“Fine,” I repeated, heaving a long sigh as I did so. “I don’t know why it’s so important for you to have me stay employed here…especially since I plan on following you next week anyways.”
“I’ll worry about that. Just stay here and try and make the best of things. I’m pretty sure that you’ll be okay with the arrangement by the next time we talk. Okay?”
Instead of answering, I turned on my side and rested my head on her chest. I felt her hands entwine themselves in my hair as they usually did, and I relished in the steady beat of her heart. It was a lulling sound, and I’d fallen asleep to the rhythm more than once over the week. Just as I started to feel myself slipping into unconsciousness, I heard her whispering above me.
“By the way…”
“Hmm…?” I murmured, barely awake.
“I love you too.”
***
“Are you feeling any better, Amanda?” I heard Phil saying from behind me.
I reluctantly turned to him, though there was nothing in the world I wanted to do less than talk about how I was feeling. It was hard to believe that it’d only been a week since I’d first seen the woman that had changed my world, my very existence…and now I was supposed to smile and wave at new passengers aboard the Excelsius as if our week of love and passion had never existed.
It was a cruel trick that Eve was gone now and I was stuck here. No different from last week, yet not even remotely the same.
“Not really,” I said, though that was the biggest understatement I’d ever made in my life.
Phil, who was my direct manager, frowned at my response. He’d been unbelievably sympathetic throughout the last week…what with me skipping rehearsals and falling asleep in Eve’s room more than once. His patience with me, though, seemed to be wearing thin. “You remember that talk we had a few weeks ago? About you being more outgoing?”
“I’m sorry, Phil,” I said. I honestly couldn’t have cared less. “I’m just going through something right now, and it’s hard to leave it back in my room, you know?”
Silence fell between us for a few minutes, and I went back to shining my fake smile and giving directions to the incoming tourists. Phil did the same, but I could tell that he was as distracted by me as I was by thoughts of Eve. We’d only been apart for about five hours and it’d already felt like an eternity since the last time I’d seen her. This week was going to suck.
“Mind if I run to the bathroom, Phil?” I asked.
He nodded curtly at me, and I could tell he was annoyed. I hadn’t been his favorite person since last week’s muster drill, though I could hardly blame him – I’d been with Eve instead of at my post. Only Eve’s claim of ignorance had gotten me off the hook. I had spent remarkably little time worrying about his opinion of me since then…Eve had been a more important aspect to dwell on.
Ducking down the crew hallway, I yanked my cellphone out of my pocket and dialed Eve again…to receive her answering machine. I’d already left one message so far and I didn’t want to be the psycho ex-girlfriend, so I hung up. The tears were bubbling just under the surface, but I forced them back.
You can handle this, I thought to myself. It’s only a week. Get over it. Some of these poor kids go months without seeing their girlfriends. You’re a big girl.
After another minute to get my emotions back in order, I pushed open the crew hallway and turned the corner into the lobby – whereupon I saw Phil in conversation with a guest who’d just walked up; a guest that was toting a small, black rolling tote bag.
“Where is she?” I heard a familiar voice ask. She didn’t seem to wait for an answer as she poked her head around Phil – and there she was. Somehow, inconceivably, Eve was back. She was still dressed in the same black skirt and white blouse that she’d worn off of the ship, though her sunglasses were now dangling from a chain around her neck. Her face was radiant and warm, though her eyes looked almost nervous.
I noticed all of this later, mind you. My first reaction was to gasp and run forward, nearly barreling over Phil in my attempt to get to her. I’m not sure how long we hugged – too long, most likely, since I heard a conspicuous cough from somewhere behind me. Reluctantly, I let Eve go…and, to my surprise, she was glaring at Phil unhappily.
“I’m going to borrow her for a little while,” she said with finality as she looped her arm around mine.
“But…Eve…I’m…” I stammered, but Phil interrupted my rambling.
“Go right ahead. You’re the boss.”
