Seduction of Steel: The Complete Series Read online

  She looked at herself in the mirror and while she wasn't entirely pleased, she figured she'd done the best she could in the few minutes allotted to her.

  She met Ryan in the atrium. He'd cleaned up a bit; it looked like he'd even taken a quick shower. He had on a pair of jeans and a long sleeved button-down shirt. He looked amazing.

  “Where shall we start?” he asked.

  “Why not start here? This is where I work.” She showed him around the atrium area and the Passenger Services desk where she worked. There were a couple of bars and some shops there in the center of the ship and she showed him those as well. Then they went up a couple of decks so she could show him the swimming pools and fitness center.

  “Wow. I had no idea all of this was up here”, he said. “I guess I should have made an effort to find all of this earlier. Then again, I've never had such an attractive guide offer me a tour before.”

  They continued walking around the ship for another half an hour, looking at buffets, the theater, the nightclubs, and the computer center. Eventually, they ended up near the front of the ship.

  One of the upper decks had an observation point at the front of the ship, hanging over the bridge. A lot of people visited this deck during the daytime, but at night, it was usually deserted. Jessica took Ryan by the hand and escorted him to the railing at the front of the observation deck.

  “I have no idea why no one ever comes here at night”, she said. “It's beautiful up here. Look - there's a full moon, and a nice breeze and you can just see a couple of other ships on the horizon. I come up here often at night.”

  “I can see why. It is nice up here. If I'd have known about this, I'd have come up here sooner.”

  “The only problem with coming up here at night”, she said, “is that it does get a bit cool up here. I should have worn something with longer sleeves.”

  With that, Ryan stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her as they looked at the stars and the ocean. They stood there for a few minutes and then she turned around to face him.

  They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Ryan leaned in and their lips met. His lips were soft and warm, and Jessica tingled all over at their very touch.

  This guy is a great kisser, she thought.

  They continued to kiss with increasing intensity, and as they did so, Jessica felt the tingles increase along with the kisses. Her nipples began to harden, partly because of her excitement and partly because of the cool evening breeze.

  His tongue entered her mouth and met hers. She returned his efforts greedily as he held her closer.

  His lips are made for kissing, she thought. He could take me right now and I'd be in heaven.

  Ryan gently ran his fingers across her cheek, down her neck and slowly moved them towards her breast.

  He was just starting to run his index finger in circles around her left nipple over her shirt when the silence was interrupted by the squawk of a radio.

  “Oh, no”, he said. “My radio. Looks like there's some sort of problem downstairs. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to go.”

  Jessica couldn't believe how quickly her fortunes had changed. A minute ago she was in ecstasy, and now...what, exactly?

  “Let me walk you to your room”, he said. “Thanks for the tour. You make a great tour guide.”

  “Perhaps you can return the favor. I'd love a tour of the engine room.”, she said.

  “Perhaps we can do that tomorrow. I'll see how my schedule looks”, he replied.

  They took an elevator down to her floor and they walked to her room. He apologized once more for the interruption and promised to contact her soon.

  Before leaving, he kissed her forehead, her cheeks, and then her lips. Jessica quivered as his tongue met hers one final time. Ryan was making her wet.

  I'll have to deal with that on my own, I guess.

  They exchanged email addresses and shipboard phone numbers and Ryan was gone.

  Chapter 4

  The alarm went off abruptly at six o'clock. Jessica hadn't slept long, but she had slept well. It had been a long time since she'd had any sort of romantic involvement with anyone, and after last night's incredible evening with Ryan, she'd slept like a baby. She lingered in bed for a while, reminiscing fondly about Ryan's full lips, his amazing eyes, and his incredible ability to make her wet just by caressing her.

  As Jessica thought about Ryan's kisses, his masculine smell, and his amazing physique, her right hand slowly worked its way between her legs. The more she thought about last night, the more aroused she became. She removed her panties and used two fingers to trace around the edges of her rapidly moistening pussy.

  I'm not going to need the vibrator today, she thought.

  Jessica rubbed her nub increasingly quickly as she shook with excitement, remembering how it felt to be held in Ryan's strong arms. Not surprisingly, she came quickly and violently, clenching the sheets tightly with her free hand as she moaned quietly, imagining that her fingers were actually Ryan's skilled tongue, licking her clit and bringing on waves of ecstasy.

  A few moments later, her orgasm complete, Jessica came to reality. How was she supposed to have a relationship with someone on the ship? While it was strictly forbidden for crew members to become involved with passengers, relationships between crew members weren't exactly encouraged. She and Ryan didn't work anywhere near one another, and probably had radically different schedules.

  Jessica was only working on the ship temporarily in order to try to get over her writer's block. This wasn't a career for her. On the other hand, Ryan was a mechanic on a cruise ship. How, exactly, was she supposed to maintain a relationship with someone who was going to be at sea for eight months at a time? When should she tell him that she'd be gone in five months?

