Castles Burning Part Two (7 page)

“Fuck, yes
.” I said, looking back at him as his hand dug into my hair again, he leaned forward and thrust into me, sweeping his palm across my ass again and I called out again.

I felt myself tightening, Dean thrust harder into me and I watched in the mirror as my breasts flattened
and bounced on the glass. He snaked an arm around my waist and his teeth were on my shoulder. His fingers slipped to my clitoris and he began to circle it violently until I couldn’t hold back any longer, and let my orgasm tear through me, and as anticipated my knees buckled. To my surprise and relief the arm Dean had snaked around me had no trouble holding me as I came around him. I heard him curse before he hauled me against him savagely several times before twitching inside of me. His lips were on my neck, and I had barely regained strength to stand before we heard exclamations of awe and excitement in the other room.

***

              “God no!” Jessica gasped as we looked for dresses to wear out dancing tonight. The huge mall we were in was larger than any shopping mall I’d ever seen and we had gotten turned around twice while trying to come back to this store.

             
“Well I had to ask,” I said “I saw the tattoo on his finger you know, and it caught me off guard.” I chewed on my bottom lip as I shifted hangers across their racks.

             
“No, trust me if he were married I wouldn’t hook up with him in ports.” She laughed.

             
“I figured, but you never know.” I held up a short red dress. “What about this one? It’s pretty; I want to try it on with the silver one.”

             
“Oh that is really pretty! I like it more than the silver one. What do you think of this?” She held a blue strapless dress up to her front.

             
“The blue looks amazing with your eyes.” I told her smiling. I was so excited to be going out to have fun tonight; I needed to have some fun. “What about Smith?” I asked looking at her, she smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

“We’re good friends.”

“Friends?” I asked.

“With benefits I guess. I don’t know, I like having sex, and the guys get all worked up you know… I’m not tied to Ty, and he knows that Smith and I mess around, he doesn’t mind.”

“I get it; jeeze I wish I had someone to tell me all the great hiding spots to have sex on the ship.” I said with a wink.

             
Her huge teeth shone as she grinned at me.

             
“Oh my God look at this one!” She held up a cocktail dress that had a red flowing halter top, and a short black sequined bottom.

             
“That is perfect!” I said as I held the dress up in front of a mirror. “What do you think, red and black or just red?” I asked her.

             
“Red and black, it’s just too sexy, you have to get it.” She said taking it from me and heading to the dressing rooms.

I followed her and once we had our dresses and shoes for the evening we headed back to the hotel to show
er and get ready for dinner. As the sun was setting the Singapore air cooled a little, it was warm and breezy, it felt like summer back home. Orchard road was lit up with beautiful white, blue and pink lights in the trees. It was the cleanest city I’d ever seen in my life, all of the people were nice and smiled at us as we made our way to an indoor/outdoor bistro and bar. Immediately we recognized people from the ship, and they recognized us, but we still kept to ourselves, quietly making our way to a table.

Jessica
had decided on the dark blue dress. It was short, and barely came down to her mid thighs when she walked, and it was tight and strapless perfectly showing off her shoulders she’d spent the last month on in the ships gym. Tyler wore a sharp black suit with a deep blue undershirt, and Dean was in a silver suit with a black shirt, it contrasted magnetically with his blonde hair and dark eyes. I had gone with the black and red miniskirt dress, I wore tall black pumps with it that showed off the muscles in my legs attractively, the entire walk to the bistro I’d been slapping Dean’s hands away like flies, and had even caught Tyler staring at my bottom a couple of times. Jessica was a saint and said nothing to him; it even seemed to me as if she really did not mind, she just smiled brightly at him and giggled and spoke enthusiastically about everything around us.

We sat at four barstools a
round an oblong shaped glass table; it was small and smoky colored, it reminded me of Smokey Quartz crystal. The bistro was sleek and elegant, immediately a young woman brought us four Tequila Sunrises and smiled brightly at us.

“Can I take your order while you wait for a dining table?” She asked politely.

“I think we need a little more time.” Jessica said. I nodded and the waitress was off in a second, her smile never fading.

I took a sip of my drink
and had to exhale sharply, it was very stiff, Jessica had a similar reaction and stuck her tongue out. Tyler and Dean laughed at us. When the waitress returned we ordered a second round of drinks with a bowl of fries and two club sandwiches, and four salads. As we ate and chatted about the city more rounds of drinks came.

“I can’t believe I’m here with you.” Jessica said close to Tyler’s face, he held her hand to his chest as he leaned over to her and kissed her softly on the lips. I smiled at them, tears threatening behind my lids. Dean’s fingers slid up and down my back, his eyes were burning into my face, but I couldn’t meet his gaze; I took a long sip of my drink, waiting for the emotions to settle down before I turned and beamed at him. He
lifted the corner of his mouth in a half smile, but his eyes assessed me knowingly, as if he could tell how completely fake I was being, but patronized me anyway.

“Sonny!” We heard
bellowed drunkenly from across the outdoor sitting area. The nick name was a bit slurred as it rolled from the man’s tongue.

I looked around
searching faces before I finally saw Chief Hudson, dressed in a red and black button down shirt and jeans, sitting with some of the guys from the shop and DC1 Lewis. They were surrounded by beer bottles and empty food plates and were gesturing for us to join them. We left cash at our table and made our way over to them, I wobbled for a second before I remembered I was in heels and righted myself. I pulled my short skirt down as much as I could, but it was no use, and I stood before Chief, his dark features turned from DC1 to me. He eyed my knees, and lingered on my thighs before he dragged his blue eyes up to mine and I finally realized what had entranced me so about him. He was the spitting image of what Aden might have become had he lived to see his forties. I swallowed as I watched Chief bring his beer to his sensual lips, his eyes never leaving mine as I stared wide eyed at him, DC1 looked from Chief to me, and back again. I remembered where I was and cleared my throat, pretended to sway a little, to make it look as if I’d just zoned out for a moment.

