Lay Lady Lay

Come with me, my love

To the sea, the sea of love.

Do you remember when we met?

That's the day I knew you were my pet.

I want to tell you

How much I love you…

-Sea of Love by Joe Saponara-

When they arrived back at the ship, the men had left a sprawling table of foods awaiting Jack and Eva inside of the cabin, and one by one as she stepped carefully across the deck, the men welcomed her properly since her re-arrival and wished her health well. She was surprised to say the least, since she'd been sure before that the men didn't take her seriously and saw her as little more than a tasty treat or curse.

"Glad t' see ye walking again, little lassie."

"Aye, welcome back aboard, poppet."

Pintel and Ragetti patted her on the shoulders as she passed and she thanked them softly, more appreciate for such greetings than ever before. Yet in her continued weakness, she eventually felt the blood rushing too fast from her head to her toes, weighing her body down until she couldn't stand any longer. Before she hit the deck though, Jack caught her in his arms and carried her to the cabin without another interruption.

"Set course for Clare Island. Now," he commanded quietly as the men scurried to.

With a kick of the door and a slam of his body to close it, Jack walked Eva to the bed and eased her down into the center of the blankets.

"You need food."

"Food?"

"Yes." Jack went to the table and filled a plate with meat and cheese, and a bowl with warm stew. Then he returned and sat at Eva's side. "The challenge o' walking about this world entails nutrients, you know."

She smiled and watched as he dipped a spoon into the soup, then brought it to her lips, feeding her hunger. Eva had to admit it was good, despite being mostly broth and nothing more, but it was warm in her gut.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"You first."

She looked at him warily, but took another spoonful of stew and swallowed.

"You've changed Jack."

"Ave' not."

"Yes, you have." Eva took a bite of the cheese between his fingers. "I didn't think you could be this way."

"Caring?"

She took a bite of the chicken.

"Heroic?"

Eva sipped at the cup of wine to wash it down.

"Or in love?"

"That's the one."

He laughed and sat the plate aside on the table, then leaned over her body, stroking her hair. For whatever reason, he loved doing that, he loved touching her and feeling her skin under his fingertips, twisting her curls and kissing her and everything else that involved Eva romantically. He couldn't bear it anymore, ignoring it. He had to accept all of it.

"Trust me, it's not easy t' come to terms with."

"But you did."

"Because it's how I feel. Against all th' odds."

Eva tugged at the strings of his shirt as he went on.

"For as long as I can remember, it's been th' sea and me ship and commitment be damned t' the Gods. But then ye stumbled out o' nowhere, literally I fear."

She remembered the day she'd fallen in the street before him, running from the guards of Martinique.

"I did, didn't I?"

"Gracefully, yes."

"But you saw me before then. The alley."

It filtered back, the very truth of that first night, and he sighed briefly before running his hand up her leg and thigh.

"Ah yes, God elp' me…the glory o' those knickers in the dark."

"Tempting?"

Jack came closer, his fingers dancing over the cloth of her wound, until he slid his hand underneath her chemise against the smoothness of her stomach.

"Th' worst there e'er was for a man."

"Compliment?"

"Praise, love."

She bit her lip and grasped at his still damp dreads from the springs, pulling him by the back of the neck toward her. Although he knew he wanted it, he hesitated, warding himself from her for the sole purpose of her recovery, but she persisted in bringing her mouth to his.

"Eva, perhaps you need further rest."

"Are you, Jack Sparrow…denying a woman's company for the night?"

"Bite your tongue," he scoffed and pressed his lips to hers purposefully proving her wrong.

It worked how she wanted, for as he had once told her, flattery was dangerous with pirates. But what Eva had learned, was that there was something even more dangerous, and that was putting their urges into question. Especially, with a woman.

His tongue found hers quickly and nearly ripped her mouth apart at his eagerness, of weeks gone by with nothing and no one because he refused to take on anyone who wasn't her. Jack moved to fall into the comfort of her legs as he shifted her body down lower, his knee grinding into her warm center, testing her. With a hand holding the back of her head and another keeping her right hip from being bent into a painful direction, he cradled her under him like the most precious gem or like he would his ship in a heady storm.

