After we drove for a bit, Nocte finally stopped the car. As I looked out the window, I was confused since I saw no buildings… Instead, there was water, boats and a…. Pier?
“Ummm…” I mumbled out, as I turned my head in his direction.
“Food out at sea.” Nocte grinned back.
“I… What?”
“Oh right, it didn't actually occur to me… Do you get sea sickness?”
“No I do not, but are you being serious?”
Nocte cocked his head to the side. “Yes?”
With that passing comment, he got out of the car, but I still sat there, kind of baffled about all of this. Out of all the places that he could’ve taken me, I really did not expect any of this. But out to sea on a boat, right? Making sure I was right, I got out of the car and scanned the area for him. I spotted him quite quickly, since he stood out pretty well. I saw that he was talking to someone next to a large luxury yacht. Well, that must be the boat, right? Sighing to myself, I headed over and, as I did so, the person who Nocte was speaking to greeted me in quite good English.
“Greetings, you must be Lexi?”
“Umm…. Yes.”
The person in front of me was a small lady, but she wasn’t young and, if I had to guess, she was maybe in her seventies? Perhaps she was even in her late sixties.
“I might not look like it, but I will be your Captain.” She bowed ever so slightly. “Welcome aboard the Night Prince.”
“Oh…. Thank you.”
With another smile, she turned on her heel and walked onto the yacht. I used this time to look at this sea vessel. I had to admit, it was quite luxurious, the only times I ever saw one of these was in movies. But, given the name, Night Prince, I kinda expected it to be dark in colour. But it may be darker in colour on the inside. I mean that's how it worked, right?
“Ladies first.”
The sudden voice near me startled me. I actually forgot Nocte was standing with me, and I lost my balance a little. But he instantly grabbed my arm and steadied me.
“Today is the day you’re falling over everywhere, huh?”
“Hah, I’m just not used to your ways….”
“My ways? Hmm…. I just kinda have something to do on my yacht, and we can kill two birds with one stone this way.”
“....Your yacht?!”
Nocte only grinned at me as he let go of my arm and stepped onto the yacht. Honestly, I really shouldn’t be surprised that he WOULD have a yacht. He already had a big old house and his own private jet, so why wouldn’t he have a boat!? As I stepped onto the yacht, I trotted after him.
“Hang on!” I called out to him as he stopped walking and turned to look at me. “You said food, but food out at sea…. So does that mean that we are going out to sea? If so, then how long?”
“You really do ask a lot of questions…. But, if you really must know, this is both pleasure and work, and we should be back by tomorrow evening… Give or take.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to maybe mention it? We only just arrived!”
Nocte shrugged. “I did say that this trip was for work….”
“Oh… Well, yeah… You did say that…. But wait, I don’t even have spare clothes!”
“Ah, that is actually all taken care of. Come.” With a smile, he turned and beckoned me to follow him.
Still trying to process all this, I followed him and he led me up a small flight of stairs. As I got to the top of the stairs, I quickly noticed that the door to the room in front of me was open. There was what looked like an electric fire feature surrounding a thick pillar in the middle, and surrounding this pillar was a circular sofa. To the left of me, there was another set of sofas sitting in front of a TV. Even though it was all out in the open, with barely any walls, there were long windows that stretched out on either side. Given that this was Nocte’s personal luxury yacht, I half expected the interior to be black and red, instead it was kind of like a creamy chocolate and cream combination of colours. As I stood there taking everything in, Nocte walked on ahead.
“Are you coming or going to live on the top of the stairs for now?”
“Huh? Oh! Yes!”
As I finally trotted after him, he smiled as he carried on. As we walked through this long room, I then realised that we were standing in front of an actual door. I watched him as he pushed open the door, slightly ignoring the fact that I noticed some back muscles at work there and I eventually joined him as he walked in. As I did, my mouth flew open! I thought the room back at the house was gorgeous, but this was just…. something else. A large canopy bed was the first thing that I had to take in. I then realised that it was overlooking a huge set of French window doors. As I walked into the room, I could instantly feel comfort on my feet. Even with shoes on, I could feel the luxurious cream carpet. I knelt down to take the shoes off and I ran my hand through the carpet. It was from what I could guess a shaggy carpet, but it felt so good on my hands and now my toes. As I looked ahead behind the doors, I spotted something interesting. As I stood back up, and opened up the doors, I saw that the French doors opened out to a verada. There was a sitting area with what looked like a fancy fire pit right in front but, as I looked out further, I saw that it led to a pool and, beyond that, there was a white gazebo with, if I had to guess, a jacuzzi underneath it.
