The Phantom

by Wayne Mansfield

  Pete brought his hand up. It was covered in pearly white paste. Keeping his eyes on Toby’s Pete raised his cupped hand to his mouth and ran his tongue through the pool of cum that had collected at the centre. He swallowed it down and gave Toby a little kiss. He licked the rest of the cum up and with his lips covered in the glistening cream he kissed Toby passionately, passing the collected nectar to Toby’s tongue.

  Lennie grunted and Toby looked over his shoulder, licking his lips and tasting himself on them as he watched Lennie shoot a great wad of his own cum across the rounded mass of his belly. Toby smiled, but was eager to return to Pete’s lips.

  “You taste good, Tobe,” Pete said as someone appeared in the narrow doorway.

  “Anyone still hungry?” asked Bird walking in with a plate of freshly made pancakes. He took one look at the cum running down Lennie’s belly and at Pete wiping the last of Toby’s cum off his hand with a paper napkin and promptly turned around again. “Obviously not,” he muttered. “Already eaten.”

  The men looked at each and burst out laughing.

  “Better get dressed and get to work,” said Pete.

  He slid out from behind the table and Toby and Lennie followed. He put his arm around Toby and they walked back to the crew’s quarters together.

  “We’ll be able to do that all the time when we get back to Fremantle,” said Pete.

  “Can’t wait,” said Toby.

  * * * *

  The rest of that day and the following day were thankfully uneventful. A steady wind had them sliding across the ocean to the coast of Western Australia and ever closer to home. The evening before they were due to dock the crew held a party.

  “Did you invite his Lordship?” asked Sandy, for the nickname Bird had given to their captain had stuck like tar.

  “Yep, but he said he was busy,” said Bird who was tipping all the remnants of the vast collection of spirit bottles into a large bowl to give the punch extra…punch.

  “Pffft!” said Chad. “Sulking more like it.”

  The Captain’s absence at the party cast no more than a fleeting pall over the celebrations and soon everyone was in a party mood due in no small part to the not very delicious but potent punch Bird had created. Chad had hooked his iPod up to a set of speakers and the deck was awash with the sounds of AC/DC, the Divinyls, and INXS.

  Lennie showed off his juggling skills.

  “Who knew?” shouted Zeke.

  Chad and Sandy had a push-up competition. Sandy was certain he’d win, although Chad whipped his arse, which sent Sandy into a five-minute depression. He soon bounced back and was challenging Lennie to arm wrestle.

  “Why does he do it?” Toby asked.

  Pete shook his head while watching as Lennie easily won the match.

  “Hey, I wasn’t ready,” Sandy protested.

  “Macho pride,” said Pete as Lennie and Sandy gripped hands for another bout.

  The moon climbed higher in the sky; a giant eye looking down at the partygoers aboard The Phantom. Pete took Toby by the arm and they walked to their favourite spot near the bow.

  “Having a good time?” asked Pete.

  “Sure am,” said Toby, who was pleasantly pissed and drinking his fifth cup of punch. Already there were rumblings of the hangover he’d wake up with the next morning.

  “It’s been fun, hasn’t it?” said Pete.

  Toby looked at him quizzically. “You mean apart from me being abducted by cannibals, nearly smashed to smithereens by a giant octopus, nearly being thrown into prison by the Greek Coast Guard, and almost being torn limb from limb by a crazy Indian goddess?”

  Pete smiled and nodded.

  “Then, yeah it has been fun,” said Toby with a sly smile. “The ‘meeting you’ part has been anyway.”

  They stared off into the distance, the lights of Perth just visible on the horizon.

  “So…” Pete seemed almost nervous. “We’re still good then?”

  “Course we are,” said Toby with a slight slur to his words. “Why?”

  “No reason.” He paused. “Just sometimes people have a shipboard romance and then when ya get back to dry land it’s all over.”

  Toby threw his arms around Pete, sloshing some of his drink down the back of Pete’s pants. “You know I love you,” he said. “Course we’re going to stay together. If you want to.”

  “Course I wanna,” Pete replied. “It’s all I wanna do. Ya know that.”

  Toby kissed Pete on the lips.

  “Good, but I gotta go and say hello to my mum first,” he said, his words even more slurred as he finished the last of his punch.

  Pete laughed.

  “Course ya can. There’s no hurry. Now I know that ya feel the same way as me we’ve got tonnes of time to get things sorted out. And I can tell ya one thing for sure, I’m not gonna be workin’ for Captain Bartlett again.”

