Nine Days of Heaven

DISCLAIMER:

This is my first time at writing a story like this and although some of what you read will be fiction, some of what happens in this story actually happened. Names have been changed.

*****

PROLOGUE

"Penny, it's time you started to get out on your own again and move on with your life."

The words were spoken by my best friend, Mandy. It had been a couple of years since Glenn, my husband of twenty-five years, had unexpectedly passed on and the wound had not yet healed. I missed him terribly every day and in the beginning the pain of the loss was disabling. I didn't leave my house for a month after the funeral. I felt that I couldn't face anyone. I would spend days in my dressing gown, either in bed or on the couch. Mandy was a trooper. If it hadn't have been for her, dropping by, spending time with me, sleeping over night in the spare room and feeding me, I may have just curled up and joined Glenn in the "Great Beyond".

I knew Mandy wasn't being malicious or insensitive with her words, she had a point.

She had accompanied me to certain work and family events where the invitation allowed me to bring a friend or relative. She gave me the moral support that I needed. Men had invited me out on dates, but they were only the types that I would see as friends. It was time for me to attempt life on my own.

"I've booked us on a cruise in the Mediterranean," she said. "No need to thank or repay me, it's my treat as it's also your sixtieth birthday."

I was speechless.

"I've also invited Linda and Irene."

Linda was her daughter, who even at the age of twenty-two, Mandy treated her as a princess and spoiled her rotten. Irene was another close friend and my former boss.

"We're going to have some have adventures," Mandy said, with a wink in her eye.

DAY 1.

We arrived at Rome airport and Mandy had organised a limousine to take us to the port, which was only a 40 minute drive.

The original plan was to spend the night in a hotel in Rome, but as the airline cancelled our flight and re-booked us on a later one, that plan went out the window.

After we had checked in our luggage at the port, we checked ourselves in and after signing all the necessary paperwork, we collected our stateroom keys and made our way to the ship.

Something I must tell you about Mandy is that technically she is still married to Linda's father, Jim. She moved out of the family home about a two months before she booked us on the cruise and moved in with a guy called Ben, who lived further down the street. According to her, Jim wasn't satisfying her needs. If you read between the lines, she wasn't getting as much sex as she wanted. Jim was a hard working man. He needed to be to keep up with both Mandy's and Linda's expensive tastes and demands. It was hardly surprising that when he came home from work, he didn't have the energy to give Mandy the attention she craved. But that didn't excuse her from what she did. But I suspected that while on this cruise, she had a hidden agenda.

Mandy was sharing with Linda and I with Irene, which was fine as Irene was a really easy going and a "no stress" type of woman.

Our stateroom came complete with a balcony and two single beds, which apparently could be moved together to make a large double bed, if required. Our bathroom was spacious and had a nice shower in it.

Mandy and Linda lived in a similar stateroom, one deck above us.

Our cabin phone rang and it was Mandy informing us that lunch was waiting in the buffet restaurant. So we agreed to meet there after unpacking.

Later that day, we wandered around the ship and ended up in the piano bar.

"Oooo!" exclaimed Mandy. "I wonder who the entertainer is."

Linda replied, "With any luck Mum, it'll be a woman."

Her words tinged a little irritation at her Mum's transparency.

Mandy stuck her tongue out at her daughter and in an infantile voice replied,

"You're just jealous because I've still got it at my age and you're still looking for it!"

Linda scowled at her Mum. I knew that she still hadn't forgiven her for walking out on her Dad and I could sense the conversation was heading for an argument. Irene had already left the bar in search of the library. I decided to follow her. I did not want to mediate another "Mother-Daughter Argument".

Sometimes it was like living in a reality TV show.

We agreed to meet outside the main restaurant at seven thirty p.m. as our table was booked for seven forty-five.

I was dressed in knee length skirt and chiffon top. Irene dressed in a conservative white sweater and matching pants. Linda wore a figure hugging cotton dress that finished just below her bottom and kept riding up, occasionally displaying the thong she was wearing. Mandy was furious with her, calling her "cheap" and "dressing like a prostitute." While I thought Mandy could have toned down her language, I quietly agreed that Linda should have dressed a little more appropriately for dinner.

