“Hello,” the voice was deep and husky, sort of how I remember Lauren Bacall in her 40s movies. It was the woman I’d met at the World Wine Tour in the Magic Carpet when it was on Deck 14. We’d sipped together, talked a bit about the cruise, laughed at each other’s humorous travel anecdotes, exchanged a few double entendres and made what I had hoped was some meaningful eye contact before we drifted apart. drifted apart.

I had figured her to be in her early- to mid-50s, a good decade or more below my 65. Since 50 was the new 40, and I’d had a thing for 42-year-old women ever since I knew what Sex was for, that made her almost the ideal age for me. She was not by any means beautiful, she was what you would call a handsome woman; good looking, tall, fit. Unlike many handsome women I’d met, this one broadcast an indefinable but unmistakable, powerful sexuality that somehow had nothing to do with looks. And she was wearing a sun dress. Nothing drives me to thoughts of Sex like a sun dress; that short skirt so ready to be flipped up, revealing unencumbered thighs waiting to be parted, a body waiting to be laid down without the need for further undressing, or bent over and taken from behind.

“Hello yourself,” I said from my lounge chair. “Would you care to join me?” It seemed like a stupid question. I’d intentionally wandered slowly from the wine tasting up a deck to the semi-privacy provided in the Rooftop Garden. With over 4000 people spread over 15 decks, the odds of her her showing up now at the same place by accident were incredible.

“Yes, I think I would,” she said as she settled onto the deck chair next to mine. “You seemed interesting in there. Not to put too fine a point on it, you also seemed to be alone.”

“Ah, thank you for that ‘interesting.’ Well, actually, I’m semi-alone. My Wife — her name is Sandra; definitely not Sandy, should you two meet — doesn’t drink. She’s also a little short on stamina and touring Ajaccio wore her out, so she skipped the tasting in favor of turning in early.” I chuckled, “This seems a bit bass-ackward. I’ve told you my Wife‘s name, but haven’t told you mine. I’m Steve.”

“Hello Steve. I’m Gloria.”

“I’m pleased to meet you. And is there a Mr. Gloria?”

“Oh, yes. He’s Ronnie. He has nothing against drinking, but he likes to play blackjack even more. He’s been holed up in the ship’s casino all evening. He’s there a lot, actually, but he can afford to lose, and sometimes he even wins. I know how to get him out of there when I need him, so life is good.”

We were on the second night of an 8-night cruise out of Civitavecchia to Corsica, then up along the Italian, French and Spanish coasts to Barcelona and then back to Rome via Majorca. One of tonight’s programs had been a tasting of several wines from each of many countries, no doubt intended to get some of the guests to buy overpriced bottles. The ship had provided buckets for spitting, but I had never gotten the finer points of wine tasting. I just drank and swallowed as much wine as they would give me, and after at least a couple dozen little glasses I was feeling pretty good. And Horny. In my well-oiled state I made a point of keeping my eyes forward; otherwise I would have been undressing Gloria with them, and I didn’t want to take the chance of scaring her off.

“So, what do you do, Steve?”

“I travel,” I said, “I’m retired. I used to practice law, but now Sandra and I travel. And you, what do you do Gloria?”

“When we got married, I was a registered nurse. But about 10 years ago Ronnie made a lot of money as a venture capitalist, and ever since then I’ve split my time between entertaining his clients and getting away from them on cruises like this one.”

She thought a moment then asked, “You’re not one of those people who live their lives on cruise ships all the time are you?”

“No, we spend about half our time at our condo in New Orleans. I play a lot golf when we’re at home,” I added.

It was my turn to pause and think. I liked this woman. No, that’s not right. I didn’t know her well enough to like or dislike. But I liked the way she looked, and I liked the way she carried herself and I definitely lusted after her. I took another sip of my wine. It wasn’t as good as most of the dozen or so we had been served in the ship’s tasting event, but it was keeping the buzz going. I decided to throw caution to the winds and either move things in a sexual direction or out the door.

Looking her straight in the eyes I said, “And I write a little Porn, just for fun.”

Gloria did not get up and run away screaming. Instead she held my gaze and said, deadpan, “Are you any good at it?”

“Who am I to say. If you want, you can read my stuff on a site called Storyva.com. If you go there and do an author search for oldhornywriter, you’ll find my stories.. You’re still here. May I take it that my writing Porn doesn’t put you off?”

