The Pleasure Cruise Ch. 04

"Just one," I responded, putting my arm around her shoulders. "Can I kiss you now?"

"I thought you'd never ask," she smiled.

She leaned her head back, looking up at me, then closed her eyes as I slowly leaned into her, softly and gently brushing my lips against hers, then slightly firmer, with a little more pressure and intensity. Danielle let out a soft whimper as I pulled back.

"Wow," she breathed.

I leaned in again and kissed her, still taking my time, slowly and gently, softly. We sat on the bench together making out for several minutes as the intensity gradually picked up, our mouths opening and tongues exploring each other. Danielle's hands were antsy, moving up and down my body, like she was trying to take me in through as many senses as possible. I kept one arm around her and used the other to gently touch her body, mostly her thigh and shoulder, roaming back and forth between the two places, occasionally hinting at touching her breast but never actually doing it.

Finally, Danielle groaned in frustration and took me by the hand, forcibly dragging it onto her right breast. She held my hand in place there as I kissed her, pressing my fingertips into the slightly firm spot where her nipple was. Danielle's sports bra was too anchored in place to slide a hand under it, but I still enjoyed feeling her heart rate increase and the intensity of her kissing build as I massaged her chest. I noticed her roaming hands growing bolder, occasionally brushing against the hard spot between my legs so gently that it could have been an accident, but often enough that she was clearly doing it with some intent.

I was just thinking about starting to explore Danielle's inner thighs when I heard voices on the trail. Danielle clearly heard them too, as she instantly pulled out of the kiss, burying her head on my shoulder. Soon after, a Spanish-speaking family broke through into the clearing, waving to us as they arrived.

"Hola!" I said, trying to be friendly, as Danielle blushed.

"Shall we get a move on?" I asked.

"I need a few minutes to regain my composure," she responded, still out of breath. "Where did you learn to kiss like that?"

"A gentleman never tells," I teased. I turned to face her as she shot me a dirty look. Her fair complexion was flushed, and her nipples were clearly straining against the restriction of her sports bra.

"I have one regret so far on this cruise," Danielle continued.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I mentioned that I wasn't myself during the game of 'Last Time You', and I regret not enjoying it more. I've never done anything like that. I was so embarrassed the whole time, plus I'd already cum twice that day, so I wasn't really that turned on. I liked seeing you and the other boys so obviously hard in your underwear, but I was so wrapped up in my own head and I was too worried about what was going to happen if I lost my bra or panties, and what people would think of my body. I didn't realize until I was thinking about it yesterday that that was my first chance to be a new Danielle, and I already feel like I blew it a little."

I hugged her closer as we sat together. "I can understand that. Do you want to try to do something like that again?"

"I'd like to, if it works out," she responded. "I felt safe in that room with you guys. I felt like I could trust everyone, more or less. I'd need to feel that safe again to be comfortable. I don't want to do something like that with Liam and Oliver again, because I think after flirting with them for a couple of days already, they'd have expectations about what would happen after that I wouldn't want to live up to. But yeah, if there's another opportunity, somehow, I'd like to try to do it better."

"I'll see if we come up with any ideas when we get back to the ship," I offered. "If you want, we can try and involve Emily and Lauren too."

"Thanks, Sean, and we'll see how it goes." Danielle leaned in and kissed me again.

"Should we get moving again?" I asked, gesturing at another group of hikers that had just appeared. Our privacy appeared to be gone.

"Sounds good." We stood and started to walk, then Danielle stopped me, leaning in and whispering in my ear. "One advantage of being a man is that erections go away. Wet panties stay wet. It's gross." She made a face.

"You could take them off," I pointed out.

Danielle's expression showed surprise. "I could..." she started, clearly considering it. "I don't think I'm going to. There's nowhere to change here. But it's not a bad idea. It's another thing the old Danielle never would have done."

We started hiking the second half of the trail, quickly disappearing into thick underbrush. The second half of the trail was far more rugged and mostly uphill. The brush was thicker, closing us in to the point we had to walk in single file. I had a lovely view of Danielle's rear end straining against her leggings as she hiked in front of me.

