The Naughty Collection

by Ruby City Books

  The ship had an illustrious history up until it was retired from service. Since then it had sat in a museum until this tourism company bought it and restored it so that it was seaworthy. Its mission statement was to give people a sense of what it was truly like to sail the seven seas that allowed them to feel the boat sway under their feet and took them right into the experience, rather than the other modern cruise liners that sought to basically be hotels on the sea, and were so big that it was possible to ignore the fact that you were at sea.

  There was a short blurb about the history of the ship, but there were some rules as well, and the company made an apology to the fact that the cabins were so small, but it couldn’t be helped. The main areas were large however, and everyone was invited to a banquet in the main hall as the ship set sail. Michael and Cindy unpacked and made their way to the main hall so that they were ready when the ship moved away.

  They took their seats and a glass of complimentary wine as the other passengers took their seats. Cindy looked at all of them for she was always interested in people, whereas Michael muttered to himself and complained that they were taking far too long to get things started.

  “Remember, no complaining, we’re here to have fun,” Cindy reminded him, and tried not to be too upset by his constant protestations. Eventually the hall filled up. Some people were more dressed up than others, and Cindy was content with the effort that she had made, and then the crew took their positions at the front of the room. One woman, who wore her blonde hair in a long ponytail and looked to be of Scandinavian descent, stepped forward. She wore a sailor’s outfit, which consisted of dark blue trousers and a blazer, but it hugged her hourglass figure, and her radiant beauty was evident even from Cindy’s vantage point.

  “Welcome to the Daedalus,” she began, and indeed her voice had a thick accent that gave her an exotic allure. “We’d like to thank you for coming here and sharing this unique experience with us. I’m sure you’ve all seen your cabins now, and are probably wondering what you’ve gotten yourself in for, but don’t worry because we hope that you’ll be spending most of the voyage away from your cabins. There are many events planned and there will be an itinerary at breakfast every day. There are also other activities going on around the ship. When we dock you will have a few hours to go and visit, so don’t go too far because if you’re not back by the departure time then you’ll have to find your own way home, and that could be expensive,” she said this with a wry smile, although Cindy noticed a number of people around her were mumbling nervously at the thought of being left behind. “But, even if you do not want to do that the deck is always open for you to watch us sail over the sea. My name is Ana and I hope that you will come to me if you have any issues. Unfortunately the captain was unable to attend this because he’s busy making the preparations for launch, but I’m sure that at some point over the course of this voyage you will meet him too. Launch is scheduled within the next half hour so please make your way to the deck for the best view of the open sea.”

  She nodded to the crowd and then disappeared along with the other crew, leaving the guests to make their own way to the deck. They filtered out en masse to the deck, and were filled with the fresh sea air.

  “I wish I had brought a cardigan,” Cindy remarked as she pulled her clothes tightly around her, for the air was chilly.

  “It’ll only get worse when we get out on the open sea. But it’s all rather bracing, isn’t it?” Michael said, and for the first time he actually seemed to be enjoying himself. Perhaps there was hope for him after all, Cindy thought. They stood on the edge of the deck as the crew took their positions, and waited for the ship to launch. While they waited, Cindy overheard a few people talk about how the ship had installed a modern engine where in the bowels of the ship, whereas when the ship had originally sailed it was done so under the strength of manpower.

  “Do you think you would have liked this, if you had been alive in this era?” she asked. Michael inhaled deeply and looked around at the two ships standing either side of the Daedalus.

  “I think I like the romantic version of it. I’m not sure how well I’d do with the reality, especially not if I was cooped up in one of those cabins. I can’t imagine the hygiene was anything to write home about either.”

  “But it’s not like you would have known any different, that stuff would have just been normal for you. I think I’d have loved it. Just to go away on a ship and sail the open seas, never knowing where life was going to take you. There’s something to be said for that, you know, I think now we know too much. I mean, there’s nowhere left to explore. We know what’s waiting for us in most places, and there’s always ways we can get in touch with home, but back then you could go away and reinvent yourself.”

  “Is that what you want, to run away?” he asked, and his words had a dark undertone. Cindy glanced at him and then looked back out to the horizon.

  “I don’t know, maybe. The idea is nice, to just be able to become someone else,” she said, and a quiet tension overcame them both. They stood in silence for a little while until a sonorous bell rang out signaling the launch. The sound of an engine rumbled far below deck, and the wooden beams of the ship sang out and creaked, like the old sinewy muscles of a soldier called back into battle long after his body should have been relaxing. Slowly but surely the boat pulled away and swam through the water, getting closer and closer to the horizon. The narrow path between the two ocean liners grew wider, and gradually the ship escaped the shadow caused by the two behemoths, and the passengers blinked as the golden sun bathed them. The horizon was open and landless, an endless ocean of possibilities. The deep blue of the sea shimmered, and it looked calm and constant. The cloudless sky was blank aside from a few gulls that glided above, and the whole thing had a tranquil feeling.

