When We Were Married Ch. 03C

We stood in the doorway while she looked at the empty room and I wished I knew her well enough to hug her.

"I know he married me for my money. Or rather, my mom and dad's money. I'm not stupid, although most people think I'm just a dumb blonde. I think he has feelings for me. Or he could. But, I love him. And I have to hope that one day he'll wake up and realize he loves me. Is that stupid?"

I gave her that hug and kissed her on the forehead. Now I felt ancient.

"Not stupid at all, Cyndi. Not stupid. Good night."

It wasn't fair. I had finally started to feel better about things. And now I felt like shit again. I didn't have to be a fortune teller to realize there would be no happy ending for this poor little rich girl. Assholes like Andy never changed.

I went up to the gym and found Andre, the attendant ready to close up. He looked fairly unhappy. I finally got him to admit there was a crew party starting in 10 minutes in one of the sections closed to passengers.

There was a Colombian sex bomb who worked in maintenance that he'd been working on for two months who was waiting on him. Andre was only 25. I took pity on him.

"I'm a prosecutor and a government official, Andre. Get everything ready so I can just clean up and lock the place behind me. I guarantee you, you won't get in any trouble. Get out of here and go see your lady."

After he had gone, I stripped down to a tee-shirt I had worn under my good suit and changed into a pair of shorts I'd been working out in and which were getting more than a little gamy. Tomorrow morning I'd have to have them washed and dried. I carried a pair of ratty white tennis shoes and athletic socks in a little gym bag I'd taken on the cruise.

I hopped on the treadmill and walked for 10 minutes, then ran for 20, then walked for ten and ran for 20 minutes. When I finished I sagged against the arms of the treadmill and gasped while I tried to catch my breath. My stomach and back hurt and my legs felt like they were able to fall off.

I had turned the air up to 80, to approximate the conditions in Hurly's gym at night.

Sweat poured off my body. My tee-shirt was plastered to my body. For a minute I was blinded by sweat running in my eyes. I tried to wipe the sweat out with my tee shirt, but it was so soaked it didn't help.

"Here," a soft voice said and someone placed a towel in my hands. I wiped my face and tried to catch my breath. She stepped back a pace and wrapped her arms around her chest under her breasts, forcing those delectable high riding mounds up and out. I would have sworn round bumps pushed out for the center of each of those mounds.

I caught my breath enough to say, "And....what brings...you here at midnight, Ms. des-Jardins?"

Without a smile she said, "I told you this was a small ship. People run into each other all the time."

"At midnight, in a closed gym?"

She shrugged. Even that was sexy.

"You run as if the devil was behind you. What are you running from, Mr. Maitland? What does the Angel of Death fear?"

"You know. Edwards did hire you to baby-sit me. Well, good job, Ms. des-Jardins. I almost thought there, for awhile...but no matter. You are a true professional. As one professional to another...you do your job very well."

"The captain gave me the option. Any of the three assistant directors could have taken the assignment. But, I read the stories about you in the local paper. You seemed like an interesting man."

I rubbed my face until it was dry and let out a puff of air. Why did I feel like I had been kicked in the stomach. I gave a soft chuckle. Is there anything funnier than the fantasies of a middle aged man about a beautiful woman?

"What is so funny?"

"Nothing. Private joke. Well, Ms. des-Jardins, you can go now. You've succeeded in lifting my spirits with your flirting. And this cruise itself has done wonders for my frame of mind. I'm just going to finish my workout, and then go straight to bed. The sea air seems to help me sleep very well. I'm not going to jump overboard or do anything stupid.

"Please, don't let me intrude on the rest of your night. Carry on with your plans for the evening."

She raised one slim finger to rub it against those ruby lips and said, "My plans include going to the Alpha Lounge, the one across the way. There is a two-man musical trio playing until at least 2 a.m., or whenever. There will be drinks and some hors d'oeuvres.

"It is a beautiful night out tonight. And I am free until tomorrow late morning. If you would like to come over as my guest, we could..talk...enjoy the night."

I already knew that God was a prick, but each time it was revealed just how big a prick, it hit me hard all over again. Why throw raw meat into a starving carnivore's cage only to pull it back before the beast could feed.