However, Mandy's dress code wasn't much better. She was dressed was a knee length, knitted dress a which was just a little too see-through for my liking. It was easy to make out her bra and panties beneath.

Dinner was eaten in relative silence, except for the moments when both Linda and Mandy were trying their hardest to gain more than the usual amount of attention from our waiter. The poor man was embarrassed beyond belief and I really felt for him.

Mercifully, Linda didn't join us after dinner. Complaining of a headache, she said she would get an early night.

"That's a lie," said Mandy, as we headed into the piano bar.

"She'll head for the night club. But I couldn't care less. I'm beginning to question why I even brought her on this...Hello!"

The surprise in her voice prompted me to look away from her and in the direction she was looking. I caught my breath as I saw, seated behind the piano, the most beautiful looking man I had seen in a long time. He was tanned and his "salt and pepper" hair accentuated that. When he looked over in our direction, he smiled and greeted us with, "Hi there ladies. Come on in and enjoy the show!"

He looked straight at me and smiled. I felt like I had been shot in the chest and my legs went to jelly.

Mandy was all smiles.

"Hubba hubba! He's all mine," she announced.

We found a table and all three of us sat down and ordered drinks from the waiter.

The room was buzzing and everyone was enjoying the show. The piano player introduced himself as Adam. He told bad jokes that seemed to raise a laugh or two, but when he sang, he melted my heart. His voice was crystal clear and in tune.

He played songs that we knew and could sing too and songs that we didn't know but were great all the same. His love songs tugged at your heart-strings and his rock n roll songs made you tap your feet and clap your hands.

For reasons I am not clear about, the three of us suddenly uprooted and replanted ourselves around the piano. I now had a clearer view of this beautiful looking man. His smile took my breath away and I felt something that I hadn't felt since Glenn had passed. My heart raced a little. I felt giddy, like a schoolgirl on prom night.

Mandy was trying her best to get his attention, but he seemed to focus on me.

I couldn't tell if he was being sincere or just trying to ignore Mandy.

All too soon the night was over and we had to go to our staterooms.

Mandy was bragging about how she was slowly reeling him in, like a Blue Marlin. I had a feeling her line was going to wind up empty.

As we got ready for bed, Irene said,

"The piano man was a nice looking young man."

I smiled. Everyone was young compared to her. I said that I had put him in his late 40's or possible early 50's.

"A nice toy boy for you," she replied, with a mischievous wink.

"I think Mandy's got plans for him," I replied.

Picking up her soap bag and towel, she touched me on the arm and said,

"But she wasn't the one he was looking at."

Day 2.

Mandy was late for breakfast and arrived alone, without Linda.

"I am so pissed at her," she said, as she sat down at the table in the buffet restaurant.

It was early as we had an excursion booked, leaving just enough time for a doughnut and coffee.

"What's happened?" asked Irene.

"Well I was right about her not going to bed straightaway. She went to the night club, had a few drinks and found herself a guy. When I opened the cabin door, I found her naked, riding the him like a Kentucky Derby winner. In my bed!"

I looked away, trying to camouflage the smile that threatened to break across my face.

"I've never seen a guy get up, dress and get out a place so fast in all my life," she continued.

"He was red with embarrassment and she was red with fury because I had interrupted her orgasm. I tell you, I am on the verge of sending her home from the next port we come to."

Normally Irene would never get involved with anything of this nature, so it surprised me when she asked,

"Why didn't they go back to his cabin?"

"Oh that's the best part," replied Mandy. "His wife was asleep in his cabin."

I couldn't tell if Mandy was angry because she had caught Linda in her bed with a man, or that Linda had succeeded when Mandy had failed. I rather thought that Mandy could see herself in her daughter and it scared her. Having said that, if push came to shove, Mandy would have done the exact same thing and not thought twice about it.

The excursion around Messina, Sicily, was long, but interesting. But my mind kept wandering to the night before and Adam, the beautiful piano player. He had been impeccably dressed in a sports jacket, black trousers and a short sleeved dark blue shirt. Every now and then, I would catch him looking across the piano, directly at me. Those eyes. You could lose yourself in those dark brown eyes. His voice was as smooth as silk and so clear you could hear every word he sang.

I really hoped we could go there again that night.

