Voyage To Submission (2 page)

A voice jarred her thoughts abruptly and
painfully from the past into the present.

“Excuse me, miss.”

Andy turned, realizing she was blocking the
entrance. Behind her stood the man she’d most dreaded seeing, Jack Riley. The
quintessential successful businessman, who since taking over for his father,
had advanced the company to be included in the Fortune 500. He was dressed in a
suit and he looked better attired for the boardroom rather than a cruise.

“I’m sorry for blocking the road, Jack.”
She spoke without thinking, surprise getting the better of her. She leaned to
the side, looking for her friends. When she met his gaze, she saw the curiosity
and male interest. Immediately, she knew he had not recognized her. A thrill
raced through her that she’d changed so much. She watched as he extended his
hand, his sensuous mouth curling up on the corner in a sexy smile. God! So many
times she’d wanted him to look at her just like that…ten years ago. Not taking
his hand, she gestured towards the men at the bar. “Only Danny is still missing
from your group, but none of mine made it here yet.”

As if they realized they were being talked
about, the men at the bar turned and saw Jack. “Hey, it’s Jack!” Ray spoke
first.

Mark grabbed his drink and started over.
“Leave it to you, Jack, to find the first beautiful woman on this cruise ship!
It’s a pleasure to meet you, lovely lady. My name is Mark Sherman.”

Andy knew Mark had had one too many drinks
already to be so friendly, unless he’d radically changed. Nodding, she spoke
first. “Yes, I know who you are, Mark. How is the science world these days? Are
you on the tenure track?”

The surprise on his face was laughable and
yet not. She opened her mouth to tell them her name.

“Andy! You look fabulous!”

She looked over her shoulder as her friend
Ruthie burst through the glass doors first. Before she could reply, Ruthie
hugged her tightly. Soon, she had hugged all of her female friends, but held
back from getting that close to any of the men. Purposely, she avoided meeting
any of their gazes either, even after they pulled two tables together and
ordered drinks.

Danny Fishbein joined them a short time
later. He took the empty chair beside Ruthie.

Andy refused to be maneuvered in the
seating arrangements and seated herself between Ruthie and Liz. Jack sat
directly across from her, but she managed to never totally look in his
direction. Despite several glances at the clock over the bar, Andy realized no
one remembered the welcoming lecture that was scheduled to begin soon. She had
noticed the signs posted throughout the ship and finally brought it up. “The
lecture begins in five minutes.”

Tony grinned, shaking his head. “Who wants
to listen to some stuffy lecture crap when we have the company of the four most
beautiful women on board seated with us?”

Ruthie nodded. “We have ninety minutes
until our dinner seating. And they have two more lectures tomorrow.”

Andy shook her head and pushed back her
chair. “Well, I need to attend this one, so I might see you later at dinner.”
Even though she knew her words were abrupt, her behavior a little rude and
completely different from what she would have done in the past, she didn’t
succumb to their pleas to stay. Since she’d already signed for her drink,
nothing delayed her departure.

* * * * *

Seated in the small lecture room, Andy had
out her PDA in preparation of taking notes. At the back of the room stood two
long tables of handouts and, glancing down at the overfilled folder on the
chair beside her, she doubted she’d missed a single one. If anyone had been
watching her, they most likely would assume she was strongly interested in the
topic.

The truth of the matter was she’d had mixed
feelings about coming on this reunion cruise until her publisher had learned
about it. In fact, her editor, David Raymond, thought this was a great
opportunity for research for a future book and took the idea to the publisher.
That’s when they offered to pay for the cruise, which she knew they could take
as a tax deduction. Now, she found herself on a bondage and general D/s cruise.
Crossing her legs, she closed her eyes still in disbelief at finding herself
here. “What next?” she asked herself quietly.

“How about some dinner, followed by
dancing?” Jack suggested as he picked up the folder and took the chair beside
hers.

Andy was startled by his sudden appearance
and jumped.

Jack caught her PDA as it began sliding
from her lap.

