Even as I pulled into the long term parking structure near the dock, my mind wandered. Why the fuck was I going on a God damned cruise? I hated boats. Well it wasn't actually hate it was more a healthy dislike. Okay, we're friends of a sort. I mean I'm telling you my story and you're listening to it, so I can be honest. I'm fucking scared of being out in the ocean. No matter how big the boat is, I'm afraid. In fact if I had to be out in the ocean, I'd rather be in a small boat. There's actually less chance of you drowning in a small boat. You're closer to the water. Since you're going to end up in the water any way, it makes more sense to be closer to it.

Maybe it's all of those fucking boat movies too. Have you ever noticed that every fucking movie about a boat ends up with or begins with the boat sinking? Think about it, the Poseidon Adventure, Gilligan's Island and especially Titanic, in every one of them the fucking boat sinks.

So here I was on what should have been the happiest day of my life so far. Today I married the dream girl. We're only 2 hours into our marriage and here I was about to get on a fucking boat. The whole idea just filled me with dread. The thrumming of my Mustang's extremely powerful engine was the only calming influence on me. As I looked out of the parking structure's windows all I could see was the boat.

Jeezus, that thing was huge. I'd been reading the specs on this thing since we'd booked our honeymoon on it. The numbers simply didn't do it justice. This thing was a floating city. I mean I knew it was big, but this thing was fucking BIG!

When you read things like 1,181 feet long, you think, okay it's long. But let's put this in real world terms. This boat is almost as long as four football fields placed end to end. It was very close to being a quarter of a mile long. So this fucking boat is longer than the street you live on.

It weighs 225,000 tons roughly. Okay folks do the math, that's about 450 million pounds. I have no words for that. All I can think about that is that it would hurt like hell if somebody dropped this boat on your foot. I don't think the incredible Hulk could pick this boat up without getting a hernia.

This boat is 272 feet tall at its highest point so even if you jumped off of it in a storm wearing your life jacket or not, you'd be fucking dead as disco hitting the water at that speed. I do not want to get on this fucking boat. I know for a fact that my life will never be the same. So why am I doing it?

I'm doing it for the same reasons that all men do anything. Yep, there's a woman involved. In my case it's Danielle Mason, aka Danni. She's my ex fiancé and current wife. Danni is beautiful, there's no other way to describe her. She's tall with long blonde hair and giant green eyes. She worked for one of my friends as a secretary and I fell for her hard from the first time I met her.

My name is Caleb Storm. Hey, it really isn't my fault. My mother was extremely religious. Unfortunately she died when I was very young. I never had the chance to even get to know her. I do know that it may have been a good thing because I gave up on church almost immediately. Neither my father nor either set of my grandparents could ever convince me to go.

Anyway, back to the present. Danni and I got our bags from the taxi that had followed us from the hotel where we'd slipped out during our reception. There was no way all of those bags would fit in my Mustang's trunk. Well mine would, like most guys I travel light. But Danni seemed to have packed a fucking beauty shop into all of her suitcases. She pulled out her blackberry and texted her best friend Emma, who was also going on the cruise. And yes, I paid for Emma to come too.

The two of them had been roommates until now. And Emma had also just broken up with her latest boyfriend. It had been an emotional double whammy for poor Emma so Danni thought she should come with us. After all, it was only going to be the two of us from now on. So why not have one last adventure with old Emma, to put a cap on their time together? She acted like she and Emma would no longer be friends after this. I didn't understand it myself.

Danni tried to explain it to me by telling me that since we were married now, she couldn't hang out with people like Emma. She had to hang out with people like us.

Oh shit, I forgot to tell you, I'm kind of rich. Well, I'm not really rich, but my family is. I went to great schools, majored in finance and got a job as an investment banker. I have a pretty decent salary and I'm frugal, but I don't mind splurging occasionally. So I guess in Danni's mind, WE have to hang out with a certain kind of people and Emma no longer fits the bill.