  Even in his drunken state Toby beamed at the news.

  “You mean it?”

  Pete nodded and Toby nestled his head into Pete’s broad, muscular chest and smiled.

  “We should get back to the party, babe.”

  Toby nodded although his legs didn’t want to move.

  “You okay?”

  Toby nodded again then shook his head.

  “Think I’m going to be…”

  He ran to the bow and leaned over, emptying his stomach into the placid waters of the Indian Ocean. His stomach began cramping and he felt like a dog that had been kicked.

  “Better get ya to bed,” said Pete looping his arm under Toby’s.

  “I don’t feel like fucking,” he slurred.

  He heard Pete laugh. “Don’t worry, Tobe. That’s the last thing on my mind at the moment.”

  Chapter 14

  The Phantom sailed into the Swan River, past the Maritime Museum, and docked in front of a crowd of people with small children who had obviously spotted the sailing ship from the riverbank and wanted to get a closer look. After they had docked and the gangplank had been lowered, the crew gathered up their belongings.

  “Should we say goodbye to Captain Bartlett?” asked Toby.

  Those assembled simultaneously turned to the Captain, who was standing at the helm and didn’t look like he was going to leave his position. When he saw them looking in his direction he waved at them. Only Toby waved back.

  “Bloody miserable arsehole,” said Sandy.

  An official from the Port Authority came aboard and checked their passports and after they had been stamped, the crew was free to go.

  “Who’s going to help him unload the wine?” asked Toby.

  “That’s his problem,” said Sandy.

  “Maybe we should…,” Zeke began.

  Sandy shot him a dark look.

  “Well, he has paid us. In full.”

  Sandy shrugged. “Do what ya want. None of my business, but I’m outta here.”

  Zeke, whom the Captain had trusted with the wheel of the ship for a lot of the journey, walked back up the gangplank. Chad, who had always seemed to Toby to be a bit of a dark horse, freely joining in any conversation but never revealing much about himself, finally revealed that he felt at least a little loyal to Captain Bartlett by following Zeke back on board.

  Pete looked at Toby. He raised his eyebrows as if to ask what they were going to do.

  “I’d like to, but I just want to go home,” said Toby.

  Bird, Pete, and Toby began walking towards the main gate. Sandy was already halfway there and Lennie wasn’t far behind.

  “So Bird, what are ya plans now?” asked Pete.

  “Might try and find some work on a cruise ship,” he said. “I’ll get good money, get to see the world and it’ll be less bloody stressful than this voyage has been.”

  “Ya might be right there,” said Pete.

  They arrived at the gate, walked through it and into Fremantle. There was quite a strong sea breeze blowing and the streets were crowded with people who had come to browse the markets. Delicious smel
ls of hot food from around the globe were carried to their noses and despite having had a decent breakfast, Toby longed to eat something hot and spicy.

  “Feel like a kebab?” he asked.

  Bird shook his head.

  “No, Toby. I’m going to find a taxi and go home. I want to be in my own space for a while. But later in the week perhaps. That’d be good.”

  They all shook hands and Bird went in search of a cab.

  “Now, we’ll get something to eat and decide what we wanna do. Right?”

  Toby nodded.

  “Sounds good to me.” He kissed Pete on the lips and then remembered that they weren’t on the ship any more. He looked around to see if anyone had seen and in the process spotted the perfect place for lunch. “Hey look! Shishkebas and Turkish Delight. Let’s go.”

  And so they did.

  THE END

  ABOUT WAYNE MANSFIELD

  Wayne Mansfield was born and raised in rural Western Australia, leaving home to attend university at seventeen. Although he has been writing for most of his life he only began getting his work published in 2007. Since then he has been published many times around the world both in print and e-book formats.

  Initially a writer of gay erotica, he now combines his love of horror and fantasy to create dark erotic tales that are able to appeal to readers on more than one level. He also contributes gay erotica to the German magazines Macho and Dreamboys on a monthly basis. He currently resides in Perth, Western Australia. For a detailed list of publishing credits and upcoming releases, visit his website at waynemansfieldwrites.weebly.com.

  ABOUT JMS BOOKS LLC

  Founded in 2010, JMS Books LLC is owned and operated by author J.M. Snyder. We publish a variety of genres, including gay erotic romance, fantasy, young adult, poetry, and nonfiction. Short stories and novellas are available as e-books and compiled into single-author print anthologies, while stories over 30k in length may go into print. Visit us at jms-books.com for our latest releases and submission guidelines!