The heat she felt from his hand immediately
shocked her. Quickly, she grabbed the device. “Thanks, Jack, and I’ll take the
folder. I can set it next to me.” She gestured to the empty chair on her other
side.

“I don’t mind holding it. And you never
know, there may be a sudden rush and the room will fill up with last-minute
attendees.”

Damn it! Andy had forgotten how beguiling
Jack’s smile could be. She was sure she’d been cured…but now she wasn’t so
sure. “Okay, and uhm, thank you.”

“So formal, Andy? Eight years doesn’t
change those kinds of things.”

Andy nodded slightly. She didn’t want to
delve into the past with Jack, of all people. With a sigh of relief, she was
grateful to see the lecture was about to start. “Oh, good,” she murmured
unconsciously. Quickly, she turned on her PDA, setting it up for note-taking.

* * * * *

Jack Riley sat quietly beside Andy, taking
as many sidelong glances towards her as possible without actually staring
directly. He was still feeling the shock from learning this was the same
overweight young woman from their college days. Back then, she’d been quiet
most of the time, even during their wildest of group get-togethers. Compared to
the other three women, she’d been the country mouse to their city mice.

He felt uneasy as he thought back on the
group dynamics that existed among this steadfast collection of friends.
Somehow, the four girls had become integrated with his friends from high
school, who had all attended the same college. He just remembered one night
they attended a party held by a girl Ray knew. The pretty, dark-haired girl had
been Gayle Green. Even now, he couldn’t say for sure he’d met Andy that night.
But he did recall meeting the vivacious, blonde Ruthie Silverman and the intensely
pre-occupied, but gorgeous, Liz Antonelli.

He and his friends had invited the girls
out for pizza a few nights later and that’s when he knew for sure he met Andy.
She was overweight and always wore sweat suits to cover her body. Her soft
brown hair was usually in a ponytail, but it hung halfway down her back.
Looking at her hair now, he could tell it had been professionally colored, or
lightened, and the cut made the hair into a silky bell shape. His fingers
itched to touch it and see if it was still as soft as it had been that night at
his folk’s house in the Keys.

“No way!”

Startled to hear Andy speaking, he saw she
wrote furiously into her PDA. Obviously she’d commented on the lecturer’s
words. “What?” he asked her quickly.

Andy curved to look at him.

Jack realized that except for her beautiful
hazel-colored eyes and those full lips, he found it hard to believe this was
the same girl from college. He shook his head in reply to the questioning look
from her, and then watched as she resumed her note-taking. For a moment, he
looked at the lecturer, listening to what the man had to say.

“Rule number three for the submissive is to
‘be open’. You can learn something about the D/s scene and about yourself from
every person you encounter, no matter if they are dominant or submissive. Each
and every activity, as well as your partner, can become an enhancing and
enriching experience, if you remain open to the possibilities. Now, rule number
four for the dominant is to find out all the necessary information about every
person you play with. This includes experience, limits, likes and dislikes,
and, of course, health information.” The speaker paused to take a sip of water.

“The dominant must set down the roles,
rules, limits, and contracts. Never assume the bottom knows the ground rules.
Especially on a cruise such as this, you can encounter people who range from
serious, long-term committed participants to newbies, who’ve only read about it
or seen it on the Internet.”

People around the room laughed at the speaker’s
joke, but Jack turned to look at Andy. He hadn’t really given the underlying
purpose of the cruise that much thought until now. Ray had been the one to
bring up the topic, and Tony had immediately jumped in to support the idea. One
of his friends had brought some handouts to the monthly poker night they still
had. From there, Ray had talked to Gayle, who had recently started seeing him
again. After her agreement, the idea had grown to include the old group from
college. None of them were married, engaged or seeing someone at the moment.

Jack suddenly smiled as he recalled Danny
and Tony had tried to convince Ray he would need to dissuade Gayle from
inviting Andy. He was glad he could say he had objected to their idea from the
beginning. They’d been sitting around the kitchen table at his place, playing
poker, when the discussion arose the second time. He recalled Ray had started
it all—

“Gayle really likes the idea of the cruise,
guys. She is going to ask the girls if they’d all like to go. They’re all unattached
at the moment, too.”

