More Than One Way To Live Forever -Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Terms of Surrender
Snoozing in a tangle of limbs with Elizabeth felt like the most natural thing in the world to Jack. It was only with the arrival of morning light streaming through the window, and a bit of wakeful consciousness did Jack remember that this wasn’t common place, no matter how right it felt.
In fact, it was quite special.
Extraordinarily so.
It was an opportunity not to be slept away.
With the intention of waking her, but also of exploration for exploration’s sake, Jack’s fingers slid across her curves, over the worn but clean cotton lawn of his shirt she wore, and the smooth expanse of long thigh peeking out from beneath it. He realized, much to his personal delight, that she was wearing one and only one article of clothing once again.
Elizabeth stirred at his gentle touch, but did not wake. His fingers moved on, roaming to caress her hair, blindingly golden in this light. He traced her forehead, the straight line of her nose, and then on to that plump bottom lip he longed to take between his teeth that very moment.
He kissed her softly, and Elizabeth groaned, a small sleepy smile upon her lips.
She stirred, and suddenly Jack found himself staring down into those lovely café con leche eyes.
“Mornin’, luv,” he said with a smile, propping his head upon his hand.
“Good morning,” she greeted, rolling over onto her back. Her lips curled in a lazy, smile.
“Indeed,” agreed Jack. “It is a very good morning.”
She reached up to brush a stray raven lock from his face, and he caught her hand, planting a kiss on her palm. Eyes never leaving hers, so dark and all consuming, he slipped one long digit between his lips, teeth scraping at the pad of her finger in such a way that sent shivers down her spine. “Jack....”
Smiling wolfishly, he pinned her hand above her head, leaning over her.
“Jack what?” he asked playfully, kissing the curve of her throat in a way that made her toes curl. “Jack…please?” He nipped at her chin, and ducked lower, kissing the triangle of skin exposed by the open collar of her shirt. She smelled intoxicatingly of her coconut soap, of salt, sweat, and her own skin. “Jack…don’t stop?” With his teeth he loosened some of the lacings, nudging the soft lawn from the side of her breast, kissing the plump soft flesh. “Or Jack, touch me right there.”
An exasperated sigh of longing escaped her, and she only just managed to squirm away before he could kiss her pert pink nipple. “Jack, wait,” she rasped, eyes suddenly a little too wide.
The pirate paused, sensing something was off.
Had she changed her mind?
There was something damnable in a proper English upbringing, a kneejerk impulse to always say no to that which a person most decidedly wishes to say yes.
He feared their culprit perhaps lay there.
“Wait for what, Lizzy?” His tone was teasing, yet there was and edge of something surprisingly sharp in his words. “I want you and you want me. We’re finally here together, the way we were supposed to be all along. What else is there?
She made him crazy inside. Absolutely insane. His world was closing in, to where there was room for only three things. The Pearl. The Sea. And Elizabeth. He wasn’t even sure what order those three things ranked anymore, but he suspected she was fast climbing the list. It scared him, but he’d decided to surrender to his fear. It infuriated him that she would still cling to hers.
Elizabeth’s jaw hung open at hearing his words, her heart clenching in her chest. The way we were supposed to be all along. Never before had Jack completely thrown his cards upon the table, but here they were.
What else was there, indeed?
What else had there ever been, but him?
His eyes positively bored into her, filled with desire and fire and anger too. She’d finally pushed him to the edge. The edge of reason, the edge of self-control.
She closed her eyes, just to escape that penetrating gaze, breathing deeply. It only filled her nostrils with the scent of him, the exotic scent of his skin that always sent her reeling. Her chest clenched, and she felt a sudden surge of tears well up behind her eyelids, flowing out to stream down her cheeks.
Immediately Jack softened. Oh Lord, now he’d made her cry... He pulled her closer, kissing the corners of her eyes. “Lizzy…”
Finally she dared to open her eyes, regarding him through slit lids.
Ever so gently, his thumb swept below the corner of her eye, coming away with a single trembling tear that glittered in the pure morning sunlight. He studied it quivering at the tip of his thumb, as though it were a jewel of great worth, before turning his gaze back to her. “I ain’t worth this, luv,” he said quietly. “If that’s all I really do for you, ye really shouldn’t be here.”
All her life, she’d lived in such a cold place. Her upbringing trained her to keep an iron control of her feelings. To appear bored, when everything in life was so very wonderful. Jack had a way of bursting in upon her world and setting everything on fire. He thawed her heart, where after Will’s departure there had been only ice for so long.
