Author/pseudonym: Mona Carol and Cathy Roberts
Email address: monaCK2@yahoo.com and huntersglenn@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17
Status: Finished
Pairing: John Carter/Luka Kovac/Dave Malucci, f/f
Date: May 23, 2003
Archive: Please ask first
Series: 6/?
Category: "E.R."
Disclaimer: "ER" and all its characters belong to Warner Bros. No infringement of their copyright is intended. This story was written for the enjoyment of "ER" fans everywhere, and may be downloaded for your own pleasure. The title of the story was inspired by the Jimmy Buffett song of the same name, and no infringement is intended. The story will be found on the following web sites: http://www.heresmona.com/fanfic.html and http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Boutique/7087/
Summary: It's a slashy A/U story about how Season 8 might have been and contains no spoilers for the current season.
"Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, Part 6"
By MonaCK and Cathy Roberts
Randi picked up a muffin and slathered butter on it, then looked over as Luka checked his watch yet again. They had taken their time walking to the Veranda Deck, and then waited patiently in line to get their food. For her part, Randi was almost done eating. But not Luka. "Luka, they'll be here soon. Whenever Maggie says twenty minutes, she generally means an hour, so relax and eat your cold eggs."
Jeez, she thought, Luka and John weren't even *together* and the man was acting jealous towards John. She was glad she had a lot more faith in Maggie. Randi's main complaint was that she was missing out on participating or watching whatever it was John and Maggie were doing. Which couldn't be much, since Maggie was a firm lesbian and had no bisexual tendencies at all -- at least as far as Randi had ever seen.
Luka picked up his fork, and ran the implement through his eggs. His appetite was lost -- all he could think about was John being in the arms of someone else, and he knew that it was irrational. First of all, the person who John was fooling around with was someone who generally wasn't even attracted to his gender...and second of all.. they weren't even a couple. He had no * reason* to be jealous. John was nowhere near ready for a relationship.
"I know they'll be here soon...I'm just not very hungry anymore, Randi. I don't understand what's keeping them...it's been forty-five minutes since we left the cabin..." He shook his head, and reached for his coffee. He might not have been hungry, but he did need his caffeine in order to function.
"They're just as hungry as we are, so they'll be here soon. Maggie never turns down a buffet, okay?" Randi said. She eyed the line, wondering if she should wait for Maggie before going up for seconds. It wasn't as if the ship was going to run out of food - once the breakfast buffet was shut down, another one would be opening, so the timing of her return visit to the line didn't matter. What mattered was the idea that Luka might ditch her and head back to the cabin if she walked away from the table, even for just a few minutes.
She was still thinking the matter over when she saw the couple in question coming their way. Randi smiled. "Here they are, so you can stop worrying." She got to her feet and gave Maggie a quick kiss. "The line starts over here, come on."
John watched as Randi and Maggie walked hand in hand to the buffet line, then he sat down at the table. "Anything good on the buffet?" he asked before noticing that Luka had barely touched the food on his plate.
Luka nodded. "I'm sure there is...I find that I'm not very hungry...but if you want I'll go up with you so you can get some warm food," Luka said, placing his fork back down on the side of his plate. He knew that he was being irrational in his thoughts -- he had no claim on the man sitting next to him. So he found it best to try to just put the issue out of his mind.
Forcing a smile to his lips, Luka looked over to John once more. "Are the negotiations settled? Do we have the pictures in our possession?"
John grinned, then frowned. "Yes and no. Negotiations are settled, but I left the pictures on the dining room table. We can grab them after breakfast, but they won't even joke about doing anything with them now." He stood and waited for Luka to get to his feet. It wasn't good that Luka had no appetite, but John wasn't going to try to force Luka to eat -- the ship had a buffet line operating somewhere nearly 24 hours a day, so Luka wouldn't go hungry. John just hoped that Luka wasn't coming down with a stomach virus or anything like that. He wanted Luka to have a good time on the cruise, and being ill would definitely keep that from happening.
Luka nodded, and stood to join John, still unsure of how to resolve his feelings of pure jealousy. He needed to try to get his mind off of things. "So are we going to be paying for a shopping spree for the ladies? How about the luau? I have to admit that a luau sounds like a lot of fun," Luka admitted, as he looked back over towards John.
"We're not paying for anything, although you're right, a luau *does* sound like fun. I'll have to look into what we need to do to make reservations for one. I can check with the concierge this afternoon."
Once again, a smile played on Luka's lips as they made their way to the buffet line. The line was pretty short now as they were getting ready to close down the breakfast line. "You are going to need to get your food quickly, or we'll have to order some room service back to the room...though I don't think I would complain if I had to be alone with you again for a few hours while you ate breakfast," Luka teased.
