A Bitch In Time (Marina: Part One: Naughty Nookie Series)
Read A Bitch In Time (Marina: Part One: Naughty Nookie Series) Online
Authors: Serena Akeroyd
A Bitch In Time
By
Serena Akeroyd
Marina: Part One
Naughty Nookie Series
The right of Gemma Mazurke to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places
and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used
fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to
actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without
written permission from the author.
First
Kindle Edition, December 2013
Copyright © Gemma Mazurke 2013
Cover design
by Clarissa Yeo
http://www.bookcoversale.com
#FallIntoLove
#CrazyLittleThingCalledLust
#AllThatGlitters
#CanBeGold
#ABitchInTime
#NaughtyNookie
To
my Ibiza family, Chilly Tilly, Giselle and now, Katrina, as well as every
single person who opened Mona’s books and found a story they wanted to read.
Thank
you.
Your
support means more than any word in my vocabulary.
“It’s about time you brought
her home, Nathan. And don’t try to lie to me. I know why you fly
out to Chicago every couple of months or so.”
Even though Nathan Conroy
could feel the red starting to crawl over his cheeks, he refused to let the
blush out. He narrowed his eyes at Samuel Denison, Marina’s uncle and the
guardian of the ranch while the real owner pissed around in Manhattan.
Marina had been out of state for nearly a decade and the Boss Man, as Sam liked
to call himself, had decided enough was enough. Nate was getting sick and
tired of the earache.
“What do you want me to do,
old man?” he bit out, thoroughly pissed off at yet another argument
revolving around Marina. “Hog tie her and bundle her on to the
plane? You’ve never managed to get her out here full-time. What
makes you think I can?”
Samuel snorted. “That
log between your legs has to be of more use than just denting your pants.
Get her back here. Do what you have to do, whatever you need to do to get
her home. I’m too old to be looking after this damned place. I
never wanted the responsibility when I was younger, so I sure as hell don’t
want it now!
“She’s had ten years of
freedom. Now it’s time for her to get her ass over here and sort this
place out.” He nodded stoutly, sure in his words as though it were God
himself who’d decreed them. “Anyway, my research has just come back from
the committee. I’m up for swag in Sweden. I might need to fly over
there for the ceremony.
Only here could the Nobel
Prize be dismissed as something to collect. Or a free air ticket to
Sweden. These guys collected them like they were baseball cards.
“If you know
why
I go
to Chicago, you’ll also know I’ve been making the damned trip for nearly five
years. In all that time, Marina has never wanted to come back. What
makes you think she’ll change her mind now?”
“I don’t know and I don’t
care. But you’re out of a job if you can’t get her back home.”
Nathan snorted. “That
threat won’t wash. The community would fall apart without me!”
“Well, think of them,
then. They need a leader. You. They can’t have you, if I fire
your ass. They need the real head of this place, too! Christ, how
Marina can stand to be away from Blue Ridge is beyond me.” The old man
shivered. “No, that place is no good for her. She needs to be home
and she needs to take control of the community. I’m too old for the weird
shit that’s been going on down here.”
Nathan had to withhold a
snort. Samuel certainly had a way with words. A weird mixture of
modern slang and old-fashioned jargon. Anything from
being down with
the kids
to refusing to be a
Big Daddy
a.k.a old person, he would
and could butcher the best of phrases.
In this instance, by weird
shit, Samuel meant homosexual relationships between some of the members of the
community. As of July, they had fourteen same-sex couples. That was
fourteen too many for Sam’s liking, but then, the old bastard belonged in the
Old West, not in the new millennia.
Marina wasn’t likely to
condemn the members of the commune who had come out, so what changes Sam
thought she’d implement, Nathan didn’t know.
He didn’t say that,
though. It wasn’t worth wasting his breath. With the bit between
his teeth, Sam could be worse than a yet-to-be-broken-in yearling.
Samuel sat back in his old
leather desk chair. It creaked under his substantial weight; most of it
centered about his gut, as he leant further back and settled his legs atop the
desk. “No. She has to take care of the breeding program. I’m
too old for that shit.”
On a ranch, the breeding
program Sam should have been discussing was between the cattle. But not
on Blue Ridge. He was talking about the human genetics experiment that
had been taking place on this land for the last hundred and twenty years.
Ever since Marina’s great, great, great granddaddy had decided the world was
full of too many idiots. He’d taken it upon himself to rectify the
situation.
Blue Ridge had been the home
to over seven thousand geniuses since its inception. Three hundred
currently rested their heads here. Everything from artists to writers,
mathematicians to scientists used this place as their base. There were
labs and studios, classrooms and writing rooms… Blue Ridge protected each
of its members and only asked that more genius stock should be propagated to
ensure the
IQ Commune
never died out.
As well as act as unpaid ranch
hands on the business that funded the entire project.
But Samuel was referring to
said propagation, when he made those comments. Ever since Mark and David,
two of the commune’s members, had flown down to LA to get married, and then
returned to the ranch, the old man had been concerned. Homophobia was
still alive and kicking in these parts. But at Blue Ridge, it was a
different variety to the usual kind.
The older folk tended to be
more vocal about their disapproval, but no one ever came to blows. It
wasn’t that sort of place. And the problem didn’t stem from their dislike
of the idea of two men or two women together. It was the lack of
necessary reproductive
organs that concerned the
older generation. Two men or two women couldn’t have a child. As
such, there was talk about a sperm donation service amongst the same sex
couples. While it concerned Samuel, his focus tended to stray unless he
was deep in the throes of a discussion on molecular chemistry.
