BWWM Holiday Romance Books | Black Woman's Christmas Marriage | An Interracial Steamy Romance
Black Woman’s Christmas Marriage is my upcoming novella that culminates in some holiday happiness. It might not be your traditional “Christmas” story but there’s a lot of tension between the 33-year-old virgin Lucie and Felipe Cortez, her sensual Spanish suitor. Lucie’s 100% a late bloomer. I wrote her story inspired by many late bloomers that I’ve known throughout my life who think something is “wrong” if they don’t find the right guy ASAP. There’s nothing wrong with waiting for “THE ONE” to lose it! I wanted to explore someone innocent and truly naïve, similar to Alice in Purchased For Pleasure, but a bit older.
This story also has a plus sized lead character. I know readers ask for plus sized characters and then when I publish them, more readers as for petite characters. So there’s a balance. Plus, I won’t mind if you imagine the character however you want her to look. Seriously. Hopefully her personality and the dynamic between the man and woman jumps off the page with enough zest that you can picture her however you want.
It’s only natural to want to know who inspired certain characters, however. Even if Felipe is a Spaniard, I was definitely inspired by some hunky Italian men on Pinterest. Huge muscles, tanned skin, and brilliant eyes that just draw you in. Lucie is a woman like millions of women out there — beautiful, dark-skinned, and plus-sized. She hasn’t had luck with love and believed she would save herself for marriage…
Felipe wants to change that. Real freakin bad. If this sounds like a good time to you, check out the first chapter here. Click this button to pre-order the book. It’s the perfect thing to order and totally forget about so no matter what, you can have a gift you’ll LOVE on Christmas morning. 🎁
Black Woman’s Christmas Marriage Excerpt | Chapter One
Lucie felt lucky that Felipe Cortez had asked her out on a second date. Their first date had gone well, but Lucie knew that given her position on certain topics, most modern men weren’t likely to call her back. It has just been the reality of her adult life. Lucie had avoided the subject of sex on the first date this time around, and thus, she had avoided what would surely be an awkward confrontation.
Lucie was 33 years old… and single. It wasn’t because she wanted to be single. Lucie wanted marriage. Proper love. Proper marriage. A proper godly man. Most men were surprised to find out she was 33 and hadn’t ended one marriage. Divorce was common enough, sure. But Lucie didn’t want to get married only to divorce the guy later. According to the men she met out in the world, most 33-year-old women had a divorce or two under their belts at least. She’d tried dating guys from church, guys who weren’t into dating apps and getting drunk every weekend, but they’d been worse than the guys who expected her to give it up on the first night.
That wasn’t Lucie’s M.O. In fact, if she got married, she intended for that marriage to last forever. Too many people didn’t take these vows seriously enough. Lucie often bitterly reflected on the fact that too many of those people were married anyway, and she wasn’t.
But perhaps she had a chance with this guy. Lucie hadn’t had a second date in a while. When Felipe had asked her out again, she figured she won the jackpot. Life or her beliefs often impeded dealing with men. Don’t listen to what anyone tells you, modern dating sucks! Lucie considered joining a convent.
Felipe looked over at his date and wondered what she was thinking. Sometimes she would drift off into marked periods of silence while he talked on and on. Felipe’s inner mind was also active. He was looking his date up and down, wondering if he would have time to take her home that night. She looked like a woman who enjoyed sex. At least he’d enjoy sex with her. Lucie. Such an innocent name. And she stammered every time he looked at her directly. He didn’t want a second date with her at first. She was a prude. He’d hinted about taking her up to his room and she shut down.
But dating the women who went home with him the first night had grown boring. He’d had too much meaningless sex. And this quiet, nervous 33-year-old woman acted like she’d never even been with a man before. He liked that. She was safe. She was careful. She was everything he wasn’t. So against his instinct to find a club rat whose legs he could spread after a shot of Hennessy, he called Lucie. And to his surprise, she agreed to a second date. Cautious, he reminded himself. Dating her was appropriately cautious. Ever since what happened with Bertha, he wanted to be cautious. Felipe hadn’t even expected to be in this position again. He thought that he had given up on dating.
Lucie was nothing like Bertha. Even her appearance was completely different. Lucie had shoulder length thick curly black hair. She had deep burnt umber colored skin and eyes so brown they were almost black. They gleamed and glistened in the light of the Thai restaurant, revealing Lucie’s inner fire. She sipped her drink slowly; Felipe couldn’t stop fantasizing about what else her plump rosy lips could do. Lucie was tall, almost 5’8” and she was more chubby. Bigger women made Felipe’s cock hard. I’m a bastard, he thought to himself. All he could think about as he watched her twist noodles around her chopsticks and put them in his mouth was having those lips wrapped around something else. And seeing what she wore beneath her shockingly conservative clothing.
