Twelve hours out of port, my alarm sounded. Half an hour later, I was ready to go to work. I walked from my dayroom into the office, then across to the exit door, and pulled it open until the magnetic latch clunked against its opposite part.

Ahead was a glass wall; beyond, I could see a deep blue ocean and the horizon that divided the sea from the paler sky. I looked around, then ambled forward into the centre of the bridge.

"Good morning."

He turned to me.

"Good morning, Captain. Did you have a good kip?"

"Yes, thanks, George. Anything special?"

"No, sir, nice and quiet, cruising weather."

"Fine, I'll be in my office for a while. I have a load of paperwork to get through. We'll have a senior officers' meeting at eleven hundred."

"Okydoke."

I returned to my dayroom, brewed a mug of coffee, pulled a croissant off a shelf in my fridge, and picked up a jar of marmalade before making myself comfortable at my desk in the office. Three screens faced me. The first had an electronic chart display that showed the ship's position, the second selected engine room readings, and the third was for my administrative work.

Another day in command of a ship that cost nearly a billion dollars to build. Onboard were two thousand crew and three thousand paying guests. Occasionally, I would dwell on those figures, but not today.

._.

"Janet, you will clean the corridors on deck five. Work from forward to aft."

"Yes, boss."

I was part of the harbour crew. We boarded a cruise liner after it docked and cleaned the public spaces before the new passengers arrived. It was hard work and poor pay for a ten-hour day. But I had no intention of leaving the ship with everyone else. I was ill, frightened, and had to escape.

Around every ship, there are rooms where supplies of linen, soap, and other stuff like toilet paper are stored. Most of these are left unlocked in port because the stewards are coming and going, delivering to their guests' cabins.

I knew the timing was essential for me. I had to move when I was least likely to be discovered. It was about four o'clock when I found my hiding hole. Over the doorframe was a little plastic tag printed with 'Linen Locker'. I opened the door, checked all around, and closed it behind me. I was in complete darkness and turned my phone's torchlight on to work my way into the furthest corner, under a pile of discarded bed linen. I built a soft base and a pillow, then settled down and fell asleep.

Things happened, and it seemed like a bad dream. I remember hands grasping and pulling me around. Then I was lying on something and saw hundreds of lights move past above me. It was strange, detached from reality, and then a man shone a light in my eyes, and I felt pinpricks in my arms.

._.

My phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw it was the ship's doctor.

"Hello, Doc. What can I do for you?"

"Morning, Captain. We have a problem. I have a stowaway in the sick bay; it is a young woman."

"What's your diagnosis?"

"Malnourished, dehydrated, and nearly asphyxiated while hiding in a linen locker overnight. There was no ventilation. Unconscious when a stewardess found her. We have her on a drip and under a light anaesthetic.

"Okay. I'll come down straight away."

It was ten decks in a lift, then a long walk along an alleyway to the ship's medical unit run by a doctor plus two nurses, who worked alternating shifts. With five thousand people aboard, it was like a general practice in a small town. The unit consisted of an office-cum-consulting room and several small rooms for patients.

I knocked on the doctor's office door; even captains don't go there unannounced.

He opened the door and beckoned me inside.

"I think she will pull through, but it will be a close-run thing."

"Do you know anything about her?"

"No. There are only clothes and a mobile phone. She is one of the harbour crew."

"Have you looked at her phone?"

"It's off and needs a pin to open."

"Okay, let me have a look at her."

We left the office, and the doctor led me to one of the patient rooms.

Inside, I stared at the woman on the bed. Her long brown hair almost reached her waist. Her pretty face looked at peace, but her serious condition was clear from the tubes entering her arm through two cannulas.

I sat on a chair beside her bed and took hold of her delicate hand. To my surprise, her fingers closed around mine. I looked up at the doctor.

"She has responded to me."

"Well, you must have the magic touch, sir. She's only under lightly."

I turned back to the patient, and her eyes opened. They were ocean blue and stunningly beautiful.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the captain."

"Hello, Captain. I'm Janet."

"Janet, you have been seriously ill and are in the ship's hospital. The doctor and nurse are looking after you."

She smiled, a big, generous, open look.

"Will you stay with me, Captain?"

"Yes, Janet. But first I have to make some arrangements with my second-in-command. I'm going outside for a moment to make a phone call."

She nodded and released her grip on my hand.

Outside, I took my phone and selected the staff captain's number. I told him to take operational command while I was with a stowaway at the hospital.

When I closed the call, I pondered the technology I had. The ship was one giant five-g mobile phone cell with super-fast broadband everywhere. Our guests paid a small fortune to use the service, but it was also invaluable as a management tool for the crew.

I returned to Janet's room. When I opened the door, her eyes were closed. I sat in the chair again and took hold of her hand. The same as before, her fingers grasped my hand, and her eyelids flicked open.

"Don't leave me, please, Captain."

