A Tempestuous Night Crossing

1

Marlies wondered about him, the urbane and smartly dressed businessman who stood not so far from her as she gazed out to sea. She gripped the salt-encrusted wooden railing as she watched the harbour light, at the end of the breakwater, grow steadily smaller and dim. She could feel the railing vibrate as the ship gathered speed, its meandering course as it negotiated the harbour estuary finally at an end. The monstrously large overnight ferry from England back to Rotterdam was crowded, but few people had ventured out onto the deck overlooking the ship's stern, the gale warnings persuading many to stay in the restaurant or one of the many bars that were to be found in the main lounge.

"I see you've broken the rules just as I have," he ventured and raised his wine glass to her, as if in a toast.

She laughed and held up her wine glass too. The signs painted on the bulkhead that was close to the electric doors, that opened out onto the deck, had said 'no glasses beyond this point'. "I wanted to catch some air..."

"Me too, and it's busy in there. It may be breezy, but the sky's so clear you can't miss looking at the stars."

She heard his cultured English voice more clearly and wondered what he would make of her accented English, good as it was and only too necessary in her work as a management consultant. Engaged with him, she followed his gaze, absentmindedly putting her glass on the rail.

"I...I wouldn't do that," he said, too late, for the glass had slipped over the rail's slicked surface and would have shattered on the deck if it had not been for his quick thinking. He had brushed against her. "Sorry about that..."

Marlies met his smile and then took the empty glass from his hand. "What a waste of a good wine...I've hardly taken a sip."

"And I want a refill, so I'll treat you to it..."

"There's no need..."

"I know that, but I'd like to if you'll stay and talk a while longer. My name's Tony DeForest...and yours?"

To being urbane and smartly dressed there could now be added the word 'flirty' to describe him. She wasn't going to mind that in him as she wanted some diversion after the hectic few days spent in one hotel room and then another, with only work to distract her and drinking alone not for her.

"Marlies Lindert, from Holland..."

"I'd never have guessed," he answered, a teasing smile on his lips. "I won't be long Marlies...if it's not too cold for you out here?"

"No, it's fine and it's nicer out here..."

"That's what I think too, all things now considered."

There it was again, that teasing smile and now his stilled and appraising look upon her. Whoever could have said that the Brits were cold and reserved?

"Drink?" she prompted, on a tilt of her head. "It was a Merlot, the better one of the two on offer..."

"It's yours. I won't be long..."

She watched him step away and wondered what else might be hers because she sensed, already, that their chance meeting would not be limited to sharing a glass of wine, out on the deck and under the starry sky. Being picked up so easily wasn't her usual game or favoured pursuit, but she'd had enough for one business trip of spending evenings on her own, and a good-looking and smart man might turn out to be the perfect company to make the night crossing different, perhaps memorable.

"I wish now that I'd bothered with my appearance some more, but it's too late to go worrying about that."

Marlies leaned against the railing and was not bothered that the gusty wind now tugged at her tied-back hair. The English coastline was becoming but a blur on the horizon and the ship's movements more erratic on the choppy sea.

♥

Tony decided to take his time, to linger at the bar a moment or two longer, and allowed others to order drinks and nibbles. He could feel the slow rise and fall of the ship as it met the swell of a sea, whipped up by the depression he had heard forecast on the radio as he made his way to the port.

The young Dutch woman, whose age he had not been able to accurately judge, but he reckoned about thirty, had braved the elements in her thin quilted jacket that covered a white cowl-necked sweater that was worn with a pair of jeans. He'd taken in the leopard print pumps on her feet and Marlies hadn't brushed him off and said a polite goodnight. Instead, she had talked, pushed that unruly windswept mane of dark blonde hair away from her slender-nosed face. Even in the poor light, he had met the look of her lively eyes and he would not deny that Marlies had already gotten to him. He'd not bothered to seriously pursue anyone since the divorce had come through; a break that had been both costly and brutal.

With their drinks in hand, he retraced his steps, the doors sliding open as he approached and a loudspeaker, somewhere overhead, playing music that he had also heard in the lounge.

"So, you're still here...braving the weather."

"I needed my drink," she retorted on a look his way.