Everyone always seemed to have an agenda for Elizabeth. Her father wanted to marry her off to a nice gentleman, because that was what was done. Norrington wanted to marry her because she was a fine woman, whatever that meant. Yes, he loved her, but James would have never considered it without that presupposed criterion. Will, love her as he did, placed her on a pedestal in his head, expected her to resemble the angel her comely features suggested.
And what did Jack do? Of course, he’d used her person to meet his own ends before. Took her hostage after rescuing her from a watery grave to escape Norrington and his soldiers. Well, he had gotten into the mess all because of her, so quid pro quo. He’d also used her affection for Will to find the dead man’s chest. He’d nearly sacrificed her with the rest of the crew to the kraken, but he came back. And then she killed him. QPQ again.
She could count a dozen other instances, but none of these things, none of them ever demanded something of her she was not, or couldn’t be. Time and time again, Jack was the one who held a mirror to her face and challenged her to see her true self. That was the greatest gift, the greatest freedom, anyone could ever offer a human being.
Slowly she shook her head. “It isn’t like that,” she whispered, attempting to harness the hurricane inside, the howling maelstrom of emotion. “It’s just…you make me feel everything,” she tried to explain, knowing those words were not sufficient, even as she felt this great typhoon of emotion crashing through her.
But Jack nodded, seeming to understand all too well. He cupped the side of her face, brushing the stray golden locks away so that he could see her in entirety. “I think I know what ye mean,” he said softy. “I can make it all go quiet, luv. At least, for a little while.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes, leaning into his touch. That small tenderness began to quell the howling inside, made her feel just a tad less insane between her head and her heart. She reached up to trace the lines of Jack’s face with her fingertips. The noble line of his brow, his straight patrician nose, and that lush full lower lip. For a pirate, beneath the wild coiffure and bandana, beads and twin braided beard, his handsome features were ridiculously, perhaps unfairly, classical.
As she mapped the face of this man who lay beside her, this wonderful, infuriating, intoxicating, pirate, Elizabeth’s heart swelled with a warmth she absolutely could not describe. It was powerful and all consuming, it almost hurt and yet also she relaxed, a certain resolve settling over her. She knew in that moment that she loved Jack Sparrow. She loved him in a way she’d never loved Will. She loved him in a way that she could not walk away or hide from. She didn’t know if she could ever tell him in those exact words.
I love you somehow seemed too mundane for this thing that laughed and pulsed inside her like a living breathing creature of light.
But she knew that it was true. Jack had stolen her heart, as surely as a chest full of treasure. He possessed a part of her Will had never fathomed, much less could have ever touched.
Jack watched her face change from inches away, watched the fear melt away from her warm mocha brown eyes, and would have given his right pinky finger to know what exactly she was thinking.
But instead an impish little smile curled her lips, and she held the side of his face in her elegant hands.
“Well then, Captain Sparrow,” she said quietly. “Shall we negotiate the terms of my surrender?”
Instantly the mischievous light returned to Jack’s dark eyes, his expression filled with joy and delight. He recognized her words for what they were: a white flag raised high, waving in the breeze. A part of him thought he would never live to truly see the day.
“Negotiate away,” he acquiesced, leaning down to kiss her gently. “What is it the Pirate King desires?”
In that moment, he could not think of a thing, not a single thing in the world, that he would not pay to possess her. Gold and riches. Promises and vows. Marr-i-age, even, for in legal terms she and Will certainly had no bloody proof or certificate of their union. He would even pay time ashore-though hopefully it would be brief. And it would, for he suspected his Lizzy loved the sea as much as he.
Elizabeth paused. What did she truly want, that she didn’t already have, here in this berth upon the Pearl? There was one thing she needed, one thing she dared request.
“When this adventure is over, promise you won’t forget about me?”
Jack stiffened, his brow furrowing. When had he ever forgotten about her? Not after the first time he’d sailed away, and certainly not after the second. Oh, but he had left her alone, so very alone, and perhaps that was what she meant. It was hardly a negotiation at all, for he greatly hoped that if they survived this adventure, he could convince her to haul away with him on the Pearl.
But that was a potentially sticky, possibly messy, discussion about that uncertain span of time known as the future. It was a discussion, he felt, that very much belonged in the future. In his favorite point in time, being the present, he found it was a very easy thing just to nod. “Granted, luv. Absolutely, unequivocally, resolutely, granted.” And he leaned down to kiss her, deep and long and slow.
When he slid the lawn shirt up over her head she did not protest, surrendering her body to his eyes and his wicked, clever, hands. Jack groaned for the sight of her, so buxom and golden in the clear morning light. A small smile curled the corners of her mouth. She seemed to enjoy being appraised by him, being regarded as something precious and fine.
