Island of Paradise and Fear

Prologue-

“Credit card offer.. Bill… Junk…. Sale Ad….. Oh hello…… What do we have here?” Kate says as she sorts through the hundreds of emails in her inbox. She opens an email that seems to have been sent by her old high school. She goes on to read a lengthy message that explains that due to the low number of people in her graduating class, the alumni have decided to combine several reunions with multiple class years planning a week-long cruise on an adults-only ship. “Hmmm… do I really want to be trapped on a ship for an entire week with assholes that tormented my friends all those years? On the other hand, I have wanted to book a cruise for a long while now…” After a thorough inner reflection of her selfish nature vs. her disdain for the idiots she graduated with, she clicks to accept and arrange the booking.

Just as she finishes what she is doing, she hears a light tapping at her apartment door. As she opens the door, she’s greeted by the pathetic visage of her neighbor, Joey. “Hi Mistress, I just finished up my workday, and it’s been a real doozy. Any chance we could have a bit of a session tonight?” He asks while leaning in the doorway with pouting lips.

“Eh, I wasn’t planning to get dirty today, but I guess I can do it, but nothing too major. I do not need to be cleaning up your splooge all over my apartment for the rest of the night!” She says, voice full of frustration. “Go shower and wash off that nasty-ass cologne that reeks of desperation. Make sure to use the scouring sponge in the bathroom to thoroughly get yourself clean. And you’re not clean until I see red, got it?”

“Yes Ma’am…” He meekly says as he squeezes through the door and runs for her bathroom.

After a 2-hour session complete with whipping, flogging, pegging, and some serious degradation, they both lay on her living room couch absolutely exhausted and pleased, each in their own way. As they are cooling off under the full speed ceiling fan, Joey sits up a bit and looks adoringly over at Kate. He starts rambling on about his day and other pointless things and eventually says, “You know, we have an amazing thing going on here. We really fit together well. I love you.”

Kate glares at him like he just pissed in her Cheerios. Raising her eyebrow to show her displeasure, she doesn’t say a word, just stares with utter frustration and disappointment. “I’m sorry, Mistress. I shouldn’t have said that. Let’s just pretend this conversation never happened……” Joey says as he gets up, starts getting dressed quickly, and moves toward the door.

Kate had been officially single since she left her dirty, rotten, cheating, abusive husband and took him to the cleaners for everything he had. She had been there, done that, got the ugly ass t-shirt and had no intention of ever going back. “This cruise can’t come soon enough. I need to get the fuck out of here before the rest of my playthings decide they wanna marry me and turn me into the barefoot, baby carrying queen of their double wide trailer.”

CHAPTER 1-

As Kate steps into the check-in area for her impending cruise, she really starts to regret her decision immediately. She’s being bombarded with noise from machinery and what feels like millions of people yelling and talking as they move along like a herd of cattle. Her head starts pounding and she feels dizzy from the overwhelming surroundings. Immediately, she gets squished between one large older man who smells like his idea of a shower is just pouring the original Old Spice aftershave all over his body and an oversized couple who don’t seem to have ever heard of personal hygiene. She tries to shield herself from the obnoxious odors by covering her nose with her delicately scented wrist, thankful that she at least had the forethought to spray herself with a light spritz of Carolina Herrera Good Girl. “Ugh….. I guess it’s too late to back out now; all paid for and non-refundable. They sure as hell don’t show this part of the experience on YouTube.”

Stepping toward the check-in counter, she notices the newly hung sign for New Horizons Cruise Line and the shiny gold-colored counter with a young lady extending a very nervous but huge smile toward her. It’s clearly her first day. Suddenly, she realizes that she’s never even heard of this company before. It must be new too, or maybe she really doesn’t know anything about the industry. “Welcome to New Horizons Cruise Line. Can I get your name and confirmation ticket? Oops, I mean number.” The girl at check-in asks, as she fumbles through what is probably a script. “Kate Long, here’s my confirmation email with the number and the barcode in case you need it.” Kate says while trying to be friendly and hold down her building frustration. “Everyone has to start somewhere and nobody’s perfect…” she thinks as the poor girl types in the number with trembling hands. “It’s ok Hun, take your time. I’m in no rush at all.” Kate says to the employee, trying her best to be encouraging to a young lady trying to make it in this big world.