I'm hoping she gets over that kind of thinking soon, but I married her so I'll let her play "queen for a day," until she gets it out of her system.

Emma was still at our reception, it turns out. She'd be here before the ship left in an hour. I wanted to get here early so I could spend some time getting used to being on the thing before it started moving.

This boat has 16 passenger decks. There are bars, dance clubs, shops, a casino, a gym and even a running track. It's like a floating city.

We checked in, with Danni holding onto my arm the entire way. She was so beautiful. Our cabin was also beautiful. It had a bed with a lace canopy that hung from the ceiling. Danni ran all over the room checking things out. I sat on the edge of the bed and just watched her. Her joy and enthusiasm made me feel great to be able to share this with her.

Suddenly, without looking at me, she dove for the bed, bowling me over. She showered me with kisses and told me she loved me several times. Before I realized it her skirt was on the floor and she was tugging my pants down. She began the consummation with the best blowjob I'd ever had. It made even her previous efforts pale in comparison.

As I looked at Danni sitting there between my legs licking my dick like it was the best tasting ice cream cone she'd ever had, I felt funny. I don't know how to explain it exactly but it was like emptiness. My dad and my grandfathers on both sides always told me that when you find the right person, you'll know it. Danni and I had been together for nearly a year and I guess I was comfortable with her and I wanted to marry her, but I hadn't felt any of that shit.

She looked at me puzzled. "What's wrong Cal?" she asked. Without realizing it, I'd simply zoned out and lost my erection while she was sucking it.

"Sorry sweetheart," I said. "I just noticed that the boat is moving.

"Oh shit," she said. "I have to text Emma and make sure she got on board. Damn it, I wanted to take some pictures of us leaving the dock. See what you did. You dragged me down here to seduce my virtue away."

"Uhm, Danni," I said. "We didn't actually do anything yet."

"But wait until you see what I'm going to do to you later," she smirked. "And what we're gonna do for the rest of your life. But right now I really need to go on deck and see what it's like. I've never been on a ship before. I'm so excited."

Like a whirlwind she dressed and grabbed her camera. "Come on, Honey," she whined. I pulled my pants up and followed her. As we walked towards the deck, I retreated back into my thoughts.

I knew that I liked Danni. She was very attractive. She had all of the things that men like in a woman superficially. She had big boobs, although she hadn't been born with them. You know what I mean. No woman is born with huge boobs. Some grow them, others buy them. Danni's were the second kind. It didn't bother me and she was honest about it. She'd also had her nose fixed. She had collagen in her lips. She'd had her tummy tucked once and I believe her hair was enhanced too. Her hair had been colored and she had extensions.

Danni called it evening things out. In her explanation, if I didn't mind her getting rid of all of her hair down below, then I shouldn't mind her adding some on top.

She was also extremely sexual. I had never needed to drag Danni to bed. I never needed to work very hard to convince her either. All she needed was a hint and her panties hit the floor. In some cases it didn't matter where we were or what we were doing.

All of my friends thought that Danni was the most beautiful thing they'd ever seen and that I'd be a fool to let her go. As I said, I really liked her. Maybe the whole magic thing was a fairy tale. After all, I'd been in relationships before and I'd never felt anything then either. And I did like Danni more than anyone else I'd ever dated.

So I followed her out onto the main deck. We got a place against the rail and watched as the shoreline slowly receded in the distance. I was okay as long as I didn't look down. God damn it was a long way down. And there was also a lot of fucking water between me and land. I felt just a bit sick to my stomach. I'd barely gotten control of myself when I realized that Danni was talking to me.

She wanted me to take a picture of her standing near the railing. She handed me the camera and I tried to focus on her. Just when I had it, a hand passed in front of the camera. I tried to focus again. This time someone bumped me. I turned and looked into the smiling face of Emma, Danni's best friend. "Hey sailor, why don't you and I go back to my cabin," she gushed at me.