Excursion over, we were back on the ship and ready for departure. It had been a long day and knowing that I would need some energy to get through the night, I went to the cabin and took a nap until it was time for dinner.

It was just the three of us again for dinner. Relations between Mandy and her daughter had come to a head and Linda said she would enjoy the rest of the cruise alone. Unfortunately, she couldn't move to another cabin, but Linda told her mother that she wouldn't be joining us for meals, shows or excursions. She told Mandy that if she found herself a single man, with his own cabin, she would hesitate to move in with him, if he wanted her too. But if that failed, she would make sure she was in bed before her mother, so that she didn't have to talk to her.

"That kinda screws things up plans for you then, doesn't it?" asked Irene. I mean with Linda in the cabin before you, you could hardly take a man back there could you." Mandy just scowled at Irene, who apologised, half laughing.

If you ask me, the whole business between Linda and Mandy was quite juvenile. Mandy had a nice husband, who would have laid his life down for her. Yet she chose to leave him for someone who drank heavily, disliked Linda and was only interested in watching sports. Mandy told me once that he had quite a long cock and a pair of balls that a bull would have been proud of. Linda didn't like Ben, because he would try to catch a look at her as went in or out of the shower. She thought of him as creepy. Mandy turned a blind eye to Linda's accusations.

I guess you could say that Mandy was now between a rock and hard place and was looking for yet another way out. This cruise, which was supposed to be for my benefit, was beginning to look more like a Mother and Daughter cat fight.

Mandy didn't join us in the piano bar that evening. She said something about having to sort out getting money back for the excursions that Linda wasn't going on. So Irene and I took seats at the side of the piano and Adam welcomed us like old friends.

He played some songs that he had played the night before. But he also played new ones. There was a song he played that almost had me in bits. It was a song called "On A Bus To St. Cloud". The words of the song speak of a break up, just before things start to get interesting. But the words can also be taken ambiguously too. They could also be interpreted as be about a person who has lost someone to death. I had to leave the bar and gather myself together. I saw Adam's face as I left.

He looked worried.

I mouthed, "Sorry," and walked quickly out, aware that a lot of eyes were on me.

Irene, aware of what was happening, walked with me back to the cabin.

As I sat on the end of my bed, with Irene's arms around me for comfort, I blubbered,

"Shit! Why did he have to play that song?"

Irene tightened her grip around my shoulders and said, comfortingly,

"He doesn't know about you. He was just playing a song."

"I know," I replied through painful tears. "But he was looking right at me the whole time."

"Maybe he likes you," she replied. "You never know."

Day 3.

We were at sea all day, so we three ladies decided to treat ourselves. We booked spa treatments and then spent the rest of the day sunbathing. Mandy had another argument with Linda, after Mandy had not only cancelled all of Linda's excursions with us, but had stopped Linda from putting purchases on her credit card, forcing Linda to use her own card and money. I thought that was a little harsh and told Mandy, but she replied that it was about time that Linda took responsibilities for her actions.

As Linda and Mandy left the poolside to argue in private, Irene gave me a gentle dig in my ribs and nodded her to one side. Walking towards us, carrying a soft drink can, was Adam. I don't think that he had seen us because he almost walked passed when Irene called out to him.

He turned and smiled, greeting us with, "Ladies! How are you today?"

I found myself blushing as I looked into his eyes. He looked at me and his smile faded to a look of concern.

"Did I do something to upset you, last night?" he asked.

"Would you like to sit down?" asked Irene. "Here you can use my sun-bed. I need the bathroom."

He thanked Irene and sat next to me.

My heart was in my throat as he asked once again, what the matter was. So as hard as it was for me to explain, I told him the whole story about Glenn's passing. His look was one of genuine concern and he apologised profusely. I told him that it was okay as he wasn't to know.

The evening couldn't come fast enough. I was so looking forward to seeing Adam's show.

Irene was tired after all the sun and so went to bed early.

Mandy met me in the bar and we sat at the piano.

Adam was on good form. He used his music to lift the mood, bring it down. He could break your heart with love songs and made you laugh when he changed the words to other songs.

At one point he played a song called, "I Wanna Do It With You" and was looking straight at me while he sang. Mandy leaned over to me, while he was singing and whispered,

"I'd love to do it with him."

