Kiss a Green Frog and Find Your Prince: And Other Romantic Novelettes

By Martin Ratick

In Kiss a Green Frog, Mr. Ratick combines three of his latest romantic novels. In each one, we find love and romance; we find humor and tension. Each book is sure to keep you spellbound as you live each adventure with the characters in the stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483620718

Martin Ratick

Martin Ratick was born in Massachusetts and had moved to New York City at an early age. He attended high school and college in New York City. He is a mechanical engineer and a licensed professional engineer (PE) in two states. He worked for the General Electric Company, the Apollo space program, the US Army, and the US Navy. During World War II, he was in the Seventy Seventh Infantry Division in the South Pacific. Mr. Ratick lives in Springfield, Virginia. Mr. Ratick is a prolific writer, having authored five other books: Forsaking All Others: A Love Story, Four Faces of Jezebel, Claw of the Jaguar, Faith of the Fathers and Kiss a Green Frog and Find Your Prince.

Book preview

Chapter 1

C atherine sat at her drafting table, deep in thought. It is possible, she said to the architect sitting next to her. You strip everything out, clean or replace the pipes, upgrade the electric wiring, and install each room and fasten all together. It can work.

Cathy, as she was called, had graduated from Pratt Institute with a degree in architecture; she was employed by the architectural firm of Shea and McGruder. She was a product of the housing projects in Brooklyn that had been allowed to go to seed; they now stood empty while many families had to sleep on the streets or in shelters. Her desire was to refurbish the apartments in the projects and provide clean, modern housing for people with low income.

During her studies at Pratt Institute, the class had a project to examine the structural strength and the foundations of the buildings in the projects, and they were found to be sound. But the apartments were broken down due to lack of funding for maintenance, and the sound buildings were unoccupied while hundreds of families had to live on the streets.

Cathy spent much of her spare time making sketches of how she would fabricate each room and do it in a factory so they would be less expensive and could be made rapidly. She also drafted several business plans; the object was to present a business plan to some not-for-profit company interested in getting homeless families off the streets.

Chapter 2

C athy dated when she was in college, but she had also dated as a teenager when she lived in the projects. She liked the bad boys; their touch excited her, and the sex gave her an adrenaline rush that she savored. One particular boy she favored was Nick Colone. She was his girlfriend until he went to prison, then she lost contact with him, and she started college. After she finished college and went to work, she got one call from Nick. He had served his time and was out of jail. She refused his request for a date, and he did not call again.

Cathy worked on a business plan for a factory to fabricate the prebuilt units she would install in the now run-down apartments in the projects; installing the units would be done by contractors she would hire. She talked to her boss at the architectural firm where she worked, but they were not interested in doing work on the projects. She showed her business plan to a venture capitalist, but he suggested she have a business plan done by a professional; she went on the Internet and found one in Brooklyn. She went to the office at the address given, and after showing them her business plan, they said they would prepare a professional plan. It would take four weeks and cost five hundred dollars. She gave them a check, and as she walked out of the office, she ran into Nick Colone.

I have been trying to reach you, Nick told her.

My office was moved, and my phone number was changed, she explained.

Give me your new phone number, Nick asked.

She took a business card out of her bag and gave it to Nick.

She didn’t know, but Nick was an enforcer. The company she picked to write her business plan was an ultimate front for crooked activities like loan-sharking, fraud, collecting, and anything else they could do to make a lot of money quickly, preferably outside of or at the fringes of the law.

A week after Cathy ran into Nick, he called her. They made a date for Saturday; he took her to dinner, and they talked about their time in the projects. After dinner, they went to a nightclub, had drinks, and danced. And when he took her home, he kissed her, then she went in her door alone. Nick had been a perfect gentleman.

On Wednesday, Nick called for a date on Saturday night. She agreed to a date; it would be dinner and movies.

Nick picked Cathy up at seven, and they had dinner. After dinner, Nick took her to his apartment. They would see movies on his fifty-inch television. They sat next to each other on the sofa. Nick brought drinks, and for a while, they watched a movie. Then Nick took off his tie and unbuttoned his shirt. He had no undershirt on, and she noted the swell of his chest and the brush of hair on his chest. He turned to her, held her head in his hands, and kissed her, his tongue on her lips, forcing them apart. Then he put his tongue in her mouth, and his tongue danced with hers. She was surprised, but she didn’t resist.

He then took his shirt off and put it on a nearby chair; she couldn’t resist putting her hands on his chest and running the sparse hair through her fingers. He reached around her back and unzipped her dress; he helped her get out of it. Then she unclasped her bra and took it off and her breasts rose like tops of a mountain. He kissed her again with tongues entwined and she pressed her naked breasts against his chest and she gave a murmur of pleasure. He took her breasts in his mouth and playfully let his teeth close gently on the nipples.

