Alison's Lament Pt. 02

That worried me, "I'm scared to admit to him that you are more than a friend," I admitted to her. "He's only just got over my revelations about Toni. While I know you're not a threat to us, I'm not sure he would see it that way. Or how he would react if I asked if you could share his bed with us."

"I don't think I'm ready to jump in bed with him, either," Lucy pointed out. "I like him, but it's you I love. I just want a little 'me' time with you every now and again."

"Loo, I still love you, that's not going to change, but I've also loved Jos for most of my life, so for the next few months, I need to re-establish my relationship with him without and distraction. I need your understanding."

Lucy swung her legs off the lounger and sat up, facing me. A couple of drops of sweat trailed down between her breasts. She said, "It will be hard, but so long as I know you still love me, I can wait."

I sat up as well and took her hands in mine. "I have an ulterior motive," I said. "I want you to cover my ass with the press and the public while I'm away. I need someone to look after all my affairs while I'm away, and you are the only person I trust. I'll leave you documents that formalized your new position, you are to take charge of all my business dealings, but I want you take a few weeks off and relax first."

Lucy looked surprised at my words, Ashley Bell was a person, but she was also a brand and a business. I'd just thrust her into the upper echelons of the entertainment world.

"Are you sure/ that's a lot of trust."

"I should have made you my business manager a long time ago," I admitted. "You've been doing the job for a long time, but I didn't want to risk our relationship."

"And what about us?" I knew what she was referring to.

"Once Jos feels completely secure with me, I'll talk to him about my feeling for you. But you need to understand that as much as we have, I will always put him first."

She gave me a brief nod. I leaned forward, and taking her head between my hands gave her a soft kiss on her lips. She surrendered into the kiss, then captured one of my fingers and kissed it, drawing it into her mouth and teasingly sucking it. She started kissing the side of my face while I mirrored her action by sucking her finger. Her whole body was up against mine, and my determination to resist her charms while I was reconnecting with Jos was gone, blown away like a leaf in an autumn storm.

Her lips moved close to my ear, and she whispered, "Please can we make love Ash, it's going to be such a long time before we can get together again."

My finger slid down the side of her face, and she pulled me to my feet, wrapping her arms around my waist, and led me into her room and the sofa, where I collapsed in a heap.

My mind was a whirlwind of emotions and nerves. I glanced at the balcony door and considered returning to its relative safety. The fresh air outdoors would surely clear my head of these crazy thoughts and feelings. At least I wouldn't smell her out there, and maybe I would be able to come to my senses and put a stop to this madness. I needed to think about Jos and what would happen if he were to discover my hidden side before I'd prepared the ground.

"I should leave," I whispered, but it was without conviction, and I didn't make a move to get up. Hell, I don't think my legs would have worked right at that point anyway.

"No," she said, shaking her head slowly, "Please stay. We both need this."

Lucy carried on kissing my face, sucking my neck, and licking my ear, which was driving me crazy. My neck is one huge erogenous zone for me, and her actions were sending jolts of pleasure down my spine and into my pussy. Then she added the finishing touch by telling me, "I want to taste you Ashley."

Her hands were at work, running her fingertips across the thin fabric of my bikini top, teasing my nipples into hard sensitive points. I was faced with a decision, should I let her continue and surrender to the waves of pleasure, or should I put a stop to this now, before it went too far. I felt like I was just a spectator watching a scene play out in front of me, but it was me who undid the bow holding the strap at my neck together. The top slid off my breasts, exposing my nipples, crinkled in desire to her hopeful gaze.

Warm, soft hands slid lovingly over my bare stomach and sides until they reached my naked breasts. She was taking her time with me, not rushing like a man would when breasts were near. Instead, her fingertips barely touched my skin as they slowly took possession of my soft mounds. I sat still, seemingly unable to move a muscle. I was tense again, but she was slowly breaking through my defenses.

Lucy noticed my nerves as she whispered, "You're so tense. Just breathe and relax. I love you."

I closed my eyes and tried to relax, but it was so hard. The feelings that I was a terrible person were making it difficult to think clearly. What was I doing?