She pulled and grasped at his arms through his shirt, trying to find as much as skin as possible, until she eventually just tore it from over his head as he laughed at her.

"Guess th' magic water served its purpose."

"Magic water has nothing to do with weeks of pent up desire for you."

"I'm satisfied knowing that."

He grinned wickedly and brought his lips to suckle at her neck as his fingers toyed with the ties and silk buttons of her cotton shift. Eva tried to help him but he slapped her hands away and instead forced them overhead.

"Relax, would ye."

Jack bit her ear and she moaned out, "I've waited far too long to simply relax."

"You an' me both, darling," he growled and kissed her temple before finally pulling away the chemise. "But try."

She laid bare beneath him, completely aglow with the scattered candles and never more beautiful, with or without the damage done to her. Her olive skin was marked, but he was only half done with healing it. Her blue eyes, hidden by a wave of unruly black curls, were still scattered with hopeless specks of uncertainty. But he knew just how to reassure her, just how to make her see that his only intention from that moment on, was to keep her safe within his every reach, at every waking moment of every day, until the end of his.

Jack couldn't keep himself from looking at her and remembering every detail, from the pattern of her solemn breathing before making love to the tiniest of freckles on her shoulder or brow. There was too much he'd missed, too much he had to catch up on from mere weeks of loss than would allow him to take her fairly and quickly. This had to go slow; this had to be carefully done and no less.

"I won't urt' you, Vang'line."

"I know that, Jack."

He bit his lip and kept focus on his index finger as it trailed the fiery skin from the curve of her neck to the slender plain of her lower stomach. Eva held her breath, expecting him to go so much farther so much sooner, but he didn't. Jack brought his mouth down to her left breast, kissing in a circular pattern around the perimeter before ever even making it to the actual peak, the pink and rounded bud of subtle nerve endings that awaited him like a prize. He savored everything before indulging at the realm of all possibility, and then, when she least expected it, he took her hardened nipple between his teeth and massaged it with his tongue.

She gasped with his name on her own tongue, for who wouldn't, she thought. Jack knew how to make her feel things that she didn't realize could be felt in times like these. No man before him had and she prayed no man after him would get the chance.

Funny thing was, as he tasted the bitter sweetness of her tender flesh in his mouth, his secular mind prayed for it just the same. Eros and Ishtar, ye better make this work for me, you traitors, Jack thought, releasing one breast for the other as he indulged the Gods in his actions, Give me a reason t' mean it this time…

Eva squeezed the skin in his shoulders anxiously, as if she might fall from the bed directly to the ocean below the floor. His lapping tongue and nibbling teeth satisfied every last spark in her bosom, until she'd relinquished the knowledge of her own name for the consistent moaning of his. Jack let the rush subside when he felt her hips finally buck at him, and instead moved onto to wider territory.

He planted kisses down her stomach, aiming for his goal location, that tattoo he'd let himself dream about day in and out since she'd been snatched.

"I swear…" a kiss on one of her bruised ribs, "…ne'er have I…" one upon her navel as she giggled at the sensation of his tickling mustache, "…tasted anything…" and a final one just above the blackened wing of the tiny sparrow he loved even more than his own, "…as sweet as ye."

He drank in the sight of the ink greedily, licking and tracing over it a half dozen times before finally glancing up to see her tilted eyes from the distance away.

"This is my favorite spot in the ole' of the world. Right 'ere…" he kissed the bird lastly.

Eva's eyes tumbled into her head as she tugged at the faded red fabric of his bandana where it reached her hip.

"Want to know mine?"

Jack caught her eyes curiously again as she curled her finger for him to come nearer.

And of course he did.

He hovered over her as Eva reached for the buttons of his breeches and he chuckled and swiped her hand away.

