The ship’s captain and mate welcomed all the guests as we boarded, inviting us into the salon for our orientation talk while our luggage was stowed in our cabins.
Once we had all found seats in the cozy space, the captain began his talk.
“Welcome aboard the Motor Vessel Narcisse, out of Port Townsend, Washington. This vessel was built in 1953 by the same shipyard that built Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso, both of them originally sold to the British navy as mine sweepers after World War Two. The Narcisse was then transferred to the French Navy, but then decommissioned in 1985. Our company bought it and brought it back to Seattle, where it was re-imagined as a passenger cruise ship, and restored using period correct hardware and fittings.” He gestured broadly at the salon, saying, “The restoration work was done by many of the sons and grandsons of the men who built the original mine sweeper. We’re very proud of the Narcisse, and very pleased to have all of you onboard for this, our last cruise of the season.”
After introducing the rest of the crew (which was bigger than I’d expected) he said that we’d be underway in about twenty minutes.
“Please, make yourselves comfortable,” he said. “This is your home for the next ten days. Enjoy the salon, the forward observation lounge on the skiff deck, or simply enjoy this wonderful Alaskan weather out on deck,” he said, getting the laughs he expected.
I’d booked us two adjoining cabins, for the same reason I’d had to pay for the extra guest at the Sitka Inn. The larger of the two had what they called a king-sized bed, but it looked to be queen-sized at best. Still, I was perfectly happy to snuggle up closely with Emmy and Angela, even if it would be a bit of a squeeze in the smaller bed. Worse come to worst, I could stretch out in the other cabin’s single bed if necessary.
The cabin was very snug, but that was to be expected. To give ourselves a bit more room we stashed most of our luggage in the smaller adjoining cabin, freeing up space.
“I like this ship a lot,” Emmy said. “I am very glad it is… classic, you know? Not too modern.”
“You don’t like modern boats?” Angela asked, reclining on the bed.
“It is not that I do not like them,” Emmy said. “But this,” she said, waving her arm to indicate the Narcisse, “It somehow feels more appropriate for traveling through the islands and passages of Alaska than a contemporary ship would. More… personal.”
“I can see that,” I said, ditching my rain gear. “If we were on, like you said, Angela, a giant floating hotel, the whole experience would be about the cruise, and the scenery would just be… background, I guess. But this way, we’ll be in the middle of it all.”
“Makes sense,” Angela agreed.
After we changed out of our rain gear and into more casual (but still warm) clothes, we made our way up to the observation lounge to watch as we motored north out of Sitka’s harbor.
“Thank you for this, Lee,” Angela said, leaning against my side while we watched the tiny islands slide past our left hand side, the bulk of Sitka’s much larger island on our right.
“Yes, thank you for suggesting this, and arranging everything,” Emmy agreed, from her position leaning against my other side. “This would have never occurred to me to do, but I am enjoying this very much.”
We sat there, talking about nothing in particular and watching the heavily wooded shores glide past as the ship threaded its way through narrow passages between steep island hillsides. We were simply enjoying the sights and each other’s company.
At some point the steward came through and said the the bar was open, and if we wanted, there were light snacks downstairs in the salon, but none of us were in any hurry to take him up on the suggestions.
A while later the mate popped in and explained that we would be anchoring in a small cove for the evening in a little while, and we could kayak if we wanted, or catch a ride on the boat going to the shore for a visit to some hot springs, or maybe take a nature hike led by the ship’s naturalist in the rain forest.
“Hot spring?” Angela asked the mate. “Is it one of those that smells bad?”
“It has a little bit of a smell, but not bad, really,” he said. “And there’s a warm pool outside that doesn’t smell at all, so you can rinse off before getting dressed.”
“I did not bring a bathing suit,” Emmy lamented.
“Babe, it’s a wilderness hot springs,” I said. “Nobody wears clothes.”
“It’s swimsuit optional,” the mate agreed.
“I bet you’re up for that,” Angela teased, giving me a poke in the ribs.
“Hey- I love seeing you two naked, but I don’t necessarily have to got to shore for that,” I said, poking her back, intentionally misunderstanding her jibe.