Felipe wondered if she dressed conservatively because she was bigger, or if there was some other reason. He’d known women Lucie’s size insecure about their weight. He loved getting those women into bed and unleashing their inner sexual goddesses. But some women were confident and never brought up their weight. He’d have fun with those women, too. Any woman, as long as she enjoyed fucking, was a perfect candidate for a night with Felipe Cortez. Lucie wore a very long black skirt with no slit and a white top that didn’t reveal any of her cleavage. Her breasts were enormous — of course. He’d love to run his tongue along the giant nipples and make her moan. Felipe realized he was spacing out and his eyes had wandered to Lucie’s breasts. The marked absence of her cleavage piqued his curiosity.
He cleared his throat.
“So you were telling me that your parents are from Martinique?” Felipe murmured.
They’d both been quiet for too long. Felipe noted the silence didn’t feel uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to bore her either.
Lucie answered, “Yeah, I was born there… But my French is terrible so I never really go back. It’s why my name sounds so dramatic… Lucie Dupont.”
It made sense. Felipe knew there was something different about her. She was doubly exotic. Black and from a tiny little country. With wonderful wine. And wonderfully beautiful women.
Felipe continued, “Well it’s a beautiful name…”
Lucie smiled at the compliment. “What exactly do you do for work, Felipe? You sort of explained it to me last time but honestly I can’t remember for the life of me,” She asked.
Felipe swallowed his mouthful of rice noodles.
“I’m an investment banker,” He said. Felipe hated having to tell women early on, but he was trying to lay his cards out early.
Of course he was. It forced Lucie to wonder how a guy like this could be single. He was thirty-nine years old, gorgeous and wealthy, but there was no woman in the picture? It just didn’t seem to add up. Lucie knew there was something going on beneath the surface, but it felt too soon to ask. She found Felipe suspicious and too awkward for a guy that hot. He looked like a player. But players don’t call you back for second dates, Lucie reasoned.
If my parents didn’t shelter me so much, I’d know, Lucie thought to herself. Her parents forced her not to date until she was 22. Unless she wanted to pay for university with loans, she had to obey their rules.
Her friends would tell her that there’s no way they’d ever find out. But they didn’t know the Dupont family. They’d know. And they’d ruin her life if she got a boyfriend too soon.
At least he was smart — for a guy who looked like a supermodel and an athlete. They were both interested in reading as much as they could get their hands on about ancient empires. Lucie had studied ancient Greek in college for her minor and Felipe had majored in Classics so he was familiar with both Latin and Greek. They were both totally nerdy for works most people hated, like the Iliad or the Odyssey.
Felipe and Lucie were debating whether the system of Greek honor and glory needed a modern revival for a good thirty minutes before they realized the restaurant was emptying around them. Felipe was getting it in his head that he wanted to take Lucie home. She was gorgeous, intelligent, and he couldn’t figure out how a woman that beautiful could have remained on the market for so long. He paid the tab in full and escorted Lucie outside. He wanted to sleep with her now more than ever. But she’d kept their conversation 100% unromantic. It was fun, but she didn’t seem like she thought of sex.
How could that be possible? She oozed raw sensuality. He wanted to squeeze it out of her. Or maybe he wanted to squeeze her. He wanted to press her body beneath his. He wanted to pin her hands over her head and make her beg for his cock. That was the real fun: finding girls who didn’t seem to care for sex and making them beg for his cock by the time he finished with them.
Her apartment wasn’t far from the restaurant, so Felipe offered to walk her home. Not just because he was hoping to get lucky that night; he worried about a woman braving the city streets at night. As Lucie walked home with the gorgeous man at her side, she felt her faith being tested. Felipe was the perfect guy in every way. He got Lucie’s love for ancient literature. He understood that although she was soft-spoken and quiet, that didn’t mean she was a fool or someone to mess with.
Would he drop her like a hot potato once he found out this side to Lucie? So many men had done so in the past and they’d been up front about it too… They weren’t afraid to tell her that was exactly why they had left. Lucie was self-conscious about her faith.
Lucie didn’t want to mess things up with Felipe, but she would not compromise her morals just because he was sexy. Sure, Felipe was well over six feet tall and he had gorgeous dark brown hair and blue eyes. Sure, he had a smile that could captivate an entire room. Yes, he could talk her ear off about a subject no one else could even level with her on. That didn’t mean she had to compromise her virtues and her biggest value system. Lucie knew that eventually she would have to come clean. She would have to tell Felipe the truth. But for now, she was fighting her urge to take things further with him.
