Chapter 4

Five years of touring the United States and building his reputation and they were scheduled to sail for England five months after Thomas’s twenty-second birthday.

Two first-class cabins were booked on the Queen Mary. Thomas was recognized by a couple their first night on board. The word spread that he was on board and about to tour Europe. Parents went out of there way to meet him and introduce their unmarried daughters.

Young girls from 2^nd class didn’t bother with an introduction. They snuck up to 1^st class and threw themselves at him.

During their five day crossing to England Thomas had sex with seven different women. Marlena was thrilled that he occupied himself with this new game of sneaking debutants into his cabin in the afternoon. Then breaking ships rules by sneaking a 2^nd class passenger into 1^st class cabin at night and allowing them to sleep with him. He even bragged to Marlena that the 2^nd class girls were a better fuck and never refused to suck his cock.

Thomas let the girls from 2^nd class stay in his cabin till morning. The daughters of the 1^st class passenger were only allowed to stay long enough to have a memory of fucking the famous Thomas Taylor. They were ushered quickly out the door and told to return to their parents before they were missed.

Marlena knew he was very dependent on her for her management skills and contacts but she could tell he was losing interest in her as a sex partner. After all, she was forty-one and he was a young man of twenty-two. It was only natural that he would pursue younger women. It was a phase in their relationship that needed to end. She hoped she could concentrate on managing his career. He was no longer a teenager that needed to be guided through those difficult years and protected from those that would use him for their own ends. He was a man and free to choose who he bed and spent time with. Marlena had to admit that not only was he talented but he had grown up to be a very handsome man. Getting women to sleep with him took hardly any effort on his part. Some propositioned him, some gave him phone numbers. Most followed him to his room when he bought them dinner or simple offered them a nightcap. Although Marlena was having misgivings about his promiscuity and excesses. She kept her thoughts to herself.

England was a turning point in Thomas’s life. He met three men that he professed to be his friends. They took him out on the town, procured women and pornography for him and unknown to Marlene at the time, drugs. Bobby and Allen were English, Marcel was French. They were never far from him throughout the entire European tour. Marlene knew Thomas was paying their hotel and bar bill.

After each concert, they would come up to the hotel room with women and alcohol. They kept the drugs out of sight when Marlene was there until she found a packet of cocaine in Thomas’s jacket when she put a very drunk Thomas to bed one night.

To say Marlene was upset would be a grave understatement. She yelled and admonished Thomas and asked him not to ever use drugs again. His response was that it improved his senses when he played his music and for her to mind her own business. He stalked out of the hotel suite and took his entourage of hanger-on and losers nightclubbing.

Marlena was at her wits end and was losing control.

Marlene came close to canceling a matinee in Italy and one in Spain because Thomas was high and too drunk to get out of bed. Coffee and cold showers were all that saved the performances.

Europe had been a disaster as far as Marlena was concerned. Yes, he received rave reviews but his appetite for alcohol, drugs and women only increased.