As he caressed her skin, reacquainted himself with some parts of her body and explored others anew, a warm elation spread through Jack. It was a little like being drunk, it dulled the constant ache of consciousness, and made the world seem a little more beautiful, a little more bearable. He found himself thinking that this was something he could get used to. He could drink a little less, and make love to Lizzy a lot more.
Make love.
When was the last time he’d even thought those words? Had anyone ever meant as much to him as Elizabeth? There was a shadow of a memory in his past, of a saucy barmaid in a tavern back in England, a girl he’d cared for and would visit on shore leave. She’d begged him to marry her and he wouldn’t, because he never wanted to be like his Da, to have a woman who depended on him on shore half a world away. He never saw her again after the run in with the East India Trading Company. He hadn’t really thought about her, until this moment.
Perhaps that had been a kind of love, but it had been nothing like this. This mad, howling need to have Elizabeth by his side, to possess her and keep her. Could he tell his younger self that a woman would make him feel this way someday, his younger self would have called him stark raving mad.
His younger self may have been right, but Jack didn’t care.
“What, Jack?” Elizabeth whispered, caressing his thick ropey hair.
Jack looked up from his place with his mouth low on her belly, his dark eyes suddenly wide with alarm. Had he been talking to himself this whole time? Maybe he was bloody daft, and what exactly had she heard?
“Said you’re beautiful,” he smoothly lied. Elizabeth smiled knowingly, clearly not believing him.
“Liar.” There was laughter in her honey brown eyes, and she stroked the line of his cheek lovingly. He leaned into her touch, as a flower follows the sun.
“Pirate, luv.”
Hoping to distract her, he continued on his original path, dipping his tongue in her belly button. She gasped, tilting her head back.
“Jack…”
“You liked this, remember, luv?” he coaxed, kissing the inside of her thigh, and involuntarily her legs spread wider, inviting him in.
“I did. I do…” she corrected, her head lolling to the side as his breath ghosted over her curls. She moaned as he kissed her center, his full lips and clever mouth upon her seeming to make the room spin. “But I want…I need you inside me. Now. Please.”
Jack lifted his head to regard her across the span of her naked body. She met his gaze dead on, need in her eyes too strong for him to deny. He understood, all too well. They had waited so long, what felt like a lifetime, to finally be together. This time could be fleeting, precious, and couldn’t be squandered.
Climbing her body once more, Jack settled his hips between her thighs, the motion as easy and natural as though it had been done a thousand times before. She could feel him hovering at her entrance, and with a pleading sound she rocked her hips against him, trying to reach him. “Jack,” she pleaded, pressed into the bend of his neck.
“Look at me, luv,” he requested, holding himself above her on his elbows. He wanted to watch her face, needed to see her as he made them one. She laid back on the pillow, her hair a wild mane of gold about her. She was so beautiful it hurt, this fine creature that seemed carved and gilded by a renaissance master’s skillful hand.
“Please, Jack,” she pleaded again, and he broke, slowly rocking his hips forward, until he lay sheathed completely inside her. She held his gaze up until the end, when he filled her so completely that she had to rock her head back into the pillow, sighing with pleasure and contentment.
But he paused above her, trembling and taut. “Am I hurting you?”
Maybe it hurt a little, but nothing like the pain of her first time. Besides, she was used to her time with Jack always having some edge to it-why would making love with him be any different?
With a smile she shook her head in the negative, pulling him deeper with heels against that delectably round derriere of his, winning a pained groan from deep in his chest.
“No. You make me feel whole,” she told him, and Jack’s heart skipped a beat.
Elizabeth stared up at him half liddedly, and he found at that moment he couldn’t read her. Was it rapture? Pain? Happiness? Pleasure? He realized in a triumphant and terrifying moment that it was none of those: it was trust.
The little sounds she made beneath his touch drove him wild, and he trembled with the urge to take her, to drive himself inside over and over. Instead he moved slowly, rocking against her, and soon they found a rhythm between them. For every question there was an answer between their bodies, for every hollow a corresponding curve. She loved the pleasure of Jack’s mouth, but this, this sublime pleasure taken from him being within her, his body moving against hers, was simply divine.
She did not think about Will, or the fact that her infidelity would indeed be condemned as worse because it was Jack she chose to share it with. And yet, who else would it be, but Jack? It was not a casual lust that had undone her will of steel, but a long unfulfilled desire to be a part of a man who knew her heart and soul better than anyone else ever could.
Elizabeth was bliss Jack found himself thinking. Being inside her, feeling her writhing beneath his body, her hands on his chest and his back, her kisses upon his neck. He’d fantasized about this moment more times than he could possibly count. He’d dreamed of all the ways he would take her, everything he wanted to show her. But this first time he found there could only be this. Her young lithe body beneath his, engulfed in his arms. Plain ol’ vanilla missionary. It was decidedly intimate, and for that reason he’d always avoided it with the doxies and his other various lovers. But with Elizabeth, for this first time, it seemed nothing else would do.
