Chapter 3

- Brian -

I pressed the cabin door's announcement plate at exactly 1800 hours. I've always found it pays to be on time even if you know the other party never was which I didn't know this time. After a moment or two the door opened a crack and I could see Jeremy peeking out and up at me. When he saw who it was, the door opened all the way and he gave me the "come here" sign. I could hear his mother shouting from somewhere deeper in the cabin, "Jeremy! Did you get the door?"

"Hello?" I said loudly as I walked in.

"I'll be right there," I heard her say from the 'fresher. "I'm almost ready."

"Take your time," I answered. "So, sport, you enjoy your nap?" He nodded and grinned. "At least she took the shackles off for dinner." He just rolled his eyes at that.

"I did not chain my son to the bed, Mr. McNaught," Allison harrumphed as she walked out of the 'fresher barefoot carrying a pair of heels. "Although that doesn't sound like a bad idea. Is this okay? I didn't know how dressy I needed to be since you wouldn't tell me where we were going."

My jaw dropped and I'm sure there had to be a little drool dribbling down to my chin. Her dress was one of those impossible creations: technically conservative because it covered more skin than it showed but showed off what she had so well it would instantly inflame lust in any straight man from the age of ten to a hundred and ten.

"Should be acceptable," I said casually, or at least as casually as I could. I think my gulping and croaking weren't too obvious anyway. "Do you mind if I stare at you for an hour or two just to make sure?"

"Sure," she laughed. "But you have to pay for the privilege; you offered us dinner or did you forget?"

"For a minute there," I admitted. "But that's an even better idea. We can eat and I can look at you while doing it. You ready?"

"You are a silver-tongued devil. But I'm ready," she laughed. Quickly she bent one knee and slipped on her shoe doing the same with the other immediately after. Why is it when men try to do this while standing, it inevitably ends up looking clumsy and awkward while with women it just looks sexy as hell? I suppose it's all a matter of perspective but I know when I try doing it I always end up crossing my leg over the other and usually come within a cunt-hair of falling on my ass. It's just not fair, but damn if I don't like watching them do it.

"I only speak the truth," I said solemnly raising my hand in promise. "If I can't tell you the truth I'll either tell you I can't or not say anything."

"Sure," she snorted and gave me a crooked smile. "I wish I had a New Dollar for every time I've been told that."

"Ain't that a fact," I laughed. "Couldn't tell you how many times we'd been told a mission was just an easy little recon only to have it blow up into a full-blown goat-rope not two seconds after we hit dirt. Well, you've probably had your share of being lied to yourself; I suppose with pretty girls it's just part of being alive. But if you catch me lying to you I can promise it was by accident."

"So you never lie, huh?" she grinned as she passed me and walked out the door holding Jeremy's hand. "Never met a real Boy Scout before."

"And you haven't now," I assured her as I closed the cabin door behind us. "I do lie; in fact I just finished one whopper of a tale just a few days ago and no, I can't tell you what it was. Suffice it to say I lie when I have to but when it comes to pretty girls I make it a point not to."

"I've had more than a few men lie to me trying to get me into bed," she said as I caught up to them. "It's certainly nothing unique." I frowned and glanced at Jeremy. This wasn't exactly the sort of conversation I'd envisioned having in front of a kid.

"I try not to hide anything from Jeremy," she said following my eyes. "I know he's young but he's very mature for his age and just because he doesn't speak, don't think he's stupid. Jeremy is very smart."

"'It is best to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt, '" I grunted. Jeremy just looked up at me and grinned. "Yeah, the kid's no dummy. I've certainly put my foot in it often enough by making noise at the wrong time."

"Samuel Clemens, wasn't that?" she asked.

"Some people say it was," I admitted. "Others say someone else. You're no dummy yourself, if I may be so bold. Not many people know about Mark Twain these days."

"I do a lot of reading between sets," she frowned. "Just because I have breasts and blonde hair doesn't mean I'm dumb."

"Never thought it did," I chuckled. "Fact is most of the women I know are one hell of a lot smarter than I am. It's just that not many of your generation have ever even heard of him. He's one of those dead white authors that got banned so many times here in the past few years. I'm not even sure his books are allowed in many schools these days."

"Well, I've read him," she sniffed. "And you don't have to worry about saying anything in front of Jeremy. Like I said, I try not to hide anything from him. He knows what my sister and I do for a living and he knows I date men occasionally. I don't think he understands why exactly but I'm not going to hide it from him. I've always thought being open about sexual matters was best; it's not like he won't see enough of it on the vids anyway. This way, if he has questions, he will always feel comfortable coming to me and talking about them."

