“What about kids?” Ecaterina asked.
“What about them?” Bethany Anne asked, “Oh, you are asking what happens with kids?” Ecaterina nodded, “Well, it won’t be an accident. The guys are all shooting blanks right now due to the enhancements.”
“But, they are shooting?” Jean asked grinning.
“As far as I know, Ms. Dukes.” Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow to the woman, “Unless you need further research done?”
“Well,” Jean allowed, “If I have to sacrifice my body on the altar of John Grimes, I’m just saying that …” Jean noticed the ladies all staring at her. Everyone had a smile on their face except Barb, whose mouth was open in surprise. Jean blushed, “Can I just say that I’m used to working with men, and they tend to be a little more blunt?”
“You can,” Gabrielle admitted, “but it won’t erase what we heard.”
“On the altar of John Grimes?” Cheryl Lynn asked. “That is erotically poetic I think.”
“You should have seen him snap that lock in his fingers,” Jean said, twisting her right hand in the air, “God, what a turn on.”
“I’d say you are still pretty turned on,” Patricia allowed, smirking.
“What happened to the Chief Engineer?” Gabrielle said.
Jean made a face, “Well, I could say it was fun while it lasted, but it didn’t last long enough to be too much fun. I learned that he admired me for a few years, but he has been in love with space for decades. Space is such a slut.”
“Chose to go out to the asteroid belt?” Cheryl Lynn guessed.
Jean nodded, “Yeah, the new ship they are working on caught his imagination. Apparently, nothing we have down here is nearly as sexy as the first spaceship in existence. Thank God we never went to bed, I don’t know if my ego could handle being second fiddle to a space ship.”
“Well, isn’t that what we are asking anyone who is with the guys?” Bethany Anne brought the question back around, “to be second fiddle to me?”
Jean shook her head, “No, because you embody the future. That’s what I meant by a figurehead. You are ‘you’, but you are also what we are striving to do all of this for, to save the planet. I’m ok being second fiddle to something that important, but a spaceship is just a huge vibrator. A technological plaything that has his imagination and I can see that he is going to be infatuated with that bitch for a few years.”
“Angry much?” Gabrielle asked.
“No, well yes in a way.” Jean said, “Not so much about Chief Rodriquez following his dream, I think that is great. It’s more that I knew that he admired me for a few years, and it felt really good with all of the other shit that has happened to me. Now, I’m playing second fiddle to his space dream and my ego took a hit.”
“Oh.” Gabrielle replied, “Just making sure you are not rebounding on to John, I wouldn’t agree to that.” She kept her face pointed at Jean until the woman noticed the action and nodded her understanding.
“No, at the moment I’ll admit I don’t want John Grimes for his intellect, which he seems to have plenty of if you ask me. I just want him for his body.” She shrugged, “I just want to spend all night trying to get my brains fucked out. I admire and respect him for what he does, but it is the man inside that has me ready to load my weapons!”
Patricia put a hand over her mouth as she snickered at the blunt answer from Jean.
“So, how exactly did this conversation go into the gutter so fast?” Ecaterina asked.
“Sweetie, you must have had a very sheltered childhood,” Patricia told her.
“My childhood was on a mountain,” Ecaterina answered, “or with my brother.” She allowed.
“Well, that answers that question,” Cheryl Lynn said. “You need more girl time before it’s all babies and diapers.”
“Ladies,” Bethany Anne interrupted, “And I’m starting to wonder about using that word now – I need you to focus!”
“Hey, did we ever get the baby name?” Gabrielle asked before looking back to Bethany Anne, “Oh, sorry!”
“She can tell you the baby’s name,” Bethany Anne spoke in a clipped fashion, “At the end of my damned meeting!”
Twenty minutes later after finally getting the women to focus, there was a knock on the door and Tabitha stepped in. She was wearing a pair of leather pants and an Under Armor shirt. This caused Bethany Anne to raise her eyebrows.
Gabrielle stood up and stepped over to met her with a hug, “Hey shrimp! Those don’t look too bad on you.”
Tabitha looked down at the leather pants, “You mean you’re jelly my ass makes them look good, right?” She looked back up grinning at the vampire. “Because, let’s face it, European asses just don’t got that slap!” She smiled as she popped herself on her butt.
“Whatever,” Gabrielle allowed, “C’mon and sit down before I slap you, you disrespectful cur.”
Bethany Anne nodded to Tabitha, “One second, Tabitha. Ok, Patricia, Barb, and Gabrielle are going to take the next steps, and we will talk again. Get with ADAM if you need to speak to me on this.” The others stood up from the table and started making their way to leave.
Barb came around and gave Bethany Anne a hug and whispered in her ear, “What about Frank?”
Bethany Anne looked at Barb, “I thought you were going to deal with that? You aren’t?”
Barb blushed, “Well, I’d like to. Perhaps not quite as emphatically as Jean.”
Bethany Anne thought a moment, “You need to remember that while Frank looks in his late twenties or early thirties, he is a product of a century ago. You might need to take him in hand to get him moving.”
Barb smiled, “Well, I think I can take something in hand and then I’ll have his attention.”
Barb turned to walk out with a smile on her face, completely missing Bethany Anne’s look of total shock as her eyes followed the woman out of the room.
“What?” Patricia asked getting Bethany Anne’s head to turn back to her, “you didn’t think she had that in her?”
“I’m not sure what I thought, but I’m wondering if Dukes is creating monsters here.” Bethany Anne answered the older woman.
“Well kid, I’ve got to go jump your Dad.” Patricia told Bethany Anne, “All this talk of manly men has my heart pumping and it’s time he takes care of the home front,” she said and started chuckling as she walked towards the door.
“That’s…” Bethany Anne started, but Patricia was already at the door laughing at the expression she suspected was on Bethany Anne’s face, “just not right…” Bethany Anne finally overcame a strong desire to stick her tongue out at Patricia’s back.
Bethany Anne turned to regard Tabitha, who looked up at her. “And now, that leaves you,” she told her.
TO BE CONTINUED…
From Michael >> Ok, we are getting down to the wire! This is the end of Chapter 4. The most I’ve ever ‘snippeted’ was 6 chapters when we did the big Internet something or another where we got people together to answer questions and figure out how to ‘get’ the last couple of chapters.
That was fun as hell!
But, alas, it was one of those situations where you can’t capture it in a bottle and do it again, so I don’t. As of tonight, I’m officially words complete on the core of the story. I’ll probably add a few more scenes in, but I don’t owe the story anything (I don’t think!) That’s a pretty cool feeling, trust me.
This book went WAY different than I though it would. This scene with the ladies (and another shorter one later in the book) were some of the most fun to write. I swear, if I could just write scenes of these ladies talking, I’d be able to just drop it down and have a fun time. Perhaps no one would actually READ the ladies talking, but it would be easy to write 😉
So, this is probably the last snippet, maybe, before the release which will happen this month.