When they arrived outside of her apartment door, the time to tell the truth came sooner than Lucie had expected. Felipe stopped and gave her that look. Lucie knew what that look meant. She knew that what Felipe wanted more than anything was to take her upstairs and experience the sins of the flesh. But Lucie couldn’t give in to lust just yet…
As Felipe moved in to kiss her, Lucie stopped him.
“Wait!” She said.
Felipe pulled back. That was it. This was the moment he was going to find out the woman standing before him was just another crazy. She was probably just as bad as Bertha…
Lucie continued, “I’m sorry… It’s not that I don’t like you… But you can’t come upstairs with me. I should have probably told you this earlier but… I don’t believe in having sex before marriage.”
Relief washed over him. Ah. Religion. That explained everything. Why she was so buttoned up. And why he sensed she wanted those buttons popped open. He licked his lips and leaned against the wall outside. He wanted to have sex with her more than ever before. But it relieved him to find out she was religious because this meant she wasn’t crazy and she would not tell him she had an STD or something.
Wait. If she didn’t believe in sex before marriage…
“Are you a virgin?”
Lucie’s face twisted into a dissatisfied scowl.
“Yes.”
“Hm.”
“Problem?”
Felipe wanted to tell her yes. It was a big problem because he’d spent the entire night wondering how to get into her pants. He wanted to fuck her more than he’d wanted to fuck any woman in a while. And now she was a virgin. Until marriage. He was never getting married.
“No,” he answered, his voice emerging more forcefully than he intended, “Can you kiss before marriage?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll kiss you.”
She leaned in and pressed her lips to his. He was the perfect kisser. She held him close for a few seconds. She let him push his tongue into her mouth. And then she pulled away. Any more of Felipe and she didn’t know if she couldn’t hold herself back. Self-control was critical at a time like this.
“Did you enjoy that?”
She nodded. He wanted her. He could have her if he set his mind to it. She wouldn’t be the first virgin he’d convinced. But he didn’t want the crying after. The regretful phone calls. No sex until marriage? Hm. Felipe’s eyes glimmered blue in the light from the streetlamp. He shoved his hands into his pockets.
“Lucie. I enjoyed kissing you. I’d love to do it more.”
Felipe said goodnight one last time and walked out onto the empty street back to his home.
When Felipe finally arrived in the sanctuary of his luxury apartment, he realized he had a voicemail. A voicemail on his landline meant it could only be one person. But he was sick of hearing from her. He was sick of her begging. He was of sick everything about her.
Felipe still couldn’t resist listening to the voice mail. He couldn’t resist letting her in in little ways like that. Her hold on him was tight despite his commitment to leaving her. Felipe didn’t even realize the extent to which she controlled him. Bertha’s hands clasped around his heart, even if he knew just how toxic she could be. He had to date. He had to dream about fucking other women. It was the only way he could let her go forever.
He pressed play. Her captivating voice filled every corner of the room as if she were standing right behind him.
Hey… It’s me. I miss you. How many times do I have to say I’m sorry? Please give me another chance. Things will be different this time, I promise… I know it sounds clichéd, but we were meant to be. Everyone always said how good we looked together. I can’t bear the thought of you being with someone else. You belong to me, Felipe. I love you. Why don’t you come back? Why are you being so stubborn? I’ve already apologized 1000 times… I don’t know what you want for me. I guess I’m just calling to let you know I miss you. Come back to me…
Bertha. Felipe’s ex-fiancée left him a voicemail like that nearly every night. It had been three weeks since she had called off the wedding and since Felipe has found her in bed with a man she claimed was her gay yoga instructor. Based on the position he had found them in, at least she wasn’t lying about him being a yoga instructor. But she had lied about everything else. Felipe was heartbroken. He had moved out instantly to his old apartment. They called the wedding off. His life had fallen apart. Each day without her felt more painful than the last. In his quest to get over her, he had dated again, but nothing worked to evict her from his memory.
Nights when he thought he was moving on, she would leave a voicemail just like that and hearing her voice again he would be hooked in and hypnotized. Did she know what she was doing? Did she know how hard it was for him to move on when she kept calling him like that?
Felipe pressed play and listen to the voicemail again. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t help giving her one more chance to state her case. He pictured Bertha’s face as he listened to it. Bertha’s most visible trait was her heterochromia. Her entire life, she had a streak of white hair that stood out against her strawberry blonde strands. She had one eye that was bright blue like the ocean and another that was dark like an abyss…
Bertha had blinding self-confidence. Partly because she had received so much attention for her rare genetic condition, and she perceived the attention as adoration and a declaration of her beauty. And in fact she was average, suburban and unsexy. She drew Felipe in despite that. They’d never had amazing sex. Felipe knew it wasn’t him. He’d fucked plenty of women. Bertha just… she didn’t turn him on. It was something else.