"I shouldn't be doing this," I whispered, and a single tear rolled down my cheek.

Lucy backed up and removed her hands from my chest. The look on her face was calm and caring. "Ashley, do you want to leave?" She asked. "It's okay; I'll understand if you need to go to him."

This was my chance to leave, Lucy would understand. I could leave and still consider myself faithful to Jos, even after what I had done earlier. So why wasn't taking the opportunity to leave? Why was I sat there struggling with myself? I realized right then and there that I wanted these last few moments with Lucy as much as she wanted me. Damn the consequences. I would deal with them later.

"No." I replied, "We both need this Lucy. I want you... I want to make love to you."

The smile on Lucy's face filled me with so much warmth, that suddenly I wasn't afraid anymore. "I'm so glad." She beamed.

Jos's boat, the Lost Girl, was an excellent yacht on which to learn the ropes, though I was quick to learn, you don't call them ropes; they are lines. With the autopilot engaged she almost sailed herself. I was a willing student; I approached the task of learning to sail as though I was researching a new role. In a way, I was, I was auditioning for the role of Jos's wife and companion, and it was the most important audition of my life.

We were a couple of weeks into the trip, and we had spent the last couple of days moored in the marina at Leuca, on the heel of Italy. Jos had intended to rest and stock up for the trip to Corfu, but a call from his agent the previous day had changed his plans. We were going to head up the Adriatic Sea and spend a few weeks cruising around the islands off the coast of Croatia.

Moored next to us was the 'Xander, the yacht on which David and my security team were traveling. While I had become so used to the presence of a security team, Jos found their proximity uncomfortable. He got on with David, but wasn't willing to change his lifestyle to accommodate the majority of David's demands. In any case, there wasn't the room on his yacht for a security team.

We'd come to a compromise; I'd chartered a second, larger yacht and crew, so David and his team of five could shadow us. Jos had agreed to let David mount a tracking beacon and panic button onboard the Girl, but that was the limit of his cooperation.

So far, we'd had no real security scares, just the usual overzealous fans who'd managed to recognize me. The only unusual blip on the horizon had been a large yacht that for a while had seemed to be stalking us. The yacht was the Mirabelle. She had hovered on the edge of our radar horizon for most of a day before speeding up to pass us on our approach to the port of Leuca. The only person we could see on board her had watched us intently through a pair of binoculars the whole time, leaving Jos and myself feeling unnerved.

Mirabelle had been moored up against the seawall when we arrived at the marina. She was a three-story monolith in black and white, and we couldn't brush off the feeling that we were under constant attention from the shadowy shapes we saw moving behind the tinted glass.

"There's something about that boat that feels wrong," Jos had told me as we'd entered the marina. We got a close look at her. "It's odd that a boat like that isn't heaving with the rich and beautiful. Other than that person we saw looking at us throughout binoculars as they passed us, I've seen no one on board. Even if she was in transit with no passengers, we should have seen the crew."

I could see what he meant; a quick glance around the marina showed that almost every other boat had people on them, but not the Mirabelle. She was all closed up, apart from one lone crew member hosing down her swimming platform.

After we were moored, David came over and greeted us. He gave the Mirabelle a long studied look before saying, "I called the office, all they were able to find out is that she's registered in Napoli and currently on a two-month charter, and before you ask, I can't find out who she's chartered to, but we are still trying."

Something about the shape and color of the yacht had been nudging at a distant memory. "I'm sure I've seen her somewhere before," I said.

"Can you remember where or when?" David demanded. "It can't have been that long ago; from what we know, she was only launched three years ago."

I shook my head. "If you don't recognize her, then it must have been when you weren't around."

David considered and nodded. "But that would mean she was in the Caribbean two years ago, because that's when you spent that month with Zoe on her yacht."

"Or it was earlier that year when I rented that tiny island for a month," I pointed out. "There were several large boats anchored in the marina near the resort on the other island. You weren't there, as I used the island's security so you could have a vacation."

