Chapter 3

The tannoy announcement that it was morning woke Louise from a deep sleep. Yawning heavily she opened her eyes and struggled to recall where in the hell she was. A gentle rocking movement soon reminded her she was on board a ship and she hesitantly glanced over the edge of her bunk, half expecting to see Sonya and Brigitte curled up together.

Much to her surprise, Sonya was alone in her bunk and Brigitte was in the other bunk beneath. Maybe the whole memory of the two women making love was a product of her over active imagination. God, she really needed to get laid soon if so!

Her bladder reminded her that she had drunk one too many vodka's last night and she reluctantly crawled out from under the thin blanket and climbed down the narrow ladder to dash into the bathroom. When she re-emerged, the other two women had woken up and were chatting quietly.

"What time did you two come back last night?" Louise asked curiously as she stood before the small vanity mirror and gazed with dismay at her dishevelled reflection.

Brigitte yawned heavily. "Late! We got chatting to some Dutch bikers in the bar because Sonya fancied one of them." She giggled and Sonya looked horrified.

"Ha! He fancied ME more like! I'll give him ten out of ten for trying though." She pulled a face and staggered into the bathroom.

"He was quite cute really," whispered Brigitte. "She just doesn't go for men."

Hmm, maybe it wasn't a dream then!

"Nope, me neither," commented Louise sadly.

Brigitte looked surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah I've had enough of them — they're all wankers."

"Oh I see! You've just had enough temporarily. Can't say I blame you — I was married for a while and I vowed never to go there again." She shuddered.

Sonya reappeared and looked at her watch. "Come on we need to go eat some breakfast."

Louise's stomach agreed. She was starving again and given the long distance they were cycling today, she was going to need lots of fuel. The last thing she wanted was to arrive in Amsterdam too late to go out — that would be truly tragic!

The sky was clear when they cycled off the ferry and made their way through passport control. In the far distance huge windmills could be seen on the horizon, generating power from the wind blowing off the sea. Louise couldn't help feeling excited about being on foreign soil for the first time in ages and she wasn't the only one.

Everybody was in high spirits again, despite the tiredness and aching muscles from yesterday. It seemed that they were all looking forward to a night out in Amsterdam. Even Alicia had stopped moaning about her sore backside — although Louise couldn't help remarking to Gillian that the woman had ample enough padding.

"Ooh, bitchy!" giggled Gillian with a smirk. "So did you bump into Rick on the deck last night?"

"Why are you asking?" Louise said suspiciously.

Gillian tried to look innocent - and failed miserably. "Oh maybe he saw you leave the bar and asked where you were going..."

"And you told him? Why??"

"Just giving you a helping hand!"

"I don't need help thanks! And I don't need any romantic entanglements either!"

"Who said anything about romance? I was thinking more along the lines of a fuck!"

Louise sighed. She had to admit the idea was attractive in many ways, but she was loath to get involved with anyone she had to spend time with for the next three days. After all, what if he turned out to be a crap lay? How embarrassing would that be? It would be rather difficult to avoid him when they were forced to cycle together for so many miles!

"Nope, as much as he is rather fanciable," she conceded reluctantly, "I can't go there."

Gillian glanced over towards where Rick stood, deep in conversation with Gary. They both saw Alicia sidle over, wiggling her hips and thrusting her boobs out. "You know what?" said Gillian. "I doubt you'd get a look in anyway!"

By the time the group stopped for lunch around midday, the sun was scorching hot. Gary led them down towards a picturesque lake with a café and picnic area. It was like an oasis in the desert and Louise was more than ready for a break. Her water bottle was virtually empty and she really needed a cold drink with ice cubes in it.

"Okay, ladies, you have one hour before we set off again. Meet back here at one o'clock, please," announced Gary as they began to disperse in search of food, drinks and toilets.

It was rather stuffy inside the main café building when they ventured in. Part of the terrace was covered with a glass roof and this created something of a greenhouse effect. It was certainly not somewhere Louise felt like spending too much time, so they ordered some food and drinks and decided to take them back down to the lake to eat.