Perhaps there was something hypnotic about her strange eye color. Felipe thought. Otherwise there had to be something else about her. She had the talent of knowing how to please men. She knew exactly what made him tick. She held Felipe’s emotions in her palm she wasn’t afraid to toy with them to get exactly what she wanted. And when what she wanted was Felipe, he had felt ecstatic… He had felt like she was his one genuine love.
Just listening to that voicemail, Felipe completely forgot about his date. Why call that girl back, anyway? She was deep in some kind of Christian faith, obviously, and Felipe didn’t know if he wanted a church mouse. How had the church helped him? No… He was thinking about Bertha. Bertha wanted him again. Yes, she had betrayed him, but maybe she was right. Maybe things would be different if he just gave her another chance.
Lucie did not understand what sorts of ideas Felipe was turning around in his head after their second date. In her world, everything had gone perfectly. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. Perhaps if she had any idea what he was preoccupied about, she would have gotten over him quickly. But Lucie didn’t know. All she could think about was what was coming next. Would he call her? Where would they go on their third date? Was he looking for something real and serious here?
He’d love to kiss her more. Lucie thought about that all night.
The next day, Lucie didn’t hear a word from Felipe, but she didn’t mind. She had an appointment to get her nails done with her best friend, Chanice Austin. Chanice and Lucie had been best friends since they were kids. Lucie relied on her for everything from spiritual advice to relationship advice. Chanice was one of these people wise beyond her years. She had been through so much in her life that even if she was young; she possessed more wisdom than the oldest crone. She was Lucie’s rock, and she would know exactly how to handle Lucie’s uncertainty with this new relationship.
Lucie and Chanice sat next to each other while a plump Vietnamese manicurist got to work on their nails. Chanice was eager to find out whether Lucie had taken her recent date home. Heck, Chanice was a devout Christian but there were some things that God would just have to understand…
“No! Told you time and time again girl, I’m not having sex with a guy until I get married,” Lucie said.
Chanice side eyed Lucie hard. “Girl, you must be joking. You are 33 years old and you aren’t getting any younger. I’m not saying God doesn’t have a plan for you… but I’m just saying. How much longer are you going to wait? I think if you like a guy and you’re coming from a pure place, the Lord will understand,” Chanice said.
Maybe Chanice was right. But at this stage, Lucie had committed to her virginity. She had gone 33 years, and she didn’t even shave her legs. Her strict Martinican parents had always told her it was something that “fast” women did and had expressly forbidden it while she was growing up. Going into her 30s, Lucie held on to these old-fashioned West Indian beliefs and she kept all her body hair untouched. Lucie also never dressed herself inappropriately. She kept her body covered. It was for her husband. Even if this “husband” hadn’t bothered to turn up yet.
She did everything by the books. Lucie believed perfection was what would ensure she got to the kingdom of heaven. She went to church every week and Bible study each Wednesday. She was a devout Catholic, and she would not change now. She had her beliefs for 33 years. She had made her first holy communion with the Lord when she was seven years old and she had confirmed in the faith when she was 14. Nothing would change.
Lucie gave that whole lecture to Chanice, who had heard Lucie’s beliefs a thousand times. That girl was too stubborn in her faith. Chanice shared Lucie’s faith, but she also believed that nobody could be perfect. God had created imperfect beings intentionally. Who was she to question her own imperfections if they were by God’s design? Chanice spoke to Lucie at greater length about how much Lucie liked this guy, taking care to avoid the shaky topic of sex and virginity.
“I just feel like once guys find out I’m a virgin, they don’t want to call me back. I just don’t think I’m going to get a third date out of him,” Lucie said.
Chanice replied, “Are you telling me you are 33 years old and you’re too afraid to make the first move and ask a guy out? Girl, you really live in the dark ages.”
“Not the dark ages, I’m just traditional. I don’t see what’s wrong with that, you know,” Lucie said pouting. At the very least, the polish the manicurist was putting on her nails looked beautiful. That cheered her up a bit, even if she wasn’t hearing what she wanted to from Chanice.
Chanice understood where her friend was coming from, but she also knew that Lucie needed a kick in the butt more than anything.
“The second we leave here, you had better call him up and ask him out for a third date if you want one. I ain’t playing with you anymore, you need to take this man seriously if you ever want to get booed up forever,” Chanice chastised.
The manicurist finally finished. Chanice and Lucie admired their matching look, and Chanice walked Lucie home so she could monitor her and make sure she called Felipe and asked him out again. She was serious about kick starting Lucie’s love life. Chanice was tired of this woman complaining about how single she was all the time. She was ready to take the bull by the horns if Lucie wouldn’t.
When they got to Lucie’s apartment, Chanice pestered Lucie until she called him.
This was the first time Lucie had stepped out of her comfort zone for a chance at love.
* * *
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