"My Gawd," she exclaimed theatrically. "You're married. Please tell me you're not married to that old hag standing in front of the railing."

"I'm afraid so," I laughed. Danni came over and joined us. The two of them launched into an animated conversation that I was no longer required for.

"Hey?" asked Emma, suddenly. "Shouldn't you guys be locked in your cabin fucking away the first three or four days of the cruise? How the hell are you going to make a gang of babies if you don't get any practice?"

"That was my thought exactly," I said. "But your friend insisted that we come out here because she's never been on a ship before."

"Hey," said Danni. "We have the whole cruise and the rest of our lives for that. I'm gonna fuck the shit out of him when we go to bed tonight, but I'm excited. Everything is different. I'm a married woman and I'm at sea. It's all new to me. Besides Cal has already done everything to my body that is possible. He's been inside every orifice I have at least several times."

"Uhm, thanks for sharing, Danni," said Emma. "And Cal, thanks for letting me come with you guys. It was a really nice thing to do for someone you barely know."

"Don't mention it," I said. "You're practically family Emma. You're my wife's best friend."

It was strange that Emma seemed to appreciate the trip more than Danni did. Perhaps it was simply the fact that Danni and I were used to each other by now, so she thought that because of our money things like this were her due.

"Honey, Emma and I are going to go off and explore the ship. Maybe we'll do a bit of shopping," said Danni. "I know that you want to go and find the gym and check out the running track." She looked at me with a gleam in her eyes. Then she stepped up and kissed me full on the mouth.

"Just like with other women," she said to me sternly. "You can look, but don't touch. Do not lift one God damned weight. Do not run one fucking step. I want you to leave every iota of energy you have in ME tonight, not on the floor of some gym, understood?"

I smiled and nodded.

"Seriously, Cal," she said. "It really isn't too early for us to think about starting our family. The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned. The only reason I can think of that I'm not pregnant by this time next year would be that I've already had our first and we're working on another one."

She kissed me again and this time she grabbed me by the cheeks of my ass and pulled me into her so that my rapidly hardening dick nestled right into her stomach.

"That's what I wanted to feel," she smirked. "Make sure it's ready for me." Then she and Emma walked saucily away.

I went back to our cabin after that. Being out on the deck and seeing all that fucking water did nothing to make me feel better. I grabbed the map of the ship that we'd been given and looked for the gym. I went to check out the gym and looked over their selection of exercise machines and weights.

It wasn't like I was a body builder or anything like that. Actually at 5'9" and 170, I'm on the smaller side of the equation. But I'd worked out and pursued a variety of sports for my entire life. Working out regularly was one of the ways I got rid of the stress that my high pressure job created.

After leaving the gym, I checked the map and found to my dismay that the running track was on one of the upper decks. That made no fucking sense to me. I guess this is a good time to mention that besides my phobia about boats, I'm also afraid of heights.

It seemed stupid to me to have the track on a higher deck. Since each successive deck had less surface area, the track could be larger and more stable if it was on a lower deck. I tried explaining that to one of the crew members who helped me find the track and he just laughed.

"Most of the people on the ship are here to relax and have fun," he said. "The areas around the main and larger decks get a lot of foot traffic at all hours of the day and a large chunk of the night time hours too. You'd have a lot of problems trying to walk or jog with all of those people around. So we isolate it to prevent accidents and give you a clearer path." It did seem to make sense.

"If you're not comfortable there you can always run on one of the treadmills in the health club," he suggested. "Besides, very few people actually use the track. Maybe they do a lap or two if they feel they've overeaten but most people just put their exercise habits on hold, or take a vacation from them while they're onboard."

His cheerful expression and confidence in what he was saying made me believe that he thought that I'd probably do the same thing. I don't think he realized how compulsive I was about running.

For the next hour or so, I practiced walking around the ship and not feeling like I was going to barf every time I went to the railing. After a while, I was able to go right up to the rail and even look down at the churning water near the rear and sides of the ship.