I was actually annoyed at what she said, but didn't show it. I was beginning to feel as though Adam was my own personal entertainer and she had to keep her hands off of him.

I went to sleep that night thinking about him, even though I hadn't really spoken to him, apart from the conversation by the pool, earlier. I had no real idea of who he was, or anything about him.

Still, that didn't stop me dreaming that we were on a deserted shore and he was playing a white grand piano, dressed in a loose fitting white shirt and slacks. The waves broke around his ankles as he played and sang and I sat on a stool in front of him. Like a scene from a movie, he got up from the piano and walked over to me. He picked me up off the stool and carried me to the shore line, He laid me on the damp sand and knelt over me. I could see the passion in his eyes. I could make out a rapidly growing lump in his white slacks. As I reached up to feel the lump, he lifted the hem of my dress up to my waist, revealing a pair of tiny white panties. I felt him caress my pussy through the thin material and it sent tiny shock waves throughout my body.

As I tried to open the buttons on his fly, he pressed his index finger against my clitoris and I exploded in an orgasm which seemed to rip through my body as a large wave crashed against the rocks.

I sat bolt upright in bed, eyes wide open...

DAY 4.

We were on our way in a bus around the greek island of Mykonos.

We visited churches and tiny fishing villages and ended the tour at a Greek cookie factory. It was all very nice, but my mind was elsewhere and Irene had noticed.

"You've been very quiet," she said as we perused yet another postcard stand, in yet another gift shop.

"Just had stuff on my mind," I replied.

"Glenn?"

I thought, should I lie or take her into my confidence?

"Promise you won't tell a soul, especially Mandy, if I tell you?"

Irene nodded silently.

"It's Adam," I began.

"The piano player?" she asked.

I nodded. "I dreamed about him last night. An erotic dream. Irene, I've never had an erotic dream before, in my life."

"Did you...you know...in your dream?" she asked, clearly not sure how to put the question.

"No," I replied. "I woke up as he was giving me an orgasm!"

Irene smiled, slyly. "It wasn't all bad then." She dug her elbow, playfully into my ribs.

"For some reason, I can't get him out of my mind," I said.

She just looked at me, wide eyed, expecting me to say more.

"I know it's stupid," I continued. "We're on holiday, he works on board and probably can't even talk to me beyond working in the bar. When we leave the ship, I won't ever see him again. But still he has had this affect on me."

"It's perfectly natural, Penny," she replied.

"A man is paying you some attention for the first time in a long while. Your brain is just trying to it work it out. That's why you had the dream. I shouldn't worry about it."

She was right, of course. But I still had butterflies in my stomach.

"For goodness sake, don't tell Mandy. She thinks he has the hots for her. She'd blow her top if she thinks I'm competition."

That night we all had dinner, but Irene had was very tired and retired to bed.

Mandy and I went to the bar to watch Adam perform.

He was as ever, in good voice and on form performing.

Mandy kept wriggling on her stool.

"What's the matter with you? I asked, irritated.

"His voice just turns me on. I am damp," she said with a sly smile.

Adam played three sets a night and Mandy wriggled through two of them. As he announced his break, she turned to me and said,

"I'm off to bed. I need to take care of this damp feeling."

I walked her to the bar entrance, gave her hug and then went to the ladies room.

When I came back, I didn't feel like sitting all by myself at the piano, so I sat at a table. Next to me, at another table, were a foreign couple, speaking in their own language and looking at me. The next thing I knew, the husband was standing next to me and asked if he and his wife could join me. They told me their names were Ole and Kari and that they came from Norway. They were a delightful couple and we had a nice conversation, while Adam tinkled and sang in the background.

As it was nearing the end of Adam's performance, Ole and Kari said goodnight to me, gave me a hug and left me alone with Adam.

He announced that he was going to play his final song and informed everyone in the bar that the nightclub was open til late and that he would return at nine pm the following night. Then he started to sing "Easy" by The Commodores and moved seamlessly into "Three Times A Lady". I'm afraid I was suddenly overwhelmed with memories of Glenn as it was his favourite song. I didn't even look at Adam as I got up to leave and I hurried back to my stateroom.