Nate scrubbed a hand over his
face. Knowing the old bastard was concerned, he muttered, “I’ll see what
I can do.” Samuel’s face lit up but he shook his head at the sight.
“Don’t get your hopes up.”
The warning went unheard.
Samuel smacked his hands
together and gleefully rocked back and forth to the squeaks of a complaining
desk chair. “You’ll get her back here. Don’t you worry about
that. I have faith in you, my boy. You might be from the East, but
you’ve proven yourself time and time again.”
Nathan wasn’t too sure, but
he’d given up trying to change the obstinate old goat’s opinions, when his mind
was made up. Especially when he’d just been on the receiving end of Sam’s
highest compliment. There was nothing better in Sam’s eyes than being
from the West.
Sinking back the shot of
brandy Samuel had poured him, something he should have realized came with
conditions, he left the old man to it. Stalking out of the office, he
then strode down the darkened hall and up the stairs towards his own quarters.
He couldn’t deny he’d like
Marina to get her ass back home. He was damned tired of making the
journey to O’Hare. Chicago was a long way away from Blue Ridge but
sad-sap that he was; he’d continue doing it to keep on seeing her.
Nate
had
never imagined he’d get entangled with a woman the way he had with Marina; but
then, she was unique enough to make a man lose his head. Not that she
knew that and not that he intended to tell her.
No, soft words weren’t his way
and they weren’t Marina’s either. He’d have to scare her to get her back
home. He didn’t like the idea of it, but needs must. Moreover, Sam
was right. He
was
too old to be running the ranch. His ideas
were out-moded and his views were too traditional. Already four families
had left the ranch, even though it had been their home and their ancestors’
homes for the last sixty years, because Sam had managed to insult them.
Usually over the pettiest of arguments.
If Marina wanted a home to
come back to, then she’d have to see to the messes her guardian had
created. It was her place, in her blood, but even so, she was
unpredictable enough for him to doubt the likelihood of success on this particular
mission.
When he’d first come to Blue
Ridge, he’d had an ulterior motive for chancing his luck by applying for a
position he wasn’t physically capable of holding. As time passed, his
reason for being here diminished and the reason for that was the woman who had
grasped him by the balls the instant she’d sat in front of him at his
interview.
Cool, calm and collected until
their eyes caught and held. Flames had shimmered in the pretty hazel
orbs, augmenting the brown so the blue was almost swallowed up in the fire of
her desire. And it had been desire. He’d seen it; felt it and his
body had reacted to it.
They’d been together, off and
on, ever since.
With her back at the ranch,
taking control over some parts of the day-to-day management, maybe he’d have
time to see to the matters that had brought him here in the first place.
Who was he kidding?
He’d never relinquish all
control. He’d grown to love this place as much as he loathed it.
And any excess energies he had wouldn’t be wasted on solving a twenty-year old
mystery. No, it would be focused on fucking Marina until the cold little
bitch turned to fire in his arms again. Until staying in the depths of
Montana was no longer a chore for her, but a pleasure.
As he toed out of his boots, a
grin crossed his jaw at the thought of Marina here at the ranch.
Every
night
. His cock stiffened at the prospect and as he kicked out of his
jeans, he grabbed his shaft and tugged. If he weren’t on the brink of a visit
with Marina, he’d jack off. In four days, he’d have her at his sexual
beck and call and he’d be at hers.
And she was always as ravenous
as he was. That alone was a turn on and enough to have him groaning as he
crawled into bed and slipped under the chilly covers. His cock made a
tent under the sheet as he laid back, arm behind his head propping him upright.
He thought of the last time
they’d visited and another smile curved his mouth at the memory of her pert
little ass. The caustic but engaging conversation. The attitude
that could have arousal revving through his system and his cock hard in zero to
two seconds.
No, he felt no compunction in
calling her a bitch, but she was
his
bitch. Cold, calculating… she
was everything he hadn’t realized he wanted in a woman.
She kept him on his toes,
sexually and mentally. She was his equal.
What that made him, Nate
didn’t know.
A bastard?
He’d never considered himself
as being that, but then, Marina was more than just a bitch. At heart, she
was soft.
Think rock hard dark chocolate
with a gooey caramel center. Hard on the outside, the shell brittle, but
molten at the center.
She had secrets, did his
lover. He’d long ago promised himself he’d figure out what they were and
now, he had the chance. Marina wasn’t the woman she portrayed to the
world. She was something else, he just didn’t know what and maybe that
was why she’d held his attentions for far longer than any other woman had…
She was complex, a
puzzle. A riddle wrapped up in slight curves, with breasts that filled
his hands to perfection, a fanny that didn’t quit and a pussy that nigh on
burned him as soon as he slipped inside her.
No, Marina was
different. And she was worth fighting for, even if he didn’t know what
secret battles he’d have to undertake to win her.
He pondered the thought as he
stared at the ceiling. His eyes drooped and with it, his cock.
Before he drifted off to sleep, a thought occurred to him. If he
did
succeed
in getting her back here, then he’d get to climb into her bed every night
instead of once in a blue moon.
No more blue balls. He
grinned. Now that idea was one worth fighting for.