"I promise I won't."

Her hand pulled mine underneath the blanket, and I felt her other hand join the first, wrapped around my bunched fist. I felt the heat of her body radiate into my arm.

"Captain, I'm scared; that's why I am here. I had to escape."

Escape from what, I thought?

Later, the doctor increased her anaesthetic dose, and she disappeared into medical oblivion. I returned to my accommodation and met with the staff captain. I confirmed his temporary role and explained I would be with Janet until she was physically and mentally stable.

Early in the morning, I received a phone call from the doctor, asking me to go down to the hospital urgently as Janet was conscious and asking for me.

When I walked into her room, she gave me a lovely smile, sitting up with a breakfast tray on her lap, looking much healthier than the previous day.

"Hello, Janet, you seem a lot better today."

"Good morning, Captain, sir. Yes, and I'm starving."

I sat in the bedside chair again, and we chatted. I tried to find something about Janet's life, but every attempt met with silence, with her looking like a frightened child. I realised this was going to be a long job.

When the nurse took her tray away, she reached to me and held my hand.

I sat with her most of the day, trying to break down the wall she had built inside. While she was eating her lunch, I sat in the doctor's office discussing her case.

"I've tried every avenue I can think of to break down her reserve, to no avail. How long do you think she should be here?"

"Another night should do it, then you can have her."

"Yeah, but what then?"

The doctor shrugged his shoulders, effectively saying it was not his problem.

I thought for a while, mulling over the possibilities.

"She's pretty weak and mentally unstable, so that means a lot of supervision. I'll put her in the pilot's cabin; it's very close to me."

"Sounds good, sir."

"Then give her a job acting as my maid. She can clean and tidy my accommodation. My steward will enjoy having less work, or he could be used elsewhere."

The doctor nodded in agreement.

"She can wear a stewardess uniform, and we can rustle up some underwear, socks, and shoes from somewhere on this mighty vessel. Excellent, thanks for your help."

Of course, his help was sitting quietly while my mind did all the work, but that is a ship master's life.

._.

Standing on the bridge, I checked the ship's position and told the watch officer I was leaving. She nodded.

"Okay, Cap, I'm good here."

I walked aft, passing through the door to my office, then into my dayroom. Needing a pee, I went to my bedroom and found Janet there. She was fast asleep.

Quietly, I left, went to the bridge again to use the toilet and then returned to the bedroom, where Janet was awake and busy vacuuming the carpet. She looked at me shyly.

"I'm sorry I messed up your bed, but it's back how it should be for a captain now. I want to be the best maid you ever had, though I'm only a simple girl trying to escape a nasty reality."

"Yeah, I saw your escape on my bed, but I need your help because I'm a busy man. If you do a good job, there will be a handsome tip for you when you come to leave the ship."

I looked at her, very pretty, short and dumpy, with the loveliest pair of knockers on the ship. I wondered how long it would take to get her in my bed in a very different way. The thought sent a tingle through my groin, and my shaft grew hard in my underpants.

I wondered if she noticed, but then I saw her eyes glaze over. Something was wrong.

"Please, sir, can I have permission to go and eat? I have not had anything today."

Janet swayed on her feet. Thinking she was about to pass out, I grasped her and steadied her swaying body. In a minute, looking better, Janet went to her bag of cleaning stuff and pulled out an energy drink. After emptying the container, she went to my bathroom, rinsed it, and put it back in her bag.

The drink seemed to revive her. We stood a few steps apart beside my bed.

"Captain, I have finished my maid work. What am I supposed to do now? How can I please you?"

I started to think, what indeed? Then Janet walked to me, put her arms around my neck, dropped her head back, and invited a kiss. So I did that which any man would do. I kissed her and pushed my tongue in her mouth. Then she squatted in front of me, pulling my belt apart and running my zip fully open.

Her hand slipped inside my underpants, and she pulled my stiff cock out, dribbled her saliva on the head, and rasped her tongue around the swollen flesh while her fingers played with my shaft.

Looking down, I saw her face pressed against my flesh, my cock buried deep in her throat. She didn't gag, and I was surprised by that.

Slowly, we moved to the bed, and I helped her to lie on her back, still sucking my cock. Janet smiled, big and broad, looking up at me. Something clicked in my brain, and I started to fuck her mouth hard, pounding deep with every stroke.

I couldn't last long. Janet's lips, tongue, and throat were all taking me over the hill. I felt my cum race up my shaft and jet into her throat. Still, she didn't gag, but I thought I should withdraw and start to pull away. As my shaft slipped from her lips, she wrapped her fingers around it in a tight grip.

"No, sir, leave it in my throat."

"Good girl, I want to fill you again."

I pushed again, felt her mouth wrap around my glans, and settled down on her body. Her boobs pressed into my abdomen as I lowered my face between her open legs, seeking her pussy lips with my tongue.

