Taken (Dark Desires 1)

For the rest of the way there he decided not to pry anymore, instead allowing her to pick his brain about some of the places he had been and what he got up to out on the ocean. Again, such a line of questioning made everything seem all very easy, because he knew his responses would inevitably be so impressive. Even a girl who wasn’t into him would have to consider being so in order to put her feet up and sail out on a luxury yacht every weekend.

It was a good job his work / hobby was so impressive because, as he had indeed predicted, his bowling was not. Kurt supposed he would at least beat Darlene – and she was not particularly good – but that was not what happened. Admittedly he had not been on a bowling alley for a while, but when he used to occasionally head there with friends he had been good enough to p

ick up one or two strikes. Instead almost every ball he sent down there veered off to the right and he was at a loss to say why he had suddenly become so bad.

‘I feel like my right arm must have been knocked out of line and I haven’t noticed,’ he said to Darlene, as they neared the end of their second attempt to build up something like a score.

‘It must be the gentleman within you, letting me win,’ she replied, quite a way off the mark herself though her aim with the bowling ball was better. For sure, watching Darlene go back and forth as she practised her technique was inspiring quite the opposite to gentlemanly thoughts within him. The way her curves approached the task was certainly distracting more fellow bowlers than he alone. So much so that he decided that must be why his aim was so bad – the ten-pins down the end of the lane were not really what his aim was focused on, but another score entirely.

Playing bad was no loss, after all, especially after Darlene changed the subject and said ‘You know, I think I’d love to be out on the open ocean like you someday. Sounds dreamy!’

Picking up a date without an alternative plan was not really something a man like Kurt would ever consider. It was a devious and convenient ploy to have, but he would have thought a guy who failed to take advantage of it a bit dense.

Why else was it so easy to shrug his shoulders and say ‘fine’ when Darlene turned up her nose at a fancy restaurant? The fact that their date kicked off in some dive of a bowling alley did not matter when you had a luxury yacht or two just a short walk away to make up for it. Of-course Kurt had made sure that a vessel was available for his use and that one just happened to be Arial.

‘Why wait for some day?’ Kurt replied to Darlene’s speculation. ‘If it’s something that you’d like then we can make it happen now.’

‘If it’s something you would like’, he had said, as if it could possibly fail in sweeping a girl off her feet. In this, he would have to admit, he had Mr Clive Furse to thank. Though Darlene would have been on numerous ocean voyages when her parents had taken advantage of the fleet themselves and taken her on holiday, the reality was that they had always been family affairs. She had never been out on the ocean with friends, or with a date for that matter – and so the idea was still exotic to her.

‘What do you mean?’ she asked, showing genuine surprise at the idea. ‘You can’t be taking out the company’s yachts.’

‘What do you mean, Darlene?’ he replied. ‘Of course I can.’

‘You… you can’t do that?’

‘I can.’

‘How?’

‘Darlene, if there’s one person who’s able to take the yachts out whenever he likes it’s the guy whose job it is to maintain them. Unless you think there’s someone else around here who would do a better job?’

‘But what about fuel and stuff?’

‘Where are you expecting me to take you? Hawaii?’ he said, laughing as he deliberately misunderstood.

‘No, it’s just… isn’t everything audited?’

In your dad’s world, he nearly found himself replying.

‘Sure, but there’s always a bit of leeway,’ he explained. ‘Part of maintaining the fleet means taking them out for test runs every now and then. If you think you’ll enjoy it why don’t we head on out there now?’

Darlene remained in protest for a bit longer, pulling a face that suggested they would be doing something naughty. That only encouraged him more; there are few things that turn a guy on more than being able to demonstrate to a lady how free his lifestyle is.

‘Come on,’ he said, after she had been wavering for a while and just needed a bit of a push. ‘If we get out there in the next 40 minutes we’ll be able to watch the sunset. Always beautiful to see.’

Sporting a furrowed brow, undoubtedly the whole idea of being out on the ocean remained surreal to Darlene. She allowed her to lead him nevertheless; that was all that mattered.

After getting hold of some takeaway fries and a milkshake, they were soon trotting off down the harbor, chatting away about some of the memories they had of being at sea. Kurt found that Darlene had become steadily easier to speak to all evening and sensed that she was relaxing in his company. That was probably a significant step considering she had very little experience of coercing with the opposite sex, and the idea that his invitation was helping her to come out of her shell somewhat was a pleasing one. Even though it came via an ulterior motive, it felt good – for some reason.

As usual the harbor was fairly busy. Lots of people licking ice creams and eating donuts while, for a most part, the yachts were largely coming in rather than setting out. Experienced as he was, however, Kurt knew where the best spots were to avoid any incoming traffic. While also knowing that, as long as conditions were favourable, and there were no clusters of islands to look out for, manning a vessel is actually easier at night so long as everyone remembers to turn their lights on. That was only because he knew what he was doing – and he was looking forward to impressing Darlene by showing her how capable he was.

‘Here’s the one for us,’ he announced, much to his date’s surprise as they came upon Arial.

‘This one? You’re joking, aren’t you?’ she asked, genuinely astounded. He could tell what she was thinking; this yacht is far too big and impressive for just the two of us.

Exactly!

‘Or we can go find a bigger one, if you like,’ he feigned, pretending to misunderstand again.