For her moans and sighs and the delicious way she moved against him, he didn’t think she minded.
How could Will have gone back to the sea, after only experiencing her once? Jack suspected that had he been in the whelp’s place, he would have found a loophole by now, weasled his way out, and back to her.
But Will wasn’t like Jack. Will was an honest man. A martyr. He would do his honest duty to the very end. That was why Elizabeth was there with Jack in the first place. Was why she let Jack touch her, explore her secret treasure. He knew he was second to Will in the grand scheme of things, yet at that moment, Jack did not feel bitter about this. He wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.
So bully for you, dear William, I’ll stay here and take care of your girl.
He knew Elizabeth neared her completion, her back arched beneath him, taut as a bow, her face contorted in an expression of pure pleasure. He slipped a hand between them as he pushed inside her, giving her that little extra nudge off the edge into a shining paradise that shook her to the bone. She writhed beneath him, burying her face in the bend of his neck, a cry escaping her that was almost a sob. He felt her young body clench and quiver around him, knowing he would come too.
A very crazy notion gripped hold of him, the temptation to spill deep inside her, not for the sake of pleasure but with the express desire to fill her womb with a piece of him. To do that which the whelp had not managed. To have a child with Elizabeth, to stand by her side and watch it grow. A child with wild golden locks and mischievous black eyes running wild about the Pearl…
But in the end, as that ultimate pleasure rushed through his loins, Jack regained a bit of his sanity. Quickly he withdrew, shuddering as he spilled upon Elizabeth’s taut belly. With a groan he collapsed upon her, burying his nose in her hair. She held him to her, unwilling to let go just yet, stroking his back with the tips of her fingers in a way that won her a shiver rolling down his spine.
They lay on the berth as though they were dead, bones reduced to jelly, for quite some time. It seemed like it could have been hours to Jack, before he found the strength to lift himself up onto one elbow. Elizabeth looked down at the puddle upon her belly, understanding all too well, knowing she hadn’t had a single coherent thought in her mind about the possibility of a child in their moment of passion. There was relief, but also a twinge of regret in her.
A child with Jack--what a grand adventure.
And yet she’d tried before and had not been successful. What if she wasn’t able? What if she lost his too? It would destroy her, utterly and thoroughly, she knew. And for that, in the end, she said, “Thank you, Jack.”
Jack kissed her, a kiss so sweet it shouldn’t be possible that it came from a pirate’s mouth. “Maybe some other time, luv,” he teased her, but there was something in his soulful dark eyes, and she wasn’t sure if he was really teasing at all.
Relaxing in Jack’s arms, her naked body pressed to the length of his, Elizabeth traced the scars and tattoos written across his chest, toyed with the dusting of curled black hair upon his pectorals. He stroked her shoulders and spine, sending delicious little chills marching across her body. My god, she thought. Already, I want him again.
In a dreamy voice she broke the contented silence of the cabin. “The island.”
Jack stirred from his own reverie, looking down at the gilded goddess curled against his side. “What was that, darlin’?”
“You asked how long I’ve wanted you. My answer is the island. I was so frightened that you would ravish me, and when it became apparent that you wouldn’t, I found that I was so very disappointed.” She laughed, turning a cheeky grin up to him. “I cannot tell you how many nights my dreams took me back to that desert isle, ruminating on all the things I wished I’d had the courage to say and do.”
Jack’s heart swelled with something warm and decidedly damning. It definitely had not been honor that kept him from trying to seduce her in the end. It had been that old friend Rum. And with friends like that, who needs enemies?
He opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a shout from outside of “Port Royal ho!”
With a groan, Jack pulled Elizabeth closer, for once frustrated with the Pearl’s exceptional alacrity. “Why don’t we just drop off Norry and you slip out with me?”
Nested under the pirate’s chin, curled up in his warmth and bare skin, that was exactly what she wanted to do.
“I can’t,” she sighed, and Jack could hear the pure reluctance in her voice. Perhaps even dread. He’d known that would be her answer, and then a sort of terror gripped him. Their whole plan was based on his ability to slip under that bastard de Vargas’s nose, while she distracted him, all by her onesies.
Alone.
With a monster that already seemed to have some sort of hold on her mind.
“I don’t think this is one of our finer ideas, luv.”
In fact, it seemed downright stupid.
“Neither do I,” she confessed. “But it’s the best one I’ve got.”
Best one for Will, at any rate, thought Jack, gazing down at her mournfully. But that was the name of her game, it seemed. After all, Will was her husband.