My head darted around at that. “What’s that supposed to-”
“Come on,” Eve said, pulling me gently but firmly towards the “Crew Only” door on the side of the lobby. Without even a second glance at the sign, she led me inside and down a series of twisting passages I’d never known even existed.
“Eve, what the hell? Where are we going?”
“To…well, you’ll see,” Eve replied evasively as we erupted out a set of doors near the Toucan Isles. I figured she’d taken me here to eat, but she shocked me again by going through yet another crew-only door. I was about to dig my feet into the tile and demand an explanation, but a few winding hallways later, I received one.
Though I’d been on the ship for half a year, I still had no idea where the hell we actually were. It didn’t matter, though – from the look of the interior decorating, we were near the executive offices. The scuffed tile had been switched out for fancy carpeting, and the cheap overhead lights had been replaced by elegant lamps and faux candles.
The hallway we were in ended at a dead end, and there were only three office doors in sight with a golden nameplate affixed to each. One was for Andrew Dickson, the CEO of the Excelsius fleet…one was for Jacob Anderssoff, the captain of the ship…and one…
“Eve…what the fuck?” I asked, staring at disbelief at the door that read EVE SIMMONS in giant, bold letters.
“Surprise,” Eve said, sighing as she lifted up her Excelsius badge to unlock the door. It looked identical to mine, though hers had golden strip running down the middle of it…the sign of an executive. The door opened, revealing a spacious room that dwarfed the cabin I shared with two other performers. A large mahogany desk was next to the small porthole, and two comfortable-looking chairs sat before it.
She walked in without another word and flipped on the lights, but I lingered by the door as it shut behind us. Everything about this was all wrong. Wasn’t Eve a tourist, like the ones munching on shrimp at the buffet a couple hundred feet away? She certainly didn’t seem like it as she sat down on one of the chairs and stared at me expectantly.
“There’s no easy way to tell you this, and I’ve been dreading it for a week now,” Eve began, heaving another sigh as she weakly gestured to the chair opposite her. I ignored it, and after a few seconds of silence she went on. “Here’s the thing, Amanda…the week we spent together was not, originally, intended to be a vacation.”
I felt myself swallow as stared at her, willing her to go on. She continued, “Amanda…I’m the president of the Excelsius Cruise Line. I know that you weren’t aware of that, because you showed no sign of recognition when I told you my name for the first time.
“I walked in through the front entrance of the ship last week because I was inspecting the crew in the lobby; my plan had been to check my messages and go to a meeting before going back to my main office back in Canaveral.
“That was…of course…before I saw you.”
Her words were strange…as if she were telling me all of this while underwater. I understood what she said – mostly – but it all sounded garbled and disjointed. My head was swimming with questions, but my mouth wouldn’t form any important ones. Instead, I asked the first thing I could think of: “So…you’re like…my boss’s boss’s boss then?”
A strange smile grew on Eve’s face, as if she didn’t know whether to be amused or sad. "I guess you could think of things that way...though in all honesty, I'm probably higher than that."
The swirling th
oughts in my head moved even faster, making me dizzy. I crossed to the chair beside her and took a seat, because I'm pretty sure I would have lost my balance otherwise. The woman sitting before me, the one that had been bringing me to a quivering orgasm every night for the last week...she was the boss of pretty much everyone on the ship?
"You're angry, aren't you?" Eve asked, her face downcast. The glare from the ocean waves swirling around outside reflected through the porthole.
"Not...angry, exactly. I don't know. Why didn't you tell me this last week? Why..."
Eve didn’t bother to raise her head as she spoke. "When you first spoke to me last week, my rationale was that I was going to observe you...to make sure you were doing a good job as a greeter of the ship. That was why I wanted you to walk me to the restaurant last week."
I felt my heart sinking through the floorboards as she spoke. The tour, the personal discussions we'd had on the way to the restaurant...was that all just a rouse? Was it just a way to observe one her employees? Anger bubbled up inside of me as the words fell out of my mouth.