"Ah ah, wot' did I say?"

She pouted, "Why do you insist on driving me mad with further agony?"

"Patience really isn't yer strongpoint, is it?"

"I'm allotted my weaknesses same as you."

He raised his brows from under his bandana at her.

"I ave' no weaknesses, Miss Marley."

Eva pursed her lips at him.

"Wish to make a bet on that?"

"A bet, with you, a witch with tricks? No," he laughed and tried to move down her body again.

But Eva pulled on his arm to stop him, "Afraid, Jack?"

"My my, dearie…" he shook his head down at her, "…time spent in London really has made you see fit t' test conscious limits, hasn't it?"

"Perhaps it has."

She pulled on his arm until he fell to the large mattress beside her. Eva giggled at the way he landed in a flop into the mountain of blankets and feather pillows, the look on his eyes one of contempt, shock and lust.

"That's th' last time I heal you in the springs. The strength is more than I can bear."

"Sh."

For whatever reason, when she pressed her finger to his lip and rolled over with very little pain to lie atop him, Jack hushed instantly.

"Let me show you something."

Her finger slowly slid from his wet lips, although he tried to pull it into his mouth and lost. Eva straddled his hips as if the gash in her leg were nothing at all, and worked on again untying his pants. Jack didn't try to stop her this time; it was pointless when she had control of him so easily. To see her naked form sitting like a goddess high above him, to feel her bare thighs urging the blood to pump through his manhood like a thousand rushing waves at once, and to catch a glimpse of a humored sapphire glance now and again, was enough to make him a happily, dead Captain.

"I discovered this one morning while you slept, all of a month ago now."

She smirked as she carefully pulled his breeches from each leg and threw them to the floor. Her hands on his mid thighs with a gentle squeeze made his cock rise quicker, thick with blood and all that he was for her within seconds. Eva approved of her ability to cause such a thing still and lowered her face towards it sinfully.

"Wot' could ye possibly discover in such a private sp--"

Before he could finish, before he could think to finish, Jack felt the bite of a serpent on the upper inside of his right thigh, a place too close to his whole being to be of any comfort and yet just too far away from where he really needed the bite, the sting, the teeth and lips and tongue of her. He grunted away the short lived pain and shook his head against the mattress before raising it to find her eyes.

"Wot' the hell…" he stopped himself to collect oxygen again, "…ave' you no sympathy for that region anymore, lass?"

Eva wet her lips and then moved her face back down without a word. Jack tried to stop her but was seconds too late, when he instantly felt the smoothest kiss, the wettest lips and tongue sliding along the out of sight wound her teeth had made, just over a long since forgotten birth mark. His eyes rolled back into his head, his knuckles loosened from the sheets and his entire body slumped comfortably into the bed without need to fight what felt like heaven and hell come together for an extraordinary festival inches from his livelihood. And when he was a complete goner to her all over again, none so different than all the other times before it, Eva gently covered his body with hers once more, meeting his tightened eyes and kissing them each until he opened them to her.

"That," she whispered, "Is my favorite spot."

"Any other reason in particular besides th' obvious?"

"Yes," she smiled and twirled the shorter hairs around his ears on her finger, "It's where you acquired your very first marking in life, of all th' ones you have. It's where you were marked by your mother's struggle to bring you into this world. And what would the world be without you?"

As the haze washed from his eyes, Jack looked richly up at her. Somehow that response made him think and analyze every bit of Eva more so than before. There was something in her eyes when she said that, something more genuine than any other moment they'd ever spent together.

"I have only your mother's strength to thank for you being here with me now. Will you tell me about her one day?"

He smiled and held her face in his hands as he gently flipped her back to the bed again.

"I will," he replied peaceably and kissed her on the mouth quick. "One day."

Jack nudged her face with his nose and moved one hand down to ease her good leg and thigh up over his back.

"But right now, tonight, my little pirate," Eva grinned wide up at him, "I only want t' concern meself with you."

"Fair enough."

