Cockatoo Part 1

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Cockatoo Part 1CockatooNikkie SilkIt’s a cliché, isn’t it? Man comes home early and finds his wife in bedwith someone else. Only slightly less of a cliché in my case, as the‘someone else’ was my wife’s closest girlfriend – closest in every senseof the word.It was a quick divorce; no k**s, only a rented flat, so the onlysquabbles were about books and cds. In the end I told her to keep thelot. I wanted to make it a clean break. I managed to fit all I ownedinto the boot of my small car. I was 28 years old, fit, healthy and witha good but frankly boring job in a software company just outsideCambridge in the UK’s version of Silicon Valley. My parents had bothpassed away some years earlier so I had no ties in the UK anymore.It was time for a change.As it happened the firm had just won a contract with a globalpharmaceutical company to become their principal software partner. ThePharma company had built a new production facility in Bangkok and neededa software developer to go out there for six months to sort out theprogramming mess their previous partner had made. I was totally boredwith my life in the UK and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Ithought I was well qualified to take on the role so I talked to my bosswho put me forward, and to my total surprise I was asked to go.Having heard I was going to Bangkok my male friends congratulated me andtold me that I was a lucky dog, and that it was surely the place to getover the divorce. One older guy said to me quietly that if I couldn’tbe good, than I should at least be careful out there. I smiled as it’san old and fairly lame joke, after all. He said that he was serious andthat I should be careful. I asked him what he meant. He said with awistful look on his face, remember not all the girls there are what theyseem. A beautiful looking girl in Bangkok might come with somethingextra, he said. Look at the size of their hands he warned, probably theonly thing a ladyboy can’t change. I had heard about ladyboys of course,but I had no intentions of getting involved with them and told him so.He smiled and said, never say never. Now curious, I asked him ‘Have youever, you know…’ He winked, said Good luck, it’s a fabulous city andmoved off.It took me only a few days to clear up things in the UK, and a weeklater I was landing at Suvarnabhumi airport. Look, if you haven’t beento Bangkok, let me tell you it is a complete assault on the senses. Ihad never seen, felt or smelt anything like it. The people, heat,colours, food, smells and sights of this city are just extraordinary;especially for a guy who’s most daring trip had been to Majorca. It isalso, of course, the world’s biggest traffic jam. Traffic in the city isimpossible, but the new Skytrain system has at least made a smalldifference. The company had booked an apartment for me in a buildingclose to Taksin Bridge on the Chao Praya River. I even had a small viewof the river from the apartment’s balcony if I leant out far enough. The Chao Praya is the pulsating main artery of Bangkok and it’sgenerally the easiest and most entertaining way to get about in Bangkok.The water buses vie for space with each other as well as the very fastlong tail boats that race up and down the river. Throw in the hotelboats, the huge barges, restaurant boats and other craft and it makesfor a very exciting ride on the river. Luckily, the office where I wasto work was only a short river bus ride to the Saphan Taksin Skytrainstation and then a few stops into Bangkok.The job itself was complex but once I got it broken down into separatetasks it wasn’t too difficult. To begin with it took long hours to dothe analysis and planning. It had been left in a horrible mess, butgradually a plan emerged. This was quickly approved and I could beginthe development phase. People in the client’s office were wary of me atfirst but once they could see I was making progress, they becamefriendlier. I was taken out a few times to dinner in some wonderfulrestaurants that I am sure tourists would not have found. I grew to loveThai food and I basically ate out most of the time. Being a kitchensalesman in Bangkok must be like selling sand to the Saudis, as mostThais seem to eat out on the street more often than not. Once my projecthad been approved and development work began I had some more free timeto explore the city. It’s a beautiful and energetic city and the Thaipeople are generally friendly and welcoming.All was going well at work and I had begun to feel more at ease withBangkok and Thai culture. Then, out of the blue, I received an emailfrom a friend from back home who was going to be passing through Bangkokon his way to his brother’s wedding in Phuket. His flights meant he hada one night stop-over in Bangkok and he asked if he if he could staywith me for a night instead of shelling out for a hotel. The apartmenthad two bedrooms so I agreed and looked forward to some company andgossip from back home.It was good to see a friendly face and it allowed me to catch up. Itseems my ex had moved in with her girlfriend but it had ended badly andthey had split up. She now claimed she had just been experimenting andwas telling everyone it had all been a mistake and she should never havelet me go. Robbie asked if there was any chance of reconciliation. Sameas a snowball’s chance in hell, I replied. He laughed and said she hadasked him to sound me out, and that he hoped I hadn’t minded him asking.I told him I didn’t mind in the slightest; the ashes of that fire werestone cold.He had brought a bottle of good Scotch as a present and after we hadpolished off most of that he said he wanted to explore Bangkok’sred-light areas. So, already a bit loaded, the two of us went on a tourof what Bangkok at night has to offer. It’s said that per capita the sexindustry in Thailand is smaller than that of Taiwan or the Philippines.It is, however, pretty much in your face. Patpong, Soi Cowboy and NanaPlaza between them offer pretty much every sexual service you have heardof, a few you probably haven’t and some you wouldn’t even want to thinkabout. I had been taken on an ‘orientation tour’ by a western colleagueearly on and I had seen things there that would send a good Catholic boystraight to hell. Luckily, I’m a lapsed Catholic; but as they say, oncea Catholic, always a Catholic.We managed to do the rounds of go-go bars, getting even more loaded aswe went. We even found an Irish bar and played some pool with the girlsthere. I fancied myself as a pool player but got shot down in flames bya tiny Thai girl. It certainly didn’t help my concentration when shebent over in front of me to play a shot. Or when I was taking a shotthat she leant on the other side of the table where I could get a facefull of her ample breasts in a very tight t-shirt.I had seen some of this before but even so there were some things thatwere new to me. We were pretty trashed towards the end of the eveningwhen Robbie suddenly said he couldn’t leave Bangkok without seeing someLadyboys. kathoeys, I told him, that’s what they are called here. Don’tcare what they’re called, he slurred, let’s go see some. We were in SoiCowboy by this time and I knew there would be a kathoey bar somewherethere. Eventually we found our way to a small bar called Cockatoo; Iguess I was too drunk to get the double meaning of the name that night.Outside there were a couple of girls trying to get people to go inside.Well, they did look like girls, very pretty and dressed as any bar girlwould be – in other words, in very little. We hesitated outside, both ofus, I think, a little nervous about going in. In the end, Robbie pushedme and I almost fell into the bar. It was small and loud inside with theusual disco ball lighting. There was a small dance stage along themiddle with seats and small tables along each side. On the stage were anumber of girls dancing and a few guys sat to each side of the stagewatching. Even in my slightly intoxicated state I did realise theyweren’t really girls, but some of them I would defy anyone to tell thatthey weren’t genuine girls.The Mamasan came over and found us seats on one side of the stage and weordered beers. From where we sat we were only a few feet away from thedancers. Some were dressed in very tight hot pants and crop tops andsome in bikinis. There were some with a bulge where you might expect butothers looked so smooth down there I swear they had to be real girls.Robbie nudged me and grinned, and before I could stop him he had wavedtwo of the girls across to sit with us. The two stepped down from thestage and sat next to us. I had to scoot up a bit to make room for theone next to me and she smiled and asked me what my name was in prettygood English. I told her James, and she said her name was Pao. She saidJames a few times to get her tongue around it and asked if I would buyher a drink and I waved the Mamasan across to order a ladydrink for thetwo girls. Pao cuddled up close and immediately put her hand on mythigh. She giggled and said I was a handsome man. She was wearing abikini with the top just big enough to cover her small breasts. Thebottom part was fairly skimpy and nothing seemed out of place there. Shehad brown hair falling down over her shoulders with lovely hazel eyesand I thought she was really very pretty. Robbie by this time washeavily involved with his girl and they were laughing and I could seeshe had her hand in his crotch under the table and he was grinning likea fool. I turned back to Pao.Maybe it was that I had far too much to drink already or maybe it wassome time since I had been so physically close to someone but thewarmth from her body pressing tight to mine and the touch of her handon my thigh made me instinctively react. I felt my cock start to hardenin my trousers. Pao felt me move slightly as my cock stiffened and herhand slid to my groin and she started to rub my cock beneath the table.I squirmed slightly as her hand began to rub harder and she said ‘Youlike, James?’ I nodded and she giggled again, wriggled even closer tome and then she moved my hand under the table into her crotch. I was sostartled that it took me a few seconds to fully realise that she hadput my hand on what was obviously a small cock. She had eased down herbikini bottom and she pushed my hand around her small but firmly erectcock. It was warm and soft and twitched gently in my fingers. Nowhere’s the thing, I had never thought of myself as gay, yet here I waswith my hand for the first time on someone else’s cock, and yet I stillhad a raging erection. What was I doing? This was getting all too weirdfor me. I was getting pretty turned on at that moment and I had tosummon all my mental strength to move my hand away from her cock. Paosaid, ‘You no like, James?’ I shook my head, ‘No, I mean I don’t know,maybe, oh shit, I don’t know.’ My head was buzzing by this time, and Iwas now so confused by what I was feeling. Pao was still rubbing mycock really energetically and I was very hard by now and squirmingaround. She leant in close and said ‘We can go short time if you like,James?’Now this was where it just got too much for me and I stood up and ranout of the bar. Robbie came out after me a few minutes later and askedwhat was wrong. ‘I’m shit faced, feel sick, too much drink, going tothrow up’ was all I could muster. He said he was going back in becausehe was enjoying himself and so I grabbed a tuk-tuk back to my flat, mymind still racing with what had happened.Robbie made it back to the flat with just enough time to grab his gearand head out for his flight to Phuket. I didn’t get to ask him aboutwhat he had got up to but he looked a bit bashful and I could onlywonder what had gone on back at the bar.I had never thought of myself as anything but 100% heterosexual but Ikept thinking about that night. How had I managed to get so aroused byPao and above all how I had felt when I touched her cock. To be honest,my sex life up to that point had been pretty banal. I had always beenwhat you might call pure vanilla in my tastes. I realised that couldhave been why my wife had been ‘experimenting’ with her best mate. I hada fairly sheltered upbringing; we lived in a small village inLeicestershire and I had been sent to private school, all single sexneedless to say. Even university didn’t bring a rebellious phase and Ispent most of my time buried in books or computers. I didn’t have manygirlfriends and my first serious one led to my marriage. In the sexualadventure stakes, I was a wash out.I decided to fall back on most guys’ default excuse and blame thealcohol for getting me thoroughly mixed up. Within a few days I toldmyself to stop thinking about it and settle back down to work again.It’s not unusual to come across kathoeys in Bangkok. The Thais generallyare a very tolerant people and their religion is, shall we say, flexibleabout their attitudes towards sex. It is generally accepted there thatkathoeys are a third gender in Thai culture. Many but by no means allwork in the sex trade. Anyway, after that night at Cockatoo I couldn’tstop seeing kathoeys everywhere. It’s the effect that occurs when youbecome really aware of something you pay more attention to it than younormally would. I even found out there were a couple working in thecompany office. I had been totally unaware and to be honest they wereboth lovely to work with.When I knew what to look for, Adam’s apples or big hands or whatever, Ibecame more and more aware of their presence. I admit I had become morecurious, having had the experience in Cockatoo, but I didn’t have thecourage to go back by myself.After three month’s hectic work, I fancied a break and a few days awayon the beach somewhere. I asked around and somebody suggested an islandcalled Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand. It was only a couple of hoursby air from Bangkok and sounded like it was just what I needed. Imentioned that I was going there in an email to a friend back inEngland. He emailed back to say that one of our university friends,Alex, whom I had lost touch with a while back, was living out there. Iremember he had gone to Thailand after university on a gap year and hadnever come back. My friend thought Alex was running a hotel or somethingout there. He had an email address and suggested I see if he was stillthere.God, Alex’s name brought back some memories – mostly good. He had been abit of a wild c***d at University; but unlike me he didn’t have to worktoo hard to get his degree. I had managed a 2:1 with a lot of hard workand sweat whilst he got a First, almost it seemed, without trying. Hehad been ridiculously good looking and he partied hard, always with afew girls hanging around at any one time which made me quite jealous ofhim. He had an easy charm that seemed to attract everyone. We had shareda student house for a year and whilst we didn’t seem to be exactly closehe was always friendly. I was struggling with my work at the time andnever seemed to find the time to accept any of his invites for drinks orparties. I suspect he thought I was a bit too uptight for his liking andI always felt he was inviting me just because we shared the house. Theonly time we got close was at his drink sodden leaving do before he wentto Thailand. He told me that he had enjoyed the time we had known eachother and that he hoped I would not forget him. He gave me a big hug andI promised him, of course, that I would look him up if our paths crossedagain. He mumbled something about regrets and missed chances but I thinkwere both too drunk to make much sense that night. After that, he wentto Thailand and disappeared.It was touch and go as to whether I wanted to make contact. On one handit would be good to catch up and on the other; did I want to lookbackwards? After all, I had come to Thailand to make a fresh start.However, I did remember my promise to look him up if our paths crossedand I do think a promise is a promise. So my curiosity and politenesswon and I dashed off an email, half expecting not to get a reply. Nextday I got an email back with a phone number and a request to call beforeI left for Samui. In the end I called him the night before I flew out.The line was pretty poor but we eventually understood each other and heenthusiastically told me to get in touch when I had checked in to myhotel. He told me it wasn’t a hotel, but a bar in Lamai Beach. I agreedto give him a call when I arrived.It was only on the flight to Samui that I realised how tired I was.Weeks of working long hours had taken their toll on me, and I felt Ireally needed the chance to unwind and get some rest and relaxation. Iarrived on a late flight from Bangkok so I could maximise the time Ispent on the island. It was nearly midnight when I arrived at the hotelafter the taxi ride from hell that is typical of Thailand. It was lateso I wondered about ringing Alex but he had told me not to worry, justto call as soon as I checked in. When I got to my room I called thenumber and sure enough Alex answered after a few rings. There was a lotof music in the background and he had to shout to make himself heard. We finally agreed that I would come on over to the bar the next evening.He told me it was called Koh Samui Blue, and that just tell the taxidriver the name and he would know it. Had I done the right thing? Toolate tonight to worry; I crashed out and slept like a log.Samui is a beautiful island and the hotel I had booked was in a perfectposition. A small boutique style hotel, it lay right on a beautifultropical beach fringed with palm trees. It was just stunning and I idledmy first day away, lounging in the sun with an unread paperback on thetable beside me. I mixed up the sun bathing with frequent dips in thepool and a couple of trips to swim in the sea. Lunch passed with acouple of Singha beers and in mid afternoon I decided to call it a day.An hour or so of sleep left me feeling refreshed and relaxed. It’s crazyjust how quickly you can unwind if you are in the right place. Iwondered again if I was doing the right thing by meeting up with Alexbut I was curious about what kind of bar he ran. I guess I had an imageof some dingy side street dive in my mind. It was really too late topull out now and if it was too bad I could always make my excuses andleave.As agreed I headed out about seven o’clock. Alex had said that thingsdidn’t get going until later but we could get some food and reconnect.As he had said the taxi driver knew the name straight away and we headedoff to Lamai Beach. It’s basically a long strip with bars, massage shopsand restaurants lined up on both sides of the road with the beach behindone side. There wasn’t much life around as we cruised down the strip.About half way down there was a small square and right opposite was anewish looking two story building with a darkened plate glass windowrunning almost the full width of the building and a large neon sign ‘KohSamui Blue’ over the window.Well, so far so good I thought, not too shabby at all. The taxi droppedme off and I walked over to the bar. The humidity was high outside butas I pushed the door open the interior was wonderfully cool from the airconditioning. The door opened into a long bar area that seemed to takeup the whole of the ground floor. The room was decorated in a modernstyle with abstract art on the walls and some more traditional Thailooking sculptures in recessed shelves lit very tastefully from behind.There were lots of sofas around to form seating areas and it seemed tobe a very relaxed and chilled atmosphere. Some Oscar Peterson, one of myfavourites, was playing in the background and there looked to be a stagearea at one end for what could be live music I guessed. There were someearly drinkers seated on the sofa areas and at the bar itself which ranfor most of the length of the room. I was relieved to see it was a muchbetter place than I had feared.I stood there not sure what to do. At that moment a very pretty Thaigirl emerged from the back of the bar and with both hands together in aWai, bowed and greeted me with Sawasdee Ka. Saswadee Krab, I replied andreturned the Wai as I had been taught to do since arriving in Thailand.She smiled and asked in very good English if I were here to meet Alex. Ismiled because she had pegged me as English straightaway. I said yes, myname’s James.Please follow me she said and led me to the back of the back of the barand through a door behind the bar area. There was a bank of closedcircuit TVs showing the bar and some other rooms. I guessed she hadwatched me enter and then came out to greet me. She was wearing abeautiful long dark blue silk dress in traditional Thai style and shemoved with the grace and poise of someone who had been taught how towalk properly. She led me along a corridor and knocked at a door. Comein I heard from inside and she opened the door and allowed me to enterfirst.I walked through the door and standing up from behind a desk and smilingbroadly was a tall, very attractive blonde woman.I must have looked very confused and said, ‘I’m so sorry, I thought Alexwas in here, I’m here to meet him.’