“I’ll go if you’ll go,” she said, her big blue eyes wide with enthusiasm. “Em, you want to go to the hot spring?”
“No, I do not think so,” Emmy replied. “But I do not mind if you two want to go. I think I will stay here on the ship.”
“You doing O.K.?” I asked.
“I am fine,” she said with a smile. “I have been thinking of a song, and I want to work it out before it escapes me,” she explained.
“If you’re sure,” Angela said.
The two of us weren’t the only ones on the skiff to shore, but the others looked as if they were going to go with the naturalist on a hike, so I entertained hopes that Angela and I would have the hot springs to ourselves.
The small boat ran aground on the small pebbly beach, a crewman in waders jumping out to help pull the boat higher so the rest of us could step out onto the dry shore.
“Just wave from this beach when you’re ready for me to come pick you back up,” he said to everybody disembarking. “The cabin and bathhouse are right up there,” he said, pointing to a couple of wooden structures just visible through a screen of trees. “I’m pretty sure you’ll have the place to yourselves, since I don’t see any other boats here, and this is the only way to access this place.”
While the four hikers and the naturalist headed south down the beach, Angela and I found the short trail that led to the rustic cabin and the bathhouse. We didn’t even bother with the clearly empty cabin, heading straight for the hot spring.
“Bathhouse” is a grandiose word for a rough wooden building with only three sides and a roof, but it did have benches to sit on and hooks and shelves for our clothes.
There was a bit of a sulphur smell, but it was very mild- certainly not enough to discourage either of us.
The open side of the bathhouse faced the cove and the ship, too, but it was somewhat screened by the evergreens, so I didn’t think that anybody was likely to be able to see us from there.
The water was just about hot enough to satisfy Emmy’s preferences on the subject, which meant that Angela and I had to ease our way in slowly, finding comfortable places to sit on the underwater rocks of the natural spring.
“Look at this,” Angela said, pointing to where the water flowed out into another pool outside the confines of the bathhouse. “There is a… stream? Flowing into it to cool it off.”
I had a hard time tearing my eyes off her amazing back and sublime butt as she leaned over the rocks away from me, but eventually I did manage a glimpse in the direction she indicated, and sure enough, I could see what she meant. Whoever had built the bathhouse had routed some of the water from a creek that flowed into the cove, diverting just enough to mix with the hot, hot water to create a warm water pool.
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It didn’t take too long before I found myself in that second pool, recovering from being boiled in the hot one.
Angela stuck it out longer than I did, but she joined me in the warm pool after a bit, too.
The warm water was just that- warm. It would be considered too warm for a swimming pool, but too cold for a bath. Coupled with the cool, humid afternoon air, it didn’t take long for us to want the hot pool again. We cycled like that a few times, before I mentioned that in Scandinavia, people often jump in frozen ponds in the winter when they get too hot in the sauna.
“You could jump in the ocean,” Angela suggested, pointing at the pebbly beach a hundred feet away. “You’d cool off in a hurry.”
“Yes. Yes, I would cool off in a hurry,” I agreed, thinking about the sea water, and how we’d seen a small iceberg earlier in the day.
Angela returned to looking out through the trees at where the Narcisse was anchored for the evening, and I returned to admiring her splendid shoulders, back and butt, which was just above the surface of the water.
“Ange, do you do that on purpose?” I asked, my mouth watering.
“Do what?” She asked innocently, looking back over her shoulder at me.
“Be so damned sexy,” I replied, resting a hand on her hip.
She smiled, asking, “You think I’m sexy?”
“I most absolutely do,” I said. “I want to ravish you right here and now. It’s taking a lot of self control to keep myself from doing it.”
“I wish you didn’t have quite so much self control,” she said, a saucy smile on her lips as she lifted her backside slightly farther out of the water, making it obvious that yes, she was doing it on purpose.
I’d just knelt down on the pool’s sandy floor behind her, ready to nibble on Angela’s perfect behind, when we heard voices.
“The others!” Angela said, sliding out of my grasp and taking a demure seat on one of the submerged stones.