After boarding the massive ship, Kate makes her way to her cabin. She had booked a room with a single queen bed but a large bathroom and a window. She didn’t need to pay extra for a balcony or anything fancy like that. If she wanted to feel the ocean, she would just go up on deck. “Ahh finally, a moment to myself…” She says as she lifts her suitcase onto the stand and looks around the room. Just then, she hears yelling coming from the hall. Several of her male classmates were running through the hall screaming like it’s Senior Year Spring Break. Rolling her eyes, she thinks, “ I can do this. I will not let my invasive thoughts win. No shoving idiots overboard. That might get me in a tiny bit of trouble.”

She decides to take a walk around the ship, to get a good look at all of the amenities. Opening her door, she steps up and sticks her leg out just in time for her old classmate, Austin, to trip over it and fall face first to the floor. “Careful, you keep running everywhere like that, you might just end up overboard at sea…..” She says as she casually walks away. Austin and his two friends just look up at her baffled that anyone would have the nerve to stop their fun.

Kate slowly makes her way around the ship taking in all the beautiful sights. Everything is brand new on this ship, but of course, the beauty is overshadowed by the swarms of people. As she walks outside, she sees a massive pool full of people already. “How the Hell have they had time to get changed and make their way to the pool already?” She asks herself. The various hot tubs are even full. Music is blasting and everyone is dancing around and having a good time. “Ok, this was a mistake. I should have just gone backpacking across Europe.”

She turns around to walk back inside toward one of the restaurants, when she bumps right into the chest of Luke, her old classmate. “Holy Shit, it’s you!” He exclaims. “I was hoping to see you here, Katie, and boy am I glad we ran into each other! Man, you are just as gorgeous as the day we graduated.”

She steps back and takes a minute to figure out who she’s looking at. “Oh, it’s you, Luke. It’s been a bit. For a second, I thought you were that shithead, Austin, which wouldn’t make any damn sense, considering I don’t even think he ever knew I existed, but hey, good to see ya!” She moves around him and walks inside. Kate had never been the type to take hints or pick up on social cues.

Feeling absolutely overwhelmed by everything going on around her and now a random social interaction with someone she hadn’t thought about in years, Kate slowly swayed her way over to a nice solid wall to take a minute to breathe. As she leans against the wall, Luke runs up to her with wide-eyed excitement. “Ok I promised myself that if I ran into you, I was not gonna pass up this chance again. I spent every waking moment since meeting you in elementary school thinking about you and trying to work up the nerve to ask you out. I am NOT going to make that mistake again. Kate, will you do me the honor of having dinner with me tonight? I know I’m a mess, cause I wasn’t expecting to run into you so damn soon, and I may be a little less than a 10 these days, but it would absolutely make me the happiest guy on this boat if you said yes.”

Looking up at him in utter confusion and still out of breath from her ever so mild panic attack, Kate takes a minute to assess the situation and the tall, muscular, overly tan man standing right in front of her. She starts to open her mouth to respond but realizes that she just can’t make herself speak at that very moment, so she grabs his hand and quickly drags him through the mass of people to a quiet corner in the next room. She picks a few empty chairs and shoves him down in one of the seats before sitting down herself. “Ahh so much better. Ok now we can talk. I couldn’t think clearly in there with all those people. Too many people in there talking all at once.” She takes a deep breath and looks down at her feet for a moment. “ Ok, we can give it a shot. I make no guarantees regarding my behavior if the dining room is anything like the room we just left, but I will have dinner with you.”

Clearly unbothered by her panic attack, Luke stands up, pulling her up to her feet and hugs her as tight as humanly possible while saying, “ Thank you, thank you, thank you! You won’t regret it!” and dashes off while stripping off his shirt to find his friends, Austin and Jake by the pool.

