Talent Spotting

The quickening rise and fall of her breasts was almost hypnotic but she must have sensed something. She suddenly froze and then reached for the light in a panic.

"Shit! It's you!"

Her immediate shock gave way to indignation as she tried to cover herself with a sheet.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"I'm sorry. It was just this second. The door was unlocked."

The angry frown on her face dissolved and she started to laugh.

"Stupid of me not to lock it. I thought that you weren't coming back this evening and I was so fucking horny."

I knew exactly what she meant. The shared cabin afforded little in the way of privacy and, in her place, I might have done the same thing.

For a few seconds there was an awkward silence between us and I tried to fill it.

"How did the gig go?"

"It was shit, frankly. You didn't miss much. The amplification was crap and the audience couldn't give a toss."

The expletives, delivered in her cut glass English accent, never failed to amuse me. She was a classically trained flautist but, in an act of rebellion against her parents, she had taken up the drums and followed the rock and roll lifestyle.

As a drummer she was a good flautist. She was technically proficient but lacked a style of her own. I had no doubt that Roxy had brought her on board more for her looks than her abilities. With her impeccably bobbed hairstyle and her large brown eyes surmounting a pixie nose and Clara Bow lips she had attracted her own loyal following.

After another uncomfortable pause she framed the question she really wanted to ask.

"How are you?"

She asked it with genuine concern but she could not begin to understand what I had been through. She knew, as we all did, that Hannah was a lesbian and Roxy had warned us that she had a reputation, even with straight women, but she told us to just play along with it and keep her sweet for the time being.

"I'm okay...But why should you think that I wasn't coming back?"

She hesitated and could not meet my eyes. When she did she was clearly embarrassed.

"Roxy told us that you were bi-curious. She thought that you and Hannah had some sort of understanding."

For a moment I was too appalled to reply. It was not just that Roxy should say such a thing but more the fact that she was believed. What made it worse was the idea that I would choose Hannah to satisfy my 'curiosity'.

Sophie was studying my face but her own expression remained apprehensive. She shifted uneasily on the bed and, in so doing, she ruffled the sheet revealing the length of her leg.

My eyes followed the movement, flitting to the smoothness of her toned thigh, and then back to her face. In that insignificant sliver of time something changed.

She held my stare more assuredly and, in the periphery of my vision, I noted that she had allowed the sheet to slip just a little more. It took a moment to understand that she was daring me to look.

The realization was so startling that I found myself holding my breath as my thoughts tumbled over one another. She seemed somehow empowered and, as if to test this new authority, she slowly pulled the sheet away from her legs altogether.

The slightest of smiles touched her lips as she watched me struggle. The urge to look down almost overcame me and I was suddenly very conscious of my tired tongue.

Sensing victory she dropped her hand and the sheet fell from her body. Still I held her gaze but, with an almost imperceptible straightening of her shoulders, she jutted her breasts with an immodest arrogance.

We were of a similar build, and probably within a cup size of one another, but her nipples were rounder and so much darker.

In the next few seconds it seemed as if the air was being sucked from the room and the walls were closing in on me. I wanted to run, to cleanse myself, but I remained rooted to the spot as I fought down a deviant desire.

I had always thought of Sophie as the band's moral compass. Casual sex was part and parcel of life on the road but, to the best of my knowledge, she had remained faithful to her boyfriend.

I was now seeing a different side to her. She seemed more aligned to the suddenly altered dynamic of our relationship and now she was using it to her own advantage.

The tension was becoming unbearable but she let it build until it was almost physically painful. The resultant shock was then all the greater when, with an eerie calm, she insouciantly parted her legs.

This time there was no resistance as my eyes fell to the soft sculpted triangle that defined her sex. At its heart was a vivid pink slash and, as I watched, she traced it with her finger.

"I was so nearly there...will you help me?"

There was a sultry edge to her voice that I had never heard before and I felt my knees threatening to buckle. I moved towards her in a daze and before I lost courage I cupped her sex with my hand.