Stop that, she said. He smiled and kissed her neck and then shoulders and mouth then kissed each breast. Her skin began to tingle, and excitement coursed through her. He put his hands through the elastic band on her waist, holding her panties. He slowly moved them down, pausing now and then to put his hands on her buttocks, and gently smoothed the skin. He finally pulled them off and put them on a chair. She was completely naked; he was half-dressed. She lay back on the sofa; then he put two fingers in her vagina and with his thumb rubbed her clitoris. The movements made her jump due to the extreme sensitivity of her clitoris. He stopped and took off the rest of his clothes. He stood before her, stark-naked, his penis hard and erect. She couldn’t resist reaching out and holding his penis in her hand. It was silky smooth and hard as a rock.

Nick moved her body up. He kissed her neck, her breasts; he kissed or wet her skin from her neck to her pubic hair. Her excitement continued to rise, her skin tingled, her breathing became gasps, she moaned with pleasure. Then Nick put two fingers in her vagina, and with his thumb, he rubbed her clitoris. She began to feel her blood boil. Adrenaline rushed through her: her heartbeat faster, her breathing more labored, her moans louder, her body not hers to control. Then the autonomic nerves, of their own accord, flooded her with a passion over which she had never experienced before. Then she gave a loud moan or scream, and she had an orgasm that shook her from her toes to the top of her head. Nick held her until her breathing became regular. Then he got on the bed on his knees and elbows, spread her legs farther apart, and with her help, he pushed his penis into her warm, moist vagina.

Nick was masterful at pleasuring a woman. He moved slowly, deliberately in and out of her, eliciting a moan of delight from her each time he spread her vagina open to receive his rock-hard penis. This play went on for some minutes, and she felt her release arising. When he entered her fully and began to thrust, she put her hands on his buttocks and pulled him to her—her breathing became loud gasps, her body flooded with adrenaline, and her blood boiling. Then with a loud moan of pleasure, she pressed as hard as she could against him and had a starburst orgasm; the high she got from it flowed through her whole body. Then Nick went still and flooded her with his semen then fell crumpled on her. They lay together in an embrace till their breathing and heartbeats returned to normal. Then Nick said, Let’s get dressed. I’ll take you home.

Chapter 3

S he had learned when she lived in the projects that if you douched your vagina after sex, you would not get pregnant. She went to an all-night drugstore, bought what she needed, and flushed away Nick’s semen.

Cathy became busy at Shea and McGruder. Many people wanted to make additions or modify their kitchens rather than buy new homes. Architects were very busy showing different options, drawn by computer, to their clients. And many were hired to oversee the work being done by contractors. Cathy had little time left to work on her plan to remake the projects livable again, and when she received the rewritten business plan, she spent all her limited time reviewing it. When she was sure she understood it and could convince the New York City Housing Authority of the value of restoring the projects as she envisioned it, she went to city hall to see someone there. She got as far as a clerk who told her the projects were the responsibility of the State Housing Authority and the Federal Government Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She asked, How do I get to see them?

The State Housing Authority has an office in the city. You won’t have to go to Albany, he replied, and gave her a card with an address on it. She would have to wait for another day. Cathy returned to her office. She hid her disappointment and plunged into her work.

Cathy called the New York State Housing Authority and told the person who answered the phone what she wanted to see them about. She was told to wait while she checked the deputy’s calendar. She was then given a time and a date when he could see her. On the date she was given, she went to the address on the card and told the receptionist that she had an appointment with the deputy. She was told to sit down, and five minutes before the scheduled time, she was ushered into a large conference room. Three men sat at the table: two younger men and a mature man who must have been the deputy. She was introduced to the men. She was asked if she wanted coffee. And over coffee, she discussed her hopes and spread out the business plan, which they pored over. Finally, the deputy turned to her and said, I won’t comment on the business aspect of the plan, but no one will take it seriously because you don’t have any certified AIA architects. You must have AIA architects.

I am a graduate architect, she told him.

I know you are, but you are a recent graduate and not yet certified.

Where can I find a certified architect who would be interested in restoring the projects? They all want to work on new multiple dwellings or new twenty-first-century homes.

There are freelance architects who may be interested, he told her. I will give you three names. Pick one and talk to him. He may be interested.

He checked a pocket telephone book; took a sheet of paper; wrote names, addresses, and phone numbers; and gave it to her. The other men at the table refolded her business plan, and after shaking hands, she said good-bye. And the deputy said Good luck, and she left.

Chapter 4

B ack at work, she was busy. The first time she had a break, she did a Google search of the names she had been given. Of the three, only one had impressive credentials. His name was Roger Madison. She would call and make an appointment to see him.

Every three or four weeks, Nick would call Cathy for a date. A date with Nick consisted of dinner, then a drink in his apartment, and sex. Cathy resigned herself to that routine and made the best of it.