"It's been so nice to meet you on this trip, Sean Corcoran," she suddenly said, turning around to face me. "You've been really helpful to me, and I need to thank you for that. I'm glad we met each other. I don't think I've asked you, is everything okay with you? Do you need to talk about anything? I'm happy to be there for you too, in the way you have been for me."

"I'm worried about Lauren," I answered immediately.

"I'm not surprised, if this isn't normal for her. She seems..." Danielle cut herself off.

"She seems what?" I asked.

"It's not my place to offer an unsolicited opinion on someone I've just met," Danielle said quickly.

"Then I'm asking for your opinion," I smiled.

"She seems sort of unstable," Danielle started, seemingly unsure of how much to say. "I can see why you'd be worried."

"I'm not going to betray her confidence, but I could use a second opinion," I said. "She wouldn't admit to being depressed, but I think that's what it is."

"I can see how you'd think that."

"She's always been a bit wild, and she's always been closed-off, but since we got on board, she's been wilder than I've seen her before, and she's also had a few moments where she's been more emotional than I've ever seen her." I briefly recounted Lauren's behaviour over the past few days, leaving out anything too personal but still giving her a snapshot.

"Is there a chance she's pregnant?" Danielle asked when I finished.

"I doubt it," I answered. "She was in a long-term relationship that was monogamous and long-distance for the last six months, and she hasn't had sex with a man in ages. Plus, she hates children, so it's not like she would have gone the artificial route."

"Then what do you think?" Danielle continued.

"I honestly don't know. I think she's dealing with some major life issue, but what it is, I couldn't tell you." I shrugged. "I'm worried about her, but my pushing on her makes her shut down. I learned a long, long time ago that she handles her problems on her own most of the time. The best way to be there for her is to let her figure out on her own when she needs you."

"Good plan. I'm sure she'll come to you when she's ready."

"I hope so." I shrugged.

Danielle stopped again. "The trail is really starting to close in on us, are you sure this is the way back?"

I pointed to a blaze painted on a nearby tree. "I'm sure. But I doubt any of the families we saw earlier are coming this way. It was pretty obvious when we set out again that this section of the trail was going to be more rugged."

"I had the same thought." Danielle's brown eyes suddenly flashed with mischief. "Can I try something else the old Danielle never would have done?"

"Be my guest."

Danielle quickly looked around to make sure the coast was clear, then, in one smooth motion, pulled up her hiking shirt and sports bra, revealing her breasts to the jungle. It was the first time I'd seen them, and I drank in the sight. She had large B's or small C's, slightly gumdrop-shaped, dotted with occasional moles, pearlescent white compared with the bronzed tan covering the rest of her chest. Her nipples were average-sized, dark red, perfectly proportioned, and clearly erect. A sheen of sweat made her skin glow in the diffuse jungle light.

"You're beautiful," I admired.

Danielle smiled. "Thank you." She quickly pulled her shirt down again, adjusting her sports bra back to full support and smoothing out her top.

I leaned in to kiss her again, but she stopped me, putting one finger on my lips. "Not now, Sean. This is a big enough step already, and I have an idea what that look on your face means."

She turned and continued along the path, setting a strong pace. I kept up, and the two of us finished the trail in the next forty minutes or so, talking little as we hiked in single file.

When we finally reached the parking lot again, we discovered that the crowd of people from the bottom of the cable car were now on top of the mountain, and so we decided, after shooting a few more pictures, to head down early so as not to miss the ship. The wait for a cable car was long, and we kept up the small talk, admiring the view down the mountain of the green vegetation, the city laying two thousand feet below, and the Caribbean Sea beyond.

It was well past lunch time by the time we made it down the mountain, and with both of us famished and our Camelbak mostly dry, we decided to get a cab into the city to find a late lunch.

Puerto Plata was a beautiful city, one of the oldest in the new world, made up of Spanish colonial-style buildings surrounding a natural harbour overlooked by an ancient fort. Danielle's rudimentary Spanish led the cabbie to take us to the Parque Central, a square bustling with merchants and street life dominated by a Catholic cathedral.

We wandered the city for a few minutes, dodging pushy street merchants and overweight tourists before finding a restaurant that looked reasonably local. We were seated and ordered two bottles of Presidente beer and grilled local fish over rice before finally settling down to keep talking.

