The Long Fall

by Daniel Quentin Steele

  “Hi, Debbie. You got a few minutes before you have to leave for work?”

  “Yeah, mom.”

  “I just wanted to talk to you for a minute.”

  “Okay. How is Kelly?”

  “She’s a 17-year-old almost 18-year-old.. You remember what that was like?”

  “Unfortunately. Has – she talked about why she bailed?”

  “Just that her mother – I quote – is a miserable jealous bitch who couldn’t keep her own husband and now wants to grab all the hot guys for herself. I gather you two had a falling out?”

  “We had a difference of opinion. She thinks she’s 25 and I think she’s an 17-year-old with the maturity of a nine-year-old.’

  “That’s all you want to say about it? She won’t tell me what happened.”

  “Someday when you’re 85 and in a nursing home, I might. Not till then.”

  “Does it have anything to do with Doug?”

  “No.”

  “You wouldn’t lie to your mother?”

  “Have I ever?”

  “Oh, please!”

  “I know, silly of me. I forgot you knew me when. I’m not going to tell you, but you’ll be happy to know that Doug and I are through.”

  “No. Are you serious?”

  “Yes, mother. I know this will make your day. We are officially through. I told him to pick up any of his things he had here, he’s not coming back and I’m not seeing him.”

  “Well at least that proves that prayer works.”

  “Very funny. Doug wasn’t a bad guy...it’s just that things...weren’t going to work out. But he was a good friend.”

  “With benefits.”

  “He was a friend.”

  “That’s your story and you’re sticking to it. At least this clears the way for you to start working on things between you and Bill.”

  “Mom, when are you going to get it through your head. We are going to be divorced in a month. There is no ‘ working on things.’ Things are over.”

  “He still loves you.”

  “Sure, that’s why he won’t talk to me. I’ve tried and all he does is hang up on me or tell me to get out of his office. If that’s loving me, I wouldn’t want to see what hating was like.”

  “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. Just that he’s angry with you. You hurt him, baby, God you hurt him bad.”

  “I know. But it’s not just him not wanting to get back. I don’t want it mother.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “Where have you been the last 10 years, Mom. You know what it’s been like.”

  “You’ve got problems. Who doesn’t. The reason you couldn’t get back together with him is that there was something in the way – Doug. Doug’s gone.”

  “It’s not that simple, or easy. In the first place, I don’t want that marriage back the way it was. I don’t – I don’t....love him. Not like I used to.”

  “You forget I’ve known you for nearly 40 years. You can lie to anyone else, but I know you better.”

  “Anyway, Mom, it isn’t going to happen.”

  “Why not? I’m not saying it would be easy. But couples have come back from worse breaks. If you want your marriage back.”

  “It can’t, mom. Just let it go. Bill won’t ever consider us getting back together again.”

  “How-“

  “I just know. In a month we’ll be divorced.”

  Tuesday, July 19, 2005 – 8 A.M.

  Is there any better way in this world to awake than with an inhumanly beautiful brunette impaled on your cock and riding it like a cowgirl on a bucking bronc. I decided after about two seconds that, no, there wasn’t. Maybe, despite my sins and failures as a man, somebody up there – if there was somebody up there- liked me.

  She bounced up and down and then did a hula hoop motion, rotating around and around on my cock. I was entranced and amazed. How in the hell was I doing this. I must have said it out loud.

  She stopped bouncing and squeezed me again with that amazing pussy. God. Words could not do that justice.

  She bent forward to kiss me and I tasted mint on her breath and on the lipstick she had reapplied. She had obviously gotten up in the middle of the night and tended to matters. I hated to think what my breath smelled like. She didn’t seem to mind.

  “You said....it was four months....you could not get hard....”

  “Not even a little bit....”

  She leaned forward and I held her hips in my hands to steady her as she kissed me lightly.

  “You watched pornography?”

  “un huh...”

  “Well, Bill, did anything you see feel better than my hot, tight pussy squeezing your big, haaaaardd cock....well?”

  I felt a twitch and she did something that stopped the explosion that was about to erupt.

  I just shook my head and she smiled as she said, “You just needed a real woman in your bed....”

  “Yeah,” I said, thrusting up.

  She laughed.

  “Buck as hard as you want, my stallion, you’re not throwing me.”

  “Is that a challenge?”

  I answered with actions and not words and damned if she wasn’t able to ride me until I squirted three hard times while that unbelievable pussy did its best to squeeze my dick off and she screamed until I jammed my tongue down her throat.

  Laying beside me I asked her, “Did you climax?”

  “What do you think, Stallion? If this room wasn’t soundproofed, we’d have security in here right now.”

  After awhile I rolled over and said, “I’m going to brush my teeth and take a quick shower.”

  The water was running when she slipped in behind me and dropped to her knees. Looking up at me as the water ran down her face, she grabbed my limp cock and started sucking again. With the water pasting her thick black hair to her face, if it was humanly possible I would have gotten hard again and fucked her face but the flesh just wasn’t willing. I didn’t think I had a milliliter of precious bodily fluids left in me.