‘James, it’s me, Alex,’ she had stopped a few feet from me and held outher arms. ‘It’s really great to see you here.’‘No, I mean, Alex, Alex Hassall, is he here?’ I was beginning to feel acomplete fool as obviously there had been a huge mistake here.‘James, it really is me, Alex Hassall, Class of ’09, we shared a houseon the Grimthorpe Road, remember?’‘No, no, it can’t be. But you’re a woman. It’s not possible.’ I began tothink I was hallucinating. Was I ill?‘James, come and sit down, you look a little pale.’ She moved forwardsand took my arm and moved me to a chair and I sat down with a bump. Myhead was reeling and I felt as if I was going to faint. I must be ill.‘Do you want some water? Or something stronger, maybe?’ She squatteddown next to me and I could look straight into her eyes. It was thenthat I suddenly noticed something oddly familiar.‘You’ve got Alex’s eye. Oh my God, it is you,’ I squawked. Alex’s eyeswere hazel but in his right one there had always been a small dark brownquadrant in the cornea. It was genetic and only noticeable if you lookeddirectly into the eye.‘I mean, you have the same thing in your eye as Alex,’ I was babblingnow.‘James, that would be entirely, natural, I think, as it is me.’ Shesmiled even more broadly.‘How? I mean what’s happened? How is this possible?’She pulled her long blonde hair back from her face and it was then thatthe penny dropped. Everyone had said that Alex was good looking back atUni and many of the girls had even said he looked quite pretty. As sheheld her hair back I could see that it was Alex’s face looking back atme.‘Oh my God,’ I couldn’t think of anything more original to say, ‘It isyou.’She smiled and stood up, took my hand and pulled me to my feet. ‘Come onJames, give me a hug.’She pulled me into a hug and instinctively I hugged her back. She wasabout my height but I think she was wearing heels as I remembered Alexbeing shorter than me.‘That’s better,’ she released the hug but held onto my arms as she stoodback and looked me up and down. ’Damn, it’s good to see you, James.You’re looking really well. I have a million questions to ask you. Comeon let’s have a drink and you can tell me what you’ve been up to.’‘You’ve got questions? Don’t you think I’ve got few?’ I was beginning toget my senses back now.‘Oh, OK, but first of all let me introduce you to Areeya, she’s mybusiness partner and soul mate.‘I turned round and the Thai girl who had brought me through from the barwas still standing there.‘Areeya, meet James, James, meet Areeya.’ Alex’s eyes sparkled as shemade the introductions.Areeya made a wai to me and remembering my Thai manners I did so inreturn.‘It’s delightful to meet you, James. Any friend of Alex is very welcomehere.’ she spoke softly and with a very good English accent.‘I’m really pleased to meet you too, Areeya.’ I replied. Her hair wasswept back in Thai fashion and this emphasised the beauty of her face.She really was stunningly pretty.‘Alex, if you don’t mind I have a few things to attend to before we getbusy tonight, so can I leave you and James to catch up and I’ll join youlater if I may?’‘Of course, Areeya. Let me know if there’s anything you need me to do.’She turned and walked out the door.Alex saw me looking,’ Yep. She’s gorgeous isn’t she? Went to theAmerican University in Bangkok graduated with an MBA. She’s bright aswell as beautiful. But let me tell you all over dinner. I promise I willanswer your questions but what brings you to Samui? How long have youbeen over here? This was the Alex I remembered, a million questions aminute.Alex led me through a second door into a small room beautifullydecorated in Thai style.‘You like Thai food?’ she asked.I nodded, ‘I love it since I’ve been here’I could smell the unmistakeable aroma of Thai cooking. ‘That smellsgood’ I said. The aroma of garlic, onion, fish sauce and lemon grass isa wonder to behold.‘We have a restaurant at the back facing the sea and the kitchen is justout the side here. This is our private lounge. Let’s get you a drink. Alex must have signalled somehow because the door opened and a smallpretty Thai girl entered and Alex asked me what I wanted.‘I think I need a stiff Scotch.’ Alex laughed.‘Is Laphraoig OK? I assume you didn’t mean Thai whisky.’‘Manee that will be a large Laphraoig for our guest and a fruit juicefor me please.’I tried not to stare but I couldn’t drag my eyes from Alex. Her blondehair hung down onto and over her shoulders and framed her facebeautifully. Her skin was flawless, slightly tanned and her eyes justshone in the shaded light in the room. Her long nails were painted ashade of pink to match her lipstick. She was wearing a beautiful redprint silk dress with a vee neck plunging almost to her navel. I stillcould not fully believe it; the woman in front of me was gorgeous. As Istudied her I could begin to see little bits of the old Alex showingthrough, like the way she held her head slightly to one side and lookedsideways at you.She smiled and asked, ‘Well, what do you think?’‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.’‘Hey, don’t worry; I would too in your place. But, honestly, how do Ilook?’I took a second and said, ‘Well, firstly, I am still in complete shockbut would you be upset if I said you look beautiful?’She giggled, ‘James, no, I never mind anyone telling me that, even ifthey are in shock.’Why didn’t you tell me, Alex? On the phone? You gave me the shock of mylife.’She smiled, ‘Honestly, I’m sorry for the surprise but look, would youhave ever come if I had told you that your old Uni mate was now livingas a woman?’‘No, I guess not, to be honest. I still can’t quite believe it. Whathappened? I knew you came to Thailand on a gap year but then you droppedout of sight.’The drinks arrived and we paused while they were served. There were twocouches in the room and a low table. Alex invited me to sit down on oneand she sat on the other crossing her legs and giving me a lovelyglimpse of thigh.‘Kap kun ka, Manee, Thank you,’ Alex said to the girl.‘OK, James, I’ll tell you my tale quickly, and then I’ll answer yourquestions. Is that OK?’I nodded. She sipped her juice and went on, ‘It’s pretty simple, really.I had always wanted to explore Thailand and I did the whole place,backpacking all the way. Thailand is really several different countriesrolled into one. The North is very different from the South and Bangkok,is well, Bangkok. I loved it all and soon I could speak enough Thai toget by.’She paused and took a sip of her juice.‘After about six months I pitched up in Bangkok and did the usualtourist red light stuff. Frankly, it was pretty awful until one night inNana Plaza I dropped into one of the bars there and met some of thekathoeys there. You know what I mean, kathoey?’‘Yes, I know what you mean.’‘Well, to cut a long story short, whatever it was I became attracted tothem.’ She paused and frowned slightly, ‘Not in the usual way but Ibecame fascinated by the transformation they underwent and how theymanaged to change from boys to girls, or something in between. I got toknow a few of them and as I didn’t want them for sex and once theyrealised I wasn’t a threat, they tolerated me as a hanger on, I guess.Anyway, one night a couple of the girls, sensing something in me that Iprobably didn’t realise myself, said that I could be really pretty if Iwanted to be. Looking back I may have been a bit high that night. Shepaused and asked ‘Are you sure, you want the full story?’I nodded; I was now hooked into this unfolding story. I wanted to hearthis right through to the end.‘OK, here’s where it gets a bit freaky.’ Alex took a sip of the juiceand ploughed on, ‘As I said, I may have been high that night and I saidyes. I guess the girls that night were bored or maybe they were justkeen to tease a farang. Anyway, they stripped me, bathed and shaved me.My hair was pretty long by this time so they sat me down, styled my hairand made my face up. They wouldn’t let me see what they were doing so Ijust had to sit there while they did it. The girls at Uni sometimescalled me a pretty boy if you remember.’‘I remember,’ I said softly.We paused as Manee returned to the room with fresh drinks.Alex at this point seemed to be off in a different world and her eyeslooked to be focused on something far, far away.‘After they had finished playing with me as their little doll, they mademe put on a bra and knickers, she snorted, ‘made me?’ No I think I waspretty willing at this point. I was always pretty slight in build butsix or so months back packing my weight had dropped even further. Theyfound a dress that seemed to fit me and I put that on too. They weregiggling like crazy all this time, but when they had finished I sawtheir faces change. They seemed to be surprised at what they saw. Theybecame very excited and were high fiving each other and talking in Thaifar too fast for me to follow. At this point one of them uncovered afull length mirror they had in the room and finally let me see. I fullyexpected to see a guy in drag looking back at me. To tell you the truthI didn’t recognise myself in the mirror at all. No. I didn’t look like amodel but I didn’t look rubbish. I looked just like an averagely prettygirl. The girls were so happy and excited. They dragged in the other bargirls to see and they were all giggling and laughing but not at me in abad way. They were really surprised and pleased with what they had done.Well, that night was the first night I spent with the kathoeys and I gotintroduced to a whole new way of life.’She took another sip and did that sideways look that Alex always had.‘Is this too much for you?’‘No’ no, it’s fine, don’t stop.’ Truth be told, I was desperate to hearthe rest of the story.‘That night was an epiphany for me; I’d had gay experiences over theyears, at school and Uni so I wasn’t totally naive about giving andtaking a cock’I was surprised about the gay thing as he had always had girls hangingaround but looking back maybe he had gone both ways. The bluntnessshocked me but I would be damned if I wanted her to stop telling herstory.‘This was different, though, wearing the girls’ clothes and gettingfucked by the kathoeys and fucking and sucking them back was soliberating. I felt that somehow I had found myself at long last.’Right now I was in thrall to Alex’s story. In fact, I had to move alittle in the chair as my trousers started to feel tight. Alex seemednot to notice and kept going almost as if I wasn’t there. I got thefeeling this story was now aimed as much at her as it was at me.‘I began to spend more and more time with the girls and they basicallytaught me how to be a kathoey. They coached me in how to walk and moveand behave as they did. The sex was awesome; I couldn’t get enough ofit. The Mamasan at the bar was not so happy at all this and was gettingvery uptight about the amount of time the girls spent with me. I wasalso running short of money at this time, but I was now hooked into thelife. I don’t think I could have given it up at that time even if I hadwanted to. I had gotten myself clean of other d**gs but this was now myd**g, I just couldn’t leave it alone. Then one night the girls said tome that they ask the Mamasan if I could work in the bar with them. Shethought it was crazy because all the farangs wanted Thai girls. Anywaythe girls persisted and eventually, the Mamasan agreed to give it a go.’Another round of drinks arrived and some snacks also appeared.‘The first night I was scared rigid, but the girls were very supportiveand although the westerners didn’t seem to be interested in the blondekathoey, a party of Japanese men came in and possibly because of theblonde hair one of them took me for a short time. The bar had rooms atthe back where after the customer had paid a bar fine for the girl wecould conduct our business. I didn’t speak any Japanese and he didn’tspeak English but it’s incredible what you can do with sign language. Ithink I did alright that first time because he gave me a pretty good tipand he came back again the next night. It was pretty easy really; mostof the clients wanted me to suck them off which usually didn’t take longor to fuck me which did take a bit more getting used to. Some wanted meto fuck them and I even had few couples which was my favourite; I likegiving and receiving.’She smiled wickedly at this and my trousers needed adjustment again.‘I found that not only the Japanese but Thai men also wanted to come into see the blonde kathoey. It got a bit dodgy once or twice but the barsorted out most of the bad customers and once all the bar girls chased aguy out into the street who tried to get too rough with me.’I really felt Alex was now in a world of her own. I wondered if she hadever told this story to anyone else before. I dare not interrupt butanother adjustment of my trousers became necessary.‘This went on for about six months and I was now living full time as akathoey. I had left my old life way behind. I had burned all my oldclothes and deliberately dropped out and was now fully committed to thelife I had chosen. I had developed a real reputation as the blondefarang kathoey and life seemed OK. Then, one day the Mamasan said afarang lawyer had come looking for me. How this guy tracked me down Idon’t know because I thought I had dropped well below the radar. Butfind me he did. I thought it was something about overstaying my visa.It, however, turned out that an Auntie of mine had died and as her soleheir I had inherited a fairly large estate. It wasn’t millions butpretty substantial. I took the chance to leave the bar life behind andset myself up as an escort instead. Same fucking and sucking but betterpay and conditions. I could afford to get out completely, but I justloved what I was doing, is that a bad thing?’She paused and seemed to notice me for the first time in a long while.‘Not boring you am I?’ she said quite coyly.‘No. No, it’s interesting,’ I could have kicked myself; interesting?What idiot says that? An English idiot, that’s who. It certainly wasn’tboring that’s for sure.She smiled at something to herself and went on,’ by this time I wasliving full time as a woman and passable. I had always been quite smalland slight, and had begun to take hormones so my voice and body hairgrowth was not a problem. In Bangkok it’s easy to get a boob job andthey are also very good at cosmetic surgery to get rid of certain malecharacteristics. I could afford the best so I had my boobs done, myAdam’s apple sc****d and few other bits and pieces done to enhance mynatural charms. I didn’t go the whole hog though, and held onto my cock.I am very fond of that.’Strangely I was very pleased to hear that. Another adjustment of thetrousers was needed.‘After about another six months I was now happily living full time as awoman and getting good money from my escort work. I decided to have abreak and rented a villa here on Samui for three months. I have to admitI was drawn to have a look at the local bar scene here, from aprofessional point of view, of course. It was pretty bad, just the usualdive bars you would find anywhere. I had an idea, why not set somethingup a lot classier than what was already here? The idea for Koh SamuiBlue was born. I started to look around and got in touch with RealEstate agents to see what was on offer.’Another round of drinks arrived and I was beginning to feel a bit lightheaded.‘Alex was still talking, ‘That’s when I met Areeya. She was working inher father’s Real Estate agency and we hit it off straightaway. I don’tknow why but we just enjoyed each other’s company. It went from a purelybusiness relationship to a personal one very quickly. She knew what Iwas; it’s hardest to fool other women. Men don’t know what to look forand generally they only look at tits and arses anyway. Present companyexcepted, of course.’I blushed because she had caught me looking straight at her breasts atthat moment.‘She knew what I was and it didn’t matter. I was so nervous at first butshe is such a lovely girl that she made things so easy. She isincredibly clever, funny and dynamite in bed. Between the two of us wehave everything that we need to keep us happy together in bed.’Another trouser adjustment was necessary. This time Alex noticed andsaid, ‘James, you OK?’I nodded, ‘No it’s OK, please go on,’ and I swear she smirked and sat upstraighter in her chair, giving me another good view of her breasts. Shedid that thing women do by running their fingers through their hair. Itgets me every time.She went on. ‘We talked about my idea and we quickly came up with abusiness plan for the bar and restaurant. In Thailand, non foreignersare not allowed to buy land on their own so the obvious thing was for usto go into partnership. It’s easy as long as you trust each other andhave a good lawyer. That’s assuming there is such a thing as a goodlawyer. Anyway, I had bursa escort the seed money, together with a bank loan thatAreeya’s business plan allowed us to get. We paid off everyone who weneeded to, and that’s a lot over here.’She narrowed her eyes as she said this remembering some bad times, Ithink.