Jack was only...her pirate.
Snoozing in a tangle of limbs with Elizabeth felt like the most natural thing in the world to Jack. It was only with the arrival of morning light streaming through the window, and a bit of wakeful consciousness did Jack remember that this wasn’t common place, no matter how right it felt.
In fact, it was quite special.
Extraordinarily so.
It was an opportunity not to be slept away.
With the intention of waking her, but also of exploration for exploration’s sake, Jack’s fingers slid across her curves, over the worn but clean cotton lawn of his shirt she wore, and the smooth expanse of long thigh peeking out from beneath it. He realized, much to his personal delight, that she was wearing one and only one article of clothing once again.
Elizabeth stirred at his gentle touch, but did not wake. His fingers moved on, roaming to caress her hair, blindingly golden in this light. He traced her forehead, the straight line of her nose, and then on to that plump bottom lip he longed to take between his teeth that very moment.
He kissed her softly, and Elizabeth groaned, a small sleepy smile upon her lips.
She stirred, and suddenly Jack found himself staring down into those lovely café con leche eyes.
“Mornin’, luv,” he said with a smile, propping his head upon his hand.
“Good morning,” she greeted, rolling over onto her back. Her lips curled in a lazy, smile.
“Indeed,” agreed Jack. “It is a very good morning.”
She reached up to brush a stray raven lock from his face, and he caught her hand, planting a kiss on her palm. Eyes never leaving hers, so dark and all consuming, he slipped one long digit between his lips, teeth scraping at the pad of her finger in such a way that sent shivers down her spine. “Jack....”
Smiling wolfishly, he pinned her hand above her head, leaning over her.
“Jack what?” he asked playfully, kissing the curve of her throat in a way that made her toes curl. “Jack…please?” He nipped at her chin, and ducked lower, kissing the triangle of skin exposed by the open collar of her shirt. She smelled intoxicatingly of her coconut soap, of salt, sweat, and her own skin. “Jack…don’t stop?” With his teeth he loosened some of the lacings, nudging the soft lawn from the side of her breast, kissing the plump soft flesh. “Or Jack, touch me right there.”
An exasperated sigh of longing escaped her, and she only just managed to squirm away before he could kiss her pert pink nipple. “Jack, wait,” she rasped, eyes suddenly a little too wide.
The pirate paused, sensing something was off.
Had she changed her mind?
There was something damnable in a proper English upbringing, a kneejerk impulse to always say no to that which a person most decidedly wishes to say yes.
He feared their culprit perhaps lay there.
“Wait for what, Lizzy?” His tone was teasing, yet there was and edge of something surprisingly sharp in his words. “I want you and you want me. We’re finally here together, the way we were supposed to be all along. What else is there?
She made him crazy inside. Absolutely insane. His world was closing in, to where there was room for only three things. The Pearl. The Sea. And Elizabeth. He wasn’t even sure what order those three things ranked anymore, but he suspected she was fast climbing the list. It scared him, but he’d decided to surrender to his fear. It infuriated him that she would still cling to hers.
Elizabeth’s jaw hung open at hearing his words, her heart clenching in her chest. The way we were supposed to be all along. Never before had Jack completely thrown his cards upon the table, but here they were.
What else was there, indeed?
What else had there ever been, but him?
His eyes positively bored into her, filled with desire and fire and anger too. She’d finally pushed him to the edge. The edge of reason, the edge of self-control.
She closed her eyes, just to escape that penetrating gaze, breathing deeply. It only filled her nostrils with the scent of him, the exotic scent of his skin that always sent her reeling. Her chest clenched, and she felt a sudden surge of tears well up behind her eyelids, flowing out to stream down her cheeks.
Immediately Jack softened. Oh Lord, now he’d made her cry... He pulled her closer, kissing the corners of her eyes. “Lizzy…”
Finally she dared to open her eyes, regarding him through slit lids.
Ever so gently, his thumb swept below the corner of her eye, coming away with a single trembling tear that glittered in the pure morning sunlight. He studied it quivering at the tip of his thumb, as though it were a jewel of great worth, before turning his gaze back to her. “I ain’t worth this, luv,” he said quietly. “If that’s all I really do for you, ye really shouldn’t be here.”
All her life, she’d lived in such a cold place. Her upbringing trained her to keep an iron control of her feelings. To appear bored, when everything in life was so very wonderful. Jack had a way of bursting in upon her world and setting everything on fire. He thawed her heart, where after Will’s departure there had been only ice for so long.
Everyone always seemed to have an agenda for Elizabeth. Her father wanted to marry her off to a nice gentleman, because that was what was done. Norrington wanted to marry her because she was a fine woman, whatever that meant. Yes, he loved her, but James would have never considered it without that presupposed criterion. Will, love her as he did, placed her on a pedestal in his head, expected her to resemble the angel her comely features suggested.
