Chapter 17

I woke up still cuddling my pillow in the shower. I was so definitely a mess. I could feel my dress all scrunched up, and my hair felt a mess too. My teeth felt like they could really use a good brushing. Plus, I still had on all that makeup from yesterday. I stood up in the shower and stretched, dropping my pillow. I stepped out of the shower and began feeling for the light switch. I found the switch and turned the bathroom lights on. It was the first time I really began looking around.

I remembered the cameras in the bedroom. I did not see them until the last minute. Does that mean there could be cameras in the bathroom too? I could not find any cameras in the bathroom area. I did find rose scented perfume, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner. Also, there was the geisha kit under the sink. That had me feeling somewhat better. I came out of the bathroom and into my cabin.

Someone had been in here! There was a beautiful emerald green dress, with golden flowers embroidered on it laying on the bed. On the collar it was called a Cheongsam. I pulled up the internet on the TV. Amazingly it was still working. I looked up CHEONGSAM. On google the meaning of cheongsam, also known as the qipao, is a type of Chinese form-fitting garment of Manchu origin. It is a high-necked, closely fitted and often short-sleeved dress with the skirt portion slit partway up the side.

I took it into the bathroom. I looked around and found the box that had feminine deodorant and perfume in it. There was also shampoo and conditioner. I am not sure if it was for me. But I could not continue walking around in this kimono. I would smell like mold from the shower.

I took a quick shower, and put the lovely dress on. I was not sure if I could pull this dress off. I was not skinny like those women in the pictures. I have some meat on me. But I also knew I was not fat. The dress did fit. It was a little tighter than I would have liked. But it did make me feel pretty.

It was short sleeved, and came down all the way to my feet. It did also have the slit on the side. But the slit only came up to just above my knees. I was nervous to look in the full mirror. I went ahead and did my makeup. There was no way I was going to be seen without makeup at this point. However, the only makeup I had was the geisha kit. I did not go with geisha style. I only used what I knew how to normally. I don't like wearing a mask everywhere. I came out of the bathroom to go look at myself in the long mirror. I still had my hair up in a towel.

I went straight to the mirror and turned a couple of times. The more I looked, the more I blushed. This was just to form fitting. I let my hair down. I was hoping my hair might help to cover some if I left it down. I was highly disappointed. You could see every curve of me in this dress. It was a good thing no one had seen me in it yet.

From behind me I heard Prince Yuan's voice, "Nice, very nice! It looks like my assistant was able to judge your size rather well."

I cringed! I did not think to look around the room before I came out of the bathroom. I looked in the mirror at first, trying not to turn around. I found Prince Yuan was wearing a business casual suit. Or that is what Abel had called them. It looked like it had been tailored just for him too. It was navy blue. He had a baby blue shirt underneath. He had the top three buttons unbuttoned, and no tie. He had his hair half up in a Chinese man bun. The rest of his hair was flowing down his back. I swear he could be a model!

I think I forgot to breathe. I wrapped the towel I had had around my hair around my waist. I turned around and attempted to side step out of the room. I kept my gaze on him, hoping he would not get up. I know I was bright red! All I could do in that moment was smile. This dress left nothing for the imagination as far as I was concerned.

Prince Yuan did just that though. I watched him as he walked up to me. He gently took the towel away from me. "I can understand your reluctance." "You have never worn Chinese dress's before." "You are also a little more shapely than our native women usually are. I do love the curve appeal." He ran his hands down my sides, and wiggled his eyebrows at me. I felt like I was about to throw up butterflies.

I sidestepped a couple more steps. I just wanted out of this dress! I was so embarrassed! I was probably purple. Prince Yuan was not having it. "Now wait just a minute. I am not an expert in women's clothing. But I have seen these dress's worn a lot. My mother being the chief among them. I know a couple things we can do to fix this, and make you feel better. May I?"

I nodded. He leaned down and pulled a thread from the slit. It made the slit go about half way up my thigh. The border of the slit went all the way up my thigh stopping at my hip. I was afraid the slit might try to make it to my hip. But he stopped with the one thread. Now the dress hung more off my shoulders. It was not tight at all around my waist. He did not cut the dress or rip it. He had to have known he could do that all along. I mean it is not like I have a hang over belly. My belly is actually pretty flat. It was my hips that bothered me. I have pretty wide hips and a botty to match.