“Why should it? I’m a woman of the world, Steve. Yours won’t be the first Porn I’ve read. The only things that would put me off are if the writing is bad, or if you came across as a male chauvinist pig who thinks that just because a woman likes Sex, she’s a slut. There are enough of those in the real world that I don’t need to spend time with them while I’m reading.”

“Then you’ll read some of my stories?”

“Sure, I’ll do that tonight?”

“And will you give me a critique”

“If you want. How about tomorrow after lunch in Portofino?”

“Sorry, that won’t work for me. Sandra has the day planned out for us. How about tomorrow evening after dinner?”

“I can do that. Same time, same place then.” With that, Gloria got up with no more than a backward glance and a little wave, leaving me to my increasingly erotic thoughts.

A full day in Portofino, with a side trip to Rapallo had Sandra worn out and in bed right after supper, and me at my appointed deck chair by 9pm. Shortly after, Gloria arrived, with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

Once she had filled them and handed me one I asked, “Well?”

“Well, you’re not great, but you’re not awful either. The writing is okay, the Sex is good, and you show enough respect and care for the satisfaction of your female characters that nobody would ever call you a male chauvinist pig. Yeah, your guys tend to see women mainly as Sex objects, but in my experience that’s just guys being guys. And clearly you feel that just because a woman enjoys Sex, of whatever flavor, that doesn’t make her a slut. So, at least for my tastes, you’ll do.”

“Um, thanks. Is it too personal a question to ask if you found any of it arousing.”

“You mean did I play with myself while reading your stories, or in an uncontrolled fit of sexual passion did I throw Ronnie on the bed and have my wicked way with him when he got in from the casino? If you must know, yes on the former, though no more than usual, and no comment on the latter.”

To say that I was pleasantly taken aback by Gloria’s qualified openness (who cares what she did to Ronnie after all; it was me I wanted her to bed) would be an understatement. All I could say is “Louis, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“If you’re going to let other people write your lines, try to get it right,” Gloria shot back. “What Rick said was ‘Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.’ And try to be honest. You’re not looking for a beautiful friendship. You’re looking to, as you pornography writers like to put it, ram your stiff dick balls deep into my Hot juicy Pussy. Or more likely you’d like to fill all of my holes, if your writing is any indication.”

I was stunned by her directness. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t.

Gloria gave me a second more to come up with a clever reply, then said, “Go ahead, be honest. If that’s not what you’ve had on your mind ever since we met at the wine tasting, deny it. I know lust when I see it. I liked the way you looked at me then, which is why I followed you out on deck afterward. And I’ve never had a come on like your Storyva stories before. That was cute. But if I’m wrong, and you haven’t been coming on to me, let me know now. That would save me some time that I could be using finding someone else to fuck on this cruise.”

Wow!, I thought.

“Okay, okay. Guilty as charged. You are one exciting woman. I wanted you before and I want you more now. My cabin is out, Sandra’s asleep there. It’s a little public here. Can we count on Ronnie playing blackjack for a couple of hours, or do we have to find our way into a lifeboat?”

“Hold on lover, you’re getting ahead of yourself. There’s a bit more to Ronnie than booze and blackjack. You can have all of me that you want, but Ronnie has to have something in return.”

I was stunned. “Gloria, what exactly are you talking about?”

Gloria raised an eyebrow, like maybe she thought I was kidding, or simple minded. “What I’m talking about is that Ronnie and I Love to swing, but when we do, we swing together or not at all. I don’t suppose your Sandra is in to swinging, is she?”

That floored me. My dick, which had been almost painfully stiff a minute ago at the image of it being, as she had said, balls deep in Gloria, had shriveled into hiding. Sandra and I had had an open marriage agreement from day one. But the fact is that while I had used my freedom often over our many years together, as far as I knew she never had, and I just could not see her starting to swing at this stage of her life. I wasn’t about to risk the rest of our vacation by even suggesting such a long shot to her.

Finally I admitted, “No, she’s not.” Then I tried, “I don’t suppose he’d be interested in watching us. Or I’ve done threesomes where hubby and I did some DP. Maybe Ronnie would like to help make a Gloria sandwich?”

“Nice try Steve, but that wouldn’t work. To sort of borrow a phrase, Ronnie will have to have his pound of meat, or it’s no-go.”

“Well, crap, Gloria, I’m sorry, but I guess that means we’re stuck.”

“Boy, are you sure you wrote all those stories? For a writer you’re suddenly coming up short on imagination. Here, let me help you out. Let’s sort of write a story together,” she said as she pulled out her phone and put it in memo mode.

