Voyage To Submission Read online

  VOYAGE TO SUBMISSION

  An Ellora’s Cave Publication, May 2005

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

  1056 Home Avenue

  Akron, OH 44310

  ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN 9781419902222

  Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):

  Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML

  VOYAGE TO SUBMISSION Copyright © 2005 MLYN HURN

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Edited by Linda Carroll-Bradd.

  Cover art by Syneca.

  Voyage To Submission

  Mlyn Hurn

  Chapter One

  Andrea Bond was a woman who had learned about herself the hard way…through countless hours of introspection and journaling, and visits with her therapist. She felt pretty secure in who she was, now anyway, including her strengths and her weaknesses. Certainly, she believed she was successful in her chosen profession. There was money for most things she wanted and most assuredly for all the things that were needed. At thirty, she wanted for nothing in the life she’d chosen to live.

  That wasn’t entirely true, she reminded herself gently while she paid the taxi driver before directing the porter regarding the luggage she’d brought. If she was truly happy and secure, then no way in hell would she be about to embark on a reunion cruise with her friends from college. Yet here she was, about to face a seven-day cruise with people, most of whom she’d not seen since college graduation. She needed to face this part of her history, come what may.

  Turning, she started walking towards the check-in point at the base of the modern-day gangway. As the quiet, gray-haired couple in front of her moved along, she smiled and offered her papers to the young, handsome officer in charge of this portion of the arrival processing.

  He accepted her papers without looking up, checking on several things, saying several things by rote before finally lifting his gaze as he returned the folder.

  Andy was prepared for his reaction. At the moment his eyes focused on her face, she noted his whole body stance changed. He straightened his shoulders and back, sucking in his gut and then smiled. After five years, she was no longer shocked by strangers’ reactions once they stopped and really looked. No mirror was necessary to know he saw a woman who was five feet, seven inches tall, and possessed a body that rivaled a Playboy centerfold, none of which was enhanced. She had hidden under layers of fat for the first twenty-two years of her life. But thanks to months of introspection, years of exercise and weight training, very few people who had known her before she left college would recognize her.

  She was glad she didn’t have a famous face as she took the folder from the officer. The attention she attracted since she’d lost all the weight was something she still had some trouble accepting without a lot of doubt as to sincerity. She made her way to the next check-in point.

  Well-placed signs directed all new arrivals to a small reception area. Upon entering the room, visitors were welcomed by two women, both smiling so much Andy was sure their faces were either frozen in place or they took breaks when she blinked. Almost before she knew it, she was through the reception area, arms full of instructional handouts, one of which included a map on finding her cabin.

  Luckily, she was fairly good with directions and easily found her stateroom. After the others booked the cruise, she decided to contact a different cruise agent. Even though it was expensive, she booked a stateroom on her own. Her gut instinct told her she had made the right decision and ignored the logical voice that gave her grief over the cost.

  In spite of their being best friends in college, the contact since then had only been sporadic at best, with nearly all of them. Having a room to herself would allow her somewhere to escape in case they didn’t get along after all these years.

  The stateroom was way more than she had anticipated and wandered around, checking out the closet and drawers before she went onto the balcony. While the view wasn’t great at the moment, once they were at sea, she had no doubt it would be worth the extra money. This way, if the cruise proved a total bust, she could hang out here, order room service and get some work done!

  * * * * *

  After an hour of checking out the stateroom, taking her time to put away her clothes and other belongings, she picked up the phone and requested the room her friends were staying in. She hoped they were not too angry with her for switching to her own cabin. “Hello?”

  “Gayle, this is Andy.”

  “Andy!” Her friend shrieked into the phone. “Where are you? Please don’t tell me you missed the boat! Hush up you guys, I can’t hear her.”

  “I’m here, on the ship. I did run a little late. Did the others make it all right?” Andy asked the question to deliberately delay answering her friend.

  “Yes, we’re here, but where the devil are you?” Gayle paused.

  Hearing all the chatter between the three women on the other end of the receiver, Andy wondered if the others were all talking to her as well. That was how it used to be, all of them trying to talk at the same time, even when one was on the phone.

