"Thanks for calling Tourist Trap, how may I help you today?"
"Yes I was interested in your Old World Train Tour package."
"Excellent choice sir."
God he needed this. It had been one hell of a year for Aaron Guillante. The emphasis here was on the word hell. It all started when the company he'd given the last ten years of his life to went belly up. Seems the owners thought their pockets were the best place for the company funds. Then his wife of six years left him for her yoga teacher. Being a cliche didn't make it hurt any less. So he sold their house, and all the stuff she left in it, bought a new apartment and used the remainder to book their dream trip without her: a train ride across Europe and Asia.
"A train?"
John O'Loughlin stared at his editor incredulously.
"It's not just a train," Stan Levine reminded him, "it's a trip from Portugal to the Chinese coast. They're has never been any other tour of this kind before. If that doesn't scream National Geographic then what does?"
"Stan ..."
"Let me put it to you this way, on a trip like this there's bound to be a Pulitzer winning shot along the way somewhere."
"Pulitzer?"
Jason Kazinsky smiled at his new bride Shari. As she took in the large black steam train before them her eyes grew so large he was sure they'd pop out of her head. He wasn't much of a train guy but he knew she loved it. So this was the perfect honeymoon in his eyes.
"My name is Anne and welcome to Tourist Trap Tours. Let me get you sorted into your cars. Each car on the train will have their own guide who will take you through each city we stop in. Let's see Car 1: Alyssa, Ben, Charlotte, Josh, Melanie, Susan, Denny, Onyx, Scarlett ...
"... Car , which is my car: Laura, Wendy, Heather, Aaron, John, Jason and Shari. I think we're all going to have a lovely time together. Now I'll let you all get settled in and we'll be departing in thirty minutes."
Aaron through his bag into his sleeping car and headed for the dinning car. They had to be serving drinks by now. In fact they were. That was more like it.
"Having a rough time I see."
"You could say that."
He looked over his shoulder from his perch on a stool at the bar and saw his guide Anne had joined him. She was a stunning woman in her mid-thirties with shiny brown hair flowing down to her shoulders. No more than five foot it took a bar stool to make her eye level with him and what stunning green eyes they were. What he tried not to look at though were her clearly visible D Cup breasts.
"Tell me about it."
"Oh you don't want to hear my sob story."
"Maybe I do."
As she spoke she gently rubbed the back of his hand.
John sat his bags down in his compartment and pulled out his camera. Maybe he would get some good shots of Portugal before they left.
Jason and Shari dropped their bags on the floor of the compartment and closed the door.
"We do have thirty minutes," he said smiling.
"So we do."
They began to go at it ripping each other's clothes off.
A half hour later the train was off and their adventure began. They arrived in Madrid, Spain around four in the afternoon. Anne took them out into the city. Aaron took it all in trying to avoid the slight hangover he was feeling. John was clicking away taking in everything he could. Jason and Shari walked hand in hand smiling with a tell tale glow. That evening they had dinner at a small outdoor cafe. The newlyweds took turns feeding each other while the others listened to Anne tell them more about Madrid. Aaron couldn't help but notice that all through dinner she would rub her leg up against his.
This was pretty much how the trip continued for the next several days. Day two they stopped in Paris. Day three they left the City of Light around 8 in the morning arriving in Bern, Switzerland around midday. Then on the afternoon of the fourth day they arrived just outside Venice.
"The first inhabitants started pouring into the Venice Lagoon around 400 AD fleeing from the Goths who were sweeping through Italy following the collapse of the Roman Empire ..."
Anne smiled broadly as she led her small group through the city on the water. Aaron couldn't help but notice she was seemingly trying to actively keep him at the front of the group so she could keep her eye on him. John couldn't help but notice she was making sure he was at the rear where no one else could see him. That suited him fine, easier to take pictures that way. Jason and Shari couldn't help but notice each other.
After a nice meal where John was once again pretty much ignored, they all piled into a gondola for a quick ride.
"Isn't this romantic?" Shari asked Jason.
His response was a kiss, so yeah, he agreed.
"For centuries these were the most common water craft you would finds out here on the Lagoon ..." Anne began.
"Ciao."
John felt a tapping on his shoulder.
"Ciao," the gondolier repeated.
"Oh you're talking to me. Hello."
"
"*
"I'm sorry I don't speak Italian."
"Well English it is then. My name is Serena, what's your's?"
"John; nice to meet you Serena."
It was then he got a better look at her. She was small for a gondolier maybe 5'2", 5'5" at most. She had long wavy brown hair that feel over her shoulders ending at her pert little breasts. She was slender but her arms showed the considerable strength her job required. Her face was beautiful youthful and still very powerful. Her skin had a sexy olive complexion about it and her voice was deep and husky with a beautiful accent.
"You don't really look like you belong here with these other tourists."
"No, I'm just here to get some photos for National Geographic."
"Oh you're a photographer? Would you take my picture?"
"Sure."
Smiling he clipped a quick shot of her looking like a stoic hardworking gondolier she was.
"One more, this one just for you," she said.
He obliged and was more than pleasantly surprised to find she was giving him a very seductive little style. They spent the rest of the ride talking and laughing. All in all they had a wonderful time. They returned to the empty dock far away from the maul of tourists and began disembarking. As soon as foot hit ground Anne lead them off keeping their eyes on her nodding her head as tour guides do. If anyone had been paying close enough attention they would have seen the signal Anne had given to Serena. If they had it might have spared John a little pain.
Just as he was about to get out of the boat she knocked him over the head with the oar knocking him out cold. She quickly through a heavy blanket she had tucked behind her over him and rowed away. Anne smiled knowingly and continued on with the tour.
Anne's tour group had stopped on a pedestrian bridge to watch boats on the main canal. She was texting.
First delivery on schedule
Her contact responded:
Good, see you soon
She smiled and put her phone away.
"Alright ladies and gentlemen let's move on."