Explored By The Mountain Man (In Space)

By Frankie Love

 Boldly going where no mountain man has gone before …

 

I'm determined to make a fortune on this new frontier.

Five years in, my mail-order bride arrives.

How in the hell did I get matched with the daughter of the man that ruined my family's life?

My cabin doesn't have space for any of her drama.

But she's determined to make this work.

Don't know how long I can resist her ... I came here for a big payday ... and I'd never have guessed she would the one leading me to the jackpot.

 

Dear Reader,

There is no alien-love in this mail-order bride romance, promise! Just bearded hotties and the women they've claimed! Nick and Nova's love story is out-of-this-world! #bigbang #intergalacticorgasm #nicerocket

xo, Frankie

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frankie Love
• Release date: Oct 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201950842

Frankie Love

Frankie Love writes filthy-sweet stories about bad boys and mountain men. As a thirty-something mom who is ridiculously in love with her own bearded hottie, she believes in love-at-first-sight and happily-ever-afters. She also believes in the power of a quickie. Get ready to fall in love … you deserve it! **Frankie also writes under the name Charlie Hart!

Book preview

1

Flying across the galaxy to meet my husband was never a part of my life plan.

But my life plans went to shit the moment my family’s scandal hit the press. Apparently, just because my family owns—err owned—hotels, an NFL team, and clothing lines didn’t mean we had a free pass when everything went south.

I never wanted to be in the spotlight. And even though my name is Nova—which literally means ‘new star’—it doesn’t mean I asked for any attention. And just because I spent my life ducking to avoid the paparazzi doesn’t mean they didn’t find me... or that my face wasn’t plastered alongside my picture-perfect family. I was born a Maraday, and I thought I would die a Maraday.

Until I was chosen to go to space.

It all seems a little far-fetched, but what about my life isn’t? All my family vacations were filmed for reality TV, my butt size was analyzed ad nauseam when I was still just a preteen, and when my sisters were hellbent on creating a makeup line, no matter how much I protested, I was wrangled into the branding.

So, really, the fact that I applied to this life-long expedition, and was chosen to move to outer space as a mail-order bride isn’t even the most insane thing that has ever happened to me.

Do you think the guys are going to be like, sex-starved apes? Aurora asks, starting a conversation we’ve had a hundred times over our six-month journey to our new home on the planet Vitaie.

She’s the shyest girl I’ve met on board, but I trust her. Most of the fifty passengers on this ship eye me as if I have the plague—as if they might catch my fallen-from-the-top brand of failure. Thankfully, Aurora has never once judged me—at least to my face—and that counts for an awful lot.

I think they’re going to be more than a little excited to see women after five years alone, Cassie says. That’s a long time for these men to be on Vitaie, working hard to make this planet ready for us... truth is, I think they’re gonna be horny as hell.

Cassie grabs her tablet and scrolls through the database we have of Vitaie. It shows us pictures and gives facts about the environment: lots of red, rocky mountains. The planet has the same season cycle as we have on Earth, similar to the Northwest. And right now it is the end of winter, just like it was back in the United States.

That was helpful for packing purposes, but what we are all curious about is the men.

Unfortunately, no photos have been included of our husbands. We’re guessing the mogul billionaire, Markus Farrow who owns this planet and all space exploration connected to it has his reasons for not disclosing everything before we arrive.

Like, for example, if we knew who we were being sent to marry, we could back out.

And he wants his men to stay there in the mines. The mines are the reason anyone is inhabiting this planet at all. The main objective is to find the hallowed compound, Candeo.

And to keep the miners there happy, they required wives.

But, honestly, Cassie adds, I don’t mind if my husband is growling for my body the moment we meet. I’m pretty sex-starved myself.

Aurora looks at me knowingly and we laugh.

I know you put on this big show of bravado, Cassie, I tease, raising a brow at the street-smart friend I’ve made onboard. But sometimes I wonder if you’re all talk.

If I’m all talk? Cassie shakes her head. No way. I’m not scared of the unknown; I’m up for the challenge. Besides, I’m not a virgin like you two.

