A/N: Thank you again for the feedback! Really appreciate it!
The Woman In Red
Chapter VI
Jack leaned backwards into the backrest. "I be aware of that. So, ye cannot afford a raise? Or do ye give up?"
John in his slow nodding motioned the last nod towards the lady beside him and locked the nod in her direction. "I raise her."
Angelica froze before shooting John a death glare. "You do what?!"
John met eyes with Jack in wait for the approval.
"You have hardly any right to-."
"I bought you for the night, did I not?" John cut her off. Angelica shot him another death glare and grabbed a nearby knife, ready to strike if it had not been for an observant staff member who grabbed her wrist in action. The knife was removed from her.
"Burro," she muttered.
Jack nodded. "Feisty. I accept."
Angelica shot Jack a death glare. She did not know what was worse.
John gestured to Jack cards. "Show me your cards."
"Reveal yours."
The two put down their hands and laid down the cards.
John smiled widely. His chuckle turned into a laughter. He shook his head and waved to a waiter to fill his glass.
"So very rarely I have to admit my defeats," he spoke.
Angelica's heart began pounding harder and she wondered if she would actually faint. She felt pale and sick. Nervous.
"No need to stress, darlin'," Jack said as he stood up and rounded the table to approach her. "Let's go outside for a little talk."
"How about no?"
"Come on."
"You are going to marry!"
That caused the other men to give their attention to the event.
"Do they know each other?" The Baron asked John.
John shrugged. "He seems familiar, but I honestly have no clue."
Jack had a staredown with her before she unwillingly stood up from her chair and let him escort her out. He put his hand on her lower back but she winced.
"Let me go!" Her attitude revealed her loath.
The air was chilly outside and it breezed slightly. In fact, quite perfectly for a summer night.
She pushed him away when he tried to reach out for her.
"How could you?!"
As Jack was stuttering on the words in a tryout of coming up with the right ones, she continued glaring at him. "You are engaged! To another woman?!" She was beyond angry. And hurt. Mostly hurt. Majorly hurt. Extremely hurt. Totally broken.
Jack had no good answer. "This is not precisely how I pictured it," he confessed.
"You are going to marry," she repeated.
It was not the sentence she used, not even the scary words she said. It was all in the way her tone had changed, as if it was useless, as if there were no feelings left. No passion in the speaking. It was just a hopeless utter.
"Leave me alone, Jack."
Whatever she had called him before, those words hurt him most in a way. How she so honestly seemed so careless about it. The two just looked into each others' eyes. Nothing was being said. Then Angelica made a slow nod in an indication of her departure.
She said nothing, and neither did Jack. He just watched her leave the street until she had approached a wagon that would bring her home.
The day after, there was no surprise upon spotting Jack in the crowd of people at The Davis. But this time, Angelica ignored him. Her jaw might even have clenched slightly before a forced smile had to appear.
Mr Dave was watching his lady carefully. When her last play was over, he waved her over.
"Are you alright?" he wondered.
Angelica smiled falsely. "Better."
He nodded understandingly. She was after all his worker that brought in twice as much as the others. He had to keep her happy.
"Are you taking any bookings tonight?"
She shook her head. "Not tonight, Dave. But perhaps tomorrow."
He made a nod and let her head for her dressing room.
She began opening her corset as she entered her chamber. As soon as she had closed the door, she froze.
She made an attempt in leaving by opening the door but Jack hurried over to push the door fully closed.
"Wait!"
"What now? Have I not made myself perfectly clear?" Angelica required.
Jack ignored her words and kept blocking the door. He leaned forward to her and approached her with a step to grab her upper arms. When he leaned in she winced but still in his hold.
"Ye be very beautiful."
She swallowed and kept looking straight into his eyes. Again, she felt how her heart began pounding faster. She felt such warmness at the places Jack's hands were.
"And my opinion be that ye shall leave this place," Jack went on.
Angelica shot him a warning glare but kept her mouth shut. She was in no mood of arguing with him yet another night.
He let go of her arms and it felt as if someone was sucking air out of her.
