I heard
that story I wanted to buy a Model Three Thousand myself.” He sucked in his breath when Callie punched
him in the stomach. “Hey. I would have shared it with you.”
“So the man with her is Sawyer Hedon?” Heather gazed
over at the couple. “He reminds me of
that really hot actor on TV. The one on
the show where the plane goes down on the mysterious island.” She sighed.
“He’s not dark, but he is tall and handsome.” When Dustin gave a growl, she rolled her
eyes. “Okay. Forget I said anything. I like your looks much better.”
Keeton grinned.
“There are a few of us attractive blonds around.”
“Yeah,” Jordon agreed, still rubbing his belly. “It’s not all dark meat out there.”
“But why did she bring a rat to the party?” Lara
wailed. “Rats and food do not go
together well.”
“It’s not a rat,” Favor admonished. “It is a ferret. And Crikey helped bring the two of them
together.”
“I do remember hearing about them,” Amy said
slowly. “They’re going to be in another
holiday story. For Valentines Day. When Mandy gets dumped by her boyfriend, she
makes herself feel better by buying a hot tub.
And when Sawyer comes to install it, they fall for each other.”
“But,” Callie picked up the story, “like a lot of
men, Sawyer is afraid of commitment and even though he cares about Mandy, he
tries to ignore what he feels. So they
have to work through his issues, a misunderstanding about money and a huge
fight in the hot tub show room before they find each other again.”
“So somehow the ferret helped get them back on
track?” Lara stared at the tiny grey and
black animal that was curled up on Mandy’s shoulder. Crikey stuck his nose in his mistress’ ear,
making Mandy giggle. “I mean, I know
there are some animal shapeshifters around here, so I should be okay with this,
but geesh.”
“It doesn’t matter what kind of animal, real or supernatural,”
Favor said quietly, “CJ loves them. So
of course they will be welcome.”
“All creatures great and small, you know,” Keeton
chimed in.
“Great.” Lara
gave a little huff of annoyance. “I just
hope our cat Gypsy doesn’t mistake him for a rat, too. Things could go really bad then.”
They all laughed.
“Who’s the other couple,” Dustin asked
curiously. “The guy makes me want to
snap to attention and salute him.”
Lara giggled.
“You’re right on track. That’s
Ross Cannon. He used to be in the military. A captain in the United States Army Rangers
if I remember right. He told me he was
so good at blowing things up in the army he figured he’d do it in civilian
life.”
“Excuse me?”
Givré laughed at Dustin’s incredulous face. “This Ross, he tells me he has his own
company now. He wishes to build things
to give happiness to people. So he
designs the fireworks displays in a small town called Bass Lake in California. They are what he blows up.”
“I guess we’ve run out of tall, dark and handsome,”
Amy quipped, glancing up into Givré’s coal black eyes. “Ross is another tall, blonde and
handsome.”
“You gotta have some light threads in the tapestry to
make the dark ones stand out all the better,” Dustin said with a grin. “That’s all you pale guys are good for. Making dudes like Givré and I look good.”
“This is so.”
Givré nodded seriously, but his face lit with laughter.
“Ha Ha.
Funny,” Jordon said sourly. “So
what’s this Ross’ story?”
“He moved to Bass Lake after he got out of the
military,” Lara explained. “When the
town mayor asked him to design and run the Founder’s Day fireworks display,
Ross agreed, thinking it would be a good way to give something back to his new
home. But then Stacy Jackson crashed
into his life.”
Keeton glanced again at the tinseled table. “That’s the blonde woman that looks like a
college cheerleader? She’s quite pretty,
isn’t she?”
Lara smothered a giggle when Favor frowned at her
husband. “Ummm, yes, that’s Stacy. But she wasn’t happy about the
fireworks. She had a horrible tragedy in
her past that made her terrified of them and she vowed to stop Ross no matter
what it took.”
“And did she?” Amy whispered.
“Nope. Just
the opposite. Instead of fighting with
Ross, she found herself falling in love with him.” Lara sighed, remembering going through much
the same thing with Justin. “But even
then, it was hard for Stacy to trust him.
It wasn’t until another tragedy almost happened that she understood for
Ross it was all or nothing. She couldn’t
love him and not have faith in him.”
“Hmm…” Dustin
glanced down at Heather, whose cheeks had gone pink. “I think I can understand that.”
“But they figured it out, right?” Favor asked. “They both learned how to trust each other.”
Lara nodded.
“Yes. It’s one of my favorite of
CJ’s free reads. Love conquers all among
skyrockets and hot summer nights.”
“And this Stacy, she tells me Bass Lake is one of the
places where our CJ grew up.” Givré
smiled broadly. “So, it has the special
meaning, no?”
“No, I mean yes.”
Lara glared up into Givré’s laughing eyes. “You know what I mean.”
Heather giggled into her hand. “I’m so glad I met you guys. I wasn’t sure I was going to come, but now
I’m glad I did.”
“You were coming even if I had to sling you over my
shoulder to bring you here,” Dustin growled.
“From what I heard, mate,” Keeton said with a
snicker. “It wouldn’t be the first
time.”
“Ummm, Lara, I hate to bring this up—” Callie was
looking across the room to the door opening to the bow of the ship, “—but if
you were so worried about rats, why aren’t you freaking out about that huge
spider and that flea over there?”
“What?!”
They all turned around to see where Callie was
looking. “Oh. My.
God.” Lara rubbed her eyes and looked
again. “I’m not really seeing that, am
I?”
“Who are they?” Favor whispered. “Why all the critters?”