You really could barely feel the movement of the ship through the water. It was almost as if we were still docked.

I walked the ship from one end of it to the other trying to acclimatize myself. It really was beautiful there with the sun just starting to go down. Everywhere you looked, there were happy, smiling people trying to have as much fun as they could for the duration of their time on the ship.

There were people of all ages and races. There were families and singles. The one thing that we all had in common though was that none of us lived here, we were all on vacation. I got into watching people and eavesdropping on chunks of their conversations. It was like the things I did at the office to try and get a leg up on my clients. If I heard them telling each other about problems in their businesses that might impact their ability to pay us back our loans, it was a plus for me.

There had been several times that I'd left clients in my waiting room and listened to them speaking and preparing their presentations. They'd often go over what they should and shouldn't disclose during our meetings. I'd heard one client remind his assistant not to mention any word of the fact that they expected to file for bankruptcy in under a month. I was very kind to them and served them the best coffee and refreshments the bank had to offer before I turned them down.

My boss was livid until I explained to him what I'd heard. Sure enough one of our rival banks did give them a loan and a large one. Less than one month to the day, the company filed bankruptcy. My boss and I laughed out asses off. The owner of the company had obviously sought a big loan so he could give himself a golden parachute to cushion himself from falling on his ass when his company went under.

So there on the ship, I wandered around listening in on people telling each other how much fun they were having and their plans for the evening and the next day. I heard people saying things like how the trip had possibly saved their marriages and how much they loved each other.

I also heard something that shook me to my core. I was just coming around a corner when I heard two familiar voices.

"You're so lucky, Danni. Cal is a great guy," said the first voice.

"Yeah he's alright," said the other. I was shocked. After months of hearing Danni declare her undying love for me, hearing that I was alright hurt. For some reason I started recording their conversation on my iPhone. That way if we ever got into an argument I could play it for her.

"What do you mean alright? He's the nicest guy that either of us has ever met. He's good looking too and he's not the kind of guy who's ever going to beat you or steal from you. I thought you loved him."

"Yeah I guess," said Danni.

"If you don't love the guy, what was all of that talk about having his kids?" asked Emma.

"Jeezus, Emma, are you stupid or something. I had to sign a pre-nup, to prove that I wasn't just after his money. The one way around that pre-nup is if I give the bastard a kid. Then I can get a nice settlement whether I stay with him or not." They were silent after that.

"Emma, why are you looking at me like that?" asked Danni. "Shit, it's not my fault. I've gone out with so many guys who were only after getting what they could get from me that it just seemed like it was time that I got what I could too."

"But Danni, he's really a nice guy," said Emma.

"He's getting something out of it," said Danni. "I give him all the pussy he wants. Sometimes I give him more than he wants."

"Which is probably why, you haven't stopped sleeping with other guys huh?" said Emma.

"What I do when he isn't around isn't his business," said Danni. "Besides, just watch, in a few years he'll be screwing his secretary and ignoring me."

"I don't think he's that kind of guy," said Emma.

"Well shit Emma," said Danni. "When I get done with him, I'll try to arrange it so you can have him. I just want to be able to live my life and have fun. I just want to have the things that I want and not have to work like a God damned slave to get them. I'm tired of having to get under a desk and suck some 50 year old guy's wrinkled dick to earn a bonus. I saw my shot and I'm taking it."

"It's just wrong, though," said Emma. "He loves you. He isn't the one making you do things you don't want to do. But you're making him pay for the things the guys who used you did. That's not right."

"Emma, all men are the same. If you've had one, you've had them all. If you give them the chance they'll all fuck you over. The only differences between them are the sizes of their dicks and the numbers in their bank accounts," said Danni.

I backed away and went back to our cabin. When I got there I changed into something I could wear for the evening. About an hour later my iPhone chirped that I had a text. There was no cell phone service on the ship, but we did have internet access and my phone used the internet for text messages and email.