And what did Jack do? Of course, he’d used her person to meet his own ends before. Took her hostage after rescuing her from a watery grave to escape Norrington and his soldiers. Well, he had gotten into the mess all because of her, so quid pro quo. He’d also used her affection for Will to find the dead man’s chest. He’d nearly sacrificed her with the rest of the crew to the kraken, but he came back. And then she killed him. QPQ again.
She could count a dozen other instances, but none of these things, none of them ever demanded something of her she was not, or couldn’t be. Time and time again, Jack was the one who held a mirror to her face and challenged her to see her true self. That was the greatest gift, the greatest freedom, anyone could ever offer a human being.
Slowly she shook her head. “It isn’t like that,” she whispered, attempting to harness the hurricane inside, the howling maelstrom of emotion. “It’s just…you make me feel everything,” she tried to explain, knowing those words were not sufficient, even as she felt this great typhoon of emotion crashing through her.
But Jack nodded, seeming to understand all too well. He cupped the side of her face, brushing the stray golden locks away so that he could see her in entirety. “I think I know what ye mean,” he said softy. “I can make it all go quiet, luv. At least, for a little while.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes, leaning into his touch. That small tenderness began to quell the howling inside, made her feel just a tad less insane between her head and her heart. She reached up to trace the lines of Jack’s face with her fingertips. The noble line of his brow, his straight patrician nose, and that lush full lower lip. For a pirate, beneath the wild coiffure and bandana, beads and twin braided beard, his handsome features were ridiculously, perhaps unfairly, classical.
As she mapped the face of this man who lay beside her, this wonderful, infuriating, intoxicating, pirate, Elizabeth’s heart swelled with a warmth she absolutely could not describe. It was powerful and all consuming, it almost hurt and yet also she relaxed, a certain resolve settling over her. She knew in that moment that she loved Jack Sparrow. She loved him in a way she’d never loved Will. She loved him in a way that she could not walk away or hide from. She didn’t know if she could ever tell him in those exact words.
I love you somehow seemed too mundane for this thing that laughed and pulsed inside her like a living breathing creature of light.
But she knew that it was true. Jack had stolen her heart, as surely as a chest full of treasure. He possessed a part of her Will had never fathomed, much less could have ever touched.
Jack watched her face change from inches away, watched the fear melt away from her warm mocha brown eyes, and would have given his right pinky finger to know what exactly she was thinking.
But instead an impish little smile curled her lips, and she held the side of his face in her elegant hands.
“Well then, Captain Sparrow,” she said quietly. “Shall we negotiate the terms of my surrender?”
Instantly the mischievous light returned to Jack’s dark eyes, his expression filled with joy and delight. He recognized her words for what they were: a white flag raised high, waving in the breeze. A part of him thought he would never live to truly see the day.
“Negotiate away,” he acquiesced, leaning down to kiss her gently. “What is it the Pirate King desires?”
In that moment, he could not think of a thing, not a single thing in the world, that he would not pay to possess her. Gold and riches. Promises and vows. Marr-i-age, even, for in legal terms she and Will certainly had no bloody proof or certificate of their union. He would even pay time ashore-though hopefully it would be brief. And it would, for he suspected his Lizzy loved the sea as much as he.
Elizabeth paused. What did she truly want, that she didn’t already have, here in this berth upon the Pearl? There was one thing she needed, one thing she dared request.
“When this adventure is over, promise you won’t forget about me?”
Jack stiffened, his brow furrowing. When had he ever forgotten about her? Not after the first time he’d sailed away, and certainly not after the second. Oh, but he had left her alone, so very alone, and perhaps that was what she meant. It was hardly a negotiation at all, for he greatly hoped that if they survived this adventure, he could convince her to haul away with him on the Pearl.
But that was a potentially sticky, possibly messy, discussion about that uncertain span of time known as the future. It was a discussion, he felt, that very much belonged in the future. In his favorite point in time, being the present, he found it was a very easy thing just to nod. “Granted, luv. Absolutely, unequivocally, resolutely, granted.” And he leaned down to kiss her, deep and long and slow.
When he slid the lawn shirt up over her head she did not protest, surrendering her body to his eyes and his wicked, clever, hands. Jack groaned for the sight of her, so buxom and golden in the clear morning light. A small smile curled the corners of her mouth. She seemed to enjoy being appraised by him, being regarded as something precious and fine.