  “We are supposed to meet the guys in the lounge on…uhm, some damned deck in thirty minutes!”

  “I know,” Andy reassured her friend. “We’re to meet outside the Constellation Lounge. I just called to promise you I’d be there.” A few seconds more passed before she heard a different voice.

  “Andy! Where are you? They didn’t deliver any luggage for you. Don’t tell me you only brought the one bag? Sweetie, you’ll need more clothes than just the sweats you used to wear all the time in school.”

  “Liz, relax. I’m fine. The truth is—”

  “Oh, God! Did you book a separate room? Andy, you dog, you!”

  Andy smiled as she listened to her friends’ chattering voices. She wasn’t completely sure who said what as the voices came at her. “Stop!” she almost shouted through the phone. “And yes, I booked a suite so I could get some work done.”

  “Aaw, Andy! This is a pleasure cruise, not a working one. Wait a minute! What in the world could you be working on?”

  “Liz! Look, I’ll meet you guys in the lounge in five minutes. We can have a drink before the guys arrive, okay?”

  She heard the frustration in her friends’ voices as they agreed to her suggestion. As she hung up the phone a few moments later, she glanced down at her outfit. She didn’t wear sweat suits all the time anymore, but she still preferred casual dress. Quickly, she decided to put on one of her new dresses. No doubt, her friends would be nicely dressed for the first evening of the cruise. She wanted them to be impressed the first time they saw the new her.

  Six minutes later, she entered the lounge, looking around for her friends. She doubted they would have changed much over the years. If anyone recognized her…now, that would be impressive. The dress she had chosen was knee-length, red, sleeveless and embossed silk cheongsam-style. Her black high heels matched the woven trim around the high neck and down the off-center and the closure togs. Maybe it was silly, but she felt like a million bucks.

  Taking a deep breath, Andy pushed open one of the double glass doors and entered the lounge. The place wasn’t deserted, but the majority of tables were empty and several men were seated at the bar. Almost immediately, Andy recognized three of the five men who were joining them on this cruise. The closest was dressed in shorts already with a logo t-shirt in matched colors. The black curly hair was shorter than he’d worn it in college, but Andy still reco
gnized Tony Marello. All through college, he’d dressed better than anyone else. His father could afford it, but it was based on his personal taste. She easily saw him as the successful restaurateur she’d read about in the newspaper several times over the recent years.

  Seated beside him was Ray Williams who had finished medical school and then joined his father’s practice. She wasn’t surprised to see he already had a receding hairline. He was dressed in casual trousers and a short-sleeved shirt. His blond hair had darkened since she’d seen him last, and when he turned to look at Tony, she saw he now had a mustache.

  The last guy at the bar was Mark Sherman, the brains of the group. Most likely, he traveled the tenure track at a college somewhere, working as some kind of science professor. This career choice was inevitable because both parents had been tenured science professors. His reddish-brown hair was still a little long in the back, and the fact he wore a tie with his shirt and a sweater vest would easily serve as a dead giveaway.

  For a moment, Andy considered turning around and leaving. The last time she’d seen all of these guys together had been the spring break vacation their senior year. They had all worked quite hard to finish their work on Wednesday, giving them almost eleven full days of vacation time away from campus and studies. Mr. and Mrs. Riley, Jack’s parents, had generously offered them the use of their house in the Keys.

  Jack Riley.

  Andy didn’t see him at the bar. He was the one she had always had a crush on…the only who had really mattered. If she were honest with herself, he was the real reason she’d wanted to come on this cruise.

  Like the other four guys in their group, he’d been nice to her. Other than a few pecks on her cheek, not counting spring break, platonic didn’t even describe the relationship they didn’t have. For three and a half years, she had traveled with her friends and never really given much thought to why none of the guys ever hit on her. She’d accepted her friends’ belief it was because she was the youngest. On the second to last night of their spring break, Andy had been unable to sleep. Giving up finally, she had wandered soundlessly down the stairs towards the kitchen in search of a glass of milk.