The dress was not tight at all in the waist, or chest area. It had only been there at the hips and legs. I looked back in the mirror. The slit only had about six inches before the top of the embroidery around the hem. I smiled, but the slit kind of made me feel a little revealed. I guess I will just have to get over it. I looked at Prince Yuan and he smiled. As long as he was happy, I would be happy.

I smiled at Prince Yuan. He wrapped his arms around me, "Would you like to have breakfast with the captain?"

Okay I was confused, "I thought you were the captain?"

He walked into the bathroom and grabbed the hairbrush. When he came out he began brushing my hair for me. I did not care. It was nice for some one to want to do things like this for me. He said, "No I am not the captain. You could look at me more as one of the pilots. I own the vessel. I drive it every now and then. But I pay a man to be the captain. For the rest of this cruise, for us, it will be time to get to know each other. The only other time that I will be at the helm, is when we dock. I have not docked this ship before. The other day was my first time to leave port. You could say I am still in training. I do not like owning things and not knowing how they work, or how to use them."

Not sure if he was just talking about the boat! I was feeling kind of in a way. I cant explain it. But I was bothered. "Are you trying to learn how to work me?"

Prince Yuan laughed, "No, we will have a lifetime for us to learn that. I know you are my mate. I can feel it under the skin. Can you not." I did not answer. My emotions were still a jigsaw puzzle.

He put down the hair brush, and turned us around. My back was to the bed, and my calves were leaning against it. He wrapped his arms around my waist. It just felt natural to wrap my arms around his neck. Without warning the ship listed to the left. There was no floor under our feet. In a panic, I hugged him to me as tight as I could.

He had caught the side of the bed with his feet. We landed on the water bed. He was still on top of me. He laughed, "We are out at sea. Larger waves will rock the boat from time to time. Are you okay?"

I realized I was still hugging him to me with a death grip. I immediately let him go. I pulled my arms underneath him and prayed we could stand back up again soon. He frowned looking down at me, "The boat only listed about a foot. It was good timing. I had intended on doing the same thing. But I did not mean for you to let me go."

My eyes were the size of saucers. He ran his hands, down my arms, to my hands. He pulled them out from in between us. He wrapped my arms gently around his neck. He pulled one leg up at a time and straddled me. This gave him more leverage to lean up a little further. He leaned back sitting on his feet. He smiled as he removed his over coat. Then he took down his hair. He leaned forward and began sweetly kissing me.

He said between kisses, "We," "could," "skip," "breakfast." My stomach growled at the thought of food. I suppose I had not eaten since breakfast yesterday, before meeting my new kidnapper. He chuckled still kissing me, "I could," "order our," "food brought," "here." He only gave me enough time to nod. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He ordered us a tray delivered to my cabin. He hung up and we were back at enjoying each other. Only kissing and feeling mind you. He was serious about waiting.

I have no idea how long it was later. It both felt like an eternity, and like maybe three minutes. But there was a knock on our door. Our food was here. Prince Yuan had me sit up in the bed. He put pillows behind my head and one between my legs for me to put my plate on. He made himself the same set up on my opposite side. Then he went to the door and got the tray of our breakfast.

It looked weird. I had never seen something that smelled so good and looked like a burrito, without being one. I had to ask, "Prince Yuan, what kind of breakfast is this."

Prince Yuan had just sat down and was getting his pillows adjusted. "Right, you grew up in the states. You probably have never had a traditional Chinese breakfast. These are called pancakes with eggs. They are quickly cooked thin pancakes or crapes filled with typically sweet, salty, or spicy ingredients. These are usually eaten for a quick breakfast when going somewhere on the run. I figured for right now, they would be perfect."

I smiled as I bit into the deep-fried crispy dough. Ours had fried egg, finely chopped onions, scallions, coriander, and a spicy sauce I had no idea what it was. I honestly only knew the ingredients, because when I picked up my neatly wrapped roll, there was a list of them on a piece of paper. Someone had taken the time to wright it out in English for me.

I giggled as I showed it to Prince Yuan. Prince Yuan took the piece of paper, "The crew is trying to show their acceptance towards you. That is how our people do. We like to show grand gestures." He handed me the piece of paper back.

I smiled and looked in the drawer next to the bed. I found a pin there and wrote a note on the back of the paper. It simply said, thank you and breakfast was delicious. "Prince Yuan, do I leave this on the tray, or take it down to them myself."

Prince Yuan chuckled, "Someone will be around to get the empty tray in about an hour. If you leave it on the tray, they will receive the message."