As he caressed her skin, reacquainted himself with some parts of her body and explored others anew, a warm elation spread through Jack. It was a little like being drunk, it dulled the constant ache of consciousness, and made the world seem a little more beautiful, a little more bearable. He found himself thinking that this was something he could get used to. He could drink a little less, and make love to Lizzy a lot more.
Make love.
When was the last time he’d even thought those words? Had anyone ever meant as much to him as Elizabeth? There was a shadow of a memory in his past, of a saucy barmaid in a tavern back in England, a girl he’d cared for and would visit on shore leave. She’d begged him to marry her and he wouldn’t, because he never wanted to be like his Da, to have a woman who depended on him on shore half a world away. He never saw her again after the run in with the East India Trading Company. He hadn’t really thought about her, until this moment.
Perhaps that had been a kind of love, but it had been nothing like this. This mad, howling need to have Elizabeth by his side, to possess her and keep her. Could he tell his younger self that a woman would make him feel this way someday, his younger self would have called him stark raving mad.
His younger self may have been right, but Jack didn’t care.
“What, Jack?” Elizabeth whispered, caressing his thick ropey hair.
Jack looked up from his place with his mouth low on her belly, his dark eyes suddenly wide with alarm. Had he been talking to himself this whole time? Maybe he was bloody daft, and what exactly had she heard?
“Said you’re beautiful,” he smoothly lied. Elizabeth smiled knowingly, clearly not believing him.
“Liar.” There was laughter in her honey brown eyes, and she stroked the line of his cheek lovingly. He leaned into her touch, as a flower follows the sun.
“Pirate, luv.”
Hoping to distract her, he continued on his original path, dipping his tongue in her belly button. She gasped, tilting her head back.
“Jack…”
“You liked this, remember, luv?” he coaxed, kissing the inside of her thigh, and involuntarily her legs spread wider, inviting him in.
“I did. I do…” she corrected, her head lolling to the side as his breath ghosted over her curls. She moaned as he kissed her center, his full lips and clever mouth upon her seeming to make the room spin. “But I want…I need you inside me. Now. Please.”
Jack lifted his head to regard her across the span of her naked body. She met his gaze dead on, need in her eyes too strong for him to deny. He understood, all too well. They had waited so long, what felt like a lifetime, to finally be together. This time could be fleeting, precious, and couldn’t be squandered.
Climbing her body once more, Jack settled his hips between her thighs, the motion as easy and natural as though it had been done a thousand times before. She could feel him hovering at her entrance, and with a pleading sound she rocked her hips against him, trying to reach him. “Jack,” she pleaded, pressed into the bend of his neck.
“Look at me, luv,” he requested, holding himself above her on his elbows. He wanted to watch her face, needed to see her as he made them one. She laid back on the pillow, her hair a wild mane of gold about her. She was so beautiful it hurt, this fine creature that seemed carved and gilded by a renaissance master’s skillful hand.
“Please, Jack,” she pleaded again, and he broke, slowly rocking his hips forward, until he lay sheathed completely inside her. She held his gaze up until the end, when he filled her so completely that she had to rock her head back into the pillow, sighing with pleasure and contentment.
But he paused above her, trembling and taut. “Am I hurting you?”
Maybe it hurt a little, but nothing like the pain of her first time. Besides, she was used to her time with Jack always having some edge to it-why would making love with him be any different?
With a smile she shook her head in the negative, pulling him deeper with heels against that delectably round derriere of his, winning a pained groan from deep in his chest.
“No. You make me feel whole,” she told him, and Jack’s heart skipped a beat.
Elizabeth stared up at him half liddedly, and he found at that moment he couldn’t read her. Was it rapture? Pain? Happiness? Pleasure? He realized in a triumphant and terrifying moment that it was none of those: it was trust.
The little sounds she made beneath his touch drove him wild, and he trembled with the urge to take her, to drive himself inside over and over. Instead he moved slowly, rocking against her, and soon they found a rhythm between them. For every question there was an answer between their bodies, for every hollow a corresponding curve. She loved the pleasure of Jack’s mouth, but this, this sublime pleasure taken from him being within her, his body moving against hers, was simply divine.
She did not think about Will, or the fact that her infidelity would indeed be condemned as worse because it was Jack she chose to share it with. And yet, who else would it be, but Jack? It was not a casual lust that had undone her will of steel, but a long unfulfilled desire to be a part of a man who knew her heart and soul better than anyone else ever could.
Elizabeth was bliss Jack found himself thinking. Being inside her, feeling her writhing beneath his body, her hands on his chest and his back, her kisses upon his neck. He’d fantasized about this moment more times than he could possibly count. He’d dreamed of all the ways he would take her, everything he wanted to show her. But this first time he found there could only be this. Her young lithe body beneath his, engulfed in his arms. Plain ol’ vanilla missionary. It was decidedly intimate, and for that reason he’d always avoided it with the doxies and his other various lovers. But with Elizabeth, for this first time, it seemed nothing else would do.