  Did she really want to get involved with a mechanic? She didn't think of herself as a snob, but she was a best-selling author and hoped to return to that life soon. He was likely to spend years, if not decades, working in the bowels of the ship turning knobs and wrenches. Was there really a future for her there?

  Jessica didn't know. The one thing she did know is that she wanted to see, touch, and taste Ryan again. Preferably as soon as possible.

  She went to the crew members' dining area to get some coffee and breakfast. Much to her surprise, she ran into her roommate, Kristin.

  “Kris! What a surprise! I haven't seen you in, what, four days?” Jessica asked.

  “I've had a shift change, so you may be seeing a bit more of me now. How have you been?”, Kris replied.

  Jessica told her the story of how she met Ryan, how they'd had a drink together and how they'd followed that drink with a memorable tour of the ship. She then mentioned all of her concerns about getting involved with a fellow crew member, especially since she didn't intend to be onboard the ship for more than a few months.

  Kristin listened intently. Then she asked a question that Jessica wasn't prepared to hear.

  “Are you sure he said he was an American?” Kristin asked.

  “Yes. He said he was from Pittsburgh. Why?” Jessica was baffled at the question.

  “Well, it's not unheard of to have American crew members on board. But it is rather unusual to have them working in the engine room. Engine room crews tend to be all of one nationality, and most of them are either Italian or Filipino. I think they're Filipino on this ship, and it's very unusual to see an engine crew of mixed nationality. I've never seen that.”

  “I had no idea. He said he came aboard last week in St. Maarten. I really don't know much about staffing among the mechanical crew, so it didn't strike me as unusual.” Jessica stirred her coffee slowly as she spoke.

  “There may be nothing to it at all. It just seems odd. So, tell me more about him!”

  Jessica filled Kristin in about Ryan, telling her about his incredible body, his smoldering eyes and those amazing lips that had her quivering just talking about them. She talked about how she longed to run her fingers through his hair and how
she hoped to become more acquainted with him and his amazing body soon.

  They chatted some more over breakfast, and Kristin told her about a fellow Norwegian she'd met in the dining room. They'd seen each other a few times and it sounded like it might be getting serious, or at least as serious as a romance can get under the unusual working circumstances aboard ship.

  After about fifteen minutes of chat, Jessica excused herself to head to work. She had another long day of dealing with passenger problems ahead of her, but she could really only focus on Ryan.

  When am I going to see Ryan again? Am I going to see Ryan again? Is he really the only American working down there? What is that about?

  She spent the day pondering all of her questions while doing her best to sound interested in such mundane things as missing towels, leaky sinks, and rejected credit cards. On her breaks, she checked her email to see if she'd received any messages from Ryan.

  On the ship, email was the best way to communicate, as cell phones were very expensive to use while the ship was at sea. Cell phones did work in port, though, and she occasionally took hers with her when she went ashore if she needed to make a call. For communicating within the ship, email wasn't ideal, but it got the job done.

  She opened her email. Nothing.

  It began to occur to Jessica that Ryan might simply changed his mind about getting involved with her. After she got off of work, she grabbed some dinner, and spent the rest of the night in her room, reading an erotic romance novel on her Kindle.

  In the meantime, Ryan spent the day in the engine room, doing routine maintenance and doing some system checks. There wasn't a lot of maintenance to do, as the Ocean Enchantment was a relatively new ship. On older vessels, parts frequently broke or needed routine replacement, but right now, Ryan's job was mostly a matter of making sure that things were working as they were supposed to.

  He thought about last night with Jessica.

  She's a beautiful woman. And it would be great to see more of her. I just need to find the time to do it. Perhaps when we're in the Cayman Islands the day after tomorrow...

  His concerns were similar to hers, in that he wasn't sure that he wanted to get deeply involved with another crew member. He also had one other major issue that he needed to discuss with her. She needed to know the real reason he was on the ship...

  Maybe we can go to the beach in the Caymans. We'll have some relaxation time and I can tell her then.

  He sent her e-mail when he got back to his room after getting off from work.

  From: Ryan Stevens

  To: Jessica Steel

  Subject: Drink tonight?

  Jessica,

  I'll be off in about an hour. Would you like to meet me for a drink?

  Ryan

  Jessica quickly replied:

  From: Jessica Steel

  To: Ryan Stevens

  Subject: Drink tonight?

  Ryan,

  Sure, I'd love to! I'll meet you in the bar in 90 minutes.

  Jess

  Jessica wished there were a faster way to communicate than email.

  She clicked “send” and went to get ready for the evening.