“DC1! I thought you said you weren’t coming out tonight?” I asked him, squeezing in
to the booth beside him.

“Cross.” Chief nodded at Dean. Dean didn’t respond
, but his jaw tightened and I saw Tyler lean over and say something under his breath, though I couldn’t hear what.

“Well I wasn’t but my Chief decided to give me an order. I’m only here for dinner and then I’m going back to the ship.” He was such a hermit, the thought made me giggle.

“You have a lovely smile.” Chief said across the table.

I looked up and caught his smile,
Dean was standing beside me and I held his hand in mine absently as I gazed at Chief, he slowly tipped the bottle against his lips again, and his Adams apple clung toward his chin as he swallowed, then bobbed down, and into place satisfied from the cool amber liquid. I noticed his eyes still on me.

“Thank you Chief.” I said and
couldn’t help grinning again. I noticed that it was Smith and Sawyer who were sitting with them, both were talking to two guys I didn’t recognize from the HT division.

“Adam.” He said. “Chief on board.” He winked and brought the beer to his lips again.

I looked away quickly, and caught Sawyer grinning at me; he had the most adorable puppy face. His cheeks seemed to almost wrinkle when he smiled, and his eyes were perpetually merry and squinting, he had a million dollar smile and a thick jaw line. He was the all American farm boy.

“Sonny.” He said seriously
peering at me from his spot across the table.

“Yes?” I asked him, trying not to giggle.

“Don’t laugh. Come here.” He drunkenly snapped and pointed to the nonexistent seat beside him. I stood and moved closer to him at the half moon shaped table. “Come here, closer Sonny.” He continued to wave his hand lazily before him. When I was right next to him he pulled me up onto his lap.

I
reflexively looked over at Dean, who was regarding me cheerfully; his dimples playing at his cheeks while his hands were hidden in his pockets. Jessica had sat down next to Chief and was snatching left over fries from his plate, chatting with him.

“What is it?” I asked Sawyer, still trying not to laugh at him. He rested his hand on my knee and looked at my legs before turning his adorable drunken face up to mine
, his rough fingers stroked a small area on my thigh.

“I just wanted to say…” He took a deep breath
, “Thank you, thank you so much for not ever…” he lifted his hand an inch from my legs, and emphasized his words with a soft pat to my thighs, “
ever
, showing any of this to us while we are working.” Laughter erupted around me and I playfully slapped Sawyer’s shoulder while I scooted off of his lap.

“What are you guys doing after here?” I asked as I stood up beside Dean
, adjusting my skirt again.

“We’re going to Orchard Towers.” Chief said.

“Four Floors.” Sawyer laughed.

Smith was looking at my legs, then grinned up at me and bobbed his
eyebrows; I made a face at him before flipping him off and giggling again.

“Well, we should
all go, that’s where we’re going too.” Jessica said as she adjusted her strapless top, she wobbled a little on her own stilettos and I giggled at her, she joined me and we all made our way for the door.

Orchard Towers was not nearly as large as I’d thought it would be, or else it just seemed small because of the alcohol. There were indeed prostitutes everywhere, but more than that, it seemed like half of the people
from the ship were here. Dean held my hand, and I smiled at him as we made our way to our first bar, of the first floor.

“I’ve got the first round!” Jessica shouted putting her purse on the
dark bar and gesturing for the bartender to come to her. This bar was surprisingly empty, it had a western theme, everything was made of wood and it smelled like beer and peanuts. We were the only people in the bar aside from an older gentleman at a table reading a book, and occasionally glancing up at the TV.

“
Tequila.” Jessica said to the bartender. She nodded and flipped eight shot glasses onto the bar. One of the HT’s that had joined us was standing beside me and Dean.

“Hey.” I said, holding out my hand, “I’
m Amber or Sonny whatever you prefer.” I laughed

“Charlie.” He said.

He had a funny mustache that reminded me of a weasel, his small thick glasses made his eyes look smaller than they were and his gray and black baseball cap was ragged. He stood maybe five feet tall, and his friend looked like an ox next to him. He stood well over six feet and was very broad shouldered, he also wore a ragged cap, his large hands were stained black in some places, and he smiled at me and held one out to me.

“
Tank.” He said.

“Tank?” I smiled up at him
, taking his hand.

“That’s what everyone calls me. My name’s Matthew.” He took two of the shot glasses; both dwarfed by his large hands and gave them to me and Dean before taking two for himself and his miniature friend.

We toasted and tossed back the shots, Chief bought us all another round and after that we made our way to the second floor. The ride up the escalator did odd things to my stomach, I felt Dean’s hands on my waist and I turned to kiss his soft pink lips, he smiled down at me when I pulled away. Jessica caught my hand and pulled me away from Dean and into a dark bar with thundering music and colored lights, red, pink, green and blue dots flew around us like swirling snow. A very tall woman with broad shoulders came up to us carrying a drink tray, and held it to us.

“Free tequila for pretty girls.” She said in very broken English, her
voice was very low for a woman.

The lights were swirling but
I saw something white at the bottom of the shot glasses as Jessica took two, and handed one to me, grinning conspiratorially. I gazed down into the liquid, wondering what it was.

“Are you sure these are ok?” I asked
, curious.

“Yeah we’re on lib for four
days; this stuff is out of your system in a day.” She called over the music.

“What is it?” I asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t really know.” She looked around us, “But everyone else has had one. I did it last time we were here too. Don’t worry it’s just like being really drunk.”