And a minimal second later, Eva felt herself filled, consumed and soaking up everything she'd desired during her entrapment. Jack slid deep within her moist body, as if it were nothing at all, and supported her hips to keep her from finding any pain at the sudden movements. He rocked his hips against her softly at first, letting the situation control itself, letting Eva's bones rest while his found the ability to move from the already complete respite she'd put them into, with nothing but a nibble.

"Jack, you feel so…"

He grinned and kissed the corner of her mouth, thrusting harder and deeper inside of her.

"Good, love?"

She shook her head and he stiffened for a moment, concerned.

"Much…much better than that…"

Eva pulled his shoulders toward her and moaned every breath into his ear as he found a steady pace again.

"Great?" He grunted out breathlessly overhead.

"Better…" she cried, digging her nails into his arms.

"Wonderful…?"

Eva rolled her eyes and threw her head back as he slid from her body to the wet tip and then drove right back in, plunging into depths she hadn't known existed, ever before.

And that's when she finally screeched out for all the crew to hear, "Phenomenal!"

Jack tried to concentrate on breathing rather than laughing, but found himself indulging in both as he forced his body into her on a lost count of times. He watched the veins in Eva's neck pulse richer, the muscles in her tiny arms expand with every squeeze she laid into his body, and her eyes clench tighter, every single time he touched the radiating spot mysteriously within her.

"Do it, Eva…let me ear' it, love…" Jack leaned down as close as he could get and pinched her eager breast with his teeth, "…sing for me…"

The sound of his voice, the request he'd made, and the way their bodies moved together like some unruly, magical combination, was all enough to force it out of her. Eva wrapped her arms firmly around his neck as his mouth left her breast again and he half lifted her from the bed, still pumping furiously within her. Only then, when she felt invincible in his arms again, did she scream out in the sing-song, crooning fashion he adored so.

Jack's head swarmed with something far better than the release he felt building inside of him and her. It was something undeniable and fearful and beautiful all at once. It was that one thing he had hated for so long, that he'd forgotten how to just love its truth.

"Jack…" she cried out for him and he assisted in letting her waves hit one after the other as she became suddenly limp in his arms, "…Jack…"

Even just the way she hollered his name in the progression of deep lovemaking, made every bit of him crumble. And somehow he didn't mind it at all. He let it go, all of him, the seed of his three week long stint of nothing but heartless, self gratification with her face and the memory of her legs and eyes and touch all that would suffice. No whore, no wench, no barmaid or penny pinching nightcap could do what she did. And because of that, he found no reason to bother with them.

Jack howled out her name, loud enough for not only his crew to hear on deck, but those below, and most likely the entire population of whatever port or shoreline was nearest. And then he fell down to her side and heard her laughing softly underneath of his draped arm and slumped form.

"Jack?"

"Hm," he responded drunkenly with his face pushed into the pillow.

Eva moved from under his arm to half lie across his sweaty, warm back, kissing the nape of his neck.

"I love you."

He grinned wildly against the pillow and she swore she saw it, so she repeated the words.

"I love you," she whispered against his skin, "I love you…I love you…I love you…"

He laughed and twisted his face back at her just enough to be heard.

"Leave no stone o' emotion unturned, darling?"

Eva twisted his dreads in her hands and kissed his tattooed shoulder blade.

"I've never said it before and really meant it. I want for you to know I do this time."

Jack shifted underneath of her until she was resting on his chest instead and kissing his chin as he rubbed her arms.

"An' you're sure ye want t' run about endlessly with me, risking yer life an' ne'er having peace again?"

"Yes, I'm in." She stroked his face, "I think that sounds utterly phenomenal…"

"Utterly foolish, says I."

Eva smiled and found the point to feed back his aged words to him.

"Then so be it, I'm a fool for you."

Oh, he liked the sound of that best. Two fools gambling for the world under their feet and never settling except upon each other. Yeah, Jack thought quietly as he fell asleep with his Irish luck in his arms, That's wot' I've needed.