After having a short breather on her bed to decompress from the day’s stress, Kate takes a long hot shower to wash away the unpleasantness. “Ahh nothing like a scalding shower to scrub away the bad thoughts of the day.” She eventually gets out, dries her hair, and applies makeup. She then pulls out her black high heel boots and tight black dress. “It’s time people see the real me, not the meek little angel everyone always assumed I was back in the day.”

As she steps outside of her cabin, she sees that Luke is already waiting for her in the hall. “Did you realize your room is just 2 doors down from mine? That’s so cool! Now we can see each other all the time!.” He says in his overly excited tone. Kate tries her best at putting up a smile so as to not show just how creepy that sounded. “One step at a time Hun, feel free to tone it down anytime….” she says.

They casually walk toward the dining room where he’s reserved a table for them. They take a seat and a waiter pours two glasses of wine. “I’ll have the T-Bone steak cooked well done with fries. She’ll have a salad.” He says in a rude tone.

“Actually, SHE will have the Ribeye steak cooked medium rare with loaded mashed potatoes for the side.” Kate says with a sardonic smile. “Do I look like a rabbit to you? Also, I am very capable of ordering for myself, thank you very much.” She was used to making her own decisions and had been doing so her entire life. No man was ever going to make her down a salad just for the sake of proving his masculinity.

“Well sorry, I just assumed a hot chick like you, with a body like that must be on some crazy strict diet to keep up that figure. Besides, my ex-wife used to love it when I ordered for her. Chicks get all hot and bothered when men take over.” Luke says just before he downs the entire glass of wine in front of him.

“Not this chick, and no, I am not going to starve myself just to appeal to some man. The way I look is for me, no one else.” Kate says as she raises her eyebrow at her date, who is clearly already buzzed. She quickly realizes that he must have done some pre-drinking before their dinner.

“Well, someone must be on her period…” Austin says as he and Jake walk up to their table and pull up two extra chairs.

“Katie, you remember my buds, Austin and Jake, right? We were all in the same class.” Luke says as he snaps his fingers for the waiter to bring more wine.

“Hmm, they don’t seem familiar. Must have not been very memorable.” Kate says in response knowing it’s one sure fire way to piss an egomaniac like Austin off. “So, Ashton, surely you have somewhere else to be, like anywhere but here?” She says purposely trying to piss him off enough to leave.

“It’s Austin, and are you sure you don’t wanna join us for a party in my room with Jenny and Kali? They’re onboard and ready to live it up. What happens on the ship, stays on the ship, if you know what I mean...” Austin says directly to Luke in an attempt to get him away from that feminist bitch.

“Hey girls, why don’t you come over here a second, we found Luke!” Jake yells toward Jenny and Kali across the room. Of course, Kate remembers every one of them very well from high school. Austin was the most popular kid in school and every girl was drooling over him, except Kate. She never liked guys who spent more time on their looks than she did. Luke was his bestie and was a close second when it came to popularity. He just happened to be a lot friendlier than the other two. Jake was always sort of the third wheel of the three musketeers, but he hung onto every word Austin ever said. He idolized him but had no real personality of his own.

Jenny and Kali rush over to the table throwing their arms around Luke, kissing his cheek. “We missed you!!!! Come and play with us...” Kate just rolls her eyes as Luke pulls the girls off him. Jenny and Kali had taken turns dating all 3 of the boys at one point or another throughout high school and the 2 of them had been ridden harder and more often than a village bicycle. “You know, I’ve had enough of this. Luke, have a good night and make sure you use protection. I doubt even the CDC has officially named all the creepy crawlies and diseases these two have.” Kate says as she stands up from her seat and walks out of the restaurant. Luke is clearly too drunk already to care about anything, and she saw no point in having a conversation with a drunk man even if his friends left them alone.