John picked up a plate and grinned back at Luka. "Maybe we can have an early lunch from room service? After going for massages. I read something about a *special* couples type massage, but I didn't notice the details. Do you remember reading about that?" he asked as he started down the line, filling his plate with as much as he could. As much as he wanted to find out what Luka thought about his new *look*, he also was a little shy about having Luka see him that way. Once Maggie had declared him totally bare, he had looked at himself in the mirror, hardly believing he had allowed her to do that. But when he ran his hands over his skin -- well, the sensation was well worth it.
"Hmm...I might be hungry enough for an early lunch," Luka said, smiling over to John. In fact, having John talk about 'couple type' things was making him feel better about this whole situation. Maybe a nice couples massage would be nice.
"I don't remember reading about the massage, but we can stop by the spa when we're finished here and see what they have to offer. I'm sure that they will have something that will make us happy." The thought of being alone with Carter again -- in any setting -- was enough to make Luka's cheeks redden.
"I'm sure they will. Not that it takes much to make me happy. A small back rub, a bit of acupuncture, and I'm good to go." John decided he had enough on his plate. "Would you mind grabbing me some juice and a coffee while I take this to the table? I still have to pick up something to eat with and I don't think I can carry everything."
"Sure. I can do that," Luka said with a slight smile. He moved out from behind John, and walked over to the drink station. He poured a cup of coffee for John, and he would have poured one for himself except that then he would have no hands left to get any juice.
Soon he had both drinks ready, and he made his way over to the table where he saw that Maggie and Randi were already settled. He placed the drinks down, and smiled over to the ladies before turning his head to see where John had gone off to.
When John had reached for a fork and knife, he had found the bin empty. The buffet attendant apologized and said she'd be right back with a full set for him, so he had to wait, nibbling on a muffin until she returned with the cutlery and a napkin. He thanked her, then turned to head back to the table and saw Luka standing there looking at him. It was nice to have someone in his life who seemed to care, he thought. Even if it was just as a friend.
With a smile on his face, John returned to the table and sat down. "Thanks, Luka."
"You're welcome," Luka said, as he took his place by John's side. "So, Randi, Maggie, what are your plans for today?"
Maggie sat back in her chair, her arm loosely around Randi's shoulder. She was finished eating -- and even though she had been * quite * satisfied by her negotiation session earlier, she found herself eager for more.
"Oh...I don't know. What do you think, Randi? Maybe a workout...and then a bath to clean up?" She wiggled her eyebrows, and then looked over towards Carter. "I'm sure that you and Carter will be playing a little show and tell later, Luka..."
John had known it was too much to even imagine that Maggie would be able to keep her mouth shut about what had happened. So, thinking the best defense was a good offense, he decided to see just how honest Maggie was feeling. "So, Randi, did Maggie break the news to you about your shopping spree and luau?" He asked as he scooped up some scrambled eggs on his fork.
"Oh...yeah. That's okay. We'll do our own shopping. Mags over here tells me that it was worth it, and more. So what do you think -- do you have a repeat performance in you to show me some of that tongue magic that Maggie can't seem to get over? It must be something to have her batting for the other side."
Maggie nodded and smiled broadly, and the fact that Luka had blanched at this admission had not gone past her. Wow. Luka was *really* stuck on Carter.
John laughed. "Hmm. My tongue has quite a lot of stamina. The real question though is whether or not you'll have any left by the time Maggie's done with you," he joked.
Randi arched a brow. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that," she quipped. "Stamina has never been a problem with me. I'm like the energizer comer..."
Maggie laughed and brought her arm fully around her girlfriend's shoulders. "Carter, you have no idea..."
Luka was vaguely amused by all of this talking, but by the same token, he had enough of being social for one morning, especially with people who had been enjoying Carter as much as Randi and Maggie had. "So what do you say we take a walk over to the spa," he said, looking over towards John.
John glanced down at his plate -- he was almost done and could easily finish off the rest of the food, but the tone of Luka's voice made it sound as if he were in a hurry. "Okay. We can do that." He got to his feet and smiled over at Randi and Maggie. "We'll catch you two later. Enjoy your work out."
Maggie chuckled. "I don't think there was ever any danger of us *not* enjoying it." She looked over at Luka. "Don't be too much of a critic, Luka."
John cleared his throat, not yet ready to have to explain to Luka was Maggie was talking about. "Ready?" he asked him.
Luka's eyes swept over the face of the two women as he tried to assess what Maggie had been saying. But he decided to let it go for now -- some things were not for discussing in public company.
He nodded, and then smiled over to Maggie and Randi. "Enjoy the morning, ladies. We will see you later..."
Turning away, he led John out of the dining room. "I think the spa is on the Lido Deck. Lets go see what they offer for massages, eh?"
The ship was beautiful -- vastly arranged, and there was a courtyard of shops in the middle of it that you had to walk through to get from one side of the ship to the other. Luka was sure that was by design, to try to get the various people to shop in them.