I paused, wracking my brain for that elusive memory, then it came back to me. "That's it; I'm sure that's where I saw her. She was anchored there for several weeks or at least a boat that looked just like her," and I nodded in the direction of Mirabelle.

Paul looked up from the phone, he and Mandy were looking at. "If the boat you saw looked like that one, then it's the same boat. She's on the San Christobel charter site. They say she was built in the Benetti boat yard; they only built one in that design with that hull color. All the others are either blue or white."

"Is there anything that can tell us who's chartered her?" David asked.

"Sorry," he told David. "The charter company's website just says that the next available dates for her will be after she's relocated to the Caribbean for the winter season."

David sighed, "That's all we could find out, as well. I've assigned a couple from the team to keep an eye on her while she's in port." He made a subtle gestured in the direction of a couple strolling along the sea wall. "I thought a man and a woman looking like tourists would be a lot less obvious."

They were a good hundred meters away, and if David hadn't pointed them out I wouldn't have noticed them. He was right; they looked just like a pair of tourists.

We all kept a cautious eye on the Mirabelle for the rest of the day, but there was no change. By the time the sun slipped below the horizon, we were all feeling a bit stir crazy. Jos insisted that we go into town and find a restaurant. I was glad he did, and I could see how the ominous presence of the black yacht was affecting him, as he accepted the extra security that David insisted on providing without a single complaint.

We were all relieved to see an empty stretch of water where the Mirabelle had been moored the next morning.

We had taken our breakfast onto the deck and found David in conversation with Mandy and Paul.

"They left first thing this morning," David said as he saw me.

For a moment, I wasn't sure what he meant, then I realized and looked over to the harbor wall and the empty space where the Mirabelle had been moored.

"Thank God for that," I said, and Jos echoed my feelings. I hadn't wanted to say anything to Jos, but something about the man who'd stood in the shadows and observing us as the Mirabelle passed by, had seemed familiar. He'd been too far away to be sure, but I was sure I knew him. My first thought was that it had been Toni, but then common sense had washed over me. The height and build had been wrong for him, but I couldn't shrug off the feeling it was someone I knew.

Later that morning, Jos's plans changed. Instead of making the crossing to Corfu and then onward to the Greek islands as planned, we were going to head up the Adriatic and investigate the islands off the coast of Croatia.

The call from his agent had come early the next morning. He put his phone on speaker, and I listen in.

A female voice asked abruptly, "What do you know about Croatia?"

He grinned at me before saying, "I'm fine, Katherine, and how are you?"

We could hear her muttering, and then "Fine; I'm okay. Where are you now?"

"We're moored in the harbor at Leuca; it's on the southern tip of the heel of Italy; we are due to head for Corfu later today."

"Josh, darling, how do you fancy a side trip?"

"Let me take a wild guess, Croatia!" I could hear the humor in his words.

We heard her laugh, "Yes, "Yachting Monthly" magazine wants you to write a ten-page piece on cruising around the Croatian islands."

"That could be a bit difficult, Katherine; I've never been there."

"They thought that might be the case. They want a story about you cruising around the islands, a fresh perspective on the region. Ten pages and at least a dozen photos, plus a follow-up piece for the following month's edition. You know the type of thing, prettiest islands, best moorings, food, and drink."

He nodded in understanding, "What are they offering?"

"It's a good deal, Josh; the Croatian government is co-sponsoring the article, so there's 5K for expenses and another fifteen for the article."

I smiled at the intent way Katherine stressed the value of the contract to him. I could, and had, spent that much on a small party for my friends without even blinking an eye, but Jos looked pleased with the amount.

"And the follow-up piece?" he asked.

"Another three thousand."

He gave me a questioning look and whispered, "Your choice, yes or no."

I was so pleased that he was giving me a say in the choice, so I leaned closer to the phone and said, "He'll do it, he promised to show me some islands, and I don't care if they are in Croatia or Greece."

There was a pause from Katherine's end before she asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Alison; I'm his fiancée."

There was a long pause from her end before she said, "Congratulations to both of you. You realize you've just broken my secretary's heart; I think she's been secretly in love with Josh for years."