  After a few minutes she reluctantly let it go with one last lick and stood up beside me.

  “He doesn’t want to play. You are a meanie.”

  “I’m going to need transfusions if he comes out again anytime soon.”

  She grinned and opened her legs, running two fingers inside her and coming out with an oily liquid that ran off with the shower water.

  “I’d be glad to help you....you have made me so, so wet.....”

  I hadn’t done it that often, but regardless of the fact that I had just come inside her I went to my knees and started nuzzling and then groping inside her with my tongue. If I thought about it, it would be fairly disgusting. I’d eaten myself out of a Debbie a few times, but I never liked it. But there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to eat this vision’s pussy until she came all over my face. You can do anything if you don’t think about what you’re doing.

  She came so hard I thought she was going to strangle under the shower and then she slid down on her butt to lay beside me under the pounding water.

  I licked the water off the side of that face and said, “I still think I’m going to wake up alone in my bed any minute. This can’t be real.”

  She rolled to bury her face in my shoulder. Thank God that most cruise ships seem to have unlimited hot water. Otherwise we’d be freezing by now.

  “You know I wanted you to come after me, don’t you?”

  “What was the secret sign I was supposed to pick up on? I missed it. I almost didn’t come, except I couldn’t help myself. You’ve placed a spell on me.”

  She ran one long red fingernail down my chest, almost hard enough to leave a line behind it.

  “A woman wants a man to pursue her, to win her. She wants to know that a man wants her enough to challenge any obstacle. When they told me you were at the Lounge I acted angry, but inside I started to get wet. And when they told me you wouldn’t leave...I knew I was right.”

  “About what?”

&
nbsp; ‘You are the kind of man who cannot be stopped when he knows what he wants. And you wanted me, whether you were willing to admit it or not. I really wasn’t surprised. There’s an old expression....it means, roughly translated, a man who cannot be stopped.”

  I just gave her a curious look.

  She leaned over to nibble on my ear and whispered, “You are the kind of man who would come for me, ‘tho’ Hell bar the door.’ Hell itself could not frighten you off.”

  “But what if I hadn’t shown?”

  “I would have been devastated.”

  She gave me a long lingering kiss before pushing herself to her feet.

  Looking down at me and extending her hand down to me, she said, “I see what your wife must have seen so many years ago. I can see why she fell in love with you.”

  As I reached out to turn off the water I couldn’t help asking her, “You’re not doing that, are you?”

  “Does that frighten you so much? A man who would stand against a mob, frightened of one woman?”

  “You’re married, Aline. And you told me you loved Philippe. Was that the truth?”

  She hugged me and I thought it might be so I couldn’t read her eyes.

  “I told you, Bill, you don’t know anything me...or my marriage. I know it bothers you....because you’re the kind of man you are. But I’ll answer your questions. In a little bit.”

  We dried each other off, which led to more playing and eventually we wound up back on the bed, after changing the sheets. I hadn’t this much sex, this much continuous sex, since...probably the last cruise Debbie and I had took to Hawaii ten years before. As I thought about her and Doug I still felt the anger rising and the pain, but somehow it wasn’t as bad.

  Was life ever anything but high school replayed over and over. She had a new boyfriend and I had had nobody. Now I had this beautiful woman in my bed. I had my own girlfriend and I wasn’t such a loser anymore. So damned high school.

  She lay back in a pose reminiscent of a famous French picture I can’t remember the name of. She lay on her side with her back to me, the womanly curves in full view as well as exposing the luscious slit between those long legs.

  “You like? I have been told that my ass is my most attractive feature?”

  “You’ve got a fantastic ass, Aline. No doubt about it. But...”

  I rolled her over and lay down beside her, sucking on one luscious nipple.

  “You’ve also got fantastic breasts and a mouth that should be in the Louvre.”

  She pushed my head away.

  “But my breasts are so small, compared to...”

  “Your tits are fantastic.”

  “Hers are so much bigger than mine. I googled her after I learned about you and found a picture of her. She is huge. Am I a disappointment?”

  “She has big tits, but size isn’t everything. Yours are perfect for your size. They’re soft and suckable and your nipples are much bigger than hers. They are truly ‘Grand Tetons.’ If I had any juice left, you’d know how much I like them.”

  I went back to suckling and she ran her hands over the stubble that had begun to sprout on my skull.

  “I would know you were a lawyer even if I didn’t know it, you silver-tongued devil. Philippe once said that not all liars are lawyers, but all lawyers are liars.”

  I raised my head from those luscious breasts and leaned back on one elbow.

  “Tell me about you and Philippe. I want to know, Aline, no matter what.”

  “I met Philippe at a party in Paris, as I told you. It was as you Americans say, love at first sight. He is a gorgeous man and I knew he had many women when we married. I believe he gave up that life when we first married. But...I had already started my career when I met Philippe. I was 27 when I met him. That was ten years ago. Three years after we married I had our son, André.”

  “You have a son? Where is he?”

  “He attends school in Paris. He lives with Philippe.”

  “How long...”