Its silkiness felt so natural, so right for her, but it contrasted with a primal heat and wetness. I could not say why but I felt an almost desperate need to kiss her. I brought my mouth closer to hers but, as I closed my eyes, she pressed an admonishing finger to my lips.

I opened my eyes in surprise but her finger kept me shushed to silence as she spoke.

"That's not what I want... Kneel down, I'm going to come in your mouth."

I never like being told what to do but the casually indifferent tone and the absolute certainty, on her part, that I would comply threw me off balance. She moved her hand to my shoulder and I barely resisted as she encouraged me to kneel.

I felt numb but this suited her purposes as she fulfilled her own desires. Her fingers found the nape of my neck and she pulled me in tipping my head back a little as she did so.

I resisted, or so I thought, but she manipulated me all too easily. She shifted forward a little on the bed until my chin was trapped beneath her.

The dampness that I felt was accompanied by her strong scent. A memory of Hannah flashed to mind but I perceived a subtle difference. I could not say why but, in some way, Sophie exuded youthfulness.

With one hand still cradling my head, holding me just so, she brought her fingers to her sex and began to knead herself with a growing urgency.

I wanted to close my eyes, to pretend that I had not acceded to this, but she was looking down at me with the fierce intensity of a Medusa and I was transfixed.

"Oh God...here it comes..."

There was no subtlety as she pushed two fingers deep inside and began to piston them with the squelch of moisture.

I knew what was about to happen, and knew equally that I could have avoided my fate, but I remained there mutely, with my mouth wide open.

She was breathing quickly, sharp, shallow, breaths and then she gave an almost silent scream. A gout of moisture anointed my forehead but then she took control. Her body stiffened but she held herself open directing the subsequent surge straight into my mouth.

"You beautiful bitch!...Swallow it."

I had little choice. It was not a copious offering but she wrung out every last drop as my degradation served to increase her excitement.

At the finish she slumped back onto the bed leaving me completely ignored and I slunk away to the bathroom.

I could not meet my own eyes in the mirror as I washed my face and brushed my teeth until my gums were sore. I changed into my sleep attire, a tee shirt and shorts that I had left hanging behind the bathroom door, and then crept back into the cabin.

She was curled up under her quilt and I thought that she was asleep but as I reached the centre of the floor she pulled her cover a little to one side.

"Take them off."

Her voice was invitingly husky and a glimpse at her breasts revealed the excitement of her nipples.

I just wanted to reach the sanctuary of my own bed, to hide myself away, but there was something else. I was desperate to grant myself the relief that I had been denied for too many hours.

Somehow, that thought became transmuted and I suddenly dared to entertain the prospect of Sophie returning the favour. There was lust in her eyes and my heart began to trip a little faster.

Before I could change my mind I stripped off and slid in beside her. She was hot, and her skin felt a little clammy, but I hardly noticed as I surrendered to her soft femininity.

I was keenly aware of the smoothness of her skin, the gentle curve of her hip and when our breasts touched it felt as if a current was flowing between us. The firmness of her nipples as they played against mine prompted a sympathetic engorgement and I was desperate to meld my sex to the heat of hers.

I looked to her for a lead and the blue of her eyes was almost lost to the dilated blackness of her pupils. She pecked a fleeting kiss on my lips and I immediately wanted more.

I moved over her to bring our mouths together but she slid beneath me. Anticipating the wetness of her tongue I was confronted, instead, by the pert texture of her nipple.

I was unsure what to do but the steady pressure against my lips stirred some long buried instinct. I parted them in acceptance and was surprised by a hint of saltiness. It passed quickly and my tongue began a hesitant exploration.

The teat itself, taut and unyielding, felt much larger in my mouth than I knew it to be but I was fascinated by the heavily dimpled texture of her areola. I could feel her skin reacting to my touch.

She arched her back a little, and knowing what I enjoyed myself, I sucked gently and took the sensitive tip between my teeth. I nipped at her tenderly, eliciting a appreciative groan, and enjoying the momentary illusion of being in control.

I continued to play for a while, lost in the curious experience of finding myself on the other side of the fence, but I still felt the urge to kiss her. I needed the assurance that we had formed a bond of intimacy.