  As the boat slipped through the waves triumphantly and majestically Cindy was filled with a sense of wonder, and as they left land behind and ventured out into the open sea she became overwhelmed with that same spirit of adventure that had caused so many people to pour into the ships in years gone by. She thought about how they must have felt at embarking on a new adventure, and she wished that she could leave her old life behind. She cast her eyes to the side and looked at Michael, who seemed out of place on the ship, and she wondered whether, if she had the opportunity, that she would outright leave him and start a new life. She was still young and she still had time to find what she was looking for, but in truth she wasn’t wholly sure what that was.

  For a long time Michael seemed to have been everything that she wanted. He was so different from the other guys she’d been with that the change was refreshing, but it seemed as though that wasn’t enough. Instead, she was left feeling like she had once again made a misjudgment. She knew she wanted to feel excited about being with someone, and Michael just didn’t inspire that kind of feeling inside her.

  She took these troubles with her on the voyage, and hoped that the sea could calm her worried soul for she needed answers soon and she needed to work out what she was going to do with her life, because time was always ticking by, and if Michael wasn’t the man for her then she would need to take the necessary steps to deal with that.

  Chapter Three

  The first couple of days of the cruise were fun. The meals were always a good platter, and the company that hosted the cruise tried to offer some authentic meals as well as modern food, and Cindy enjoyed sampling some of the dishes that actual sailors would have eaten. They still hadn’t met the captain, but Ana was a constant presence and Cindy exchanged more than a few words with here. Up close Ana was even more beautiful than Cindy had initially realized. She had soft, full lips and wide blue eyes that seemed to be as deep as the sea upon which they were sailing. Her hair was as golden as the sun, and it was odd for Cindy to be in her presence because ordinarily Cindy was the most beautiful woman in the room, however, the stress she was under caused her to lose some of her luster, and her bright flame had dimmed somewhat.

&nb
sp; Even though Michael had made an effort he clearly wasn’t enjoying the cruise in the same way that Cindy was, and although she appreciated his effort it just wasn’t working, and whenever he moaned it brought her mood down and caused her enjoyment to diminish. Being alone together for all that time didn’t have the intended affect either; it merely meant that they were getting on each other’s nerves rather than connecting on a deeper level. Even when she showed him some slinky lingerie that she’d bought specially for the trip she was met with nothing. It used to drive him crazy, and when they’d first met he’d gotten as hard as a flagpole with just the slightest caress of her fingers, but now she was half-naked and sitting on his lap and she was getting nothing.

  “Is it me? Are you bored of me?” she asked.

  “No, I’m just old,” he said, standing up and flinging her off him. She landed with a thud on the bed and her head clattered into the wall. Michael stood up and batted his hands in frustration at the small quarters. “I’m old and worn out. I’m tired all the time. I’m not meant for this life anymore Cindy. I’m just an old man and you deserve better.” And when she looked at him he did look older than ever. His shoulders were hunched where once they stood tall and proud. His eyes were cloudy and swam with liquid, and his flesh was soft and wrinkled. He looked defeated, as though he had surrendered to the war against time. But Cindy hadn’t, not yet, for her spirit was fierce and she wanted to battle on.

  “No, I don’t accept that,” she said, standing up and poking a sharp finger into his chest. He looked away from her in shame. “You might think you’re old but you know that’s never been an issue for us. We both said when we first got together that our age difference didn’t mean a thing and that it was about who we were on the inside. But the problem is you’ve changed. I don’t care that your body is getting older. I care that you seem to have given up on being yourself. It’s like you want to stop being the man I fell in love with and I don’t know why. Am I not worth the effort anymore?”

  “Of course you are. These things just happen. You get to a certain age and things change. I don’t know what you want me to say. This is me now, this is who I am.”

  “If that’s the case then I don’t think there’s any hope for us. You’re not the man I married anymore,” she said, trying her hardest to keep her voice from wavering, but she failed for she was overwhelmed with emotion.

  “I’ve tried Cindy, I really have, but somewhere along the way things changed inside me and I can’t change them back. I want different things from life now. I’m old, I’m an old man. That’s all there is to it,” he said. Cindy stared at him. She was filled with a mixture of emotions and trembled on the spot. There were so many things she wanted to do but she was filled with an impotent anger, and instead of continuing the argument she wrapped a robe around herself and ran out of the room to the deck.

  There, she wiped away the tears that were silently rolling down her cheek and she looked up at the stars. She was surprised that no-one else was on the deck because it was perfectly peaceful, and the stars were far brighter there than they were in the city. The clear, cool air enveloped her and caused her teeth to chatter. The chill seeped down into her bones but it was reassuring in a way for it meant that she felt something other than the dull, throbbing pain of romantic anguish.

  Her introspection was disrupted by soft footsteps. She turned to see Ana walking up the deck and joining her. The Scandinavian beauty held her hands behind her back, and her ponytail was draped over her chest.

