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“All Ashore . . .”
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Tara was lying on a huge bed, with the glow of the moon trickling in around the cracks in the curtains. Her eyes had adjusted to the dim light. The bed was littered with exhausted and sated flesh. Keira was curled up in Nick’s arms on one side of the bed. Sam and Karen were curled up closer to the foot of the bed. It wasn’t a normal sleeping arrangement for the two wealthy doctors, but they had looked pretty content when they curled up there. And her own head was resting on Paul’s gently breathing chest. She was able to make out the outline of his face. Even in slumber, he had a goofy grin on his face. Looking at him made Tara smile. She traced the outline of his mouth with one finger. Then she held her hand in front of her face, her gaze caught by a little golden band wrapped around her finger. She looked at Paul’s hand, barely able to make out a similar ring on his right hand.
‘I’ve certainly had an interesting week. Now, all I have to do is explain this to my parents,’ she thought.
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A week earlier . . .
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Keira was staring out her bedroom door at the young woman sitting on the couch. Her boyfriend of the last several months, Nick (who was also the ship’s HR director), was giving her a shoulder rub. She was worried about Tara. And it wasn’t her usual worry. Months earlier, Tara had escaped a potential rape attempt that had messed up her mind a bit. Keira was still thankful that Nick had shown up when he did. The former military man had quickly subdued Tara’s would-be attacker. But to some degree, damage had already been done. With some counseling, however, Tara had rebounded as strong (and possibly hornier) as ever. But certain things were changing that she wasn’t handling well.
First of all, Keira had become more attached to Nick in the last three months. And while they had a semi-open relationship, particularly when it came to Keira and Tara, the older woman WAS becoming slightly less available. Sometimes she crashed over at Nick’s rather than her own bed. She and Tara had discussed things a while back and while the younger girl was actually happy for Keira, she was still slightly jealous. Keira realized it was something that Tara would just have to live with, and she figured that her young lover would probably do just fine.
But Paul was another matter. Paul had been Tara’s best male friend and favorite male sexual companion for a long time. He had been there whenever she needed him, and maybe Tara had been taking that for granted. But around the time Tara had gone into counseling, Paul had started having a bit of a personal crisis. His siblings were both married and reproducing, and he was getting increased pressure from his parents to follow suit. And to some degree, he truly wanted to find someone special. So he and Tara had agree that while they would continue to be sex partners, that would probably have to halt if Paul found someone more serious. Tara had become a free spirit . . . okay, she had become a nymphomaniac . . . and wasn’t looking to be “the one” for just one person. Well, about two months earlier, Paul had met someone during shore leave, and they had started dating like a traditional couple. Tara had smiled and tried to be supportive, but Keira saw right through it. She was jealous: almost dangerously so. Keira had tried to talk to her about it, but Tara refused to acknowledge it. So Tara had responded by agreeing to go on a date of her own. She had been asked out by some guy she met at the grocery store a couple days earlier, and she had accepted. Keira was worried that Tara was doing something rash, and for all the wrong reasons. And she had to admit, Keira was a little jealous as well.
“Did you want to go talk to her?” Nick asked softly.
Keira smiled. Nick was incredibly perceptive . . . for a man. While slightly over a decade her senior, the two of them fit together very well. Nick was a nice, caring man who had been screwed over by his previous wife, and Keira was a fun loving girl who intended on making him forget all his woes. “I’m not sure what good it will do,” she muttered. “She loves Paul. And she won’t admit it, and now she’s going to go out with some other guy. You know she’s just trying to see if she can get a rise out of him.”
“I know. But she’s barely nineteen now. She’s bound to act childish from time to time. You can’t protect her from that.”
“Yes I can. Just watch me.” Keira turned her head and kissed Nick. She didn’t want him to stop, but she probably should go talk to Tara. She got up and headed out to the living room.
Out on the couch, Tara was fuming. She knew she was being immature, but she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t even remember the name of the guy she had a date with, but it really didn’t much matter. No matter how she tried to rationalize it, she couldn’t escape one simple fact: she wanted to make Paul jealous. Of course, it would have helped if he were there so that he COULD BE jealous, but he wasn’t. He was out with . . . with HER. He and Julia had decided to go catch a move. ‘Julia,’ Tara thought bitterly. ‘What kind of name is that anyway? Sounds like a kind of juice.’ She sighed. Now she knew she was being petty. What was worse that she actually kind of liked the girl. Paul had dropped by with her a number of times and despite Tara’s best attempts to hate her, she just couldn’t. Tara wasn’t a hateful person by nature, and Julia was . . . well . . . nice. Tara had often found herself having genuinely pleasant conversations with the girl, only to mentally kick herself later for “conversing with the enemy.”
“Hey hon,” Keira said, plopping her lovely butt down on the seat next to Tara.
“Hey,” Tara said.
“You look nice,” her friend said. Tara had gone with her old tried-and-true favorite of skin-tight jeans and a babydoll tee-shirt. She didn’t have much by way of breasts, but she had a cute little ass and a child-like innocence, and that outfit displayed both. She probably had a tiny little g-string under those pants, and Keira resisted the urge to find out.
“Thanks. You look great, as always. You two goin’ out?”
“Yeah. Nick is actually taking me to Boardwalk’s Best for dinner.”
Tara’s eyes opened. “La-dee-dah! That place is nice!” Tara glanced over Keira’s shoulder at Nick. “Of course, you KNOW he’ll be wanting sex in exchange.”
Keira smiled. “He’d be getting that if he took me to McDonalds and he knows it.” She hugged Tara. “You have your cell phone with you? Just in case anything comes up?”
Tara blushed. Keira was still a little protective of the younger girl. Tara assumed it was because of what had happened with Carlos. But Tara was a big girl. Admittedly, she had never really dated much before. She had gone from shy girl to raging nympho in a very short time, bypassing a number of normal teenage rituals. “Yeah, I’ve got it. You coming back here or crashing at Nick’s tonight?”
“Here. I’ve got some stuff I wanted to do around the house in the morning, so sleeping here will save me a trip. You want to help me with the gardening? I figure we need to get this done quick. When we ship out next week, we’re gonna be gone for a month this time.”
“God, don’t remind me. Yeah, I’ll help.” Just then, they heard a car pull up out front and someone started honking their horn. “I think that’s my date.”
Keira was already not liking this. She HATED it when the guy wouldn’t even come to the door. She glanced at Nick, and he went to the window. He made a mental note of the car’s license plate. Then he gave Tara a quick hug before she headed out the door. He had to make it quick, because the longer he held that young woman, the harder it became to walk straight. She had that kind of effect on people.