Prison Break Read online

  OceanCrest Series Reading Order

  Novels

  Awake (Jeremy and Maggie's story)

  Awaken (Tyson and Sharisse's story)

  Awakening (Niyol and Vivian's story)

  Novellas

  Eat Mì / Eat Me (An and Jessica's story)

  Novelettes

  Prison Break (Mateo and Natalia's story)

  Prison Break

  OceanCrest Series

  Novelette

  Jade Onyx

  Copyright © 2013 Jade Onyx

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

  This book contains content that is not suitable for readers 17 and under.

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction, sharing, or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons—living or dead—business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Published in the United States of America.

  Books written by Jade Onyx can be obtained either through the author’s official website:

  www.JadeOnyxBooks.com

  or through select, online book retailers.

  To discover more about the books in this series, see the OceanCrest Series at the back of this book. For more about Jade Onyx, visit the About the Author section.

  Table of Contents

  OceanCrest Series Reading Order

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Author's Note

  1 Dinner Break

  2 Outbreak

  3 Overseas Friends

  4 Visitation

  5 Escape

  6 Taking Flight

  7 Old Flame

  8 The Fling

  9 Eye Candy

  10 The Trail

  11 The Call

  About the Author

  Excerpt

  OceanCrest Series

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my lifelong mentor, D. I., and his wife, K.I., who both believed in me and continue to inspire me to become the best me I can be. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, in this lifetime and countless lifetimes to come.

  I also dedicate this book to the ones whose passing this year made me realize that everyday is another day to seize the day and contribute to our legacy, the unique vow and mission that we alone can complete on this planet. Thank you for helping me realize that HER ~ Healing Erotic Romance ~ is my gift to the world.

  In memory of:

  Harvey Richard Walker

  (April 27, 2013 - April 28, 2013)

  Merlo Evans, Sachiko Sytz, Hideko Winquist

  (Pioneers in Faith)

  My first land pets—3 week-old sex-linked female chicks

  (May 15, 2013 – May 22, 2013)

  My maternal grandmother, the last of my living grandparents

  (August 30, 1923 - June 23, 2013)

  Finally, I dedicate this book to erotic romance authors Shoshanna Evers and Kallypso Masters. In utilizing your spare time to email me, you both helped me find my place. Without you, this series would not exist. Thank you.

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to my readers, especially my beta readers. You all ROCK! Alexander L. Lee, your insight led me to chop off major dips in action and insert an entire chapter into the book. Melanie Thomas, your suggestion to include the excerpt anyway completed this book. Thank you both for your honest feedback about the last chapter, which helped me transform something “mechanical” into something exciting for me to write. Thanks also to ThirdEye Critique for a few more nuances to the last chapter. All of your insights saved me from embarrassment and helped me make this book and the characters stronger.

  Thank you to my mate and my children for permitting me, willingly and unwillingly, to enter my writer's cave. Special thanks to my characters—for inspiring me and holding me hostage at times to write about their lives. Thank you for opening the curtains to your sex life and your hearts.

  Last but not least, I want to thank erotic romance authors Kallypso Masters and Shoshanna Evers. Kally, partaking in a craft writers group and seeking a critique partner was just what I needed! Shoshanna, you inspire me as a fellow mama writer with a young one at home. Thank you for encouraging me to write a series.

  Author's Note

  This novelette evolved from an excerpt from Awake (Book One of the OceanCrest Series), a full-length novel. I was over two-thirds done writing the first draft for the novel when I needed to take a “vacation” from the book length project to write this novelette. This vacation practically started as soon as I wrote the excerpt, which is entitled “The Trail” for the second-to-last chapter in this novelette.

  My screen went blank for the rest of the novel, because Natalia and Mateo's story gripped me. They wouldn't leave me alone until I gave them their happily ever after. Actually, Natalia did not like being one of the lesser villains in Awake and had desired redemption in Prison Break. More like, she really wanted to get laid and have the best of both worlds—great sex and a great marriage. And she knew she was going to get it from me, because I'm a sucker for a happy ending. :-)

  By the time you finish reading this novelette, you'll probably think Natalia bullied me into getting her happily ever after. Not true. I had nothing but compassion for her desperate plight, because I truly believe that misery disappears in the presence of happiness. In other words, happy people make others happy.

  Since Argentina is Natalia and Mateo's homeland, I want to point out that the PFA is the Argentinian equivalent of the FBI. Other terminologies unfamiliar to the English reader are used in context so that the reader will pick up terms related to food and sexuality. Machismo, for example, is hypermasculinity or aggressive manhood.