"She'll have to fight me for him; I've been in love with him since I was eight."

She gave a contemplative whistle and then said. "I think that wins. Josh, I'll send you an email with all the details. They need the first copy in six weeks, are you okay with that?"

Jos looked like he was calculating the distances in his head. He grunted, "That's doable. It'll take us about a week to get to the first of the islands. That'll leave us a month to cruise around the rest of the islands and the last week to polish the article."

"Thanks, Josh. Bye, Alison. Call me if you want anything." With that, she ended the call.

I was sure she was still calling me Alison because she wasn't aware of my other persona. I wasn't complaining, I liked the feeling of being Alison again; there was no pressure and I felt so free. Jos helped by treating me like the girl next door he remembered. Mandy and Paul, the university students Jos had hired to help him crew the Girl, had become close friends to both of us. I was the happiest I'd been since I was forced into leaving Jos behind all those years before.

Jos pored over the maps and told us that we had two choices. "We can follow the Italian coastline up as far as Ancona then cross over to the Croatian coast. Or, make the crossing and up the Albanian coast until we reach the islands off the Croatian coast." He looked at me for my opinion.

"We've done Italy," I pointed out. "None of us have been to Albania, so let's take the scenic route." With that, it was decided.

It took us a week to reach the first of the islands. Jos and David discussed the best options for a safe passage. We modified our travel pattern, sailing each day for about six hours. The Xander would keep close by until the final hour when she would pass us and seek out a suitable mooring for the night.

There were several times during the trip that Jos and Paul conferred with the team on the Xander The reason was a blip on the edge of the radar display that faded in and out. It appeared to be marking time with us. If it was the 'Mirabelle' shadowing us, then we never managed a visual sighting. Jos did his best to keep it low key, reassuring me that he didn't think there was an issue, but I was still disturbed.

The Croatian coastal islands have turned out to be a hidden gem, one I was ashamed to admit I hadn't known about; I was almost tempted to write a bad review just to keep them as my private playground.

Some of the smaller islands were almost deserted, wide sandy beaches inviting us to leave our fleeting footprints and laze about in the clear water, watching silver fish dart around our legs. The larger islands have towns and marinas, where we were able to relax in comfort. Most of the towns hugged the low hills leading up from the coast. The terra-cotta roof tiles of the houses glow rusty red in the late afternoon sun.

These were the first lines of Jos's article, and if anything, it was an understatement of what we discovered. I sat next to him as he balanced his laptop on his knees, reading the introduction to his article. I rested my head on his shoulder and enjoyed watching his fingers dance across the keyboard.

We had reached the midpoint of our cruise around the islands. That morning we had been sailing in and out of the beautiful bays that dotted the coastline of the island of Losinj, while the Xanderwaited offshore for us. Jos took notes and a multitude of photos as we discovered the best places for visiting boats to moor. We had decided it would be nice to enjoy a few of the local amenities, and we aimed to moor in the natural harbor of the island's main town. We were looking forward to a meal we hadn't cooked. I know I wanted to spend a couple of days exploring the town.

Jos moored the Lost Girlstern in against a marina pontoon; he left enough space for the Xander to ease-in beside us. That first evening, we had stayed close to our side of the town. The harbormaster had recommended a local restaurant, and it turned out to be an excellent choice. The food and drink were delightful, and we discovered a small nightclub a few doors away with live music and a tiny dance floor. Mandy and I enjoyed the attention of our boyfriends, who acquiesced in our wish to be pampered on the dance floor and let us dance the night away. Not once did anybody approach me, and I reveled in my anonymity. It was a happy and rather merry group that staggered the few dozen yards back to the Girl when the club closed.

I dragged Jos shopping the next morning, leading him deep into the twisting narrow streets, marveling at the hidden squares and the local shops. As in many of the ports and towns we'd visited, I continued to enjoy the sense of anonymity. Oh, I received the natural appreciation of a woman's beauty. Looks and smiles that were so much more acceptable than the ghoulish attention I usually got from the paparazzi.