"Nothing else?" Tony raised his glass and tapped it lightly against hers, his look upon her unwavering.

"We'll have to see, won't we?" She realized then, wondered if he sensed it too, that they would not leave their meeting as having shared a drink and no more. She had considered what her answer might be if he suggested it; now she knew that she wanted it. To her, luck and desire had both been joined. "Do you make these trips often?"

"Often enough but always alone. How about you?"

"The same goes for me, Tony. All work and no play."

She heard his soft laugh and felt his shoulder brush against her and looked his way, felt him turn to brush windswept hair away from her face even as she sipped on her drink.

"Good answer..."

"We talk straight where I come from..."

"Would you like to dance?" he asked pointing behind her. "We can get out of the wind and sway to the music playing, rock and sway as the deck moves. It may help, in my case..."

She heard the teasing in his voice, the excuses before they might dance. "Think I should risk it?"

"You'll have to wait and see, won't you?"

He took hold of her hand and drew her under the overhang of the boat deck above them. They might dance around the obstruction caused by pedestal tables fixed to the deck, but instead, they were intent only on breaking down any lingering doubts about what their meeting portended. The lights of the lounge beyond lit the scene dimly and the music crackled in the loudspeaker.

Marlies put one arm around him, followed his lead, and soon they simply danced on the spot in shuffling steps, pressed against each other in their coats. She could feel his breath on her cheek, the brush of his lips to her ears as they stood close and swayed, sipping at their drinks and she wondered if he was aroused. Dancing with coats on, layers between them, made the question unanswerable, but she felt a nervy, unsettling, sense of anticipation that she always felt when she was preparing for sex.

"This trip's going to be different, Marlies...if you'd like that?" he breathed in her ear.

His breaths made her shiver in response and he must have felt that. They stood still against each other, empty glasses in hand, and shared in their breaths, mouths close but not kissing. A sudden and intimate act of foreplay was being played out for anyone who might be looking through the window at them.

"I think you would like to be somewhere else, that we go somewhere that..."

"That is private?" He had nodded on hearing hers say it and had soon taken her glass and with his beside it, put it against the pedestal of the nearest table. He felt Marlies's touch and as he stood up she kissed him, wasted no time in doing so, the slick of her tongue tip to his mouth suggesting what she now wished to pursue. "My cabin or is it to be yours?"

"Mine's a simple bunk room..."

"Then we'll grab your things and you can be with me in mine." They kissed again, only deeper, their tongues swirling and probing, Tony's hands going under her jacket and holding Marlies tightly against him. "Lead the way.."

"I thought you were doing that?" She tugged on his hand and then let go of it when they were inside the passenger lounge. "It's two decks down..."

"And mine's above us...."

He had a small stateroom with a large double bed, lounge area, and shower room; drinks in the fridge and a few chilled canapes. He could spoil her but knew that other delights were on their minds as they stumbled along the silent corridor and to her room, the lights of her cabin flickering on and Marlies hurriedly grabbing her things and stowing them in two smart leather travel bags, one of which he soon offered to carry.

Tony stopped her at the door before she was able to tug the fob out of the light socket set into the bulkhead.

"You can still say now," he ventured.

"No, I can't, neither to you nor the chance of an upgrade."

Tony tapped her nose playfully before he kissed her, their bags falling to the deck as they pursued what was so clearly on their minds and to be felt as they embraced.

2

"There's something you should know," he told her after his cabin's door was locked behind them and he shoved the key card into a holder fixed to the wall. It operated all the lights, some that he had left on in readiness for his return. "I'm just through a divorce...have been separated for over a year before that."

She nodded, looked at the man in a clearer light, and liked everything she saw and heard about him, well-dressed and honest. "I'm sorry for you..."

"Don't be. Just understand that I don't go around behaving in this way. You did more than just catch my eye, and as no one else has done since those days."

"Tony, be quiet on that..."

She was touched and dismayed by his direct ways of speaking. How disconcerting to hear from him that the night was not going to be as she had sensed it might be, two people in pursuit of a one-night stand, no questions and answers; just sex and hot company.