Soon they were standing in front of the reception desk of the spa, with a menu of choices before them.
"We can just go for a basic couple's massage," he said, as he showed John the brochure. "But that sounds a little boring. There's also one where you take a mud bath...that sounds interesting...and then there's this one where the partners are left alone in a room with some special massage oils..." Luka raised a brow. "Which one is of interest to you?"
John slowly smiled as he thought about how good it would feel to have Luka's hands all over his body -- and of how nice it would be to run his hands all over Luka's body. "On that last one, are we left totally alone? And do they provide anything besides the special massage oils?" He didn't want to have to go back to the cabin for condoms, but if they *had* to, then they had no choice but to head back there. Provided of course, that they could even get into the spa right then.
Luka looked over the menu, having a pretty good idea of what John had in mind. "Yes. I think they do. It says down here that all is provided -- so I am sure they provide everything that we're going to need for this. And yes -- according to the description, someone comes in to show us the different oils...but we're left to our...own devices to put them on."
Luka smiled a half smile. "I think this one is the one that is most interesting to me too."
"Okay," John said, "which one of us is going to be brave enough to approach the desk clerk to see if we can get that massage now?"
Luka chuckled softly. "Allow me," he said, shaking his head at how the man could be so aggressive with him in the bedroom, yet be afraid to ask about a couples massage on a gay cruise.
He walked up to the front desk, with the menu in hand. After talking to the clerk for a few moments, he walked back over to John with a smile on his face. "Normally there is at least a day's wait for this, but they happen to have a cancellation for right now for this massage if we want to do it. So what do you say? Are you in the mood for it?"
John laughed. "I'm always in the mood for a massage...and other things," he said. "Let's go for it."
Luka made his way back up to the desk, and told the receptionist that they would be interested in the time slot. Very soon they were lead back to a room where they were given robes and bags to put their belongings into. Once changed, they were to take their things with them to the massage room.
Luka began to undress, smiling over to John hoping that he would do the same. "Do you want me to undress you?" he teased as he lifted off his own shirt.
John had started to reach up to unbutton his shirt, but he stopped when Luka spoke. "Why? Did you *want* to undress me?" he asked. Now that they were alone and getting undressed, John felt a bit of apprehension over how Luka would react when he saw that he was shaved. Was he going to laugh? Would he be angry about it? Indifferent? As much as John wanted to see Luka's reaction, he also didn't want to know if it was going to be a bad one.
Luka threw his shirt down on the floor, momentarily surprised at John's reaction. "Do you even have to ask that question, John," he said, as he started towards him. "Of course I *want* to undress you...you see, I happen to think that you have a very nice body that is too often hidden in a bulky wrapper," Luka quipped as he reached John's side.
He reached for John's shirt, and quickly his fingers found the first button. Soon he had the shirt open, and he pushed the garment off of John's shoulders.
"That's...much better," Luka said, his voice laced with traces of husk.
John had to force himself to stay in the moment and not let himself get lost in Luka's touch and eyes. "I'll have you know that none of my suits are bulky in the slightest. Now, my sweats, on the other hand, can be very bulky, and I have a few sweaters that are on the bulky side, but most of my clothes..." John suddenly found himself unable to talk, mainly because there was another mouth on top of his as Luka kissed him.
As Luka kissed John, the only thought that was running through his mind was that sometimes John talked too much. His tongue begged entrance to John's mouth, and his hands roamed down the sides of John's body towards the top of his pants. He was suddenly eager to have the man naked before him...craving contact with him in any way possible.
Luka's own penis was responding to all of this -- as if he had not been satisfied thoroughly the evening before. Feelings were newly awakened in him and desire took over any coherent thought in his body.
John greedily sucked Luka's tongue into his mouth as he looked forward to having another part of Luka there soon. All of his self-consciousness disappeared as he felt Luka's hands roaming over his skin, but they quickly returned when Luka stopped at his pants.
John gently pulled away from Luka, his face feeling hot. "I should warn you that there's a reason why it took Maggie and I such a long time to get to the Veranda Deck. But you have to promise that whatever you do, you *won't* laugh."
Luka smiled a half smile. "Oh? What did Maggie do to you, huh? I'm sure that she didn't chop it off or anything, or you'd be much more upset then you are," he said, looking down into his lover's eyes. He then brought his hand down to the front of John's pants, and brushed his fingers over John's hardening penis. "No...no...I don't think she cut anything off...so whatever it is, I'm sure I won't be too upset over it."
"You'd better not be. It was a spur of the moment thing." John said. And then, he grinned. "But there was a time or two when I was afraid she was going to cut something off." An idea suddenly popped into his head. "How about I undress you and you can go on to the room, then I'll undress and get into my robe and once I'm in the room you can 'unwrap' me properly. Because if we keep on taking our time getting undressed like this, then we'll use up all our time right here in the changing room." He said as he ran his hands over Luka's bare back.