  Entering the kitchen, she reached for the light but stopped when she heard voices coming from the verandah just beyond the double screen doors. Obviously, the guys were still playing cards even though the girls retired to bed more than an hour ago. She opened her mouth to announce herself when she heard Jack speaking. Her breath caught in her chest, just like it did so often when she heard the deep timbres in his tone.

  “Now look, guys, the girls are insisting.”

  She knew his voice so well because she often replayed his words over and over in her mind, rehashing what she could have said, or even should have said.

  “We don’t have to draw numbers, guys. I’ll volunteer,” Jack continued a few seconds later.

  Andy smiled in the darkness, wasn’t that just like Jack—he was the most generous of the five male friends. No wonder she loved him, she wrapped her arms around her waist.

  “Gayle told me that unless one of us takes Andy out tomorrow night,” Ray Williams pointed out. “I can forget about having sex until after graduation. You better be serious, Jack. Otherwise, she’ll be with me and Gayle, and I’d planned a romantic picnic for our last night here.”

  “But Ray, I thought you guys were going to different med schools,” Danny Fishbein interrupted.

  “No shit, Danny! Keep pointing it out to make me feel even better about my sexless future.”

  “Hey, don’t jump me, Ray! Ruthie and I have plans for the day tomorrow. What about you, Mark?”

  “Liz and I made plans as well,” Mark replied quickly.

  “Jack and I were going to troll the local bars and maybe get lucky,” Tony Marello spoke up. “It’s either your turn, Mark, or Danny or Ray.”

  “One of you goes out with Andy. Draw straws or something and the loser must ask Andy out for dinner…and whatever,” Mark interjected immediately.

  “Come on, guys, that isn’t fair,” Danny protested. “She’d tell me no, and then we’d be right back where we started from.”

  “That’s because all you talked about was accounting,” Mark Sherman pointed out.

  Tony’s laugh carried through the night air.

  Andy felt a chill run up and down her spine. Danny had asked her out for pizza a week or so before this trip and she’d thought it odd at the time. The whole evening he’d explained all the intricacies of a full accounting audit, besides which, she knew he was really interested in her friend Liz. Before she could ponder it further, an unfamiliar voice answered.

  “Shut up, Tony. Besides, if you lose, I’d say not having sex would be a sure thing.”

  “Screw you!” Tony replied.

  “We agreed to share the ordeal. Whenever the majority wants to divide and conquer the women, somebody has to take out the ‘duffer’ or we all suffer.”

  “Let’s drop it.” Jack cut off his friends’ conversation.

  Andy was having more trouble telling their voices apart over the roaring in her ears that had nothing to do with the ocean surf nearby.

  “Come on, Jack, it was a given there would be a duffer. Every group of hot chicks always has one dumb, ugly, fat friend. It’s a given if you don’t occasionally take out the D-U-F-F gal pal, all the gorgeous women will join ranks to protect her and nobody gets laid. Andy’s always been the ‘duffer’. Deny you weren’t hoping as much as the rest of us her parents would refuse to let her come along this time. We tried to find a geek or a nerd for Andy, but there were no takers. Tomorrow night is our last on break and some of us want to cut loose or have plans. It’s noble of you, Jack, to offer again.”

  “Especially since we’ve all hooked up except you or Tony.” Ray spoke again.

  Andy barely heard him. She took a step back from the open window, dreading Jack’s answer and yet still needing to hear the truth.

  “I’ve told you before, Tony, drop the duffer thing,” Jack spoke quickly.

  Tony answered defensively, “The last thing I want to do is go out with the duffer. Jack has volunteered more than anyone else, so I’d say it’s up to one of you three to do it.”

  “For the last time, just drop it, damn it! I’ll ask Andy out for tomorrow. And Tony, I don’t ever want to hear you discussing this again.”

  Hearing Jack state he’d take her out had hurt her the most. It’s like he was being the noble one and sacrificing himself for the others. There was a roaring in her ears, barely registering the last words. She knew she had to get out of there before the guys realized they’d been overheard. Barely breathing, she backed out of the kitchen. Upstairs in her bed, which she shared with Gayle, she pulled up the covers and cried herself to sleep.

  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.