"It's nice to get some privacy," Danielle observed, gesturing to the mostly empty restaurant. There were a few other tables occupied, but they were all full of local workmen and families speaking Spanish, and none were paying us attention.

"So, what happened up there?" I asked.

Danielle blushed. "I can't believe I'm about to say this to you. I've never told this to anyone."

I sat silently, waiting, then took her by the hand.

She smiled. "I must trust you. You know how I said up there I didn't know what turned me on?"

I nodded.

"That's sort of true, but also... I do have some idea." She paused, taking a long drag on her beer. "I mentioned I don't watch porn, and that's true, I don't. But I've been into erotic stories and romance novels since I was a teenager. I've always gotten off on the written word, and I've always gravitated to one genre."

I paused, waiting. "Which one?" I asked finally.

Danielle's face grew even redder. "I got the period talk and the 'don't get pregnant' talk when I was younger, but there was never any talk about sex as something fun or enjoyable. I don't feel like I can talk to my parents or my sisters about it either. I think because I grew up in an atmosphere where sex wasn't talked about, and where women's sexuality was supposed to be hidden away, I've always been drawn to stories about exhibitionist women. I like the idea of danger, and I like the idea of being on display, or showing myself off. If I'm reading Literotica, I usually start with the exhibitionist category, and most of my sexual fantasies dating back as long as I can remember are about being in public or being watched."

"That makes sense," I said. "I think kinks are a form of eroticized fears, and if you grew up feeling like you had to be hidden, then being on display turning you on makes total sense."

"Watching Miguel and Alejandra the other day was the first time I've ever seen anything sexual happening as an observer rather than as a participant," she continued. "It turned me on watching them, but it turned me on even more thinking about us trading places with them. Like, I wanted to be the girl down on the beach having sex with you, and to have them be the ones secretly watching us. That also scares the crap out of me, and I'm not ready to think about actually doing anything like that. But I like the idea of taking some baby steps.

"Flashing you up there was spur of the moment. I didn't think about it beforehand, so I couldn't have time to overthink it. All I did was act. I knew you hadn't seen my tits yet, and I wanted you to see them, and thinking about showing them to you outside in the jungle turned me on. So, I did it."

"I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," she mumbled. "Overthinking things I want has always been the enemy. If I have time to talk myself out of doing something, I usually can. I'm trying to be better at just doing things."

"I think you've been doing a good job of being spontaneous so far," I said truthfully.

"It's your turn now, though. Tell me what turns you on, or what category of story or porn you like, so I can feel less embarrassed about what I just told you." She stared at her shoes.

I cleared my throat. "I guess I'm into voyeurism too. I was turned on watching Miguel and Alejandra just like you were, but I wasn't putting myself down there. I was watching them, but I was just as turned on watching you watching them. The look on your face was so intense."

Danielle was still unable to meet my eye, but her expression betrayed a little smirk.

"I'd never deliberately spy on someone," I continued, "but if it falls into my lap, I'm happy to watch. I get turned on hearing sex in adjoining hotel rooms, and any man gets a thrill to see unexpected cleavage or a nipple popping out of a bikini top. But I also am pretty flexible. I've had girlfriends who were into BDSM, and even though I'm not into that, I've enjoyed watching them being so into it, and participating in doing things they would enjoy. I'm more submissive in that sense -- I like doing what makes my partners happy, and it turns me on turning them on."

"Will you help me explore over the next day and a half?" Danielle asked. "Would that turn you on?"

"I'd love to," I said, "though I've heard that if you're in a public space on a cruise ship, you've got a CCTV watching you somewhere."

"I've heard that too," Danielle agreed. "I'm not okay with wandering around nude when I'll be on video. But between our two imaginations, we should be able to think of something." She smiled, a knowing glint in her brown eyes, as our food arrived.

The rest of our visit to Puerto Plata was uneventful. We wandered around the old city, taking pictures and sightseeing, then went for a long, romantic walk on the Malecón, the stone walking trail on the harbourfront. As we walked, I felt my heart stirring as I held her hand. It had been so long since I'd had feelings for anyone, and yet this vibrant, beautiful, intelligent woman was charming me with her innocence and her openness. I had met her as she was in the process of growing up and becoming a new person, and I was enjoying seeing her start to discover herself.