Sure enough, we could see the two sets of retirees, led by the ship’s naturalist as they walked up the beach, approaching the cabin and bathhouse.
“Make ‘em go away,” I grumbled, frustrated beyond measure.
Angela just laughed at me as I pouted.
“Hey! You guys still in there?” The hiking group’s leader called out as they made their way up the short trail from the beach.
“Still here!” Angela called out in response.
“You two might want to get dressed,” the naturalist said as the group arrived at the bathhouse. “We saw some grizzlies heading this way.”
“Grizzlies? Bears?” Angela asked.
“Normally they’re not a problem, and these guys might not be, either, but it was two young males, so who knows?” The naturalist said.
A quick glance at Angela confirmed that she thought it was probably wise to do as suggested, and a few minutes later we made our way to the shore to wait for the skiff with the others.
“Are bears a problem?” Angela asked the naturalist.
“Generally no,” the woman replied. “I mean, they can be, if you don’t take reasonable precautions and leave your food trash out, or something like that, but they generally don’t care one way or another about humans per se. Most of the time they’ll just ignore you if you don’t get too close.”
“So what would the bears have done if they came to the bathhouse while we were there?” Angela persisted.
“Most likely nothing. Maybe sniffed around to see if anybody left anything to eat, and then wandered off. I doubt they would have actually bothered you guys, unless you did something to set them off. That’s actually the biggest risk in most peoples’ cases. Simply not knowing to act calm and let the bear get bored and go away,” the woman said.
“When we spotted the bears in a meadow about a mile that way, we just casually turned around and left like it was no big deal,” one of the hikers said. “They definitely saw us, but didn’t seem like they cared at all. The thing is, the trail led right past ‘em, so going forward wasn’t an option.”
“Right,” the naturalist agreed. “The basic rule of thumb is don’t get too close, or do anything to get the bear to react to you, and they’ll just ignore you.”
Just then the skiff ran aground and the crewman jumped out to pull it up on the beach a bit farther and we all climbed aboard. We were about halfway back to the Narcisse when Angela called out, “Look!” And pointed back to the shore, where two brown bears had just emerged from the trees to walk along the beach.
We watched as the bears ambled to the low tide line, presumably looking for seafood. They poked around among the rocks right at the water line, never once looking up at the skiff or the Narcisse.
“It isn’t uncommon for two young males like that to travel together once they’ve left their mother,” the naturalist said. “They might stay together for another year or two, but will become more and more independent. As adults, they’ll live solitary lives except during mating season or if there’s an unusually rich food source.”
Back on the Narcisse, we found Emmy in a deck chair on the top deck, picking out a melody, a note pad on the little table beside her.
“I saw the bears,” she said. “Is that why you all came back when you did?”
“Yeah,” Angela agreed, leaning down to give Emmy a little kiss. “It seemed like a good idea. I didn’t want Leah to have to punch them.”
“That is very wise of you,” Emmy said with a laugh.
“That song you’ve been working on- how’s it going?” I asked, squeezing Emmy’s shoulder.
“I am having a hard time with this one,” she admitted. “Sometimes songs come easily, but not always.”
Angela leaned down and whispered in Emmy’s ear, and whatever it was lit Emmy’s face up with amusement. “I will stay here and work on this song,” she told Angela. “But you two go ahead.”
Back in the cabin, I asked Angela what she’d said to Emmy.
“I told her that you were feeling beastly, and I had to satisfy your hunger,” Angela said with a saucy smile.
“Did you now?” I asked, dropping my voice to a deep growl.
By this point Angela had already peeled out of her rain gear and was working on removing her base layer clothes.
“It was unfair of me to get you hot and bothered like that, only to have to get dressed and leave to return to the ship,” she explained as the last piece of her clothing fell to the floor.
“So this is pure altruism? You feel sorry for me?” I asked, quickly shedding my own clothes.
“No, it’s not like that. I wanted you very much, too. The way you look at me, it- I get so excited, so ready,” Angela said, looking back over her shoulder as she crawled onto the bed.