“This is your room, for our boating journey.” Nocte voice rang out above my head, and I spun round.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope.”
“You really don’t do things small, do you?”
“I like things big. It's a force of habit, I suppose….” He casually shrugged.
I blinked at him several times, and wondered to myself: 'he does hear himself talking, right?' That was when I noticed a wardrobe and, as I raised my hand, I pointed to it.
“I take it that my clothes are in there?”
As he turned around to see where I was pointing, he smiled. “Well, why not take a look?”
“Imma gonna do that.”
As I strolled over to the wardrobe, I swung the doors open, and, true enough, I saw that it was filled with clothes. As I went through some of them, I saw that they were all my size.
“Erm, they are all my size….”
“Because they are all Charlotte’s doing.”
As I closed the wardrobe, I was curious as to why there was just about enough clothes for two weeks in there, but I decided against asking about that. I was already aware that Charlotte really does tend to go overboard in her dressing up ways.
“Well, I’ll let you freshen up if you want and, when you're ready, meet me….” He pointed towards the doors that we originally came through. “Out there.” With another smile, he exited the room.
I was still a little bit lost… This time last year, I would never have expected myself to be standing where I’m standing with someone who I could describe as a Greek God. It's fitting really, considering where we were. If I climbed Mount Olympus, I’m sure I would find his statue somewhere. When I finally got some composure back, I checked the wardrobe again. I had already changed my outfit before but, for some reason, I had an urge to look more ‘formal’. As I pushed the clothes around to see what there was, something caught my eye and I took it out. It was a little backless black dress.
“This’ll do….” I said out loud as I walked over to the bed, laid it out and began to undress from my current outfit so that I could get into it.
As I looked at myself in the little black number, in the mirror, I realised that I kind of needed shoes to complete the look. As I headed back over to the wardrobe, I looked at the bottom of it. Just as I expected, there was a little pile of shoes. Something did catch my attention, and that was a pair of black suede sandals, with crystal straps.
“Oh, they're cute….” I said to myself as I bent down and took them out to examine them more. I then saw that they were even cuter the closer I got to them. “Yep, this will do.” Smiling to myself, I strapped them to my feet.
As I walked over to the full length mirror, I could not help thinking to myself that I was darn sexy right now. I felt powerful, I felt feminine, I felt good. With a little grin, I couldn’t help shifting my boobs a little more so that they looked even more defined than they already did. So, with newfound strength, I left the room and found Nocte again, sitting on the sofa with the TV. It was almost like he sensed me coming, as he turned his head.
“Suddenly I feel rather underdressed….”
“Oh…. You don’t need to change, I thought that I'd change into this because, well… I kinda felt like it?”
Nocte said nothing else, as he just continued to look at me. Somehow I felt rather bashful from it, and I hugged my arms.
“Do I look ok?”
That was when I saw his expression change, it was like his face was searching for something but after a short moment, he finally spoke. “You look lovely.”
This time, I smiled back at him, and he got up from the sofa. With a lean of his head, he gestured to me to follow him.
Nocte then led me towards the front of the yacht, and I saw that there was a little dining table for two, sitting under a little gazebo, with fairy lights hanging from it. It was pretty cute, honestly.
“Don’t mind dining with me, do you?” Nocte asked me as he gestured towards the table.
“Eh?”
“I don’t exactly bring company on this boat that isn’t anything ‘work’ related, so there is just this small table. I don't think you would like the proper table, as it seats like twenty. So I had to make do with this one. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Oh! Of course I don’t mind.”
“Excellent.” With a smile, he walked ahead and pulled out one of the chairs, and gestured again, with his head, for me to come over.
Huh…. Chivalry wasn't dead after all, huh? Smiling to myself, I sat down neatly in the chair that he held out for me, and he pushed me in. With that out of the way, he joined me on the other side. As I looked around, it then occurred to me that I haven’t exactly seen anyone else. Nocte just said that he doesn’t really keep company that isn’t work related, but surely there is someone else on this yacht, right?
“Where is everyone?” I asked him, being quite curious.
“You mean the crew? It's just the lady you met earlier, a couple of cooks and I do believe one maid.”