"Can't argue with that," I shrugged. "Anyway here we are." I had stopped us at the maître d' podium outside the Pavilion. It was, to the best of my knowledge, the only place on the ship where you need a reservation to get chow.

"Here?" she squeaked and looked at me accusingly. "Mr. McNaught! This is far too expensive! We can't eat here!"

"Sure we can," I grinned. The nice thing about having these ID tags wrapped around our wrists is that the ship's crew knew exactly who you were anytime you went anywhere. As soon as we approached the maître d' stepped up to us and said, "Mr. McNaught, party of three? Please follow me." Jeremy took off without even looking back and I waved Allison to follow.

"If you're trying to impress me with how rich you are, it won't work," she said with raised eyebrows as she passed me. I just laughed and didn't say anything until we were seated.

"Sorry to disappoint you," I said as I picked up a menu. "But I'm not rich. Don't think I'm poor but I certainly ain't rich. I'm not paying for this any more than I paid for this trip."

"Oh? You have a sugar-momma rewarding her boy-toy with a little vacation?" she teased.

"Me, a boy-toy?" I laughed. "I don't think there's a woman that desperate. No. Well in a sense I suppose you're right. It was a sugar-momma all right but she isn't sweet on me. Let's just say the captain and the rest of us got someone out of a jam and she gave us this trip as a sort of thank-you. That and I think she wanted to surprise and embarrass the crap out of him publicly."

"Oh, this sounds interesting," she said setting her menu down and folding her hands under her chin. "Another favor. And is the name of this damsel in distress another big secret?"

"Not so you notice," I snorted. "Since she pointed him out at the concert the other night and crawled all over him in the Dungeon with everybody and her brother taking pictures I don't suppose she cares overly much about keeping it secret."

"Antigua Delmar?" She must have noticed my surprise. "We were there; I heard what she said. So you know Antigua Delmar? That's kind of neat."

"I suppose," I shrugged. "It ain't like she comes around to hang with me. The captain and she are kind of good friends; I just know her sort of secondhand. A good kid, though, I'll admit and things do seem to get interesting when she's around."

"Well I think that's neat and Jeremy is just ga-ga over her," she laughed and rubbed his head. What kind of favor did you do for her?"

"Remember when I said I wouldn't lie to you but I couldn't tell you everything? This is one of those things," I said shaking my head. "Wasn't anything she did but she needed help pretty badly."

"You got good taste there, sport, but I think she may be a little old for you," I said turning to Jeremy and grinning. He looked like he was going to turn purple and explode. "Too bad she had to leave and resume her tour or we could have probably got you a chance to meet her. I think I can get you one of her autographed publicity pics though. Let me know where you want it sent and I'll ask Mike and see if she can scam one. They've been thick as thieves lately."

"Mike? She?" Allison turned the teasing back on. "One of your lovers?"

"Mike? A lover? Good God, no!" I practically choked. I think I shuddered a little also. "I told you about my team from the war this afternoon? She's one of my teammates and that's it. The thought of anything else makes my skin crawl."

"What's the matter? Isn't she pretty enough for you?"

"Naw, she's pretty enough. But if you ever tell her I said that," I growled, "I'm going to have to spank you because she'd never let me live it down."

"I'm not afraid of you," she smiled and took a sip of the wine they had brought while we talked.

"Nobody ever is," I gave an exaggerated sigh.

Dinner was nice and it's amazing how talkative a young boy can be even if he doesn't say a word. Allison seemed to relax a little bit more as the night went on and talking with her was nothing but a pleasure. We finished up and took a walk around the deck and I asked Allison what she'd like to do.

"I don't know. Jeremy's pretty much got me so tired out by nighttime we just go to bed. I'm not sure what there is to do, really."

"How about Jeremy? Has he ever been to the Playroom?" I asked. The Playroom was this huge area especially set aside for kids that had about every piece of play equipment or ride a kid could ever dream of.

"No. I've been meaning to take him but we haven't gotten around to it yet."

"Why don't we stop by your cabin? You get him changed into something he doesn't have to worry about messing up and we'll take him up there," I suggested.

"You don't mind?" she asked looking surprised.

"Why should I?" I shrugged.