Kate walks outside on deck to a dark sky lit up by the brightly adorned ship. She can hear the water rushing around the ship as she looks up toward the stars wondering why the hell she thought any of this was a good idea. “I should have booked an Alaskan cruise or maybe even a nice hotel somewhere in Europe with a world class spa.” she says to herself. Just as she starts to notice the loud music blasting from the party in the pool area, she feels someone’s hand grab her shoulder. She quickly turns around ready to cause some serious damage, only to find an old familiar face. It’s her old high school flame, Mike, with a concerned look. He’s built up a bit of muscle and his hair is definitely thinning with age, but he still has the bright blue eyes she remembers from high school.

He takes his hand off her, and asks, “Are you ok? I spotted you across the way and you looked upset. I know I’m probably not the person you want anywhere near you right now, or ever for that matter, but I thought you might need someone to talk to.”

She looks up at him then smiles and starts laughing. “I genuinely did not expect to see you on this trip, but you are certainly a welcome friendly face.” She says with absolute confusion as to how in the hell she managed to run into the one person she regrets hurting all those years ago on the first night of the trip. Although their high school relationship started ok, he was very hesitant to open up to her in the beginning. As they continued to date, he had become obsessed with her and tried to completely control every aspect of her life. He became extremely jealous of everyone she interacted with, even other girls. She couldn’t abide such behavior, so she had to end it, breaking his poor little heart.

She softens her smile and says, “I’m glad to see you here, Mike. It’s been a long time, and I’m sorry for the way things ended between us. Can you forgive me for the way I handled things?”

His face lights up and he says, “I’ve thought about you every single day since you walked away from me. I’ve had a good life, so far, found a wife, who of course left me for another man, but she gave me a daughter, who I love more than anything in this world. It all worked out for the best, but I’d like to give it a shot at being friends, if you’ll consider it.”

With that, she realizes that they might just be able to build a nice friendship. They walk along the ship together catching up. She tells him about the husband she married and divorced and her new life on her own, making soaps and candles to sell online for extra money and to express what little creativity she has inside. He tells her about his career as an architect in the bowels of Hell, also known as Atlanta.

Mike walks Kate back to her room after a long night of chatting and laughing. They pass by Austin & Jake’s room hearing laughing and moaning. Kate just rolls her eyes knowing that they’ve all passed various STD’s back and forth constantly since high school and she wants none of that. Then she gets an even worse thought. She has a split second of imagining being tied to one of them for the rest of her life by getting knocked up. She shivers at the horrid thought. She’s brought back to reality by the gentle pull at her hand from Mike. She smiles and leads him to her room.

“You know, since we’re both single, we could have some fun together, if you’re interested of course, as friends, of course.” He says.

She looks into his eyes and looks down to his mildly muscular chest and thinks, “Well, I do remember the sex being pretty good, at least. Oh hell, why not?” She grabs him around the neck, kissing him and opens the door to her room, dragging him in.

As the door closes, he grabs her and pins her to the wall of the room, kissing her lips and neck. He uses one hand to hold her by the neck as his other travels down her body, slowly. She pulls his shirt off, revealing a thin, but muscular chest with a singular black broken heart tattoo. He turns her around, and slowly unzips her black dress and lets it drop to the floor. He steps back to enjoy the view of her massive chest that he remembers very vividly from back in the day. She steps forward, unclasps his belt, unzips his pants, and carefully slides his pants and boxers over his massive erection and to the floor. She shoves him onto the bed and climbs on top. He sits up and kisses her while reaching around to unhook her black lace bra. Mike takes her breasts in his hands, squeezing them together, licking and sucking. He flips her on her back and kneels between her legs, pulling her little black thong off. He kisses down her stomach all the way to her little kitten and gives it a good lick.

“Oh, get inside of me already!” she says with impatience. He gives a devious grin and thrusts his large, pulsating erection inside with one rough push. She gasps at the feeling of sudden fullness from his nine-inch rod. He grabs at her throat and holds it tight as he thrusts in and out of her. She moans and screams in utter ecstasy. They take turns, swapping positions for hours before he finally gives one extra strong pump and explodes inside her. They lie in her bed absolutely exhausted and satisfied, then fall asleep together.