I run my hands through my long, blonde hair, anxiety over this decision welling up in my chest again. I chose this, but the truth is I was running away from the family shit-storm more than anything else. Moving to a completely new galaxy seemed like the only way I could escape the shame I feel for the awful things my family did. Even if I had no idea about their law-breaking decisions, my name is attached to them.

No one on planet Earth would ever date me, let alone marry me.

I had to go.

Which means I’m going to meet my life partner in exactly twenty-four hours. The moment this ship lands, we’ll be whisked off to our husbands. We signed the marriage contracts, the deal was made in writing before we stepped aboard this craft.

I remember staring at the contract, my hands not shaking in the slightest. This opportunity is more than a once in a lifetime chance––this is everything.

I never imagined being able to live my life on my own terms, but now I am. Now I get to be a wife, a partner––with a man my parents and sisters know nothing about. This has nothing to do with them.

This is my choice, my life.

I know it’s going to be out of my comfort zone––but I want a challenge. I want to look back at my life and feel like it was meaningful … and not in some grand way. If I could have a husband who loves me for me, a child who I can raise, and a house to make a home––then I would feel like the luckiest woman in the universe.

And it’s really happening.

And somehow, even though we are embarking on the most exciting thing any woman has done in human history––we are still discussing the birds and the bees.

Cassie frowns, probably noticing how unenthusiastic Aurora and I are about this whole sex-with-a-stranger concept.

You guys have to at least be a little excited about the prospects of a husband. Otherwise, why would you have come? Cassie pushes. Besides, we all know the deal— we're going to this planet to be wives and to give these men children. We will be responsible for the first generation of humans born somewhere besides planet Earth.

At this, Aurora’s eyes fall away, and I know she has secrets she hasn’t shared. Me? My life is an open book, so long as you picked up the latest copy of People magazine.

I’m excited to be a mother, Aurora says tentatively. I mean, you’re right; I chose this. I would never have had the courage to date back home, let alone bear a man’s children. This forces me out of my comfort zone; like, way out. Like, freaking outer space, out. She shakes her head, incredulous. I totally understand. We have volunteered to go to a new world. We’re pioneers.

I feel a kinship to the East-Coast women who boarded trains in the 1800’s as mail-order brides, being shipped to the men in the Wild West. We’re going to a new frontier.

But it isn’t quite as bleak as those women on the freight trains. I look around the posh lounge where we’re sitting in our pajamas, drinking wine and passing the never-ending hours. And while this is worse than being stuck on a cruise ship with my sisters—a vacation we took maybe a thousand times since my parents owned a cruise line— it certainly isn’t roughing it.

I’m just grateful Cassie and Aurora gave me a chance, didn’t judge me based on things they’d read.

And I hope like hell my husband doesn’t either.

There isn’t going to be another ship coming to Vitaie for five more years. This marriage has to work.

There is no way out of this contract. There aren’t exactly spaceships coming to get the women if they decide they aren’t interested in their new mate.

This person I’ve been paired with is my one and only chance at a happily-ever-after, at having a family again.

I just hope he doesn’t even know who I am.

People on the outside would never guess it, but my life has been lonely. I came here because I want a partner, someone who is in it along with me—not cutthroat like my parents, who believe every man is out for himself.

What about you, Nova, Cassie asks, are you at least a little excited?

I swirl the red wine in my glass, sinking deeper into the leather couch, knowing once we leave this space ship we won’t have these modern luxuries. We will only have what there is waiting for us on this new planet.

The thing is, that is perfectly fine by me. There was nothing on Earth that I wanted anymore.

There’s a lot about this choice that I’m excited for, I tell them, and not just because they seem to need to hear my enthusiasm as a way to combat their own fear. I’m excited to explore an entirely new planet and getting pregnant is obviously something we are all here to do. But mostly, I’m excited to have a husband who has my back.

Cassie snorts. Oh, he’ll have you on your back alright. I’m guessing within the first few hours.

Aurora and I throw