Shooting Fantasies

By Scott Dodgson

The trouble with male fantasies is they sometimes come true. Four beautiful woman, a yacht, a captian, under the Sicilian moon, what could go wrong?
I led Laura and her friends back to my boat. Laura took charge of getting the girls settled while I fixed dinner. She made the perfunctory announcements about “No Tampons in the toilets” “Conserve water” “Stow your belongs well so they don’t fly around when we sail” etc. They decided to take showers before dinner. The girls were forward in two state rooms. Laura breezed past me into the master suite seemingly happy to be home. She offered to help cook dinner. I told her I was making something simple and for her to relax. She disappeared to take a shower. I made a mixed green salad with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and spring onions. I put a dollop pickled zucchini relish I bought in the Vaccarro market in Palermo and a second dollop pickled mushrooms. I prepared a selection of local cheeses on a separate breadboard and sliced a fresh baguette for the bread basket. I couldn’t help but think I was preparing a meal of seduction. The main course would be grilled swordfish and sweet potatoes sautéed in butter and brown sugar then flambéed with sweet banana rum I brought from the Caribbean. I decanted my “Geo” wine into a clay pitcher and set the table outside in the cockpit. With the table leaves open I could comfortable seat eight grownups, ten in a pinch. A note to those struggling to find the right lighting for their cockpit table: Take a cheap straw hat string a 12volt light into the top a run the wire to your power supply on your helm. It is cheap and casts a nice romantic light over the table. The first to emerge from her cabin was Nancy. She was a high school friend from North Dakota and a full blooded Sioux Indian. This was her first experience on a boat and was in desperate need of fresh air. I offered her a glass of wine and directed her to the cockpit table outside to gather herself. She was worried about getting sea sick as she felt the boat was moving. I explained sea sickness is normal for most people. The inner ear and the eye play tricks on your system. I offered her a ginger cookie to help settle the imbalance. When we sail I would give her all the motion sickness products, patches, pills and wrist bands, but ginger was the best along with getting used to the motion. She would be fine. The second person to emerge from her cabin was Beth. She was a paralegal from LA. She was a very pretty girl in her early twenties. I offered her a glass of wine, while she complimented me on my yacht, the shower and the surprising luxury of the vessel. I got the very real sense she was coming on to me when she asked about becoming crew. The third person to emerge was Val. She was a law student from Canada that the girls had joined in their back packing trek through Europe. She was beautiful, funny and very smart. I will admit the longer I’m alive the less I think I know about women especially what turns them on, but there is a certain strange and wonderful transformation that takes place in otherwise prudent women that unleashes their sexuality. Is it the combination of freedom and comfort of the yacht or is it the tactile senses of the boat’s motion and power under the wind overwhelming them? I don’t know, but Val exuded an unbridled sexual energy that I thought she would burst. When she went upstairs I went into the owner’s suite to check on Laura. I found her lying on the bed naked and still wet from her shower sound to sleep. I kissed her and asked if she wanted to join us for dinner. She opened her eyes and smiled. I could see in her eyes she wanted to talk seriously, but the laughter of the girls upstairs broke the moment. I had the stabbing feeling that she was afraid of breaking my heart and upstairs sat her replacement.