I lifted myself away from her but her eyes were closed offering no clues. I decided to seize the initiative. I rolled over her to place my legs between hers and awaited her reaction.

My heart almost stopped as my sex touched hers and she lifted her hips to meet me but, in a single movement, she slipped away from me.

It was all enacted so deftly. Bracing herself on my shoulders she moved a few inches further up in the bed whilst at the same time easing me downwards. My surprise at finding my face between her legs once more was compounded by the smothering darkness of the quilt as she flipped it over me.

I was enveloped in the fug of warm bedding but it was quickly overpowered by her natural scent which was densely concentrated in the close confines. Several adjectives came to mind, amongst them greedy and inconsiderate, but I was being driven by a totally irrational impulse.

I fell upon her sex spearing my tongue deep inside. This time there was no delicacy. I plunged as deeply as I could and my face seemed buried in the wetness of her sex. I began to moan as I sucked at her.

She was undisturbed by my feral behaviour and I felt her arms pressing down through the quilt, either side of my head, keeping me in place.

Time stood still and my hunger made me heedless of my growing discomfort.

I was getting hotter by the moment and I could feel beads of perspiration prickling my forehead.

She too was feeling the heat and her thighs felt slick but she was able to enjoy the benefit of the cabin's cool air.

I regained a modicum of self control but, as I tried to break from her, she clasped her hands at the back of my head and pushed me back down.

I was desperate for a breath of untainted air but she was very close and I could almost sense her beseeching me.

In an effort to bring things quickly to a close I sought blindly for her clitoris and it took very little more before she melted into a second shuddering climax.

I stayed with her as the final pleasurable spasms ebbed away and then she raised her knees allowing a merciful draft of fresh air to relieve the sexual furnace in which I was trapped.

I was suddenly overcome by a heavy torpor and I remained where I was for a moment or two happy in the knowledge that it was now my turn. I actually shivered in anticipation as I slipped out at the foot of the bed but my heart sank when a single soft snore confirmed that Sophie had fallen sound asleep.

Chapter 4

The next morning Sophie acted as if nothing had happened leaving me totally off balance; if I could have hidden myself away I would have done so but we were still twenty-four hours from New York.

I breakfasted alone and then ensconced myself in front of a PC in the business suite figuring that I would not be bothered there. Not for the first time I began to research Hannah and her management company.

When she had first approached us the others were exultant and with good reason. She had a track record of taking underachieving UK bands and breaking them in the US. I alone was sceptical. To my way of looking at things she majored too much on the 'look' of a band.

We now owned our master tapes and my vote was to try and do a deal with a UK label but when the others saw the numbers, including an offer to clear my personal debt, I was outvoted. The clincher was the offer of an immediate trip to New York and a fourteen date club tour.

Only later did I begin to realize the implications of the small print. All of my songs on the album were assigned to Hannah's publishing company to which I was tied for the next three years. On the face of it the deal was lucrative but, if the band folded, I could not make a move without Hannah's say so.

I idled away the rest of the day. I swam, lunched by myself, and watched a film in the ship's cinema. Eventually I returned to the cabin. Sophie was not there and I felt an odd mix of relief and disappointment. She had left a hastily scribbled note on the table.

"Rehearsal at 5. Hannah wants to see you in her cabin asap. Join us soon as you can."

My heart sank on reading it; I knew that Hannah had no intention of allowing me to rehearse. I read the note again, took a deep breath, and steeled myself. I was going to stand my ground and damn the consequences.

At the entrance to her cabin I stabbed at the bell before my resolve wavered but, as the door opened, my heart began to race.

Hannah had undergone something of a transformation. She had had her hair restyled so that it lay in soft, heavy, curls and, in keeping with this more natural appearance, she had toned down her usually garish makeup.

"Like the new look?"

Good manners unthinkingly made me answer in the affirmative but the truth was it suited her. It did not make her look any younger but in discarding the image of a hard edged business woman she revealed a hidden sensuousness.

"I thought it was time for a change and I don't seem to find the time to treat myself when I'm back home"

As she spoke she invited me into the room and I was lulled by the hint of confidentiality in her tone. I began to hope that she had recognized the immorality of her mistreatment of me but I was quickly disabused.