“Huh,” was the best I could do. She was running mental rings around me and I was stuck for words.

“Alright, just follow my lead; you can write the intro later. We’ve got these characters, Gloria and Steve, and they’re on a boat, and Steve really wants to fuck Gloria, and Gloria would really like for him to fuck her, but there’s a problem because she won’t put out unless her hubbie, who we’ll call Ronnie, can get some too, and Steve says his Wife won’t play. How’s that sound so far?”

“Depressing, to tell the truth.”

“Yeah, except that unlike Steve, Gloria hasn’t given up. So in our story you write

Gloria said to Steve, “Maybe all is not lost, lover. I’ve always enjoyed seeing a guy suck another guys dick. How are you at cock sucking?”

I started to say, “I’ve never…” but Gloria cut me off. “No, don’t talk to me, put it in the story.” So I said to her phone,

Steve looked up in shock. “I’ve never sucked a cock before.”

“That’s good. Let’s keep it going.” She said to the phone

“Don’t tell me you’ve never been curious,’ Gloria said. “Come on, I’ll bet you’ve wanted to see what it’s like to have a cock in your mouth for a long time and you just can’t make the jump. Well, here’s a great chance to satisfy your curiosity and you get to fuck me in the bargain. You’re far from home with people you’ll never see again. In case you decide it’s a one-off, we won’t be around later to out you about it.”

And I came back with

Then Steve says, “Alright, I confess. I’ve been curious for a long time. But I was brought up in a homophobic culture, and I’ve never found the right opportunity to try it out. But let’s say I give it a try and I’m no good at it? Do I still get to fuck you?”

Sensing that this was a real issue for him and not just part of the story, Gloria brought her hand out from under her skirt and held up her three middle fingers. “Here, you can practice on this and I’ll tell you what you need to change. Then you can write it into the story.”

Steve looked around to make sure that they were unobserved, then he bent over and sucked her fingers into his mouth. He started to bob his head up and down on them when Gloria said “Not so fast; you’re not in a race. Come on Steve, I’m sure you’ve had lots of blowjobs before. Just remember what you liked and do it. You want to make the guy feel good. Use your tongue more, and no teeth except maybe just a little gentle nibbling on the tip.”

Steve said “Mmmph,: and continued to suck on Gloria’s fingers, alternating sucking, nibbling and face fucking until Gloria said, “Okay Steve, now he’s gonna cum. You like it when you get to cum in her mouth, don’t you?”

Steve paused, then said “Mmmph,” and resumed bobbing up and down on Gloria’s fingers.

“Of course you do. Then it’s only fair that you should take what he has to give you. Suck hard until he’s finished shooting his cum into your mouth, and don’t even think about asking me whether you should swallow.”

With that Gloria started making panting noises and jabbing her fingers rapidly into Steve’s mouth, while Steve sucked and sucked as he’d been told.

When she had quieted down Steve let go of her fingers, made a big swallowing motion, and lay back in his deck chair. “Gloria, you had your fingers in your cunt before you had me suck on them. I’m really fine with that, but I have to ask, was there anything besides you on them?”

“Oh, you mean like had Ronnie fucked me right before I came to meet you? Very good Steve. I take it you’re not new to creampies. Yes, right after supper when I told him I was going to try to get you to be our fuck buddy, he was so excited that he threw me down on the bed and really filled me up when he came. So don’t worry about what Ronnie’s cum tastes like, lover, ’cause you’ve already had some.”

“Yeah I thought so, and thanks for being honest about it. But since that’s kind of after the fact, I feel that I should ask if you have any other surprises for me.”

Gloria thought for moment, then said “You know, I told you that Ronnie’s going to want his pound of meat if you fuck his Wife. Since your Wife won’t play, that makes you the meat, Steve. Ronnie’s going to want to fuck your Ass.”

“But I just gave him a Blowjob,” Steve protested.

“That was for me. Remember, I told you that I like to watch guys suck off other guys. No, Ronnie’s price is your Ass.”

“And if I don’t want to? I’ve never let anyone do that to me.”

“Then I’m afraid that we aren’t going to get it on, Steve. But stop pretending that you haven’t been as curious about having a dick in your Ass as you are about sucking on one. I’ve read your stories. One of your guys lets his girlfriend peg him, and another is in a MMF where he does exactly what we’re plotting out here. Oh, and by the way lover,” Gloria said as she grabbed Steve’s crotch, “your dick’s been hard the entire time we’ve been talking about this.”