  Some questions may remain for you as the reader and I hope that Awake will answer them for you, especially Jeremy and Jessica's relationship as siblings and Jeremy and Maggie's blossoming relationship as lovers.

  To stay tuned about Jeremy and Maggie's happily ever after in Awake, sign up for my email list at www.JadeOnyxBooks.com.

  1. Dinner Break

  The handcrafted dining table was warm with carbonada criolla and potato and beef empanadas. However, Natalia Varela felt anything but warm sitting across the dining table, under the cold scrutiny of Mateo Varela's coffee-colored eyes.

  She sipped some of the stew to help her heat up, but to no avail. Their evenings for the past year were equally cool and distant. An ominous question dangled as visibly as the chandelier hovering over their meal.

  Every month for the past two years, the same question surfaced. The first year, the question remained unspoken. The second year, the question became audible
. Tonight was one of those nights. Although she expected the question to arise, what made the question unbearable for Natalia was exactly when the question would spring.

  The air grew thick, so thick she felt she could not breathe. Avoiding Mateo's gaze, her throat tightened. She swallowed carefully, trying not to choke on her food. Her breath became shallow. She became painfully aware of a thick band of pain in her chest, in her heart. God, she needed air. She needed room. She needed space.

  “Natalia, will you bed with me tonight?” Mateo asked.

  The question. Again.

  Her jaw froze mid-chew. She swallowed her mouthful of stew. “Why does everything have to sound like a transaction to you? I don't feel like it.”

  “This is the best time,” he said. “Our doctors confirmed we are both fertile. If we don't have a child soon, people will question our marriage. Some already think you're a gold digger.”

  “Just because Papá raised me on a single income as a cab driver does not mean I'm a gold digger. He taught me enough to make money of my own.” She glared at him. “Your father came from humble beginnings, too, and worked his way up the political ladder. You're living off his legacy right now. And thanks to the Taxi Drivers Union strikes, we're here today.”

  Mateo sighed. “I just want to protect you, stop the rumors before they start. That's all.”

  “Another transaction,” she grumbled. “So you want it because you want a baby? And you want a baby just so you can protect me?” she scoffed. She felt warm, but it was not from the food. She shook her head. “I'm sorry, Mateo, but I just don't feel like bedding tonight.”

  He set down his silverware and brushed back his thick black hair. “Maybe you can tell me then.” Leaning forward, he asked, “Are you...are you lesbiana?”

  “No! That's ridiculous!” Natalia fumed. A wave of heat rushed up her spine, prickled through her dark brown hair and flooded her cheeks. Fire shot from her dark brown eyes. “After two years of marriage, you question me?!” She had lost her appetite.

  Mateo's dark brows furrowed. “You just don't seem to enjoy it, like it's an obligation. A duty you have to perform for me, only because you are my wife.”

  She looked away. She didn't want to hurt him by telling the truth—that he never got her to come. God, Mateo made a great husband, just not a great lover. At all. She wished she had both in one man.

  “I'm just not into it,” she mumbled.

  “Then teach me.” Desperation—or was it determination?—seeped into his voice. “Show me how to get you into it.”

  She squirmed. He just wasn't good in bed, not like her last lover—the one who still haunted her dreams. Mateo was handsome enough, like her last lover. Although not a good lover, Mateo was a good man and she didn't want to hurt his feelings. “I can't. I don't know how. I just—”

  Ding-dong.

  Mateo stood up. “I'll get it.”

  Natalia struggled to eat some more, but found her attention on the door. Who could it be, visiting this late in the evening? They had not expected any guests.

  Mateo came back, jaw set, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “It's the PFA. They want to ask me some questions at the police station. I've called my lawyer. I may not be home tonight.”

  Something in his voice alarmed Natalia. Why would the PFA want to take him in for questioning at this time of night? “What do they want to ask you?”

  “Something about work.” Politics.

  “You're not coming back, are you?” she asked.

  “It may be several days.” Another guarded answer.

  “Did someone set you up?” Mateo was a gentleman, an up-and-coming politician. The big wigs probably had it in for him as the fall guy, especially since Mateo was partial to the workers who voted him in and did not concede to big money.

  She knew she shouldn't have listened to Papá. She shouldn't have married Mateo. Politics was a work hazard—not only for the people in it, but for their families as well. Even with the Juntas out of power for so long, corruption was still rampant in Argentina. What was true one day was not true the next.

  If there was one thing she loved about Mateo, it was his honest work ethic. Maybe he was too honest, too civil. Although he was not great in bed, he was a really kind person, the kind of friend she wanted by her side—especially when facing a life of politics.