‘So we built the bar first, and quickly expanded to build the restaurantto go with it. We wanted to keep the bar and restaurant pretty classywhich we have but we did add another bar down the street which is more,shall we say, in the style of my old career. We can go have a look inthere later if you would like.’As she said this she looked straight at me over the top of the glass asif she were daring me.‘Oh, yes, that would be nice, if it’s not too much trouble.’ Nice? Nice?I screamed at myself inside my head. Who says ‘nice’ about visiting aladyboy bar? She must think I’m a bloody fool.‘That’s you up to date with me, James. What about you? Which twist offate brought you here?’ Alex relaxed back into her chair waiting for meto begin.At this moment Areeya reappeared apologised for interrupting andwhispered something to Alex.‘James, I’m sorry but there’s a little issue I need to attend to. Ipromise I won’t be more than a few minutes.’As she stood, I pushed back my chair to stand too.‘Oh, James, that’s so very sweet of you. That’s what I always rememberabout you, you were a perfect gentleman. I’ll let you and Areeya get toknow each other’With that, she leaned in and gave me a peck on the cheek. I blushedscarlet and sat down again.‘James, how long will you be staying on Samui?’ Areeya’s English wasalmost perfect, just a hint of an accent making it sound so sexy.‘Only a few days I’m afraid, Areeya, I have to be back in Bangkok by theend of the week.’‘That’s a pity, James, but Bangkok is so close by plane these days. Youcould easily fly back anytime. Alex was so happy to learn you werecoming here. She would love to see you again.’Wow, I thought, that was unexpected. They must have talked about meyesterday or today. I never dreamt that old or new Alex would be sohappy to see me.‘Areeya, I must say that it was to shock for me to see Alex as she isnow. She is very different to how I knew her before.’t was strange how quickly I had slipped into calling Alex she and her.Maybe not so surprising, given that she looked so damned gorgeous.‘James, yes, I could see that when you walked in, but you did deal withit very well.’How so, Areeya?’ Given my performance back than I was surprised to hearit.‘Well you could have got angry and been very unpleasant abouteverything. Instead you were calm and listened to what Alex had to say.’I thought ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ was almost a mantra for me to behonest.‘I was more worried than Alex, James. I thought she should find someway to prepare you but she said that she always knew that you were akind and generous soul as well as a gentleman and would behave likeone. I’m so glad she was right.’ Areeya gave my arm a little squeeze toreinforce what she had said.Wow and wow again, I thought. Alex thought I was a gentleman. Who knew?I thought he had me pegged as an upright square. Maybe they are the samething really.‘Areeya, it’s an incredible story. What strength of character Alex musthave to have done what she has and to end up so balanced and adjusted. Iadmire her for that. She chose to go down a hard road but she seems tohave come through to a really good place. I think she is lucky to havefound you, Areeya, you two seem very happy together. I am so glad forAlex and for you too.’‘Thank you, James, Alex would be very glad to hear you say that. She isvery fond of the memories she has of you, she hasn’t stopped talkingabout you since she learnt you were coming to see us.’Wow and wow and wow again. Fond memories? Mind you, it did make me sounda bit like an old family pet.Areeya continued in a serious tone, ‘James, Alex means so much to me andall I ever want is for her to be happy. I think you can help her in waysthat you might not realise. I think you have a great opportunity to helpAlex and I hope you act wisely, James,’I was puzzled by Areeya’s last comment, but I replied, ’Areeya, Ipromise you I will do anything to help her that I can.’At that moment Alex walked back into the room, beaming all over herface. She came and stood behind me, with her hands resting on myshoulders and to Areeya she said ‘All fine Areeya, all fine.’ and to me,‘A nice new business venture we are starting here. Looks like we havethe go ahead.’She kept her hands on my shoulders and gave them a little squeeze beforeletting go.From Areeya, ‘Alex, that’s very good news. Shall we celebrate?’‘Good idea, Areeya, can you ask Manee to bring through some properChampagne and three glasses for us please.’Areeya rose gracefully from the couch and went to tell Manee. She wasback in an instant.Alex came and sat next to me on the couch. I could smell her perfume andfelt her leg briefly touch mine. She lightly brushed my arm and said,‘James, you were going to tell us about yourself and how you came to behere in Samui.’‘Not that much to tell, Alex. After we lost touch, I graduated, and gota job with a computer Software Company in Cambridge, I got married andlife kind of stalled after that.’I told them about walking in on my wife and her girlfriend and they bothlaughed. For the first time since it had happened I saw that it was kindof funny after all. They commiserated about the divorce but wereimpressed I think by my decision to change my life by going to Bangkok.The champagne had arrived by this time and we toasted the success of mynew start and their new business venture.They asked me what I thought of Bangkok and had I done any sightseeing.‘Yes, I’ve done all the tourist stuff. It’s a beautiful city; I havereally enjoyed my time there.’Alex grinned and asked. ‘How about the night life, James? Have you takenany of that in?’I believe I blushed a little and said, ‘Well, yes, it’s a kind of riteof passage isn’t it for newcomers to Bangkok.’‘Did you enjoy it?’‘I definitely blushed this time, ‘Erm, yes, well, some of it, I mean…’‘And did you go to the bars in Nana Plaza?’ She bloody winked as shesaid it. She was enjoying this, teasing me.Areeya laughed and came to my rescue, ‘Alex, I think you areembarrassing our guest. You should let him off the hook, is that whatyou say?’Thanks Areeya, I thought.Alex laughed too. ‘Yes, yes, you’re right Areeya; I remember Jamesalways did blush very prettily. By the way, James, how did you know tofind me here?’I told her that I had got the email address from an old mutual friendwho had discovered that I was going to Samui for a holiday.‘That was a stroke of luck, then. Only a few people know I’m out here.’‘First of all, Alex, can I ask you a question?’ there was something Iwanted to know.‘Sure, James, fire away.’‘Why did you agree to meet me? I mean you could easily have just saidyou were too busy to see me. Unless you just wanted to see me get theshock of my life.’‘Yes, apologies again for the shock, I’m not sure there was anything Icould have done to mitigate the effect though. It’s a fair question.Why, indeed did I agree to meet?’ she paused, thinking about heranswer. ‘When I came out to Thailand I never intended to stay, alwaysplanned to go back and do something in the UK. But when my life overhere changed, I dropped below the radar and fully intended to disappearfor good. However, as time went on I felt more and more that I wasmissing some parts of my old life. I eventually gave my email addressto a couple of people and told them to use it discretely. They don’tknow about me, by the way, they just know Alex is here in Samui. That’show you got the address. I guess he felt you fell under the termdiscrete. When you made contact I had to think hard about whether Iwanted to actually meet someone from the past. You can imagine that itwas a difficult decision to make and one I wouldn’t do for anyone. Asit was you I decided to make the step and reconnect with someone I knewI could trust. So, I took my courage in both hands and said yes. Doesthat help?’‘Sort of,’ I replied but what do you mean ‘as it was me’?’She came close and put a finger to my lips to silence me, ‘No morequestions for a bit, James, are you hungry?I realised I was absolutely starving. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast andlunch had been a couple of beers and some nuts. It was now 11pm and Irealised we had been talking for four hours already. I had had four orfive large scotches and now the champagne on an empty stomach and I wasgetting pretty light headed.Alex clapped her hands together excitedly, ‘James, I have an idea.Areeya and I have to visit our bar down the street. It’s not far.’‘And you want me to stay here, until you come back?’She lightly punched my arm, ‘No, don’t be bloody silly, we want you tocome with us. We’ll have a few drinks and then come back for some food.The kitchen will still be open. There’ll be fewer people around so wecan be more comfortable. Please say yes, please say yes.’How could anyone refuse such an invitation? I said yes and she squealedwith joy, grabbing my arm and pulling me out the door.As we reached the main bar, Areeya caught us up and put her arm throughmine on the other side; I walked the entire length of the bar with adrop dead gorgeous woman on either arm. The envious glares I got fromthe bar customers were a wonder to behold. For the first time in my lifeI felt ten feet tall.We walked down the strip in Lamai for a few hundred yards until we cameto the bar, unbelievably it was called Cockatoo 2.‘Where did you get the name from?’ I asked Areeya.‘Oh, it’s because our sister bar in Bangkok is called Cockatoo. Wethought it was quite funny. Do you know it in Bangkok?’ I swear she wasreading my mind.‘No, no, is that in Nana Plaza? Do you own that one too?’She looked a bit oddly at me. ‘No, it’s just an arrangement we have withthem. We try to share overheads and things.’ A little warning bell wentoff somewhere in the back of my mind.Alex was bouncing up and down with excitement.‘Come on you two, stop dragging your heels, let’s get in,’ she wasbubbling over with energy. She grabbed both of us and almost dragged usinto the bar.It was a fairly typical Thai bar; open to the front, a bar along oneside, TVs all over the place and three pool tables towards the back.Music blared out from the sound system, which for a Thai bar appeared tobe good quality. It was getting pretty busy now with two of the pooltables in use and mostly guys and a few couples drinking at the bar orthe tables. There were a few of the usual bar games of Connect 4 goingon. Connect 4 is essentially a c***d’s game but is used in Thai bars asan icebreaker game or to bet on, normally for drinks. If you think youcan beat a Thai bar girl at the game, think again. If it was an Olympicsport, Thai bar girls would win every medal. There was even a cockatooin a cage in the corner of the bar. I felt sorry for the bird in themiddle of all this noise and light but he didn’t seem to mind too much.Areeya stopped to talk to the Mamasan, presumably to check on business.Alex was busy talking to a couple of the girls and they didn’t seem toregard her as a boss figure. Maybe because she could speak Thai fluentlyand had been one of them, they seemed to be on good terms. I was handeda beer by one of the girls and she pointed to Alex and said, ‘On house,Miss Alex.’ OK, good start.It seemed to be a fairly typical crowd; mostly groups of young tourists,a few dissolute looking ex pats nursing a cold beer and lookingtypically grumpy, together with one or two couples along for the Thai barexperience. The bar girls were a mixed bunch, mostly kathoeys but withsome genuine girls. I guessed there would be a few short time rooms outthe back. The girls didn’t look too busy and Areeya shooed a few of theprettier ones out front to drum up business.Alex came bouncing across to me, grabbed my arm and asked, ‘Do you playpool?’‘I’m alright, I think, I’ve played a bit,’ I hoped modesty was theright approach.I secretly fancied myself a bit as a player, having convenientlyforgotten getting my arse handed to me by the bar girl in Bangkok lasttime. I hoped Alex wouldn’t be as good as her.She dragged me over to the unused table. She grabbed a couple of cuesand racked the balls in a suspiciously professional manner.‘You break first,’ she said, handing me a cue. I rolled the cue on thetable and it seemed unusually straight for a bar cue. I took a swig fromthe beer bottle and settled down to break.Of course, Alex had to make it difficult by standing in my eye line andpulling faces. I managed to stop laughing long enough to make a goodbreak and fluked a colour in the pocket. I managed to knock in anothercolour and then had trouble deciding what shot to play next. Areeya cameover and gave me some advice on which ball to go for. Alex was shoutingat me to get on with it and to Areeya for helping me as that wascheating. In spite of this I managed to pull off a third colour with ablinder of a shot. Encouraged by this, and the desire to show off toAlex I over reached myself on the next one, clipped the lip of thepocket and the ball just hung there without dropping.Alex reacted with glee and started to chalk her cue. Now, my Dad alwaystold me that a bad player chalks a cue after a shot and a good onebefore a shot. Well I could see I was in trouble with Alexpretty much from the start. It was clear from the way she handled thecue that she was good. She dropped the first ball with panache and thenmanaged to put away the next 4 with embarrassing ease. Mind you it wasnice to watch as she had to hitch up her skirt to play the shots and itshowed off what a lovely figure she had as the material stretched tightacross her bum. I got a chance when she missed the sixth but I flunkedout my shot and she hit great shots to pot her next two balls. That justleft the 8 ball and she just stroked that in like a professional. Itseems you can take the girl out of the bar but you can’t take the barout of the girl.I just stood and clapped. She curtseyed and said, ‘Thank you kind sir.’She wanted another game but she was way out of my league and I didn’tfancy another humiliation right now. I saw Areeya pick up the cue andshe and Alex had a cracking game. Areeya was good but Alex was that bitbetter. They played three quick games with Areeya taking one and Alexthe other two. My consolation was to sit and drink beer and watch my twonew friends as they bent over the table to take shots. I was enjoyingthat sight immensely whilst pretending not to look.It was just at the end of the third game that I felt someone’s handsover my eyes and from behind I heard a voice say, ‘James, James, it me,Pao,’I pulled the hands away and the first thing I saw was Alex, leaning overthe table frozen in mid shot with her mouth open in surprise. Pao wasoblivious to this and before I could stop her she had scooted round andjumped onto my lap with her arms around my neck.‘James, you come see Pao in Samui.’Hell, it couldn’t be, could it? Pao from the Bangkok Cockatoo?I could see Alex over Pao’s shoulder as she walked around the table towhere I was with Pao sitting happily on my lap.‘Er, James,’ Alex was still looking startled, ‘is there anything youwant to tell us?’ She stopped in front of Pao and me, holding the cue asif she wanted to break it over someone’s head. She just wasn’t surewhich one of us to hit.Pao suddenly noticed that there was something wrong and she turnedaround, saw Alex and immediately jumped off my lap. Alex said somethingfast in Thai, Pao bowed her head and said something back equally asfast. Alex motioned with her head for Pao to move away and she began toback away. Areeya grabbed her before she could disappear completely.‘Well, James, it’s very interesting that you and Pao know each other sowell, there must be some simple explanation, surely?’ There was thetrace of a grin playing about her lips now.I was rooted to the spot. Words began to jangle around in my head and Ijust managed to say some of them.‘Er, well, Alex, you see, it’s not like, I mean, it was all Robbie’sfault, I mean not his fault really, I was just trying to…’ I realisedI was babbling so thought the best thing to do at this time was just toshut up.‘James, first of all, calm down and then who the hell is Robbie?’ shestood there cradling the pool cue, legs slightly apart so the silk dressstretched tight across her body, the bar lights highlighting her goldenhair and her head tilted to one side with a questioning look on herface. Quite bizarrely in the circumstances, it flashed into my mind thatshe looked so damn sexy.I took a deep breath and took a swig from the beer, Areeya had broughtPao back and they stood to one side of Alex as she looked down at me.‘You see, it was like this. I met Pao in the Cockatoo in Bangkok onenight. Robbie’s a friend of mine from home wanted to see some Ladyboysand we ended up in the Cockatoo. I met her in the bar and we had a drinkand she was friendly and then I went home, all very above board, so tospeak, I didn’t think she would remember me…’ I tailed off, hoping Ihad made sense.‘James, how friendly, exactly?’ Alex fired off a question to Pao whonodded her head and replied.‘Well nothing happened really, you know what’s like in one of thoseclubs, it was harmless, honestly…’ Even I knew that sounded pathetic.‘Oh, yes James, I do know what it’s like in those clubs, remember?’ Alexwas grinning broadly now, enjoying my discomfort. Areeya was trying toconceal her laughter and failing badly. Pao was still looking from me toAlex and Areeya trying to decide if she was in trouble, and if so, why.‘Look it wasn’t Pao’s fault, she was very sweet and nice and I didn’tknow she would be here.’Alex said something to Areeya who let go of Pao.‘We share staff with Bangkok sometimes when we need to,’ Areeya said,now openly smiling widely.‘James, Pao confirms your story, that there were two of you, and youwere a gentleman, she says. Your friend was the one who stayed behindafter you left. He seems to have enjoyed himself a lot.’I took another swig of beer and tried to look innocent.Alex looked at me for a few seconds as if making up her mind aboutsomething, took my hand and pulled me up, ‘James, I always thought youwere a perfect gentleman, come on I think we should go eat.’The strange thing was she didn’t let go of my hand as we walked out ofthe bar.We walked slowly back to Koh Samui Blue, the action had really kickedoff now. The bars were full and spilling over into the street. As wewalked past each bar front, the girls nodded and smiled to Alex who wasobviously well known to them. I was given a few long looks by them aswell.I heard this dark voice in my head saying ‘You’re holding hands with aman’ and then there was this second, much lighter voice saying ‘Look ather, she’s a beautiful woman, that’s who you’re holding hands with’I decided to keep holding her hand.Alex giggled and said, ‘I can’t imagine how you felt when Pao jumpedonto your lap. The look on your face was priceless.’