“Hey!”

“I thought this was no women!”

“Of course, we want women there, Danny! I’m
not going on a gay cruise, damn it!”

“Since when are you seeing Gayle?” Jack
asked Ray over the din.

“Just this last month on a regular basis,”
Ray replied, without looking up from the cards.

Tony held up his hands to get everyone to
stop talking. “Tell Gayle to invite Ruth and Liz.”

“You can’t tell her to deliberately not ask
Andy!” Jack said to the others.

“Why not? You had the one and only date
with her. Does that mean you want to give her a second chance?”

Looking at Andy’s profile now, Jack
remembered he had not answered the question that night while he insisted the
fairness of including her in the invitation. Seeing her now, he could easily
answer the question. The problem was she’d most likely never believe he’d
actually been looking forward to seeing her again.

He continued to stare, marveling at the
near-perfect way her lipstick highlighted her mouth.

She lowered her head enough so her hair
swung forward. When she looked back up, a few strands had been caught by her
lipstick.

For some reason, Jack was struck by how
this made her lips looked even more kissable. Without forethought, he lifted
his hand and gently brushed the hair back, freeing it.

Jack immediately noticed the softness of
her skin and the silky feel of her hair. The startled look on her face told of
her surprise, which she quickly suppressed and resumed her writing. He was more
than a little shocked to discover her interest in this subject. His own
agreement was to get away from work and spend time with his friends. The fact
that this was a BDSM cruise had seemed an interesting idea. He possessed some
knowledge, and a little experience, about the whole scene, but as far as participating—

Suddenly, he imagined Andy in black leather
and was almost instantly aroused and rock-hard. He wondered just what kind of
games she might be interested in playing while on board. He found it amazingly
easy to come up with quite a few he’d enjoy.

“Dungeon parties will be held nightly, and
the rules are posted in every room, as well as being available in the handouts
at the back of the room. Now I will just go over a few of the more important
ones. I don’t want to bore you, but we’ve found the better informed our guests
are, the better their overall experience tends to be.”

Jack looked from the lecturer, who had
caught his attention with saying “dungeon”, back to Andy’s face. She looked as
serious as she used to when she’d be studying for a class. He was surprised at
how quickly she could input data using that stupid two-inch keyboard and a
silver-colored stick! He had nothing against the computer age and used the most
current and up-to-date electronics for running the businesses he’d taken over
from his father. Just personally, he hadn’t made the jump from paper to
electronics. When it came to handheld devices, he’d rather occupy his hands
with much warmer and softer things.

Watching Andy bite her lower lip while she
continued to tap furiously on the screen, he knew exactly which device of his
he’d enjoy her hands on. Yes, indeed—

Something drew her attention towards Jack.
Turning her head, she found he was staring. It caught her off-guard and she
immediately looked down at her PDA. Damn it! Why was he looking at her? This
was crazy! She should never have agreed to come on this cruise…research or not.
Things were not going as she had planned. The picture in her head of how the
meeting with Jack would go had rapidly disintegrated.

Jack didn’t help when he leaned towards her
a few seconds later. He was close enough to stir her hair and she felt it wisp
across her cheek. “That’s a beautiful cheongsam. It looks like the ones I saw
in Hong Kong.”

Andy felt Jack’s fingers lightly rubbing
her shoulder, back and forth across the embroidered silk material. She had to
swallow before she could answer. “Yes, I got this one there.”

Quickly, she looked back down at the
screen, hoping it would help her return her focus onto the speaker and away
from the sensual feeling Jack’s light touch evoked. She was unnerved to realize
the caress would be considered innocuous by most or under other circumstances.
Her flesh was tingling as if little sparks of fire ignited in the aftermath.

“Female breasts and male, as well as female,
genitalia must be covered.”