Betrayal Book 04

Chapter 1 – The Western Mediterranean

Book four picks up our new life style and the surprising changes that occur

Matt was there to meet us with the usual crew of cameramen and support vehicles. He conducted interviews with each of us in turn. I was not present at the other interviews, but he asked me about my reflections on the last twelve months. That took some thought and told him that the book said it all. I also told him once the cameras had stopped rolling and in confidence, that it was my intention to ask Amanda to marry me again. He was delighted and I could see he was trying to figure out how to work this into the final part of the last episode. I made it easy for him and told him, if he wanted to film it, he needed to be in Sicily in July. I hadn't shared this information with anyone yet, but I was hoping to make it a joint wedding with James and Sheila or failing that while they were still there on honeymoon. He asked, "Can you give me an hour, I need to check with the boss, but I think it could be possible."

He came back to me within the hour and confirmed that Julian had approved the trip and he was already making arrangements. I stopped him right there and asked, "Speaking of arrangements, what are the arrangements for shipping TAGHTA back to Portugal?"

"All set up for next week. You need to get TAGHTA to Southampton ASAP. There is one change however, the ship's schedule does not include a stop in Portugal, unless we pay a premium, but I thought you would be happier to pick her up in Malaga, Spain?"

This was fine by me and we settled the details. The change of destination for TAGHTA did present me with one problem. Our car was parked at Faro Airport and some of our personal effects we had gathered over our sojourn in Lagos. Foremost, was our golf clubs, they were practically brand new and I was damned if I was going to leave them, I had just started to get used to them! When we had departed from Lagos, our lease on the Villa was almost up and the Letting Agency agreed to us storing our excess possessions temporarily in the Villa as long as we picked them up before April. This we would do but the change of destination meant that we would have to drive some 500 miles to get to Malaga, but it couldn't be helped. I decided we would take our time and stopover at least one night en-route.

Before we parted, I reminded Matt that he was to keep quiet above my marriage plans and that this included not telling Chris! He looked a little sheepish and I knew then that he had told her. He apologised and swore to me that she wouldn't say a word, he had stressed this to her and she had promised to keep mum. I asked how they were getting on and he said. "You may not be the only one springing a surprise proposal in Sicily!" I may be slow on the uptake at times, but I could guess intentions and said. "Congratulations, she's a wonderful girl, I hope you realise how lucky you are?" He assured me that he was and looked forward to us joining him for the wedding, whenever Chris decided it was to be.

"One more thing," I said, "What do you want to do about the cameras aboard TAGHTA?"

"Keep them for now and keep on using them. You never know we may want a follow up series and with your track record to date, well the incidents just seem to happen when you are around."

At that point, the ladies joined us and that ended the conversation before I could quiz him more extensively, but I saw Chris looking at me and smiling. I had a quick word with her before we parted and she assured me that she would keep my secret.

Events happened quickly after that, Chris and Toni had to catch a flight back to Glasgow. Matt had the re-enactment episode to produce and Amanda and I had to get TAGHTA to Southampton. We split up the following day and went our separate ways. Chris and Toni would be joining us in the Med sometime in June after their final year end exams.

The rest of our journey was straight forward, we duly sailed TAGHTA to Southampton and as before hung around to supervise the un-stepping of her mast and transfer onto the cargo ship. Amanda and I flew from Southampton to Faro and collected our little car and drove to Lagos. We packed her up with all our gear but as we had packed most of our sailing gear into TAGHTA, we only had our overnight bags and the clothing we had left behind to accommodate, plus, of course the golf clubs. As the car filled up we reflected on just how quickly one collects articles when the space is available. On TAGHTA there is not the same space, so we were limited with what we could accumulate.

We drove away from Lagos with the car full and made our way eastwards towards the Spanish border. We broke up our journey into two stops. The first night's stop was just outside of Seville and ate in the hotel before retiring early. We were both very tired, it had been a long day.