"Oh, damn! Please, sir, I want you to be my first. Lick me, eat me, finger me."

I lifted my head and looked into her eyes.

"Your first?"

"Yes, I want you to be the first to fuck me."

Notwithstanding her sexual advances, I felt she was unhappy, and I was conflicted between the need to protect her and my desire to take her body.

"I'm homeless, an orphan, and nobody has ever loved me. My whole family died in a terrible flood, I survived like Moses, my crib floated away and the rescue service found me wedged in a tree. The local authority placed me in an orphanage."

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Once I was eighteen, I had to leave the home and was alone in the world. I rented a room and found jobs as a house cleaner and waitressing in a restaurant."

"Go on, Janet."

She paused for a moment, and I wondered what was coming next.

"Being your maid is the most important job I have ever had, and I want to please you so much. But, I want to know what it feels like having a cock inside me."

When I looked at Janet, I felt all-powerful. Her submissiveness turned me on; my cock was as hard as iron. I wanted to take her, to make her mine. I was the master of the ship and could become her sexual master. She was my maid and a maiden to be fucked at my whim.

Turning to face her, I smiled.

"If I take you to where you feel the sensation you want inside you, there is no turning back. Do you realise that?"

"If I don't please you, then you can feed me to the sharks. I have nothing else to live for."

She turned away from me, and my heart went out to her—young, vulnerable, and submissive.

"Janet, you are wrong to say that. Your body is beautiful, your breasts are firm, and round. I want to suck your hard nipples and make you happy."

I ran a hand down her tummy and found her plump pussy lips, pushing in to gently rub her clit.

"I want to explore your inner body, Janet."

Janet's body arched, and she moaned quietly, "Ah, yes, oh."

Her hand found my stiff shaft again, and her fingers wrapped around the circumference. My body moved as she pulled and pushed my foreskin over my glans. It felt so good. I turned around and lowered my face until my nose touched the wetness of her pussy, and then my tongue started its work on her hard clit.

"Ah, mmm, oh my God."

Janet moaned louder than before.

"Yes, I want to feel your tongue, oh, Captain."

The rank trailed off as a continuously decreasing moan.

"Yes, I want to please you, sir. I want to be safe here with you. Oh, Captain, my heart is pounding in my head."

Eating her out and enjoying her juices and smells was pure pleasure. Janet whimpered and moaned constantly, well on the way to her orgasm.

Suddenly, there was an infuriating beep, beep, beep; it was my bloody phone.

I lifted my head and rolled off, and she bolted into the bathroom. I glanced at the offending device, silenced the alarm, and saw it was a routine test. In the bathroom, I found Janet curled in a ball in one corner, sobbing her heart out.

I sat down on the deck beside her and stroked her back tenderly.

"What's the matter, Janet?"

"Sir, I'm sorry, it was that noise; it scared me."

"It was only my phone, nothing important."

"I just want to be good, and the best maid you have ever had, making sure nothing is out of place. Please don't send me away to the law."

"Look, Janet, we are far out to sea; no harm will come to you here. The call was unimportant, just some clown doing a test. Now, come back to bed."

I pulled her up and kissed her tenderly on her cheek.

"Oh, Captain, I'm so sorry, but I get jittery like that sometimes. I only want to please you."

Her hand grasped my cock while we walked back to the bedroom.

Janet sat down on my bed, then leaned forward, and I felt the warmth of her mouth envelop my glans. The pleasure was so intense that I groaned loudly. I grasped her head to steady myself.

"Janet, you are mine and going nowhere, I promise you."

She paused her sucking and looked up at me, her beautiful eyes still wet from her tears.

"Anyway, I don't have a passport, so I can't get off the ship."

"I can sort that, but we need some details from you."

Then, I saw Janet was about to burst into tears, so I bent over, making my softening cock slip from her mouth, and then I replaced it with my lips and kissed her tenderly.

"It's okay, I will vouch for you, and maybe there's someone who can help to sort this."

My hand pushed my slippery organ inside my clothes, and then I picked up my phone and made a call, arranging a meeting in my office in half an hour. I inserted a security code in the conversation, which alerted the other person to a problem.

I took Janet's hand and led her to my shower, gently soaping her in the warm cascade of water. I touched every millimetre of her skin, squeezed her full breasts in my hands, rubbed a soapy hand down the crack between her buttocks, pressed a fingertip against her little rosebud, and cleaned the congealed mess of her sexual fluids from her pussy.

Lastly, I took the showerhead and pushed it between her thighs. Janet came in no time, collapsing against me as her legs gave way beneath her.

A few minutes later, dried and dressed, we waited in my office.

Stowaways come and go and are usually no more than an administrative problem. There was always a sob story that they used to gain sympathy, pleading not to be turned over to the police at the next port. But Janet was different. Why, I could not fathom. I needed time to think about the unique situation I faced, time I did not have.