We eventually ran out of places to walk, and as the sun sank lower in the western sky, we took a taxi back to the ship, making it back on board with minutes to spare before the Carnival Liberty weighed anchor, sounded its whistle, and began making steam towards the open ocean. Puerto Plata was our final port of call, and we now had the rest of today and a full day tomorrow at sea before making landfall and disembarking in Fort Lauderdale.

As Danielle and I made our way through the ship, we noticed people already dressed up in evening wear -- it was clearly the second formal night of the cruise.

"Do you want to come back to my cabin?" I asked her, leadingly.

"Yes," she answered, "but I'm also hot and sweaty and in desperate need of a shower, and I want to have a chance to do my hair and makeup. Let's meet up in an hour or so, and we can have dinner and enjoy formal night together before..." she trailed off, blushing.

"Before I fuck your brains out?" I asked with a wink.

"Yeah," she sputtered. "I'd like that."

She kissed me one final time, then we parted ways at the ship's elevator as we went to our respective cabins.

I entered our cabin to find it empty. The maid had been in to make up the bed, and our room was tidy. I noticed Lauren's green and yellow bikini hanging in the shower, and I touched it to confirm it was damp, which at least meant she'd gotten up and done something with her day. Shrugging, I quickly stripped, then climbed into the shower, soaping up and rinsing the day's sweat and grime off me.

As I washed myself, the sight and feel of Danielle's firm breasts came back to my mind, and my cock, anticipating where my mind was going, erupted into an erection. I tried to ignore it at first, knowing I had to save my strength for Danielle later, but the boner wouldn't go away. I started stroking it a little, just relieving some pressure, wondering how on earth I was going to be able to last until tonight. I was getting really turned on in a hurry.

Just then the bathroom door burst open. "Oh, hey Sean!" Lauren exclaimed as I released my dick, startled. I saw her figure hoist itself onto the bathroom counter and regard me through the translucent shower curtain. She suddenly paused. "Are you hard? Were you jerking off?"

"I was trying not to," I said, embarrassed.

"Ha!" Lauren cackled. "We're finally even."

"What are you talking about?" I snapped.

"You know..." Lauren trailed off. "The first year we lived together?"

"What?"

Lauren's voice grew quiet. "You walked in on me flicking the bean on the couch?"

"I did?" I said, shocked.

"You don't remember? I couldn't look you in the eye for a week."

I wracked my brain. "I honestly don't remember ever doing that."

"Huh. Maybe I was more of a ninja than I realized. I yanked my hand out of my pyjamas as soon as I heard you, but I was positive you knew what I was doing."

"Well, I'm not surprised neither of us ever caught each other before, because this habit of barging in on the other in the shower seems to be a relatively new thing for us." I said testily.

The Lauren-shaped blob I could see through the shower curtain said nothing. "You're right, Sean. I apologize. I shouldn't have walked in on you," she finally said.

She stood up and left. Fuck.

I quickly exited the shower, wrapping a towel around myself as I went into the cabin, finding Lauren laying on the bed, her back to me. "It's okay," I reassured.

"It's not," she argued. "You're right, I shouldn't have walked in without knocking."

"I was embarrassed in the moment, but I really don't mind," I promised her. "We've lost so many other barriers this week that what's one more? I just feel like I'd be more comfortable if I understood why things are different now between us."

Lauren rolled over, facing me. "I don't know why they are either. But doesn't this feel right to you?"

"Actually, yeah, kind of," I admitted. "We're not a couple, but I've been enjoying how intimate we've been this week."

"I've been enjoying it too," she smiled, reaching up and hugging me. "I like being close to a person again, and I like that it's you."

She smiled again, dazzling, disarming, apologetic. "So, I'm guessing you and Danielle didn't fuck, or else you wouldn't have needed to jerk off."

"Not yet."

"Not yet implies you expect to," Lauren observed.

"You're correct." I grinned.

I lay back on the bed and told Lauren the story of the day, leaving out some of the personal details but sharing everything else, including that we were planning to get it on after formal night. When I finished, Lauren high fived me. "Good work, Sean."