I looked at the message. "Where are you Sweetheart?" It was from Danni. I didn't bother responding to it. I was hurt. Okay, I think it's a bit hypocritical to pretend that my heart was broken. After all I'd been trying to figure out whether or not I actually loved her too. I guess in my case I liked her a lot, but was unsure what love was supposed to feel like. I couldn't actually say that I did love her but I also couldn't say unequivocally that I didn't.

I guess I'd never really been in love so I didn't know what I was supposed to feel. But I'd never cheated on her and I'd been faithful and true to her in every way since we'd met. She couldn't say the same in either case. She'd been screwing around on me the whole time apparently and she'd come into the relationship with mercenary intentions. She was only in this for the cash.

I decided that I'd simply let this be a very expensive lesson. As soon as we got back I'd file for an annulment. I wouldn't even need a divorce because she'd been dishonest the whole time and the marriage would last less than a week.

By the terms of our pre-nup, if the marriage lasted less than 3 years and there were no children, she got nothing any way.

I spent the evening wandering around the ship, watching people and trying to fill the hole in my heart. At around midnight, I went back to our cabin. Danni was there with a couple of crew members and Emma.

"Caleb, where the fuck have you been?" she screamed. There were tears running down her cheeks. The security men from the crew who had been about to organize a quiet search for me smiled and began backing out of the room.

"Sorry, I was at the clinic," I said. "I guess I should have told you that I don't like ships or boats or whatever this is. I got really sick. They gave me something to settle my stomach and I guess it put me right out. I still feel queasy."

The security men laughed. "Told ya," said one. "Usually about ten percent of the passengers get sick in the first two days. About half of them end up flying home."

"Honey, why didn't you tell me about this?" asked Danni. Her fake concern was really convincing. "We could have flown or done something else."

"Because, I love you Danni," I said. Shit if she could lie, so the fuck could I. "You wanted to go on a cruise so badly. I'd do anything for you, so getting used to a boat is nothing."

"Awww," cried Emma. She looked evilly at Danni and shook her head.

"I'm going to go and lie down," I said. Danni just nodded.

"I'll be right in sweetheart," she said. As soon as the door closed, I strained my ears trying to hear them.

"Danni, you're a bitch," hissed Emma. "You don't deserve him. I hope this all comes back to bite you on your ass. That way it'll hurt."

"Uhm Emma, don't forget your place sweetie," hissed Danni right back. "If it wasn't for me you'd be back at that little shit hole of an apartment of ours crying in your beer because yet another loser has dumped you. And it hurts to get bitten anywhere."

"Yeah, but your ass is the only thing on you that hasn't been tucked or implanted," smirked Emma. "It's the only real thing on you, so it would hurt more."

A few minutes later Danni breezed into our cabin's bedroom. She started taking off her clothes and leaned over me. Her breasts squeezed their way tantalizingly out of her top and hung over me like two ripe melons waiting to be plucked.

"Come and get it sweetie," she crooned. To be honest, I intended to spend the rest of the trip fucking her. I don't mean gently and passionately making love to her either. I meant fucking her. I was going to have every hole on her body and try my God damnedest to make some new ones. I intended to do every foul, disgusting and humiliating thing to her I could think of for the duration of the trip. That would be her way of paying me back for the cost of the trip. Whether she knew it or not I intended to do things to her that would make a crack whore blush.

I figured that she deserved it after what she was trying to do to me. After all why should I have to go without sex? Until we got home, we were married. I saw no reason for my sex life to suffer because the woman I thought loved me, turned out to simply be a high priced whore.

When you got down to it, that's what she really was. She basically sold herself to me. She got a good life and not having to bust her ass anymore, I got sex. It was a business deal, no more, no less. The only thing wrong with the deal was the fact that both parties weren't aware of the parameters of the deal. From now on, I intended to treat it as such. But that night, I was too hurt to do anything other than lay there in that bed and wonder what I'd done to deserve it.