She stood in the centre of the room and proceeded to divest herself of her heavy towelling gown to reveal a diaphanous three quarter length nightdress. For some reason the barrier of the filmy fabric had more of an effect on me than had she been completely naked.

My eyes dropped to her chest. One dark nipple was already engorged and thrust proudly against the veil whilst its twin remained coyly concealed. I followed the drape of the gown noting how it softened the curve of her hips and masked the slight heaviness of her thighs bringing the focus to her shapely calves.

The whole survey was over in an instant but, as my eyes returned to hers it was to find a knowing glint of conquest. I wanted to rail against her but my mouth felt suddenly very dry.

She held my stare for a second or two and then cast a glance at the bedside table. There, neatly rolled, were the webbing straps that she had used the night before.

The sight of them broke the spell but she spoke first.

"I hope that I won't need them again...although they do have other uses...but I don't think you're quite ready for that just yet."

She had a knack of throwing me off kilter and her remarks set my mind racing. I had no idea to what she was referring except that she seemed to believe that I would now become a willing participant.

The idea was as presumptuous as it was odious but I remained spellbound as she slowly loosened the series of tiny silk bows that held her gown together at the front.

The sheer material slowly parted and was only held in place by the splendour of her ample breasts and the image that came to mind was that of a magnificent Valkyrie.

"Come here..."

She spoke the words quietly but with an edge of authority and I determined to defy her. I wanted to storm from the room, slamming the door behind me, but my body refused to respond.

She waited patiently, as if amused by my inner struggle, but then she closed her net. Holding my stare she slowing ran the tip of her tongue over her top lip. It was contrived, clichéd, but I felt my stomach lurch.

I felt an urge to kiss her glistening mouth but in my fevered state it was almost instantly translated into a twisted desire to engage in an altogether more intimate coupling.

For a few seconds I did not breathe as the shock of this registered and I felt a little faint. I went down to one knee and then two but still felt enfeebled and I accepted, without thought, the support she now offered.

She held me to her, stroking my hair, and only slowly did her voice filter through. I felt the warmth of her stomach against my cheek but she was gently coaxing me downwards.

"Show me what you've learned..."

I was incapable of self determination as she presented her sex to my face. Unhurriedly, and with total assurance, she delicately chafed herself against my features. She radiated a sultry heat on which was borne up her potent scent with all its promise.

I opened my mouth a little telling myself that I simply needed to breathe regularly and to get a grip on myself but, deep down, I recognized my own self deception.

My greedy tongue was poised when the bubble of the private universe that bounded us was suddenly burst.

For a few moments all worldly sounds, save her voice and the gentle susurration of our physical contact, had been lost to me but the unmistakable noise of the cabin door penetrated like a knife.

Her grip on my head instantly became vice-like but she made no move to cover herself. For my part I was mortified when I heard the unmistakable Minnesotan tones of Laurel, Hannah's young personal assistant.

"We have a problem with the rehearsal."

Hannah replied with just the tiniest hint of irritation.

"Can't you sort it?"

"They're arguing amongst themselves but I saw Ted Beamish listening in at the back of the hall.

Hannah paused as she deliberated but my own thoughts turned to the young woman from Minneapolis. She was acting perfectly normally as though the sight she beheld was nothing out of the ordinary.

I forlornly hoped that she had not recognized me, with my back turned to her, but common sense told me that she knew exactly who it was abasing herself on her knees.

Making an instant decision Hannah turned from me and picked up her robe. "Get back there and calm them down. We'll be there in five."

Laurel left, closing the door behind her, and I was glad that she had not seen my face which, at that moment, was glowing crimson. As I rose to my feet, trying to restore a semblance of normality, Hannah spoke tersely.

"Go and fetch whatever you need and meet me downstairs."

One hundred and one thoughts vied for attention in my fevered mind as I quickly returned to the cabin to collect my guitar but, prominent amongst them, was a minor feeling of triumph which came from knowing that Hannah needed me to bail out the rehearsal session.