The second leg was much shorter and we decided to find a hotel in Nerja, about 30miles east of Malaga. We could have stayed in Malaga, but we both wanted somewhere less busy and touristy. One of the decisions we did make during our journey was that we needed to find somewhere to make our base of operations, central to our proposed stopovers during our summer's cruising. This proved impossible as we failed to locate anywhere on our planned route that was within an easy voyage or commute. We rented a lock up in Malaga and stored all our possessions there, including our old car, until we had decided on a place to over winter.

We had to make a rough plan of where we wanted to go and the only definite location was Sicily, for James and Sheila's wedding. Barcelona was one of the places we wanted to revisit, we had been there on holiday many years ago and always wanted to return. Our route from Malaga would take us to Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca and Barcelona. From Barcelona, we decided to bypass the French Riveria and head for Italy with a stopover in Corsica en-route. After that, we would see how much time we had before heading for Sicily.

If things went to plan, we would meet Chris and Toni in Barcelona around the end of May. As it turned out it was nearer the middle of June before we joined up with them. This did lead to a more circumspect sex life. Gone were the spontaneous bouts of sex, when we were afloat and completely alone. Sex between Amanda and I had resumed it's normal pattern, usually late at night, we made love three or four time a week.

Our forays into what we had nicknamed our 'raincoat adventures' were suspended. There were few opportunities to wear a raincoat during the summer in the Med! Especially when we had two young crew members who liked to enjoy themselves when we were in port. We agreed, we had to find another way of spicing up our sex life.

That night my future wife and I made love at a slow leisurely pace and afterwards we lay chatting about our future together. Amanda confessed that she found our 'raincoat adventures; arousing and asked just how far I wanted to go with it. I knew what she was driving at. Up until now we had only touched the surface, there were a lot more we could do and I also wondered just how much deeper into this she wanted to go. We had exposed ourselves having sex in front of strangers and she had even allowed one guy to touch her up, but we had stopped short of letting another man or men directly into our sexual fantasy.

I found the idea of that strangely attractive and repulsive at the same time. Attractive, because Amanda was a highly sexed woman and I had a deep desire to see her totally sated. Repulsive, because it was her taking a lover that led to our divorce in the first case and I was unsure if I could live with the knowledge that other men could satisfy her desires as well or better than I could. What if she fell in love with one particular man? The doubts were flooding through my mind in a continuous stream.

Amanda must have sensed my thoughts as she said, "If we were to explore further into our deepest fantasies, there would need to be ground rules. First and foremost, I love you and will never do anything without your consent. The men involved will never fuck me more than five times and regardless of that, we will never continue a liaison with the same man for more than two weeks. Lastly, we will never do anything where our actions run the risk of being common knowledge and expose us to blackmail."

She had obviously been giving this a lot of thought so I said, "I take it that you want to take this to the next stage and introduce another man into our relationship?"

"Man or men darling, I'll even try a woman if that's what you want! Only we will never bring any of them back to our home or boat. I love the thrill of fucking outside where we could be observed, I've read about these dogging sites in the UK, do you think they have them here as well?"

I considered what she had just revealed to me, whether she realised it or not, she really wanted to experience the seedier side of sex. I found myself wanting to see her in situations like that, in control but not if you see what I mean. As long as I was there, she would be able to let her true self loose safe in the knowledge that I was there to intervene if thing went too far! The only problem I had with this was, how confident was I that I could put a stop to things if the participants went to far. I was no spring chicken anymore and was never a man for the physical side of things. I related these concerns to Amanda and she agreed that we would need to be careful in selecting where and when to indulge. That led to another question, just how often did she envisage these 'events' happening?

"Never more than once a month." She replied rather too quickly for my taste. She had been thinking about this, much more deeply than I had realised.

The very fact that I had allowed the discussion to move so far into the practical side of the mechanics of these 'events' had revealed to her just how attracted I was to the idea. She pounced on that and started to stroke my already pulsating erection and soon all further talking was suspended while we took care of another matter.