On the water's edge, it was much cooler. Louise took her shoes off and trailed her feet in the gently lapping waves. It was heavenly after the heat of the morning and she lay back on the damp sand and closed her eyes against the glare, waiting for Gillian to fetch her lunch.

"Wake up!"

Gillian's voice startled Louise and she realised she must have dozed off momentarily.

"I'd put some sun cream on if I were you," her friend advised sagely, flopping down beside her with a tuna sandwich.

Louise glanced down and saw to her dismay she was beginning to burn. The exposed skin above her vest top had turned hot pink in the short time she'd been lying down. "Oh great," she muttered. "I better go and fetch my factor twenty."

She reluctantly stood up and jogged back over to her locked bike. Pulling the small bottle from her pannier bag, she squeezed some lotion onto her hand and began to rub the thick cream into her skin. She struggled to reach the back of her shoulders and twisted her body in a vain attempt to stretch further.

"Need a hand?" said a familiar voice.

Louise spun round to see Rick smiling at her. Why was it that every time she turned round he was there? She was beginning to feel like he was stalking her!

"I think I can manage!" she said crossly.

"No, you've missed a bit," he replied, taking the bottle out of her hand. "Here, let me."

Louise felt like a small child as he began to rub sun cream firmly on to the back of her neck and shoulders. Deciding that resistance was futile, she acquiesced with a sigh and let him. His fingers rubbed her sore skin smoothly and she had to admit it felt rather nice.

"Turn round," he ordered. "Your nose is burning too."

Oh great! That was going to look dead attractive on a night out — a Rudolph nose was hardly likely to endear her to the opposite sex!

He quickly applied some cream to the tip of her nose and continued down her throat and neck. "Oh dear, you're burning here too," he said with a grin and before Louise could protest, he was rubbing cream into the gentle swell of her upper breasts.

She glared at him and he smiled innocently. It was on the tip of her tongue to say something nasty, but she suddenly realised that part of her was actually enjoying this. The heat from the sun wasn't the only thing making her hot all of a sudden.

"There, there, all done!" he said, replacing the lid on the bottle.

For a moment Louise was lost for words. Then she regained her senses and snatched the bottle back. "Thanks!" she said through gritted teeth, before bending to put the offending item back in her panniers.

When she turned back, Rick was walking away towards some of the other women and she breathed a sigh of relief. That man was dangerous.

"You took your time?" Gillian commented dryly when Louise finally sat back down and picked up her cheese sandwich.

"Hmm, yeah," she agreed, deciding not to mention Rick and the factor twenty.

Gillian smirked. "Did you have some help with the sun cream?" she laughed.

Louise felt herself blush. Oh great. Hopefully nobody else was watching!

"Alicia didn't look all that impressed," continued Gillian. "In fact she looked positively green with envy!"

Immediately Louise felt better. Anything that annoyed Alicia was worth doing repeatedly. "Well she's more than welcome to him," she said firmly.

"Whatever you say..." Gillian replied smugly. She gazed serenely across the expanse of blue water and chewed her sandwich, oblivious to Louise's glare.

"Good God, if we go much slower we'll stop!" muttered a girl called Sam.

Louise silently agreed with her. Ever since they had carried on with the ride after lunch, it had become apparent that one of the team was struggling. Susie was clearly not as fit as she should have been and her knee was giving her problems. As a result she had started to slow down considerably with each long, hot mile.

The merciless sun bore down on them as they stopped beside a field of dosing cows. Most people took the opportunity to have a water break and Louise flopped down on the grass verge, rubbing her neck. A few muscles were beginning to twinge slightly from being on her bike for hours and she wished Paolo were here to make it better. In fact she wished Paolo were here for several reasons — not least the fact that she was horny as hell.

The thought of getting laid was becoming all too pervasive. Despite the fact she was tired and hot, her libido was still more than making its presence felt. Every time she caught a glimpse of Rick and his tanned, muscular legs, she experienced a buzz of heat to her lower regions. It was distracting to say the least, but she absolutely refused to give in to temptation. No, she was stronger than that!