  “Some bogus charges,” Mateo said. “It will clear up in good time.”

  He grabbed his coat and left.

  Watching his retreating figure, Natalia started to feel small. He was her rock, whenever she needed to talk to someone—to face this lonely life of silver-tongued shark-eaters. Now, he was gone and she was lost at sea.

  Suddenly, dinner with Mateo did not seem so bad after all—even if she happened to be ovulating at the moment.

  2. Outbreak

  “Papá!” Natalia greeted him with open arms. She rushed towards the man whose face was etched with concern past his years.

  She was so glad she could turn to him with Mateo gone. The night air that snuck in from the open door did not seem quite so cold with Papá in her arms.

  “Natalia.” He squeezed her tight. “I came as soon as I could.”

  “Let me stay at your place!” she cried.

  “You are a married woman in your husband's home,” he soothed. “You need to stay here.”

  “I can't, Papá,” Natalia said, shaking her head. “I can't stay here.” How could she explain the emptiness of everyday bourgeois life to Papá, who had never experienced this kind of lifestyle? “I feel empty here. Now with Mateo gone, it's...it's unbearable.”

  “Natalia, you can't stay with me,” Papá insisted. “You're married and you've already moved out.”

  “Yeah, I'm married,” she said bitterly, “but look at where my husband is now—in jail! I wouldn't be in this predicament if I didn't listen to you and marry into a political family.” She sank into the living room armchair. “I shouldn't have married him,” she whispered.

  “Natalia!” Papá snapped. “Has the devil gotten into you?”

  She shook her head. “Papá, I'm tired of this life. Everything is a duty, for show, for civility. I need to smile at endless streams of dignitaries at every stately dinner, pretend I know about worldly affairs and care about what upper class politicians and their wives think. At least you married for love.”

  “No, Natalia,” Papá said. “I married for security. If you lived through the political and economic instability at the time I did, then you would know how important a secure life is. Mamá and I were clear about this from the beginning. She had solid homemaking skills. I had a reliable job. The love grew and solidified later.”

  “So that's why you wanted me to marry Mateo? So I could have a secure life?” She glared at Papá. “Well, nothing's guaranteed. You see that now. Fortunes rise and fall. Sometimes you know who set you up and sometimes you don't. I'd rather be in charge of my own destiny.”

  Papá was quiet. “Maybe I raised you wrong.” He sank down and slouched on the adjacent couch. He rubbed his eyes. “I did the best I could by myself after Mamá passed away.”

  “And you did!” Natalia affirmed. “Fútbol in primary school, tango in secondary school, and fine arts at UBA. I escaped the snotty girls with soccer, grew into a woman with tango and can converse at length about fine arts with various dignitaries. You even encouraged me to learn how to drive!”

  “But that's just it,” Papá said. “If Mamá was around to raise you and we had another child, a son perhaps, then you wouldn't have such an independent will.”

  “You mean, you want me to stay in this lifeless abode?” Panic welled up in her throat. Her voice became shrill. “I've spent two years at home doing nothing. I've sacrificed so much. I don't even recognize myself. I feel dead. It was easier to face this emptiness with Mateo around at times, because he understands about the political life. We're both in it, but I can't. I can't face this life alone. And for how long? Oh, god, I can't.” She shook her head,
her lips trembling.

  Papá sighed.

  “I like him as a friend, Papá, but I don't love him. I don't even... He doesn't even excite me in bed.” She cast her head down and muttered, “I should have married Jeremy.”

  “That American?” Papá boomed. “You two would have been divorced within months!” Papá gestured fanatically, his face red. “You know those Americans—they marry for love or lust. There's no security in that. Those kinds of marriages don't last.”

  Natalia closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. She took a deep breath, lifted her head and met his fiery gaze. “Papá, I was wrong. I don't need you here, and I don't need to stay with you either. I need time alone, away from everything.” She got up from the armchair and moved toward the front door. “Please leave.”

  Papá rose slowly from the couch. “You can always call me,” he said.

  She opened the door for him and shut it behind him.

  Natalia broke down. Where could she go? She couldn't stay here. She needed to leave. For once in her life, she felt it was time to really live her own life without following someone else's prescriptions. When did she last feel alive?

  Jeremy Wyatt. He had proposed after all, before Papá steered her toward Mateo. Jeremy might just want her back, even though it had been over two years since she last saw him in Buenos Aires. Too bad she listened to Papá and declined the proposal back then. She needed to find him. Maybe she could make things right—they could start over again or pick up where they left off.