Chris and Toni settled quickly back into the routine as we sailed our planned route. Strictly speaking, we did not really require a crew any more. Amanda and I could have easily handled TAGHTA on our own, but we had grown fond of our girls and enjoyed their company. On their part, I think they enjoyed getting paid to be on holiday and visiting new places. Toni continued to film, the video diaries were restored though there was little to report other than the fun times ashore and idle days as we cruised from port to port. When we were at sea and the weather sunny, which was most of the time, we all tended to wear little or no clothing except for when we approached landfall or other boats.

Eventually, we found ourselves in Sicily and we docked at the little harbour in the town of Milazzo and met up with James, Sheila and Matt. Chris and Matt rather neatly 'lost' themselves, I guess they had some catching up to do. Toni and Chris had elected to stay on-board TAGHTA, though quite how much time Chris would be there was debatable, but Toni did not seem to mind in the slightest. The rest of us had booked into a local hotel for the week. James and I had some admin work to do concerning the wedding and when I mentioned the I was hoping to get married myself this week, he jumped straight in and said, "Well let's make it a joint wedding. I sure Sheila won't object." He paused for a second and then asked, "When did you pop the question then?"

When I told him that I hadn't actually asked yet, he burst into laughter and told me, "Better get a move on then, old son, or someone else will snap her up!"

I told him that I intended to ask Amanda that evening and asked if he would organise the others to leave Amanda and I alone for a little while around sunset. He promised he would and I asked, "I take it, you will act as my best man again?" James was our best man the first time around and he replied, "Well, I stood up for you the first time around, I suppose it's fitting that I do so for the last time as well."

With that obstacle out of the way, we went to see the local priest and he told us of the difficulties of getting married at short notice in a Catholic country. He said that James and Sheila were perfectly OK as James had arranged all the formalities beforehand, but my case was more difficult. When I explained that Amanda and I had been married to each other before and had only been divorced for a year, his face lit up. "But in that case, you are still married in the eyes of the Holy Mother Church, there's no need to get married again! You will however require undertake a civil ceremony to satisfy the legalities. I can arrange that and you will be able to take part in the ceremony with James and Sheila."

What a relief, now all I had to do was get Amanda to accept my proposal. We had arranged to meet the others for dinner at eight at a local restaurant, right on the harbour side, but before that, I manoeuvred Amanda onto the harbour wall just as the sun was setting. The harbour was busy with other couples out enjoying a pre-dinner stroll, looking at the boats moored alongside and generally enjoying a relaxed the Friday evening.

I sat her down on one of the benches and before she could say anything, I dropped to one knee and holding her hand tightly asked, "Amanda Cairns, will you do me the honour of marrying me tomorrow?"

God knows what she was expecting as she just sat there shaking her head in disbelief and I feared that I had totally cocked it up until with tears streaming down her cheeks, she kissed me and whispered, "Of course I marry you Bill. It's just that I never dared to hope that you would ever ask me again. I love you so much."

She then let out a whoop of joy and jumped up and into my arms. I reached into my jacket pocket and produced our original engagement ring, it had been my mother's ring and Amanda had returned it when we had been divorced. Now she had it back again and I was overwhelmed by the look of adoration in her eyes as she looked down at it once more, back where it belonged.

We kissed for what seemed like only seconds before a quiet cough behind me alerted me to the others standing there with huge smiles on their faces. I noted immediately that Toni, yet again had the video camera up to her face and was recording everything. Amanda was overcome with emotion and her tears were still streaming down her cheeks as she accepted the hugs and kisses from our friends. When we had managed to get our composure back, we walked the short distance the restaurant and sat at an outside table. James had already organised the sparkling wine and stood up and proposed the toast to us both. Then, I in turn proposed the toast to him and Sheila, finally, Matt stood up and rather quietly said, "I would like you all to stand and toast Chris, who today has accepted my proposal of marriage!"