  “Three months, sometimes four months a year. I miss him always. I try to be with him while he is out of school as much as I can. When I am with him, he is my life. We do everything. And I try to make up with Philippe for the time we are apart...”

  She pushed me away and rolled to her side, her back to me.

  “I wish you had waited to ask me. I don’t even need to see your face to know what you are thinking. What kind of mother can leave her husband and son for most of the year to wait on strangers on what is nothing more than a floating hotel? Do you see a monster when you look at me now, Bill? Do you want me to get my clothes and leave?”

  I put my hand on her bare shoulder. I could feel her shiver.

  “Another man would simply fuck me and not even think of this. But I already know enough about you to know you can’t do that. Do I disgust you?”

  I rolled her back toward me. Tears glistened in those beautiful blue-green eyes.

  “No. I just don’t understand.”

  “When I met Philippe I had already worked five years on the Bonne Chance. I had a career. I had a life. After we...knew...that we could not leave each other...we talked about this. I checked other cruise lines, other travel lines. I even received a leave of absence for three months and worked another cruise line. But...”

  She looked at me as if willing me to understand.

  “I know many people would not understand my decision. But you have stood with me at night on the decks, watched the sea during a storm, watched lighting roll in the sky, seen the waves roll by on a calm night. Every night is different. I thought about leaving this life when Philippe and I married. But....I love it. I love the sea, I love my job, I love the people I meet, I love the fact that we roam the world. No other ship is like this. We have the entire world.

  “How can I leave this?

  “We talked after six months and we decided....Philippe could not leave his work. His is an important job and the day will come when he is an important man in the French government. He loves his work, but it is a step on the path to real power. I could not ask him to give that up. And I made him understand that while my job will never bring those benefits...it is equally important to me.

  “So, we would live apart for part of the year, sometimes six months, sometimes nine, but we loved each other to much to say goodbye to each other. Couples do manage to maintain a marriage while living apart, even in your country.

  “And then.... André came along.”

  She buried her face in my naked chest and kissed both nipples.

  “I took a year off. The cruise line liked me and said they would save my job that long. With leave and the year, I was with André until he was almost a year old. I thought I would die, but I left him with Philippe and a governess. I knew I couldn’t take him with me.

  “There were a hundred times when I almost went to the captain and told him that I had to quit. But I didn’t. And with each day that went by, I was able to live with my decision more easily. Not easily, Bill, just more easily. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of him.

  “He is nearly seven now. And I am mama who flies in with presents and kisses three months a year. I know I love him. I know he loves me. I hope he will love me when he grows to be a man and realizes that I missed most of his young life. But Philippe is a wonderful father. He is raising him to be a good man.”

  “I don’t hate you, Aline. I just...”

  “I know I should quit, but...”

  “The way I should have quit long ago and maybe kept my wife and family....but I couldn’t. I understand, Aline. Believe me, if there’s anybody on this earth that knows what you’re talking about, it’s me.”

  She held me tightly.

  “Do you believe in kindred souls, Bill? I still cannot believe that in a matter of days I have...these feelings for you. First you intrigued me, then you aroused me and then you broke my will with that damned Fleur-de-lis. You know, if I live to be 90, I will never part with it. And if we never see eac
h other again, I will always think of you when I hold it.”

  “Then it was the best $7,000 American I ever spent. It would have been worth it for one night.”

  I laughed as I felt her tense. I knew she knew I was joking, but....

  “You know that’s why I was so angered with you that night. I am not a prostitute. Never have been. But so many rich and powerful men just automatically assume if you are attractive and on a cruise ship like this, you can be bought.”

  “You wouldn’t be here now if you thought I was trying to buy you.”

  She bit my nipple gently and then a little harder.

  “You couldn’t afford me, William Maitland, if you were to try to buy me.”

  I teased her, “so how expensive would a night with you be?”

  She bit the nipple harder, then kissed it to make it feel better.

  “I have been offered $20,000 cash, condominiums, diamond necklaces worth at least 20,000 euros. One man, a very old and wealthy Arab, offered to buy me my own island. A small one, mind you, less than an acre in the Caribbean, but he said it had running water, a small power station and a port where yachts could dock. All he wanted was my body for a month.”

  “Do you have a private island?”

  She nipped me so hard I yelped. Then she started licking it until the pain went away.

  “You bastard. You’d better be joking. No, I did not accept his offer.”

  I pulled her lips to me and we made out for awhile. If I could have gotten hard I would have been inside her again. Had I been this horny when I was 18? Finally we stopped for awhile to resume breathing. I closed my eyes and when I opened them again Aline was sitting beside me on the bed. She was dressed and again wore the Fleur-de-lis pin over her breast.

  “I have to go now, for a few hours, Bill. I have someone covering for me, but I am still a working member of the crew.”

  “Okay. But first...why are you here? With me. In my bed?”

  “Because I am very stupid.”

  “Why?”

  “Not the sex. When we realized we would be apart so much, we made the decision – we never talked about it but we both knew – that I would never ask him about his life in Paris and he would never ask me about mine on Bonne Chance. I know he has women. He tries to be discrete, and he is careful, but he is a man of....large appetites.”