Across the room, gathered protectively around a
beautiful young woman with rich auburn hair and eyes the color of a storm
cloud, were a cluster of beings so amazing, so bizarre it made everyone stop
and stare.
All the size of men, there was a hairy eight-eyed
spider, a tall skinny hare, and a sleek black puma. There was also a translucent flea, a red
kangaroo, an elegant gazelle, a croaking frog, an energetic grasshopper, a
brightly colored macaw and even a bottlenose dolphin balancing on his strong
tail flukes.
And behind them, peering over the animals’ shoulders,
were three more couples, all dressed in their holiday finery.
“I take it you didn’t know they were coming?” Jordon
asked dryly.
Lara shook her head. “I have no idea who—”
“That’s because I just got the phone call myself.”
Whirling around, Lara saw Justin standing
nearby. Going to him, she grabbed his
arm. “Justin? I don’t understand. Who are those creatures? And the others?”
He motioned with his chin at the people streaming
into the room. “CJ just called. Seems this group was going out of print on
December first, but the publisher asked to keep them active until after Christmas. Since they are all Christmas stories, it just
made sense to do that.”
“Christmas stories?” Givré asked, his brows drawn
together. “They too are for the
holiday?”
“Yeah. They’re
in an anthology that came out a couple of years ago. I guess each of them stands for one of the
Twelve Days of Christmas.”
Amy did a quick count. “Oh.
The odd looking animals. There
are ten of them. So that means—”
“—the ten lords a leaping,” Heather finished. “But very interesting lords to be sure.”
Justin nodded.
“The woman is Princess Kaylena.
Her father thought she was too picky about choosing a husband so on
Christmas Eve he gave her a choice. Pick
from these ten lords or he would give her to someone he selected.”
Callie gasped in horror. “She had to choose one of these creatures to
wed?”
“It is not so bad.”
When Amy stiffened, Givré put his arm around her. “There is magic here, my friends, covering
the reality of what is true. The
princess, she will also find a real man, just as my Ami did.”
Amy relaxed against him. “You’re sure?
You can see beneath the magic?”
Givré dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Oui, mon ange. This I promise you. When the night is over and Princess Kaylena
makes her choice, what she finds will be most unexpected.”
“Wow!” Dustin
patted his heart. “Look at that gal who
just came in. She looks just like Marylyn
Monroe. I wonder what day of Christmas
she stands for.”
Heather rolled her eyes. “Down boy.
If the man with her sees you drooling, you might not even see
Christmas.”
Justin chuckled.
“That’s Lee Ann Grayson. She
works for Four Calling Birds Singing Telegrams and since she looks like the
blond bombshell, guess what song she most often sings.”
Callie and Heather looked at each other and parroted,
“Santa Baby.”
“Yup.” Justin
tucked Lara under his arm. “That’s how
Dorchester found her again.”
“Devon Dorchester?” Dustin’s eyes narrowed. “Of Dorchester Industries? The New York Dorchesters?”
Jordon’s eyebrow winged up into his messy hair. “You know him?”
Narrowing his eyes, the dark guitarist shook his head
gently at his friend. “I…may have heard
the name.”
“Wait.”
Ignoring the byplay, Keeton scratched his chin. “Found her again? You lost me, bru.”
“Sorry.”
Justin gave an abashed grin. “I
guess Lee Ann and Devon knew each other in college, but something happened and
they lost track of each other. Then she
shows up to deliver him a singing telegram and this time he wasn’t going to let
her go.”
“Didn’t she want to be with him?” Favor asked, her
amber eyes wide with curiosity. “He is a
very handsome man.”
“Tall and dark, too,” Lara muttered.
“Yes,” Justin answered as he gave his own wife a
squeeze. “But apparently they had one of
those BIG misunderstandings and it took a long time for them to work
through it.”
“But they did,” Heather said with a sigh. “And on Christmas, too. How romantic.”
“Noël est l'un des temps les plus romantiques de
l'année.” When everyone looked
blank, Givré laughed. “Christmas. It is one of the most romantic times of the
year.”
“At least four stories worth,” Jordon agreed. “So what about that studious looking guy with
the glasses and the short cropped dark hair?
He looks like an accountant or something in that suit.”
“The gal he’s with sure don’t look like an
accountant.” Dustin let out a
whistle. “She’s got good time written
all over her.”
“Dustin!”
Turning, Dustin looked into Heather’s shocked
eyes. “Not that kind of good time,
honey. I just meant she looks like she
enjoys having fun. She’s not so buttoned
up and starchy.”
“That’s exactly right.” Justin snickered in agreement. “The man is Blake Partridge. He’s the owner of Partridge Pear Orchards and
he has pretty much forgotten how to enjoy life since his grandfather died and
left him to take care of his grandmother and her property. He left college and the one woman he loved to
go take care of business.”
“A Partridge in a pear tree,” muttered Keeton. “Cute, CJ.
Real cute.”
“And the pretty blond woman with the eyes like
molasses is the one he left behind?” Favor asked.
Justin sighed.
“Yeah. Jodi Bradford. She’s loved him for a long time, and never
understood why he walked away from her.
But Blake’s grandmother is worried he’s turning into a Grinch, so she
talked Jodi into coming to Medford Oregon.
She’s hoping Jodi can fan the flames and make Blake understand all work
and no play can makes for a dull Christmas.”
“I hope so, too,” whispered Amy. “Not having someone to love at
Christmas…” She shuddered. “It’s horrible.”
~~~***~~~
See you next week!
Hugs,
CJ England
1 comment:
Enjoyed as usual CJ! Thanks for sharing this story. Hope your Christmas time is going well.
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