If I went, I would only be feeding a hopeless fantasy. And even if she fulfilled the promise of those lips and those breasts, what would it mean? I was just an assignment.

"You carry professionalism to heights I didn't know people were capable of. I'd already give you high marks for keeping me happy vertically. You don't have to go that far, unless you get a bonus for bedding special guests."

That was the first time I could say I'd seen a person's eyes really flash with anger. Her lips tightened and she glared at me.

"Tonight only goes to prove, I guess, that you can never really know another person, Mr. Maitland. I had let myself begin to entertain thoughts that a married woman should not entertain about anyone other than her husband.

"Until I realized just now that you are a very, very sad man. I don't know who has hurt you, only that you were going through a trying time. But, I see now that you cannot accept feelings from another human being.

"I have watched you walk these decks like a dark spirit. There is something about you that keeps people at bay. I saw you with those women this afternoon. Any normal man, any man of flesh and blood, would have been tempted, but not you. I thought at first the man you saw in the lounge was a friend. But he told me you were a stranger. Maybe that is why you could be decent toward him.

"Do you have any friends, Mr. Maitland?"

Her expression changed and I thought it was one of sadness, but that flickered and the anger returned.

"I was going to offer friendship to a man I found appealing and intriguing. But you took that friendship and threw it in my face. You think I'm a whore for this cruise ship, don't you? Because I accepted an assignment to see that you did not endanger yourself, you thought that I was a cheap tramp."

She shook her head, tossing that black mane.

"Well, you can remain the Angel of Death for the rest of the cruise and I will ask the Captain if he will assign someone else to shepherd you. And if he can't find anyone, so be it.

"For myself, I am going to go to the Alpha Lounge, drink and laugh and enjoy the company of good men and women. And watch the sea.

"You, as you Americans would say, can go fuck yourself."

She turned and walked out without another word.

I stared at that ass and at the moment hated Debbie more than I believed was humanly possible. I had loved being married. I lived with a woman I loved and who loved me.

I might be tempted by other women, was tempted by other women, but there was nobody – with maybe one longstanding exception – I'd ever wondered seriously about cheating with.

When women hit on me I didn't have to think about what to do. I stepped back from the edge and went home and fucked my luscious wife senseless.

And if I came inside her thinking of another woman, or another woman's ass, or another woman's breasts or luscious lips, it was allowed in the Husband's Code of Conduct. As long as you didn't touch, you could lust.

Now I was single, sort of. And it was worse than being back in Junior High. Did I continue my workout, forget about the luscious Ms. des-Jardins, go back to my room and get some sleep, then continue the rest of the cruise staying as far away from her as possible and go back to my lonely, sexless existence?

She had no feelings for me. It was just a job. And now she was royally pissed and terribly offended. If I dared to show my face at the Alpha Lounge, she would probably spit in my face and enjoy it.

On the other hand, her actions over the past three days and her words tonight indicated there might be more than the job involved, despite how unlikely that seemed, and if there was any chance that I might get to know her better, I'd be insane not to go to the Alpha Lounge.

On the other hand, she had said she was married. Nothing was going to happen with a beautiful married woman. Guys that looked like me didn't seduce women that looked like Aline.

On the other hand, if some miracle occurred and I wound up in bed with Aline, and I couldn't get it up, I was going to jump overboard. No ifs, ands or buts. That would be the 'coup de grâce', to coin a little French.

On the other hand...there was no other hand.

I was going to the Alpha Lounge.

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Author's Note: AS always, I appreciate readers' comments. It's obvious that reader interest has waned, which was probably inevitable considering how high interest was at the beginning. Unfortunately, I have an entire story in mind and there's a ways to go. Readers can see a new strand of the story beginning with this chapter. I am grateful for readers who've suggested I might halt the series to take time and finish it before submitting it in its entirety. But other readers want to see it released in serial form and while it's tiring, the deadline pressure of coming up with a new chapter at regular intervals is actually a welcome goad to my writing. I might at some future time take a little vacation to get some other projects done but I will have chapters out on a regular basis. As a few readers have noted, it will only be after the story is completed that you can look at it and decide if it was a worthwhile project. I hope many readers will agree it was.