"Hmmm...I think you come up with some very good ideas, John," he said, as he pulled back slightly from him. He was anticipating this massage eagerly -- looking forward to this alone time when he knew there would be no interruptions, and no worries about anyone listening in.
"Thank you. You come up with some pretty good ideas, yourself, Luka." John reached down and began to undo Luka's pants, and soon had them off, although he wasn't quite able to keep his hands and mouth off of Luka as he undressed him.
Finally though, Luka was totally naked, and John forced himself up from his knees to get the bathrobe for Luka. "Here. You'd better get to our room while you can," he said with a grin.
"Mmm...you do a very thorough job of undressing," Luka commented, as he looked over to John. He pulled his robe around him, covering the desire that was now more than evident to both of them.
"I hope you hurry up...I don't want to have to start without you," he teased. And after walking over to plant a kiss on John's lips, he headed over to their private massage room to wait for his lover to join him.
John quickly stripped, then folded his and Luka's clothes and put them into the bags provided by the spa. He pulled on the robe left for him and tied it securely closed, not wanting to flash anyone as he made his way to the massage room. After a quick scan of the room showed him he had packed up everything, John grabbed the bags and went to join Luka.
Once inside the massage room, John closed the door, then put the bags to the side and locked the door so they'd have complete privacy. "Well?" he asked Luka as he walked over to him. "Did they give us condoms along with the massage oils?" He had hoped to walk in and find a naked Luka waiting for him, but he supposed that since Luka would have to unwrap him, then it was only fair that he had to unwrap Luka, too.
Luka smiled, and held up a box that he had found on the table next to them. "I think that the dozen or so that they left will be enough," he said, his smile broadening.
Tilting his head to the side, he made his way over to John, quickening his steps as he approached. "And I think...I think it's time for me to see exactly what Maggie has done to you," he said, his voice a mix of curiosity and desire.
His hand reached for the robe, and before John could protest, he pulled the garment off of John's shoulder, letting it fall to the floor behind him. Luka's eyes swept down John's body, and they widened in surprise as he saw his private areas.
Smooth.
Smooth, likely, as the day he was born.
A half smile formed on Luka's lips.
"Well...that is very interesting indeed...you know...that probably makes it comfortable for many...many activities. Don't you agree?" He brought his hand to John's chest, and then slowly brushed his fingers over his skin, finally ending up where pubic hairs would normally be. "This is very nice..."
John blinked in surprise. "You like it? Because it'll grow back if you don't, but Maggie's smooth and when I saw that I just...well, it was a spur of the moment thing. Not her shaving me, but me asking her to, I mean..." he finally stopped talking as he felt Luka's fingers more intimately than he had ever felt them before. Even if Luka didn't like it, John knew he liked the way it felt to be touched without any hair in the way and he smiled. "So, just what kind of activities do you have in mind that this would be comfortable for?"
"Oh...I don't know," Luka said, sliding down to his knees. "I think that there is something here that is begging to be licked -- just like a lollipop. And without any hairs in the way..."
He brought his mouth to John's penis, and took it into his mouth. Sliding his mouth easily up and down John's shaft, he then brought his lips teasingly away and shifted his eyes up towards John's once more. "Simply delicious..."
John sighed when he felt Luka's mouth on his penis and he was about to reach out to run his fingers through Luka's thick hair when Luka stopped what he was doing. John looked down at him and smiled at his comment. "I wonder if any of that massage oil is flavored? I can imagine that a massage where the oil is applied by hand and removed by tongue would be quite beneficial, don't you?"
"Hmm...yes. I do think I saw some flavored oils here," Luka said, carefully getting up so he was standing more even with John. "Let's see just what flavors we have..."
He walked over to the tables where the condoms were, and picked up a box with various oils in it. "Let's see...Passionflower...orchid..strawberry..."
He held out the box to John. "Any of these sound good to you?"
"Can't say I've ever eaten a passionflower. A Croatian, yes, but never a passionflower," John said as he stepped over to take the box from Luka. "What else do we have in here?" He moved the bottles around. "Peach and cherry. Your choice," he said, looking up at Luka with a grin on his face. "Since you're the one who's going to be tasting a good bit of it, which shall it be? Cherry? Been a long time since I was a virgin. Peach, maybe? The state of Georgia is known for its peaches, and I did spend quite a bit of time there. Strawberry? Hmm...I can't think of anything to associate with strawberries, can you?"
Luka couldn't help but feel happy in response to John's enthusiasm. "Let's see...what can I associate with strawberries...I think...a summer's day is kind of like a strawberry...and I really like strawberry shortcake...does that count? Hmm...I think taste wise, I am most partial to strawberries, so that is what I'll choose..."
He grinned broadly at John, and took the oil out of the box. "Shall we begin?"
To be continued