‘I don’t think I have felt more embarrassed in my life. I never expectedto see her again in my life.’ I felt myself blushing again. Damn it, Iwish I could stop myself doing that so much.Alex grinned as she spoke, ‘They say an Englishman is a man in permanentfear of embarrassment.’I smiled at that, ‘By the way, Alex, the look on your face was prettygood too when you saw what was happening. You looked gobsmacked.’ I hadto get my own back somehow.‘I couldn’t believe my eyes when one of my kathoeys jumps onto the lapof my lovely gentleman and greets him like a long lost friend.’My lovely gentleman, that was nice to hear her say.‘I was about to bust the cue over one of your heads. I just couldn’tdecide which one.’ She was laughing now, and it started me off too.Alex, I’m glad you didn’t. Believe me; you are too damned good with thatcue.’She tuned to face me, grabbed my other hand too and pulled me in foranother kiss on the cheek.‘I’m glad I didn’t. I wouldn’t want to mess up that handsome face ofyours.’ She was smiling as she said it and her eyes didn’t leave mine.Oh my, what was happening here? Was it just the beer talking? Because atthat moment I wanted to kiss her so very badly.Instead I coughed and said, ‘Any chance we could eat something? I’mstarving.’‘Of course,’ she grinned and we walked into the restaurant, stillholding hands.Areeya was dealing with something at the bar so Alex said we should goahead and order and Areeya would join us later.It was getting late at the restaurant but there were still some dinerfinishing their meals. As a good hostess, Alex left me with a scotch atthe bar, and did a tour of the tables. She would wai to each table andthen ask if the guests had enjoyed their meals. She spoke Englishmostly, but to a couple of tables with locals she switched into fluentThai. I had learned to love the sound of the Thai language; its rhythmsare almost musical to listen to when spoken well. It gave me a chance towatch her as she moved about the restaurant. Alex would occasionallyglance back at me as she worked the room, giving me a little smile whenshe caught me watching. She had class and charisma to go with herstunning looks. You could see her charming the diners, as she alwaysseemed to be interested in what they had to say. She did look fabulous,her red dress set off her blonde hair and skin tone perfectly. She movedgracefully among the tables and more than one male diner and a couple ofthe women gave her an appreciative look.I couldn’t take my eyes off her.It also gave me time to think. What had started off as a visit to anacquaintance from my university for some rest and relaxation had becomean almost surreal experience. I had discovered that my old house matehad made a journey that few would ever believe possible if they had notseen the evidence. She had become a beautiful woman full of grace andpoise and humour. She had done and seen things about which some dreamand some have nightmares. She had found her path and had found thecourage to follow that through thick and thin. True, if what she told mewas right, she also had a cock.But I think I’m falling in love with her.‘Don’t you dare drop the L bomb you moron ‘said the dark voice in myhead and the other voice just said ‘Just go for it, it’s what you want.’By the time she had finished her tour of the tables the last of thediners were leaving, so by the time we sat down we had the place toourselves. The restaurant was behind the bar on the beach side. Therewas a veranda that looked out over the sea and we sat at one of thetables there. Alex chose one which had a bench seat so that we couldboth look out over the sea. It was a beautiful evening; the sea was justvisible in the lights from the restaurant and the sound of the surfacted as a backdrop to our conversation. An overhead fan kept some airmoving over the veranda and the heat of the day was beginning to cooloff a little. There were candles flickering on the table for light andit was about as romantic setting as you could wish for.Alex asked me if I had any preferences for food and I told her I wouldtrust her judgement as there wasn’t anyone better to know what was goodon the menu. She fired off our order to the waitress and asked me what Iwanted to drink. I decided to stick with beer and Alex joined me withone.As we sat and listened to the noise of the surf, it seemed that time wasslowing down. It had been frantic since I had got here those few hoursago, and this was the first time I was able to catch a breath. I thinkwe were both happy to sit there with our own thoughts for a while.The beers arrived soon followed by the food. I have grown to love Thaifood and this dinner was some of the best cooking I had eaten inThailand. I told Alex this and she was pleased, she had wanted toimpress me with what they could do here. As the meal progressed wetalked about the business she and Areeya had created here and it wasobvious she was so proud of what they had achieved. Koh Samui Blue andCockatoo 2 were thriving ventures and Alex confirmed the new businessshe had talked about earlier was going to be a significant move forthem. She didn’t want to say too much until it was totally definite.We also talked about my job and what my plans were for when my role wasfinished in Bangkok. I told Alex that it looked as if I might be neededfor a further three months in Bangkok after the initial six months, butthat I had not decided what I wanted to do after that. I didn’t have anygreat desire to go back to the UK but that it seemed to be the mostlikely option for me. I told her that even if I didn’t want to go backto the UK it would be difficult for me to get a job somewhere else. Thatsurprised her and she said that with my qualifications and experiencesurely I would be able to get a job anywhere. I told her that in myfield it’s not what you know but who you know that makes the difference.Without a network of contacts it’s much more difficult to moveinternationally.As I said this she took my hand, turned it palm up and held it in onehand. She looked closely at it and then gently ran a fingernail acrossmy palm. I shivered involuntarily as she did so.Alex looked thoughtful as she continued to stroke my palm. She saidsoftly as if to herself, ‘My grandmother said that when someone shiveredlike that they had a secret wish they were hiding. She read palms, mygranny. They probably would have burnt her as a witch a couple ofhundred years ago.’She turned towards me, ‘James, do you have a secret wish? Granny saidthat if you didn’t tell someone then it would never come true.’ Shestill had hold of my hand with one hand and pushed her other hand backthrough her hair. That gesture gets me every time, Makes a woman lookvulnerable and really kick-starts my protective instinct.‘If you told someone, then it wouldn’t be a secret wish, would it?’ Isaid straight-faced.She put on a spiteful face and dug her fingernail right into my palm.‘Oww, that hurt,’ I protested.‘Serves you right, you b**st. My granny will haunt you, if I ask herto.’She kept hold of my hand and rubbed it where she had dug in the nail.‘That’s better,’ she said. She was now stroking my hand gently which wasgetting me aroused. So much that I had to wriggle on the seat as mytrousers were getting uncomfortably tight again.‘You have a very interesting heart line,’ she frowned as she examined myhand. ‘It’s high on your hand which shows you have a passionate nature,see here how it curves up to your index or Jupiter finger?’ She slowlyslid her finger nail across my palm, the effect of which was to increasemy excitement which was becoming more and more difficult to conceal. Sheseemed to be unaware of the effect she was having and continued strokingthe palm, ‘that means you have an open and warm hearted nature. It alsomeans you haven’t had sex for far too long.’ She giggled as she said thelast bit.‘You’re making that up, it’s all a load of rubbish’ I protested.Alex bent forward, kissed my palm then looked sideways at me, and said,‘Really? So tell me, when was the last time you had sex?’ she flutteredher lashes as she said this.I had to laugh at that. ‘OK, the bit about the sex is right. But therest is all BS.’‘Don’t you think you’re warm hearted either? I think you are.’ Shekissed my hand once more before letting it go. I immediately wished shehadn’t let go, it had felt so nice.She took a sip of her beer before saying casually, ‘By the way, youmight like to know that Pao said you enjoyed what happened in Cockatooand she said she could feel it quite clearly.’ She put extra emphasis onthe word feel and I nearly choked on my beer, just managing to spluttera reply‘OK. I defy anyone not feel anything when a pretty little thing like Paostarts stroking their crown jewels.’‘Fair enough, James, but she also said you did a bit of stroking back,’she was now looking at me very innocently and wide eyed. I went redagain. Damn my genes.‘Only for a moment, Pao put my hand there.’‘Oh, that big bully Pao, but did she make you rub it?’ again wide eyedand innocent. ‘OK, that’s enough. I’m sorry I was just trying to teaseyou, James. It doesn’t matter to me, honestly.’As we sat side by side I could feel her leg bump mine more and morefrequently, and I knew this wasn’t accidental. Alex moved along thebench which increased the pressure of her leg against mine. I was nowgetting aroused by this and had to move to adjust myself.‘Everything OK, James?’ She asked. I’m sure she now knew full well theeffect she was having on me.I had to change the subject.‘Alex, one thing that’s bothering me.’ I said just as I could feel herhand move onto my thigh.‘Really, James, just the one thing?’ her eyebrows arched in mocksurprise.‘You have been so sweet since I arrived and you’ve said so many nicethings about me. When we were at uni I always thought you didn’t likeme. Or at least that you just thought I was a boring twit. I don’t getwhy things are so different now.’Alex stiffened, took her hand off my thigh, put her glass on the tablevery carefully and sat looking out into the darkness. She didn’t replyfor what seemed an age. She turned to me with a sad look in her eyes,looked at me for a few seconds, then turned away and began to speaksoftly.‘James, you just don’t get it do you? Are you really so dense? You wantto know the truth? I fancied the pants off you at Uni. I was dying toget into your trousers back then. I tried so many times to be with you,dropped so many hints that you didn’t ever pick up on. I thought allalong that you were just playing hard to get. I didn’t believe anyonecould not read the signals. All those times I tried to get you out for adrink. You just said you had to study. The parties I asked you to thatyou couldn’t make. The times I invited you to my room and you had otherthings to do. It just made me more determined to get you. In the end Ithink I would have had to dance around naked in front of you with a signround my neck saying ‘James, come and get me’ for you to have noticedme. It seems crazy now, that I kept on trying for so long. Sometimeswhen you want something so bad and you can’t get it, it makes you wantit so much more. I just didn’t know how to get you to like me. You hadthis bloody Hugh Grant look going, like in Notting Hill, which wasdriving me crazy. The floppy hair and the polite gentleman act. Didn’tyou see it was turning me on so much? I had the biggest crush on you.All I ever managed to get was a fucking hug when I left for Thailand.Didn’t you have any inkling at all?’I sat back, shocked. I had no idea that was how Alex had felt about me.From somewhere in my reeling mind I remembered the farewell hug and whathe had said about regrets and missed chances. I slumped back; therealisation of what he had meant now obvious.‘Alex, I am so sorry, I had no idea. I must have been so stupid. Ithought you had me down as an uptight twit. I was jealous of you to behonest. You were so easy with everyone whilst I was so clumsy and foundit difficult to talk to you or your friends. I was so worried about younot liking me I guess I put my defences up. I would see you with allthose girls and wished I could be like you. I wanted to be you. Ithought you were taking the piss when you asked me for a drink. You werealways so at ease with people, you could talk to anyone and charm theminto the palm of your hand.’Alex twirled her glass and looking up at me, said, ‘didn’t manage tocharm you though, did I? The girls meant nothing to me; they just likedto hang around with a good looking bloke. They were fun company butthat’s all they ever were. I had no idea if you were gay or evencurious, but when there’s someone you want so badly, you just have tokeep trying. I could even have been happy with being friends and hangingout together’She turned her head away, though I could see she was still blinking backthe tears.She sniffed and said, ‘It’s ironic that you wanted to be me and I wantedyou. That would keep us both in therapy for years. You were the one whogot away from me. So I had to get away from you. It was partly becauseof you that I went off to Thailand. I wanted to get away from everythingthat reminded me of you. I had fallen for someone that I could neverhave, how fucking sad is that?’She was looking for a tissue to wipe her eyes and I gave her one I hadin my pocket.‘See, that’s what I mean, you are such a gentleman. When I got youremail I couldn’t believe it. I had to sit down for a long time to think.Did I really want to see you again? I know it hadn’t been your faultreally but I wasn’t sure that awakening all those memories would do meany good. I talked all night with Areeya. I had never told her about youbefore and she had to listen all night to me running on about how greatyou were blah, blah, blah. She is so sweet; she just listened andfinally told me, ‘You must do what your heart wants.’Alex had stopped crying but looked as if she could start again anytime.‘I finally decided that what my heart wanted was to see you again. Tosee if I had the same feelings for you or if in the years since thingshad changed. When you walked through that door and looked so confusedand lost, just like Hugh bloody Grant would have done, I knew that I hadnot lost any of my feelings for you. My legs were shaking when I sawyou. The only thing that saved me was the fact that you were so shockedthat I had time to gather myself. I knew it was a huge risk to see youas I am now. You could have turned round and just walked away. You couldhave got really angry. You could have shouted and screamed at me, calledme all kinds of names. I bet myself, wished myself with all my heartthat you wouldn’t, that you would still be my Hugh Grant. And damn you,you were. You sat there and listened to me telling you my story anddidn’t bat an eyelid. I have never told anyone other than Areeya thatwhole story before and you took it in your stride, like a gentlemanwould. Areeya told me what you said about me choosing a hard road andhow strong a character I was and that was very sweet of you. But when Isaw you come through that door I nearly lost it completely. Strongcharacter? I felt like a fucking helpless kitten at that moment’She stood up and walked quickly away to the edge of the veranda andstood looking out into the darkness. She was still wiping away thetears. I followed and put my hands on her shoulders and turned herround. She wouldn’t look me in the eyes and I thought I should finishthis now for all our sakes.‘Alex, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. You have gone throughso much and I don’t want to spoil the happiness you have here withAreeya, I guess I should go now.’She looked up at me, eyes blazing, her fists drumming on my chest.‘Don’t you dare fucking go now before I find out. I haven’t gone throughall this today to lose you again before I find out if you feel anythingfor me.’She looked at me, eyes scared yet pleading with me. Time for you to go,that dark voice said in my head. I decided to ignore it for now.‘Alex, I think you are the most beautiful woman I have ever set eyes on.I cannot believe how much courage and strength it took to deal witheverything you have gone through. It would have crushed most people butyou have found your own road and followed it to turn into someone soexceptional. I haven’t met anyone before who makes me feel as alive andexcited to be with as you do. You’re beautiful and sexy and funny andstrong and charming and exciting and talented and…I think I’m fallingin love with you. I know I can’t do anything about the past, but I don’tknow what to do about the now either. You and Areeya are so strongtogether; you have something so wonderful together, I wouldn’t doanything to hurt either of you.’‘James, James,’ she whispered, ‘I don’t want you to go. If you trulyfeel like this then I can’t let you go.’She put her hand up and stroked my face. I let my hands drop from hershoulders and she quickly leant into me and kissed me on the lips. Shedrew back nervously to see my reaction and this time I kissed her. Ifelt her arms go up around my neck and I put my arms around her andpulled her close to me as we kissed. She moved into me and I could feelmyself getting hard as she slid her leg between mine and kissed me withher tongue this time.Alex broke off the kiss, grabbed my hand and pulled me to the benchseat. She pushed me down, hitched up her dress to get down on her knees.She shoved me back on the bench, pulled my t-shirt off over my head andher fingers went straight to my belt which she undid with practisedease. She dragged down my jeans and boxers, freeing my cock beforewrapping her hands around it and stroking up and down the shaft. Thefirst touch of her fingers was electrifying. It had been months sinceanyone had touched my cock and to have her fingers caressing it likethis made me shake with excitement. I was looking down at Alex as sheteased my shaft with her fingers and nails.Alex looked up at me and whispered, ‘This is what I always wanted.’My wife hated going down on me but it was something I had always loved.I watched as Alex used both hands to stroke my cock as she lookedstraight up at me. She suddenly leant forward to kiss the tip and pushedher lips over it bathing the cockhead with her lips, whilst her tongueattacked the underside of the head. This was making me even harder thanI had been to begin with and I almost fainted with pleasure as she pokedher tongue into the slit. She pushed my cock back so that it lay flatagainst my tummy and began to lick it, starting at the root and movingup and down the length of the shaft. She did this a few times beforetaking first one of my balls and then the other into her mouth andgently sucked them. I moaned and she quickly put her hands up to mychest and pinched my nipples. This was now driving me wild and Alexstarted to blow softly across bursa escort bayan the cockhead. Nothing I had everexperienced had even come close to the feeling I had now.I watched as she took the head back between her lips and worked magicwith her tongue on the underside which for me is so sensitive. I beganto move my hips forward as I felt the pressure building in me. Alex,recognising this took her hands and mouth off my cock to prolong theexcitement. She went back to my balls gently pulling them and kissingthe spot where the shaft meets the balls. I couldn’t hold back muchlonger and Alex rocked back slightly and then suddenly plunged my cockinto her mouth.