“So I suppose our first kiss was a test too? Did I pass or fail?”
Eve recoiled as if she’d been struck, and I saw the tears forming in her eyes. They sparkled in the sunlight streaming in from her porthole.
“This is exactly why I was afraid to tell you,” she whispered. She raised her hands to wipe the tears sliding down her cheeks. “My ‘rationale’ was to observe you…that’s what I was telling myself to feel better about myself. In case you forgot, Amanda, I’d never been attracted to women before you…and I wasn’t ready to admit that I found myself attracted to you at first sight.
“That’s why I told myself that walking with my arm around yours was just part of my job. That’s how I convinced myself that it was okay to talk to you and learn more about you…that was normal for someone observing someone else, right? No red flags or alarms about the fact that I’d fallen head over heels for you…just normal business at hand.”
Eve was silent for a moment, and I was about to shoot something nasty at her when she continued. “It didn’t work, though. By the time we got to Toucan Isles, I’d made up my mind…I didn’t want our little walk to be a one-time thing. I didn’t want to come back to this office and write up my report of how cheerful and happy you were; that I thought you were a nice greeter.
“Fuck that. Do you think I just randomly pick up pretty girls and kiss them in open hallways on this ship? It…it wasn’t something I’d ever done…and I don’t think I would have done it for anyone but you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked weakly. Her words were beginning to sink, if only a little bit.
“After our little, uh, session during the muster drill...I couldn’t. What if you’d thought I was just using my position to take advantage of you or something? What would you have thought of me if you’d known the president of the cruise line had ignored the all-important muster drill.
“There were too many variables…and I know that I should have told you, you deserved to know the truth…it wasn’t like I could have kept it from you forever anyways, and I didn’t even want to…”
Eve sniffed, and the tears began flowing in earnest. I stared at her for a moment, not sure how I felt. On one hand, I felt almost betrayed…as if she’d kept something important from me despite all that had happened between us. On the other hand, she hadn’t actually lied…she’d said that she worked in an office, hadn’t she? I’d never asked which. At the end of the day, did it really matter?
“How did you go from attending a meeting to spending a week-long cruise with me?” I asked.
Eve rolled her eyes with a smile. “Honey…I’m the president. The only person that I have to convince to let me have a vacation is the CEO, Andrew Dickson; and trust me, he’d be the first to tell me that I need one. Besides, he pretty much lets me do whatever needs done; he trusts my judgment.”
My emotions were on a twisting, looping roller coaster – the thrill of seeing her again, followed by the loop of her real job and the sinking feeling that she’d hidden it from me intentionally. Her reasons for doing it all made logical sense – but I wasn’t really interested in logic. I loved Eve, and she’d said that she’d loved me…but I didn’t like secrets, not one bit.
“How come no one other than Phil recognized you?”
“Because no one knows who the president is,” she said, laughing humorlessly. “The only person that cares about is the captain and maybe the CEO. The president, while important in many ways, isn’t invited to speak at many press events.”
“Where does that leave us?” I asked, feeling hollow inside. Through the thin walls, I could hear the sounds of guests chattering and dishes clinking in the distance. The Toucan Isles must have been in full swing by then.
Eve nodded, as if answering some unspoken question. In one sweeping motion, she was off of her feet and at her office door. The lock slid into place before she looked back at me with a determined expression.
In all the times we’d been together over the last week, I’d never seen her take her clothes more quickly. Her black dress suit, bra and panties were all in clumsy pile on the ground near her feet; the gold chain around her neck that she always wore was the only thing she kept on.
“What are you trying to prove, Eve?” I asked, sounding wary. It looked more like she was trying to distract me with her body than answer the question I’d asked her. Unfortunately, I’d been obsessed with her body since the first time I’d seen her nude…so the distraction was very effective.