They kissed hungrily and in the avowal of what they felt could overwhelm them; Tony shrugging off his coat and letting that fall to the floor as she pushed his jacket over his shoulders, their kisses no interruption to their undressing of each other. She heard his soft groan as she raised her arms and he lifted away her sweater and saw the perfect shape of her breasts outlined by a bandeau top, a boob tube, that seemed like a second skin, the fabric taut. Against it strained her nipples.

They fumbled for each other, kissed wildly as their tongues stroked, probed, and filled the other's mouth. Her heart seemed to be thumping in her chest, and her pussy felt wet and ready for him, agitated by the touch of his fingers to her skin as her jeans were unbuttoned. She shivered, and could not stop the rushes of quivery feelings in her tummy, between her legs, in her breasts, that she was always possessed by when aroused.

She wouldn't dwell on what had provoked him to pursue her so ardently. She wanted him and the swell in his trousers, that she now gripped, proved how it was for Tony, the man at the ship's railing who had simply walked into her life and would now be in her body.

"You know that...?" he began, but she kissed him into silence.

"Yes, I know and I feel it too."

Tony's fingertips swept lightly over her face, drew away her hair as his lips pressed against her neck, and her throat as she lifted her face and felt his breaths on her skin. He traced a path of kisses and tongue-tip licks to her throat, then moved to press into her eras, to suck on her earlobes.

"Tony...Tony...go on!" she groaned, lapsing into Dutch, but her responses were clear as his hand touched bare flesh, the sensations electric as he lingered on her belly then stroked down, beneath the hem of her panties and found her. She pushed her hips forward to meet this invasion of her wet heat as she groped for him, felt Tony's hands tug at his belt, and loosen his trousers. "Go on!"

His fingers kept on caressing her pussy and she thought that she would get off by just being taken by this handsome stranger.

"I want to see and feel all of you," he kisses and she turns in his embrace, and feels his fingers slide over her skin as he pushes her panties and jeans to the floor, has her step out of them as his lips trace kisses over her thighs, her belly and tummy. They stop as she lifts her bandeau away, her breasts falling free and onto his face. He grips them, kisses their weighty tumble, and feels her hold them together as he kisses her skin, and massages his face in a brazen act of communion with him. "No secrets now...none at all, you wonder!"

She holds his head and feels his breaths on her skin; she embraces him to her as if comforting a child. She bends to kiss his upturned face. "I'm here for you, believe me."

He lingers and presses his lips to her breasts for only a moment before meeting her look on him. Kissing, their tongues swirling, she tugs on his belt and pulled open his trousers, feeling his hands push them and his pants down his legs. He gasps softly as she squeezes on his erect cock and brushes her fingertips over its domed tip. Her hair brushes his chest as she looks down, shivering on seeing what he will bring to her; on seeing its length and thickness. She's obsessed with him now, with a stranger called Tony, and her caresses and urgent tugs on that pole of flesh incite him to lie back on the bed, she pursuing him on hands and knees like some prowling animal.

"Me first," she demands, his hands in her hair as she leans over him and her lips touch the glistening head of his prick before she moves her head to slick her tongue tip over his length, one hand barely encircling it as the other works his ball sac. She licks and sucks, brushing the tip against her face as she looks up at him and sees a soft satisfied smile on his lips. "You into all of that?"

"Sure, as you do that so well," he breathes as she kisses the head once more. His cock is taken as deep as she can take him without gagging and she begins to bob her head up and down, to work him with her hands and mouth, his caresses to her breasts not persuading her to relent. She does move to kneel beside him and allow Tony easier ways to finger her.

"Close, are you close?" she kisses, moving to look down into his eyes as she keeps on working him, his hands continuing to caress her as she sweeps her breasts over him. "You like what I bring. Don't you?"

"I wanted it to be different!" he gasps before his hips buck, her mouth sucking deeply on him before he bursts. It's wanton and impetuous mouthing and he's conceded so quickly to a beguiling woman's ways.

"You'll have me, just be patient," she kisses, slicking the cum from his penis tip with her swirling tongue, not all having been swallowed. She had also felt him tense to keep some back, his penis still so hard and trembling, the tip glistening. She moves to straddle and leans forward to allow her breasts to brush over his chest, her nipples tugged on and twisted in his fingers. She loves to feel a handsome stranger's attention on them, the suited gentleman whom she saw standing at the railing a stranger no longer.

