Hey everyone! Sorry it took so dang long for this chapter, but hopefully you guys will like it! Lots of Jack in this one ;) I have to admit that I've been having a really hard time keeping up with this story, and since I didn't get too many reviews on the last chapter, please let me know if y'all think it's a story worth continuing! Thank you as always to those who did review/follow/favorite :) You guys make me keep writing.

Love, Zeta Rose.

It was still dark outside when the door to my room creaked open. I didn't have to turn over or even be fully awake to know who it was.

"I told the lady at the front not to let a man with dread locks and a stupid hat go near my room." I said quietly. "I even gave her all of my money."

"The thing about bribes, kitten, is that you have to be able to out bid all bidders." His voice was low and slid over my skin like silk, making me shiver and pull the blankets tighter around me.

There were a few thuds on the wood floor, signs that he was disrobing. Hopefully he would at least keep his trousers on.

I didn't fight when he crawled in next to me and pulled the covers over the both of us. I didn't protest when his arms slid around me like warm steel bands. I did nothing. I just laid there, taking in his heat and trying to figure out what exactly I should say.

In the end, I wasn't the one who spoke first.

"I'm sorry you had to find out like that, love," Jack said quietly. "I've felt that sort of shock before. It's no fun."

"How could you possibly know?" I asked, my body starting to shake. "I've just been told my whole existence isn't what I thought it was. How would you possibly know what that's like!"

He nuzzled my neck for a moment, inhaling deeply as if he couldn't get enough of me. I was suddenly embarrassed that I hadn't taken that bath before I went to bed.

"I wasn't always a pirate."

I paused. Jack sounded so unlike himself. He sounded far away. I twisted in his arms to look at him to see that his eyes were looking down, but not seeing a thing.

"What do you mean?"

"Me father was a pirate, never saw much of him, but me mum used to joke I was born with salt water in me veins. I hated being on land, I felt stuck all the time. I ended up stowing away on a ship when I was just a lad of twelve or so. Never looked back."

A small smile formed on his lips. "I always was searchin' for adventure and I found it often. I sailed all over the place, finding treasure and making contacts all around the globe. In fact, I met Tia Dalma through all me adventures. She helped me out of many a sticky situation. I owe her my life a hundred times over."

His arms tightened around me slightly and his eyes met mine, focused now. They shined in the moonlight, almost as if he had a fever.

"I heard of an island from an old mate and wanted to look for it, but I had no way to do it, no ship of me own. The only way to obtain a ship is to inherit it or steal it, and the easiest way for me at the time was to inherit. So I left the scallywag life I had been leading and joined the East India Trading Company."

"No!" I gasped. Growing up in Tortuga, I never heard one good thing uttered about those men.

"Aye. Served faithfully for five years and ended up gaining the attention of one Cutler Beckett. He was one of the directors of the company and eventually saw fit to give me a ship to go find the very island I had been wanting to find all those years.

Unfortunately, Beckett was far from an honorable man and had once ordered me to transport slaves out to the New World. I refused and somehow talked my way back to the ship I wanted. The Wicked Wench is what she was called. I found the island quickly enough. My crew was the best, my ship the fastest. We were unbeatable, but I decided I didn't want Beckett to know what sort of riches were on that island. I knew he would ruin the beauty of it all so I…I refused to give him the information he wanted."

I looked at Jack, waiting for him to continue, but he was lost in his memories again. I slipped my fingers through his and squeezed his hand gently. "What happened?"

He blinked, some of his attitude coming back to his eyes. "Obviously, Beckett wasn't happy with my mutiny, but since I was the best, he gave me one last order to follow. Transport a load of slaves or…else. But, as you well know, kitten, people aren't cargo. I set them free, a hundred people who would have become slaves at the island hidden by illusion. When Beckett found out about what I had done, he locked me away in prison for a few months. Awful time, that was," he mentioned with a shudder.

"Anyhow, after a while, they dragged me back outside, onto a beach of Africa. The sun was setting, and Mae, the African sunsets are some of the most beautiful in the entire world. I would know, I've been almost everywhere to see. I remember this one because made the sky look like it was on fire, and my beautiful ship was just off the coast, bold and beautiful and defiant—just like another wench I know." He gave a cocky smile even when I gave a light slap to his chest. His hand captured mine, holding it over his breast. I felt his heart beating slowly, steadily.