"I thought you'd try to have me put him to bed and then try to make me change my mind about ... Well, you know what," she grinned and bumped her hip against mine.

"I would love to have you change your mind about — you know what," I said bumping her back. "But it's your mind and you do what you want with it. Besides he gets to have fun and I still get to be with you. Sounds like a win for the both of us as far as I'm concerned."

"Hmm," she said glancing over at me. "Okay, let's do it."

I'm not sure I understand the fascination kids have with tunnels, balls, climbing walls and all the rest of the kind of stuff they have in those kinds of play areas, but Jeremy sure did. As soon as we entered he took off like a bat out of hell without a backward glance and that's the last we saw of him for a while. Allison and I headed to the benches placed along the wall with the rest of the old farts waiting for their kids to burn off excess energy.

We sat down together. She didn't exactly snuggle up next to me but it was close enough it made me feel good. All of a sudden she started giggling. "What?" I asked.

"I guess I'm messing up your fantasy date with a stripper," she said looking up at me. "I'm sure this isn't exactly how you envisioned it, sitting here watching my kid play. I know what men think of us and I'd be willing to bet this isn't how you would have hoped it would go."

"Actually it's going pretty much how I'd hoped it would," I replied honestly.

"Yeah, sure it is," she said with just a touch of sadness.

"Look, Allison," I said turning around to face her. "I admit I'm sexually attracted to you. I am a man after all and I'd have to be made of stone or lying to say I'm not. But I'm also just happy being here with you. I can't help what fantasies other men have or what their expectations are but I'm enjoying this, and if that's all the farther it goes I'm perfectly okay with that. I've been out with other women that most people consider flat-out whores and maybe it's just me getting old but I've found what they did for a living had nothing to do with the type of person they were."

"When you say whores you don't mean..." she started but then blushed and couldn't finish.

"Actually I meant vid actors and singers," I grinned. "I think I mentioned that I sometimes helped out the captain on some of his charters and you get to meet all kinds of people on those things." What I wasn't going to tell her was how often some young or maybe not so young starlet got her dumb ass in a bad situation with another passenger and needed someone to help dissuade some puffed up bravo from taking more than he was offered. The funny thing was they more often than not had no problem giving up that very same thing to the guy who rescues them, especially if you have to break an arm or two in the process. Women are strange creatures and I'm not sure I'll ever understand them.

"Eww, a stud to the stars," she teased. "Got any juicy names you'd like to brag about?"

"No, and I didn't say we had sex; I just said I've been out with them," I grinned. "I can go out with someone without having sex with them, you know."

"Sure you didn't," she grinned right back. "I got your number Mr.-pretend-not-to-be-interested-and-get-them-hot-for-you-McNaught. Well that may work on some empty-headed bits of fluff you pick up around Tampa but we Tucson girls know better. It's not going to work here."

"Don't be so sure," I cautioned her. "It's a very, very subtle game. Just you wait; two months from now you'll suddenly wake up and say to yourself, 'Damn, I wish I'd had sex with him!'"

"But by then I'll be back in Tucson," she laughed.

"I didn't say it didn't have a flaw or two..." I shrugged. She laughed again and reached out to hold my hand. Our fingers intertwined lightly as we sat there watching the kids move like randomly vibrating molecules in the play area, and we talked ... just talked. Mostly about Tucson and how she grew up there. It sounded like a pretty normal childhood but there was one thing I did want to know about enough to ask. "What happened to Jeremy's father?"

"That asshole," she snorted. "I was sixteen and in love. Of course I'd picked the biggest dirtbag in the county to do it with. He was nineteen and a real bad boy, just about two steps away from the draft of having the local judge put his name in for involuntary induction. Naturally when he found out he'd knocked me up he took off so fast you could see smoke coming off his shoes. He decided he was going to jack a car and make a run for it with his other girlfriend — who I didn't know about at the time — but as usual he fucked it up. Tried to take the car of some disabled vet while he was still in it. From the way they told it there were so many holes in him they just scooped him into a jar instead of a coffin."

"I doubt that," I grinned but had to continue when she gave me the look. "I don't mean about the jar although it was probably a baggie; no, I mean about him having another girlfriend. I find it difficult to believe there would be a man that stupid and still able to breathe on his own."

"Still the smooth talker, aren't you," she laughed. "Well I wasn't quite so filled out back then and he thought he was God's gift to women so I think he believed it was perfectly natural to have two or three on a string." She sighed and shook her head, "God I was dumb back then."