Steve flinched at the sudden contact. He looked around quickly to see if anyone could see them, then he sighed, closed his eyes and began thrusting against Gloria’s hand.

Gloria muttered, “What the hell,” and added her own jerking to Steve’s thrusts until, with a growl between gritted teeth, he came. When his breathing returned to normal, Steve said, “Thank you for that. I don’t suppose you’d let me return the favor?”

“Lovely thought, Steve, but I think not at this point. I think we should take a break now. You can use the rest of this evening to work on the parts of the story where you suck Ronnie and you fuck me. I’ll help you out by writing the section where Ronnie fucks you. We can meet here same time tomorrow night if you’ll make sure to wear out Sandra in Cannes tomorrow.”

The next evening Steve was in his usual deck chair when Gloria appeared, wearing yet another sun dress. Sandra had been asleep when he came in, which had allowed him to write deep into the night. In the morning, between being truly Horny and wanting to make sure that she was exhausted by the end of the day, he surprised her with one of the most glorious fucks that they had had in a long time. That he was thinking about fucking Gloria the whole time is something he didn’t bother to mention.

Ashore, they headed to the Forville market at the foot of Le Suquet and, for good measure, all the way up the hill to see the museum in the castle where, of course, Sandra insisted on climbing to the top the top of the tower for its panoramic view of the town. In the afternoon, they ferried to the see the Abbey on Ȋle Saint-Honorat and then took another boat for a stroll through peaceful paths on Ȋle Sainte Marguerite. All of which, in addition to providing a very satisfying day in a reputedly dull port, saw Sandra again begging off the evening’s entertainment so that she could head straight to bed after supper.

When Steve arrived at his usual spot, Gloria was already waiting. Unfortunately, the music in the Garden was in full swing and the crowd was larger. Gloria said, “This isn’t going to work. We can go to my cabin. Ronnie will be at the casino until forever, so we won’t be disturbed. But you’ve got to promise to be a gentleman. No means no, and this is your ‘No’ for tonight. I’m not kidding Steve. We’re getting there. Don’t blow it. Now, do you promise to be on your good behavior?”

What could I say but “Yes.” Gloria held all the cards here, right between her legs. I waned her more than she wanted me, and she was exciting enough that the prospect of some other ship-board Romance that I hadn’t even started to look for seemed tepid. So, we went to her cabin, which turned out to be one of the Royal Suites on deck 12. When Gloria had said Ronnie could afford to lose at blackjack, I guess she wasn’t kidding.

When we got inside Gloria said “Have a seat at the dining table.:” Then, bending to the built-in wine cabinet, “Red or white?”

I said “White, please,” and she poured me a glass of something that turned out to be a lot more interesting than anything I had drunk at the wine tasting.

After they were both seated Gloria put a small stack of papers and her cell phone on the table and said, “You go first. We can rearrange the stories later to make them fit together.”

“Alright, I said. But first I need to know what Ronnie looks like. I’ve never seen him.”

Gloria got up, went into the bedroom and in a few minutes came back with a regular US passport. The picture inside looked incredibly like the older version of “the most interesting man in the world” from all those dos equis ads”

When I mentioned this resemblance to Gloria she said, “Yes, many people say that. But I think the dos equis guy was kind of short. Ronnie is six-one. Somehow, even with all the time he spends at blackjack tables, he’s managed to stay trim and fit; probably all that racquetball he plays. And, you’ll be happy to hear, he has an average six-inch dick.”

I scribbled some notes in my story, then I said, “Okay, here goes.”

Gloria took me by the hand and led me to her “cabin,” which turned out to be one of the Royal Suites. Inside she led me past the dining area into the living room, where a man in a terrycloth robe stood when we entered. He was about 6 feet tall, about my age or a few years younger. His face was tanned and weathered but not worn, tall forehead, prominent nose, a great looking neatly trimmed full beard.”

“Ronnie, Steve. Steve, Ronnie,” Gloria said. “You guys get acquainted while I get some drinks. Margaritas okay?”

We both said margaritas would be fine, and Gloria put in a call to their “butler” for two pitchers of margaritas on the rocks.

In the ten minutes it took for those to appear, Ronnie and I went through our histories, mine as a litigator now retired, his as a semi-retired venture capitalist, and a bit of chitchat about touring and cruising. He and Gloria had been at it for years, and if I hadn’t been there for other reasons I would have enjoyed spending the evening picking up pointers from him.