Or at last she hoped she was...

Gary was talking on his mobile phone and Louise could just about hear some of the conversation. It seemed that Susie was going to be collected by Bob in the support car and the rest of them were continuing on to Amsterdam.

"Hallelujah!" Gillian grinned when Louise quietly related what she'd overheard. "Any more of this pace and my bits will go on strike!" She pulled a pained expression and Sonya who was stood beside her grimaced.

"You're not kidding there," she complained. "I'm feeling rather sore myself."

Yep, long distance cycling was pure hell on the female anatomy. Although, thought Louise smugly, there was no doubt that Paolo would know a good cure for that!

"Okay, ladies," announced Gary loudly. Everyone looked towards him and waited for an update. "Susie is having a problem with her knee and we've made the decision to send her in the support vehicle for the rest of the day." He glanced down sympathetically at a tearful Susie who was sat on the pavement looking miserable as hell.

"Rick is going to stay with her until Bob can get here. Then he'll catch us up — hopefully this won't take too long. In the meantime, my friend Sharon will ride at the back and keep us together as a group. Is everyone okay with this?"

Everyone nodded. Louise glanced back to see where Rick was, but he was talking to Susie. For a second she experienced a twinge of jealousy. God damn this is ridiculous, she thought crossly. She wasn't even interested in him! Why in the hell was she feeling jealous of the fact that another woman was about to have his undivided attention for the next hour?

Rick turned round for a fleeting second and caught her staring. He rolled his eyes and grinned at her. Louise suddenly felt all warm and tingly inside and quickly turned away. This was madness; she needed to stay away from him.

The horizon stretched away into the distance in shimmering haze of heat. The canal that ran beside the cycle path looked deceptively attractive and Louise briefly contemplated taking a sideways detour that involved falling in. Then she took note of the algae floating on the surface of the water and thought better of it. No, green and slimy was not a good look.

It had been a while since they had left Susie and Rick behind in the shade of a large tree. So far Rick had not caught them up again and Louise couldn't help but wonder if maybe he had found more entertaining action with Susie.

This unwelcome thought was more than enough to destroy her powers of concentration and when Alicia slammed her brakes on with an urgent announcement that she needed to stop for a pee, Louise was in no position to avoid a collision. Her front wheel clipped Alicia's back wheel and she felt herself tipping sideways helplessly.

With a string of expletives she fell onto the grass verge and her bike landed on top of her. Alicia seemed oblivious to the ensuing carnage and blithely jumped off her bike, rushing into a bush with no regard for what state Louise was in.

"Damn that woman!" she grimaced as she tried to extract herself with her dignity intact.

Gillian was laughing too hard to be of any use and Louise felt like killing her. A stinging sensation made her yell even louder and she realised belatedly that she had fallen partially in a patch of nettles. "Ouch!" she cried in anguish.

A strong hand grabbed hold of her arm and she was yanked firmly into an upright position. "I leave you lot for five minutes and look what happens," said Rick, shaking his head.

Louise stared at him in surprise. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"I just caught you up," he said. "I cycle faster on my own — strong legs, you see."

Naturally she immediately looked down and found her eyes glued unwillingly to his taut, muscular thighs. "Hmm, I do see," she muttered, wishing he would release his grip on her arm.

"Nasty nettle rash," he said. They both looked at the rash on her legs.

"I'll survive."

"I have some cream that'll help?"

The thought of his hands rubbing cream into her skin again was tempting. "Honestly, I'll be fine!" she declared hurriedly.

He shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Louise watched as he walked off towards Gary. She suddenly wished she had taken him up on his offer as her legs began to itch and sting. Never mind, only another twenty two miles to go...

The music pumped incessantly as Louise nursed the latest of many exotic cocktails. Her head was thumping too, but to move from this secluded velvet booth required energy and that had expired somewhere around the time she had drunk her sixth glass of Stiff Dick. The Bailey's in the cocktail was smooth and creamy, but she felt certain it would give her a killer hangover in the morning.