Such a small crew for a big yacht? Well, he did say that they weren't going to be out to sea that long, so maybe it didn’t need so many people? As I pondered this, the yacht started to come to life, and began to move.
“Ah, I wondered when she was going to plan to leave….” Nocte said out loud as he scratched his cheek.
Paying him no mind, I picked up what I guessed was the menu in front of me. As I quickly glanced over it, I thought to myself: was all of these available? As I continued looking over my menu, I thought I should ask the host himself.
“Are all of these available?”
“You mean on the menu?” He pointed to what I was holding. “Yes.”
“Oh, great.”
Well, that was a load off my mind, and I looked back at it again. Whilst I did that, a man in cooking attire came over, carrying a notepad. He then stood near us as he clicked the pen to life.
“Ready to order?”
The perfect English surprised me, but I did catch a slight bit of southern American in his speech.
“I am.” Nocte announced, and he looked straight at me. “Are you?”
“Oh….” I looked back at the menu. “Can I start with the soup?” I looked at the man as he started to jot it down. “I happened to be starving and a three course meal is what I’m probably going to have.” I chuckled lightly.
“A good portion is always heavy, Miss.” He smiled back at me.
“I’ll have the same.” Nocte added in and the man jotted that down too.
“Of course…. Any drinks?”
Nocte cocked his head, and looked right at me, it seemed like he was expecting me to answer this one.
“Oh, errr sparkling wine?”
“As you wish, miss.”
With that, the man leaves, heading through a door I didn’t notice before.
“are you sure you can handle the wine?” Nocte asked me as he leaned on his hands as he leaned forward.
“Oh, come on….” I huffed. “I got drunk one time, ONE time and you still hold it against me?”
As I glared at him, he just said nothing and grins. As I folded my arms and leaned back on my chair, I couldn’t help pouting slightly. As I heard him chuckle, it made me side eye him as the man from earlier came towards our table again, this time with the wine that I ordered, and he filled up both our glasses.
“Leave the bottle in the ice bucket.” Nocte told him.
“Of course. Let me know if you require another bottle.” With a bow, he leaves through that same door again.
I made the point of not looking at the man in front of me after his comment about the incident, and I saw that we were most definitely on the move.
“So where exactly are we going on this?”
“Not far, really. This girl isn’t actually built for major oceans, but we can be docked quite far out without any hassle.”
“Ahh, I see..” I finally turned to face him and raised my eyebrow. “And, by the way, as your assistant, I do need to know what this is all for.”
For a moment, he looked a bit shocked at my sudden demand, but it disappeared and he smiled.
“Feeling bossy today, huh? The sand you ate must’ve boggled your senses.”
“Uh huh….” I faked staring at my nails.
“Well, to some degree, I don’t mind them being bossy. Well, only ONE person but..” He coughed. “Anyway, I suppose what you say is true.”
I stopped looking at my nails, and looked at him. I was somewhat curious by his first comment, but I didn’t want to press the issue. “So?” I decided to go back to our original conversation.
“A few months ago….” Nocte begins to explain. “We released a dolphin in the waters that we are going to, and…. Well… I wanted to see how he’s doing.”
“You think he’s still here?”
“He should be, he was tagged to keep track of him. So this is just an update, really.”
“Oh, I see. Is there a story about him?”
“As a matter of fact, there is. He was caught in a fisherman's net and, as he tried to escape, he wounded himself quite badly. So we took him in for him to recover and, when he was back to fighting spirit, we released him here, FAR away from where they do fishing. Honestly, we are still confused as to why he even appeared in the fishing waters. There hasn't been a sighting of a dolphin there for years, so he was the first. It would be nice to be able to speak to him but, alas, I do not possess that ability. The one who does? Well, getting him to do anything, if your name isn’t 'Lucille', is like getting blood out of a stone.”
“Oh? Do you know someone who can understand animal behaviour?”
“Well, more or less… He’s a hard person to work with. Kinda grumpy, kinda smug and also kinda adorable, so that balances it out.”
I blinked at him several times as he mentioned that. I was about to ask him something else, but the man from before appeared again and served us the soups, with a basket of bread rolls. I thanked the man and he left again. As I picked up my spoon, I saw Nocte staring at the soup.
“Is there something the matter?”
“It didn’t actually occur to me to ask what the soup was….” As he picked up his own spoon, he started to swirl the liquid around.
In truth, I didn’t ask either. When I ordered it, the soup just said:
Chef’s Special
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