  “Beautiful night,” she said. Cindy smiled and turned back out to gaze at the inky sea. Ana stood by her and Cindy breathed in the sweet, light fragrance of her perfume. It was totally unlike anything else on the ship, and Cindy breathed in deeply.

  “Are you okay?” the first mate asked.

  “Are any of us?” Cindy replied, smirking dryly.

  “Some are. What’s troubling you?”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t want to hear about it. It’d only bore you.”

  “You know,” Ana said, leaning her hands on the side of the boat and sidling so close to Cindy that the heat of their bodies mingled together, “there’s an old tradition where people on boats tell each other everything because it’s not like on land. Out here on the sea we’re free, and if we talk about our troubles they just go out and get thrown overboard, it’s not the same as when you talk on land. You can tell me anything, it will help, I promise.”

  Cindy looked at her and then back at the ocean before launching into her tale, and she ended up telling Ana far more than she had intended, until she finally got to the heart of the problem, and what had brought her to the deck that late at night.

  “And now he’s saying he’s too old, but I just feel like he’s giving up. We were so happy only a short time ago and things have changed so completely. I have to think that there’s something else going on because it just doesn’t add up and I can’t think what else it might be. But he won’t talk to me about it and he seems to just be happy to let our marriage fade away, and that’s the saddest thing of all. I just feel like I’m always missing out on something, like I keep trying to make the right decisions but I’m never properly fulfilled and I don’t know how long I can keep trying. I know time is still on my side but I feel older every day and just wearier I guess.”

  “That happens to us all, but it’s a shame that it’s happening to your husband and that he’s given up. I’ve always thought that life was a fight, and that age doesn’t matter. You’re only as young as you feel, and when you get older it does take more of an effort to keep things tight and supple, but you have to want to put up the fight. It sounds like your husband is content to drift away into old age.”

  “It does, and I hate that because that’s not the man that I fell in love with. The man I knew would have fought hard to keep going and never give up.”

  “That’s what I like in my men as well. I don’t care about age, it’s all about attitude.”

  “Exactly!” Cindy said, and she felt that in Ana she had met a kindred spirit. They spent a while gazing out at the stars, and Ana told Cindy all about how she had travelled over from Scandinavia and been to every continent so far. She taught Cindy about all the different constellations, and Cindy found herself enraptured by this woman who had lived a remarkable life. Out in the still of the night the only warmth came from their bodies, and they were close while they looked up at the stars, and Cindy felt a thrill of excitement in her heart. She listened to the sharp rhythm of Ana’s breaths and after a time Cindy found that she wasn’t looking at the beauty of the stars, rather she was transfixed by Ana. She looked at the woman’s heart-shaped face and the curves that slid down her body. The top of the blazer offered a tantalizing glimpse at the soft skin underneath, and Cindy gulped as she thought about peeling it away and exploring what lay underneath. She began to feel her blood boiling and the arousal sizzled within.

  She’d never been attracted to a woman before, and she knew that she shouldn’t be attracted to anyone at all because she was a married women. But her marriage was in tatters, and perhaps it was just the magic of the open sea, but there was something about it that made her want to push her boundaries and try something new, yet she didn’t know whether the attraction was one way. It was easy to feel the pull of romance while they were standing alone atop the deck with the twinkling stars above them, and while Cindy was trying to restrain her own feelings she couldn’t quell the beating of her heart.

  “I want you to meet someone,” she said, and Cindy felt herself nodding. Ana held out her hand and Cindy clasped it. As their flesh touched Cindy felt an electric shock pass through her. It was stronger than anything she had felt before, and she was so taken aback by the force of it that she almost stumbled back. Ana’s lips twisted into a sly smile, and there was a twinkling in her eyes that excited Cindy.

  The two women descended the stairs and walked along the corridor in silence. Cindy would have loved to have said something but her head was swimming, intoxic
ated by the mystery and allure of the moment. Ana held her hand tightly, and there was something so right about the feeling that Cindy never wanted it to end. Eventually, however, she did have something to ask.

  “Who are we going to see?”

  “The captain,” Ana said, and her eyes sparkled.

  Chapter Four

  The promise of seeing the captain thrilled Cindy because so far the man had been something of a mystery. They rounded a corner and found that the captain was waiting for them. He was a tall, strapping man with a full beard and a uniform with medals pinned to him. He was every inch a man, and masculinity exuded from every inch of him. As they grew closer Cindy could feel the charisma fill the air, and she found herself inexorably drawn to the commanding authority.

  “Cindy, this is Captain Edward Stark. Captain, this is Cindy,” Ana said. The captain looked upon Cindy and as his eyes danced over her frame she felt a tingle in between her legs. Her mind went hazy and it was as though she was drunk, for her inhibitions went out the window and she knew that she would do anything for these two, but then her mind snapped back.

  “Wait, isn’t the captain called Malcolm Lewis?” she asked, turning to them both.