For my entire life I'd been the good guy. I'd never forced myself on a woman. I'd never taken anything that wasn't mine. I helped out when I could, whoever I could. And I'd spent my entire life working very hard at both my education and my career.

Just because I'd been fortunate enough to end up in a position where that hard work had paid off financially didn't make me a bad guy or a target. Fuck her.

"Danni, I'm sorry," I said. "But I really don't feel good."

"Oh Honey," she said sadly. "Don't worry about it."

She took off the rest of her clothes and got under the covers with me. I amazed myself. I was in bed with that body and I showed no signs of a reaction at all.

The next morning, I was up before the sun came up. I looked across the bed at the woman I thought that I'd be spending the rest of my life with. I wondered what it was about her that had drawn me in the first place. I can't say that I didn't sleep that night, because I did. But throughout the night I woke several times and wondered, "Why me?"

I wasn't exactly broken hearted, but I was upset. I was pissed by her betrayal on multiple levels. On one level, she'd always professed her undying love for me. She'd been the one to say it first. I remember her looking across the table at me, weepy eyed after one of our little arguments. It had only been one of those stupid misunderstandings that all couples go through. But she was crying like her dog had died or she'd blown a head gasket. I couldn't understand it.

"Why are you so upset, Danni," I'd asked her. "It's over, we're fine."

"You just don't understand," she'd told me. "I love you. I can't be without you." Those three little words, though I didn't understand what she felt and I truly can't say that I felt it, still rocked my world.

There are guys out there who won't understand this. Love fucks everything up. I know that you're thinking, "Okay, she loves you", so what. You can get more out of her. Or that's cool; you get all of the benefits without having any of the weaknesses yourself.

They imagined me as being some lucky guy who would be able to simply break up with her whenever I got bored without being hurt myself. On paper, that all sounds great, the reality is, however, very different. I was born with this terrible thing they call a conscience. Immediately upon hearing those three terrible little words it went into over drive.

I immediately felt weird. There was this amazing feeling running through me as if just having the knowledge that someone, another living, breathing human being loved me. I became a completely different person in that second that it took for her to utter those three words. I became responsible for her health and well-being. It was like being a gardener, when you never wanted to be.

You leave your house to go out and cut down the unsightly weeds so you can pour concrete. Once you get there you discover a rare and beautiful flower. You didn't plant it and you didn't want it, but since it's there you feel compelled to take care of it. What you really should do to make your life the way you planned is to just cut the fucking thing down, but you can't. So you start watering it and keeping it trimmed and feeding it. Before too long, regardless of what you planned, you're a gardener.

I started taking the relationship with her far more seriously after that. After all, my choices were limited. If I did anything to piss her off or to fuck up the relationship, I went back to being just another shlub. As long as her love survived, I was special, I was LOVED. Things got really worse after a while because it wasn't enough for her to tell me that she loved me. She started expecting me to tell it back to her. It was really fucking hard at first. My mouth didn't know how to make that sound. That word is really fucking hard to say, especially if you're not sure you mean it.

I finally forced myself to say it, expecting lightning to strike me at any second for the lie. After I said it, I felt at first that I'd violated the rules of some cosmic game. I had said the "L" word untruthfully. But then I saw the power that small word has. After I clumsily uttered, "Luv ya tu," her face just exploded in the biggest smile I'd ever seen. She pounced on me in the middle of the street. I was sure she was going to strip down and fuck me right there on the sidewalk.

Anyway, I wasn't heart broken, but I was upset at the betrayal and the lies. Not only because she'd been the one to use the "L" word untruthfully, but because she'd lied. She increased my self esteem so much by the usage of that word. She conned me into doing things for her that I never would have done. And all the time, she was also betraying me by fucking other guys. Who knew what kind of diseases I could have even now?