Tony sits up and embraces her, his massaging hands held to her breasts, their palms pressed to her skin and against her hard nipples. She remained engulfed in a tide of erotic sensations that his hands and the press of his penis between her legs and against her pussy bring to her. The flickering of his tongue delights her; his hungering lips encircle her nipples and he now pursues his ways of finding her.

Clutching his neck fiercely she leans back and gives him room to have his thumbs caress her pussy's lips, parting them and slowly probing and seeking her clit and pressing against it in a searching rhythm. She leans back further on her outstretched arms and moves her hips to ride his thumbs, moans softly and feels helpless under his touches and shivering from the sensual delights that his hands and her receptive mind allow her to feel. It's sex for the wanton sake of it.

"They're so full and beautiful," he murmurs, kissing her breasts and she rises to kneel over him so that he can claim them. "Let me in...let me love with you now."

"You don't have to ask," she says dreamily and feels his hands on her, coaxing her to move until the tip of his penis is at her opening. She brushes the tip as he coaxes her to settle down on him, his gorged penis tip parting her pussy's lips and gliding in. She languishes in the feelings of gradual possession, his slow and plumbing entry, her hands gripping his shoulders as she seeks to keep her balance before she finally settles on his hips. "Yours now...I'm yours now!"

He moves slowly and wants to make love to her. She senses that from his ways. She knows that he takes delight in her body, to feel her heat around him as she works his penis in slow bucking and rocking ways, clamps her pussy's walls around him as if to jerk him off. But Tony's not passive; he wants it to go his way.

She leans forward to dim the lights then decides to turn them off. "We love under the starlight..."

"To the end, and like this now!"

With breath-taking strength and agility, he held her as he rolled them onto their side, then pushed her back on the bed, his strong hands parting her thighs and pushing her legs up until she grabbed them at the ankles. It was a posture of submission and acceptance that she would want to be taken in this way. He moved into position, pausing for one last kiss before, bearing his weight on one arm, and tapping his penis against her pussy's lips, he moved sinuously to take her.

"Go on!" she yelped, feeling as if she had been speared as the head of his penis rubbed and probed, moving slowly before a deeper thrust followed. She had been claimed and felt uncommonly thrilled to be with this attentive but now greedy man. He was hitting the mark, her body spasming as her pussy's walls conveyed the pleasure that he brought to the rest of her body and mind. Penetration was an exquisite feeling in itself but with Tony, a stranger, it felt beyond compare.

"It's been a while," he kissed and he met her wondering look, shared in slow kisses as they each read acceptance in the other's eyes. "I've missed the heat and the touch of another, like this."

Marlies drew him in, squirmed as Tony moved to put his hands by her head, rested on his elbows and she embraced him as he began to move, taking her in long, slow, easy, and sinuous thrusts, dipping his hips as he did so.

"Yes, there...go there!" she urged on halting breaths, raising her slender legs around his waist, once more, then higher until she gripped her ankles for an instant then locked them behind his back. She felt so full of him, twisted and bucked her hips in meeting his grinding motions, side-to-side, forward and back, so that he caressed every part of her pussy, then slipped to the edge before thrusting back in. "Now you're loving me...loving me!"

She had kept from using a coarser word to describe what they were at as he dipped his hips, drilled, caressed, and reached so deep into her that all she could do was try and keep up with her ragingly energetic lover. She shivered and felt her senses rise to a peak of pleasure, a queasy rush of ecstatic and wanton sensations as her second orgasm rushed through her body. Her arms and legs tightened around him, she clung to his head and shared in gasping kisses before she threw back her head and gasped words of pleasure, profanity-laden and in Dutch. He'd know what was being expressed, aroused by the wildness and impetuosity of sharing in a one-night stand.

He sought desperately to share in her climax and increased the tempo of his thrusts, pounding against her ferociously and in a wrenching tempo, his hands gripping her shoulders, one hand then sliding to squeeze on one breast as he kissed the nipple, tugged upon it, his panted efforts arousing renewed surges of pleasure and pain. They coursed through her belly, where he wanted him to be, this stranger who was clamped on and tugged as she thrust into her, breathlessly and in ragingly pleasurable changes of pace.