Even though he had hinted to me that he was considering proposing while in Sicily, I did not know when he intended to ask her. I all the excitement, none of us had noticed the large diamond ring that Chris had on her ring finger. This called for another round of hugs and kisses in congratulations to the happy couple. All the while, Toni kept the camera rolling. Suddenly, Amanda let out a shriek silencing everybody. "I've just realised, you asked if I would marry you tomorrow! How, where, I don't understand, can someone explain?"

Then before I could respond, she exclaimed, "And what am I supposed to wear?"

I said, "I thought you could wear your raincoat." This caused her to blush very prettily at the in joke only understood by the two of us, until I said, "Just joking, Amanda. I thought the dress you have bought for James and Sheila's wedding would be more than suitable, since we are exchanging vows at the same time as them."

This latest piece of information cause a bit more mayhem around the table and eventually after a lot of explanations mostly from me, but some also from James we managed to settle down to dinner.

The wedding was everything one could wish for, lovely sunshine, beautiful girls and terrific surroundings. Both couples were married and overjoyed that our friends were there to help us celebrate. I had emailed her sister, Jill and told her of my intentions and she had flown out the previous evening, but had kept away from Milazzo until just before the service was due to commence. She was waiting in the church as we entered and Amanda's surprise was complete. She was still crying as we exchanged our vows. Afterwards there was a celebratory meal at the hotel and a lot of catching up to do.

All too soon, our time on Sicily came to an end. James had a major project to get back to in the UK. Matt had to get back to the UK and finish the series using the video shot by Toni over the last few weeks. He also told me that my presence would be imperative for the series launch. He wanted me to participate in the launch publicity and this involved book tours, TV interviews and radio exposure. All this was fundamental to the series if it was to be a success.

I asked him when and where. Matt let out a sigh of relief at my easy acceptance of this, I think he thought that I would refuse and told me that I had to be in London, no later than September 15th. Inter-video would handle all the hotels, flights and so on. Amanda asked if she would be required and he rather bluntly told her that it would be better if she kept a low profile while in the UK as if we were interviewed together, it would give away the ending of the tale they had weaved.

She accepted this and said rather frostily, "Well if that's what you want then I'll stop with my sister or maybe not travel over at all!"

I could see she was hurt by Matt's decision. I believe it was more the way he had said it rather than the message itself and I tried to explain to her that I would not be busy all the time and would have plenty of time to be with her as well. I knew she had no desire for the limelight, hell I was not too happy about getting my picture splashed all over the media, but we were where we were.

Chris and Toni had only eight weeks before they also had to return to University life and that time table set the agenda for our next adventure as we sailed into the Eastern Med.

Chapter 2 – The Eastern Mediterranean and beyond

We had a planning meeting before we departed Sicily, Amanda wanted to move onto the Greek Islands and we set down our plan for the next four weeks. We still had to decide where to over winter this year. Lots of ideas were mooted and rejected for one reason or another. Thanks to the Arab Spring, all the countries along the North African coast was more or less off limits, we had no desire to get caught up in their domestic problems.

Finally, I suggested Sharm el Sheik on Egypt's Red Sea. To my surprise, there were no objections. The weather would be good, the sailing and diving superb and quick checks on the Internet revealed that Sharm was relatively unaffected by the upheavals in Cairo. We would have to move quickly to book TAGHTA's passage through the Suez Canal and once that was confirmed, we were committed to making it to Suez by the end of August.

The paperwork involved in the transit however, was onerous. We needed copies of this, that and the other before they would issue a permit. I took some hard work to acquire and complete all the paperwork and we recruited an Agency to assist smooth the way (bribe). The Agency recommended we take a security guard with us to ensure that we safely transit the canal. No more details than that, but we were paying them for advice and it would be foolish to ignore it. I didn't realise that what I thought would be a leisurely retirement cruising the Med would be so much hard work!