If she noticed the hostility in my question, she didn’t mention it. “This is me, Amanda. This is the Eve you’ve always known. Regardless of my career, the person you see before you is the exact same. My job – hell, my life – was meaningless before you.
“I know I should have told you everything as soon as I understood how you made me fell…but you’re so important to me that I didn’t want to lose you. I was scared – but not anymore…if you asked me to, Amanda, I would walk off this ship right now if that’s what you wanted.”
“You wouldn’t even let me leave the ship with you this morning,” I replied bitterly. “Do you honestly think I believe you’d give up your job if you won’t even let one of your employees quit?”
Eve flinched, apparently stung by the word ‘employee.’ To her credit, though, she didn’t back down from the question.
“You really don’t get it, do you? Amanda, the reason I didn’t want you to leave was because I knew I’d be back in a few hours. You love this ship as much as I do, Hon…I’ve seen the way you look at it even when no one’s around but the two of us. Besides, you love to dance and people love to watch you…it would be cruel to ask you to leave the ship.
“The beauty of all of this is that you don’t have to leave, Love…and neither do I. I could easily do all of my work right from this office. I could stay here with you for as long as you’ll have me – I’m offering my whole self to you...if you’ll forgive me for keeping all of this a secret from you.”
She held her arms out, indicating her nude form again…and I would have been lying if I’d said I wasn’t tempted. Despite all that had happened and the revelations she’d shared with me, her gorgeous bare breasts still made me lick my lips in anticipation. The bare skin above her pussy was beckoning to be caressed and kissed…
“I’ll forgive you…”
“I sense an ‘if’ in there.”
“There is one. I’ll forgive you, if…if you’ll make love to me. Right here and now – prove to me that I’m the most important thing to you. Prove that it all wasn’t just some game or test – I want you to show me how you really feel.”
Eve smiled, the look of tension finally disappearing from her face. She walked to where I was sitting and sat down on my lap facing me, her legs straddling my body tightly as her arms wrapped around me. “I would have wanted to without you even asking me,” she said, her voice sounding hoarse. The raw emotion she must have been f
eeling was plainly evident in her face.
“I love you, you know,” I said, running my hands through her hair and lowering my lips to her neck.
“I love you too, Amanda,” she said, and I felt her fingers tugging urgently at the back of my shirt. Obediently, I helped her pull it off…and it didn’t take long before I was half-nude.
“You know, Phil’s probably wondering where I am,” I said as she ran her fingertips along the gentle curves of my breasts. I shivered in the cool filtered air, and I wondered briefly whether anyone could see us doing this through the port hole directly opposite from where we were sitting.
“I doubt it,” Eve replied after a moment, seemingly reluctant to pull her lips away from my body. “He knew I was onboard. I told him not to tell you about all of this…that I’d tell you myself once I got the nerve. He obviously kept his mouth shut, thank God…anyways, I think the main lobby will be okay without you for a little while.”
With the free hand that wasn’t busy sliding down my stomach, she shoved the untidy stack of papers off of her desk and onto the floor. Without a word, she stood up and gestured for me to occupy the spot she’d made available. I thought to object, that I hadn’t repaid the favor from last night…but I decided against it. This was her way of apologizing to me…I might as well let her do it.
She wasted no time teasing me – her head was a blur of brown curls as she descended upon my pussy. I’d been wet ever since I’d seen her talking to Phil back in the lobby, and it took almost nothing to have me writhing in pleasure. Her tongue slid into me without the slightest bit of resistance, and I tugged her hair so that she was even closer to my clit. She didn’t seem to mind.
“Oh, God, Eve…you don’t even know how good you are at that…”
“I had a good teacher,” she said, smirking before kissing my little pearl.
“I’m no…no teacher…oh, shit, yeah, yeah, Eve….right there! Yes! Oh god…besides…I learned from you…”
Sea Daze 3: Lay Day (Lesbian Erotic Romance Series) Page 2