Jack's face went from mischievous to forlorn. "There was a fire pit on the beach, with Beckett and a few of his miscreants standing around. He was no longer offering me any choices. Right there, right in front of me, he ordered my ship, my ship to be burned before my eyes. He had his thugs restrain me while they branded me, marking me as a pirate for the rest of me days."

Those warm brown eyes glistened with memories, making my heart hurt for him.

"I don't know how I managed it. I broke free of them and dove into the ocean, to my burning ship, my freedom, in hopes of saving her, but it was too late. By the time I got to her and made my way on board, she was beyond saving. So, I went down with my ship. I sat in my cabin, opened a bottle of rum and waited to be dragged into oblivion."

A tear escaped my eye and I wiped it away quickly. "Oh, Jack," I whispered. I wrapped my arms around him, pressing my face against his chest. His heart was beating faster now.

"Before I made it to the land of the dead, I ended up running into Davy Jones himself and struck a bargain—one I had no intention of keeping by the way—and ended up being sent back to the land of the living. My ship came with me."

I pulled back, astonished. "Wait a minute, you—"

"Cheated death, aye." He grinned down cockily at me. "I do that often."

"So you came back with your ship and…what, decided to become a pirate?"

"Might as well since I'm branded as one already. Decided to call me ship the Black Pearl after she rose back from the sea."

"You should've called her the Phoenix, since she rose from the ashes." I murmured, turning my back to his chest.

His lips ghosted across my neck and up to my ear. "I thought I had everything I wanted and needed in this life, love. I was completely satisfied. Beckett is dead, Calypso is free, Miss Swa—Mistress Turner is on an island somewhere waiting for her dear William, all was right with the world. Until I met you."

Quicker than lightning, I was flipped over onto my back, Jack hovering over me. "When I saw you, it was like the wind had been knocked from me chest. You were in the tavern, picking up mugs and smiling and laughing along with drunken sailors and other various heathens." My breath caught in my throat when he ran his hands down my sides, toying with the end of my shirt. I could just barely feel his finger tips brushing against the skin of my belly, causing me to shiver.

"Your wild red hair was pinned up, curls falling into your face. Then, out of nowhere, you got this scowl on your face and you turned slowly and punched the man behind you." He was pressing kisses to my neck and collar bone, making it quite difficult to keep up with his little tale.

"You'll have to specify," I breathed. "That happened more times than I'd like to admit."

Chocolate brown eyes met mine, heated and lusty. "I never wanted a woman in my bed as much as I did that moment when you looked down at the poor bloke, strong and beautiful."

I opened my mouth to respond, but I didn't have the chance. Jack crashed his lips to mine and Lord help me, I kissed him back. I kissed him with all of the anger, all of the confusion, all of the passion that I felt. Our tongues danced as his hands moved up my torso, cupping my breasts, kneading them with his calloused palms.

I moaned into him, never having felt these types of sensations before. Shite, I had never been touched like this before him! And right now, it didn't matter, all that mattered was him and me and—

Someone pounded on the door, making the two of us jump. "Captain!"

"Ignore him, he'll go away," Jack whispered, nibbling on my earlobe.

"Cap'n! It's urgent, sir! The King is here!"

Jack froze his ministrations as if someone threw water on him. Without a word, he leapt out of bed, tugged on his clothes and exited the room, leaving me extremely confused and frustrated. King? What bloody sort of king made Jack act like that?

I left the bed myself, pulling on my shoes and running fingers through my hair in an attempt to tame it. Giving up quickly, I ran out the door and down the stairs to where the crew was assembled and looking anxiously at the door.

Sliding up to Mr. Gibbs, I kept my eyes on the door as well. "What's going on, Mr. Gibbs?" I whispered.

"King's here, and when the King and the Crew arrives, you best be there to greet them."

I was about to ask who the King was when the door opened suddenly, serious looking sailors pouring in. I looked around for who I thought would be the King. You can imagine my surprise when in walked a small, pretty woman with a small boy at her heels.

She gave a small smile to the crew, her dark eyes meeting mine for just a moment, before finally resting on our leader.

"Jack," she said with a smirk. "It's been a few years."

"Aye," he replied easily. "You haven't aged a day, Your Highness." The title he gave was said with a sneer, but I couldn't be sure since his back was to me.

"No need for pleasantries, Jack, I think we're far past those."

"As you'd like, Mistress Turner."