Simon was alone, in his bunk bed, wearing only his underpants. It was 7.45am and the sea swelling outside the porthole was oily-grey.
A banging at the door had awaked him - or was that the banging at the door last night? He remembered the previous evening's events with astonishing clarity, a mixture of shame sauced with sharp, deep pangs of excited pleasure. Was he really undressed by four beautiful young women, and did they really watch with such reverential silence as his member transformed itself before their eyes, from a little worm to a tall, elegant stem of flesh?
Yes, that really happened. He tried to relive the incredible feeling he'd experienced, that delicious tingling right at the core of his being that he had felt when he looked, one by one, deep into those four pairs of eyes, as those eyes stared greedily, transfixed by the vision of this ascendant member.
And how their eyes looked up and into his eyes, and then back down, and then back up, and how their lips quivered, how one by one they were licking their dry lips with just the tips of their tongues, still staring, shuffling closer on their knees towards this shaft, now swaying gently as if in a light breeze, now stiffening up again proudly, the tip now glistening. And then, and then...
And then the chubby oaf with half a moustache bashed at the door. Only Irma seemed to know what to do. She threw a shirt over Simon's now fast-collapsing erection, and bundled him into the bathroom. Meanwhile, Leila shouted at the door, "Just fuck off, idiot, I am going to bed right? I am being a good girl."
Not satisfied, the chubby young man with the half-moustache stuck his grinning face round the door and yelled some more insults at her. Then he said, "I know that screwy guy has been with you. If I see him around he'll regret ever talking to you. This is the last warning, and your bro not going to be at all happy when I tell him what you just said".
Which took SImon right back to the present. There had been a second banging, this time at his door. He notice a slip of paper on the coarse green carpet and instantly realised that it was going to be some sort of threat. It was even clumsier than he expected - scrawled on the back of some instructions for a replica pistol (a 9mm Luger) in red marker pen, it said, "TOUCH HER AGAIN = YOUR DEAD." Subtle, or what?
Next he remembered why he was here and that he had a job to do. It was his duty to try out every facility on this boat, and he had already decided to make full use of the saunas and steam rooms boasted about on the tour company's website.
It was still early, enough, he hoped, to get the best of the steam rooms to himself.
He pulled on a pair of swimming shorts, jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed a towel and made his way quietly down into the bowels of the ship where all the sauna facilities were located. As he passed the four girls' cabin, he put his ear to the door: not a sound.
Now, he imagined, they were sleeping it off, and would wake up with some big regrets about the previous evening. That's what he thought but the was completely wrong.
On the other side of the door, the four young women were very much awake. They were listening for his every move. None had slept well - least of all Leila, who, curled up in her chaste pale blue pyjamas, could think of nothing but this curious young man. Her ideas about men had been formed too young and too brutally, and this curious, delicate, alabaster figure with his girlish curves and his elegant limbs, and then his strange...but no, she could not think about that, she had to shut that out of her mind. Somewhere in her head lived an angry old man with a red right hand, and this old man prevented her thinking some things...or so had been the case until this long, torrid night.
Thalia, Francesca and Irma, and the other hand , had enjoyed whispering little reminders to each other. "It looked so much like a dagger, so sharp!" "Lucky you didn't let it get anywhere near you then, it might have hurt!"
"No, it would've been amazing, I am going to have him I tell you, I must."
"We've still got one night, and I want him too. I want to play with him a lot more, I want...I don't know what I want, I just want him here, now."
"We'll get him back. He liked us a lot. It will be. "
"Will be? You planning to get him for yourself tonight?" snapped Leila.
"Oh, er, no, just dreaming," laughed Thalia, "I think we just have to regard what happened as a bit of fun that we'll all remember. He was a bit weird, and he was much older than us and probably has some sad little wife back home, or maybe a big strapping boyfriend, just can't tell with his type."
Leila just sighed, and thought to herself, "Well no, he hasn't, and maybe - just maybe - I will find out more about this man child before very long."
*****
Simon was rather annoyed to see couple after couple of large middle-aged passengers in their white towelling robes and their white fluffy slippers padding around, most obviously heading to or returning from the saunas. This was clearly a popular early morning ritual. He headed for the last sauna at the bow-end of the ship, the smallest one which was also - he had been careful to note - the only designated mixed sex sauna on board.
His instincts proved right. The place seemed deserted as he entered the men's changing room. He removed his sandals, jeans, and t-shirt, grabbed the towel and headed for the steam room.
That wall of heavy, wet heat almost felled him immediately. He groped his way around the curved , tiled benches, chose a spot, rolled out the towel and lay frown on his tummy. He realised the bench's shape must reflect the prow of the ship, and liked to think of the ice-cold north sea just feet away from his now red and profusely sweating cheeks.
Then came voices, male, speaking what he imagined must be Danish. Two muscular men walked in, white towels around their waists. As one, they stopped, removed the towels, spread the towels onto the bench two tiers below Simon's, and stretched out on their backs, head to head. They were both stark naked and clearly very happy to display their two splendid packages.
Simon glanced at them swiftly then turned his head so they should not think he was watching them. But their conversation was getting louder and suddenly he felt a tap on his should blade. "Pardon, you must know wearing of shorts is forbidden in here?" one of the men said in an absurdly stern voice.
"Oh, god, no I hadn't realised," Simon blurted. "I thought it was optional. I'll go and change."
It was horrible going back to the changing room in what seemed like ice-cold air, and when he got there two more men were stripping off. They might have been Danish, about his age but much better built, and, he could not help noticing, much better hung - a least in the flaccid state.
Nevertheless he removed his swimming shorts. They were now looking at his pale, hairless body with what seemed to be a very tiny set of genitals, with great amusement and contempt. "Ya, you, miss, this is the men's changing room," one said, "You are in wrong place."
The other man was doubling up. "Shall we take her to where she needs to be?"
"Don't worry, we will not hurt you," one said. "Unless you struggle."