Prince Yuan and I finished our food at roughly the same time. We put our trays together and he put them outside the door. He made sure my note was on top. We shut the door and he immediately wrapped his arms around me again. I dodged and began a small game of keep away with Prince Yuan. I did not want to just make out the whole twenty days we were going to be together.

Prince Yuan was a fast bogger though! I dodged left and he was already there trying to cut me off. I faked dodging right and went left instead. I got up behind him giggling. He was laughing and having a blast. You could see it in his face. I quickly pulled his hair back and began running my fingers through his hair.

He froze with his head cocked back and spoke in a breathless moan, "Tiánxīn," He moaned out in pleasure, " If you wanted to play with my hair, why, Oh why, didn't you say so." He breathed out roughly.

I giggled, "Have a sit there sir. Let me grab my hair brush. I have wanted to play with your hair since the first time I saw it last night."

I happened to get a look at his face in the mirror, he was more than liking this. I grabbed the hair brush and came back. I began brushing the ends first and worked my way up to full strokes. "Prince Yuan, what does that word, tian-zin, the one you said mean?"

Prince Yuan reached up and took my hand pulling me around to sit next to him on the bed, "Tiánxīn, simply means sweetheart. Are you okay with me calling you that?"

I giggled, "What other words do I need to keep an ear out for?"

Prince Yuan rubbed his chin. His chin was smooth, he must have just shaved this morning. He said, "Well from me you will hear, Qīn'ài de. Which means sweetheart as well. Then there is Wǒ zuì qīn'ài de, which means my dearest, or Zuì qīn'ài de, which means dearest. If none of those bother you there are many more I could use."

I loved the sound of the words as he said them. It did not just sound like a foreign language. He sounded one with the words. I bet that is just how it sounds when you live that kind of culture. But I would feel the same about Russian, Italian, Vietnamese, or any other language besides English. They all have a wonderful sound to them. When Yuan spoke, especially with his deep tones, it hit me just like music. It sounded just like a beautiful musical. "Could you say some more. I just want to hear it. I do not think I have ever heard Chinese spoken to me like this before."

He smiled, "Yǔyán shì pǔtōnghuà ér bùshì zhōngwén qīn'ài de. Wǒ děng bùjí nǐ xuéxí wǒmen de yǔyánle."

I looked at him with awe. "What a pretty language. Now what did you say?"

He chuckled, "The language is mandarin not Chinese dear. I can't wait for you to learn our language."

"You are amazing! I do not hear any accent when you speak English at all. And your mandarin, well it sound almost musical. You could literally tell me where to shove it right now. But it would sound as sexy as hell. That is not right!" I giggled and blushed.

He place his hand on my cheek and rubbed his thumb across, caressing it. "Nǐ kěyǐ tuī tā. NOPE! I don't like it." He shook his head.

"Did you really just tell me to shove it?" He looked at me nodding, and we both burst out laughing.

He pulled his hair half back up and put his over coat back on. "Cānguān yīxià zhè sōu chuán zěnme yàng. Wǒ xiāngxìn nǐ kěyǐ shǐyòng zhège liànxí. Which means how about a tour of this ship. I am sure you could use the exercise."

I laughed, "It would be nice to see more of this ship than these four walls. I am afraid I might get sea sick though."

"The sea is pretty calm right now. She is fickle. She could start acting up at any point in time. But I think we would be okay to walk around for a little bit." He stuck his hand out and took mine. "Now how about I show you where the galley is first. You might want to come down here and make a phone call someday. You might want to let your family know where your at, or you might even just want a bite to eat."

Whoa, whoa now! Did he just tell me where to call home from! "Are you kidding me? You are going to let me call home?"

"Yes, I am not going to keep you from your family."

"When?"

"Right now if you like. We cant use cellular phones when we are this far out at sea. But we have a gigantic antenna up top of the helm. The helm is where we steer the ship if you did not know. The phone in the helm and in the galley give us access to calling nationwide. Would you like to go there first?"

I was so excited, I jumped on him with a huge hug, "Yes please!" When I realized what I had done, I froze. "So, sorry! I should not have…"

Yuan would not let me apologize. He interrupted me, by crooking his fingers gingerly under my chin. He gently turned my face up, and went in with an insanely sweet and soft kiss. "There will be none of that now. We are engaged! You may grab me like this, anytime we are alone. I will never hold it against you. But lets do try to show some restraint in public please." We smiled at each other. Yuan took my hand and led the way to the galley.