Steampunk Desires: An Erotic Romance (The Complete Collection) by Sophia Wilde

left.
     
    Eloise sighed bitterly. She was alone in the room. This had all been such a stupid idea! It had now been — how long — eighteen hours since she’d last had her way with someone? More? She wanted to go home. She was stuck on this blimp, surrounded by idiots. Idiots in first class that couldn’t see that she deserved her own room, boarding pass or not. The idiot masseur that couldn’t see that her womanly, wet flower deserved the same treatment of the rest of her body. The idiot manager that had brought her down here. The idiot Edwin that had her doing this inane work, and the worst of all, that idiot of idiots, Alonso. It made her so mad! In anger, she threw the sheets off the nearest bed, then the next, then the next, sending up a flurry of sheets, pillows, and pillowcases, shouting in frustration.
     
    The door flew open, and Edwin rushed in to see what the racket was. Sheets were strewn everywhere. Some of the mattresses had come off the frames. Some of the contributor logs and inkwells had fallen on the floor, rendering the pages illegible. Ink stained some of the linens. Eloise stood in the middle of it all. Alonso had been right: she looked like a dog that had just gotten into the garbage.
     
    Edwin stared. He had a minimum energy quota he had to maintain, a minimum number of people fornicating at any given time, and that wasn’t some arbitrary number set to make some executive look good; it was a minimum needed to keep the ship in the air. He counted the beds that were still intact. Just over a hundred of the beds had not suffered Eloise’s wrath. He performed some calculations in his head. It was enough, but he would have to get the beds remade promptly. There was likely nothing to be done about the ruined contributor logs, other than to start asking people who was where and at what time. Fortunately, his crew was honest, with very few exceptions. He’d be able to trust them, especially once he’d crosschecked, and hopefully he could piece everything back together. It was easily several days’ worth of work to get everything worked out. He scanned over the mess. Eloise stood, her chest heaving, in the middle of the mess she’d made, incapable of comprehending the magnitude of the work that would be needed to undo it. Edwin was furious, but he had to keep a clear head. He needed Eloise out of the way.
     
    “Come with me,” he said to Eloise brusquely, grabbing her by the shoulder and escorting her forcefully to Eloise’s cabin. “Stay here,” he said bluntly, locking the door from the outside. Let the pest soil herself, he thought angrily. He took a breath and let it out forcefully. Step one, containing the problem, was achieved. Now to get some help. He went to the common room, seeking out several of his better crewmen. He led them to the collection room, where several of the other crewmen had stumbled upon the mess and were staring at it, dumbfounded.
     
    “New recruit needs a lot of training,” Edwin said tersely by way of explanation to the crewmen he’d brought and the ones already there. “I’ve got her contained for now. We need to get this place cleaned up. I need all of the soiled sheets thrown away. Blot the logbooks dry; we can’t afford to have any other damage come to them, then bring them to my cabin. We’ve got to start piecing the missing information back together before Sunday. You three, start remaking the beds. Yes, I know it’s not your job, but I need everybody to pitch in or this ship will go down. Thank you so much.”
     
    The crew scurried to do as instructed. As others found out about the debacle, they rushed to join in helping. They were all good men and women, and Edwin was genuinely appreciative of their willingness to step up. Good subordinates were very hard to find, and he was blessed to have a whole deck of them.
     
    The next two days were very tense for Eloise. Anywhere she went, Edwin escorted her. Anytime Edwin was not with her, she was