A Very Lusty Christmas
The Lusty, Texas Collection
A Very Lusty Christmas
Lieutenant Kate Wesley couldn’t believe the audacity of the two pursuit pilots! Bad enough Gerald Benedict grabbed her into a steamy, delicious kiss, but his brother Patrick did the same thing! They let her go, promising to see her soon. Kate knows that will never happen. There is no room for romance between a lieutenant and a major, or two, in 1942.
Yet before she knows it, Kate is promoted and sent to a small town in Texas to be the nurse-administrator for a convalescent home. She soon learns a formidable family matriarch by the name of Sarah Carmichael Benedict is behind this move—and those two pilots she thought never to see again are determined to woo her.
With the future tenuous at best, will Kate risk everything for love? And will her men find the root of the malfunctions that have been plaguing the airfield, before becoming victims of foul play themselves?
Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings.
Genre:
Historical, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length:
69,051 words
The Lusty, Texas Collection
Cara Covington
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
A VERY LUSTY CHRISTMAS
Copyright © 2013 by Cara Covington
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-128-2
First E-book Publication: January 2013
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of
A Very Lusty Christmas
by Cara Covington from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Cara Covington’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Covington’s right to earn a living from her work.
Amanda Hilton, Publisher
Christmas has always been a special time of year for me, a time of family and friends, a time to share love and to reflect on the blessings we’ve all been given.
Who better to represent the spirit of Christmas in Lusty than Grandma Kate?
Kate has been a favorite of you, the readers, since she first appeared in
Love Under Two Honchos
.
Thank you, readers, for continuing to honor me with your continued loyalty. If not for you, I would be nothing.
This book is also dedicated to my son, Anthony. I miss you, baby. But I know we’ll be together again someday.
A VERY LUSTY CHRISTMAS
The Lusty, Texas Collection
CARA COVINGTON
Copyright © 2013
December 24, 2012
“Can I get you anything, Grandma Kate?”
Kate Benedict turned her attention away from the Christmas tree, festooned with decorations gathered over so many years of living. She never tired of the change of seasons or the rhythm of life.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve actually turned ninety-one
. The number amazed her, when she thought about it, because inside, she felt as young at heart as ever.
She felt as young as she had been the very first day she’d set foot in Lusty, Texas.
Kate smiled at Ginny Kendall, one of the several new “granddaughters” she’d been blessed to have gained over the last couple of years. When she looked at Ginny, she saw a little of the young woman she herself had once been.
Married into the family just a few short months ago, her new baby due any day, Ginny had already brought so many blessings to the family. One of those things she’d added to Lusty had been more family—not only her precious son, Benny, but also her only other family member, an aunt she’d just recently met herself. Kate grinned, thinking of the unexpected bonus
that
had turned out to be, for Ginny’s aunt Maggie had recently married Kate’s triplet grandsons.
As if conjured by Kate’s thoughts, Maggie Benedict joined her niece in the doorway of the great room and looked in, her smile soft and, Kate thought, very content looking.
“I don’t need anything, thank you, sweetheart,” Kate said. “I always like to take a little time on Christmas Eve to admire the tree, and the story it tells.”
“Today is your wedding anniversary, isn’t it, Grandma Kate?”
“It is indeed.” Ginny had said “is,” not “was.” Trust Ginny to understand that just because her beloved husbands had left this earth, didn’t mean Kate felt any less married to them. Her thoughts flew back to Sarah Benedict, and the first time she’d met that gracious woman.
Life really is a cycle.
For here was Ginny, and Kate believed the relationship the two of them were building reflected the one she’d had with her own dear husbands’ beloved grandmother.
Ginny came into the great room, and sat beside Kate on the long sofa. Maggie also stepped in, and took the chair adjacent to them.
“How many years is it for you, today?” Ginny asked.
“We married on Christmas Eve, 1942.”
“Seventy years!” Kate grinned at the sound of the new voice, a slight British accent shading the words. Penelope Benedict, her arms, for the moment, empty of her baby daughter Ellie, didn’t stand on ceremony. She came right in and sat next to Kate on her other side.
Kelsey Benedict, another new granddaughter, and Susan Benedict Evans-Magee arrived next and sat down, also without their newborn babies, and Kate knew that elsewhere in this very large house, a number of men had stepped forward to give their wives a break.
Carrie and Chloe Rhodes appeared at the doorway, and with them was Jillian Gillespie Jessop, wearing that very pretty and significant “necklace” that she was never without. The three had become fast friends over the last month. “Come and join us,” Kate said. All three young women were new to Lusty. Jillian had married Robert and David, doctors both, and had already become an integral part of the community. Carrie would marry her grandsons Chase and Brian early in the New Year.
And unless I miss my guess, by this time next year Chloe will have said yes to those two strapping young Jessops who are already completely smitten with her.
Yes, Kate Benedict loved the rhythm of life and never more so than when that rhythm embraced her loved ones, fulfilling dreams, and filling hearts. She also felt very blessed that these vibrant young women had all sought her out—knowing they all understood the significance of the day for her.
It had been a good day today, with family and friends coming in and out of the Big House, and the spirit of family and love and Christmas everywhere. She always missed her beloved husbands, of course. Not a single day went by when she didn’t think about them. But she’d join them one day, of that she had no doubt.
In the meantime she had so many loved ones, she could hardly complain of being lonely. Loneliness had never been a problem for long in Lusty.
Tamara Kendall came into the room, steaming mug in hand, no longer looking as harried as she had when she and her flyboy husbands had arrived just a few hours before.
They’d had a last-minute charter flight two days ago, to Colorado, and then had been stuck there an extra day due to weather. Tamara had settled in and settled down, not needing more than a half hour in the bosom of her new family for her spirit to relax.
For a woman who’d had no real use for family
before
she fell from the sky, she certainly embraced family now. Kate could certainly identify with that change.
Kate felt blessed to be here with all these amazing young women. This house had, over the years, certainly hosted its share of women of strength and courage and heart.
Here in this great room, generations of Benedicts had erected Christmas trees, year after year, as the music of Christmas carols filled the air. This year’s tree had been put up the day after Thanksgiving, as had been their tradition for the last decade. No longer did the family simply purchase a cut tree, either. Ever since Susan had been a young teen fascinated by environmental studies in high school, the Benedict tree had to be a living tree, borrowed and not, as young Susan had plaintively persuaded, “murdered” for the sake of family celebrations.
Cared for by everyone, this tree, like the ones that had come before it, would be replanted on New Year’s Day either in the park, or in someone’s yard.
Kate thought the Alvarez-Kendalls could use another tree in their very lovely backyard.
Kate let her gaze drift back to the tree that Chloe took a moment to admire closer up. From the pine-scented branches dangled ornaments odd and mismatched, old and new. Some had been made by the small hands of children, some by women who’d taken an interest in crafts, and some had been gifts, store-bought and lovingly bestowed and accepted.