“You see anything you like?” he asked as he allowed his hand to rest on my arm.
The temptation to participate was great – here you would have found every form of sexual adventure you could have dreamed of and, far out at sea, you could forget about the consequences and simply enjoy the body of your choice right there and then, just two more humans finding the ultimate pleasure with no thought for the future.
“I’m sorry,” I said, suddenly aware of Alex alone in his bed. “I think my friend might need me tonight. I think I’ll turn in if that’s okay.”
Sandy smiled but said nothing to detain me and, as I left to find my way back to the guest decks, I had no doubt he would have found another partner for his night’s activities.
The following morning saw the storm of the past few days subsiding and walking around B Deck was not the fierce struggle against the elements it had been.
After my usual number of circuits I went to the gymnasium, spent some time on a rowing machine and then headed for the Turkish Bath steam room, where I found I was no alone.
Sitting completely naked was a fellow passenger I had seen there a few times before but who had never spoken, a giant of a man, bullet headed, thick necked, broad shouldered and barrel chested, his body covered with a dense mass of greying hair from which two surprisingly prominent nipples stood out.
He sat on a marble bench with his back against the Turkish tiled wall, his legs spread wide open so it was impossible not to notice a thick, veined, sturdy and extremely long penis emerging from a thick bush of still black pubic hair.
“Hi,” he said, as I took my place on the marble bench opposite after pouring water onto the brazier of coals between us, creating a fresh cloud of cleansing steam.
I nodded in reply but said nothing but he ignored the silence and continued: “Hey you’re English guy aren’t you? Travelling with the young aristo?
Again I nodded, curious about how he had learnt anything about me but realising that a generous tip for the steward could probably get the answer to most questions on board the Olympia.
“You know, I’ve been observing you in the gymnasium over the past few days. You look great – that’s some physique you have there. Have you ever thought about the movies?
“Pardon?” For the first time I felt I had to say something.
“The movies. A man like you could make himself a very large fortune if he knew the right people.”
“And who might they be?” I asked, suddenly aware that I sounded hopelessly priggish and aloof in a way only the English can.
“I’m Max. Max Von Mars,” he smiled at me as he introduced himself, choosing to ignore my cool tone.
“I’m in the movie business myself. Made quite a few pictures over the past few years. Hollywood’s looking for young men like you. Men with good looks and potential and the desire to succeed in a new world of opportunity.”
Despite myself, I found myself looking him in the eye, losing the English diffidence and asking: “And what would I have to do?”
“You’d need to meet the right people, get yourself a screen test – I can arrange all that... ”
The sentence trailed away as I looked down and saw that the slumbering beast between his legs was twitching to life, rising from its bed of curling pubes, it’s glistening tip emerging from the foreskin as we made small talk.
The invitation was there quite clearly, though Von Mars said and did nothing, just holding me with his amused gaze.
I had rejected Sandy’s offer down the night before but there had been nothing in that for me apart from one more sexual experience.
The man opposite though – big, hard, hairy – could be the key to a different future.
Alex loved me but would that love last forever? Would he hurt me as Eddie had once hurt me? Would our passion survive away from everything that was familiar about the old world.
Von Mars could change everything and all I had to do was go over, run my hands through the thick forest of chest hair, tweak and suck his now even more prominent nipples and then go down on my knees to take that monster of a tool between my lips before sitting in his lap and letting him spear me with his weapon as I masturbated for him, sealing our bargain for the future with our cum.
And then? Then he might part his cheeks and insist that that I give him a good rodgering, plunging into his no doubt hairy anus with practiced vigour, ensuring that he understood just how seriously I took his offer...
“Well, perhaps you might send your steward round to our cabin with a business card,” I suggested, as I stood and wrapped a towel around my waist, aware that despite my cool words, my own erection was betraying what I had just been thinking.
“Sure,” he replied, his boner subsiding just a little as we shook hands. “I mean it kid – with your looks you have a future and I’d be happy to help you, introduce you to some people I think would definitely be interested.”
Chapter Twelve
I returned to our suite, where I found Alex sitting up in bed, eating a late breakfast and looking suddenly like his old self again.
“So where’ve you been hiding?” he laughed. “Have you been having adventures while I’ve been lost at sea?”
Images of Sandy, the boys in the hidden dance hall and Max Von Mars with his cock ready for action raced across my mind as I said: “Don’t be daft my darling. It’s been very dull and very quiet without you. Most of the ship’s been suffering with you.”
I sat on the bed, pulled him towards me and we kissed for the first time in days, lips hard against each other as I unfastened his pyjama jacket, wriggled out of my own clothes with the assistance of his eager hands and clambered into bed where we enjoyed one of those feverish, passionate fucks where all that mattered was giving instant pleasure to each other.
We stayed in bed for the rest of the day, naked in each other’s arms, occasionally kissing and stroking before enjoying more sexual pleasure, both of us marveling at our ability to continue producing such prodigious quantities of spunk.
And then we slept, the long deep sleep that precedes the start of a great new adventure.
At dawn we rose together and went out onto the deck to watch as the ship glided from the Atlantic and into the Hudson River.
To our left was the Stature of Liberty welcoming travellers to the New World and ahead lay the high rise buildings of New York, standing proud, erect and, dare one say, almost phallic against the early morning sky.
With nobody to see us, we stood for a few moments hand in hand and then we kissed, gently and tenderly.
“Here’s to our future,” Alex whispered. “I know we will be happy here.
“And whatever happens next you know that I will always love you and we will always be together.”
There it was, the sudden pang I had felt when Eddie had been about to betray me so many years before.
“What do you mean?” I tried to sound as casual as I could, despite the slight air of unease that was starting to consume me. “What do you mean when you say whatever happens?”
“Well, you know,” he said. “I suppose I have to go back having achieved what the parents have sent me to achieve, even though it will only be an exercise in saving face for the family and providing for the future.”
“And what do they want you to achieve Alex?” Again, I was trying to sound calm.
“Well, they can tell that there are no girls interest me back home and I suspect that mother in particular may even have guessed the reason why.
“But the official line from father is that there isn’t an English beauty worthy of the family name who’s not already spoken for so I’m here to find an American heiress.
“It will make no difference to us Bertie. All I have to do is marry one, produce an heir and then, if she understands what’s good for her, the wife enjoys the
luxury of the English aristocratic life while we travel together, Alex and Bertie, friends and lovers, not master and servant.”
So this was how it was going to be if we lived Alex’s dream, a life of lies, of me pretending to sleep on a camp bed in the study, evenings of him visiting his wife’s quarters in the West Wing to conceive an heir for the Great Hall, before returning to the East Wing to fuck me and forget his troubles.
On the deck below us I could see the bulky figure of Max Von Mars - imposing in an elegantly tailored pinstripe suit and heavy, expensive over coat, a big cigar clamped between strong jaws - enjoying the same view of New York and no doubt also thinking of the months ahead.
His card was in my waistcoat pocket. Would I call the number? Would my future lie in Hollywood or with my beautiful young aristocrat?
I fingered the rectangle of card as I looked at Alex’s elegant, handsome profile, the flawless face and the gorgeous golden body it now seemed I would be having to share with an American bride, both of us part of a transaction conducted for Alex’s happiness and the future security of his family.
I’d travelled a long way since that first morning at the Great Hall, though, a young boy embarking on a great adventure and I was no longer so sure that I was prepared to settle for being the other man, the spare, the best kept secret, the future Duke’s devoted valet and furtive little secret.
Looking at the outline of Manhattan growing larger before me, I realized that my adventure wasn’t over yet... I simply had to decide where the road ahead would take me.
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