  An hour and half later, Ryan entered the crew members' bar and found Jessica waiting for him. She was still in her work uniform - that dull knee-length khaki skirt and the white, short-sleeved button-down blouse. Ryan was still in his work uniform. He looked ruggedly handsome and his shirt showed off his ample biceps.

  Jessica couldn't believe how good this guy looked, and he was sitting down to have a drink with her. Again.

  “You look great”, he said. “Cosmopolitan?”

  “Sure. Why not?”, she replied.

  He returned a few minutes later with the drinks.

  “I'm sorry about last night”, Ryan began. “We had a bit of a problem downstairs. It turned out to be more of a computer system problem than a mechanical one. But they needed my expertise just in case something went wrong.”

  It occurred to Jessica that this might be a great time to learn a bit more about Ryan.

  “Aren't most of the engine crew Filipino? That's what I've heard, anyway.”

  “Yes, they are.”

  “How did you end up working in the engine room with a Filipino crew? Or are you really from Manila, rather than Pittsburgh?”, she asked with a smile.

  Ryan took a sip of his beer. “No, I'm really from Pittsburgh. The Ocean Enchantment was built by MHI and their drive systems are a bit different from those used by most other ships in the fleet. A few of the guys on the engine crew are new to this ship and don't know much about the MHI drive. I have a bit of unique experience with MHI drive systems, so that's why I'm here.”

  That seemed like a reasonable explanation to Jessica, who didn't know much about the Philippines, MHI drive systems or cruise ship staffing. She didn't pursue that line of questioning any further.

  Changing the subject, Ryan said, “I really enjoyed the tour last night. Especially the view at the front of the ship. Thanks.”

  “My pleasure”, she said, teasingly. “I was all too happy to show you around. I'm just sorry that the tour got cut short by your 'emergency.' By the way, when am I going to get that tour of the engine room?”

  “An engine room tour? We can do that tonight, if you like. It's pretty quiet down there this time of night. We're not really allowed to have nonessential personnel down there, but at this time of day, I can probably get away with it.” Ryan said as he drained the rest of his beer.

  “Fine by me.” Jessica took the last sip of her Cosmopolitan and chewed on the lemon twist that came with it. “Let's go.”

  They took a service elevator down to Deck 1, and headed down a long corridor towards the back of the ship. Deck 1 was the home of the engines, fuel and water storage, and a few other essential services that kept the ship running. She'd never been down here; she'd never had a reason to go, and she might have been chased off by the other crew even if she had gone down there alone. While she was curious, she also knew that there were certain parts of the ship that were generally limited to essential crew only, mostly for security reasons.

  It was now after midnight, and most of the passengers and crew were likely asleep. Jessica couldn't see anyone as they entered the engine room.

  Ryan handed her some rubber earplugs. “You'll need these. It's really loud in here.”

  Jessica put the plugs in her ears and wondered how she was going to hear Ryan as he gave her the tour. She could hardly hear anything with the plugs in. Fortunately, Ryan was pretty good at using his hands to help explain the workings of the systems down there. Jessica wondered what else he might be able to do with those hands.

  The engine room was large, and astonishingly loud. The ship had three large diesel engines that ran 24 hours a day. The “room”, such as it was, was really a series of connected corridors, and was quite labyrinthine in its design. The entire area was a maze of small hallways, railings, ladders and the occasional small control room. It really wasn't an engine room so much as it was an engine center. Presumably, the staff were all in the control rooms, as modern ships have engines that are largely computer operated. The corridors were quite narrow, and often so narrow that only one person could pass at a time. It was difficult for the two of them to move freely without brushing up against one another. Ryan guided her ahead of him, and kept a hand on her right shoulder to keep her from bumping into any of the equipment in the cramped engine area.

  She was thoroughly enjoying his touch, and felt that tingling sensation return when he first put his hand on her shoulder. She could feel her nipples tighten each time he touched her.

  “What do you do down here?”, Jessica asked, her voice at a near-shout.

  “I mostly spend my time in one of the control rooms, unless something goes wrong. We do have to do occasional repairs and maintenance”, Ryan loudly replied. It helped that he was gesturing quite a bit as he showed her around. The engines were impressive, but then again, it takes quite a lo
t of equipment to make a thousand-foot-long ship move.

  Ryan took her by the hand and helped her up a ladder. It led to a balcony of sorts that gave them both a good view of the entire area. At the back of the balcony was a small alcove, not much larger than a small shower, that had a large number of valves in it. As Jessica stepped off of the top rung of the ladder, she suddenly tripped.

  Clumsy me, she thought to herself. He probably thinks I'm a total klutz.

  Fortunately, Ryan was there to catch her, and he managed to grab her by the waist before she could fall to the floor, which was really a series of steel grates.

  “Are you OK?”, he shouted. They stared at each other for a few seconds as Jessica once again stared into those irresistible eyes.