He opened the door and gestured for her to go. She watched him carefully before daring to walk past him. He was hot on her heels as he later would open the back door of the building for her. She stepped outside in the chilly night air. As she began rubbing her arms, Jack was fast to throw his coat around her. She gave him another look. She still could not let the fact pass by that he was going to marry. Someone else. Someone else held his heart?
They began strolling. She on her way home. And she had no clue on what he did there, walking beside her with his hands clasped behind his own back.
"How come this island be ye home?" he sincerely wondered.
For the first time, she looked at him without death eyes. "I met Dave at this harbor when being dropped by the Englishmen who picked me up from the island. He offered me this, and I truly live comfortably."
Her words were spoken so softly, they were music to Jack's ears.
"And what be your plans for the future, love?"
This time though she wore a wondering expression. "I am happy here, Jack."
Hearing her say his name. He smiled. Goofily, but he just could not fight it back.
"So, if I'd buy every single night with ye for the rest of yer, career...?" he began. "Ye would not have to put up with those foolish men."
"I don't need a savior," she said firmly.
"Aye," Jack mumbled as they promenaded.
She cleared her throat. "And you, you got wealthy."
Jack nodded slowly.
"I've always been a fortunate man," he smiled genuinely.
She chuckled with a closed mouth.
When they faced her house, and had walked up the little marble stair to the giant front doors, she turned to him. Her mouth hung open slightly as she licked her lip.
She looked into his eyes. "Would you care for rum inside?" She closed her mouth and swallowed again. "Just for a short moment."
What a lie.
Jack kept looking intensely into her eyes. It caused her to feel uneasy, nervous, trembling and hot.
He nodded once, a look on his face revealing he did not buy her rubbish.
He walked so close to her down the hallway and up the stairs, that he at points came in contact with her bum or back with his front.
When unlocking the door, she turned sideways to look at him, only to find him leaning in with hands placed on each side of her. She drew in her breath soundly and almost tripped inside when the door slid open.
He kept looking into her eyes as he walked inside and she closed the door. He wandered over to the drinking table and poured himself a glass of rum. He plopped down in an armchair and watched how she placed herself in front of the grandiose windows with the view.
Perhaps nonchalantly, she let the coat Jack had put on her slide off and fall down to the floor. Then she slowly looked sideways towards Jack whilst undoing the rest of her corset.
The rum almost got stuck in Jack's throat. He fought it down and watched her with darkened eyes. How her chest, partly visible breasts, were moving when she breathed. The seductive eyes she had. The lips.
When the corset fell off and she took off her dress, Jack felt how his legs were slightly shaking. No rum helped anymore.
She had moved to her bed and lowered herself on it with her legs over the edge, resting on her elbows.
"Would you help me with the stockings," she said and kept staring into his eyes with that intensity. Another rubbish line.
Jack drew in his breath and gulped the rest of the rum as he wandered over. He put the glass on the windowsill and approached her figure. One of her feet was reaching out to him and he took off the stocking with his shaky hands. The feeling of her bare legs caused him to have twitchy legs. He brought off the other one and when it slid off he gently pushed the leg aside to hover over her. He devoured her soft lips and pressed his abdomen against her, letting her feel precisely what she did to him.
She moaned into the kiss and buried her hands in his hair. She would never get enough of making out with him. Never.
The only pause they made was when he had unbuckled his belt and she had gasped as he entered her.
Morning, and Angelica felt already from the beginning that something was different. She felt relaxed, calm, in some way. Then she saw the arm and for a brief moment she believed she would get a heart attack. But then in the same second before all the hyperventilating of dragging home a man, she remembered.
She turned around in the hold of Jack spooning her and examined this snoring man, deep in sleep.
Had they really...?
Yes, they had - she answered herself.
She slid out of bed and got dressed. Another whipped cream gown. She got a shock when mirroring her reflection and thanked someone up there she had woken up before Jack. She quickly grabbed her brush to comb her hair and then she moved on to make-up. Kohl-framed eyes was very important for her. Emphasis on 'very'.
A/N: Okay folks :D Here it is! Any opinion?