‘Oh my god,’ I moaned.She used her hand to stroke my cock hard as she pistoned it in and outof her mouth, her lips wrapped tight around it. My head snapped back,eyes closed now with my hands behind my head. The pressure was nowunbearable and I knew I was going to climax.I’m coming, I’m coming.’I gasped and she stepped up the pace, her mouthmaking slurping noises as she sucked and sucked.‘AAAAAHHHH’ I came like never before, my cock pumping cum into hermouth. I can’t remember ever coming so hard before and it seemed to goon for an eternity. I slumped back on the bench and I could feel Alexstill sucking the last drops from my cock. I felt her release me and Iopened my eyes to see her stand up and quickly straddle me on the bench,her hands went behind my head and she kissed me hard, her tongue workingits way into my mouth and I could taste some of my cum still on hertongue.I wrapped my arms around her and we continued to kiss for a long timeour tongues intertwined.Alex eventually broke our kiss but remained straddling me on the bench.‘How was that, James?’ she asked softly, her fingers stroking my face.‘My god, Alex, I have never felt anything like that in my life, I feltlike I was never going to stop coming.’ I said.‘Mmm, I didn’t think you were going to stop either, baby. That was morethan a teaspoonful coming down the chute, to be sure,’ her little giggleas she said it was the last straw and I knew without a doubt now that Iwas in love with her. Hell, what I do now, I thought. Run said the darkvoice, stay said the light one. I ignored the dark voice yet again.Alex kissed me again and stood up. I stood too, a little unsteadily, andreached down to pull up my boxers and jeans.‘Oh, does he have to go away so soon, ‘said Alex as she grabbed my cock,‘He’s so sweet and I think he was glad to see me. I know I was glad tosee him.’ She giggled again and I batted her hand away her making herpout.I managed to finish pulling on my jeans and was looking for my t-shirt.Alex had it, hiding it behind her back and stopping me from grabbing it.‘Mmm, you have lovely nipples you know, it’s a shame to cover them up.’She managed to plant a kiss on one nipple before I eventually twistedthe shirt out of her grasp and slipped it back on. I glanced at my watchand saw it was now 2.30 in the morning. Only a handful of hours hadpassed since I got here, but plenty enough time for my world to tilt onits axis.‘I should get back to my hotel,’ I said.‘No chance, buster.’ Alex said fiercely, ‘do you think I’m going to letyou out my sight now? You can stay with us, there’s our flat at theback.’This was the moment of decision; if I stayed I could not pretend thiswas just a one off, something that I could put down to alcohol and lust.There would be no turning back and it would be a journey into theunknown. I didn’t even bother to listen to the two voices in my headthis time. Alex was looking anxiously at me waiting for me to make up mymind.‘If that’s alright with you, I would like to,’ I replied. She punched mein the arm and said, ‘Sometimes, you don’t have to be so bloody polite.If it wasn’t OK I wouldn’t have suggested it.’Her mention of staying with us made me remember something.‘Hey, didn’t you say Areeya was going to join us?’Alex looked straight into my eyes and said, ‘Yes, she did, she’s sittingjust over there.’I whirled around to follow where Alex was pointing and Areeya sat just afew yards away from where Alex and I had been. My heart nearly jumpedinto my throat with shock.‘What the hell? Was she there all the time we were, you know?’ I wasbabbling again.Alex took me by the arm and said, ‘Yes, of course, she was. We don’tkeep anything from each other. Oh, James I think you’ve had anothershock today.’ That was putting it mildly. More like two near cardiacarrests within a few hours I would say.‘Jesus, is there anyone bloody else there? The cook or the waitress, forexample?’Alex laughed, ’I’m surprised to hear you say that, James, but if youwant them to watch next time, that could be arranged.’ By this time Icouldn’t tell if she was joking or not. Next time, of course, carried animplication that I didn’t want to face right now.She led me by the arm towards Areeya. She rose, smiling, from the chairwith that extraordinary grace of hers.Quite bizarrely in the circumstances, she made a wai to me and equallybizarrely, I made one back. Me and my bloody manners.Areeya came to stand in front of me and reaching up kissed me on thecheek.‘Kap kun ka, thank you, James,’ she said softly in Thai then English.‘Thank you? What for, Areeya?’ I was baffled.‘For making Alex happy, James.’ Her smile was so genuine that I had tosmile back.Alex squealed with joy and pulled Areeya into a massive hug, ‘Oh,Areeya, I do love you. James, isn’t she just the best?’ To say I wasbemused was about the understatement of the year. Areeya had just satand watched her girlfriend give a blow job to a man who had walked intotheir lives only a few hours earlier and she was thanking him for it.Nothing in my life so far had prepared me for this kind of relationship.I felt I might have fallen down a rabbit hole into a parallel universe.‘Areeya, I don’t know what to say,’ I felt I had to say something, ifonly that I didn’t know what to say.Alex still had her arm around Areeya and was smiling just like a catwith two bowls of cream. Areeya said something to Alex in Thai and Alexnodded.Alex took hold of my hand and still holding Areeya round that waistsaid, ‘And I would like to thank James also for what he said about notwanting to hurt either Areeya or I. That was just what I would haveexpected my gentleman to say, so thank you.’Areeya smiled and said, ‘That was very sweet of you, James. That made mehappy too,’‘You’re both welcome,’ I said and immediately screamed to myself, whatan idiotic thing to say.‘I think we should all head for bed now. It’s been a long and tiringday. And at least two of us have to do some work tomorrow. Or I meantoday really.’ Alex announced.‘Look, wouldn’t it be better if I went back to the hotel so you two canget some rest?’ I offered.Alex pouted, ‘Don’t you want to stay with us, then? Didn’t you enjoywhat we did?’‘Yes, no, yes, I mean, I just want to do the right thing, that’s all.’Back to babble speak, these two girls just scrambled my brain.Areeya said, ’James, the right thing to do is to stay here tonight andwe can discuss what happens next tomorrow. It will take far too long foryou to go all the way back to your hotel at this time of night. We havethe flat right here and it has two bedrooms so there is no problemwhatsoever.’ Areeya was obviously the sensible half of theirpartnership. ‘I will take the second bedroom and you and Alex can takethe main room.’ Scratch that about Areeya being the sensible half of thepartnership.‘What? I mean, I thought I would sleep on my own.’ I spluttered.‘Poor James,’ Alex said soothingly to Areeya as if talking about ac***d, ‘I think he’s had a few shocks too many today, he can’t thinkstraight.’ She turned her attention to me, ‘James, here’s what’s goingto happen, Areeya will take the second bedroom and you and I will be inthe main bedroom. For God’s sake, there’s a big day bed in there if youreally want to sleep by yourself. It’s only for tonight, after all.’ Iwas so bemused at this point that I didn’t pick up on the fullimplication of what she meant by only for tonight.Alex held both my hand and Areeya’s and led the way to a flight ofstairs at the rear of the building.Areeya said ‘The flat is on the first floor and it has a wonderful viewof the sea from up there.’You can take the girl out of real estate but you can’t take real estateout of the girl, I thought.The top of the stairs opened out onto a balcony running the length ofthe building. Alex punched some numbers into a keypad and a large glassfloor to ceiling door slid open.‘Neat. Huh?’ said Alex with pride as the door slid closed. She had letgo of Areeya’s hand to use the keypad but held onto mine. Areeya said,’my room is over here, so good night James. Alex told me you tasted verynice, so I hope I get to find out for myself soon.’Before I could think of any reply, Areeya disappeared into the room. Mygrip on the certainties of life was now slipping rapidly away. Iwondered what could possibly happen next.‘Come on, we’re over here,’ still bouncing with energy, Alex pulled meover to another door and almost dragged me into the room. She kicked thedoor shut with her foot and snaked her arms around my neck and drew meinto a passionate kiss with her tongue forcing its way into my mouth.Whatever resistance I might have put up had been totally sapped by theevents of the day and I let her take the lead. We stood there for awhile just kissing and holding each other. I was getting hard again andmy hands went to her buttocks and pulled her tight towards me. It wasthen that I felt something push into my groin and I realised with a joltthat Alex also was getting aroused.Even in my tired and lust fuelled brain I knew that I had to slow thisdown somehow. I had fallen for Alex as a girl even though I knew she wasmore than that, and now I was going to have to deal with that.Alex sensed my hesitation and stopped kissing me and pulled back to lookat me.‘What’s up?’ she scanned my face for an answer. ‘James, talk to meplease.’ Real anxiety now crept into her voice. ‘Tell me, am I going toofast? Is that it? Please tell me.’‘Alex, it’s me, not you.’ I said.‘Oh, for fucks sake not that old line, now it’s ‘I really want to befriends’ and you disappear again, is that it?’ She was working herselfup now.She dropped her hands, spun around and walked off a few steps. Withoutlooking at me, she said in a shaky voice, ‘If that’s the case, thenyou’d better go now.’I said, ’do you want me to go?’She was holding her arms across her chest hugging herself, ‘No, I don’twant you to go, but I don’t want to be hurt again so if you go pleasenever come back.’This was a tipping point. I felt my whole future would revolve aroundwhat I said in the next few seconds. The voices in my head were finallystill. I knew precisely what I was going to say.I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her, she stiffened butstayed still. I said, slowly and carefully, ‘Alex, I would never want tohurt you and I don’t want to be just your friend. I don’t want to leave;I want to be with you, because I am in love with you, but if you stillwant me to go, say it and I will go now and never come back, I promise.’I felt her body relax and, still facing away from me, she whispered, ‘Doyou really mean you love me?’‘Yes, I do’She whirled round and kissed me again. She put her arms around my neckjumped up and wrapped her legs around my waist. I grabbed her justquickly enough to stop us both falling over.‘James, I love you too. I don’t want you to leave. I want you to staywith me.’ She covered my face with little kisses and I walked us over tothe bed. I put her down on the bed and sat down next to her.‘Alex, this has happened so quickly, I feel like I have to slow down abit. There are some things I need to get adjusted to and I want you tobe patient with me. I have never been with someone like you and you willneed to let me get used to things at my pace. You will have to be myguide through this, but I want to try my hardest to please you.’She giggled and said, ‘You’ve tried quite hard already.’ Seeing the lookon my face, she went on, I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. I’m so sorry;I know this must be difficult for you so we’ll go at your pace. I won’tmake you do anything you’re not comfortable with. I have this horriblehabit of trying to be funny to cover up my insecurity. I’ll stop it, Ipromise.’My turn to chuckle, ‘Don’t promise what you can’t deliver,’ as shestarted to reply I kissed her and all I could hear were some mufflednoises as she tried to say something. She broke free and slapped me onthe arm. ‘Be careful, or I will have to punish you. Or maybe that’s whatthe gentleman would like to happen?’She jumped up and moved out of my reach, giggling all the while.She stopped and looked serious, ‘Do you want to sleep on the couchtonight then?’I looked at her, her face showed the anxiety she must have felt. ‘No, Iwould rather sleep in the bed tonight,’ I paused for a fraction of asecond, ‘You can sleep on the couch.’I watched her face drop, but I couldn’t keep a straight face and burstinto laughter, ‘No, I want both of us to sleep in the bed tonight.’‘You bastard,’ she said, though she was laughing too by this time.‘I really will have to punish you somehow for that,’ She hit me on thearm again to make her point.‘Is that the best you’ve got?’ I replied, although to be honest, it didhurt a bit.‘You monster,’ she was laughing like a drain by this time. ‘I’m going toget ready for bed. There’s the loo over there and I’m heading for thebathroom over here.’With that she disappeared through a door to what I assumed was thebathroom. I finally had a chance to look around the room. On one sidewas a window running the length of the room. At one end was the doorthrough which we had entered. There were three or four doors leading offthis room, one of which was the door Alex had gone through. At one endof the room were two large couches in an L shape with a low tablebetween them. A huge large screen TV sat on a low cupboard and on asmall desk was perched what looked like an Apple MacBook Pro. At theother end of the room was a dining table with half a dozen chairs. Inbetween, with its headboard up against the wall facing the window wasprobably the biggest bed I had ever seen. It was huge both in width andlength.The lighting was supplied by a number of small lamps dotted around theroom. The walls were hung with what looked like original artworks andthe whole effect was of understated luxury. I realised my bladder wasscreaming at me and looked for the loo. I tried one door, which led intowhat looked like a very well fitted kitchen and found the washroombehind a second door. I took a very welcome pee, washed my hands andstood drying them on a towel when I caught sight of myself in themirror. Despite what had happened tonight, I couldn’t see any change. Ismiled to myself, what do you think would have changed, you fool. Apartfrom needing a shave, there was nothing in my face that was anydifferent from when I looked in the mirror this morning. Yet my face andI knew that plenty had changed. The room had one of those lights thatreally flatters your reflection, makes it look tanned and less wrinkly.I wasn’t exactly chiselled but I had kept myself in good shape withrunning and swimming so I didn’t scrub up too badly. Blue eyes, strongjaw and straight nose, sandy blondish hair that did flop down at thefront a bit, but Hugh Grant? Couldn’t see it myself.I moved back to the bedroom, took off my t-shirt and jeans and sat onthe bed feeling a bit foolish in my boxers. Should I take them off andget into bed? What would a gentleman do?Before I could decide I was startled to hear music began to flood theroom. The music was turned down low as presumably Alex from the bathroomadjusted the volume. I was astounded as I realised it was ‘Tutu’ byMiles Davis, one of my favourite jazz tracks.‘I remembered that at uni you couldn’t decide if this or OscarPeterson’s Hymn to Freedom were your favourite jazz pieces,’ Alex spokefrom the open doorway to the bathroom. I couldn’t remember ever talkingto old Alex about jazz but she was right. I still can’t choose betweenthose two tracks. I wondered if the Oscar Peterson piece playing in thebar when I arrived had been more than just a coincidence.Alex stood there backlit by the light from the bathroom and my heartflipped. She was wearing a long silk robe with a vibrant floral print,she had brushed her hair and it just glowed in the light. She lookedstunning.‘Oh baby,’ she said walking over to me, ’you look so sweet sitting therelike that. Are you waiting for me? Come on let’s get into bed. First yougot to take off those boxers though.’ She grabbed hold of them and slidthem down my legs. My cock immediately jumped to attention and Alex bentdown and kissed the head. ‘I see someone’s pleased to see me.’ Shetouched a button on the wall turning out the main room lights butleaving two bedside lamps on. She touched another button and they dimmedbut didn’t go out completely. She also closed the blinds automaticallyas she said otherwise the morning sun would wake us up too early. Imoved onto the bed, my cock waving in the air as I did so. There wasstill enough light to see Alex as she let the robe slip to the floor andshe slipped onto the bed next to me. She was wearing a filmy nightdressthat came down to her hips and a pair of knickers.‘James, I don’t want you to do anything that you’re not comfortable withso let’s just take it slow and see what happens. We’ll find out as we gowhat we both like and what we’re ready to do, is that OK?’I nodded and she moved over to my side and she started to kiss my chest,little kisses all over and then began to suck and lick my nipples. Ihave always had sensitive nipples and when she used her teeth to gentlybite and stretch them I was going crazy. She moved up the bed andstarted to kiss and nibble my ear lobes, the sensations I was gettingwere almost overwhelming. I gently eased her onto her back, reachedunder the nightdress and started to fondle her breasts, the first time Ihad touched any part of her body. She said, ‘This is no good,’ sat upand in one fluid move took the nightdress over her head and dropped iton the floor. She stayed where she was looking down at me and for thefirst time I could see her breasts. I reached out and touched thenipples and they immediately started to harden. I gently began to rotatemy hands on her breasts gently kneading and rubbing them. She began tomake little mewing sounds almost like a kitten. ‘Keep going,’ shewhispered, I love that.’I brought her back down to the bed and started to kiss and suck on theright nipple and held the left between my fingers, rolling the hardlittle nipple round and round. I flicked the other nipple with my tongueand she said, ‘God, that’s wonderful, do the other one please.’ Ichanged sides and took the left one in my mouth and used my hands on theother one. She began to move her hips as I continued to tease herbreasts. Her hand slid its way down my chest tickling me with featherylittle touches of her fingers and nails. Her fingers got to my groin andstopped for a moment drawing circles just above my cock causing littlefluttery feelings in my stomach. As I continued to kiss and suck herbreasts she moved her hand down onto my erection and began to slide herhand up and down the shaft. I was already as hard as granite and thiswas making me gasp with pleasure and arousal. She slipped a fingerunderneath my balls and started to rub the perineum. This was the firsttime anyone had done this and the sensation sent me into overdrive. Ibegan to writhe with the stimulation and I started to pant and moan witheverything I was feeling. My cock was just aching for some kind ofrelease.‘James,’ she whispered in my ear, ’Do you want me to use my mouth or doyou want to fuck me?’ I could feel how tense she was when she asked,fearing for my answer.I thought for precisely one nanosecond, ‘Oh, I really want to fuck you,but you’re going to have to show me how.’‘Baby, that’s OK, I’ll show you what to do. She reached over to thenight stand and pulled out something from a drawer. I realised it waslube when she squeezed something onto my cock and rubbed it in. Iwatched as she reached behind her and moving her knickers to one side,applied some to herself. She moved me onto my back, straddled me andpositioned herself facing away from me right over my erect cock. Iwatched as she again moved her knickers to one side, eased herself downand gently steered my cock towards her hole. She moved down on me andwhen she was sure I was in the right place she used her weight to easeherself deeper onto my cock. I felt an initial resistance but then withan extra thrust I found myself inside her. She gasped as I entered herand slowly she took more and more of me inside. I felt her hole tightaround my cock and she began to move up and down on me. She was nowbouncing up and down on me and I began to thrust up as she came down. Ihad never felt sex as intense as this ever before.‘Use your hands on my tits,’ she screamed at me. I raised my hands andreached around to knead her breasts as she pummelled herself onto me. Iwas driving upwards as she pushed herself down on me, both of usgrunting with the effort and the excitement. I felt myself movingtowards a climax and I slowed my thrusts hoping to keep this feelinggoing as long as possible. Alex took her cue from me and slowed hermovements and we changed to a slower pace with my cock now driving itdeeper and deeper into her. I felt myself now on the edge of coming andI picked up the pace again, thrusting harder and harder. Alex respondedmoving faster now and with one final thrust I shouted I’m coming andfilled her with my cum.Alex kept moving up and down as I felt my juices flood into her. Shekept the movement up for a while drawing out the feeling for as long asshe could for me and her. Eventually I slumped back, completely spentand Alex moved gently off me and lay down beside me on the bed. I kissedher and she licked the sweat from my cheek, ‘Mmm, salty, lovely.’I laughed and she asked anxiously, ‘Well, how was it?’I turned to her and wiping the small beads of sweat away from the cornerof her eye, I said, ’Terrible, I hated it.’There was a moment I could see in her eyes when I almost had her, butshe saw my mouth twitch and she yelled, ‘James, you are a real bastardsometimes, and I will hurt you.’ With that she thumped me in the chestonce, reached down and grabbed my cock and squeezed hard.‘Oooww, that really hurt,’ it had too.‘You deserve it, you sod and you know how worried I am about this.’ Sheleant down and kissed my cock which was now soft and a bit sore. ‘Butyou don’t deserve it, do you?’ I think she was now talking to my cockinstead of me.‘James, there’s at least one thing about you that’s good for something,anyway.’ She slipped off the bed and padded across to the bathroom.‘I’ll just be a minute and I’m coming back to punish you bad.’With that the door closed behind her.I lay back exhausted from the session. The first thought I had was thatwas probably the best fuck I had ever had. The second thought was thatit was with a man. The third thought was no, she’s a woman. The fourththought was did it matter in the slightest. I was a 25 year old man whohad never consciously had a gay thought in all those years but in thespace of less than 12 hours I had met and fucked someone who had beenborn a male, but now identified herself as, what actually? I didn’t knowwhether Alex thought of herself as a woman with a penis or a man withbreasts or as a third gender as the Thais would have it. Alex seemedperfectly happy with what she was, whatever that was. Are gay, straightor bi real concepts or just labels we use to navigate our way throughlife when it gets tough? Isn’t the truth that all these blur and meld atsome point? Can’t we be all three of them at some point, or two of themor just one if we choose to live that way? Could I accept Alex for whatshe is or will I not be able to overturn my prejudices and inhibitions?Does falling for her make me gay and if so does that matter a damn ifyou love someone. I knew that what I felt for Alex was something sostrong and powerful that I knew that at least I had to try.She came back into the bedroom after a couple of minutes and we kissedand cuddled on the bed for awhile until we fell asleep. I woke up oncein the night to find I was spooning Alex. My arm was d****d over herwaist and my hand was resting in her groin and I could feel her cockthrough the thin silk of her knickers. It didn’t feel odd at all and Isleepily stroked it gently and she moved slightly in the bed withoutwaking. I kept on stroking it for a little while and she sleptpeacefully on. Eventually I moved my hand away and my last thoughtbefore drifting off to sleep again was that I had touched someone else’scock and my hand hadn’t fallen off.I didn’t know what time it was and the room was still dark because ofthe blinds but as I awoke I realised that my cock was hard and that itwas being sucked vigorously. I thought this is the first time I haveever been woken up with a blow job and I just laid back and began toenjoy it. With my eyes closed I felt myself getting harder as my cockwas sucked and licked and a hand started to move up and down the shaft.It wasn’t long before I could feel myself building to a climax and as Ireached the point when I couldn’t hold back anymore, I said, ‘Alex, I’mcoming’ and exploded into her mouth.‘That’s nice, baby,’ I heard Alex say. Something was wrong though,Alex’s voice wasn’t coming from on the bed and if she had my cock in hermouth how could she say anything? Her voice seemed to be coming fromsomewhere further away. I opened my eyes and saw her sitting in her robeon one of the couches. It took me a good few seconds to process that andas I looked down the bed I saw Areeya, naked, smiling and lickingsomething from her lip.‘Kap Kun Ka, James’ she said, ‘Alex was right, you do taste nice.’I shot off the bed in something close to panic. That made the third nearcardiac arrest in about 12 hours. At this rate I will soon start tostroke out I thought.‘What the hell are you playing at?’ I shouted.Alex calmly replied, ‘No need to shout, James. That’s rude andunbecoming of you. When I woke up you looked so lovely lying there fastasleep, so I went to fetch Areeya to show her too.’I looked from Alex to Areeya wondering if I had really dropped intoanother universe where everyone was stark staring mad except me.Areeya picked up where Alex had left off and said, ‘You looked sopeaceful in your sleep and then Alex decided it was time to wake you up,so she suggested I woke you up in that way. I hope you don’t mind, youseemed to enjoy it, and so did I.’She said this so sweetly with the air of someone who thought it was allvery normal to wake up someone with a blow job.‘Oh, well, that’s alright then,’ I tried for sarcasm, but both girlsaccepted it merely as a statement.I suddenly realised Areeya and I were standing there naked with Alex onthe couch wearing her robe from last night. Instinctively, andfoolishly, I went to cover myself with my hands.Alex hooted with laughter. ’It’s a bit bloody late for that, baby, thatboat has sailed.’Areeya giggled and I looked at her for the first time. She was standingin front of a large mirror shaking out her long black hair. She movedher head from side to side and her hair followed her movement. From theback she looked beautiful and then she turned round to face me and myheart kind of skipped a beat. For a nation obsessed with a ‘white isright’ mindset, Areeya’s skin was duskier than most, and her hair felldown over her shoulders almost to her waist. Her breasts were quitesmall but with gloriously large areolae and her slender body and longlegs made her look like a model. She carried herself with grace andelegance and she seemed to place each foot carefully as she walked andalmost floated over the floor. If she was beautiful with her clothes on,naked she would make Chinese poets weep with despair trying to describeher. She seemed totally unaware that I stood there transfixed.‘She is lovely, isn’t she?’ Alex had got up from the couch and came tostand by me. Areeya pulled on a pair of knickers and shrugged herselfinto an oversized t-shirt. I was sorry to see those breasts disappear.This made me the only one in the room with no clothes on and I suddenlyfelt very underdressed. I saw my jeans on the floor by the bed but I wasdamned if I could find my boxers. I decided to cut my losses and gocommando, at least I should wear something.Alex said, ‘I’m off to the shower, Areeya will get you some breakfast ifyou like.’ Alex walked over to the bathroom door; stopped, stretchedostentatiously to make sure she had my full attention, then still withher back to me, slipped her robe from her shoulders to the floor andposed against the door fame. She looked back over her shoulder and said,‘you know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lipstogether and… blow.’ I threw a pillow at her and it only just missed.I heard her laughing as she disappeared into the bathroom.Areeya came out of the kitchen with coffee, juices, fruit and bread andwe headed out to eat breakfast. It was a magnificent view from thebalcony out over the beach. The sun was already strong so we ate under alarge parasol. The sea glinted as the sunlight flicked off the waves andthere were jet skis already out on the sea throwing up their roostertails of spray. It was a great opportunity to talk to Areeya withoutAlex interrupting. She told me about her life at university in Bangkokand how she had also trained as a classical Thai dancer whilst there.That explained the grace and poise with which she did everything. Shehad come back to Samui before taking up a job where she had met Alex.She said she had never met anyone quite like Alex before but they hadmade an immediate connection. They had begun a relationship almostimmediately and the rest had just seemed to fall into place. Sheadmitted she had guessed Alex was transgender.‘I fell in love with her, James. What her body looked like was of littleconsequence.’I shared with her my memories of ‘old’ Alex at university in England andhow I had never suspected that he felt as he had for me. It was stillstrange to me to think about that time and how unaware I had been. Itold Areeya that I had been jealous of Alex and that I think must haveblinded me to the real situation.‘We see only that which we wish to see,’ she said softly.She asked me about my work in Bangkok and asked a lot of technicalquestions about the project I was working on. She told me that she hadtaken Business Systems Planning as a module in her MBA and regretted thefact that she didn’t have much opportunity to use it.It was at this moment that Alex excitedly burst through onto the balconysaying to Areeya, ’I’ve got an Idea, why don’t we take James to Koh Taotomorrow? The forecast is excellent.’Areeya immediately looked keen. ‘That’s a very good idea; we haven’tbeen out on the boat for a while. Koh Tao would be a great place to takeJames to show him another island.’‘Whoa,’ I said, ‘Where is Koh Tao and what boat?’Alex was already excited about the idea. ‘Koh Tao is an island about 90minutes cruising north of here. It’s smaller and less overdeveloped thanSamui. It’s lovely and perfect for a day trip and a picnic.’Areeya chimed in, ‘My father lives and works in Bangkok, but he keeps asmall boat here for weekend breaks. He lets me use it when he is nothere. We have been to Koh Tao many times.’Alex chipped in, ‘Koh Tao has a lot of unspoilt beaches and we cananchor off one of them and go swimming and snorkelling, come on, pleasesay yes.’‘OK, I’m up for it, but my swimming shorts are back at the hotel.’Alex smacked me on the arm, her favourite way it seems of telling me Ihad said something stupid.‘We don’t worry about wearing anything, we’ll find somewhere reallysecluded and go skinny dipping.’ She concluded as if there could be nofurther discussion.‘It’s OK for you two, you don’t need to worry about the sun, but I needto protect certain bits of me from the sun.’ I whined.‘Fuss, fuss ,fuss, those bits aren’t so big, so you can borrow a pair ofmy bottoms if you have to.’ Alex stood with her hands on her hips tryingto look stern. I felt a bit offended at that but Areeya giggled andsaid, ‘my father keeps some clothes on the boat, I am sure there issomething that will fit James.’Alex looked miffed and said, ’OK, but they are coming off as soon as weget in the water.’The two girls had to leave to do some work in the office downstairs.Alex said they would be back in time for a late lunch if that was OK andthat I could use the balcony to sunbathe or explore Lamai. She showed mehow to use the remote control for the room and that I could use theApple if I wanted to. She said the kitchen was fully loaded with drinksand snacks and to help myself.’Alex told me the code for the door, gave me a kiss and they both headedoff. I decided to use the balcony for a while before it got too hot,took a beer and sat outside on one of the loungers. Only then did I feelhow tired I was after the events of the past day. I helped myself to acouple more beers and snacks and just drifted off to sleep.It was after two when the girls returned. Alex came straight over andjumped onto my lap, put her arms around my neck and kissed me. Very niceway to say hello, I thought.‘Hello lover,’ she said, ‘we come bearing gifts. She opened the bag shehad with her and pulled out a dark blue t-shirt with the Koh Samui Bluelogo in white on back and front. ’We might as well make you useful forsomething while you’re here, free publicity for us while you’re wearingit.’She fished around and brought out some throwaway razors and shavingcream.Rubbing my stubbly face with her fingers she said, ‘you’re going to haveto shave that stubble before I let you near me again. Mmm,’ she saidrubbing my chest, ‘I might want to shave you all over, make you all niceand smooth.’‘You have exactly zero chances of coming anywhere near me with a razor,sweetheart.’ I said.‘You’re no fun anymore but, anyway, I saved the best present for last.’With that she pulled out a pair of bright blue Thai boxing shorts. ‘Yousaid you wanted some shorts and Areeya thought these were just right foryou.’Areeya said, ‘Alex, don’t lie, it was your idea.’“Details, details,’ grumbled Alex. ‘Don’t they look great? Try them on,pretty please?’ She held up what was possibly the gaudiest pair of Thaiboxing shorts ever made. Thai boxing or Muay Thai is Thailand’s nationalsport. To a Westerner it looks not so much a martial art as a streetfight with a few rules. One of the features is that the fighters wearbrightly coloured flared satin shorts decorated with, well, virtuallyanything. The pair that Alex had bought me were bright blue with goldembroidery and on the back the two fighting bulls of the Red Bullcompany.‘You don’t think I’m wearing those outside do you?’ I asked as I heldthe shorts by my fingers.‘No, that would look silly,’ she said, ‘just in bed will do.’I blushed yet again; she squealed with joy and kissed me again before Icould say anything.Areeya had organised for the restaurant to send up some food and we hada relaxed lunch on the balcony. The restaurant had put together aselection of Thai dishes and they were as delicious as the dinner hadbeen the night before. We ate and chatted and laughed together until thegirls said they had to go and get things ready for tonight. We arrangedto meet at Cockatoo at about nine and we would go find somewhere to eatafter then.It gave me a chance to catch up on some emails and it seemed thateverything was going well in Bangkok. I had been cc’d on an email fromthe HR director in Bangkok formally asking my company to allow me tostay on for another three months. There wasn’t a reply yet fromCambridge but I didn’t anticipate any problem from them as they weremaking a very good return on my work. I had also got an email from thefriend that had sent me Alex’s email address. He was asking if I had metAlex and if I had, could I get a new photo of him to update theuniversity alumni website. I smiled and thought that would raise a feweyebrows as well as blood pressure back home if I did. It did make methink that I would like to take a picture of Alex and Areeya for my ownuse.I made the most of the rest of the sunshine and managed to have anothernap as well. I headed off to Cockatoo 2 just after eight and had aleisurely stroll up the bar and took the chance to have a good lookalong the strip. Koh Samui may have had a reputation as an unspoilthippy paradise in the past but times have changed and so has Samui. Themain strip is now crammed with bars, restaurants, massage parlours withthe girls cheerfully asking you to come inside and anything else atourist might need. Taxis, tuk-tuks and cars clog up the street with theoccasional small truck passing by packed full with either produce orpeople. It’s noisy, smelly, lively and exciting. It has an electricityof its own but if you are looking for a nice quiet time on Samui, Lamaiisn’t it. I dived into the night market to see what there was but it wasthe usual tourist rubbish mixed in with some fabulous street food. Itreated myself to a small portion of fried cricket as I wanted a quicksnack.I wandered back to Cockatoo just before nine. The girls weren’t thereyet but Pao was standing outside and she smiled broadly when she saw me.I told her I was sorry about last night and I didn’t want her to getinto trouble.‘No trouble, Mr James, Miss Alex tell me I not in trouble. She say youbig friend and we be nice to you if you come. She say just not sit onyou.’ She giggled and I just had to laugh thinking about Alex tellingher that. I sat at the bar with a Chang beer and waited for the girls.The bar girls stayed away from me but I did escort bursa catch them looking at me andgiggling to each other. I did get one of them to come across and playConnect 4 with me. As expected she beat me with ease, ah well, I thoughtthey might have let me win one game.Alex and Areeya turned up about 9.30 and apologised for being late, afew small problems at the restaurant that had to be sorted out.Alex said smiling, ‘have you been looked after then?’I told them about what Pao had said about not sitting on me. They bothlaughed at that and Alex said, ‘I meant it too, I think Pao has a littlecrush on you. If you want to do anything about it, I am sure she wouldbe happy to oblige.’‘Maybe,’ I said, ‘she is very pretty,’ I got another smack on the armfor that.Both the girls were tired and as we had an early start in the morning,Areeya suggested we grab something to eat on the strip and then headback to the flat. There isn’t any shortage of places to eat in Lamai,but not all of them are very good. Areeya led the way to a small placeoff the strip where we had a pretty good dinner but nothing like thedinner at their restaurant.It was about 11, when we made our way back to the flat and Areeya saidshe would go and sleep on the boat tonight to make sure everything wouldbe ready for the next day. We kissed her goodbye and Alex and I headedupstairs.Alex put some music on, classical stuff that I could now recall Alexplaying back in Uni days. We flopped onto the couches, me with a scotchand Alex with a beer. I sat to one end of the couch and she laid outflat with her head in my lap. We talked for a while about our plannedjourney and how nice it would be out on the water. I was stroking herhair and she was drifting off to sleep.‘Hey, sleepyhead, shall we get to bed?’ I asked.‘No,’ she murmured her eyes closed, ‘I think I’ll sleep here tonight.’She opened her eyes, winked and said, ‘Gotcha, you should have seen yourface.’I tipped her onto the floor and raced for the bathroom as she hurledabuse at me from the floor. I did take plenty of time to have a showerand shave whilst Alex was banging on the door telling me to hurry up andcalling me the vilest names in both English and Thai.I finished and let her in and she immediately made a quick grab for mycock which I only just managed to avoid. I slipped off my jeans and layon the bed feeling the cool air from the ceiling fan wash over my body. Alex eventually finished in the bathroom and came out wearing her robe.She came over to the bed, dimmed the lights with the remote and changedthe music to Rihanna. I smiled as I recognised ‘Only Girl in theWorld’. Slipping the robe just off her shoulders she turned so her backwas to me. Letting the robe slide down to her waist she began to move intime to the music. Turning quickly to face me, she took a pace forwardand let the robe drop away. I think I stopped breathing as she waswearing just a black bra, knickers and heels.She continued to move and turn with the music, dropping slowly onto herheels and then slowly rising back up and then turning her back to me sheswiftly unhooked the bra and let it slide slowly to the floor. Sheturned back to face me and cupping her breasts in her hands she swayedand gyrated to the music. I finally remembered to breathe again, and shemoved closer to me bending forwards until her breasts were inches awayfrom me. I reached out to her and as my fingers were about to touch hershe knocked them away, turned and walked away from the bed, wiggling herbum from side to side. Somewhere the music had changed to ‘Pour It Up’and her movements were perfectly in time to the beat of the music. Sheturned towards me one more time, kicked off her heels, dropped to herhands and knees and crawled slowly back to the foot of the bed. She slidonto the bed and crawled up to straddle me across my hips. She reachedout and grabbed my hands; bringing one up to her mouth and sucking myfingers. The other she placed on her right breast and began rubbing thenipple. She made the mewing sound of hers, so I knew she already gettingexcited. She slowly lowered herself down until she lay right on top ofme. Still holding my hands she pushed them back onto the bed so thatthey were above my head. She held them there and began kissing me. Bythis time I was desperate to touch her and the feeling as her lips metmine made me tremble. She crushed her lips against mine and twisted mylip between her teeth.The sense of powerlessness with my hands held firmly above my head madeit all so much more exciting. Alex was also now getting very aroused bythis time and I could feel her cock growing as it rubbed against my leg.I looked down and almost bewitched I watched as her cock grew harder andbegan to poke out of the top of her knickers. I knew this would be aturning point for me. Was I prepared to overcome the sexual norms thathad run my life so far?Sometimes you have to leave the safety of your head and explore thewilderness of your heart.I moved my free hand to play with her breasts. Running my fingers acrossher nipples I could feel her suck in her breath in as I flicked andtweaked them until they were hard. Her hand had slid down to my cock andwas steadily moving up and down my shaft. I was so hard and turned on bythis time that I felt my inhibitions flowing away like the tide recedingfrom a beach. Sliding my hand slowly down her stomach I hesitated as Ireached her lower groin and I could feel Alex tense as I stroked myfingers lower and lower. Suddenly, my fingers bumped into the top of hercock and we both jumped in surprise. After the first shock I slid myhand down and gently touched the tip again. It felt smooth and warm andalive to my touch.Alex moved her hand away from my cock and pulled down her knickers sohers could spring free. She took my hand and gently placed it on hercock. It twitched as my fingers encircled it and her hand slowly wrappedmy fingers around the shaft; it felt so different to touching my owncock. You get to know the feeling of your own body but it’s so verydifferent when you touch someone else’s. Her hand still on top of mineshe began to move my hand more and more up and down along the length. Ithought, ‘this is it; it’s all or nothing now’. I began to move my handwithout her help and she moved her hand away and back to me. I felt hertense as I began to move my hand faster and faster and I could feel hergetting harder as I stroked it more firmly.I was scared I might be hurting her but she was breathing very heavilynow and she was making more little mewing sounds and panting as I keptgoing. She was still stroking me gently, but her whole attention wascentred on her pleasure right now. I realised that the most importantaim for me was to give her that pleasure. I realised somewhere along theline that I had closed my eyes and I opened them just as she tensed andputting her hand back on mine she used my hand to pump her cock reallyhard. Suddenly, she stiffened and keeping my hand fastened under hers,her cock twitched and she came in great spurts over her belly.Alex relaxed as the tension flowed out of her and I watched as she useda finger to wipe up some of the cum and licked it from her finger. In atrance I touched a pool of the cum still left on her with my finger andI offered her my finger and she sucked this too. She kept sucking myfinger for a while and then picked up some more of what remained andmoved her finger to my lips. I guess by this time I had broken down somany taboos that one more wouldn’t hurt so I poked my tongue out throughmy lips to taste her finger. There wasn’t much taste, just a lingeringsaltiness and I sucked her finger into my mouth and licked her fingerclean.Alex stroked my face and said, ‘Thank you, James that was one of thesweetest things anyone has ever done for me.’ She kissed me and huggedme tight.We stayed wrapped together until we began to fall asleep. Alexeventually turned over and I spooned up to her back, she pushed backinto me, turned her head around and we kissed good night. As I driftedoff to sleep I heard her say softly, ‘Chan rak kun, James, I love you.’The day dawned as most do in Koh Samui with bright sunshine. Alex was upvery early making a lot of noise as she got ready for our day ahead. Wehad to make an early start to leave for Koh Tao as it takes about 90minutes to get there. So, a planned departure time of 8 o’clock had beenagreed and Alex was up at about 6, to get ready. We would meet Areeya atthe boat as she had to prepare it for sailing. Alex spent most of thetime before we had to leave choosing what she would wear. She must havetried on at least ten different outfits, asking me each time what Ithought. Of course, every time I said I liked one it had to be changedfor another. My consolation was to watch her undress ten times and Imanaged to grab a few kisses amid lots of squealing about ‘we haven’tgot time for that.’ In the end she went back to the first outfit she hadtried on.She ended up wearing a pair of tight white shorts, white sneakers and awhite bikini top under a short white crop top with a straw Stetsontogether with white framed sunglasses. The white really accentuated hertan and she looked fabulous. I put my arm around her and gave her a kissand gave her bum a squeeze.‘Mmm, that’s nice,’ she said, ‘but let’s wait until we get out to seabefore we start doing the dirty.’I, on the other hand, had the onerous chore of deciding which t-shirt towear. I chose the Koh Samui Blue one as it was a bit more presentablethan my old one. We still couldn’t find my boxers so I had to gocommando again. I did believe that Alex had hidden them so I would haveto go au naturel. I really hope Areeya could find something on the boat.Alex had ordered a big hamper from the kitchen for lunch and we, I meanme, had to carry that to the boat. She said there would be drinksalready on the boat, so about 7.45 we headed off.I was intrigued to see what kind of boat Areeya’s father had. I hadassumed it would be some kind of small fishing boat that he kept there.I was astounded to see the only boat on the jetty that morning was a50ft motor cruiser that looked brand spanking new. If this was a ‘small’boat, God knows what Areeya would think a big one would be.‘What exactly does Areeya’s father do?’ I asked Alex as we walked downthe jetty.‘Oh, Kritsada? He’s loaded, does stuff in real estate, electronics, andshopping malls, I told you already.’‘No you didn’t. I would have remembered if you had.’‘Well never mind, we’ve got to get going, hurry up with the hamper, willyou.’Of course, Alex just had to carry her hat and sunglasses.We pulled up behind the boat which was berthed stern in and Areeya wavedus aboard. I couldn’t believe the name on the stern of the boat –Cockatoo 3. There was definitely something going on with this name, itcan’t have been a coincidence. I would have to ask Alex later on as shewas busy telling me where to put the hamper.It was shoes off to go on the boat so having got rid of them, we climbedup to the fly bridge to meet Areeya with kisses all round. She was alsowearing a pair of shorts, red cotton with a white t-shirt and a back tofront baseball cap embroidered with the Cockatoo logo. My guess was ithadn’t taken her anywhere near as long as Alex to decide what to wear.Even so, she looked fabulous. She told me there were some swimmingshorts and t-shirts in the main stateroom and I made my way down to thecabins. It really was a beautiful boat; two staterooms with en-suitebathrooms, fully fitted galley and even a grill on the aftdeck. Imanaged to find myself a pair of swimming shorts that fitted but thet-shirts were all too small. Still, it was good to get rid of the jeans;I would have to sort something out when we got back to Samui.Areeya was very professional about the whole thing and it was obviousshe was well at home on the boat. More surprising to me Alex was alsopretty capable as well. She ordered me firmly ‘hold this, pull that’and not to touch anything unless told to. I was very impressed with theease with which they prepared the boat to leave.It wasn’t very long before we had cast off and headed out into the Gulfof Thailand. I have always loved boats and this was a fabulous way tospend a day on the water. We were up on the fly bridge and watched Samuigradually grow smaller and then disappear. Alex declared she was goingto sunbathe on the foredeck.‘That’s on the pointy bit at the front,’ she said to me and just escapedbefore I could throw something at her.I sat with Areeya and she showed me the controls and state of the artnavigation system that were onboard. It even had an emergencytransponder in case we had to call for help. Areeya was clearly proud ofthe boat and the skills she had as skipper. We could look down on theforedeck and see Alex stretched out catching the sun. She had removedher bikini top but had kept the shorts on. We chatted for sometime aboutthe boat and I learnt a bit about her father. As Alex had belatedly toldme Areeya’s father was a wealthy man. He was originally from Samui andhe had started his first real estate company there.Business had gone well and he expanded to Bangkok and was now asuccessful businessman there. Areeya had been lined up to go into thefamily firm after graduating but she had wanted some time back on Samui,so ran the real estate company there until she met Alex. Her father wasnot best pleased when Areeya told him she didn’t want to go into thefirm after all and was going to set up Koh Samui Blue with this crazyfarang.Areeya’s mother had died ten years previously and I got the feeling herfather indulged her in this hoping she would come back to the firm afterher youthful adventure. She said she might at some stage but was in nohurry to do so.I asked her to tell me the truth about Cockatoo in Bangkok, Cockatoo 2here and the boat called Cockatoo 3. I said it was too much to be acoincidence. She laughed and admitted that her father did own Cockatooin Bangkok and had helped to get funding for Koh Samui Blue and whenthey decided to buy the new bar it was natural to call it Cockatoo 2.The boat’s name seemed to follow naturally.Areeya looked down at Alex and then at me. ‘How are you and Alex?’I thought for a moment and said, ‘I think we’re good Areeya. Things havehappened so fast that I find it difficult to put things in perspective.My feelings for Alex are like nothing I have ever felt before; she hitme like a thunderbolt.’Areeya looked at me and said, ‘James, that is how I felt too, she hasthat effect on people. She can overwhelm you like a mini typhoon.‘ Wechinked our beers together and said cheers to that.‘She is very happy to have you in her life and if she is happy so am I,’said Areeya.‘Areeya, you are a very special person and I am so happy I have got toknow you.’She grinned at that and said, ‘so am I forgiven for the wakeup call?’I laughed and said, ’nothing to forgive Areeya and maybe one day I canreturn the favour.’She giggled, ‘I think I would enjoy that.’Alex reappeared at that moment, still without her top, her breasts atriumph of the cosmetic surgeons’ art. She asked me to come down to thecabin as there was something she had to show me. I thought Areeyasmirked a little but all she said was, ’Alex, we have 30 minutes beforewe arrive.’Alex grabbed my hand and dragged me down to the main deck and then intothe main stateroom. I couldn’t take my eyes off her breasts as theyjiggled in front of me.She poked me on the arm and said ‘Eyes up here, not down there.’‘What is it? What do you want to show me?’ I asked, half guessing whatthe answer might be.‘I want to show you how to use the head,’ she paused for a beat and thengiggled, ‘and I don’t mean the bloody boat’s toilet.’She pushed me up against the wood panelled wall, stripped off my t-shirtand kissed me hard on the lips. Pushing her tongue into my mouth sheused both hands to grab the waist of my swim shorts and push them downto my knees. Still kissing me she managed to step out of her shorts aswell. Our tongues fought each other for a while as she teased my nippleswith her fingers and my hands went down to her bum and pulled her tighttowards me. I was hard already and I could feel her cock beginning topush into my groin. I was so turned on that this didn’t even give me apause. I pulled her even tighter to me and kissed her almost savagely.She broke away and said, ‘Whoa, big boy, we still have 25 minutes togo.’She kissed her way down my chest and sank to her knees. I felt herbreath on my cock as she blew gently over it. This merely increased theexcitement and I began to moan as she took my balls and gently rotatedthem in her hands. I was shaking by this time and then I felt her takemy cock into her mouth and I almost blew then and there but she took meout and licked her way along the shaft.I had my eyes closed at this point and I heard Alex say, ‘open your eyesand look at the opposite wall.’It was a heart stopping scene that I saw as I opened my eyes. Reflectedin the full length mirror opposite was the back and head of a girl onher knees kissing the cock of a guy who was leaning naked up against awall. For one insane micro second I thought I was watching a porn film.It was with no little shock that I realised that it was Alex and me. Sheturned round to look straight at me in the mirror and almost in slowmotion she reached up with one hand and put her fingers to my lips and Isucked them into my mouth. With the other hand she was stroking my cock.Alex looked straight into my eyes and it felt somehow as if I was beingtaken straight down into another dimension.She broke the gaze and plunged her mouth over my cock. I stared infascination at the mirror as I looked at the back of her head bobbingher up and down on me. I soon felt that growing sense of impendingpleasure reaching up from my core to wrap around my groin and to explodeinto life through my cock. I twitched once and then came with a gruntinto her mouth. My eyes closed and my knees buckled as I climaxed. Alexkept sucking and then got up from her knees and kissed me again,flicking her tongue into my mouth with the taste of my cum still on hertongue. Alex turned to face the mirror and we stood together looking atour reflection. I was seeing her body naked for the first time indaylight and I was fascinated to see her cock standing out from herotherwise totally female figure. She saw me looking and took my hand andgently placed it on her cock. After last night I didn’t have any problemwith touching it and I began to stroke it gently. Watching me do this toher was what an out of body experience must be, almost as if it werehappening to someone else.Alex whispered, ‘Later, baby, later, we’re almost there.’We dressed quickly and climbed back up to the fly bridge where Areeyalooked at us quizzically and asked Alex, ‘Well?’Alex giggled like a little girl and replied, ‘I had to show him how touse the head.’Areeya grinned; leant over and brushed something away from the corner ofAlex’s lip and looking straight at me sucked her finger. ‘Mmm, tasty.’Needless to say, I blushed.I could see we were now close to land and Areeya began to steer Cockatoocloser to the shore. We were heading for what appeared to be a secludedbeach and we dropped anchor about twenty metres out. It was a beautifulspot; palm trees fringing the beach, pure white sand, small waveslapping the edge of the beach. A range of small hills provided theperfect backdrop for the setting. We opened the hamper and ate a latebreakfast at the table on the aftdeck, idly watching the sea and thebeach as Cockatoo moved gently in the slight swell. It was pretty muchan idyllic scene and I could feel myself drifting off into a reverie.Areeya and Alex were chatting about business at the bar and I was happyto let them talk as I contemplated the mysteries of the cosmos.I caught myself wondering about how my life could have changed so muchin such a short time. I had arrived on Samui a 25 year old veryconventional straight man and within 48 hours I had fallen for atransgender woman, enjoyed more exciting and intense sex with her and abeautiful Thai girl than I could ever have dreamt about. I knew that Ihad been carried away by the sheer force of Alex’s personality and shehad stripped open a part of me that had remained invisible to me untilnow. She had helped me sweep away the inhibitions that had stunted mylife up to now. I had done things with her that only a few days agowould have made me curl up with embarrassment just to talk about. Iglanced across at her at that moment; she saw me looking and poked hertongue out at me then licked her tongue along her lips. It was a perfectexample of that mixture of little girl cheek and sex bomb that I foundso alluring.I asked Areeya if this was where they had filmed ‘The Beach.’ She saidthat had been filmed on an island over in the Andaman Sea near Phuketand that the beach there had been spoilt by the filming. She suggestedwe get out the snorkel gear and head over to a small reef where thereshould be lots of fish to see. Alex opened up one of the bench seats andhauled out masks and flippers. Putting flippers on is a bit of aperformance at the best of times, but Areeya and Alex had alreadystripped off their clothes and were now fitting on theirs stark naked. Iforgot all about my flippers and just stared at all the beautiful fleshjust a few inches away from me.Alex saw me looking and said, ‘First of all, James, close your mouth, itmakes you look silly and I told you we are skinny dipping so get thoseshorts off, now.’I stood and dropped my shorts but I did turn my back on the girls to doso. For that I received a sharp slap across the backside from Alex.‘Oww,’ I protested, rubbing where she had hit me.‘We’ve seen those bits before, so stop being so bloody silly. Actually,Areeya and I both like looking at them so we want to see them as oftenas possible.’If it is possible to blush all over, I did so at that moment. The girlsgiggled and flapped across the deck to the back of the boat. They bothjumped in backwards off the stern and I followed them. It’s difficult todescribe just how different it feels to swim naked; the warm water justseems to flow around your body and without the hindrance of a swimsuitit becomes a totally sensuous experience. I followed the girls and weswam about 50 metres away to reach a shallow reef not visible from thesurface.I love snorkelling; that wonderful ability to hang in the water andbecome part of the natural world laid out in front of you. There weredozens of brightly colours fish all over the reef and we spent an houror so just observing the life on the reef. Alex swam over to me and wespent a little time together just floating in the water above the reef.Areeya eventually signalled we should head back and with some reluctanceI followed them over to the boat. I watched first Alex and then Areeyatake off their flippers and then climb the boat ladder up to the deck.Their wet and glistening naked bodies made for an intensely erotic sightas they left the water. I quickly followed, looking far less erotic Ithink as I climbed the ladder. Alex found some towels for us to use, andasked me to get us all a beer.I went to put on my shorts and Alex immediately grabbed them and said,‘Not so quick, you sea dog. The Captains word is law on this boat, sothe shorts stay off until I tell you to put them back on.’I saw Areeya roll her eyes at this and I said, ‘But Areeya’s theskipper.’Areeya said ‘Humour her, James. I guarantee you won’t get any peace ifyou don’t do as she says.’For once Alex punched Areeya on the arm and not me.We sat at the table on the aft deck with the beers and talked about whatwe had seen at the reef. I became less and less conscious of the factthat we were all having a sensible conversation stark naked. In the endI forgot completely, although the chairs did get a little uncomfortable.Alex and Areeya decided we should eat lunch on the boat and then takethe tender over to the beach. From somewhere they found some aprons andopened up the hamper. I was told to fire up the grill so I made sure Ihad an apron too. It’s curious that the semi clothed body is sometimesmore arousing than a fully naked one. The sight of the two girls intheir aprons which covered their front but were open at the side andback as they moved about the deck had an immediate effect on me. Myapron stared to tent at the front despite my best attempts to thinkabout something else.Of course, Alex had to notice, came across to give me a long kiss whichof course made things much worse.‘Later, lover, later.’ She said.‘Lover.’ I played with the word in my mind and decided I liked thatidea.The restaurant had made plenty of food for the grill and before long wesat back completely full with some more beers and chilled for a while.Areeya put soft music on the boats stereo; there was no end to the toyson this boat. It was about 1 o’clock when Areeya suggested we go over tothe beach to see what it was like over there. This time Areeya insistedover Alex’s objections that we put on some clothes for the trip.We put a few beers in a cool bag and headed over to the beach in thesmall rubber tender and pulled it up onto the beach. It really was alovely spot; it seems there was nobody around at all apart from somefishing boats away in the distance.We found a shaded spot under some palms, put done a couple of blanketswe had brought from the boat and just watched the view. I noticed forthe first time that Alex had a tattoo just above her left hip. It was aphrase in Thai calligraphy, almost a work of art in itself.I drew my finger along the tattoo and asked her what it meant. Shesoftly said it first in Thai. ‘Kwai lub mai mee nai loke,’ and then inEnglish. ‘There is no secret that will not be revealed.’’It’s beautiful, I love it,’ I said to her and she kissed me.I laid back and with the effect of the beers and the sea air I noddedoff to sleep in no time at all. I don’t know how long I had been asleepwhen I woke up but judging by the position of the sun it had been awhile. I looked around and couldn’t see anyone. A moment’s panic aboutbeing left behind abated when I saw the boat still swinging gently onthe anchor. I stretched and thought Alex and Areeya had gone for a walkbut I couldn’t see then in either direction along the beach. To the leftthere was a small hill at the end of the beach and I couldn’t see themthere, so I turned to the right and began to walk by the side of thebreaking waves. I had gone about a hundred metres to where a line ofpalms almost came down the water when I heard laughing. Gotcha, Ithought. I crept up through the palms hoping to surprise them. As I gotcloser I could still hear them; Alex’s giggling and Areeya’s laughtermeant they were close. I was about to push through the small bushes thatgrew with the palms but suddenly caught sight of them through a gap inthe bushes and I stood stock still.They had spread their towels out in a clearing just beyond the bushesand they were lying there naked, intertwined and passionately kissing. Idropped to my knees to avoid them seeing me and found I could still seethrough the screen of bushes. As I watched Alex got onto her knees andmoved into a 69 position with Areeya on the bottom. I watched spellboundas Alex lapped her tongue along Areeya’s pussy and Areeya had Alex’scock in her mouth and was sucking hard. I had never thought being avoyeur could possibly be exciting but the sight of the two girlspleasuring each other made me aroused. It was made all the more excitingbecause they were not aware of my presence. They were really going forit now, their bodies tanned and glistening with sweat, as they lickedand sucked each other.My cock was now fully hard and I began to rub it through my shorts.Areeya was now reaching a climax and she broke her sucking, rolled Alexonto her back, and quickly straddled her and drove herself onto Alex’serect and waiting cock. Alex moaned as Areeya began to ride her almostviolently. Areeya was moving up and down on Alex so fast that it seemedonly seconds before Alex bucked her hips upwards and said ‘Uhhhh,’ asshe climaxed followed immediately by Arreya’s own orgasm that racked herbody. They continued their coupling for a few seconds and then seeminglyexhausted they fell into each other’s arms. The sight of Alex with hergirl’s body and man’s cock driving up into the beautiful Areeya was toomuch for me and I was rubbing my cock hard through the shorts.It was at that moment I heard Alex say, ‘Did you enjoy the show?’Oh my God, never has an erection disappeared as quickly as mine did atthat moment. That was also near cardiac arrest number four by my count.‘We could hear you lumbering through the bushes like a baby elephant,’Alex called out. ‘You can come out and join us now.’I very sheepishly walked through the bushes to find them cuddling eachother. I was hugely embarrassed to have been caught out watching themand I said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to watch you.’Alex arched her eyes and said, ‘But it didn’t stop you, did it?I blushed yet again, when will I ever stop doing that, and said, ‘Well.No but I mean, I shouldn’t have watched.’Areeya and Alex both smiled at this and Areeya replied, ‘James, it wasactually very hot for us to think you were there watching us. I hopethat next time you will join us instead of just watching.’I nearly passed out at the thought.Alex told me to lay down with them and I needed no second invitation.They moved so that I lay between them and they immediately kissed eachother right over my face. Alex then broke off and began to kiss and suckmy nipples and Areeya kissed me on the lips. I was now hard again asthey continued their assault on me.‘Right, that’s enough, we have to get back to the boat,’ barked Alex,standing up and looking down at me. Areeya move away too and left mestranded on my back with my erection tenting out my shorts.‘Why? what?.’ I stammered, totally confused with what was going on.‘Well that’s punishment for being a peeping tom,’ said Alex grinning herhead off. ‘Seriously, we do have to set off back but I promise we willmake it up to you later.’With that the two of them pulled their clothes back on and strode offtowards the tender. We got back to the boat and as it was getting lateAreeya said we should cast off now as she wanted to get back to Samuibefore we lost the light completely. The anchor was pulled in and thetwo diesel engines roared into life. We pulled away from the beach in abig graceful arc and set course for Samui. Areeya was at the helm andAlex and I had the chance to have an overdue talk.Mu holiday was over in three days time and I would have to return toBangkok. I wanted to get straight what the situation would be after myreturn there. Alex was quiet and I guessed she was worried about what myfeelings would be after I left Samui. I tried to reassure her that Imeant what i said about what I felt for her, but it was obviously goingto be difficult for her. She wanted me to see if I could take any moreholiday but I knew that was impossible right now and told her so. Shewas chewing her lip, something I remember ‘old’ Alex doing when he wasworried. I told her that I would get a flight back at the firstopportunity but it might not be for a couple of weekends. I asked her tobe patient as I had no intention of leaving her. I asked if she couldcome up to Bangkok instead but she said It was busy at the restaurantand the new venture would mean she had to be on Samui. We left it atthat, both of us a bit unhappy but hoping that we could still make thiswork.We were about 45 minutes in to the trip when the engines just died. Welooked at each other and Alex immediately ran up to the fly bridge tohelp Areeya. With power lost and no way of keeping Cockatoo moving webegan to roll in the swell. The sea wasn’t rough but it was disturbingall the same. I climbed up after Alex to find Areeya trying to restartthe engines; they were turning over but would not fire up. Alex asked ifit was fuel and Areeya said she had filled the tanks yesterday fortoday’s trip. Maybe dirty fuel suggested Alex, and Areeya said perhapsand she would go below to check on the engines. I asked if we shouldcall for help and that’s when Areeya said that we had also lost allpower. It looked as if the batteries had not been charging properly andwe now had lost the navigation and GPS system. For the first time aniggle of worry began to grow in me. Areeya disappeared below and Iasked Alex if we would be spotted by another boat. Maybe a fishing boat,she said but it wasn’t a main route were on so it might not be so easy.I tried my mobile but I had no signal and neither did Alex. Areeya cameback up from below, her hands and t-shirt streaked with oil. She triedthe engines again but nothing fired at all.At that moment, I spotted something off the starboard side and said,‘Look, there’s a fishing boat.’Areeya grabbed the binoculars and took a long look at the approachingboat. ‘I hope it is,’ she said warily.’‘What do you mean?’ I asked.Alex replied, ‘We sometimes get pirates out here operating from themainland. It’s pretty lawless over there and it’s becoming more of aproblem.’For some reason I suspected these pirates wouldn’t be the kind fromPirates of The Caribbean.The boat was approaching fast and it looked just like one the dozens ofThai fishing boats you saw around Samui. It eventually came close enoughfor Areeya to go down to the aftdeck and shout across to someone on theother boat. Alex translated for me, ‘The guy is asking what the problemis and Areeya is telling him we have lost the engines and can we get atow to Samui. He says that should be alright, but I don’t know,something seems to be a bit off here. He’s saying that he needs someoneto come on board to help us and Areeya is saying that they just have topass a line and we’ll secure it. He says that unless he has someone onboard he won’t do it.’The fishing boat just then came very close to us and one of their crewmade the jump between the two boats. Areeya screamed with pain and Alexshouted, ‘Fuck!’ and started down the stairs to the aftdeck. I could seefrom the fly bridge that the guy was carrying what looked like an AK47and had clubbed Areeya with it after he had made the jump to theCockatoo. She was slumped bleeding on the deck and Alex rushed to herside. The guy was screaming in Thai at Alex and she ignored him as shetried to help Areeya. I knew I only a few moments at best and the onlything I could think of was to hit the emergency transponder that Areeyahad shown me earlier. I had no idea if it would work but I prayed thatit had a battery of its own.The guy suddenly realised there was someone left on the fly bridge andhe let loose a burst from the AK47 and shouted something in Thai to me.Alex shouted, ‘Come down, James, or he says he’ll shoot us.’I came down the stairs as calmly as possible with my hands in the air.He was still shouting at me and gesturing to me to get to the other sideof the deck from the girls. Areeya looked in a bad way, blood waspouring from a head wound which Alex was trying to staunch with a towel.It was scarlet with blood by this time and Alex was weeping. Another guyfrom the boat made the jump and ran to the bow with a rope which he madefast to the bow of our boat. He then jumped back to the other boatleaving the guy with the AK47 on our aftdeck.I said, ‘Alex, don’t worry we’ll get out of this if we stay calm.’ Thisproduced another burst from the AK47 into the air and he screamed ‘NOTALK’ at me.I felt the Cockatoo stagger as the other boat took up the tow and westarted to move. It was now getting dark and our prospects looked veryslim. The guy kept the gun trained on me as I guess he saw me asprobably the main threat. He had proven he didn’t have any problem withusing the gun so I kept still and tried to see how Alex was getting onwith Areeya. The bleeding at least seemed to have stopped but Areeyalooked to be u*********s and Alex was now smeared in her blood. Iguessed it had been about an hour since the boarding and I thought thatevery passing moment increased the chance that he would get fed up withguarding us and get rid of us, which is what I believed would eventuallyhappen anyway.We were making only a few knots under tow, but I knew there was only ashort time in which to do anything. I thought if I could disarm the guywe might at least have a chance but the only weapon I could see was alarge knife that we had used for cutting the food for the grill. It wasa few inches from my hand but I couldn’t move with his gun on me.I said to Alex in English as fast as I could, ‘count to 30 and then askhim for water.’ He screamed again, ‘NO TALK’ and tried to hit me aroundthe head with the stock of the AK47. He missed my head but caught myshoulder which gave me a stinger down my arm. ‘Shit’, I thought, thatwouldn’t help but I will still have to go for it.Ales looked frightened but I moved my heads slightly to tell her to goahead and she seemed to get the message. I had counted to 25 when shesaid something in Thai to him and he glanced her way and screamedsomething back to her. It gave me just enough time to pick up the knifeand to hide behind my arm.‘Here we go,’ I thought to myself, ‘it’s now or never’. I fell to meknees and started shouting at him, ‘Please don’t kill me, please don’tkill me.’He switched his attention back to me and took a step towards me as heraised the AK47 to bring it down on my head. For a millisecond he lefthimself open and I flung myself at him driving the knife into his ribs.He grunted and our momentum took us to the back rail of the boat. Atthat same moment the boat staggered as the tow rope tightened suddenlyand it knocked us both off balance and his finger must have pulled thetrigger. He fired a burst into the air but as I went to grab the gun Ifelt a massive thump to my side and microseconds later a burning painshoot through me. The tow rope now slackened and the Cockatoo staggeredin the water once more, this time with enough force to throw both of usover the rail and into the sea.‘Shit,’ I thought as the water closed over my head, ‘this wasn’t part ofthe plan.’

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