This is the eighth episode in a multi-part story. It is the first chapter of Linda's cruise with Bradley. If you are interested in how the idea for these cruises began, you should read Chapter 01 first (at least up to the point where Linda gets off the shuttle) so you can see how these cruises started and get introduced to the characters. I encourage you to do that. For those of you who have already read the first seven chapters, thank you for your patience and your comments regarding Linda's cruise. I hope you enjoy the journey.
*****
* SUNDAY
I stood at the curb while the shuttle driver unloaded my luggage. I told him my husband would tip him at the next stop and he got back in and I watched as it pulled away and headed for Ed's terminal. Suddenly I got a strange feeling that maybe these cruises weren't such a good idea after all. I hadn't been on a vacation without Ed in 27 years of marriage and now here I was going away with somebody I had never even met face to face for a week of sex. What if I didn't like the way he touched me or what if he didn't like having sex with a fifty-year-old woman?
More importantly, it really hit me that I was sending the person I loved off with a gorgeous, exotic, sexy model more than 20 years younger than me. Did I have some unconscious death wish for our marriage? What was I thinking? Before I could go into a full-fledged panic attack I heard a voice call my name.
"Linda, hello it's me Bradley."
He was walking toward me with a porter and a baggage cart right behind him. I saw him but I was still too lost in my thoughts to say anything.
"Are you lost little girl? You look like a 4 year old that's been left by her parents in a department store."
"Oh Bradley I'm sorry, I was just momentarily overwhelmed by being alone and I guess my brain just shorted out."
"Well you're not alone anymore sweetheart."
He put his arms around me and bent his head down and kissed me. I mean he really kissed me. I had almost been able to think again and now not only could I not think, I was barely able to breathe.
"Wow Bradley, if it was your intention to get my brain back in working order you failed miserably. I can't remember the last time anybody kissed me like that. I felt that all the way down to my..."
"Actually Linda I would just as soon your brain was not working. At least on trying to think about things too much. I fully intended for you to feel that kiss all the way down to that sweet pussy of yours and you can think about this if you really insist on continuing to think: Your pussy is going to be the next thing I kiss like that."
"You don't waste much time do you?"
"Give me one good reason why I should."
I just looked at him and said, "Even if I could come up with one I wouldn't. Let's get this party started."
Bradley was a consummate gentlemen and a take-charge kind of man. He dealt with the luggage, the porters, the tickets, the check in and getting us on board without me having to do anything except pose for a couple of pictures; one picture for my on-board ID and another for our welcome aboard photo. The next thing I knew we were standing in a large lobby being served drinks by a hostess.
"There now. That wasn't so bad was it?"
"Thank you so much Bradley. Here I thought I was the one taking you on this cruise and you got us through all of that boarding hassle with no more effort that buying a ticket to see a movie. I really appreciate what you did."
"Linda that was a piece of cake compared to what I have to go through to prepare assignments and briefs for my classes every day. I want you to concentrate on relaxing and getting into the right frame of mind to have some serious fun. I'll take care of the rest. Now come along and we'll go find us a table in the dining room and do a little exploring before we go to our suite."
When we finally made it to the room the door was open and our personal valet was waiting to greet us. His name was Robert and he told us our room steward, Christine, would be coming to help us unpack and put our things away. He told us he was on call 24 hours a day and to let him know if there was anything we needed. Christine arrived a few minutes later and in about 45 minutes we were all squared away and comfortable in our luxurious cabin. Before she left, Christine reminded us there was a mandatory life boat drill in about an hour and showed us where our life vests were and what deck we needed to go to when it started.
"Well Bradley here we are. I seem to remember something about the next kiss you were going to give me. Are you about ready to deliver on that promise?"
"I'm more than ready Linda but before we get to that there are some things I'd like to talk to you about first. How about we go out on that lovely veranda and have a little talk?"
We went out onto the spacious veranda and sat in the very comfortable chairs and looked out at the view of the channel.
"First of all Linda I want to thank you for allowing me to be the one to go on this cruise with you. I've been looking forward to it since you picked me and I'm really excited to be here with you. I find you very attractive and you seem like a very stable and genuine woman who wants to do something meaningful for herself as well as for her marriage. I want to be sure that I know as much as I can about what you expect to happen and what you want to experience in order to fulfill your fantasy."
"I'm not sure I can articulate exactly what I want but I'll try and give you some idea of why I decided to do this. Then maybe you can ask me questions about specific areas that you think are relevant."
"Fair enough. You tell me your story and I'll cross examine you like in a courtroom."
"OK. I don't know if it's exactly the same for men but when a woman turns 50 she begins to start seeing things in her body and appearance that are somewhat disconcerting. In fact they're often rather frightening. She starts wondering about how attractive she is to her husband or to men in general and if she's still sexy and desirable. She gets these nagging feelings that sex with her husband has become a routine like taking out the trash twice a week. Then she starts thinking about what would happen if her husband finds somebody else that made sex exciting again for him and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her."
"The prospect of that kind of devastating upheaval in her routine and having to start over at this age is truly terrorizing. It may seem a little desperate but I didn't want to sit around waiting for that train wreck so I decided to see if taking some kind of action might alleviate some of that anxiety and maybe even rejuvenate both of us so we could continue to love each other and be exciting for each other."
"So let me be clear about your primary motivation. You want your marriage to continue and you're looking for this cruise to provide you with new ways to strengthen it and enliven it. Is that correct?"
"Yes that is what I'm looking for but there is a secondary reason. If it should happen that my marriage ends either in divorce or death I want to be a little more prepared to have a life afterwards."
"So to that end are you prepared to try something new? Something you haven't done before either for lack of opportunity or moral disapproval."
"Yes I think I would be open to new experiences as long as they didn't involve physical pain or something prohibitively disgusting."
"How would you describe your current sex life?"
"I would say that it's satisfactory but lacks excitement and is sometimes a little boring."
"What do you mean by satisfactory? Do you have orgasms when you have sex?"
"Sometimes but not always and the orgasms I do have are not as intense or thrilling as they used to be."
"Do you masturbate?"