The view was too much for me, so I abandoned my efforts to get naked and simply lunged forward, taking her hips in my hands from behind. I pulled her back towards me a bit and smashed my face into her pink parts with nothing but desire on my mind.
This wasn’t about making love- it was about pure sexual lust, unrestrained in any way. I was going to fuck Angela senseless, and nothing else mattered.
Angela was wet with desire, just as ready for some serious rutting as I was. She pushed back against my face, moving her knees farther apart and rotating her hips to give me better access.
She was sporting the little gold ring with a pink sapphire jewel that I’d gotten her, perfect for hooking the tip of my tongue into for extra stimulation.
The sloppy sounds I was making came nowhere near drowning out Angela’s moans, sprinkled with the occasional, “¡Ay coño!” or, “¡Dios!” When I hit just the right spots.
Angela started bucking when she got close, but I kept my grip on her hips and continued my relentless assault until she came with a loud cry, shaking and trembling uncontrollably.
I finally let her go, enjoying the sight of her naked, sweaty body on the dark blue bedspread, twitching with little aftershocks as she slowly recovered.
After a few moments, I remembered that I still had far too many clothes on, and stripped down to my birthday suit.
Angela had rolled into her back to watch me undress, a satisfied look in her eyes.
“We’re not done yet, missy!” I said in a Husky voice as a climbed up onto the bed, lifting and parting her knees. I scooted myself into position, sliding my lady bits against her soaking wet vaj. Holding her legs up and spread, I ground my clit against hers, feeling that pretty gold ring adorning that even prettier pearl of hers.
I’d tried this with Emmy, and it sort of worked, but with Angela it was amazing. As I pumped my hips up and down, our most sensitive parts made amazing contact, slipping against each other in the most wonderful way.
“Slow!” Angela plead, pushing against my tense belly muscles as I really got going. “It’s too much!”
I made myself slow down, but that really didn’t last very long at all before I was back to full speed ahead. I needed release, and the feeling was way, way too good to take it easy.
It had been a long time since Angela and I had gone to town like that, burying ourselves in the sheer physicality of a good fuck.
Angela’s second climax sent me over the edge, too, and I collapsed on top of her when I came hard enough to see stars.
“Ah, Lee,” Angela said when she got her breathing under control. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me harder down into her. In response I stopped trying to prop myself up and let my weight pin her against the bed.
“Sometimes I need that so much,” she continued, stoking my hair. “I love it when you take me like that. It makes me feel very… desirable, you know?”
“You are very desirable, Ange,” I said, my face buried in her thick, dark hair. “I desire the fuck outta you.”
“How romantic!” Angela laughed, pinching my side.
“I’m a true romantic at heart,” I agreed, readjusted by my position a little bit for more comfort. Angela had her legs wrapped around mine, and I relished the feel of her wetness against my belly. I had done that to her, I was the one that made her scream with pleasure. Me. Knowing that Angela wanted me as badly as I wanted her was deeply satisfying in a very primordial way.
She wanted me, she wanted to have my baby, she wanted to spend the rest her life with me. And you know what? I wanted those things, too.
“What are you thinking about?” Angela asked, running her fingers through my sweaty hair.
“About you and me. About how much I love you. About how you make me feel, and how I want that feeling forever,” I replied, my voice muffled by her hair.
“Lee, you make me feel like the queen of the world,” Angela said. “I always thought I would find a man who could make me happy and give me the life I wanted, but I was wrong. I found a woman- two women- who make me wake up every morning with happiness in my heart.”
“Ange,” I said, lifting myself up so I could look at her youthful face. “I want to give you everything. I want to make you happy in every way I can.”
“You do,” she said lifting her head up to give me a kiss. “You do every day.”
I lowered myself down to return her kiss, long and deep and sensual.
Emmy returned to the cabin while Angela and I were kissing, exclaiming that she could tell what we had been doing by the very sexy smell. “And the fact that you are still naked and wrapped all up in each other,” she said with a laugh.
“You could have been here with us,” Angela said. “In fact, take off your clothes now and we can make up for lost time.”
“As tempting as that may be, it is almost time for dinner, Emmy responded. “You two should shower and get dressed.”