For her moans and sighs and the delicious way she moved against him, he didn’t think she minded.
How could Will have gone back to the sea, after only experiencing her once? Jack suspected that had he been in the whelp’s place, he would have found a loophole by now, weasled his way out, and back to her.
But Will wasn’t like Jack. Will was an honest man. A martyr. He would do his honest duty to the very end. That was why Elizabeth was there with Jack in the first place. Was why she let Jack touch her, explore her secret treasure. He knew he was second to Will in the grand scheme of things, yet at that moment, Jack did not feel bitter about this. He wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.
So bully for you, dear William, I’ll stay here and take care of your girl.
He knew Elizabeth neared her completion, her back arched beneath him, taut as a bow, her face contorted in an expression of pure pleasure. He slipped a hand between them as he pushed inside her, giving her that little extra nudge off the edge into a shining paradise that shook her to the bone. She writhed beneath him, burying her face in the bend of his neck, a cry escaping her that was almost a sob. He felt her young body clench and quiver around him, knowing he would come too.
A very crazy notion gripped hold of him, the temptation to spill deep inside her, not for the sake of pleasure but with the express desire to fill her womb with a piece of him. To do that which the whelp had not managed. To have a child with Elizabeth, to stand by her side and watch it grow. A child with wild golden locks and mischievous black eyes running wild about the Pearl…
But in the end, as that ultimate pleasure rushed through his loins, Jack regained a bit of his sanity. Quickly he withdrew, shuddering as he spilled upon Elizabeth’s taut belly. With a groan he collapsed upon her, burying his nose in her hair. She held him to her, unwilling to let go just yet, stroking his back with the tips of her fingers in a way that won her a shiver rolling down his spine.
They lay on the berth as though they were dead, bones reduced to jelly, for quite some time. It seemed like it could have been hours to Jack, before he found the strength to lift himself up onto one elbow. Elizabeth looked down at the puddle upon her belly, understanding all too well, knowing she hadn’t had a single coherent thought in her mind about the possibility of a child in their moment of passion. There was relief, but also a twinge of regret in her.
A child with Jack--what a grand adventure.
And yet she’d tried before and had not been successful. What if she wasn’t able? What if she lost his too? It would destroy her, utterly and thoroughly, she knew. And for that, in the end, she said, “Thank you, Jack.”
Jack kissed her, a kiss so sweet it shouldn’t be possible that it came from a pirate’s mouth. “Maybe some other time, luv,” he teased her, but there was something in his soulful dark eyes, and she wasn’t sure if he was really teasing at all.
Relaxing in Jack’s arms, her naked body pressed to the length of his, Elizabeth traced the scars and tattoos written across his chest, toyed with the dusting of curled black hair upon his pectorals. He stroked her shoulders and spine, sending delicious little chills marching across her body. My god, she thought. Already, I want him again.
In a dreamy voice she broke the contented silence of the cabin. “The island.”
Jack stirred from his own reverie, looking down at the gilded goddess curled against his side. “What was that, darlin’?”
“You asked how long I’ve wanted you. My answer is the island. I was so frightened that you would ravish me, and when it became apparent that you wouldn’t, I found that I was so very disappointed.” She laughed, turning a cheeky grin up to him. “I cannot tell you how many nights my dreams took me back to that desert isle, ruminating on all the things I wished I’d had the courage to say and do.”
Jack’s heart swelled with something warm and decidedly damning. It definitely had not been honor that kept him from trying to seduce her in the end. It had been that old friend Rum. And with friends like that, who needs enemies?
He opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a shout from outside of “Port Royal ho!”
With a groan, Jack pulled Elizabeth closer, for once frustrated with the Pearl’s exceptional alacrity. “Why don’t we just drop off Norry and you slip out with me?”
Nested under the pirate’s chin, curled up in his warmth and bare skin, that was exactly what she wanted to do.
“I can’t,” she sighed, and Jack could hear the pure reluctance in her voice. Perhaps even dread. He’d known that would be her answer, and then a sort of terror gripped him. Their whole plan was based on his ability to slip under that bastard de Vargas’s nose, while she distracted him, all by her onesies.
Alone.
With a monster that already seemed to have some sort of hold on her mind.
“I don’t think this is one of our finer ideas, luv.”
In fact, it seemed downright stupid.
“Neither do I,” she confessed. “But it’s the best one I’ve got.”
Best one for Will, at any rate, thought Jack, gazing down at her mournfully. But that was the name of her game, it seemed. After all, Will was her husband.
Jack was only...her pirate.